First off I want to say that I've been a GTDer for about three years. I've used paper based GTD, electronic based GTD, and a combination of the two. Personally, I've found a combination of the two works best. The beauty of the GTD methodology is that it can be customized for most everyone. Some parts of GTD I don't use at all, but I believe all 'parts' of GTD could be applicable given the right situation.
At it's core, GTD suggests using a series of lists called Next Actions, Someday/Maybe, and Projects. These lists contain your projects, or any desired outcome requiring more than one action step, next actions related to your projects, and desired outcomes you might want to bring about at some undetermined point in the future. Collecting information and putting them on the proper list is crucial to the success of GTD. Assuming you already know a little about GTD, I'm going to attempt to share how I currently manage my lists. If you need a GTD primer, Blackbelt Productivity has one here that is really good.
From the title you may have figured out that the software I'll be focusing on in this post is Evernote. Evernote is a product that simulates a continuous feed of paper, much like a notebook. What makes Evernote GTD friendly is the ability to 'tag' documents within your tape, which gives you the ability, in my implementation, to see only one particular context at a time. Therefore, it's easy to set up a GTD structure with projects, next actions, and reference material; moving current projects to a completed status, and out of your view, simply by changing the tags around. We'll dig a little deeper into this later.
Evernote and the Information Collection Phase
While all five stages of mastering work flow mentioned in GTD are important, I'm going to talk about the first two phases; collecting and processing. Collecting information seems like an easy thing to do. Think of all the ways we collect information; e-mail inboxes, the tops of our desks at work, pants and shirt pockets, you get the idea.
With Evernote, you have the ability to create separate 'sheets of paper' for each desired outcome, or action step up to an infinite amount. There are a few ways to get the information into Evernote. One is via e-mail. If I want to create the project, "Replace tires on the car", I can simply create a new e-mail from my mail program, enter in my super-secret address to my Evernote account, and hit the send button. Evernote processes the e-mail adding the subject as the title the of the new note, and the body as the body of the newly create note.
Evernote has a desktop application, which I prefer to use, a web based version, which is very fast, (Note: Not compatible with Internet Explorer Compatible with IE7 and above - Thanks for the correction, Evernote Team.) and a mobile web version for viewing on a mobile phone browser. If you're an iPhone users, there is a native application available for free via the App Store. There's no shortage of ways to enter in new content into EN.
Once the note is in Evernote, you are free to begin tagging the entry. Personally, I have created tags that match my GTD contexts; @Calls, @OfficeMobile, @Errands, Projects-Work, Projects-Home, and so on. I have also created what Evernote calls a saved search. This is basically a saved, personalized query of your bucket of notes, usually based on tags, or at least that's the way I have implemented it.
One example of my saved searches is for open projects I have going on at work. I want to see a list of current, and open projects that I have going on right now related to work. I do not want to see my home projects. So, I created a query that looks like this:
tag:projects-work -tag:"completed items" -tag:"someday/maybe"
If you read this query out, it would say, "Show me notes tagged with "Projects-Work", but not tagged with "Completed Items", or "Someday/Maybe". This way I won't see any project in this view that is already completed (tagged with "Complete Items", or has been moved to the Someday/Maybe list (tagged with "Someday/Maybe". I've created each saved search similarly to this one for each of my tags; Projects-Home, @Errands, etc.
GTD philosophy says that a project is any desired outcome requiring more than one step. So, what I've chosen to do is keep the project objective, and the action steps required to get to the desired outcome all within the same note. To continue with our example mentioned above, "Replace Tires on the Car", I would do this:
- Open Evernote and create a new note with the title "Replace Tires on the Car"
- Just below the title of the project I would press ALT + SHIFT + D to date/time stamp the project.
- I would then bold the project title, and change the text to the color RED (I do this so if I choose to print my list of projects, they have a nice easily viewable title at the top of the page)
- At the top of the note, I would write out my desired outcome, which in this case would be very simple; at the end of this project, I would like to have a reliable set of tires that have a 50K mile rating or above.
- I would use the Evernote ALT + SHIFT + D shortcut at the top of the document which places the date and time stamp inside the note. This helps me keep track of when I add updates to the document. I may also choose to do a brain dump of possible next actions, but not necessarily organize them in any way.
- I would then tag the document "Projects-Home", and maybe "@Calls", because my next physical action could be to call the local tire shop and begin asking questions about tires. The next physical action could also very well be "@Errands" indicating I should drop by the shop on my lunch hour or after work to place my eyes on a new set of tires, and talk directly with a service representative. The next physical action is entirely up to you, and dependent on the project at hand. The cool thing about Evernote, is that you don't have to decide one or the other right away. By having it tagged with both @Errands and @Calls, I can easily see the next action when I look at these contexts individually via my saved search list. Depending on which context I'm in at the present time, I may or may not choose to 'do' the action.
My project is now created, and I have it tagged properly. Once the Projects-Home tag is added, it is never taken off for the entire life of the note. As I take action on the project, I use the ALT + SHIFT + D shortcut key to properly stamp it with the date and time, and then make a note of what action I took. I also take this time to update the project with the next physical action, and change the context accordingly if needed.
