Nirvana HQ

mcogilvie said:
I would prefer to do battle as my ancestors did, wearing a kilt with my face and chest painted with woad. How do feel about bagpipes?
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I think we need to do our own version of the GTD summit, complete with epic battles in the Jell-O pit, bagpipe battles and perhaps jousting added in for fun. I like how this is shaping up.
 
While I appreciate Nirvana's "deliberate" pace, I too am experiencing some frustration with the lack of updates.
I asked about 6 months ago if the ability to sort by time could be added, since I was sure in the back end, their system was timestamping everything. This is right in line with what is recommended in the book to timestamp list items, particularly Waiting For items so you can easily see how long the request was made. Nirvana's response was to install a Text Expander on my computer to quickly add a time stamp to the notes... :(.

Nirvana is definitely closely aligned to GTD, and the link between list items and projects is excellent, but there are some issues that are causing me to look elsewhere.
 
rmjb said:
While I appreciate Nirvana's "deliberate" pace, I too am experiencing some frustration with the lack of updates.
I asked about 6 months ago if the ability to sort by time could be added, since I was sure in the back end, their system was timestamping everything. This is right in line with what is recommended in the book to timestamp list items, particularly Waiting For items so you can easily see how long the request was made. Nirvana's response was to install a Text Expander on my computer to quickly add a time stamp to the notes... :(.

Nirvana is definitely closely aligned to GTD, and the link between list items and projects is excellent, but there are some issues that are causing me to look elsewhere.
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I completely understand. I don't care for the "deliberate" pace either, particularly when it comes to things like time stamps. So....what are you thinking of trying?
 
Longstreet said:
I completely understand. I don't care for the "deliberate" pace either, particularly when it comes to things like time stamps. So....what are you thinking of trying?
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When I started GTD at the beginning of 2018 I started with Microsoft To-Do for a couple of reasons:
1. In many of the GTD Podcasts a lot of persons spoke about Wunderlist and To-Do was the evolution of that
2. My organization has Office 365 so it was part and parcel of what we had available.

I found Nirvana four months in and I really liked that it was made for GTD, so I bought a one-year subscription and switched over. I'm on my second one-year subscription.

I'm thinking of trying out To-Do again. Since I left it, Microsoft has picked up development and added a lot of features and improvements. In addition, I meet regularly with my direct reports and we review my waiting-fors and agenda items for them, and they're asking if the lists could be shared; To-Do added list sharing in the last 12 months.

It is not made for GTD though, so there will be some wrangling of the system to fit.
 
The native support for lists like Next, Waiting, Scheduled, Someday is brilliant. Simulating them as a context/category/tag like I did previously isn't the same. The fact that I can see all items inside the project divided into these four main lists is awesome. The way how the Waiting list works - it gives me the real feeling that it is a delegation.

Now I can't imagine my work without this. Only competitive software for me is Everdo (which I mentioned in a different topic) but for now, no reasons to switch. Nonetheless, I observe it carefully.
 
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Mateusz said:
The native support for lists like Next, Waiting, Scheduled, Someday is brilliant. Simulating them as a context/category/tag like I did previously isn't the same. The fact that I can see all items inside the project divided into these four main lists is awesome. The way how the Waiting list works - it gives me the real feeling that it is a delegation.

Now I can't imagine my work without this. Only competitive software for me is Everdo (which I mentioned in a different topic) but for now, no reasons to switch. Nonetheless, I observe it carefully.
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I agree completely. Of course I want faster updates. But Nirvana is so outstanding that I will not leave it. Nirvanahq rocks!
 
As this post have turned into a general discussion of NIrvanaHQ I have question:

How do you guys deal with Agenda Lists in NIrvanaHQ? Because I can't seem to find the perfect fit for it. Items in NirvanaHQ has to be nested under one of the following:

0. Inbox
1. Next action
2. Waiting
3. Scheduled
4. Someday

I have typically have three categories of Agendas:
1. Tasks or information where I am waiting for another person/team/client
2. Question or status updates that I need to relay ASAP
3. Question or status updates saved for a recurring meeting with a person, team or client

Agenda Item number #1 fits under Waiting.
Agenda Item number #2 fits under Next action.
But Agenda Item number #3 fits absolutely no where in the App.

