Implementing Getting Things Done, while using a Blackberry - Part Four January 12, 2006
Parts One, Two and Three deal with the Collection and Processing stages of GTD. One last piece in relation to Processing, and then we’ll move on.
The Weekly Review – with Added Blackberry Goodness
So, the weekly review in and of itself, shouldn’t need any real explanation here. I have mine scheduled for 2pm, for an hour, every Friday. My theory is that if I’ve missed anything, I’ve still got an hour or two of the working week to deal with it, and in the worst case where I’ve missed something that needs to be ready on Monday – well, I’ll be working through the weekend that week!
The “extra bits” that I’ve found helpful to add into this process, with respect to keeping things running smoothly with the Blackberry:
- Review and Purge unnecessary Categories. In either the Address Book application, or the Tasks application, hit the menu button and take Filter. Take a look at the categories you have there – sometimes extra ones slip in. They may be categories that you only needed for a little while earlier that week, or misspellings, but in any case – hit the menu button again and take “Delete”. Remember that Categories are shared across the applications, so while you may not need a “Restaurant” category in the Tasks, you probably shouldn’t delete it if you’ve been using that as a category over in the Address Book.
- Back your Blackberry up. Chances are, you’re synchronizing to a desktop application such as Microsoft Outlook, and that’s good. But not all aspects of the Blackberry get backed up that way – the most notable example being the “Password Keeper” application that was introduced for the v4.0 devices. You need to do this from the desktop client – with your Blackberry connected via the cable, go into “Backup and Restore”, hit “Backup” and select a filename and storage location. Hit “Save” and the Blackberry will take care of itself for you. I’m not going to write about the Restore process here, because every situation will be different, and depending what you need to restore dictates how you restore. But you don’t get that option if you haven’t taken the backup in the first place…
- Blackberry been slowing down? From the home screen, go into Options, and then Status. Have a look at the “File Free” and “File Total” lines – right now, as I write this, I have “11466800 bytes free” and “29229056 bytes total”. Looks like about 40%, so I’ll skip this part this week. When I get to around 60%, and assuming that I’m not on the road, I use the desktop client again, cable-synchronized, and again into “Backup and Restore”. Hit “Advanced”, and a list of databases within the Blackberry come up on the right-hand side. I select “Messages” and “Attachment Data” at a very minimum, although I often select “MMS Messages”, “Purged Messages” and “SMS Messages” if they’ve been stacking up (you can see the number of entries to the right of the database name). When you’ve selected one or more databases, hit the “Clear” button and follow the “are you sure?” prompts. That will wipe those entries from the Blackberry, freeing up the memory space, and the response time of the Blackberry. It’s important to realize that you’re deleting the messages from the Blackberry, and not from your desktop. The only downside to this approach is if you’re used to accessing messages on the Blackberry that you processed through it x days ago. You won’t be able to after this step. There are other management options you can use, such as within the “Messages” application, setting “Keep Messages” within the options to something like 30 days. I personally don’t do that, I’d rather have the personal control, but, as the saying goes, “your mileage may vary”. Do use some form of message purging process, however, because your Blackberry will fill up and start performing badly as a result (it’ll start automatically deleting older messages to make room for newer ones, per message, i.e. dynamically).
- At this stage, you shouldn’t have any business cards lying around, or notes in your Inbox to yourself, etc., that need to be moved over into the Blackberry and/or the rest of your trusted system, but hey, it’s a weekly review. Just double-check to be sure.
All being well, that’s the Collection and Processing stages of the Methodology taken care of. In the comments, and in direct mail, I’ve had some suggestions to “tweak” how I’m doing things. I’m going to come back to those in another post, and talk through them.
Organizing
I’m including this section here, as I said I’d map the Blackberry to the full model in the book, but basically, in GTD terms – you’ve already handled the Organizing part of the process if and when you did your Collection with the Blackberry; that is, you decided whether to place an item directly into it’s correct place within the system, or make a note elsewhere, or send yourself an email reminder, as appropriate.
Reviewing
Reviewing and Doing have a habit of blending together when you’re “out and about” and using a tool like the Blackberry, but there are a couple of things that probably need to be thought about and done:
- In a section called “What to Look At, When”, David Allen’s first item is “Look at Your Calendar First”. Assuming you’re synchronizing the calendar back to the office system, it should be the last thing you look at before heading to bed (“What time is my first appointment tomorrow? Do I have to do anything before I leave for work?” and depending on your circumstances, the first thing you look at in the morning – has anyone in a different time zone sent a meeting request through to you for that day? How does that affect the rest of your plans? (I realize this is a very corporate view of the world. If it doesn’t apply, just ignore it. If it does apply… Well, you know what I’m talking about!).
- Tasks. Calendar. They’re all there. As you’re going about your business, you can readily call up any of your Next Action lists, or your email (and let’s face it, there’s a reason it’s called the Crackberry by some!), and do whatever’s appropriate for the situation you’re in. Ten minutes in the coffee shop before your next appointment? Blackberry out, home screen, “T” for Tasks, hit the menu button and choose “Filter”, and pick something appropriate – “@Calls”, perhaps?
For reference, Reviewing is where David Allen puts the Weekly Review process in his book. It’s my preference when thinking specifically of working with a split system – Outlook and the Blackberry – to put the Morning Review and the Weekly Review into the Processing section. Personal preferences vary, and all that.
Doing
Doing gets its own section… Hmm… Wonder what we’ve been “doing” so far? I agree with separating out Processing and Doing from a “purist” standpoint, and discussing the whole methodology, but as I alluded to above, these stages tend to get blurred – compressed – when you’re working in the mobile context.
It’s worth remembering the “Four-Criteria Model for Choosing Actions in the Moment”, from the book; you’ve got:
- Context
- Time available
- Energy available
- Priority
And a handy-dandy list of everything in your Blackberry, to readily choose from!
That about does it for this piece. I’ve got another couple of posts on this all lined up:
- The MindMaps that I used to outline and produce this document (as much for my own reference as anything else);
- An all-in-one downloadable of the work;
- Suggestions on other sites that may be relevant and useful in relation to this; and
- Comments on the suggested changes referenced in comments and emails.
Thanks to everyone that has left comments, either here on the site, via email, or via their own websites. Questions and suggestions are still welcome, via whatever method you’re most comfortable with.
Fixated? Me???
CBS News | Catch The Buzz On The Blogs | January 12, 2006 12:33:54
Melissa McNamara seems to think so…
Gary Slinger, a blogger rather fixated on organization, has tried to implement the book’s advice using a Blackberry. He writes, “Collection – getting commitments, obligations and ideas into the trusted system, where they can later be processed – is a key element of the Blackberry’s usefulness to me.”
It’s certainly a major part of my work and life right now.
