5. Capture anything in your inflow that has your attention into
collectors (Outlook, RSS reader, Twitter, notebooks, in-basket,
etc.)
Your inflows may or may not also act as collectors
Have as few collectors as you can, but as many as you need
8. Compare your lists of collectors
Which collectors are the most common?
Which collectors are unique?
Why did you choose your collectors?
Pick two favorite collectors from the group
Share the favorites with the larger group
9. Everyone finds Outlook’s folders at least moderately helpful
Most of you lose things in Outlook and cannot find them
when needed
Most of you use flags, with varying degrees of success
Only half use rules, but all receive bulk email
11. Consider the type of information
Try to group information by priority or type
Outlook: Set up filters for all listervs or other non-
personalized email so that it doesn’t clutter your inbox
Get low-priority information into tools such as Google
Reader that allow you to easily declare “bankruptcy”
12. Short term, newsy information
Google Reader, Twitter, Facebook
Websites
Get updates to changes using an RSS reader such as Google
Reader
Scholarly Literature
Subscribe to searches using RSS or email
15. Collectors Process
Now
Later
Add to a
project plan
Add to “waiting
for” list
Add to
“actions list”
Put on your
calendar
File for
reference
Toss it Do it
Someday/m
aybe
16. Toss it
Digitally or physically
File for reference
Somewhere you can find it in the future
Someday/maybe
Things that you might need to or want to take action on in
the future
17. Add to Actions List (aka To Do or Task List)
Don’t try to keep it in your head
Common tools include flagging items in Outlook, hand
written lists, keeping things in your inbox
Put it on your calendar
Only if it needs to be done on a specific day or time
Consider creating recurring calendar items when possible
18. Add to or create a Project Plan
Anything that requires more than a couple of steps should
be considered a project
Add to a Waiting For List
Things that you delegate or that someone else needs to
respond to before you can take action
20. Look over the workflow diagram. Where do you put things?
References
Someday/Maybe Items
Projects
Action Items
“Waiting For” Items
Calendar
21. Compare your lists of tools (places you put things)
Which tools are the most common?
Which tools are unique?
Why did you choose your tools?
Pick three or four tools that are interesting, unique, or a novel
use of a more common tool
22. Consider your collectors
Can a collector also keep track of a list?
Can you automatically send something from a collector to
a list?
Tagging, color coding, flagging
Find ways to organize information within a tool
23. To Do List
Remember the Milk, Outlook, OneNote, ...
References
delicious, Evernote, Instapaper, OneNote, ...
Projects
OneNote, ...
24. Share some of our least favorite collectors and tools
Suggest alternatives to collectors and tools we don’t like
Note any new collectors or tools you’d like to try
Lifehacker.com is a great place to find out about new tools
25. My Workflow Hack Plan
Consider buddying up so that you’re not working alone
If you’re interested in RSS, there will be a class in late June
What tools do you want to learn more about?
26. Things change in meaning over time
Being organized is a dynamic process
Review your project plans, action list, calendar, “waiting for”
list regularly
Try one new tool at a time
Notes de l'éditeur
Ask them to define
-David Allen, creator of GTD “You are disorganized if you need something somewhere that you don’t have or have something somewhere that you don’t need”
-Look into your purse, wallet, or a folder or notebook - look at what you brought today. Get something that doesn’t belong there permanently but has been there longer than a few hours (besides money). Do you have a receipt, a business card, scrap of paper with notes, old parking ticket?
-These are things whose location does not map to their meaning to you.
-If no longer useful, it is trash
-If something you need for reference, store it somewhere else so that you can access it when needed
-If something you need to do something about, put it in a place where you can be reminded of it
-Very few text message, only 20% use it once a semester or more often
-About half have Twitter accounts, only 25% use it once a week or more often
-About half use instant messaging, only 25% use it once a week or more
-Get things out of your short term memory
-empty them regularly
-Many people want to take their paper inflow items and put them in digital collectors
5 minutes
@2:35
Good news! We all do this in some way. It can seem hard to keep up.
We all have stuff to deal with, our inflows
Items in orange require action, purple do not
We process some collectors as information arrives (e.g. email) so we need to restrict them to high-priority information
Some collectors can be emptied daily or weekly.
Every week, reserve a little time to give your systems a checkup.
- If needs to be done ON a specific day or time, put it on the Calendar- If it can by done BY a specific day or as soon as you can get to it, use Action lists (Tasks, To Do's etc.)
-In Outlook 2007, a Task is something you enter onto a Task list. A To-Do includes all tasks automatically, PLUS any email, calendar or contact you flag for follow-up.In 2007 products, all Tasks are To-Do's, but not all To-Do's are tasks.
