Time Management with
GTD® and iPad®
Emanuele Castagno
Published by Emanuele Castagno at Smashwords
Copyright 2011
Emanuele Castagno
Smashwords Edition, License Notes and Disclaimer
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Emanuele Castagno is not licensed, certified, approved, or endorsed by or otherwise affiliated with David Allen or the David Allen Company which is the creator of the Getting Things Done® system for personal productivity. GTD® and Getting Things Done® are registered trademarks of the David Allen Company. For more information on the David Allen Company's products, please visit their website: http://www.davidco.com
Trademarked names, logos, and images may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, logo, or image we use the names, logos, and images only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.
The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights
David Allen’s Getting Things Done® (GTD®) methodology
Using an iPad during collection phase
Multi-platform collector and archive: Evernote
Implementation of the GTD® framework on MS Windows & iPad
Implementation of the GTD® framework on Mac Os & iPad
Creating tasks for OmniFocus from Windows using MS Outlook
Project management using an iPad
Our main page iPad applications for GTD®
Bibliography and sources for this e-book
Emanuele Castagno fell in love with computers and telematics after seeing the movie War Games when he was 11 years old, and the same day he decided that when he grew up he would become an Electronic Engineer.
His parents encouraged him by buying the first home computer for him: a Sinclair Zx Spectrum 48 which he has kept in a theca.
Emanuele developed numerous applications on this computer, learning BASIC computer language and Assembler by himself, so that he could create rudimentary video games.
The following year, in 1984, because of his passion for this new field of knowledge, his parents further encouraged him by accepting his request for a more powerful and versatile computer: l’Apple ][e.
Thanks to this computer, Emanuel developed the first applications that he then sold to self-finance his investments in technology, ranging from an application for a dental practice to an adventure game.
Along with computers, Emanuel developed his passion for telecommunications networks, becoming an expert on the Itapac and then BBS (Bulleting Board Systems) to then being highly impressed by Mosaic and the then newly developing Internet in 1993 during his second year of Electrical Engineering studies in Genoa.
He was very interested in the mobile use of computers but the first laptops - or rather, transportable computers - were too expensive, as was the first handheld device: the l’Apple Newton.
In 1996 he founded the company FSC Consulting, along with a University colleague, to provide Internet and networking services to small businesses. In those years, he developed management and business development skills.
Four years later, in order to further increase his skills, he sold the company to his partners and moved to Milan to accept the challenges of the new economy, working firstly for Framfab and then AT Kearney. This work experience allowed him to develop project management skills and the possibility to create complex web portals with supporting business models.
In those years the first handheld devices already became his faithful companions.
In 2004 he accepted the challenge, offered to him by Altran, to start-up a new office in Genoa. In 2007 he dragged his wife to New York with the excuse of a holiday, in order to buy the first 2G iPhone, followed by all the subsequent models he managed to more conveniently purchase close to home. However, his desire for a combination of mobility, access to the network and a computer only came about in 2010 with the iPad that is always with him.
Nowadays he is still working for Altran, as a manager and key account manager in the telecommunications, electronics and media industries. His career now progresses side-by-side with his love of technology, mobility, management and business development, but not necessarily in that order.
The desire to transmit his experience and best practices in using an iPad at a professional level are what encouraged him to write this e-book, his first.
Emanuele Castagno can be contacted at the address show below:
e-mail: emanuele.castagno@gmail.com
linkedIN: http://it.linkedin.com/in/castagno
Personal website: http://emanuele.castagno.editarea.com
Since its appearance on the market in April 2010, the iPad has attracted the attention of millions of mobile users accustomed to using their laptops for their daily work.
It demanded everyone’s attention thanks to the high level of interest by the media throughout the world.
Apple fans camped outdoors in order to be the first to buy it, and many wonder if it is a nice electronic gadget, a fad, or the beginning of a new technological era.
Discussions rage on blogs and forum as to whether the Apple tablet can really be an alternative to the notebook, often too heavy and with limited autonomy compared to the new product by Steve Jobs.
Even if the iPad cannot, at all times, entirety replace our notebooks, could it, nevertheless, increase our productivity?
Well, by switching on an iPad for the first time you immediately notice that Apple has included applications that relate more to a rather professional Internet/multimedia use, but the iPad hardware, both in the first version and even more so in the second, is able to support any business application on a mobile basis.
In truth, this mainly internet/multi-media set of applications did not limit sales to many users who wish to use it as a tool to support professional activities.
The aim of this book is to provide direct feedback and guidance to transform the iPad into a tool that supports the daily work of managers or anyone who wants to use it as a business tool.
This e-book is the result of daily use of the iPad as a professional instrument, since it was launched on the market, and its aim is to focus on the use of an iPad as a support tool for the best possible time management practices.
The methodologies presented and applications recommended in this book make the iPad usable professionally. The selection of appropriate iPad/Mac OS/Windows/Web applications allows you to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of using the tablet as a time management productivity tool.
It important to remind you that, if not expressly stated, the information regards both iPad 1 and 2.
Traditional methods of time management based on a calendar and a list of activities (the famous lists "To-dos") no longer allow us to be as effective and efficient as we would like. Above all, they do not eliminate the stress related to the feeling of having too much to do and not enough time to get it done. This is because of the continual increase of information and stimuli we receive from an increasing number of sources (e-mail, fixed phone, fax, mobile phone, voice-mail, SMS, MMS, Instant Messaging, social networking, etc.) and the continually changing nature of our work.
The continuous flow of information/requests often force us to revise our list of activities to reorganize priorities.
How many times have we ended up with a list of two pages of activities we need to do more or less organized in order of priority - the priority they had when we wrote them - and how many times have we rewritten them the next day in a new page and with different priorities?
