Getting things done

 It is obvious, we all want to "get things done". However, on the websphere these three words frequently refer to an organization scheme developed in a particular book. Wikipedia has a nice article on it. I have not read the book and will thus neither recommend it nor reject it. Nevertheless, from the blogs, pages and critics which are already available in the web, I have been able to get some good ideas which have helped me in improving the way I plan my routine.

What is Google Notebook

This another wonderful tool from the Google factory. Google Notebook  is an online tool for collecting notes that you can either write yourself, or copy from other webpages. It allows for rich text formatting, embedding online pictures, organization into sections, search, ... In short, it is a very good tool for collecting information in a semi-organized way. I have come to use Google Notebook in the past for organizing the information I need for writing a scientific paper, but in the last time I have found it a wonderful tool to organize whole projects and to-do lists. 

Summary 

The idea is that a whole project contains about three sections: "Pending", "Completed" and "Reference". The "Pending" and "Completed"  contain the actions that are to be done or have been finished, while the "Reference" contains all notes you need to get the work done: links to pages with information, papers, articles, movies, etc.

While building up a project, and much in the spirit of GTD, you will write down all actions you can think of that you need to carry on to complete the project. They should be atomic, and as specific as possible. Out of all the actions, you have to mark one as the "Next" or [N] in the workflow below. When performing a search with [N] in the notebook you will be presented with all the tasks that you should complete: choose one and do it. Just as simple as that.

GTD says that no tasks should be returned to the "Next action" state. Life is not as simple as that, and some actions might not be finished. What is true, is that if a task takes too long, that is because it could be decomposed into simpler actions.

My workflow

  •  Each notebook has one first note with a list of keywords.
    • "project": list of actions, ideas, references
    • "topic": like a project, but tentative, not yet carried on
    • "context": groups actions without project
    • "closed", "discarded": finished or discarded project / topic
  • Each project contains two sections: "Pending" and "Completed", and each note under them is an action.
  • Choose one action from the "Pending" section and add a marker, [N] to it.  This will be the next action for this project.
  • If an action depends on input from other people, or has been delegated, write [D].
  • Reviewing:
    • In the search field, type [N], this will list the next actions.
    • Choose one action and complete it.
    • Locate the action, remove the [N] and drag it to the "Completed" section.
    • If there are no more pending actions for this project, replace the "project" keyword with "closed"
    • Otherwise, mark another action as [N] next action.
  • Daily:
    • Collect notes for existing projects, or for new ones. Dump them in the notebook.
  • Once a week:
    • Go through all projects, ensuring that at least one action is pending.
    • Look for delayed actions, asking for input from the responsible people.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Simple, no need for special software.
  • Notebooks are available everywhere a network connection is, from any computer.
  • Allows more elaborate search.
  • Collaboration: share notebooks with other people.
  • Easy to cut & paste notes or links from multiple online sources (wonderful Firefox plugin!) 

Cons:

  • Sometimes, text is not too nicely formated: too big, large spaces in between.
  • Difficult to upload files or photos (Compensated by Google Pages: place your pictures there!)
  • Not available for off-line work (What about a program to download the XML?)
  • No practical means to group notebooks. This is partially solved by using keywords and searches.
  • It would be nice to share notes between different notebooks. Either that or to be able to tag notes, like in Google Reader. That would allow the need to manually edit the note to add/remove the [N], [D] tags.