My Personal Workflow Setup

Purple Salix

Marketing Science, Marketing Transformation, Business Impact

Pete JakobPurple Salix

email: pete@purplesalix.comWeb: www.purplesalix.comTwitter: @curdridge

Caveat

• Choosing your productivity setup is very personal– Other applications undoubtedly offer functions that will

suit your requirements better• Don’t overtinker – “Perfect is the Enemy of

Good Enough!”– My setup could certainly be improved, but it works for

now• There are hyperlinks throughout this deck linking

to the key applications

Getting Things DoneThe core of my productivity system is the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology described in David Allen’s book of the same name

It also owes a lot to ideas I’ve picked up from the GTD topic in the Toodledo Forum

GTD Workflow. Taken from http://www.toodledo.com/info/gtd.php

Workflow

Reference

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Tood

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Evernote

Delete

Archive

Scan

Email (or direct entry)

email

Dictation app

email

Meeting Notes

Web

Ideas

Documents

Photos

email

Reference

clip

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email

emailDirect entry

My Productivity Workflow

Other Workflow Tools I’ve Tried• eProductivity (Lotus Notes)

– Integrates fully with Lotus Notes (replaces mail template)– Workflow and Reference in one environment– Highly recommended for Notes Users– I no longer use Lotus Notes!

• ActiveInbox (Gmail extension)– Powerful tool if you want to manage your day from within your email. I want to

separate the 2 items– I found it limited around printing and the lack of a native iOS became a real issue so

I ditched it• IQTell

– Looked promising for a while. Tries to become a dashboard over your email, todo lists, Evernote etc

– I found the UI a little cumbersome and struggled with it’s implementation of projects. – However, a strong candidate and good support

• Evernote– Some people try to use Evernote as their GTD system – after all if it’s already the

reference system, why not extend it further? Read more here from Ruud Hein– I found it too clunky– simply asking a great tool to do something for which it wasn’t

designed.• Nirvana

– Haven’t tried it, but the UI looks very simple and it looks like it handles projects more successfully than Toodledo

– Anyone any experiences to report?

Conclusion: Nothing is perfect – find the best fit for YOU!

Why I Chose Toodledo• Email address• Native app on Web and iOS

(means I can process lists when offline)

• Highly customisable to my environment

• Supports subtasks and attachments (paid version)

• Note: It ain’t perfect. It has fundamental issues with projects – but I can work around it

My Toodledo Setup• Folders

– Inbox– Actions– Projects– Waiting– Someday/Maybe– Ticklers– Agenda

• Contexts– @Work– @Home– @Errands

• Main Fields Used– Task– Folder (default to Inbox)– Context (default to @work)– Start Date (default to today)– Due date (only if necessary; mostly blank)– Priority– Repeat (as necessary)– Note (this contains the email text when I forward emails

to Toodledo; I also add the mail/web URL so I can get back to the source email quickly for replies etc)

• Hotlist– Defined by Priority of “3 Top” or higher– Due date in the next 7 days– Starred

Operation• Any new actions, by default come straight into the

Toodledo inbox. I can worry about categorising later.Especially useful for forwarding emails to TD when I only have my iPad/iPhone available

• Exception is where I use the Toodledo Chrome extension to add tasks, where I frequently complete the processing within the dialogue box

• Ticklers is for reminders for specific dates (eg remember someone’s birthday) Don’t use that much as I prefer to use my Gmail calendar for that

• Agenda is to capture topics for discussion for upcoming meetings. I tend to capture the name of the meeting and add agenda items in the Note field

• Contexts. I used to use many more, but have realised that whenever I’m working I have a computer with me (at least iPhone) so several contexts became redundant.

• @Errands allows me to remember what I need the next time I’m in B@Q, for instance

• I use Due Date only when absolutely necessary• Stars to denote actions that I want to add to my focus for

today. I keep on experimenting with whether or not to also use it for project next actions (that are not necessarily to be completed over the next few days). Jury out on that for me

• I spend most of my time in the Hotlist (called Focus in Appigo Todo). Other views are mainly for maintenance and weekly review.

• There’s great Forum support on Toodledo which has been invaluable as I have evolved my system

Why I Chose Evernote• Offers Tagging – more flexible

than folders for retrieving information (items can have multiple tags)

• Offline storage on Apple device – so all info always available

• Import folders – allows, for instance, PDF downloads to be automatically imported for later reading

My Evernote Setup• After many years I’ve now greatly simplified my setup. The reality is that

Evernote has great search capabilities (including saved search) and tags – with that I can do all I want from a reference bucket

• Most things get into Evernote directly, or emailed, or using the Evernote Web Clipper

• I tend to use the following Notebooks– Inbox (this is the default Notebook). During my Weekly Review I will process any

items in here so that it is empty– Reference. This is a single notebook into which I place anything I want to keep. I

use tags to group them under key topics (eg recipes, receipts, garden, client names, etc)

– Read. This is a Notebook I use for articles/PDFs/Presentations that I find on the web (or get emailed) that I want to read later. Once I’ve read them I’ll move

• With the Clipper I can automatically place articles into folders and tag them accordingly

• By Default, emails etc go into Evernote into Folder called “Inbox”.I can then tag them

• I use searches and saved searches to get rapid access to information. Check out Brett Kelly’s list of saved searches.

Why I Chose Dropbox• Glues iOS and Windows files together• Familiar Windows Explorer format• All my (non-confidential) work files are

stored here, and accessible from any PC, and iOS device

• Automatically stores version history of files on web for 30 days

• Store frequently used files offline (“favourites”) so can be accessed when no network available

My Selection Criteria for Other Applications

• Integration with Dropbox and Evernote

• Stable• Allow me to be productive with

either PC or iPad/iPhone• Provide functionality when no

network coverage (eg SouthWest trains to London!)

• Regular enhancements• Low Cost / Free

Function PC Notes iPad/iPhone NotesWorkflow Toodledo See previous slides Appigo Todo Personal preference. Syncs

with Toodledo in cloud, provides better handling of projects

Reference Evernote Mainly use PC version, but web interface also available

Evernote

email GMail Personal preference – good searching, filters

iOS email

Web Browsing Chrome Chrome extensions available for Evernote, Toodledo and Gmail

Safari

Note taking - Notability Text and Handwriting input (no handwriting recognition)Audio recording

Mindmapping Freemind Compatible with iThoughtsFree

iThoughts HD Fast, FlexibleExports to MS doc/pptAlso great for note taking

Dictation Dragon dictation Good recognition

Scan HP Photosmart Printer

Use for multi-page docs(Also supports print from iOS)

JotNot Pro Includes stabiliser for better image clarity

Photos iPhone Camera / Dropbox

Automatically uploads photogallery to Dropbox

Enjoy!