Previous iterations of my ‘method’ involved using MS OneNote, Evernote, Google Docs, Producteev, Google Notebook, Google Tasks, Astrid Tasks for Android, Remember the Milk, a Wiki, or some combination. But each had one more missing features or failures that made it almost too cumbersome to manage once I really started using it daily.
Then, one, day, my sister introduced me to Springpad. I admit that I didn’t like it at first. But over the past several months, it has met my every need. And I am still finding new ways to use it to make it even better. With that said, it isn’t perfect, but I’ll get to those later.
So, “How do I use Springpad?” you ask.
First, if you haven’t already, read these three articles:
- Getting Things Done with Google Notebook
- Practicing Simplified GTD
- Getting Results the Agile Way (Getting Started Guide)
The second is one example of how you can stick with the basic principles of GTD, but water it down to better suit your own needs.
The third, is just an intro to Agile Results. If you have a chance, you can read the entire book online for free.
I provided the above links as background, because my own method is a combination of both GTD and the Agile Way... with some of my own personal tweaks (apologies in advance to purists of either).
My Springpad Setup - The Notebooks
That’s the basic foundation. I do have a few other notebooks for different purposes, but for now, this will get us where we want to be as a starting point.
My Springpad Setup - The Tags
Keeping with the GTD method, I primarily use 5 tags:
Putting it all Together - Processing
As I mentioned earlier, as things come up throughout the day, I drop them into the Braindump notebook. Any ideas or tasks get entered manually. The notable exception are tasks that I can do immediately and take less than 2 minutes (eg, replying to an email). If I can do it right away in less than 2 minutes, I just do it. Everything else goes into Braindump. But emails that require some research before replying or something I just can’t do at the moment (because it’s personal, but I’m at the office), I forward to my Springpad email address (using some markup in the Subject line) so that it gets put into the Braindump notebook.
Every few hours, or when I’m in-between tasks and switching mental gears, I ‘process’ my Braindump. This means going through the items in the Braindump notebook, tagging them and then putting them where they belong. For example, a work-related task I can do right away would be tagged “Next Action”, then moved into the “@Office” context notebook. If someone sent me an article to read online, I tag that as “Next Action” and move it to the “@Computer” context notebook. A non-actionable, informational e-mail about a project doesn’t get a tag, and just gets moved to the relevant project’s notebook.
I continue processing my Braindump until it’s empty.
When I’m finished processing, I can go to the context notebook (e.g. @Office), filter on “Next Actions” and all I see are those thing I need to do and can do right now. (Yes, one of the powerful features is that tags stick with the item when you move it to different notebooks.)
Putting it all Together - Projects
Managing smaller projects is where I find tremendous value in Springpad. I develop my WBS, or at least a list of tasks required for the effort, and I put all of these into the project’s notebook, along with any notes, files or other related information. I then find the first (or next) item that I can do right away, tag it as a Next Action and ADD it (don’t MOVE it) to the context notebook. (Items can exist in multiple notebooks!)
So now, that item appears in my filtered list of Next Actions in the relelvant context notebook. I don’t have to look in multiple places to see what I need to do next for each of the multiple projects I have going on. The next steps are all visible in one place.
Putting it all Together - Completing Tasks
When I complete a project-related task, I remove the Next Action tag, and instead tag it “Complete”. Then I remove it from the context notebook, but leave it in the project’s notebook. This way, in the project’s notebook, I still have a record of what’s been done for future review, but it’s not in my way when I’m trying to work on something unrelated. If this task was a biggie, or a major milestone, I will also ADD it to the “Weekly Review” notebook.
I then go to the project notebook and see what needs to be done next, tag it Next Action or Waiting as appropriate, or schedule it and tag it Scheduled, then ADD it to the context notebook.
When I complete other tasks in my context notebook, depending on how big/important the task was, I’ll either just delete it or I’ll move it to the “Weekly Review” notebook.
Putting it all Together - Strategic Thinking
Inside the “Big Picture” notebook, I have a single note called Strategic Vision, where continuously update what I want my world to look like a year, 2 or 3 years from now, depending on the subject or Hotspot.
