Nirvana HQ

Hi, does anyone here use Nirvana?

If so, do you use the time & energy settings? Also, how do you set priorities?

Thanks
Stephen

 

Hi Stephen. Have you checked out the GTD guide for Nirvana?

https://store.gettingthingsdone.com/Nirvana-Setup-Guide-p/10487.htm

 

I have Kelly, thanks.

The guide states that you should use them if you find them useful but to be wary of overcomplicating your system. I was just wondering if anyone else find them helpful.

 

Great. You'll find some savvy Nirvana users here, like @Longstreet, who should be able to give you some good tips on these features.

 

Thank you Kelly.

 

I use the time and energy tags but don’t often filter by them yet. I keep up the habit of tagging though because I know it will come in handy to be able to filter, for example, for 5 minute tasks in the future. Right now I’m still in start-up mode with a new job so I’m basically just working my way through a lot of must-dos. Eventually I know things will settle down and I’ll find it really helpful to use those time and energy filters. In fact, now that you mention it, I’m down with a miserable cold at the moment so maybe I’ll use that “low energy” filter today!

 

I would be glad to help. And yes, I do use the time and energy tags.

 

Thank you SDH and Longstreet.

Do you both enter contacts for items you are waiting for? I tend to just use the 'someone' tag but maybe I'm being lazy. Also, do you use any method of prioritisation other than manual sorting of tasks and starring?

 

Yes, I have a long list of colleagues that I have in Nirvana. This way, I can see their names on the waiting for list. As for prioritization, no special tags or anything. If there is something that is inherently important and/or on my mind, I will add these to my focus list and work from there. And of course.....if you have not seen my previous posts....I am very big on time blocking my days so that I have protected space from meetings appearing mysteriously on my calendar.

 

Mee too I use Focus to prioritize the task I choose to work

 

I primarily use Outlook (O365) at work, but I've been setting up Nirvana at home and really like it. Has anyone figured out a way to get Nirvana and Outlook Tasks/Microsoft To-Do to work together? I really, really like the way Nirvana presents information, but it's easier for me to use Outlook Tasks at work because I primarily work out of my inbox already.

 

Not sure if there is a good automatic linkage solution, but I've been using the email to Nirvana Inbox to get input that I might collect for my Personal External Brain when I'm at work using my work tools/system.

 

Hi, nice to see that there is some action on Nirvana. I am using this since two years and I would say it is the most important app I have on my phone (implementing GTD has been real life changer - I believe there are now other alternatives to Nirvana but at the time it was the best solution for me). I am still constantly tweaking how I use it but overall use it consistently. For example I am rather using projects than areas of focus so everything from my inbox will then straight away go into a project . I tend to use the focus star less to organise my day but to highlight what I should really not forget (even if not strictly important for today)

I have just started to create a daily to do list (also as a project) and in this context I am actually using the timings. Like this you can better organise a certain amount of time which you set away for doing these tasks. I am rather generous with the timing so I rather finish early, than later than anticipated. This is more motivating. Also if you start doing these tasks which you´d happily procrastinate, because you think it will take some time, just having already accounted for this time again makes it more motivating to tackle this .

Anyway, I had another question. Does anyone know if this works with a smart watch? I am seriously considering this as in the garden taking my phone with me does not work so well but it would be very important to have my lists with me. For the garden tagging makes a lot of sense (I am tagging by tool for example, so once I take out the spade I can look up what else I can do with it)

 

I don´t think you can link it. You could of course send mails from outlook into Nirvana and vice versa. Since I use Nirvana I have stopped using tasks in outlook. Better to convert the mail into a specific action. I have a work to do list in Nirvana .

 

Is anyone aware whether NirvanaHQ is actively under development? I like it, but there haven't been any updates in well over a year, and I can't find much of a community out there for it.

 

It’s very much alive and well. Their own forums are very active. From what I understand, they make development changes carefully and deliberately, so you won’t see frequent feature changes like other apps.

 

I have interacted with them and they are indeed very much alive. But Kelly is correct -- they do not make frequent changes. But all of their apps are so fast and stable -- and designed perfectly for GTD. Nirvana really is quite good!

 

I agree , Nirvana is really a very good app. I had not realised it had come back into life (basically in 2018) so thanks for pointing this out. Anyone bought their set up guide, which I understand is rather conceptual (which is good), than technical? As I am using the system for a while already I am unsure to which extent this is still helpful, but one never knows. I had also read David Allen´s book twice but second time around was kind of tedious (as it is lengthy to start with).

I think we are seeing here that as technology has evolved so much, the initial need and idea for assigning contexts etc has really shifted. For example, a calls , or online context hardly makes sense any more in my view, as we all have our phone with us all the time ,and can make calls and look things up any minute. Unless you need to get in a specific mindset to make calls, and then profit from being in the category, I can therefore not see a need for this any more.

On the other hand I am finding, as is also discussed elsewhere , the sheer quantity of next actions is overwhelming. I have not been working in the early 90s in a professional environment, so cannot really validate my feeling that quantity must have increased. This is my gut feeling however hence I think the system has to be adapted to take account of this as well . Personally putting aside time to get things done is an absolute must for me, and I am tweaking the system to prioritise as well . For example, I am rather including under next what I SHOULD do next than everything I could do next.

Another question here for Nirvana users : how do you use the projects as opposed to lists? I sometimes make a project into a to do list, but am left with the feeling this is not really the idea either. How do you cope with the fact that there is no possibility for subprojects? I am ending up with a very long list of projects. I don´t always like to seperate by area of focus as I want to have an overview of all of them in order to prioritise, for my life as a whole, rather than work vs personal etc . And how do you account for horizon levels, within the system?

 

Can we use email set up in Nirvana the same way we send and receive emails in Outlook

 

What do you mean exactly? You can send yourself an e-mail from outlook (your e-mail address is in the settings) and export via e-mail I think. OF course nothing as sophisticated as outlook.