Project List ideas wanted

[Borisoff]

After long Russian holidays I decided to slightly change my GTD system First, I removed all cross references between Next Actions and Projects. Second, I changed the style of Project name. It used to be something like ABCCOMPANY PROJECTNAME. Now it's a real GTD style: Conclude a treaty with ABCCOMPANY.

The problem is all my projects were sorted by alphabet. I keep my project plans, along with outcome and purpose statments in a Notes section of a Project (I use Outlook as you see). Now, when they start with a verb it becomes difficult to find any project in case I need to update some information for that project. Any ideas? :-D

Regards,

Eugene.

 

[Eleazar]

Maybe this?

You could still start the project out with the first letter of the company or what ever you would normaly search for it by.

A Get contact with ABCcompany
D Take the Dog to the Vet

Just an idea

 

[WebR0ver]

I changed the style of Project name. It used to be something like ABCCOMPANY PROJECTNAME. Now it's a real GTD style: Conclude a treaty with ABCCOMPANY.

Now, when they start with a verb it becomes difficult to find any project in case I need to update some information for that project. Any ideas? :-D

How about
ABCCOMPANY: Conclude a treaty.

 

[kewms]

Search?

For a good search tool it shouldn't matter whether the search terms are at the beginning or in the middle of the item.

Katherine

 

[Jamie Elis]

similar grouped together

I like to have similar or related projects grouped together. When I am visually scanning or using Palm's search function, it helps me to see the titles together because I have a bad memory for somethings and sometimes I am processing and I have a piece of "stuff" that goes to a project and I can't remember if I have actually defined the project yet and if I have put it in SDMB or deferred to a specific time. This is so especially if it is a project that is one of several projects related to something bigger. Sometimes several projects will appear to have something in common such as a consumable or a template that I need to create. My projects begin with an abbreviation indicating the role or responsibility to which it relates (probably not really necessary), then if it relates to a other project a kind of heading so they come up together. As an example, House-Home Renov: Heat,Vent, A/C; House-Home Renov: Insulation.

 

[taxgeek]

I do the same thing as WebR0ver and JamieElis are suggesting. I'm a lawyer, so have different clients, but often more than one project for a client, and often related projects, and often the need to zip right to a project. So my project list (Outlook - task titles) looks like:

SMITH: Draft estate plan.
TAKASUGI: Trust Allocation - Real estate docs
TAKASUGI: Trust Allocation - Partnership docs
ZING: Get billing address fixed.

etc.

So far so good. They sort together and I can find things easily.

I'm still struggling with whether each client should just be a project, but haven't decided yet.

I too am putting the project plan and diary and notes into the "notes" section of the task. But that's a whole 'nother story that I'm currently struggling with - topic for maybe another thread when I get around to it.

Good luck with whatever you decide. The main thing is that it works for you in the ways you use your project list.

 

[WebR0ver]

For a good search tool it shouldn't matter whether the search terms are at the beginning or in the middle of the item.

Agree - except when the search tool is a human. ;-)

 

[Borisoff]

Agree - except when the search tool is a human. ;-)

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I will think what's better for me.

Re: search function. I've checked. There's no Serach in my Palm Treo 750v. Sorry

Regards,

Eugene.

 

[Tom Shannon]

How about
ABCCOMPANY: Conclude a treaty.

Personally I think this is a good idea. But if you want to limit the number of words you may eventually find that it isn't necessary.

I name my projects much like you are changing to. What I found was that there are really less than half a doze verbs that I use. Ultimately most of us find ourselves doing the same things over and over in different situations.

Your list will break itself down by the typical 6-12 or so verbs that represent what you do everyday (e.g. "conclude treaty with", "negotiate with terrorists from", "arrange formal dinner for", "assassinate"), then by company or person (e.g. "Brazil", "Antartica", "penguins", "president Krusty the Clown"). So it really isn't hard to find projects by name even with the verbs. Using the verbs really just provides one more way to categorize the project (i.e. by verb, then by company).

Tom S.