I create a new note every Friday night or Monday morning called “Weekly Outcomes for [date]” and, following the Agile methodology, identify 3 major goals/outcomes I want to achieve that week in each of my Hotspots. At the end of each day, or beginning of the next, I take a look at my Weekly Outcomes, my current Next Actions task list, Ideas, etc, and create a new note titled “Daily Outcomes for [date]”. This is what I use as the basis for my task prioritization and figuring out, of all the things I CAN do next, what SHOULD I do next.
At the end of the week, I conduct a “Friday Reflection” review of all the things I’ve done and progress I’m making toward my objectives, going through all the completed tasks in the “Weekly Review” notebook. I make notes (stored in “Big Picture”) about what challenges kept me from achieving my goals, or maybe I need to better define my goals, or maybe I didn’t set my goals high enough. This reflection feeds my Weekly and Daily Outcomes for the next week. I also take a look at my Strategic Vision, to make sure what I’m doing is still on the path to where I want to be or, if something has changed, that my vision is updated to reflect it.
Summary
So that, in a nutshell, is how I use Springpad (and manage my world).
A few other things to point out about Springpad that makes it awesome:
The only real complaint I have is that the WYSIWYG editor leaves a lot to be desired. When I make notes, I use a lot of outlining with bullets or numbered lists. But Springpad only lets you do one level of indentation, which sucks... just a bit.
Do you use Springpad for GTD, Agile or anything else? What do you think?
The third, is just an intro to Agile Results. If you have a chance, you can read the entire book online for free.
I provided the above links as background, because my own method is a combination of both GTD and the Agile Way... with some of my own personal tweaks (apologies in advance to purists of either).
My Springpad Setup - The Notebooks
- Create a notebook called “Braindump”. This is the universal Inbox. Throughout the day, I collect notes, ideas, things I need to do and emails I want to keep (yes, you can forward emails to Springpad and store them), and store them here for later processing. I color this notebook orange.
- Create notebooks called “Big Picture”, “Weekly Review” and “Ideas”. These are reserved for strategic thinking. I color these brown.
- Create notebooks for your contexts (ie, the ‘places’ where you get things done). In my case, I created 3 called “@Computer” (my personal computer), “@Office” (work) and “@Home” (at home, but not at the computer). I color all of these green.
- Create one notebook (for now) for a sample project. GTD defines a ‘project’ as any effort that is composed of multiple individual tasks, and requires completion of all component tasks before you can call it complete. I color my work-related project folders red, and my personal project folders blue. Note that I also use these project notebooks to store notes, emails, call logs, meeting notes, charter, risk assessment, mission statement, etc, related to the project (as well as project tasks) for the life of the project (to be archived with the project closes). Additionally, I create a “Work” notebook colored red, and a “Home” notebook colored blue. I use these folders to store work or home-related information that isn’t necessarily tied to any project. The colors just help me visually group them together quickly.
That’s the basic foundation. I do have a few other notebooks for different purposes, but for now, this will get us where we want to be as a starting point.
My Springpad Setup - The Tags
Keeping with the GTD method, I primarily use 5 tags:
- Next Action: These are things that I can do right away (once I’m in the ‘context’ to do it).
- Waiting: These are things that I need to do, but before I can, I am waiting for something else to happen or someone to deliver something to me.
- Scheduled: These are things that I need to do, but for whatever reason I’ve scheduled it for a particular date in the future.
- Tickler: These are my maybe/someday items that are not a high priority, or they may just be an idea that needs more thought before figuring out what I really want to do, if anything.
- Complete: Done.
Putting it all Together - Processing
As I mentioned earlier, as things come up throughout the day, I drop them into the Braindump notebook. Any ideas or tasks get entered manually. The notable exception are tasks that I can do immediately and take less than 2 minutes (eg, replying to an email). If I can do it right away in less than 2 minutes, I just do it. Everything else goes into Braindump. But emails that require some research before replying or something I just can’t do at the moment (because it’s personal, but I’m at the office), I forward to my Springpad email address (using some markup in the Subject line) so that it gets put into the Braindump notebook.