Below is an example of a task I have in Evernote right now. It's tagged "Projects-Home" and "@Errands" because I now have to take the handle back to Home Depot for a refund, as noted at the bottom of the example. The system is not very sophisticated at all. It's simply a top-down record of the status of the project; each physical action taken, along with an occasional bit of reference material for the project sprinkled in.
Once this project is done to my satisfaction I will remove all tags except for the "Projects-Home" tag, and add the "Completed Items" tag. Based on my saved searches, this project will not show up in my active projects view because I have filtered out all notes tagged with "Completed Items". If I want to view complete items, I would use a manual search from Evernote's search bar, or click on the "Completed Items" tag in the Tags area of the left pain.
13 blabber backs:
For implementing GTD you can also try this web-based application:
http://www.Gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
Brilliant! Thanks for the tip
It seems like you would want a note for each task (since each will potentially have a different context) and then you could either:
1. Have separate notebooks for each project
or
2. Have project tags (analogous to context tags), for example #fix drawer
The only thing missing for me is iCal integration.
@hardcoreUFO - I thought about creating a new note for each task, but for me, I didn't require it. A threaded list of updates, with time stamps, and an occasional attachment here and there within the single note is enough for me to stay up with the project.
Everyone requires a little tweaking here and there, and I probably don't have nearly as complex of 'projects' as some.
I would like to mention that I use Copernic Desktop Search in conjunction with Evernote to search out (very quickly) supporting documentation related to projects stored in Evernote.
Thanks for the comment!
This is an excellent use of EN. I recently started using EN exclusively for taking notes in class, then being able to check on them from anywhere (love the iPhone app). I was a pretty rigid GTDer for about a year or so, but have seriously fallen off the wagon so-to-speak. Your post has inspired me to try to get back on track again. Thanks!
dan@dan-clark.com
im a relatively new GTDr but a little addicted now to say the least....
I'm looking at implementing EN within my system. I use windows mobile/exchange/outlook as the core with paper notes used for capture only. I'm trying to figure out how to categorise notes so they are filed as project reference material and/or short lived action items that get transferred to my main system during weekly review.
btw, this is great if you havent seen it http://www.mygtdstuff.com/2008/11/note-taking-tips.html
I was wondering if anyone had tried implementing GTD in Evernote; thanks for blogging about your experience.
This sounds a lot like my go at GTD in the site RememberTheMilk.com. Both are heavily dependent on tag maintenance, which in my opinion starts becoming a bit of a chore.
I'll definitely use EN for my online reference, which will serve as my A-Z filing cabinet while away from the office. But for my GTD system I'll stick with D cubed, a TiddlyWiki designed with GTD in mind.
I also use Evernote in my GTD setup, but only for information gathering. I found it too cumbersome to enter and check off my list items - Outlook is much easier in this.
But for information storage Evernote is great, especially the combination of the Windows Mobile client (remember opening hours of your grocery store? Just take a picture and its in Evernote, great!) with the desktop version.
One problem I run into with both Evernote & Things, is that many of my projects have sub-projects (often many sub-projects), and I need to keep them grouped together under the 'master' project.
Does anyone have any ideas on how best to achieve this in Evernote?
Interesting insight into how you use Evernote - thanks. Furthermore, you've got the first example that I've seen of how to use tags in a search, extremely useful. A new world has opened up for me. ;)
Dr. Ray: I'm not sure how best to answer your question in a way that would work for you. For me, I normally use one Note for a "Project", and add next actions to the note. As I complete an NA, if there are multiple for a project (and there usually are), I’ll use the strikethrough format as a visual reminder that it’s done. If it requires a sub-project, I'll create a new note for that sub-project. I have come to be okay with not having the two linked together, as my mind normally puts them together. For you & others, this may not work. You could create a temporary tag to combine them together so you could see them in one nice view, if that would be easier.
Hannah: Glad to share, and there are tons of articles on how others are using Evernote that are as useful or even more useful for your application. I'm still using EN in just about the same way as described in this article. I went Premium a few months back, and am now actually storing MORE scanned documents in EN so I can have them across multiple computers.
I really like your idea of having a single note for a project and keeping track of the actions related to that project within the note.
GTD breaks down for me because after I complete the next action for a project, I'm lazy about updating my Next Actions list with the next next action. I'm also terrible at doing the weekly review. Having everything in one note might save me from having to juggle between the Next Actions list and the Projects list. Hmm...
In your post, you didn't say anything about using checkboxes in your project note. Have you tried them? You can insert them with Ctrl+Shift+C or Alt+click. They are searchable with the todo: modifier (todo:false is unchecked, todo:true is checked).
With checkboxes, you could avoid some tag management. Once all the boxes have been checked, the project is completed and will drop off the saved searches for your projects.
Well, I guess I better go re-organize my GTD system. Again!
Great post. When I was constructing my GTD/EN implementation I struggled with whether or not each project would be contained on a single note or many. It's good to see you've got it working with a single note. I ultimately came to the conclusion that some of my projects were too complex, needing reference notes and multiple next actions, so I went with a tagging system to represent projects.
@d.ray - this is what I would recommend for you as well
You can read about my implementation at:
http://examinehealth.com/personal-productivity/69-gtd-and-evernote.html
Hope it's helpful for you and your readers.
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