Getting Things Done with Office 2.0
Thursday, January 12th 2006 | Ismael Ghalimi
If there is one management book that significantly impacted my work last year, it certainly is David Allen’s excellent Getting Things Done. I have been using David’s methods for personal organization over the past nine months, and all I can say is that it works. If you have not read his book, I recommend that you do, but if you’re familiar with the GTD principles, here is how I am putting them into action using a variety of Office 2.0 tools. I am publishing this article as a separate page in order to reduce the size of the post and update it over time.
Entry filed under: Office 2.0
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Though I can’t speak with knowledge about the various tools you have plugged into your system, or even salesforce.com for that matter (haven’t had the bandwidth for that R&D yet), this is an elegant exposition of your implementation of GTD. And I appreciate your spreading the word and acknowledgements, as well as your recap at the end of the article about the essential principles that matter the most.
Great post. I’ve been a GTD fan for 3 or 4 years, and have constantly fine tuned and reviewed the applications and tools I use to support my personal productivity system. I had a blog post recently about My Favourite Productivity Applications which has some similar themes. You may be interested, and I would appreciate your comments.
Ismael, what version of Salesforce are you using, Enterprise?
Have you reviewed the recently launched (this past Monday) AppExchange for Salesforce. This would probably make a nice App for other Salesforce users! — Mark
Mark,
I am using the Enterprise version of Salesforce.com. And indeed, I have reviewed the recently-released AppExchange for Salesforce.com. In fact, and according to Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com’s CEO, I was the first to feature them on a blog after they launched. Regarding your idea of developing an AppExchange for the GTD, this is something that I have recently suggested to David Allen (I do not want to infrige on his copyright). If other people are interested, just let me know.
Getting Things Done…
I’m not a David Allen GTD’er, but Ismael at the IT|Redux blog is and he has a great write-up detailing how he is using Salesforce.com as part of his personal organization process…
IT|Redux…
Ismael Ghalimi’s site IT|Redux is worth checking out. It’s early stage, but he has already built an interesting set of links to what he called Office 2.0 technology. Yes folks, its Web Office vs Office 2.0! I wonder which term…
Getting Things Done with Office 2.0…
Ismael Ghalimi over at IT|Redux has posted an intriguing article of how he uses what he calles Office 2.0 (a collection of web applications) to implement David Allen’s Getting Things Done. Even if you decide the web tools aren’t for…
Ismael,
Perhaps ajaxSketch could be used as a rudimentary mind mapper until something better comes along?
Dave,
It could, but all the meta-data would be lost. That’s a tough one…
Here you go: Mayomi.com is a Web 2.0 online mind mapping application.
Try it out Mr. Ghalimi. Enjoy!
Manny,
Thank you so much for the link. Very impressive!
Web 2.0 and the empty computer…
Over the years, having moved around most of life and been one of those guys who used to be the first line with passport in hand when the boss needed someone to go somewhere I started looking for ways of taking my computer with me…
Ismael,
Any reason why you are using Salesforce vs. an Open Source application such as SugarCRM?
Ryan,
Not really. I just started with Salesforce.com and am used to it.
I am using SugarCRM and I am quite happy with it.
I am glad that you also like GTD and Soundview summaries.
I have read GTD, and am trying to practice David Allen’s basic concepts, like the collection habit, outcome-based and next action thinking. But I find it bit difficult to remain focused. Another great tool, which is used extensively, is Google Reader, as it helps me staying updated with views from great thinkers like you and many more.
I am also a great fan of Soundview summaries, especially their MP3 version. I listen to them while driving back to the office. Another concept which I try to practice is important vs. urgent, but here I again find it difficult to remain focused. Have you seen any tools that combine the important vs. urgent concept from Stephen Covey, and the next action concept from David Allen?
By the way, if you want to read summaries of many business books, you can do it free of charge courtesy BEA System. Visit this site and register your self. On this site you will find several great articles on SOA/Portal/IT Management, and references to book summaries that have been made available to you by BEA System.
Syed,
Thanks for the link.
Regarding your question, I do not know any tool that combines both approaches from a feature standpoint. I think it has more to do with the specific methodology you adopt when using any tool you like, especially when it comes down to the issue of important vs. urgent prioritization.
Best regards -Ismael
Ismael,
did you try Remember The Milk? Even though not specifically designed for GTD, it’s easily customizable. I just created one list for the “now” items, and one for the “later” items. I am trying to use the tags to categorize them.
Antoine,
No, I have not. Salesforce.com does the trick for me.
Best regards -Ismael
I am a new user of Salesforce.com Professional Edition. Does anyone know of a way to customize it so it is user friendly with the GTD system?
Thanks -Mark
For some reason I can’t seem to access this post — when I click on the link it brings me right back to this page. Can you e-mail it to me?
Tiffany,
I fixed the link. -Ismael
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