Am I framing my Agenda List wrong or am I missing something?
 
Steffen said:
As this post have turned into a general discussion of NIrvanaHQ I have question:

How do you guys deal with Agenda Lists in NIrvanaHQ? Because I can't seem to find the perfect fit for it. Items in NirvanaHQ has to be nested under one of the following:

0. Inbox
1. Next action
2. Waiting
3. Scheduled
4. Someday

I have typically have three categories of Agendas:
1. Tasks or information where I am waiting for another person/team/client
2. Question or status updates that I need to relay ASAP
3. Question or status updates saved for a recurring meeting with a person, team or client

Agenda Item number #1 fits under Waiting.
Agenda Item number #2 fits under Next action.
But Agenda Item number #3 fits absolutely no where in the App.

Am I framing my Agenda List wrong or am I missing something?
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If you have not looked at it, the GTD Connect guide to Nirvana is really good. It gives different options to setting up agendas in the app. For colleagues whom I regularly interact with and have items to discuss, I create a separate agenda entry in my next actions list (tag is @agenda and their name, which is in my contacts list. The name of the action item is just their name. I use the checklist feature in actions to record items I wish to discuss with them.
 
Longstreet said:
If you have not looked at it, the GTD Connect guide to Nirvana is really good. It gives different options to setting up agendas in the app. For colleagues whom I regularly interact with and have items to discuss, I create a separate agenda entry in my next actions list (tag is @agenda and their name, which is in my contacts list. The name of the action item is just their name. I use the checklist feature in actions to record items I wish to discuss with them.
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Thanks for the quick reply!

The system you described seems to take care of the last agenda type so I will definitely try it out!

I have not bought the setup PDF yet as I thought the system was pretty self-explanatory - except for the agenda thing. Would you still recommend it?
 
Longstreet said:
But Nirvana is so outstanding that I will not leave it.
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Except you might. Except you won't. Unless you do. ;)

Just kidding.

I think despite its drawbacks, of all the solutions I'm aware of Nirvana offers the best implementation of GTD. I've still got it on a short list of ones I could try someday.

As for the "deliberate" pace of updates and upgrades, I get the impression they're a small team. I think people often underestimate how much work it takes to keep software current with things like OS and browser updates, much less implement new features. My guess is the folks at NirvanaHQ are trying to only bite off as much as they can chew.

As I said, there are things holding me back from jumping on the Nirvana bandwagon. But for people who rely less on mobile technology than I do (remember, I'm a salesperson who has to do a lot of work on the road) or for that matter just don't care about the lack of Siri and Drafts integration the way I do, it looks like a good solution.
 
Steffen said:
Am I framing my Agenda List wrong or am I missing something?
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After years of trying to use "Agenda" as an action list, I have found it works much better for me as a reference list. I put an "Agendas" list right at the top of the Nirvana Reference section. In that Agendas list, I add an individual's name and use the notes section to add topics to raise with that person. For example:
Reference
>Agendas
>>Mom
- beach trip [the dash turns into a functional checkbox in the Nirvana item notes section]

The DA Nirvana guide is pretty good, especially its repeated reminders not to make things too complicated within Nirvana. I think the guide makes a good case for treating agendas as a reference list: "Remember, Agendas are for standing items to discuss or bring to a meeting. They are not where you would go to be reminded of a next action you have related to that person."

I, too, have asked Nirvana for a timestamp feature. I would like for actions in the Focus section to stay in their correct project when they're checked off instead of accumulating as "Done" items in the Focus section. I would like to be able to put a project into the Waiting state; at the moment, only actions can go there. I want more control about having my lists stay in the order I have set manually. I would love to see more extensive video training and feature demos from Nirvana. They could even offer pre-populated Nirvana templates based on DA's guide options as an add-on for those who have purchased the guide.

