a very quick look at evernote

[thomthowolf]

I promised vixay that I would upload my Evernote database (empty of contents, of course).  Anyone who read my earlier posting on using Evernote to support your GTD efforts can find an empty database attached to this post  which could provide you with a starting place.
I also promised to generate a short tutorial to give some sense of the flow of items through this database .  I decided to go ahead and use vixay's request as an example.
I started by  cutting the relevant piece from the e-mail using the Evernote web clipper.

 Now I have a new item in my inbox. 

I very quickly type a few keywords into the body of the clipping somewhere.  I usually type "to do" or "project" and then  a short sentence telling me exactly what I'm supposed to do with this clipping .  This is the equivalent of taking a piece of paper that someone handed me, writing myself a note on the top and putting it into a file folder for action later.

 This item is now a part of my regular workflow. What makes this work for me  is the intersection panel.

  I simply click on next actions to highlight it then go to the intersection panel, click on context. Since I am at home , I choose  home .  This gives me a list of all todo items that I have I identified as being doable in this location.  I also assigned to this item a context of today so I select today and see a bit shorter list of items I have agreed to with myself to do today. This is my attempt work on a closed loop . 
 If there is any significant interest in this tool I would be happy to write a longer piece as I am sure that this particular database reflects my peculiar way of looking at the world, and that with just a little bit of effort you can make it reflected your peculiar way of looking at the world too. Anyway here it is. enjoy!

[vixay]

Thanks...  i will try it out now...
maybe you should post this @ evernote forums too? Get the developers to take a look at it...

[vixay]

OK, I've downloaded your template, created my own version of it.... (the icons for the auto categories were missing, so i had to import it and do all sorts of things to get the icons back! I love little icons!)... anyway i am uploading my version, the exported version, you have to go and 'import' it into your evernote database (preferably a new blank one for testing)

I have finished collecting all the things...
and now while i was processing stuff i ran into a problem...
now i don't know what to do!

You see i like hierarchy, and i would like to keep using that somehow.
This is the way i think...

Suppose i write down a task like

Install portable applications on my thumbdrive...@PC @work

now i want to make it a project and actually add multiple tasks below it but in different branches...

1) Install portable applications on my thumbdrive...@PC @work
 a) install Miranda portable & maybe gaim too
    i) get account usernames & password from old installation
 b) install openoffice
 c) ...etc.

now the thing is i want only step i) to appear in my next to do list, and i want the complete set of actions to appear in projects, portable. and after i check that of, step a) should be in my next actions list, then after that is done, step b) ... and so on...

[Next actions View]
i) get account usernames & password from old installation
--
[Project View]
 (the entire list above)
--
After finishing the action the view should now become
[Next actions View]
 a) install Miranda portable & maybe gaim too

now it would be super tedious to split out each step into separate notes, (maybe not that tedious or maybe there is an easier way to do that), and adding tags to them individually, so is there a way... that only one doable task at a time from the project shows up and the next one after that is done (i.e. force sequential treatment)...
and i practically think of everything as projects as there are always multiple actions involved in each thing i have to do, or places i have to go to, to fetch information.

So is there a good way to do this? sigh too tired to think right now...

but basically what i am looking for is something with a heirarchical view of projects, with the ease of auto category recognition using keywords (i.e. tagging), and generating a list of only the nodes of the tree (showing next node after it is done ...etc). hmmm... it sounds complicated, but maybe someone else can articulate this better than i can in my current condition. and oh, it should have pretty little icons

maybe i should use the plain text method of GTDwannabe, ....

[alxwz]

BTW (and completely off-topic): thomthowolf, the assortment of tools in and around your taskbar looks interesting and potentially useful - could you explain them? (I can only identify xplorer2 in the quick launch area.)

[vixay]

After doing some more research online, i've figured out what my basic issue is...
it is hard to go from organized project views to unorganized project view...
the organization stimulates thinking and identification of tasks that need to be done...
i want to retain that while using GTD...

Furthermore as it often happens, tasks can easily become projects themselves! As you realize that some actions  are actually mini-projects (which can contain other projects)... thus my gripe is that in this evernote system it is not easy to make  a task suddenly a project.... .etc.

maybe a more detailed workflow will shed some light on how to link a project with all its related tasks in a particular view (projects).

[thomthowolf]

maybe a more detailed workflow will shed some light on how to link a project with all its related tasks in a particular view (projects).

-vixay (October 06, 2006, 05:18 AM)

I will attempt to write something about how I handle projects this weekend.

(I can only identify xplorer2 in the quick launch area.)

Sorry, nothing exciting, just my personal arrangement of True Launch Bar.
http://truelaunchbar.com/index.html

[alxwz]

Sorry, nothing exciting, just my personal arrangement of True Launch Bar.
http://truelaunchbar.com/index.html

-thomthowolf (October 06, 2006, 01:47 PM)

Thanks, I didn't get around yet to have a look at that one, although a 50% discount is tempting 

[fkform]

For vixay-

To use a hierarchical view in your projects, you might check out this program:  freemind.  It's free, has great versatility, and offers a variety of ways to organize by color, font, order, and icons.


http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

[vixay]

For vixay-

To use a hierarchical view in your projects, you might check out this program:  freemind.  It's free, has great versatility, and offers a variety of ways to organize by color, font, order, and icons.


http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

-fkform (October 10, 2006, 09:23 PM)

i already use mindmanager, i was looking to do that within the GTD context, and i haven't looked at using freemind or mindmanager as a GTD tool, from what i can see though it wouldn't be easy to create different views for the same data, using a mind mapping tool.

Anyway, so far i have settled on MLO, lets see how the experiment progresses . I like MLO's ability to quickly 
* convert project -> task, or task -> project
* ordered task lists, with only the top item showing first (i.e. basic sequential dependencies)
* flexible automatically generated task lists.
there are a bunch of things i don't like, but i'll deal, it's time to stop being lazy, whining and start workin'!

So far what i like about evernote are (and wish they were in MLO)
* damn cool auto categorization using keyword filters
* nice colorful UI with little icons (icons are better as visual cues than text)