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Step by Step process

by theBlah

  • First
  • Second Moleskine GTD Solution
  • Third Try and recreate Moleskine functionality, while carrying around on this device
  • Fourth (current) Take care of all PIM needs while carrying only a single device.


Previous PIMs

First:

How to Make a Complete Map of Every Thought That You Think: http://www.speakeasy.org/~lion/nb/

Philosophy:

  • Separate thoughts into topics
  • Create "Speed" lists of individual thoughts
  • Use "Speed" list to find thoughts to further flesh out into documents
  • Use "Mind Maps" to organize all speed and fleshed out thoughts, to discover topic holes
  • Take combined maps/thoughts/documents and create a book based on the topic

Tools/Method:

  • 3-ring "Carry around" binder with active lists and documents
  • 3-ring SEction Seperators, speed list in front page of each
  • multiple 3-ring archive binders
  • 4-color fat "click" pen
  • printed "Speed Thought" tables with spaces to reference previous thoughts, documents, date, numbering
  • Every document received would be 3-punched and assigned a catagory
  • Every thought thought would be recorded in appropriate list
  • Daily list of "To Do" items attached to front of binder
  • Different colors of click pen used to designate different types of data
  • Recommendation list
  • "Can Do" list for actions would like to take in future
  • "Contacts" list

My Use:

  • Carry Around binder
  • Speed list topics: Philosophy, Body, Social, Animal, AI, [Need to look up and fill in later]
  • Expansion college ruled notebook sheets
  • Contacts, recommendation, Can Do lists
  • Archive binder with same sections as Carry Around binder

Benefits:

  • Set up to literally record every thought about any topic, including all documents received
  • Portable carry-around binder
  • Fully re-configurable as topics could be ordered easily by exchaning pages
  • Thoughts Easily browsed-by-topic
  • Visible To-Do list
  • Easy to discover topics that should be fleshed out
  • Small room for customization
  • types of data easily distinguished through different ink color
  • Pen fits within pocket on front page
  • Pockets to hold items until can be punched and catalogged

Negatives:

  • Could get bogged-down and trapped as thoughts triggered more thoughts, all requiring being written down
  • Not in a searchable format
  • Not all thoughts are worthy of recording
  • Map-making is difficult and hard to make time for
  • No way to catalog electronic references without printing out first
  • wear and tear on binder and documents
  • binder was lost once
  • ARchive difficult to maintain
  • Binder a bit large for carrying around, awkward socially
  • Need to print out speed templates for each category
  • Non digital

Second:

Moleskine GTD Solution:

http://www.google.com/search?q=moleskine+gtd

Philosophy:

  • Use Moleskine notebooks as PIM, designed around Getting THings Done methodology
  • try to recreate categories/thought recording of HMCMETYT in portable format

Tools/Method:

  • Moleskine notebooks
  • Archive-quality ink ballpoint pen
  • Seperate the book into multiple sections depending on need, including notes, inbox, contacts, daily lists, thoughts, stories, writing
  • Make a new list each day, carrying over incomplete items from previous day

Number each page

  • Symbol set to use on items to push forward an amount of days, mark urgent
  • hyperlink between pages for similar information
  • Each time item moved to next day, increment a number next to it
  • Important events can be added with a different number to mark down number of days until event
  • When out of room for new calendar to-do days, retire notebook, write in silver pen date range on spine, put on shelf
  • use exacto to cut out thumb-hole to seperate major sections
  • Different formats of notebook available including ruled, plain, journalist-style, alphabetical directory

My use:

  • Four Sections:
    • Daily Tasks Recommendations/Contacts (beginning of thumb-notch)
    • stories/Writing/Idea Expansion (end of thumb-notch)
    • Thoughts (filled from back-page forward), topics seperated by "[TOPIC]" in front of item
  • Event reminders by counting forward number of days/pages and adding symbol and page number to reference item written down in past
  • School tasks defined by "[CLASS]" in task list

