New setup guide for Microsoft 365

[davidcoforum]

We have just released a brand-new setup guide on applying GTD within the Microsoft 365 suite of tools. It's available letter and A4 sizes at the top of the Setup Guides category in the GTD Connect Document Library.

 

[jdransom]

Is this pretty much what David Allen Co. switched over to from Lotus Notes?

 

[John Forrister]

Is this pretty much what David Allen Co. switched over to from Lotus Notes?

Thanks for asking.

Yes. From july to October 2020 we prepared for the migration, and did test migrations. From November 2020 to around March 2021 we migrated our users from Lotus/IBM/HCL Notes for email and calendar to Outlook.

Some were already using other apps for their Projects and Next Actions lists. For those who were using Notes, they moved to Microsoft To Do.

We had many other Notes applications (formerly known as databases in the Notes world). We migrated some of those to OneNote.

For file storage, we are using OneNote and SharePoint, depending on who else needs access to the files.

 

[mcogilvie]

I’ve played with Microsoft Todo and it’s pretty and reasonably functional (rip Wunderlist). The rest of the MS ecosystem always seemed a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster, stitched together. My university “supports” all thee doodads and thingamajigs, which is to say licenses them, but I don’t know anyone who uses them. Even the GTD setup guide seems more complicated than usual.

 

[John Forrister]

I’ve played with Microsoft Todo and it’s pretty and reasonably functional (rip Wunderlist). The rest of the MS ecosystem always seemed a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster, stitched together. My university “supports” all thee doodads and thingamajigs, which is to say licenses them, but I don’t know anyone who uses them. Even the GTD setup guide seems more complicated than usual.

Good thing you didn't see the first draft, which was much longer and more complicated. There are so many apps in the Microsoft suite, with lots of overlapping functionality. We had to decide on a number of apps, features, and integrations to leave out. Sort of like Frankenstein having extra parts but choosing not to stitch them in/on.

 

[schmeggahead]

formerly known as databases in the Notes world

Did you totally eliminate using Notes?

 

[jdransom]

Thanks for asking.

Yes. From july to October 2020 we prepared for the migration, and did test migrations. From November 2020 to around March 2021 we migrated our users from Lotus/IBM/HCL Notes for email and calendar to Outlook.

Some were already using other apps for their Projects and Next Actions lists. For those who were using Notes, they moved to Microsoft To Do.

We had many other Notes applications (formerly known as databases in the Notes world). We migrated some of those to OneNote.

For file storage, we are using OneNote and SharePoint, depending on who else needs access to the files.

Thanks John! Gonna have to play around now that I have some free time.

 

[Ridwan]

We have just released a brand-new setup guide on applying GTD within the Microsoft 365 suite of tools. It's available letter and A4 sizes at the top of the Setup Guides category in the GTD Connect Document Library.

Thanks for the guides John. This will be a good start to implement best practices to my work tools.

 

[John Forrister]

Did you totally eliminate using Notes?

We only eliminated the two redundant Domino servers, running from a data center in Los Angeles, that our local Notes clients were replicating with. We all still have the Notes client installed in case we need to look up something that was not migrated.