GTD and Evernote.

Written by Ben Anderson.  

For those of you who are not familiar with GTD, it's a popular time management and organizational system that stands for "Getting Things Done".  The system was originally developed by David Allen and described in his appropriately titled book "Getting Things Done".  If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it - it's a great book that clearly describes his system in an easy to understand manner that causes the book to go by quickly.  I'm going to touch on the basic concepts in this series of articles as I outline my implementation, however the book goes into much more detail on each aspect and provides a host of resources that will lead you through the process from start to finish. The basic idea is that we all have little things that we know we need to do that are floating around in our heads.  Our mind knows that it needs to remember to do these things and so relegates part of our brain's processing power to keeping a reminder tab floating just within consciousness.  When you add all those bits and reminders to yourself up, it ends up drawing a significant amount of your brain power.  Not to mention what it does to your stress levels. 

The idea behind GTD is to get all of those pesky little tidbits out of your head and into an organizational system that allows you to know, with confidence, that everything has been captured and will be presented to you when it's needed.  Once you are confident you've captured everything you need to do, and have organized all the bits and pieces that are floating around in your head constantly, then you can truly focus on what it is that you're working on at the time. 

It's a widely known fact that your productivity is related to your focus.  With less distractions you can get more done.  This is a system to reduce distractions, empty your head of the clutter, and focus on the things that matter.

GTD Introduction.

GTD is essentially a system of lists.  Through the organization of the various lists, you gain the ability to organize your life in such a way that the things that need to get done, get done.  Your major projects move forward and continue to make progress.  And most importantly, nothing gets lost in the shuffle - the system efficiently tracks all of the things that need doing.  It provides you with a mechanism to get your commitments and your tasks out of your head and into a reliable system.

Of course, for this system to be effective, you need a reliable list management strategy.  Something that allows you to organize the various lists that you work with throughout the GTD system.  Some people prefer paper lists, which work fine, but are ultimately somewhat clumsy, require lots of rewriting and aren't redundant.  If you lose that notebook, stack of papers, or manila folder, you're finished. 

I have to recommend a fully electronic version of the system.  With today's technology, specifically with smart phones and the Internet, you have every advantage to putting your system in digital format.  Now, I've played with several different applications and mechanisms for managing my GTD system, including Outlook and OneNote - both Microsoft products that tend to do very well.  However, those products tend to be expensive, not easily synchronized for redundancy, and lacking in some key features that can really make your system powerful.  (Yes, I'm talking about tags)

Evernote.

Enter Evernote.  Evernote is a free application rooted in the cloud.  You essentially just sign up for their service and then create all of your lists and notebooks in the cloud, on their servers.  They provide you with several mechanisms to add and edit those notebooks, including a powerful web-based interface you can use wherever you find an Internet connection, and a fat client that you can install on your primary (and other) machines that gives you a rich, application experience.  They also have a mobile web-interface, and several mobile fat clients (currently the iPhone, the Blackberry, and the Palm Pre).  You also have several additional ways to add notes into your notebooks, via sending emails to a personalized email address, SMS messaging notes to your account, or taking pictures and sending them to your account.  The fat client has a web clip feature that allows you to grab any content while you are surfing and throw it into an Evernote note.  With a free Dial2Go account, you can even transcribe notes directly into your notebook.

Inbox.

Examining the many different input methods for Evernote leads us directly into the first phase of the GTD system.  Collecting.  Since your goal with this system is to get all of the random thoughts, ideas, and tasks out of your head and into an organized system, we utilize an inbox to capture all of this information.  Your inbox is an unsorted free-for-all of notes and snippets that came out of your head.  When that information is stored safely in a trusted repository, your mind can focus purely on the task at hand without constantly spending background cycles thinking about or trying to remember these items.  In Evernote, your inbox is simply any note without a Tag.  Tags represent a list (or lists) that these notes become members of, but prior to processing, they are simply sitting in the inbox.

I won't go through the entire process of getting all of your data out of your head and into your inbox; David Allen has some really great techniques and tools for helping you do that in his book.  Suffice it to say, that's where everything starts, and as you continue to utilize the system, everything passes (even if briefly) through the inbox.

Processing.

The second phase in the GTD system is Processing.  This consists of going through your inbox and organizing it.  Each time you process, everything in your inbox has something done with it, and nothing goes back into your inbox.  When processing is complete, your inbox is empty.  The frequency at which you perform your processing is a variable of your particular style, how quickly your inbox fills up, and how you structure your time.  I find that I like to process on the fly, so I will run through the inbox at least once a day, if not a couple of times a day just sorting things out and staying on top of it.  Some people will process less frequently, nothing wrong with that, as long as you process frequently enough to trust that things you put in your inbox will be processed timely.  It is absolutely critical that you completely trust your system, that is the only way that you can clear your head and completely rely on it. 

