30 November 2006
GTD Tips Video
I’m a huge fan of David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology. I’m also an obsessive reader of Merlin Mann’s 43 Folders (the best blog in the world for productivity obsessed Mac owners).
I’m pretty proud of my GTD setup and I feel that I’m very effective at getting a lot of things done without being stressed out. In light of that, I figured a quick video tutorial of my method would be helpful to Carsonified readers. Here you go!
RSS readers, view the video here.
Thanks to my lovely wife for being the camera woman.
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Gill
# November 30, 2006 - 6:02 pm
You should fire that camera woman – she’s no good!
Richard Adams
# November 30, 2006 - 6:05 pm
Very helpful. I’m absolutely rubbish at getting things done, I tend to spend most of my time writing to-do lists and then end up with several lists of things to do and no idea of which ones to do first. So thanks for the tips, they’ll come in very useful.
Michele
# November 30, 2006 - 6:33 pm
It sounds like a very effective way to do GTD. Actually, it’s even better than Kinkless, because it’s much simpler and it doesn’t get on your way.
Thanks for sharing!
Peter
# November 30, 2006 - 10:00 pm
Is this the site you’re referring to?
http://www.diyplanner.com/templates/official/hpda
Jacob
# November 30, 2006 - 10:28 pm
Thanks for the preview of your GTD setup, Ryan–very helpful!
One question, is there a way to automatically populate the category column in OmniOutliner with the sub-projects of your “other” list? I haven’t yet been able to figure it out, and that sort of thing would be great.
Tuomas
# November 30, 2006 - 11:32 pm
Simple, Easy and does not get in to your way! I’ll definetly give it a spin!
Thanks for the tutorial!
If you got a time and inspiration, it would be nice to see a brief tutorial about how you run your development projects. But thats just a suggestion :)
Dan Kubb
# December 1, 2006 - 12:22 am
Very nice. I’m going to have to take Omni Outliner Pro for a spin.
I noticed that you’re deleting the items once you are done, but what about moving them into a Done folder? The ideal would be if it noted the date the item was marked as complete, without you having to specify it. Alternatively, if there’s a sort of Trash folder where deleted items are filed, then perhaps that could function in the same way.
The reason I mention this is that it would give you a better sense of what you’re getting done each day /week.
Cameron Booth
# December 1, 2006 - 12:59 am
Thanks Ryan, interesting to see how you’re doing it, and compare.
The one thing that’s missing that I like about Kinkless GTD is the support for contexts (ie. @work, or @home, or @phone, or @grocerystore). Seems like there must be a happy medium between the simple solution (yours) and the more complex one (Kinkless).
I guess the bottom line is that there’s never a right way for what works for everybody.
Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive What’s the Big To-Do about To-Do? «
# December 1, 2006 - 3:26 am
[...] Check out this video by Ryan Carson, a super-organized guy who often blogs earnest explanations of his work methods. For his to-do list, Carson uses a combination of OmniOutliner and Hipster PDA. His method requires quite a bit of dedication on a daily basis, but it’s simple enough for us mortals to imagine giving it a whirl. [...]
Peter Cooper
# December 1, 2006 - 3:42 am
I use almost the same system except it’s all on computer (I’m rarely away from it – sad, I know) and I use iCal instead. I pile up items and then drag them throughout the week.
Having seen this, though, I realize my technique is a little messy (although I like nailing stuff down to days in a calendar), so might give OmniOutliner a go to see if I can make it work :)
Ryan
# December 1, 2006 - 5:14 am
Quick question Carson. When you enter items into “Other” and specify a project….do you have a script that automatically puts the project in the “Cat” column? Or are you manually entering that each time?
David Crowther
# December 1, 2006 - 8:01 am
Anyone know of a windows version of OmniOutliner?
Matthew Pennell
# December 1, 2006 - 9:25 am
I’ve been using GTDTiddlyWiki (http://shared.snapgrid.com/) to manage my work to-do lists, and Basecamp for freelance and personal stuff. I definitely would benefit from carrying pen+paper around, though every time I’ve tried before, I always wind up losing it or putting it through the wash…
Ryan Carson
# December 1, 2006 - 11:10 am
Yup – that’s the one.
Great question. I’m not sure, unfortunately. I’d love it if someone could figure out how to do this.
Now that is a great idea. Thanks!
I have to manually choose the category.
Marc Köhlbrugge
# December 1, 2006 - 3:38 pm
Interesting approach. I’ve yet to read GTD (I bought it some weeks ago ;)) but I’m planning to start the new year fully organised and gettings things done :).
Thanks for the video!
PS
More information on Lamy: http://www.lamy.com/
Scott
# December 3, 2006 - 6:04 am
Looks great. Thanks for taking the time to share this – motivated me to try out Omni Outliner.
David Crowther
# December 3, 2006 - 1:01 pm
For anyone using Windows, try My Life Organized (http://www.mylifeorganized.net) for something similar to OmniOutliner.
GTD più semplice sulla “carta” (e su video) at web at work
# December 3, 2006 - 2:25 pm
[...] Se non avete ancora letto “Getting things done” di David Allen, non potrete apprezzare appieno le indicazioni di Ryan Carson sul suo Carsonified, che in un breve video mostra come gestire il proprio tempo e le propria to do list. Dal video emergono alcuni utilissimi strumenti che riporto qui di seguito: [...]
