GTD advocates will immediately call to mind David Allen‘s mantra about putting everything into a “trusted system” so your mind can be at ease–knowing that your ToDo, brilliant idea, future project or simple note will be easy to retrieve when you need it. Like me, you probably took this to mean a paper notebook, a set of folders, a smartphone, a PDA, a web site or a computer software program.

A colleague and I had a quick conversation today today about her new “system,” which is a FranklinCovey paper planner, and wondered if you really need a single thing, or the combination of many things working together could qualify as your GTD trusted system? I think it can…if you’re careful.

Got a list of books you want to read? Should you put it on an Amazon wish list, or store it at Goodreads? A list of restaurants to try? Should it go on UrbanSpoon, Google Docs or a scrap of paper in your wallet? What about a list of gifts to buy? Or, stuff you want to sell on eBay? With so many places you could choose to keep this kind of information, what’s the best place to keep it?

It doesn’t matter. Ok, let me clarify, it doesn’t matter as long as you pick just one and use it religiously for that purpose. If you you sometimes put a book on your Goodreads list and sometimes on Amazon, and sometimes in your paper planner you’re asking for trouble.

At work, I have a notepad I take with me everywhere. If I need to capture something, it goes in my notepad. If that’s not available, it goes into Evernote, which works on my iphone, my PC, and my Mac. In my weekly reviews (usually on Sundays) I sweep things from my notepad and Evernote into their proper places.

Here’s what I use, and what I use it for:

• Evernote: Capturing notes on the go. Temporarily storing thoughts for upcoming meetings. Keeping reference items like train/ferry schedules, conference line access codes, and frequent flier numbers.
• PasswordMaker: Web site passwords (see my earlier post on this).
• Goodreads: Books I’ve read and want to read.
• ReadItLater: Lists of web pages I want to read. It conveniently synchronizes your ToRead list across Mac, PC and iPhone, and supports offline reading as well. And, it even integrates into Google Reader very nicely.
• UrbanSpoon: Restaurants I’ve been to and want to go to.
• Basecamp: Projects for work where at least one other person is involved. My whole team uses this, and it’s gaining traction within the company.
• OmniFocus: Personal ToDos and projects, as well as projects for work where no other people are involved.
• Paper Notepad: Notes to be transferred to another system later, or just kept for reference.

My colleague mentioned Amazon’s Universal Wish List, which seems like a good idea. I’ll have to check that out. What do you use, and what do you use if for?

I’ve been having an ongoing conversation with one of my co-workers about GTD. We exchange ideas, tools and tips every so often. I like these exchanges, because I can count on him to provide very specific and pointed questions that make me think about why I organize the way I do. He’s starting to use an online tool I suggested to manage his ToDos. Getting all his stuff in there, he asked about what contexts I use. I sent him my list, which consists of about 35 different contexts, and one of those exchanges began.

I define context as “the mind-set, location (physical or virtual) or tool you need to actually do the thing you want to do.” For example, if I want to hang the picture in the hallway, it’s really not useful to have that in front of me while I’m at my desk at the office. No matter how much may want to hang that picture, I can only do it at home, where I have my hammer, a nail and the picture itself.

When you plan a project, you’re in “Project Mode. You’re thinking about that project, and you come up with all the related action items you need to do to get the project done. On the other hand, when you actually set out to do those action items, you’re in some physical (or virtual) place where you have the tools you need. If you’re writing a document, you’re at your computer with your word processor. If you’re making a call you’ve got your phone. If you’re getting approval from Bob, you’re in Bob’s office. Each one of those places, people or things is a context. If you’re getting things done, you’re planning by project, but doing by context.

The idea is that when you’re in a particular context, you want to know all the things that are available for you to do at that moment. If you’re at a phone, a list of phone calls you need to make is helpful. If you’re not near a phone, that list of calls is just a distraction–there’s not much you can do about it. Everything on your ToDo list should have a context assigned. This way, it’s easy to see what actions are yet to be incorporated into your system (“processed”). Designing an effective context list demands more than a little thought.