Benefits:

  • Portable notebook in winter jackets
  • Hyperlinking of pages/events
  • daily reminder of all items to do, by moving to next day
  • room for multiple purposes in sections, contacts, recommendations, thoughts, stories/writing
  • notebook comes with place-holder bookmark for today's tasks
  • Easy to flip through a section to remember previous days items/when completed
  • Reminder of how long a task has been on list by incremented day count

Negatives:

  • Not visible unless disciplined to upkeep each day
  • Unorganizable; old thoughts of all topics jumbled together
  • Unsearchable: archive is hard to search through
  • Pen is hard to carry around with hardbook
  • Not portable in summer without jackets
  • smudging can happen
  • only one bookmark included, so hard to organize all sections
  • Hard to upkeep
  • One section will run out before another, and then notebook must be retired
  • difficult to set up new notebook
  • Non-digital
  • no area to attach relavant items, documents, web pages

Third:

iPod Touch, using Noteskinnery app, DoBot To-do list manager

Philosophy:

  • Try and recreate Moleskine functionality, while carrying around on this device

Tools:

  • iPod Touch
  • Noteskinnery app - databased app that allows folders and documents within folders
  • DoBot To-do list app

Method:

  • Create folder for each topic in Noteskinnery
  • Create flat text-document for basic thoughts
  • create additional documents for expansion on each topic from thoughts, or for story-writing
  • Maintain todo list in DoBot, check off items, set priority and due-dates
  • Use seperate ToDo list to keep Personal Tasks, School Tasks, Recommendations

Benefits:

  • Extremely portable, it's something i carried around anyway
  • back-lit screen for night-writing/dream catalogging
  • easily referenced y topic title
  • touch-keyboard ease of input

Negatives:

  • Unsearchable
  • NOt visible. Lists need to be sought-out daily or easily forgotten
  • difficult digital backup/export methodology (entire db into GoogleDocs spreadsheet, or individual document emailing)
  • Slow to load app, navigate to folder, create document, input text
  • Proprietary database, limited access
  • Not able to log physical documents, or electronic websites/documents
  • no backup fo ToDo list

Fourth/Current:

Google Android Device (T-Mobile G1), Google Documents, Google Notebook, Google Calendar, Tag ToDo app, TextEdit app

Philosophy:

  • Take care of all PIM needs while carrying only a single device.

Method:

  • Google Documents: Writing, expanding on topics
  • Google Notebook: Catalog online-content, including recommendations from chatrooms/emails; Bookmark webpages; view/add from any web browser; viewable from Android device
  • Google Calendar: Add events that require notification or need to be visible in shared calendar with wife. Android device will alert with reminders
  • Tag ToDo app: Multiple ToDo lists: Personal, School, Journal-Topics, Non-digital Recommendations, Project Checklist
  • TextEdit app: Create simple .txt documents with mobile thoughts/ideas/writing. seperate file for each topic

Benefits:

  • data follows me wherever I am. can view documents from mobile device, when disconnected can write with textEdit
  • Easily manage multiple lists
  • Catalogging of electronic documents
  • Full word processing for writing at terminal
  • physical keyboard on phone and terminals
  • Mostly-searchable
  • Easily backed up textEdit texts (connect to computer, copy)
  • Single Device which is also my phone
  • Event reminders seek me out
  • Calendar events such as tests are visible to spouse
  • Google Notebooks app installs within webbrowser
  • Wide-eyed comfort and trust in Google's ability

Negatives:

  • multiple sources of data
  • ToDo list is still not visible and must be opened to be reminded of tasks
  • ToDo list is not able to be backed up
  • much requires internet connection
  • multiple text files are not ideal thought-storage method (though they can be grepped)
  • Google Notebooks are not visible and must be referenced manually
  • Dependent on Google
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Page last modified on March 21, 2010, at 08:54 PM