When Planning New Projects (Start to Review): Digital or Paper?

[gtdstudente]

Dear fellow GTDers, For New Projects, . . . thinking/though not limited . . . from the Natural Planning Model to Review for Next Actions. Does your trusted system Start Planning New Project in Digital/Paper/both? After initial Project Planning does your trusted system Stay/Migrate to Digital/Paper/both for harder edges? Is your trusted system in Digital/Paper/both for easiest Review and adjusting/re-negotiating follow-through? Is your trusted system in Digital/Paper/both for your very prompt context Next Actions? Regarding Paper, is your trusted system using different sizes for Capturing, Planning, Reviewing, Next Actions, Paper that is Small, Junior, 8 1/2 x11, Index Cards, ect? If digital is your trusted system using simple "Docs", "Note Pads", Spreadsheets, or special Apps: TickTick, Evernote, Nozbe, etc. seems to have good following. Have you any concerns that them going the way of the Palm, Wunderlist, etc.? If your trusted system is using multiple mediums, how does it benefit you more than having Your Everything in me "Medium-Place"? Thank you fellow GTDers . . . your trusted GTD use most appreciated.

 

[mcogilvie]

I use Things 3. It’s great, but there are still some problems with the user that I’m working on. It’s not going anywhere, but if it did, I’d use something else. If I need to use paper, I use it. Mostly, I don’t. Honestly, you should start GTD with either paper or the tools you are familiar with. Try to do things the way David Allen suggests, learning and adjusting as you go. Try to make things as simple as you can. Really.

 

[gtdstudente]

I use Things 3. It’s great, but there are still some problems with the user that I’m working on. It’s not going anywhere, but if it did, I’d use something else. If I need to use paper, I use it. Mostly, I don’t. Honestly, you should start GTD with either paper or the tools you are familiar with. Try to do things the way David Allen suggests, learning and adjusting as you go. Try to make things as simple as you can. Really.

Great suggestions. Thank you. What about the lost data?

 

[Oogiem]

Does your trusted system Start Planning New Project in Digital/Paper/both?

Both depending on the project. Ones that I know fairly well what I want to do with minimal planning needed start out in digital. Ones that are totally blue sky start out on paper and migrate to digital as soon as I ache a rough outline of the project.

After initial Project Planning does your trusted system Stay/Migrate to Digital/Paper/both for harder edges?

Again, it depends, all of my active projects and future Someday/Maybe projects are in a digital form but project support materials can be either digital nor paper depending the project.

Is your trusted system in Digital/Paper/both for easiest Review and adjusting/re-negotiating follow-through?

Digital only. I do not review paper items at all, they are reference or project support.

Is your trusted system in Digital/Paper/both for your very prompt context Next Actions?

Digital only. If it's not in my task manager, Omnifocus, then it's not an active project and there are no next action identified.

Regarding Paper, is your trusted system using different sizes for Capturing, Planning, Reviewing, Next Actions, Paper that is Small, Junior, 8 1/2 x11, Index Cards, ect? If digital is your trusted system using simple "Docs", "Note Pads", Spreadsheets, or special Apps: TickTick, Evernote, Nozbe, etc. seems to have good following.

Capture for me is almost all on paper notes. I use 2 sizes, 3x5 inch stop spiral bound notepads and the backs of the daily desk calendar that I tear off each day. Both are small and handle things well.

I do limited Siri capture for when I cannot spare more than 1 hand, think holding a ram by the horns and trying to take a not on behavior or something. I can use my phone 1 handed to take a note but I have to process them immediately because Siri is terrible at note taking.

All my short form digital reference and Someday/Maybe lists are in DEVONThink. All my longer form digital reference items are indexed into a separate DT database. I have a Scrivener document that is my "Notebook" of articles and things that I tend to review and repost. I use it for editing stuff. I also make use of LibreOffice for spreadsheets and some other documents. My Task management system is Omnifocus. I use Apple Calendar and Apple Mail. I have a paper filing system that currently consists of three 4 drawer file cabinet and two 2 drawer cabinets with reference material and papers that need to stay in paper form or only exist there.

If your trusted system is using multiple mediums, how does it benefit you more than having Your Everything in me "Medium-Place"?

Each tool has strengths and weaknesses. I use the best tool for the job that is most efficient for me. I compartmentalize things to where I can do them most effectively. I ignore the fact that I COULD do many things in many places or on multiple devices and instead focus on where I can do them with the least amount of friction.

Example: I never do email on my phone, iPad or laptop computer. I reserve that for my desktop where I have more tools and larger screen real estate to handle it.

.

 

[gtdstudente]

Both depending on the project. Ones that I know fairly well what I want to do with minimal planning needed start out in digital. Ones that are totally blue sky start out on paper and migrate to digital as soon as I ache a rough outline of the project.


