[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]

1. Process and tools

In another GTD list, I found this as a good summary of what you need in your GTD system:

Quote

There are 7 primary types of things that you'll want to keep track of:
• A "Projects" list
• Project support material
• Calendared actions and information
• "Next Actions" lists
• A "Waiting For" list
• Reference material
• A "Someday/Maybe" list

I split those items across the following Palm software for my system: Bonsai, Daynotez, Agendus or Datebk5, Diddlebug or BugMe! Notepad.

This is how it all fits together:http://www.natara.com/Graphics/Bonsai4GTD/Process.jpg

Daynotez and Diddlebug are my inbox – I record events or things I need to do on desktop Daynotez or Diddlebug on the Palm. I try to process everything later, but in practice sometimes things get put straight into Bonsai. I also have my e-mail inbox that needs processing.

Bonsai is my powerhouse for organising active tasks and projects. The rest of this thread will explain how I use Bonsai.

Agendus/Datebk5 I use for its calendar function (meetings) and as a holding area for tasks that I don’t want in Bonsai. I have ‘Someday/Maybe’, ‘^Tickler’ and ‘Regular’ categories in my todo database to keep these separate from my active Bonsai tasks. Someday/Maybe items can be imported into Bonsai, or Bonsai items can be exported (Create Todo command) back to the holding area as needed. In addition, some types of dated tasks in Bonsai are linked out to appear in Agendus. I also keep independent ticklers (reminders for the future that aren’t part of an active project) separate in Agendus.


When it comes to deciding what to do, I look at Agendus to see any meetings or tasks I need to do on that day, see what ticklers I’m being reminded of, or any regular tasks I need to do. I then have a set of Bonsai filters to check to see what I should/want to work on.

[StuGib]

2. Setting up Bonsai for GTD concepts (and a bit more)


Contexts – I use keywords for contexts. I used to use categories for my contexts, but now use categories for a different purpose (see later), as categories are easier to order and multiple keywords (and contexts) can be applied to tasks (e.g. I might be able to do a task at home or work). You’ll need to decide on your own list of contexts to suit your circumstances, but mine are shown below (where xxx>yyy is xxx=keyword category, yyy keyword). The last one is also explained later:
http://www.natara.com/Graphics/Bonsai4GTD/keywords.jpg


Priorities/Time – This isn’t part of GTD but I’m lazy – I want Bonsai to tell me what’s more important to focus on first, either because it’s important or because I have to do it soon. I use a combination of the due date field and Bonsai categories to assign importance and urgency, because categories are easier to sort. If this is shouting Covey then you’re right – I haven’t read the book, but the grid-type system seems a nice-ish way of assigning important and priority. My Bonsai categories are as follows:
http://www.natara.com/Graphics/Bonsai4GTD/categories.jpg
My !A-(B/C/D) categories are assigned to next actions to assign importance/priority.


Projects and Next Actions – the new NA filter in Bonsai v4 has completed changed the way I can plan and handle projects from my previous thread and now next actions are children of a parent. The NAparent property (items which are parents of next actions, which have to be completed consecutively) lets me mix actions that can be done independently and must be done consecutively. I also give projects the #Project category and make them task types to get the progress bar so completed projects stick out. An example project:
http://www.natara.com/Graphics/Bonsai4GTD/projectsample.jpg


Dates and links – Bonsai is now powerful enough to replace my todo list. Therefore I no longer need to link all my actions to the todo list. Only some dated taks are now linked. First, the items I assign dates to:
- tasks that need to be done BY a date.
- tasks that need to be done ON a day, and if I miss it it’s not worth doing.
- waiting for’s where I want to be reminded on a date if I haven’t received it yet.
- ticklers that are part of active projects (i.e. a project that’s on hold until a date).
All but the first type of tasks are linked to the todo database. This means I need ^Tickler, ^Waiting For, and !Do ON day categories in todo.


Agendas – If items need to be done when I’m speaking to a particular person, or in a particular place, or attending a particular meeting etc then I put the name of that person/place/meeting in the Contact column.


groupings – another non-GTD thing – I like to keep related projects and tasks grouped together. This might shout Covey again with roles, but I like to keep it more flexible than that. My top-level items are used to group tasks and projects to things I’m doing for the same customer (in work), or for a part of my personal life (e.g. family-related). I’ve tried this in the past and found it difficult to decide what to put new tasks under, but once you get the right top-level items and loosen up about everything being in the right place it works for me.

So, my top-level items and Bonsai layout look like this (top-level items have the ~FocusArea category):
http://www.natara.com/Graphics/Bonsai4GTD/layout_and_TLI.jpg


Expanding this by one level shows a mix of single actions and projects under these focus areas:
http://www.natara.com/Graphics/Bonsai4GTD/Unfiltered_L2.jpg


Project support material – all those bits of information that are needed when you’re working on a project – plans, rough workings etc. I either put these in the notes of the project item, as a separate child item of the project with the >ProjSupport category, or for complex material a link to another outline.

All clear so far? :)

[StuGib]

3. Action Filters

So, I have single tasks, projects and their next action(s), which are grouped into focus areas, and are assigned a context and are given a time/priority window.

Now I need to see the right actions at the right time, so I have a set of filters to try and achieve this. I won’t define each one here now, but they usually use the next action filter, and filter on context (keyword):

All actions show all next actions, regardless of context. This is a flat filter, sorted by category (priority) to show the urgent/important items first. I can resort all my actions by priority/importance (category)/due date/context (keyword) etc etc. by clicking on the column headers.
http://www.natara.com/Graphics/Bonsai4GTD/Allactionsfilter.jpg


Dated items only shows actions with due dates, sorted by date:
http://www.natara.com/Graphics/Bonsai4GTD/Dateditemsfilter.jpg


@Home only shows items I can do at home, again initially flat sorted by category – this includes @Home and @Home-PC keywords/contexts.
http://www.natara.com/Graphics/Bonsai4GTD/Homefilter.jpg
I also have @Work, @Out, @Lunchtime filters for my different context situations.


@Agenda shows anything with an entry in the Contact field:
http://www.natara.com/Graphics/Bonsai4GTD/Agendasfilter.jpg


^Waiting For shows only next actions with the ^Waiting For category.

[StuGib]

4. Reviews and maintenance filters


I also have some filters just to check my outline is not missing any items that would mean they don’t show up in the action filters, and also to use when reviewing my outline:

Projects shows only projects and their child items/sub-projects:
http://www.natara.com/Graphics/Bonsai4GTD/Projectsandtheiractions.jpg


Single actions shows actions that aren’t part of projects (basically everything Projects doesn’t).
http://www.natara.com/Graphics/Bonsai4GTD/SingleNAfilter.jpg


Completed projects shows projects that are 100% complete and all their children. It may be that the project is indeed complete, or that I need to assign a new next action to it:
http://www.natara.com/Graphics/Bonsai4GTD/Completedprojectsfilter.jpg


Completed shows all completed items for pruning or exporting to Daynotez.
NoContext shows items without a context/keyword that I may have forgotten to assign.
ToBeLinked shows those items that should be linked to the todo database.
Unfiled shows those with Unfiled category.

[StuGib]

5. Specialist filters


I’ve also got some specialist filters for my situation. As I said, I write documents – these are my deliverables, so I often need to report what I’m working on and see just the actions associated with working towards a document. I have a Document keyword which I assign to projects or tasks which represent a deliverable document. I have two filters:

DocList just shows a list of grouped documents:
http://www.natara.com/Graphics/Bonsai4GTD/DocListfilter.jpg


DocActions shows document projects and their child actions and projects – see the ‘Projects’ filter in the previous section.

[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.