Sanity Check

This post continues the series on exploring the intersection of Getting Things Done and Lotus Notes. 

I have used eProductivity, a GTD-enabled Lotus Notes templates that replaces the design of your mail file, for a full work week now. I was comfortable doing this because I knew that I could just roll back to my Mail85.ntf template and carry on if I didn't like it.

I am gathering my thoughts for a more complete review that I'll post next week, but in the meantime, I thought it would be useful to show you in a few screenshots how eProductivity enables you to get actionable email out of your Inbox and create a manageable list of next action that you can execute when time allows. This, is pretty much how I got those 155 emails out of my Inbox  at the beginning of this week. About half of those emails were irrelevant, obsolete, or actionables that were already completed. Those I deleted or filed as required. A small percentage of the emails were tasks I could complete in a few minutes, so I just did them, then came back to my Inbox. The remaining 70 emails were items that I will address on a priority basis over time. All of them were transformed into Next Actions and removed from the Inbox following the technique below. Nothing went back into IN.

Here is an actual example of an email that came in late afternoon today bespoiling my empty Inbox. It was an actionable email which I cannot act on till Monday. Its a straightforward single step process that will take me 15 minutes maximum.

Note on the left Navigator below there is a "context" called Office (you add whatever contexts you need when setting up eProductivity). I will be working on this request in the Office on Monday. I simply drag and drop this email over onto the Office context.

NOTE: These screenshots can be viewed closer by right clicking on them and choosing View Image if you're a FireFox User.



This is the magical part: Next, I am prompted for the next physical action required to move this task along. I edit the original email subject using an action verb like "Setup". Since I know I'll be doing this Monday, I also enter this as the due date. Note that the body of the original email is conveniently imported into a RT field at the bottom of the form. Click on Save & Close.




Next, a dialog box prompts about what to do about the original email. I choose to move it to a reference folder where I can refer to it later if I get questioned about it.



Fast forward to Monday, I will see all my scheduled next actions above my calendar. If this wasn't something I explicitly wanted to do on Monday, I could have located it in the Office context view.



Remember, this email was removed from my Inbox. If I need to refer to the original email again, I'll just double-click on the Next Action document and access it from the linked items section (see screenshot below). Even cooler, if I happen to receive any further updates from the requester over the weekend, I'll just link them to this action where I can review everything together.

What do you think of them apples? Now I realize that not all tasks come in through email. Inputs come in all different ways, but regardless of the source, they can all be "Next Action'd" and entered into eProductivity into the context and timeframe where and when they can be done. I cannot describe the peace of mind you can achieve once you stop juggling all the things you need to do, both personally and professionally, simply by entering everything into a system you trust will present that information back to you again, at the appropriate time and context when you can act on it.

Today was primarily a home work day (semi-vacation day) and GTD ensured that I got my driver license renewed, made a run to the dump (result of spring cleaning), changed a burnt out headlight, bought a pair of pants, picked up a can of fence paint, studied John chapter 4, took the kids out for a soda, exercised with Wii fit, and wrote this blog. And all of this was on my list of next actions. Today, was mission accomplished and tomorrow, Saturday, I have a good plan including a good mix of work and play.

Have a good one.