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Thank you Bonsai (George & Bryan & ???) and StuGib
I want to start out by saying that the following would not be possible if it were not for the brilliant work done creating and sustaining
Bonsai. Also a nod to StuGib for opening the door to a post like this.
The Implementation - Simpler yet more Complex
This implementation is based on a different philosophy of using an outline. One of the best things about this is that it allows for a lot
more flexibility by making the usage of the outline very simple. This allows you to add your own complexity. The surprising thing is
that it hardly depends on Keywords and/or Categories for GTD Use. Another distinguishing feature is that it uses 2 Outlines instead
of one. One of the things that makes this system possible is the addition of a feature to the 4.1 version of Bonsai (the addition of the
zoom to the left and right buttons).
Show me the Screenshots!
Okay everyone wants to see pics! I will not do a very good job explaining this system without them. I must let you know that as
determined as I am I am also lazy so I will throw up a snapshot of the screen with text and expect questions for anything I may
have left out. Given the flexibility of the system it is definitely open to personal custimization and I welcome those as well. So
here is the first snapshot
The Outline/List
The look and views
Most of what I can say about this is written directly on the image. The beauty of this system is that it is not limited to how it looks
on the desktop. I think it acually works better on the palm. If you are familiar with how you are able to Zoom in on the context menu
of the ipod you will have a similar navigation on your palm. The left and right nav buttons on the 5 way navigator allow you "filter"
your view of your tasks. Given you are using the hierarchy for contexts you can use the categories for what Stu was using his topic
headers for and easilly sort all family tasks. Priorty can still be used for priority. Keywords don't even have to be used but you can use
them along with categories to create complex filters or simply use them to hide parts of the list when using filters with a "don't include
any of these keywords." option.
The challenge with Next actions is how do you keep them all together when some are in projects and some are not. I simply used a
name convention for action items and filter by text with a flat filter. I believe you could include the headers or not when you filter.
The Calendar
Why another outline? A calendar in GTD is a separate item anyway and there are a lot of options for manipulating this information
in an outliner. I can get a landscape that is not so "hard" in terms of the views. I want to throw in anything time related in here that
inlcudes a tickler file. Again the Zoom interface allows you to time shift into the next couple of months with the tickler type hierarchy I
have.The cool thing is you can link this to your Palm calendar and use that to view events and add alarms.
Overall
GTD is just not the same without the right tool. You know what they say about having the right tool for the right job. This implementation
has the kind of freedom to allow you to use Bonsai as a trusted system for managing next actions and timed events. I have even more
ideas about using Bonsai and find these forums a useful resource. I hope my contribution adds to its usefulness.