When processing the notes in your inbox, the first decision you have to make for each note is whether or not it is actionable, whether or not the note represents a task that you need to do.  If it does not, then it goes into the trash, onto a Someday/Maybe list, or into a reference file.  In the Evernote world, your Someday/Maybe list and reference files are represented by Tags.  Someday/Maybe has it's own tag, and is the place for things that you do want to do, eventually, but are not on your immediate radar.  You'll review this list on a regular basis to decide if you actually want to do any of these things.  Your reference file can be as simple or complicated as you'd like.  Some people prefer to dump all of their reference data into a single bucket and rely on the search functionality to find what they need.  Personally I prefer more organization, and therefore have several various buckets/tags that I use to organize my reference data.

If the note is actionable, you either do it, delegate it, or defer it.  In Evernote, if the note is actionable, it gets a context tag (see next section).  This provides a way to search/filter on actions that are incomplete, and a marker to indicate that a task has been completed.  If the task takes less than 2 minutes to complete, just do it right then.  There's no point in entering it into your system when you can just knock it out right then and there.  If you can't do it right then, then you can either delegate it to someone else, or defer it until later when you have time/energy/opportunity to take care of it yourself.  If you need to delegate it, do so immediately and then tag the note with a @waiting tag. 

Context Tags.

If you are postponing the action for later, then you need to tag it with a context tag.  GTD utilizes the concept of context to organize your tasks.  This allows you to focus only on the tasks that are relevant to you in any given situation.  The context tags that I use in my system are @agenda, @errands, @home, and @computer.  The @agenda context are for actions that I need to meet with, talk to, or somehow directly interface with another person.  These are often phone calls that I need to make, or things that I need to bring up in the next meeting.  These can usually be accomplished whenever I am somewhere with my phone.  The @errands context are things that need to be done while I'm out of the house.  Things I need to grab at the grocery store, items to drop off at the post office, or an art gallery that I want to visit.  The @home context represents things that I need to do at home that aren't on the computer.  Hanging pictures, working on my truck, clean the living room, are all things that can be done during the hours I'm not in my home office.  For when I am in the office, or sitting in front of the computer, I have the @computer context. 

Note:  If something needs to be done at a specific time (i.e. go to a baseball game, pick up Fluffy from the vet, etc.), an event gets created on Google Calendar with a reminder.  You can use whatever calendaring application your currently using, as long as it has a reminder function.  Once it's captured on the calendar, it no longer needs to be maintained in Evernote, you can consider it processed and move on.

Now all of your Next Actions are sorted into context sensitive lists.  By clicking on the @errands tag just before you head out, you can review all of the things that you need to do while you're out and about.  Scanning the @computer tag list while you're sitting at your desk puts in front of you, all of the things that you can do right then and there.  When you complete an item, replace the context tag with the Done tag.  This removes it from your current to do lists and archives it.  This is analogous to checking the check box to indicate completion, but provides a way to go back and review your completed tasks if needed.

The GTD system purposely does not assign priority to your tasks.  The idea is that each time you are in a context and ready to accomplish something, you refer to your list and evaluate which items to work on.  This is done with a combination of intuition, energy level, time available, etc.  This tends to be a very effective way to process your lists, however some people will find that their lists are too long to process this way and desire some additional organization system.  We will cover this later in the article in the Advanced topics section.

Saved Searches as Dynamic To Do Lists.

It is worth mentioning here, I also created an "!INBOX" saved search that just scans for any untagged notes.  As I stated at the beginning of this article, any note that doesn't have a tag is in the Inbox and ready for processing.  As I process it and add the appropriate tags to it, it automatically falls out of the Inbox.  The !INBOX search allows you easy access to these notes for processing.  It can be accomplished with the search context of: -tag:* This tells Evernote to display any notes that aren't tagged at all.

I also find it helpful to build an "All To Do" search as well.  This just gives you an overview of all of your open actions, regardless of context.  You can build this search by using the more advanced search syntax - this is where Evernote gets really powerful.  The search string looks like this: any: tag:@home tag:@computer tag:@errands tag:@agenda 

Specialty contexts.

I would like to point out, that I employ several 'specialty' contexts for certain types of notes and actions.  These are just additional layers of description and organization that I have found useful over time to help separate out frequently used types of tasks.  The first is @dining.  This tag I use for restaurants that I want to try or recipes that I've found and want to make at some point.  I like to try different restaurants around town and so I am constantly picking up ideas for new places to eat.  This organizes them in a single list so that when I am hungry and looking for a place to eat, I can simply refer to this context and pick one from the list.  Once I've eaten there (and Yelp'ed the restaurant), then I complete the task and it gets archived. 

