I’m a huge fan of David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology. I’m also an obsessive reader of Merlin Mann’s 43 Folders (the best blog in the world for productivity obsessed Mac owners).
I’m pretty proud of my GTD setup and I feel that I’m very effective at getting a lot of things done without being stressed out. In light of that, I figured a quick video tutorial of my method would be helpful to Carsonified readers. Here you go!
RSS readers, view the video here.
Thanks to my lovely wife for being the camera woman.
Gill
November 30th, 2006 at 6:02 pm
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You should fire that camera woman - she’s no good!
Richard Adams
November 30th, 2006 at 6:05 pm
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Very helpful. I’m absolutely rubbish at getting things done, I tend to spend most of my time writing to-do lists and then end up with several lists of things to do and no idea of which ones to do first. So thanks for the tips, they’ll come in very useful.
Michele
November 30th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
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It sounds like a very effective way to do GTD. Actually, it’s even better than Kinkless, because it’s much simpler and it doesn’t get on your way.
Thanks for sharing!
Peter
November 30th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
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Is this the site you’re referring to?
http://www.diyplanner.com/templates/official/hpda
Jacob
November 30th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
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Thanks for the preview of your GTD setup, Ryan–very helpful!
One question, is there a way to automatically populate the category column in OmniOutliner with the sub-projects of your “other” list? I haven’t yet been able to figure it out, and that sort of thing would be great.
Tuomas
November 30th, 2006 at 11:32 pm
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Simple, Easy and does not get in to your way! I’ll definetly give it a spin!
Thanks for the tutorial!
If you got a time and inspiration, it would be nice to see a brief tutorial about how you run your development projects. But thats just a suggestion :)
Dan Kubb
December 1st, 2006 at 12:22 am
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Very nice. I’m going to have to take Omni Outliner Pro for a spin.
I noticed that you’re deleting the items once you are done, but what about moving them into a Done folder? The ideal would be if it noted the date the item was marked as complete, without you having to specify it. Alternatively, if there’s a sort of Trash folder where deleted items are filed, then perhaps that could function in the same way.
The reason I mention this is that it would give you a better sense of what you’re getting done each day /week.
Cameron Booth
December 1st, 2006 at 12:59 am
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Thanks Ryan, interesting to see how you’re doing it, and compare.
The one thing that’s missing that I like about Kinkless GTD is the support for contexts (ie. @work, or @home, or @phone, or @grocerystore). Seems like there must be a happy medium between the simple solution (yours) and the more complex one (Kinkless).
I guess the bottom line is that there’s never a right way for what works for everybody.
Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive What’s the Big To-Do about To-Do? «
December 1st, 2006 at 3:26 am
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[…] Check out this video by Ryan Carson, a super-organized guy who often blogs earnest explanations of his work methods. For his to-do list, Carson uses a combination of OmniOutliner and Hipster PDA. His method requires quite a bit of dedication on a daily basis, but it’s simple enough for us mortals to imagine giving it a whirl. […]
Peter Cooper
December 1st, 2006 at 3:42 am
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I use almost the same system except it’s all on computer (I’m rarely away from it - sad, I know) and I use iCal instead. I pile up items and then drag them throughout the week.
Having seen this, though, I realize my technique is a little messy (although I like nailing stuff down to days in a calendar), so might give OmniOutliner a go to see if I can make it work :)
Ryan
December 1st, 2006 at 5:14 am
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Quick question Carson. When you enter items into “Other” and specify a project….do you have a script that automatically puts the project in the “Cat” column? Or are you manually entering that each time?
David Crowther
December 1st, 2006 at 8:01 am
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Anyone know of a windows version of OmniOutliner?
Matthew Pennell
December 1st, 2006 at 9:25 am
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I’ve been using GTDTiddlyWiki (http://shared.snapgrid.com/) to manage my work to-do lists, and Basecamp for freelance and personal stuff. I definitely would benefit from carrying pen+paper around, though every time I’ve tried before, I always wind up losing it or putting it through the wash…
Ryan Carson
December 1st, 2006 at 11:10 am
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Yup - that’s the one.
Great question. I’m not sure, unfortunately. I’d love it if someone could figure out how to do this.
Now that is a great idea. Thanks!
I have to manually choose the category.
Marc Köhlbrugge
December 1st, 2006 at 3:38 pm
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Interesting approach. I’ve yet to read GTD (I bought it some weeks ago ;)) but I’m planning to start the new year fully organised and gettings things done :).
Thanks for the video!
PS
More information on Lamy: http://www.lamy.com/
Scott
December 3rd, 2006 at 6:04 am
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Looks great. Thanks for taking the time to share this - motivated me to try out Omni Outliner.
David Crowther
December 3rd, 2006 at 1:01 pm
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For anyone using Windows, try My Life Organized (http://www.mylifeorganized.net) for something similar to OmniOutliner.
