[StuGib]

In follow-up to this thread, here’s how I use Bonsai v4 to ‘do’ GTD. I’m not going to explain GTD principles because there’s lots of better resources for that, other than to clarify my definition of a project as an outcome that requires one or more actions to achieve that outcome. This is different to single tasks that are just done when they're done.

A few disclaimers first:
- it’s core is based around GTD but I’ve added a few things that I’ve found I need (e.g. priorities, grouping etc). I’ve tried to make these things clear.
- some aspects may seem complicated, but I’ve been through lots of different ideas (both with and without Bonsai) to achieve what I wanted, and I’m happy with the balance between complexity and being organised to the extent I need. I have lots of filters but only use a few of these regularly. The rest are just for daily/weekly reviews.
- all GTD systems are personal to your situation. I work for a software company writing technical documentation, requirements specifications and design docs. You may need something slightly or entirely different for your occupation. I also sit in front of a PC all day so mostly use desktop tools for input and organising, Palm for reference on the go.
- I’m always experimenting and trying to improve this system so everything’s liable to change! :)

[StuGib]

[StuGib]

[StuGib]

[StuGib]

[StuGib]

[StuGib]

That's all folks!

I'm happy to answer any questions or share any filter definitions etc as required. I'd also encourage others to post how they use Bonsai for GTD - it's only reading GTD_Palm and GTD mailing lists, and the davidco forum over the years that I've learned all these ideas from others.

Stuart

[pritchett4]

Excellent info.! Question: where did you get the icons?

Thanks!

[StuGib]

They're a selection from icon collections I've come across over the last couple of years, plus a couple of my own, plus a few ones I've found and modified. I'd be happy to send them to you, but I'm not sure which ones are copyrighted/paid for, and which ones are freeware. You can try searching, either google or palmgear for:

- FM HiRes (free-search Palmgear)
- HiRes Riboira (free-search Palmgear)
- download HandyShopper and look at their sample icon set.
- sample icon set in Agendus
- the 'M3' icon sets (particularly the 'Goals and Planning' set.
- DesignsByBert

And of course IconMgr (freeware) to edit them and copy/paste them into a separate set of Bonsai icons.

Stuart

[slwenglish]

There are also some free icon sets available on the Icon Manager (IconMgr) Yahoo! group. Look in the "Files" link from this link.

Stéph

[planetam]

Nice job Stuart. I am still studying all the details - but you have put together a very complete and helpfull GTD implementation for Bonsai. Perhaps you could post a template of your implementation in the Yahoo Groups Forum? Also how can I get your beautiful icon set?

Thanks

Ricardo

[sand]

Thank you Stuart - this is an excllent example !

Do you do more of the processing on the desktop or with the PDA :-?)

Thanks again i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif

[meperry]

I'd like to thank you for the great tips on how you setup GTD across the desktop application. I've taken a deal of what you did; but I have not really implemented the entire GTD mechanism. Instead, my goal is to build out a series of project management approaches which allow me to quickly detail, define and then link to both todo's and calendar applications from within one application on the desktop. As such, I now use Bonsai on the Palm to link to calendar events, todo events in several categories, and I use Bonsai itself to manage the rest. Setting up Bonsai for my project management goals has taken a bit of time because I've messed with both keywords and categories and looked at how I would implement "Next Actions". Instead, I've worked on both categories and keywords that allow me to quickly define with icons and text various stages of both work and home projects.

Use of Bonsai on my Treo is very active and the conduit allows me a lot of flexibility at editing the outline file when I'm on the road, traveling, whatever.

My templates for an effective project management approach which blend a lot of the GTD templates in this article are still coming together but aligning the laptop with a mobile platform really gives a lot of freedom. I am interested in how others have blended both GTD and project management/time management techniques with both the desktop and pda version of bonsai. One of the places I've identified that I commonly need is a more beefy notetaking application which allows a wiki way of doing things so I have NoteStudio that also has a decent palm version for more indepth recording of meeting minutes, scoping, etc. Its also easy to format text and create new wikipages using wiki speak.

If you use Bonsai on the desktop and reinforce the PM approaches with a pda, I would love to hear how you have implemented it, what challenges you have faced, and whether you plan on using GTD all the way or have a template for managing information and projects that differs slightly. My primary method is to list series of work projects with various "contexts" and associations. link several todo actions and then create the calendar linking using the PDA. Projects then have a series of steps which may be tasks, todo's, or deliverables, scopes, whatever.

Thanks again for the great screensavers and ideas!

[StuGib]

sand - Hi, thanks for your comments. Yes, I'm primarily desktop based for input, using Palm for reference, but I'm fairly confident I could use this system on the Palm without being slowed down too much, though there will be a few more taps to move through setting category, keyword, type etc. One way to streamline it may be to use the priority field for the priority/time (1=A, 2=B etc), merging the keywords and categories into categories, and not using keywords at all. Then everything should be quickly set-able from the outline, without going into item properties.


meperry - good point about project management together with GTD, and it's something that always tends to start me doubting whichever system I've come up with in the past.

GTD does mention project plans as a separate item to (and input to?) your next action lists. I do use Bonsai for simple work breakdown structures (no contexts, categories etc just plain text), but the problem I have is when to put something from my project plan onto my next action lists, and the duplication this may involve. I guess the only advice I can give is that project plans tend to have a longer-term outlook that the NA list, and will include things you have to do in the future but can't be done yet. Only when you're due to do them do they become NAs. Doing a good weekly review (something I can't claim to do!) should also help.