I also use a @read/review context tag for items that I want to spend some time studying or reviewing, this includes things that I find around the web, books, etc.  This tag doesn't get used all that often since most of my reading occurs within Google Reader, and gets starred there if it is something I want to make sure I read.  Likewise, if it is a single webpage that I'm interested in reading, it gets a specific (Read Later) bookmark in my browser that indicates I want to return to that information.  However, for things that exist outside of those two mediums, the @read/review tag captures those actions.

Lastly I use a @habit tag to indicate actions that I perform over time.  Most often these are actions that I am developing into a habit.  Once they are completely habitualized, I no longer need the reminder and can tag them Done to indicate they're completed, however during the habitualizing process I use this tag and review it daily to remind myself of the items I am working on.

Projects.

Now lets talk about projects. GTD defines a project as anything that requires more than one task to accomplish.  So if there are multiple steps to accomplishing any one thing, it's considered a project.  Using this definition, you may find that you have quite a few projects going on!  That's okay, with this system they'll all be kept track of easily and you will have a sure-fire way to ensure you're making progress on each one.

The most important concept around processing projects is that they must ALL be reviewed on a regular basis (generally weekly) and scoured for next actions.  Each project should be thought through at least enough to identify what the next action is to move that project forward.  That next action then is added to your To Do lists.

Organizationally, each project has it's own tag in Evernote.  I generally precede all of my project tags with a period (.), this is simply to identify that tag as a project tag, so that I don't mistake it for part of my reference materials or other portion of my notes system.  One note will represent the root of the project, including the overview of what you plan to accomplish, maybe a rough outline of the tasks that will be required, or any other relevant information.  That note will be tagged with the project tag, as well as the "Active Projects" tag.  This system of tagging allows for several dynamic lists to be generated.

First, the Active Projects tag will give you a simple, high-level listing of all of the active projects that you are currently working on.  This is valuable to review on a regular basis to ensure that you have next actions identified for each one.  As a project is completed, replace the Active Projects tag with the Done tag.  This will remove it from your view and store it safely away for later reference if needed.






Second, the project tag itself will give you a way to correlate any additional project support notes.  Any action items (completed or pending), future actions, random notes or web clippings that relate, notes that you jot down, or additional planning activities, can all be referenced quickly and easily via the tag for that project.





A Note on Organizing Tags.

By now you're probably thinking that you're racking up quite a few tags, and your sidebar in Evernote is getting crowded and a little out of control.  Not to mention the fact that you're having to scroll to your Saved Searches.  Evernote allows the nesting of tags, thus allowing you to create a hierarchy.  This is performed by dragging and dropping the tags onto each other.  So each of the project tabs gets made a child of the Active Projects tag (or subsequently the Done tag when completed).  This allows you to collapse all of your projects when you're not reviewing them.  I also created a 'Contexts' tag that I use to nest all of my context tags under. 

This is where the real power of Evernote comes into play.  The ability to tag notes, and with multiple tags, allows you to generate dynamic lists based on note attributes.  Since GTD is essentially a list management system, this provides you with a lot of flexibility to make your system make sense and ensure that you can get to the information you need to get to, when you need to get to it.

Below you can see how my dashboard is laid out, I've got my Saved Search "All To Do" highlighted so that I can quickly review all of my open tasks.  You can see they are easily sorted by what project they are a part of for easy comprehension.





Summary.

That completes my overview of how I use Evernote to manage my GTD system and keep my world in order.  I've really only discussed the mechanics of the system, and just enough of the theory to make it make sense.  However, I highly recommend that you read Getting Things Done by David Allen.  It's a quick read and you'll find that you breeze through it, as you will continually be saying "Ah, of course!  That makes so much sense!".  It really is a simple, common sense system, that's got just the right amount of process and guidelines to ensure that you can count on it.  And that is the key to any information management system, you have to be confident that you can get to the information you want, without missing any key elements that might be buried somewhere deep where you can find it.

Getting Things Done and Evernote provide a way to keep all of your balls in the air successfully, and ensure that you aren't spinning your wheels incessantly, but are truly moving forward and making progress on the goals that you want to accomplish.

There are several other aspects to this system that I consider advanced topics, extensions on the base system to provide more functionality, how to more fully integrate it into your life, what to do if you have too many tasks, how to integrate with your email, and how to use this to accomplish your life's ambitions.  I will be posting those topics in an upcoming article.  Stay tuned by subscribing to our RSS feed which will automatically deliver new articles to you as they are released.