Khoa Bui
# December 4, 2006 - 12:46 pm
Truly inspirational! :)
macophilia » Ryan Carson und GTD
# December 4, 2006 - 5:39 pm
[...] In seinem Blog schreibt Carson, wie er GTD nutzt, unter anderem mit OmniOutliner Pro und dem Hipster PDA. Ein nettes Video gibt es auch dazu, dass ich der Bequemlichkeit halber gleich hier einbinde. Die Seite mit den Vorlagen, die im Film erwähnt wird, ist übrigens DIY Planner.com. [...]
Mike Birch
# December 4, 2006 - 8:05 pm
I have switched to Omni Outliner and am enjoying the simplicity. I am using an Applescript to move the completed items to another file. I had problems with the applescript, but I got it to work by saving it as an application.
I use Office Time and it’s great to be able to drag a task from Omni Outliner into the notes field of an Office Time session.
Emory
# December 5, 2006 - 9:23 pm
nice use of the Lamy Pico and DIY Planner hipster cards ;)
Craig
# December 5, 2006 - 9:52 pm
When printing, may I suggest “hoisting” the desired section (instead of collapsing the unwanted ones)? I loves me the “hoist” feature of OmniOutliner.
Ryan Carson
# December 5, 2006 - 10:06 pm
Thanks Craig – great tip :)
topfunky
# December 9, 2006 - 6:38 am
Great ideas. To me, it’s all about customizing your environment and finding the tools that work best for you.
I wrote a little webapp and recently made a command-line app so I can add a todo to my web-based list without skipping a beat.
I feel 8% more productive already!
http://roughunderbelly.com/
Jeff Ward
# December 12, 2006 - 9:18 pm
This kind of video tutorial was very useful to me. I will be reworking how I use OmniOutliner to incorporate some of your process. Thanks for the post.
Brad
# December 14, 2006 - 1:53 am
Hi Ryan,
This was a great article. I love that you utilize YouTube and show it rather then just say it. You spray and it and say it.
Annyyyways, I remember from the ‘old’ days reading the other Blog (about developing Amigo) and there were screen shots of Basecamp.
First I had TaDa, then bought Basecamp, then started using Backpack (using lists). Now I just realized that I actually own that Omni software package! I knew I had the Graffle one, but I had no idea about the Outliner, and after watching your video (again, if you just stated it, I probably would have moved on) I’m convinced to give that a shot!
Now, back to my question. I noticed you had Basecamp shots. I assume it was so ‘other developers/designers’ can share/view a To Do list.
Do you still use Basecamp in parallel with Outliner? For example, your Amigo Todos.
Whew. I just type away and things go nuts.
-cheers
Ryan Carson
# December 14, 2006 - 9:16 am
Yes, we still use Basecamp for our project to-dos. This allows everyone to share one list.
Sigurdur Armannsson
# December 17, 2006 - 10:52 pm
Very nice presentation. It gave me some ideas here and there.
I was wondering though as I watched : Why do you need to divide the categories into project sections when you already have each item categorized and could use the categories to sort it into groups? Seems a bit consuming to manually sort into projects.
I was just discovering this site and I like it so far. Already put the PSS into NewsFire so I won’t miss anything in the future. Thanks.
Greg Newman
# December 20, 2006 - 4:35 pm
Great video. Really pleased with the pen tip, as I’ve been looking for a small, safe quality pen for my pocket and following your video went out and bought a Lamy Pico today and it’s great.
I Look forward to your future posts. Cheers.
Kerri
# January 3, 2007 - 5:28 am
loved the way you organize things! it was great to watch you on the video too. very helpful! you know ME! i’m a HUGE organizer. i have my own way, but it’s definitely not as effective as yours. way to go buddy!
Chris Hittinger
# January 5, 2007 - 5:05 pm
Thats a interesting approach to gtd, Ryan!
maybe pocketmod could be useful for you, to print your action-lists:
http://www.pocketmod.com
You can use it to print your action-lists more sophisticated, e.g. with a weekly calendar.
sincerly,
Chris
Tom Markiewicz » New desktop applications for Getting Things Done
# March 8, 2007 - 6:54 pm
[...] If you’re already using OmniOutliner, you should check out Ryan Carson’s excellent tutorial on how he integrated the software with GTD into his daily workflow. TUAW also has a sneak preview of OmniFocus, the new GTD application from OmniGroup. [...]
Carsonified! » Blog Archive » Screw Apple Mail and iCal, I’m moving to Outlook 2007
# March 22, 2007 - 8:30 am
[...] As probably most of you know, I’m a GTD freak and I love being efficient. I thought I had it nailed with my Omni Outliner to-do method, but I found it was starting to slow me down. The fact that Omni Outliner doesn’t support due-dates and reminders is a real problem. I found myself having to go into iCal and set reminders for the really important date sensetive stuff. [...]
ds
# June 3, 2007 - 11:55 pm
Someone mentioned Pocketmod–the great little fold up method. You should also know about PagePacker, which takes any PDF and creates a Pocketmod.
I suppose you could easily print from Omni Outliner to PDF, thence to a PagePacker pocketmod!