GTD with Gmail Whitepaper
For everyone who asked, the whitepaper is here. Special thanks to Greg and Jonathan for looking it over for me and making suggestions. It’s still far from a perfectly complete guide to GTD with Gmail, so I guess any additions or ideas from this point can go into version 2 of the whitepaper or into the book (heh). Please distribute as you wish (just tell your friends to peep space-age wasteland). That’s all for now.
May 3rd, 2005 at 10:09 am
Excellent - thanks for putting this together. I have a few days coming up where I can implement GTD and trying it out with Gmail should be interesting.
May 3rd, 2005 at 8:11 pm
GTD with Gmail
UPDATE: Bryan has compiled all his tips into a whitepaper…good stuff. Bryan is whipping up a multi-post series on integrating gmail with his GTD implementation. Should be good reading. Part one is here. Also, he turned me on to classicshaving.com,
May 4th, 2005 at 11:00 am
This sounds great. But how does one goes about getting a Gmail account ?
May 4th, 2005 at 11:37 am
[…]
GTD with Gmail Whitepaper
Getting things done with Gmail is here: GTD with Gmail Whitepaper
This entry was posted
[…]
May 4th, 2005 at 1:19 pm
People with G-Mail accounts can send you an invite to join. This is how I got mine.
May 4th, 2005 at 1:47 pm
GTD in GMail umsetzen
“Bryan Murdaugh”:http://saw.themurdaughs.com/gtd-with-gmail-whitepaper/ hat ein Whitepaper verfasst, das zeigt, wie sich die Methode des “Getting Things Done” von “David Allen”:http://www.davidco.com in “GMail”:http://www.gmail.com umsetzen las…
May 4th, 2005 at 2:17 pm
GTD with Gmail whitepaper
Space-Age Wasteland has amalgamated their series of posts on Getting Things Done using Gmail, into a whitepaper, which can be downloaded as a PDF….
May 4th, 2005 at 3:58 pm
iSnoop has a million invitations for the taking.
May 4th, 2005 at 4:44 pm
Like it very much. Would have used it if not Backpack had been released the other day.
Check out a bunch of examples of how you can use Backpack to organize your information at http://backpackit.com/examples/
May 5th, 2005 at 12:55 am
[…] ilar.com/wordpress/2005/05/04/2319/” rel=”bookmark” title=”Permanent Link: “> Using Gmail with the Getting Things Done techniques. This is the end of the semester, but we st […]
May 5th, 2005 at 6:30 am
[…] A PDF whitepaper on gtd/gmail can be found at space-age wasteland This entry was post […]
May 5th, 2005 at 5:05 pm
I found that typing “me” when composing a message didn’t bring up the dropdown list, so I found a way of making this process even more simple and useful. Go into your Contacts list and find the contact that is your “me” contact. If you change the name for your own email address to something like “_me_” or “!me” it will be even easier to send messages to yourself.
May 5th, 2005 at 11:26 pm
There is a comment in the white paper:
“One small hack that I’d recommend even if you aren’t using Gmail for GTD is to stay away from frequent interruptive new email noti-
fications. If someone emailed you, they don’t need a response right away. I have Gmail check every 60 minutes for new mail….”
I can’t seem to find this ‘hack’ - despite ‘googling’ it :>)
May 6th, 2005 at 6:05 am
Brian,
I think what you’re saying is that the Google-issue Gmail notifier doesn’t let you change the ‘interruption frequency.’ This is true. I’d recommend using another notification tool. I happen to be a Mac user and use gCount and when I *have* to use windows I run the Firefox Gmail notifier which has a configurable timer.
May 6th, 2005 at 6:06 am
It seems there’s some confusion over the ‘Me’ contact that I mentioned in my step by step here and in the whitepaper. ‘Me’ is a contact that I added in myself, it just happens to be my email address. It’s not a default Gmail contact.
May 6th, 2005 at 10:47 pm
I went a step further and called my “me” contact “C”. That way, when writing a task to myself, I just hit “c” twice — once for compose and once to bring up the “me” contact. Hit tab and type the subject. Tab to the send field and hit enter. Done.
May 6th, 2005 at 11:14 pm
[…] be interested in the whitepaper that space-age wasteland has done on setting up gmail as a gtd process manager. Permalink Leave […]
May 7th, 2005 at 4:27 pm
GtD with Gmail whitepaper
If you’re a fan of GtD and Gmail, then you may be interested in this whitepaper.