Here’s how I created mine, and I’ll share the end result as well.

• Think about the typical physical locations you are in on a regular basis. For me, there are three: Home, Work, and Karate.
• Think about the key people in your life. Between work (boss, peers, directs, indirects, etc.), family and friends, this will be a long list, I’m sure. Add the truly key people as named contexts, then leave everyone else in a context called “people”. If you find that you need to break-out someone later, no problem.
• Think about all the tools you use on a regular basis to get your stuff done. Your list will contain things like your computer, phone, office (at work), files (at home). If you have a house, you might want to include the garage, workshop, pool, guest cottage, horse stable and North 40 as different contexts. Fortunately, I have a 668 sq. ft. apt in NYC, so I don’t have that problem.
• An important note regarding your computer is to take it further down to the software applications you use as well. If Outlook is your email program, for example, you will benefit from having a list of emails to write, so you can get into email mode, and crank them out all at once. Switching your focus among a spreadsheet, word processor, email and your company’s online reporting systems takes effort. In most cases, you’ll be much more efficient if you do all your emails, then switch to your spreadsheet. If you have multiple computers, and use one for work, and the other for personal stuff, you might want to do this for each computer.
• Think about errands that you typically run, and the stores you normally go to. I don’t own a car, and getting on the subway with 24 rolls of toilet paper is a little unwieldy. Like most New Yorkers, we make occasional “Target runs” to pick up things like that. So, for me, Target is a context. So are the supermarket, the hardware store, and the pet store.
• Create a “Waiting” context for things that you are waiting for from others. If you have many of these and many people you wait for things from, you could break it down further. I don’t.
• Create a “Someday” context for times when you really want to think long-term about things you might want to do, but don’t have a plan for.

So, here’s my list:

• Home
• Karate
• Phone
• Office
• Basecamp
• Online
• Email
• Word
• Excel
• PowerPoint
• MindManager
• Blog.tutor.com
• MacBook
• Email
• Online
• Quicken
• amasur.me
• isshin-ryu.com
• MindManager
• Pages
• Numbers
• Keynote
• People
• Donette
• My Boss
• Peer #1
• Peer #2
• Direct Reports
• Direct #1
• Direct #2
• Direct #3
• Indirect Reports
• Indirect #1
• Indirect #2
• Out and About
• Grocery Store
• Hardware Store
• Target
• Cultural Events
• Museums
• Waiting
• Someday

Please your thoughts and ideas, or even your list. I’d love to hear what works for you.

If you’re just starting to get into GTD, it’s probably because you have a big list of things to do, and not enough time to do them all. Once you read the book and all the blog posts about GTD you’ll need to figure out what your “trusted system” will be, so when you have to make the critical decision about what you’ll work on next, you’ll have everything you need all in one place. For some, a piece of paper will be just fine. For others you’ll need to find some software to help you keep things organized. I’m in that second group, and have tried several different online and software systems.

In my last post, I was talking about how I was making the switch from Nozbe to something else to manage my ToDos, but I wasn’t exactly sure what the something else would be. Well, I’ve figured it out, and the winner is OmniFocus, from The Omni Group Here’s how OmniFocus won me over, and made me happy to hand over some hard-earned cash as a result.

PS: In anticipation of the new FTC guidelines, which I’m personally quite happy about, I was NOT paid for this review, and was NOT given an evaluation copy of any of the software I will discuss below.

PPS: Thanks to Susan Herman for suggesting OmniFocus. I had checked out their site and had almost written it off based on the lack of information and screenshots, but your suggestion made me give it another chance.

What was I looking for?