Again, it depends, all of my active projects and future Someday/Maybe projects are in a digital form but project support materials can be either digital nor paper depending the project.


Digital only. I do not review paper items at all, they are reference or project support.


Digital only. If it's not in my task manager, Omnifocus, then it's not an active project and there are no next action identified.


Capture for me is almost all on paper notes. I use 2 sizes, 3x5 inch stop spiral bound notepads and the backs of the daily desk calendar that I tear off each day. Both are small and handle things well.

I do limited Siri capture for when I cannot spare more than 1 hand, think holding a ram by the horns and trying to take a not on behavior or something. I can use my phone 1 handed to take a note but I have to process them immediately because Siri is terrible at note taking.

All my short form digital reference and Someday/Maybe lists are in DEVONThink. All my longer form digital reference items are indexed into a separate DT database. I have a Scrivener document that is my "Notebook" of articles and things that I tend to review and repost. I use it for editing stuff. I also make use of LibreOffice for spreadsheets and some other documents. My Task management system is Omnifocus. I use Apple Calendar and Apple Mail. I have a paper filing system that currently consists of three 4 drawer file cabinet and two 2 drawer cabinets with reference material and papers that need to stay in paper form or only exist there.


Each tool has strengths and weaknesses. I use the best tool for the job that is most efficient for me. I compartmentalize things to where I can do them most effectively. I ignore the fact that I COULD do many things in many places or on multiple devices and instead focus on where I can do them with the least amount of friction.

Example: I never do email on my phone, iPad or laptop computer. I reserve that for my desktop where I have more tools and larger screen real estate to handle it.

.

OOgiem, Your GTDlogistics are awesome. Are you thinking/concerned with what Project a particular Next Action is serving or just relaxed with the Next Action in and of itself? Thank you.

 

[mcogilvie]

Great suggestions. Thank you. What about the lost data?

David Allen has said that if you lose everything to fire or flood, just start over with what you have at hand, probably paper. I heard Eric Mack tell the story that this kind of loss did happen to David after a disk crash in the early days of personal computing, and he just went immediately back to paper. I have Things and it’s data on three different devices and in the cloud, and I’m not worried. If I lose any thoughts, I know where to get more.

 

[gtdstudente]

David Allen has said that if you lose everything to fire or flood, just start over with what you have at hand, probably paper. I heard Eric Mack tell the story that this kind of loss did happen to David after a disk crash in the early days of personal computing, and he just went immediately back to paper. I have Things and it’s data on three different devices and in the cloud, and I’m not worried. If I lose any thoughts, I know where to get more.

Thank you . . . sounds good . . . self-confidence "issues"

 

[Oogiem]

Are you thinking/concerned with what Project a particular Next Action is serving or just relaxed with the Next Action in and of itself?

If I understand the question I usually have next actions linked to their respective projects because that is how my tool works and how I think.

I do have 2 lists of next actions for one off actions that are not part of a specific project. One is errands. That one is now empty with shelter in place being the rule for noe.

The other one is my Misc. List. It usually has 3-5 items on it.

For example, one that is there right now is "Update Freezer Map" A couple of months ago we had to move all the for sale meat out of the locker plant so we had to get more freezers. In the rush to get the meat out of the old place and into the freezers I didn't update where the various cuts are. I like to split up the for sale meat so that not all the high dollar cuts are in a single freezer. That's so that if there is a single failure we won't lose an entire batch of whatever, but instead will lose some of every cut we sell. Think of it like a distributed network. So I have a paper map of which freezer and where in that freezer is each box of specific cuts and I need to get it updated. It's really only a single action to do, it's not really a project in GTD terms so I have it in my single action list.

 

[gtdstudente]

If I understand the question I usually have next actions linked to their respective projects because that is how my tool works and how I think.

I do have 2 lists of next actions for one off actions that are not part of a specific project. One is errands. That one is now empty with shelter in place being the rule for noe.

The other one is my Misc. List. It usually has 3-5 items on it.

For example, one that is there right now is "Update Freezer Map" A couple of months ago we had to move all the for sale meat out of the locker plant so we had to get more freezers. In the rush to get the meat out of the old place and into the freezers I didn't update where the various cuts are. I like to split up the for sale meat so that not all the high dollar cuts are in a single freezer. That's so that if there is a single failure we won't lose an entire batch of whatever, but instead will lose some of every cut we sell. Think of it like a distributed network. So I have a paper map of which freezer and where in that freezer is each box of specific cuts and I need to get it updated. It's really only a single action to do, it's not really a project in GTD terms so I have it in my single action list.

Great that give me an idea to try. I can try just put a post-it on the project map and put it in the @call file. Going to try if i t works great . . . if not no biggie! Thank you!