Nirvana already has a clean, functional interface that works pretty well. Most of what I want are variations, options, and minor expansions, not sweeping new feature sets. I'm looking forward to seeing some of these user requests fulfilled one day soon.
 
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When it comes to Agendas I use two approaches.

When I have a scheduled meeting (in my calendar) then I use the first approach. Meeting title as task title, @agenda tag, and checkboxes to follow topics to discuss. I use due date which is the same as the meeting date.

I also have a lot of small topics to discuss with my colleagues but I don't want to organize an official meeting for them. I discuss them during a short unplanned meeting in my office, more like on the fly.
In this case each topic is a separate task tagged with proper contact. It is better for me because I don't have to discuss all items at once like I have to with the first approach.

I can do one click on the contact tag and see all small topics to discuss and all items that I am waiting for from that person. It is fabulous :)
 
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Mateusz said:
When it comes to Agendas I use two approaches.

When I have a scheduled meeting (in my calendar) then I use the first approach. Meeting title as task title, @agenda tag, and checkboxes to follow topics to discuss. I use due date which is the same as the meeting date.

I also have a lot of small topics to discuss with my colleagues but I don't want to organize an official meeting for them. I discuss them during a short unplanned meeting in my office, more like on the fly.
In this case each topic is a separate task tagged witch proper contact. It is better for me because I don't have to discuss all items at once like I have to with the first approach.

I can do one click on the contact tag and see all small topics to discuss and all items that I am waiting for from that person. It is fabulous :)
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It is indeed fabulous! :)
 
lastgasp said:
The DA Nirvana guide is pretty good, especially its repeated reminders not to make things too complicated within Nirvana. I think the guide makes a good case for treating agendas as a reference list: "Remember, Agendas are for standing items to discuss or bring to a meeting. They are not where you would go to be reminded of a next action you have related to that person."
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I like that idea, however, I found that the reference list is to hidden from my day to day glances at my Next actions. So for now I am creating Agenda items tagged as such in my Next acitons list. Thanks for the sharing the indepth description, though! I might try that solution for good if I get too tired of seeing non-actionable thigns in my "Next actions" section!
 
I moved to Nirvana (from Nozbe) about a week ago. And since then I only ran into one point of friction, assigning tasks to a project. When clarifying and organizing and wanting to assign an item from the Inbox to a project I run into two challenges (using the web app).

What methods in Nirvana do you all use to do this?

1. Assigning an item to an existing project.
- When dragging/dropping the item, it disappears from the inbox. This prevents any more editing without searching for the action in the project. Some discipline and adding the task to a project as the last step might solve this.
- When using the menu on the right side of an item while editing it the actual list of projects is too large to comfortably choose the correct project.

2. When an item requires a new project.
- When using the keyboard shortcut (P) to create a new project, it jumps to the project. After which I have to return to the Inbox and assigning the action to the newly created project.

Maybe I was too spoiled with how Nozbe handled this, but I would love to have a Project edit field with similar behaviour to the Tags field. This would also allow only using the keyboard while clarifying and organizing.
 
Frank Goedhart said:
I moved to Nirvana (from Nozbe) about a week ago. And since then I only ran into one point of friction, assigning tasks to a project. When clarifying and organizing and wanting to assign an item from the Inbox to a project I run into two challenges (using the web app).

What methods in Nirvana do you all use to do this?
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Hello Frank! I had the same still problem and still do to some degree.

This is my proces below:

- Inbox Item to existing Project: https://jumpshare.com/v/8ca8ezhpLSx4nevNy3x6
- Inbox Item to new Project: https://jumpshare.com/v/aqwoO5bQtHc3jZkvvRox

Nirvana actually moves the Inbox Item to next when dragging to a project.

I have a lot more Projects however, so I usually search for it using CTRL+F as it moves the browser to the relevant section and highlights my search result.
 
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