Every few hours, or when I’m in-between tasks and switching mental gears, I ‘process’ my Braindump. This means going through the items in the Braindump notebook, tagging them and then putting them where they belong. For example, a work-related task I can do right away would be tagged “Next Action”, then moved into the “@Office” context notebook. If someone sent me an article to read online, I tag that as “Next Action” and move it to the “@Computer” context notebook. A non-actionable, informational e-mail about a project doesn’t get a tag, and just gets moved to the relevant project’s notebook.
I continue processing my Braindump until it’s empty.
When I’m finished processing, I can go to the context notebook (e.g. @Office), filter on “Next Actions” and all I see are those thing I need to do and can do right now. (Yes, one of the powerful features is that tags stick with the item when you move it to different notebooks.)
Putting it all Together - Projects
Managing smaller projects is where I find tremendous value in Springpad. I develop my WBS, or at least a list of tasks required for the effort, and I put all of these into the project’s notebook, along with any notes, files or other related information. I then find the first (or next) item that I can do right away, tag it as a Next Action and ADD it (don’t MOVE it) to the context notebook. (Items can exist in multiple notebooks!)
So now, that item appears in my filtered list of Next Actions in the relelvant context notebook. I don’t have to look in multiple places to see what I need to do next for each of the multiple projects I have going on. The next steps are all visible in one place.
Putting it all Together - Completing Tasks
When I complete a project-related task, I remove the Next Action tag, and instead tag it “Complete”. Then I remove it from the context notebook, but leave it in the project’s notebook. This way, in the project’s notebook, I still have a record of what’s been done for future review, but it’s not in my way when I’m trying to work on something unrelated. If this task was a biggie, or a major milestone, I will also ADD it to the “Weekly Review” notebook.
I then go to the project notebook and see what needs to be done next, tag it Next Action or Waiting as appropriate, or schedule it and tag it Scheduled, then ADD it to the context notebook.
When I complete other tasks in my context notebook, depending on how big/important the task was, I’ll either just delete it or I’ll move it to the “Weekly Review” notebook.
Putting it all Together - Strategic Thinking
Inside the “Big Picture” notebook, I have a single note called Strategic Vision, where continuously update what I want my world to look like a year, 2 or 3 years from now, depending on the subject or Hotspot.
I create a new note every Friday night or Monday morning called “Weekly Outcomes for [date]” and, following the Agile methodology, identify 3 major goals/outcomes I want to achieve that week in each of my Hotspots. At the end of each day, or beginning of the next, I take a look at my Weekly Outcomes, my current Next Actions task list, Ideas, etc, and create a new note titled “Daily Outcomes for [date]”. This is what I use as the basis for my task prioritization and figuring out, of all the things I CAN do next, what SHOULD I do next.
At the end of the week, I conduct a “Friday Reflection” review of all the things I’ve done and progress I’m making toward my objectives, going through all the completed tasks in the “Weekly Review” notebook. I make notes (stored in “Big Picture”) about what challenges kept me from achieving my goals, or maybe I need to better define my goals, or maybe I didn’t set my goals high enough. This reflection feeds my Weekly and Daily Outcomes for the next week. I also take a look at my Strategic Vision, to make sure what I’m doing is still on the path to where I want to be or, if something has changed, that my vision is updated to reflect it.
Summary
So that, in a nutshell, is how I use Springpad (and manage my world).
A few other things to point out about Springpad that makes it awesome:
- All the data is stored in the ‘cloud’ and is accessible from any computer with an internet connection (assuming the company firewall isn’t blocking it).
- There are Android and iPhone apps, so you can have access to all your data while on the go. (Love this!)
- You can use the Scheduling/Alert feature to add deadlines and reminders to any item, and even integrate with Google Calendar (do I don’t use this integration feature yet).
- I just recently starting storing my favorite recipes using the special "Recipe" type. Then I can pull up the recipe on my tablet in the kitchen instead of printing it out or running back and forth between the kitchen and then den.
The only real complaint I have is that the WYSIWYG editor leaves a lot to be desired. When I make notes, I use a lot of outlining with bullets or numbered lists. But Springpad only lets you do one level of indentation, which sucks... just a bit.
Do you use Springpad for GTD, Agile or anything else? What do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment