{"id":512,"date":"2018-02-18T18:15:12","date_gmt":"2018-02-18T23:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/?p=512"},"modified":"2018-02-19T07:12:10","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T12:12:10","slug":"getting-organized-in-2018-getting-things-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/blog\/2018\/02\/18\/getting-organized-in-2018-getting-things-done\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting organized in 2018 – Getting things done"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting organized in 2018 – links to the series<\/a><\/p>\n

Previous posts in this series<\/a> have outlined how I combine pen and paper<\/a> with OmniFocus<\/a>, Evernote<\/a>, and Dropbox<\/a> to keep myself organized, but they didn\u2019t describe how they all fit together. I also didn\u2019t mention that years ago when everything was in my paper DayTimer<\/a> I had already stumbled on one of the principles that David Allen preaches in Getting Things Done<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\"Capture<\/a>

Capture what has your attention (from gettingthingsdone.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Everything<\/strong><\/em> I need to do gets into OmniFocus. Once it\u2019s there, it either gets done or I decide that it doesn\u2019t need to get done, but I don\u2019t have to think about it any more. My weekly review will remind me that it\u2019s there until its either done or deleted. I include links to Evernote or Dropbox when necessary.<\/p>\n

When I receive an e-mail that needs attention later, I forward it to OmniFocus. Once it\u2019s there, it\u2019s a task I have to deal with. I don\u2019t like seeing red overdue tasks, so sending the e-mails to OmniFocus accomplishes two things:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. It helps me keep my e-mail inbox clean<\/strong><\/em>. I move e-mails I forward to OmniFocus into a follow up folder in Outlook (named @Follow-Up so it\u2019s near the top of the folder list). OmniFocus contains all the details I need to be reminded of, but having the original e-mail handy means that it\u2019s easy to reply when I need to.<\/li>\n
  2. It ensures that I take an action on the e-mail<\/strong><\/em>. My first action is simply to get it into OmniFocus. My next action is triggered when I see it in my OmniFocus inbox and its moved to its final destination in OmniFocus.1<\/a><\/sup> Once an item gets to its final destination, it\u2019s in a project that gets reviewed regularly. I often assign items a due date when I putting them into a project. I hate seeing red bubbles on the app, whether on iPhone, iPad, MacBook, or iMac, so I either complete the task, reschedule it to a later date,2<\/a><\/sup> or give up and decide to drop the task (meaning that I delete it from OmniFocus).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The same principle works with my Everything notebook<\/a>. Usually at the end of the day I will review my Everything notebook to identify tasks that need to go into OmniFocus. Those tasks may have arisen as action items from meetings, or they may be thoughts that occurred to me when it was easier to jot them down than enter them in OmniFocus. Whatever the reason, the tasks get into OmniFocus, and I forget about them – because OmniFocus won\u2019t, and it will remind me.<\/p>\n

    My weekly review is pretty simple. Every Sunday:<\/p>\n