Personally, I don’t use Gmail. My work email is stored in Maildirs on my FreeBSD box and is accessed through Courier IMAP using Thunderbird. My GtD methodology for pr…
May 7th, 2005 at 10:36 pm
You can get a gmail account with an invite, or try, isnoop.net/gmail … I have some gmail invites if anyone wants one. Email me at addisontodd@gmail.com
May 9th, 2005 at 8:22 am
[…] oing along with the GTD (getting things done) theme, here is a good article to read… space-age wasteland » Blog Archive » GTD with Gmail Whitepaper
[…]
May 9th, 2005 at 2:37 pm
[…] all the navel-gazing. Let’s do some traffic-whoring, and talk Getting Things Done. GTDMail works great for 90 percent of my time management needs. One thing it lacks, though […]
May 10th, 2005 at 7:04 am
Getting Things Done with Gmail
GTD with Gmail Whitepaper - Bryan Murdaugh has published a PDF whitepaper on how to use Gmail to implement GTD, capturing thoughts and managing projects and next action lists with labels and emails to yourself. (via Lifehacker)…
May 10th, 2005 at 9:22 pm
[…] talks about how to use Gmail for GTD (Getting Things Done). Head to there and get the free GTD with Gmail whitepaper. For everyone who asked, the whitepaper is here. Special thanks […]
May 10th, 2005 at 10:16 pm
Dude, thanks for Getting This Done. Good Work!
May 11th, 2005 at 8:40 pm
[…] ion system. These two options have the benefit of being completely free: GTD TiddlyWiki GTD with Gmail Conclusion That’s it! I’d love to hear how others are usin […]
May 21st, 2005 at 2:52 pm
Get and give FREE gmail accounts, without the catches:
http://isnoop.net/gmail/
May 23rd, 2005 at 1:18 am
A better way of using Gmail for GTD
I have been trying GTD for some time including outlook plugins, tadalist and some wiki-based ones, such as the recent Backpack and GTDTiddlyWiki. I was mainly using my Wikka wiki (leveraging its dynamic category feature) for work-related complex thin…
May 27th, 2005 at 3:32 pm
Stupid question, In the White Paper you place after your notes to yourself … what does that suppose to represent?
You also reference *’ing your projects, but the white paper does not show this in the examples. So do contexts replace projects?
Thanks and I appreciate your time putting this together!!
May 27th, 2005 at 3:50 pm
eom = end of message.
I use this as a quick tag to let me know that there’s no extended information in the body.
Many of my actions are project-less. So they only have a context for organization. Since the actions in a context are unrelated, there can be many “next actions” (indicated by the star).
June 4th, 2005 at 9:46 am
[…] il in Outlook. Gmail Mouse Hack - A demo of how to map gmail shortcuts to mouse buttons. GTD with Gmail Whitepaper - Intergating GTD system into Gmail. Tickling with FutureMail - […]
June 9th, 2005 at 9:51 am
[…] ¨re la mettre en oeuvre (histoire de pouvoir finir ce que je commence), quelques liens : Un PDF pour la mettre en palce dans GMail Un petit guide en français Et (incroyable !) […]
June 24th, 2005 at 7:42 am
Thanks for the great ideas, Bryan! I think GTD with GMail is going to be a keeper for me, after trying GTDTiddlyWiki, Tasktoy and WebNote.
(I also use my Hipster PDA for collection.)
Question 1:
but if GMail could display the messages alphabetically by subject, for example, it would be possible to number the actions - a), b), c), etc. Is this possible?
One thing I find slightly disconcerting for processing is GMail’s display of messages inreverse time order, with the latest message on the top of the list. That makes sense for e-mail, but when brainstorming a list of actions, it would be nice to be able to juggle the order somehow. I know, GTD with GMail isn’t a project management utility
Question 2:
I use a different GMail address for GTD than for “normal” email. I TRY to keep 2 sessions open at once in 2 different FireFox tabbed windows. Often, I am composing a note to “me”, and when I push the “Send” button, GMail tells me I have been logged out for security reasons! Bummer. Is there any way of keeping two GMail account sessions open simultaneously without getting logged out?
- Jeff
June 24th, 2005 at 7:55 am
Jeff,
Thanks for visiting.
1) Since you’re a Firefox user, there are some Greasemonkey scripts that will allow you to flip the order of gmail messages, and one could probably be written to change the order otherwise. One thing I live by is that since priorities are decided for the moment (during a review, in theory) I want to get through my entire list no matter what the order is. If my most important things were up top, I’d be likely to stop reading my action list. I do, however, use another Greasemonkey script for persistent searches that allow me to find actions available in a given context, etc..
