GTD with Outlook 2010 and OneNote 2010 – Overview

By Michael Wheatfill

Table of Contents: GTD with Outlook 2010 and OneNote 2010

Hey GTD’ers. There are several blogs out there that describe how to utilize Outlook and OneNote to implement the Getting Things Done methodology. The most popular of the bunch is a collection of posts over at 7Breaths that covers OneNote 2007 and briefs on it’s integration with Outlook 2007.

The release of Office 2010 brings quite a few neat features that can be used to make you more productive and organized if you currently use Outlook and OneNote or if you are just starting out with Getting Things Done.

This blog post will give a brief overview of my system, which pulls many ideas from the the 7Breaths implementation, and adds my own twists and ideas for making my system work for me.

I use Outlook 2010 and OneNote 2010 as the main tools for managing my GTD system. Since I spend most of my time at work on my computer, and the technologies I work with as an IT consultant are Microsoft centric, it makes sense for me to use an electronic GTD implementation with applications I’m familiar with and happen to love…isn’t that why we choose the GTD tools we do?

Keep in mind my system is not entirely electronic. I have physical inboxes, filing cabinets and notebooks at home, at work, and a portable system that fits in my laptop bag. Don’t forget one of the most important tools in any GTD system…the ubiquitous capture device. No technology here, just a small Moleskine reporter notebook I take with me everywhere.

Outlook 2010

Outlook is my central hub for collecting and organizing emails, tracking my “hard landscape”, and managing my Next Actions. The screenshot below shows a brief overview of where I spend most of my time, in the Mail view. This gives me the ability to process my inbox, organize my inputs, view my upcoming appointments and get a snapshot of my Next Actions.

Outlook is essentially used for the following workflows in the my GTD system:

Collection – No brainer, these are where my emails get dumped!

Processing – I decide what “to do” with all my emails

Organizing – Emails I keep get filed for reference

Doing – Do, defer and delegate. I either respond to emails, create Next Actions/Projects or delegate the task to someone else (my favorite).

 

OneNote 2010

OneNote captures all of my thoughts and notes each day, keeps my projects, support material, Someday/Maybe lists, and provides a place to store all of my electronic reference material. Here’s a screenshot of my OneNote landscape.

OneNote plays the following roles in my GTD system:

• Collection – Collects random thoughts, links, anything I want to remember, meeting notes and brainstorming
• Processing – Everything I capture is scanned and reviewed for possible Next Actions, Projects, Someday/Maybe’s, reference, or perhaps is deemed trash. Being the environmentally conscious person that I am, this information goes straight to the Recycle Bin (yes, OneNote has a recycle bin)

Let’s not forget the Operating System – Windows 7

In any electronic GTD system, the OS definitely plays a role. Of all the information that I process and organize on a daily basis, not all of it can live in Outlook or OneNote (well, it’s possible it can, but just not practical). Some of this information comes in the form of documents, executables, pictures or video. I use the Windows 7 file system to organize this information as well.

My goal was to make my file system reference as easy as possible, and something I didn’t have to relearn how to use when doing something outside of Outlook or OneNote. Windows 7 makes things simpler with the default profile folders, folder link favorites, Libraries and fast search functionality out of the box.

To make organization easy to use and understand, I basically mirrored my organizational approach from OneNote. As you can see from the screenshot below, the folder structure looks pretty similar to the OneNote screenshot above:

Now when I have support material and reference that needs to live outside of Outlook and OneNote, I can easily find it using a mirrored context as opposed to remembering where the corresponding folder lives in relation to my information in OneNote or Outlook.

What’s Next

My goal with this blog post is to give you a quick snapshot of what my system looks like. The intention was not to deep dive into the details of setup and functionality. Hang tight though! That is exactly what I plan on getting into in the upcoming Outlook 2010 and OneNote 2010 GTD series.

Thanks for reading and happy GTD’ing!

Continue to Part 2: GTD with Outlook 2010 and OneNote 2010 – Outlook Setup