New recording: Filo-Email

davidcoforum

Administrator
Staff member
This recording is based on a blog post called Filo-Email, written by GTD coach James Harwood. After David Allen read the post, he thought it would valuable to discuss with James and GTD coach Julie Ireland. They start by talking about digital, paper, and hybrid systems. They go further by exploring how we think when using digital or paper, at the capture, clarify, and organize steps of workflow. If you're already using a paper or hybrid system, this may help you understand how and why that works for you. And if you haven't considered paper or hybrid, this discussion may give you pause to think about how you might benefit from those.

Video

Audio
 

thomasbk

Registered
I'm 100% digital, and even I recommend newbies use paper for a year. It's the best way to learn the system because all your focus is on the system. Often people have trouble finding their groove because they get sidetracked by a digital tool's features. Instead of learning how to process, they focus on what color next actions should be, which tags should be used, and how lists can be linked. Once you're fluent in the system, it's easy to move to a digital tool and figure out which features help and which are simply noise. Back when digital tools meant something like the PalmPilot, it was easier to jump right into digital because the functionality was limited. But today, there's an abundance of features which means an abundance of distractions.
 

John Forrister

GTD Connect
Staff member
I'm 100% digital, and even I recommend newbies use paper for a year. It's the best way to learn the system because all your focus is on the system. Often people have trouble finding their groove because they get sidetracked by a digital tool's features. Instead of learning how to process, they focus on what color next actions should be, which tags should be used, and how lists can be linked. Once you're fluent in the system, it's easy to move to a digital tool and figure out which features help and which are simply noise. Back when digital tools meant something like the PalmPilot, it was easier to jump right into digital because the functionality was limited. But today, there's an abundance of features which means an abundance of distractions.
Yes indeed. One of Julie's comments is that using paper forces someone to slow down when clarifying and organizing.
 

GTDAcademic

Practicing GTD in the academic world.
With a paper system, you do not have the problem/luxury of both tying projects and actions, and linking project/action support.

What would be the best practices of handling relevant email(s), links, files, etc. you need to complete a next action?
 

schmeggahead

Registered
What would be the best practices of handling relevant email(s), links, files, etc. you need to complete a next action?
I throw relevant emails into an @ActionSupport folder. I sometimes make subfolders if I feel the need for specific identification.

This practice requires maintenance during weekly review - deleting, filing or otherwise dispositioning the emails that are no longer needed for next actions/projects. For a period of time, I actually printed the first page or two of emails to put in the physical Action Support folder. both worked.

Although I've never done this, I could create an @ActionSupport folder in the browser's bookmarks section to collect in the same way.

I do have a folder called Action Support for files on my Mac desktop for the same purpose.

Lastly, I have project support folders and writing space on the physical project control sheet for notes (a single page in a Circa notebook with an index as my project list).

And to make all of this easily handled during the engage phase, I would add a word to the end of the next action such as email, file, etc.

Hope this helps,
Clayton

Form follows function until it doesn't and has to be reformed.
 

Christian_A_UK

Chief Operating Officer, UK Based
David's point about looking at what you wrote down at the capture stage and then realising "here's a different thing to do than I thought I would do" really stuck with me. The importance of clarifying being separate to capturing was a rich reminder.

I also loved the point about David often binning over 80% of his meeting notes. The art of going through and clarifying what is important and matters to me about my commitments, was excellently made.
 

John Forrister

GTD Connect
Staff member
I also loved the point about David often binning over 80% of his meeting notes. The art of going through and clarifying what is important and matters to me about my commitments, was excellently made.
I often find that taking notes in a meeting is a way to stay focused, and have an outlet for the off-topic ideas and questions that I think of. Most of the time they aren't actionable. But the few actionable items make it worth the effort.
 

boomer70

Registered
I am definitely hybrid. I use Outlook, Tasks and OneNote for the basis of my system but print out my next actions list from Outlook tasks daily. I like sitting there, reviewing that list, crossing things off, highlighting things that I want to tackle that day and then going back into Outlook tasks the next day and marking items complete.

On meeting notes, I take notes about the meeting but often have a scratch pad also for thoughts that pop into my head during the meeting, usually unrelated. This is especially true at conferences. Upon return from a conference I go through that scratch pad, read each item, put it on an actions list, a someday maybe or scratching it off completely and discarding it wondering what I was thinking.
 
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