I’ve been struggling to adapt David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology to Windows Mobile for about a year now, and I’m still having trouble. The biggest issue I have has to do with the very first step in GTD, ubiquitous capture.
Basically, GTD requires that whenever something runs across your mind, you write it down. Sounds simple, right? But as always, the devil is in the details. Once you have it written down, sometime soon you’re going to have process it, figure out what it is and what you have to do about it. It should be easy enough, but does it work?
This was easy on the Palm. There’s a Palm OS application called Slap that allows you write down anything in a big Memo Pad like field, then select stuff and hit buttons on the right side of the screen to quickly and easily turn the selected text into an appointment, a task, a memo, etc. When you’re done, one button clears the list. Easy. I had this mapped to a button on my Tungsten E and T5, and it made capturing and processing my thoughts nearly instant. Unfortunately, there is no Pocket PC version of Slap.
I should point out that the most important part of ubiquitous capture is “ubiquitous”. This is where the Zen of Palm really shines. The obstacles between you and writing down a thought should be as low as possible, maybe even a little lower. Even a few fractions of a second can be the difference between capturing a thought and getting it off your mind or deciding it’s not worth the effort and letting it gnaw at you. On the Palm with Slap, it was open the Palm, press a button, scrawl in Graffiti. Pretty simple. As simple as paper, and with the confidence that it will be much easier to process.
So. Lacking Slap or a reasonable facsimile for Windows Mobile, how best to capture what’s on your mind quickly and move on with life?
The first thing I tried was using a feature from Spb Pocket Plus that allows me to map a hard button directly to creating a new task. This works well for jotting down something to do, but less so when I’m recording a potential appointment, contact info or a story idea. It kind of works, in that the task puts “a stake in the ground” for me to come back to later and process the data accordingly, but it’s clumsy to write longer ideas in the notes attached to a task. Plus, I’m always tempted to put in more information than is strictly needed at capture, like due dates and categories. Lastly, while this is nice and quick on the Pocket PC, it’s more cumbersome on the desktop where I’m dealing with either Outlook 2007 (at home) or Outlook Web Access (at the office). It’s also cumbersome even on the handheld to enter many things in a row, as when brainstorming. So while it’s possible on Windows Mobile to combine the capture and processing steps of GTD, it may not be the best idea.
The next thing that came to mind was keeping everything in a Word document. Not unlike using a paper notebook like a Moleskine, this would give me something I can open quickly, jot something down, then come back to it later. This makes capture a lot more free form, which is good, but it also means more work to do later when processing. More importantly, it means that I have to develop a processing habit, opening and reviewing my notebook and then cutting and pasting bits out of it and into wherever they need to go. The downside to this is that it takes longer to open Word on my desktop, which makes it less likely to use my notebook when at the PC.
However, a plain text file might just work. I have a text file called Notebook.txt and a shortcut to it on my desktop. This file syncs to or resides on my phone (depending on whether I’m syncing or just swapping my storage card back and forth) and I also have a shortcut to it in my Programs screen on the Mogul. It’s mapped to a hard button on my phone, giving me one touch access to it, and the only problem I have with it is scrolling to the bottom before I start typing. And even that I might be able to get around by always typing on the first line, making the list reverse chronological like a blog.
How do you get stuff down on paper (or bits) so it’s off your mind?
6 Comments
heh, so I’ve finally given in to signing up to commenting here.
The truth is that I’m usually pretty bad with capture.
My answer: moleskine. though I must admit to not being terribly proficient with this. when I’m in front of the computer I have a couple of text files that I can open with simple triggers and type what I need to in them. I don’t know enough about the status of the PPC these days to say something intelligent about how you’d go about doing this. my general reflex is to say, if it can’t be done in a text file, it’s not particularly worth doing, but I don’t know.
Cheers,
sam
I too felt compelled to sign up just to comment.
I feel your pain, Jeff. I haven’t seen a great answer to this, but I’ve tried a few which get some parts right. For the ultra-short-form ideas / ticklers, I use a program called apMemo (http://www.apsoftsystems.com/apmemo/). It’s very lightweight, so if you assign it to a hardware button it’s up in a flash. You can scribble on it and then set a reminder in a novel way. Instead of assigning a time (which you can do optionally), you choose an amount of time _from now_. There are presets from 2min up to several hours or days.
This works great as I said for the short stuff. But you are limited to a single page per note, and there’s no text recognition.
As to the answer for the bigger stuff–I don’t have one.
I started doing the following recently:
I use GMail as the center of my “nerve center.” I use a USB flash drive that contains the portable apps like Thunderbird + Lightning extension for IMAP email and calendar to GMail/Google Calendar. In GMail, I created a filter that looks for a specific alias (e.g. myname+capture@gmail.com) and set the rules to skip the Inbox and label it with something like @In-basket. Then, I have sort it out later at home, work, or remotely.
I don’t know if this would help but I thought I’d mention it.
I keep a simple and cheap 3×5 spiral bound notebook (with spiral at the top; about $0.75 each from Staples) in my back pocket. It’s extremely easy to jot an idea, note, ph number, etc. especially while driving (where I seem to get my best ideas!) I’ve also used a 8.5 x 11 sheet folded into 8 sections…very slim in your pocket. You just need to discipline yourself to check it at regular intervals. Kind of “old school” but it works
Jeff,
Check this out, it might help you with capture http://lifehacker.com/343665/get-things-done-over-the-phone-with-jott
The closest I’ve come to the ideal capture software is Onenote. I use it at work and love it. Don’t know how I ever managed without it. But at work I have to use the 2003 version. At home I use the 2007 version. The 2007 version is ten times better than the 2003 version and even syncs with my iPaq (basic sync on one page only). But (another one) I can only read 2003 version notes on the 2007 version (can’t edit at all) and the 2003 version won’t even recognise the 2007 version. 2003 version won’t sync. So, not much cop for truely organising my life but as I have only managed to organise my work life so far with GTD then I can manage
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