2) Not that I’m aware of. For that exact reason, in fact, I use one Gmail account to rule them all. It forces me to handle every email as an item coming in. If it’s an action, create an action out of it (this often involves editing the subject). If it’s not, handle it accordingly. There may be ways to keep sessions open - if you find one, do tell.
July 24th, 2005 at 7:35 am
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August 24th, 2005 at 12:25 pm
[…] t me apply multiple labels or tags to messages like gmail, I’d be all set. Check out GTD with Gmail for some ideas. 24 August 2005 Local Tags: gtd, gmail, producti […]
September 13th, 2005 at 8:38 am
[…] under software, headware, tips One of the things I found useful after setting up GTD with Gmail was the Greasemonkey script that adds a delete button to the Gmail interfac […]
September 15th, 2005 at 3:24 pm
[…] #8220;Getting Things Done” in Gmail implementieren kann, findet sich als PDF im Blog “space-age wasteland”. […]
October 6th, 2005 at 5:52 am
2 hacks for GTD with Gmail:
1) Everyproject is an email. I write single steps of the project as items in the email message. I can always “edit” the message replying or forwarding it to me. So I usually delete completed steps and refilled the message as @Internet or @Phone depending on the next step.
2) I also set up 4 categories for my project, based on what I read in Goalsetting :
*Contrib
*Pro/biz/econ
*SelfDev
*Toys/rec
The last hack help me to give meaning to the projects. Why I want to do it. They can be contribution goals (*Contrib), career/business/economic goals (*Pro/biz/econ), personal development goals (*SelfDev) or toys/adventure goals (*Toys/rec).
So every project in my system has a meaning label and a context label (those beginning with @, like @Home, also !Someday/Maybe and !WaitingFor, and also my tickler file labels). And they have one and only one context label, and one and only one meaning label. It helps a lot with the weekly review, because you don’t see projects more than twice.
October 6th, 2005 at 5:53 am
The Goalsetting URL wasn’t posted. Sorry.
http://www.mindspires.co.uk/pr06.htm
October 13th, 2005 at 10:49 am
[…] This is for people following the GTD method: using GMail for GTD. Thanks to the labels, stars and powerful search of GMail. I’ve created a separate GMail account for this, but I am planning to use my everyday account when I get more proficient at doing it. gtd, gmail […]
October 14th, 2005 at 3:08 am
[…] http://saw.themurdaughs.com/ […]
October 17th, 2005 at 3:26 pm
[…] Cómo organizarse un poco las tareas con la ayuda de Gmail: “Getting Things Done” with Gmail Technorati Tags: gmail gtd […]
November 16th, 2005 at 10:28 am
[…] Unify your inboxes. Since I use gmail for GTD, I never fall down on keeping my gmail inbox squeaky clean. In addition, the constant reminder that I need to process all items with David Allen’s method keeps me going. […]
November 22nd, 2005 at 10:18 pm
[…] Update … I just discovered this awesome program last night called EverNote. Really cool piece of software. It’s taggable note feature is something I’ve been looking for everywhere for several months now. Don’t know how I missed this one. I’ve already purchased it and not only impulsively dumped all my TreePad, Backpack and Wikka notes into it, I’ve also made it my central Getting Things Done implementation, replacing my previous GTDMail workflow which I came to find lacking in some important ways. […]
November 27th, 2005 at 8:26 pm
GTD with Outlook Categories
Since I started a new job, I’ve had to use Outlook connected to an Exchange server for email and calendaring (distressing, I know), and it turns out that my inbox is one of my main collection buckets. So I’ve worked out a GTD system that …
December 6th, 2005 at 2:52 pm
[…] This is a pretty simple thing to do, but it is really much more convenient for me than manually applying labels and stars to all my actions. Note that I don’t email myself all actions associated with a project; if you do that–as in the original GTD with gmail whitepaper–this trick may not be for you as you wouldn’t be able to easily identify the next action. […]
December 7th, 2005 at 11:29 pm
[…] I put these into GTDMail as projects, and will track my daily activities in terms of whether they move me toward these goals. Any task that brings a goal closer will get labeled with that goal. […]
January 11th, 2006 at 1:40 pm
hi bryan,
Thanks for the awesome whitepaper, I’m implementing GTD using gmail but had a question about complete tasks - what do you do with theM?????
January 11th, 2006 at 1:50 pm
JT, it depends:
If I need information that was in the task, I mark it with an appropriate reference label, remove the action label and leave it in my archive.
If it’s something like “take the trash out” then i just delete it.
Your mileage may vary, but be consistent, and don’t throw anything away that you may need. Also, don’t worry about things getting lost; you have the power of google’s search technology behind you.