GTD più semplice sulla “carta” (e su video) at web at work
December 3rd, 2006 at 2:25 pm
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[…] Se non avete ancora letto “Getting things done” di David Allen, non potrete apprezzare appieno le indicazioni di Ryan Carson sul suo Carsonified, che in un breve video mostra come gestire il proprio tempo e le propria to do list. Dal video emergono alcuni utilissimi strumenti che riporto qui di seguito: […]
Khoa Bui
December 4th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
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Truly inspirational! :)
macophilia » Ryan Carson und GTD
December 4th, 2006 at 5:39 pm
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[…] In seinem Blog schreibt Carson, wie er GTD nutzt, unter anderem mit OmniOutliner Pro und dem Hipster PDA. Ein nettes Video gibt es auch dazu, dass ich der Bequemlichkeit halber gleich hier einbinde. Die Seite mit den Vorlagen, die im Film erwähnt wird, ist übrigens DIY Planner.com. […]
Mike Birch
December 4th, 2006 at 8:05 pm
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I have switched to Omni Outliner and am enjoying the simplicity. I am using an Applescript to move the completed items to another file. I had problems with the applescript, but I got it to work by saving it as an application.
I use Office Time and it’s great to be able to drag a task from Omni Outliner into the notes field of an Office Time session.
Emory
December 5th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
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nice use of the Lamy Pico and DIY Planner hipster cards ;)
Craig
December 5th, 2006 at 9:52 pm
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When printing, may I suggest “hoisting” the desired section (instead of collapsing the unwanted ones)? I loves me the “hoist” feature of OmniOutliner.
Ryan Carson
December 5th, 2006 at 10:06 pm
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Thanks Craig - great tip :)
topfunky
December 9th, 2006 at 6:38 am
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Great ideas. To me, it’s all about customizing your environment and finding the tools that work best for you.
I wrote a little webapp and recently made a command-line app so I can add a todo to my web-based list without skipping a beat.
I feel 8% more productive already!
http://roughunderbelly.com/
Jeff Ward
December 12th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
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This kind of video tutorial was very useful to me. I will be reworking how I use OmniOutliner to incorporate some of your process. Thanks for the post.
Brad
December 14th, 2006 at 1:53 am
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Hi Ryan,
This was a great article. I love that you utilize YouTube and show it rather then just say it. You spray and it and say it.
Annyyyways, I remember from the ‘old’ days reading the other Blog (about developing Amigo) and there were screen shots of Basecamp.
First I had TaDa, then bought Basecamp, then started using Backpack (using lists). Now I just realized that I actually own that Omni software package! I knew I had the Graffle one, but I had no idea about the Outliner, and after watching your video (again, if you just stated it, I probably would have moved on) I’m convinced to give that a shot!
Now, back to my question. I noticed you had Basecamp shots. I assume it was so ‘other developers/designers’ can share/view a To Do list.
Do you still use Basecamp in parallel with Outliner? For example, your Amigo Todos.
Whew. I just type away and things go nuts.
-cheers
Ryan Carson
December 14th, 2006 at 9:16 am
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Yes, we still use Basecamp for our project to-dos. This allows everyone to share one list.
Sigurdur Armannsson
December 17th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
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Very nice presentation. It gave me some ideas here and there.
I was wondering though as I watched : Why do you need to divide the categories into project sections when you already have each item categorized and could use the categories to sort it into groups? Seems a bit consuming to manually sort into projects.
I was just discovering this site and I like it so far. Already put the PSS into NewsFire so I won’t miss anything in the future. Thanks.
Greg Newman
December 20th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
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Great video. Really pleased with the pen tip, as I’ve been looking for a small, safe quality pen for my pocket and following your video went out and bought a Lamy Pico today and it’s great.
I Look forward to your future posts. Cheers.
Kerri
January 3rd, 2007 at 5:28 am
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loved the way you organize things! it was great to watch you on the video too. very helpful! you know ME! i’m a HUGE organizer. i have my own way, but it’s definitely not as effective as yours. way to go buddy!
Chris Hittinger
January 5th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
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Thats a interesting approach to gtd, Ryan!
maybe pocketmod could be useful for you, to print your action-lists:
www.pocketmod.com
You can use it to print your action-lists more sophisticated, e.g. with a weekly calendar.
sincerly,
Chris
Tom Markiewicz » New desktop applications for Getting Things Done
March 8th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
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[…] If you’re already using OmniOutliner, you should check out Ryan Carson’s excellent tutorial on how he integrated the software with GTD into his daily workflow. TUAW also has a sneak preview of OmniFocus, the new GTD application from OmniGroup. […]
Carsonified! » Blog Archive » Screw Apple Mail and iCal, I’m moving to Outlook 2007
March 22nd, 2007 at 8:30 am
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[…] As probably most of you know, I’m a GTD freak and I love being efficient. I thought I had it nailed with my Omni Outliner to-do method, but I found it was starting to slow me down. The fact that Omni Outliner doesn’t support due-dates and reminders is a real problem. I found myself having to go into iCal and set reminders for the really important date sensetive stuff. […]
ds
June 3rd, 2007 at 11:55 pm
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Someone mentioned Pocketmod–the great little fold up method. You should also know about PagePacker, which takes any PDF and creates a Pocketmod.
I suppose you could easily print from Omni Outliner to PDF, thence to a PagePacker pocketmod!