Setting up PI

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thegeezer3

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Hi just read the book and just searched and read quite a few posts about this but my heads spinnng and i need some clarification.

Id just like to check im using pi to the its best. Heres my setup:

I created the following categories
several @contexts inc. waiting for etc and agendas
Maybe/Someday
Projects

For all my NA's i create a new Task *(ToDo)
For all Projects i created a Task template which is used when i create a project.
I use the notes section within the task to list the NA's for this project.

I do the same for Maybes (is it ok to create next actions for maybes - i like to know what i should do even though i dont want to do it immediately)

Now i have just finsihed the book but there are other things im confused about
1) a digital tickler system. Do you use PIs calendar for that or do you simple make a task and change the start date?
2) im not quite sure about the idea of checklists or general lists that david talks about in his book. Where are you meant to store them? Under someday/maybe? or do i make a new category for these? I hear checklists been thrown around a lot, do they include your 30000 - 50000ft ruminations as well?

and just to sound really anal
3) it seems the next action is very important so how do you manage your next actions within a project. I mean do you have some naminig convention. I was thinking if my project name was "Buy new harddrive" then within the project notes each NA should be prefixed "Buy new harddrive: research on harddrive.com for good drive" or "harddrive: check motherboard specs for compat issues". The reason being when i create my next actions from projects i dont feel comfortable with a load of NA swimming around without me knowing if there conected to a project as whole. Sure i use the links but its a bit time consuming having to check the link and also i dont trust myself to alwasy apply links (ive also spotted some bugs regarding links). so do you guys do this or is it just me and my anal personality.

Right im off to label my Barry Manilow collection and order it alphabettically.

regards
 
thegeezer3 said:
1) a digital tickler system. Do you use PIs calendar for that or do you simple make a task and change the start date?
Click to expand...

If, by PI, you're referring to the Palm, I'm not sure what the advantage of a digital tickler system would be over the calendar. I usually copy and paste support material into a note attachment on a calendar entry through the Palm Desktop.

But one way of setting up a tickler system would be to create a memo list (i.e. a Category in Memos) called "Tickler" with 31 date memos and 12 month memos. When a new month comes around, you can cut and paste content from your month memo into the appropriate date-specific memo. But again, I find it easier to just use calendar entries, with attached notes when necessary.

2) im not quite sure about the idea of checklists or general lists that david talks about in his book. Where are you meant to store them? Under someday/maybe? or do i make a new category for these? I hear checklists been thrown around a lot, do they include your 30000 - 50000ft ruminations as well?
Click to expand...

I use a memo list called Lists, which allows me to create a list of lists (especially important if you're chafing under the Palm's 15-Category limit). In the list I have memos like "Restaurants to try," "Exhibits," "Gurus," "Places to go with GF," "Architects" (I study architecture), "URLs," etc. The first line is the list heading, then the list itself follows. Values, rules of engagement, and 20-50k ft. thinking I put in a separate Category called "Focus Areas." Each horizon of focus gets its own memo.

3) it seems the next action is very important so how do you manage your next actions within a project. I mean do you have some naminig convention. I was thinking if my project name was "Buy new harddrive" then within the project notes each NA should be prefixed "Buy new harddrive: research on harddrive.com for good drive" or "harddrive: check motherboard specs for compat issues". The reason being when i create my next actions from projects i dont feel comfortable with a load of NA swimming around without me knowing if there conected to a project as whole. Sure i use the links but its a bit time consuming having to check the link and also i dont trust myself to alwasy apply links (ive also spotted some bugs regarding links). so do you guys do this or is it just me and my anal personality.
Click to expand...

You're not alone. A lot of GTD'ers don't want to let go of subsetting actions within project listings -- hence the popularity of apps like LifeBalance, Bonzai and HandyShopper. One practice the seems to come up a lot here is appending a project abbreviation at the end of the action listing, such as "harddrive.com - research for good drive [hd]," where [hd] is the project abbreviation. Best practices for linking actions to projects is a recurring theme on the forum, so I'll let others chime in with their solutions.

But you might want to reexamine the need to link actions with projects in the first place. If you put a next action like "harddrive.com - research for good drive" on your @computer list, and your project list is current, the purpose of the action should be fairly obvious. I use flat lists on a vanilla Palm setup (Projects is just another Category in Tasks along with my @lists). But your mileage may vary.

If you can handle flat lists, Palm organizer - How David uses his is a good read.
 
thanks for your advice it has helped. Actually PI stands for Pocket Informant an organiser program for the ppc but what you said can easily carry over to PI. Thanks for your help.

ps. i studied architecture too... but never took to it. How you finding it?

anyone else with any thoughts
 
thegeezer3 said:
Hi just read the book and just searched and read quite a few posts about this but my heads spinnng and i need some clarification.

Id just like to check im using pi to the its best. Heres my setup:

I think there's older threads referring to PI on the forums . you might want to check those out. There's a yahoo group GTD-PPC you might want to check out also.
Click to expand...
 
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