Word on the GTD street: 'Trusted Systems'

Y_Lherieau said:
@René, thanks for sparking my interest in Power Automate. I spent some time exploring its capabilities yesterday, and it confirmed a lot of my assumptions. While I’d lose some depth at the OS level, I’d gain a lot by making it a cloud-based solution, which would mean scalability and the ability to work across multiple platforms (mobile, web, and desktop).


I've only scratched the surface with little R&D compared to what I’ve built so far, but it seems like combining Power Automate with Power Apps would be the way forward. VBA user forms (for questions and decision tree branching) could be replaced with forms or surveys. Power Automate’s built-in Todoist connector, along with the option to use REST APIs for deeper customization, seems promising.

The 2-minute timer would need to be built outside of Outlook, which might actually be a good idea. It looks like this would involve using PowerShell and Python. Even the GTD map, which is central to my current setup as an image with buttons, could be recreated with Power Automate.


Thanks again for the push—I’m definitely going to give this a shot!"
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@René, I have been looking at this much deeper lately. To get closer to the blue print of an ideal GTD app, I actually seat down and converted the 19 pages pdf blueprint DA shared. I recommend this excercise to anyone who wants to benchmark his current ecosystem. The fact of questioning everything aspect of what’s on those drawings was enlightening. With my current setup, I am still miles away from a finished product. To potentially crack it, it needs different technology slacks. A front end UI, a backend that handles all API calls to be made to external tools (email app, task app, calendar app, reference support…), then it needs a proper solid SQL database to build all the multi relationships between elements. Finally, if portability is important it needs a packaging solution to replicate the overall app onto different operating systems. But to start somewhere, I have started with a simple web solution approach built in Node.js. So far IN module is on its way, adding/editing/deleting elements into digital inbasket works. Next is to bring in Emails.
René Lie said:
Wow, I'm very impressed! Thanks for the tip, I'll revisit the blueprint!
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Indeed, reflecting on those drawings and comparing them to my current system felt like a deep dive into my GTD understanding.

Streamlining the 'Meeting' functionality, for example, is a real challenge. Ideally, it would provide a consolidated view of a specific contact—gathering data from projects where they’re a stakeholder, listing all 'waiting for' items from that person, displaying notes, key discussion points, related calendar invites, and even tickler items like birthdays. Crafting an outline for next touch point…

While I can access this information through labels and filters in Todoist, plus opening Outlook contacts and calendars…, bringing it all together in a clean, one-page view like in the PDF is a different story.

This is just to share a small example of how fragmented my current ecosystem is. Don’t get me wrong, it works, but it consumes mental energy because it requires too many manual entries. On a great day, I can handle it, but it’s far from seamless. I find it hard to believe with all the technology surrounding us and yet it’s not exactly fit for purpose.
 
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