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Implementing Getting Things Done, while using a Blackberry - Part Two January 3, 2006

Part One Can Be Found Here

Creating Tasks and Next Actions

OK - the heart of the GTD system. Next Actions, represented within the Blackberry and Outlook world, and then mapped back to contexts through the use of Categories.

Task input on the Blackberry is relatively easy – from the home screen, hit “Tasks”, and then do one of two things:

Remember I said that the Operating System had to be v4.0 or above? This application is the major reason why. If you didn’t check your version earlier, look at the Task screen – no Category line, no GTD compatibility. See you cellular provider for an OS upgrade.

Blackberry Tasks - Setting Categories

Now.. We get into an area where the Blackberry will work. It won’t necessarily work in a pleasant, user-friendly and screen-attractive manner. I said yesterday “…if you work with the tools that you have, and are open to adaptation and interpretation (of the processes and methods), you’ll probably be pretty happy with the results”. This is one of those areas.

Scroll down to the category line. Hit the space-bar, and you’ll be taken into the category selection list. First compromise point – you’re going to see categories from every aspect of Outlook – Calendar, Email, Contacts, Tasks, Notes. Second compromise – the categories turn up whether they’re populated, or not (for instance, I have a context/category @Calls that I use very rarely. It shows up on the list every time – good from a creation perspective, bad from a retrieval one, and the Blackberry doesn’t discriminate).

Third Compromise – the Blackberry doesn’t prioritize the “@” symbol alphabetically. So, on mine I see “@Agendas”, followed by “Bars” (a contacts category), followed by “@Calls”. Caveat: the Blackberry emulator that I am using for screenshots for this work DOES correctly sort the “@” symbol. The version number of the emulator is slightly higher than my actual Blackberry OS as well. Thus, this may have been fixed in a newer release for the actual handhelds. If you have experience confirming or denying this, I’d be interested in your comments.

Final compromise in respect of the Category functionality on the Blackberry – if you have a Filter applied, so that you are only looking at one context (i.e. you were previously in retrieval/processing/doing mode), and you create a new Task, the Blackberry will NOT automatically try to apply that Category. In general use, I don’t find this a nuisance, as I may add an “@Call” item, then a “@Shopping” one, and finally a “@Computer” item. That “@Shopping” one though… Adding five or six grocery items, and having to set the category every time – gets old after a while.

So, that’s it. Task created; reminder and due dates created as you see fit for your own implementation of the system, and a category applied. Save it to the Blackberry, and let it replicate to Outlook.

From a Blackberry perspective, if you were to go into any of the retrieval stages – processing, organizing, reviewing, doing – that task has had all you need doing done to it. If you want to be able to do any of those stages within Outlook – as part of a morning review, or a weekly review – there’s one more step to be done, if you’re using the Netcentrics addin.

The Netcentrics addin adds specific fields to the Outlook forms for “Action” and “Project”. I’m not going to cover the Project field – it’s got it’s pro’s and con’s. Action though is key to being able to use the views that are added to Outlook. If you’re not using the Addin, the chances are that you’re using Outlook views that work around the Category field, so you’ll be OK. Addin users – look at your tasks list, by Active Action, and look at the actions that have filtered to the top with no Action. Those are the ones you need to open up and allocate the appropriate Action code (and Project too, if you’re so inclined). That data won’t synchronize back to the Blackberry, but it’s a necessary extra step to be able to use both parts of the system to their fullest extent.

There are a couple of aspects to retrieving tasks that need to be converted further – those will come in the next sections – this section is meant to focus on the Collection stage of the process.

When you’re in a Hurry

I mentioned this in yesterday’s post as well, but it bears repeating here – don’t want to create a new task, find the right category (indeed, create the right category if it doesn’t already exist), set the right date details (if you know them), and so forth?

Just send yourself an email.

If you’ve got “Dial From The Home Screen” disabled (from the phone screen, go into Options, General Options, and it’s towards the bottom) then you have hotkey access from the home screen to most applications. “T” for Tasks, “L” for Calendar, “M” for Messages for instance.

There’s also “C” for Create. You can create email, SMS, MMS, PIN Messages, whatever. The system will default to email if you use shortcuts – my surname is Slinger, and I’m in my own address book as that, with my correct email details. I can get to it by hitting “C” from the home screen followed by “SL”. That selects my name. “Enter”, and I’m creating an email. If your own name doesn’t lend itself to such access (I hate to pick on “Smith” and “Jones”, but you get the idea), consider creating a fake entry for yourself – “zz” for instance. “C Z Z Enter” and you’re in. Four keystrokes from the home key.

Fill in as much detail as you feel you’ll need to be able to properly interpret and process the item when you come back to it as part of your Processing stage, Send it to yourself, and you’re done. This step alone is a major reason I put a “Morning Review” into my GTD & Blackberry methodology when I started it – I’ve been known to enter thirty or forty notes to myself in this manner in the course of an evening, and then taken about ten minutes the next day, on a proper computer, to process them into the system. It would have taken me a lot longer than that to directly enter them on the Blackberry. Some of them also came under David Allen’s two-minute rule – 20 seconds to send an email to myself, versus two minutes or more to actually record it properly, and then the next day, on reading the note, less than two minutes to process, and delete the item, keeping it out of the “proper” system entirely.

More on Morning Reviews in the next installment.

Continues…

Coming up in following posts:

Part Three Can Be Found Here

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