January 13th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
[…] First, there is the “Get Things Done” line I followed. Starting from the book by David Allen I quickly came to Sylvia’s GTD Homepage and then to the GTD with Gmail Whitepaper. I was previously looking for a tool to manage my to-do lists online. This seems to be a good way. […]
January 24th, 2006 at 10:10 am
Thanks for the white paper. Hopefully this will help me out in the long run.
I’m a little confused, however. On page two, you say you create two labels for each open project - ‘Next’ and ‘Reference’. But, on page three, all of the tasks related to the bathroom project have ‘Bathroom:Actions’ as labels. Shouldn’t it be ‘*Bathroom:Next’?
Confusing me even more is that on page four, you mention a search - “is:starred label:*BecomeBillionaire:Next”.
Are you using ‘Next’ and ‘Actions’ interchangeably?
Other than that, I think I get it. I’m a bit worried about ending up with 10,000 labels, though. I think I remember reading that you delete the old ones or something like that.
January 24th, 2006 at 10:33 am
Wow, Jay. It’s amazing that my little slip-up went unannounced for over 7 months. Yeah, I use Actions in my label names, because I denote next actions by placing a star on the items. I’m sending myself an action right now to fix the whitepaper and re-upload it.
Thanks!
And yes, old project lables get deleted, even if the items remain as reference material. I’ve found that the power of Google’s search in my archives compensates for not having old project labels lying around for access to the references.
February 2nd, 2006 at 12:47 pm
[…] gmail, google maps, google anything - if you’re not using gmail to make your life easier you’re wasting your time. My favorite hack is the GTD with gmail option. […]
February 12th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
Hi, interesting concept you’ve got here… how do you manage the rest of your email inside the same account? Doesn’t that get cluttered? Or do you just ’star’ messages that need replying to, and assume that the “next action” is “reply to this”? Do you apply any labels? Thanks….
February 12th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
Also, how do you handle time-sensitive actions (i.e. things with deadlines) using this system? Thanks….
February 12th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
Nick,
Thanks for stopping by. Every email needs to be processed, and could potentially be an action. If a reply takes less than 2 minutes, I do it as soon as my processing stage. If a reply takes research or other action, I might forward it to myself with notes, or reply to the sender with some information explaining the situation and star it for my next action review. I use labels for contexts (preceded by a !) and labels for Projects (preceded by a *).
Time sensitive actions get added to my Calendar and may (exceptionally) have an action tied to them as well on my action list. Since a review of all actions happens many times a day, all loops get closed.
March 5th, 2006 at 7:23 am
Bryan,
Thanks for this, you inspired me to find a way to get GTD working with Gmail for myself. I found that using Greasemonkey within Firefox gave me a lot of extra functionality that brought GTD closer to reality for me.
In case you (or anyone else) is interested, I’ve explained what I did on my blog:
http://falkayn.blogspot.com/2006/03/gtd-with-gmail-and-greasemonkey.html
Cheers,
Angus
March 12th, 2006 at 2:41 am
That’s a cool implementation, thanks for sharing a little bit of GTD your-way.
Cheers,
Brandon
April 19th, 2006 at 11:31 pm
1. Compliment
2. Insight I had
3. Suggestion
____________________________________________________
1. COMPLIMENT
Hey, my friend - thanks for the system! It works AWESOMELY! Being a bit A.D.D I find it hard to get organised, but this system, with its:
- ability to attach any info to the various to-do items
- ability to file under multiple categories eg. the particular project AND the context to do it in
- the powerful search
- and the fact that you can actually get ENJOYMENT from emptying your inbox and (in my case) your context folder for each particular context as you go through it (eg. “9-5 calls”)
has really helped me start getting things done.
______________________________________________________
2. INSIGHT
For awhile I actually stopped using the GTD, because I felt that just organising things by context didn’t really take enough account of PRIORITY. I was getting alot done, but not necessarily the IMPORTANT things. So I returned to an attempted priority-based system. But with YOUR particular system, you really can combine the best of both worlds.
You can see things in their CONTEXT baskets (ie. labels), but they also have their little green PROJECT label next to them. This means that when I go to particular context (eg. “online” or “6-9 calls” or “errands”) I can quickly see which items are also part of a project - and for me, these are usually the most important ones.
So I realised that if you do it right, you CAN get the priority things done using the context-based system, and in fact, its better than priority-only systems, because as David Allen points out, in those systems you can get overwhelmed with items that ARE top priority, but CAN’T be done at that time anyway. At the very LEAST, the context system minimises the number of things you have to consider at any one time.
Also, I’ve found that being able to instantly access
- contact details
- other relevant info