I have a similar issue with lists of similar small actions I need to do (e.g. there will be a number of changes to a document I need to make that build up over time, then I'll do them all at once). I'm trying to separate these out by considering 'update document' as my NA, and listing all those little changes in a separate Bonsai outline. Obviously if there's any urgent change that comes up I'll treat that as an NA in its own right and maybe do the other changes I've recorded at the same time.

The principle for both is the same though - treat your NA list as sacred for only the things you can do now. Use Bonsai as a list maker to record other information that may generate future things to do. Process these lists regularly.


Stuart

[rcdbonsai]

Thanks for the great information, very clear
I have one question though - you mention early on "I also have my e-mail inbox that needs processing." this is the bit I am having most trouble integrating - how do you deal with emails ??? I currentlt dump all the ones that heed action into an action folder in lotus notes - but it would be nice to include these in with other NA's, tasks and projects.

[StuGib]

Quote

---

Originally posted by: rcdbonsai
Thanks for the great information, very clear
I have one question though - you mention early on "I also have my e-mail inbox that needs processing." this is the bit I am having most trouble integrating - how do you deal with emails ??? I currentlt dump all the ones that heed action into an action folder in lotus notes - but it would be nice to include these in with other NA's, tasks and projects.

---

Personally I record the project/next action, or the project support information (see my post to meperry above) in my Bonsai outline as normal, then keep a copy of the e-mail in a @Tasks folder of each deliverable/focus area I'm working on for when I want to reference it in future. I usually also record the date of the e-mail in the item note to help find it when I'm working on the action, e.g.

E-MAIL (OUTLOOK):
Inbox
----Re: About that document.....3rd Jan....The Boss
WSales&Corporate
----@Tasks (folder)



Then when processed:

BONSAI:
WSales&Corporate
----Finish document A
--------Next Action relating to the e-mail [note: The Boss, 3rd Jan]

E-MAIL (OUTLOOK):
Inbox
WSales&Corporate
----@Tasks
---------Re: About that document.....3rd Jan....The Boss


Then when I've completed the item I'll delete the e-mail or move it to another sub-folder for later reference.

Stuart

[patri]

First of all, thanks, this seems great. But, don't you think is too complex for a Category Lists which will be use only when calendar next actions are completed?. I mean, not only you, but when i have looked for a good program for palm and GTD, I find very complex things and I don't think this is good for get strees out of life. I respect everyone and his/her ways to get organize, but Allen just use de built-in palm applications!. To him Calendar's NAs are sacred. Sometimes we want to make a mix of Covey and Allen, and we forget that Tasks List or Category Lists are to be done when every other thing is done.
I found myself expending my time creating filters, categories, outlines, to finally find out that I'm spending my time in As Soon As Possible Next Actions, actions that are going to be made if we have time to do it.
Regards, Patri

[StuGib]

Hi Patri,

Thanks for your comments - I'm not sure I entirely understand, but that may reflect our different circumstances when it comes to dated commitments (e.g. meetings, dated todos).

Personally, I have very little that goes on my calendar. I agree that DA does say the calendar is sacred, so that's why I ONLY link actions that MUST be done ON a particular day, plus a few things (ticklers, deadlines) that go on the calendar separate from Bonsai just as reminders. Therefore, everything else, and 99% of what you see on my screenshots, are actions that I must decide what to work on when those few dated actions are complete. But for me, those actions are what I have to choose from to fill 7 hours every day, hence it's my main list of things to do.

For the complexity of the solution, I also agree that it's more complicated that pure GTD, and believe me I could show you a list of about 20 different solutions I've tried over the last few years, both different ways of using Bonsai, and also wikis, built in PIM applications etc, in an attempt to simplify it as much as possible, and I'm sure this system won't be my last! i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif Maybe it's just me, but the things I've missed when going 'plain vanilla', and the things I want from a system are:

1. To be able to see all actions and projects related to a client I'm working for/area of my work or personal life. Nothing too deep or heavy like Covey's roles, but just a grouping.
2. To make sure I have defined a next action for each project. I've just never been able to trust myself to make mental links between a separate project list and whether or not there's an action associated with each project. To me it's a lot simpler to have a filter than to go through searching and remembering if I've done the next action or not.
3. To have some sort of priority scheme - nothing too complicated or strictly applied, just something so I have a good chance of seeing the things I need to see first at the top of my list.
4. Keeping support information tied in with the correct project or action.
5. To know dates I have to do something by, as well as dates I MUST do an action on.
6. To plan ahead a little and define next actions after the 'next' next action, before I do another weekly review of my projects, hence why the new next action filters in v4 has let me replace my todo list completely.

That's where I've found GTD a little bit lacking, for my circumstances. As ever, YMMV!

Stuart

[StuGib]

I've recently came across some other free icon collections, with some nice icons in there.

Stuart

[eiswein]

Thank you Stuart~ It's a good example.
I am trying to build up my own way of using bonsai.

There are some questions:
1.
I saw in the picture that you would link some action to other outline, however, i could only see one outline in your example.
Could you explain more about how you use link function and how many outline you actually have?
I though you have one outline named "TODO LIST" only.

2.
You have set some categories like !A~D and TargetDate....etc.
What's the difference between !A~D and "DO ON DAY" and "TargetDate"?
I could guess that TargeDate is that task only have to be done before some specific date, but DO ON DAY?
I really don't get it and can't think of any difference between !A~D.

Hope that you could answer my question,tks.