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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