• An Easy Way to Brain Dump
• Flexible Context Hierarchies
• Flexible Project Hierarchies
• An Easy to use iPhone Application

An Easy Way to Brain Dump

OmniFocus accomplishes this in a very simple, yet powerful way–with an inbox. Go to your inbox, hit return, type a new ToDo, and repeat until your brain is empty. OmniFocus keeps things in your inbox until they have a project or a context, and preferably both.

One thing that took some getting used to was the “Clean-Up” button. When you create a ToDo and add it to a project or context, it doesn’t automatically disappear from the inbox view–you have to press “Clean-Up” for that to happen. Why? Two reasons I can think of.

1. You might make a mistake, and then you’d have to go to the other view to reclaim your ToDo and put it in the right place.
2. Sometimes ToDos are really projects, and keeping things in your inbox is a great way to review the list to make those decisions after your brain is empty. If ToDo started automatically filing themselves as you go, I know I’d end up spending more time thinking about them rather than just entering them.

Flexible Context Hierarchies

Plan by project, do by context is one of the most important GTD concepts. When you’re planning, you’re typically thinking about a project, and what you need to do to move that project forward. On the other hand, when you’re doing, it’s usually because you’re someplace and have some time to work. Thinking about that someplace as a context is critical to implementing GTD. For example, if you have a few minutes and you happen to be near a phone, you could look through every project to see if there are any ToDos that you can check off by making a phone call. If you’ve previously identified a context for each ToDo, you already know which ToDos require a phone call, and you can easily filter your list to show all the items in the context “phone,” and start dialing.

OmniFocus uses a hierarchical model for contexts. You can have as many as you like, and you can group them into folders and sub-folders. Having looked at other systems like “Things, Remember the Milk and Nozbe,” I originally thought this might be a problem. They all have contexts that function more like tags, where each item can be tagged to be in as many contexts as you want. For example, you can use some tags to indicate physical contexts (like home, office or grocery store), other tags to indicate priority, and still others to estimate duration (1 hour, 1 day, etc.). However, with great power, comes great responsibility, and in my testing, I found that I felt obligated to create so many contexts that they were hard to keep straight. Context tags are great, but I found myself spending more time trying to categorize each ToDo in 20 different ways than actually doing them–a sure sign of procrastination. So, while the tag model of contexts are admittedly more powerful than the single, hierarchical context list that OmniFocus uses, I’ll stick with the hierarchical model–it’s just more practical.

Flexible Context Hierarchies

One thing from Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that has stuck with me–even as I adopt the GTD methodology–is the concept of roles. For me, it’s really helpful to try to keep things like “manager, project lead, team member, spouse (close enough), and me (“Sharpen the Saw” for you die-hard Covey fans)” as separate aspects of my life. If I didn’t do this, I think it’d be hard to think about the kind of ______ I want to be, and the projects I would need to do to get there.

This is something that you don’t have to give up with OmniFocus, because it supports nested project lists. Projects can be in folders, and you can have as many folders and sub-folders as you want, so regardless of how many different compartments your life has, you can create a project list that will work for you.

An Easy to use iPhone Application

The iPhone app companion to OmniFocus is very nice. Of course, it synchronizes all your data (you have several sync technology options), and it uses the iPhone real estate very effectively. Several other apps I tried are really only good for viewing your ToDos, but I find the OmniFocus app good for adding new ToDos, and even projects as well. However, there’s one feature that’s just, well…cool.

My favorite feature is the ability to assign GPS coordinates to a context. OmniFocus knows when I’m home, at the office, the grocery store, the hardware store, my karate class and quite a few other places as well. Using the GPS features, I can not only pull up my grocery list when I’m at the store, but I can also use the app to find what ToDos I “could” get done now, because I happen to be near the place where I have to do them. Cool. Nerdy, but cool.

If you’re still reading this, thank you.

While it’s not perfect, I really like the thoughtfulness that was obviously put into creating the OmniFocus system. If you’re an OmniFocus user, I’m curious to hear how you use it. If you use something else that you think is better, I’m all ears.

Let me know what you think