To start using a tool to manage this list serves no other purpose than to keep everything in better order, but it does not solve the problem of frequent changes of priority that daily work increasingly requires of us.
Our mind contributes to increasing our level of stress, since due to its very nature it tends to remind us constantly of the things we haven’t finished or for which we have not yet defined a completion plan.
How many times while returning home have our brains brought activities to our attention where a next step has not been identified?
Constantly thinking about something, without making any progress, is a waste of time and energy that only ends up increasing stress.
DAVID ALLEN'S GETTING THINGS DONE® (GTD®)
METHODOLOGY
David Allen, who has trained hundreds of top executives working for different multinational companies, proposes a new methodology to increase productivity and reduce stress: Getting Things Done® (GTD®).
This methodology, widely considered to be a philosophy, has several million users around the world. Just search for the term GTD® on Google® and you will get more than seventeen million results.
Allen offers a very simple and iterative (almost algorithmic) manner to manage the flow of incoming information and to sort it: a system for clearing the mind of a wealth of problems and many deadlines certain that everything has been effectively cataloged and that you will not lose any information or important appointment due to a "trust system".
«The solution - Allen explained - is to get all these things out of our heads and into a reliable system. In other words, to write them down. Once you've written all you have to do, and you have entered it into a system capable of containing any kind of task, your mind will finally be free to get things done».
The iPad is an ideal tool to manage our time according to GTD® methodology. In fact, it is able to handle a large number of input channels and show us a secure system to input all the activities and projects that are of interest:
• Email (multiple addresses accessible from a single source)
• Instant Messaging
• Social Networks:
–Google +
–Etc.
• Notes
• Voice Memo
Another feature of the iPad - given its size, weight and battery duration - is that of always being able to take it with us and therefore be available to store any thoughts in a writing or vocal format. It is therefore an ideal collector also able structure content which allows you to search quickly and easily.
The iPad is the perfect support for the "trust system" method of GTD® methodology.
Given the large number of sources through which we receive information we need to manage it is important to minimize the places where we store this information to avoid having to spend time looking for them, or risk them being forgotten about.
A simple but effective way to transform our tablets in a safe and reliable collector of ideas for the information we receive is to send an e-mail to yourself with the information received or idea or whatever we want to keep track of or process later on. To do this with an iPad you simply have to access the mail program, enter your e-mail as the recipient and write the information you need to manage later on in the heading. All this takes a few seconds.
Before going into details with regard to the methodology for implementing GTD® on iPad it is necessary to go into more detail on this methodology, starting with some definitions.
Allen defines a project as any goal that requires more than one "atomic" action to be achieved. Getting your car serviced becomes a project because it requires a number of atomic actions, such as search the internet for the workshop, calling to fix an appointment, bring and pick up the car. His methodology involves the use of more lists: the main one is "Projects", which allows us to immediately have an overview of all our key objectives and lists for different contexts such as "Call", "E-mail", "at the computer" and "waiting for", etc. You can define the list according to the activities you do, for example: if your boss is at another location and you meet him/her once a week you can "dedicate" an ad-hoc list to him/her in which to record all the topics/requests you need to share with him/her without worrying about forgetting any of them or forcing yourself to remember. In this way it is enough to meet your manager with an eye on the list dedicated to him/her, checking through the items discussed. In this way you can be sure not to forget anything, and it allows you to calmly focus solely on the issues that need to be shared.
In the "waiting for" list you have to include all the actions you have delegated or requests made for which we are awaiting a response or an outcome. In the example of servicing your car, the "Projects" list will include the item "car service", and the "Calls" list will have "Fix appointment for car service", and so on. A key part of the methodology is a weekly check of your system. During this check you have to tick off the lists for all the other activities: for example, for the "waiting for" list you will have to send or carry out reminders, review the diary for the past week and the following week, process all the notes taken during the week and turn them into projects and the atomic actions necessary to achieve them. Allen recommends carrying out your weekly reviews in your office so you have everything at hand: however, for those who are on the move for their work in many cases this is almost impossible, which is where the iPad comes in. It allows you to carry out your weekly review wherever you are, whether or not you are connected.
It may be useful prefixing the list with "@", thus creating lists such as "@Waiting for, @Call, etc.". This is because many e-mail clients, or who use any software that automatically performs an alphabetical ordering will the letter "A" at the top of the list”.
The GTD® methodology consists of five stages of mastering workflow management. Let us see how our tablet can help for each of these:
1. Collect
2. Process
3. Organize
4. Review
5. Do
We collect all the things that draw our attention, whether they belong to our private or professional lives. Let us remember that we do not have two separate lives but only one. With the term things we mean any information, thought, idea, big or small, important or not, we would like to be different than they are at the moment, and that therefore we wish to change:
1. Formalize everything you have in mind through notes, e-mail, graphic notes, etc.
2. Minimize the collection buckets where you concentrate everything you formalize or that comes to your attention, reducing them as much as possible for our tablet. The iPad is able to replace multiple physical devices used to store information such as:
–Document holders
–Block notes/handheld device for notes
–Audio Recorder
3. Empty the collection buckets on a regular basis. This does not mean carrying out all actions necessary to complete projects or performing all the assigned tasks, but organizing them into actions according to the context.
An example of the collection phase is how you can use e-mail. If you are on a train or in a waiting room and you get an idea you would like to make happen you can collect it by formalizing it in a few notes in an e-mail directly from your iPad and sending it to yourself. In this example, the process of writing an e-mail is the collection of ideas, while the mailbox of your iPad is the container that you will subsequently need to process.