Excellent Podcast with David Allen
 

For those who may not have heard it, there is an excellent interview with David Allen available here: [url]http://www.davidco.com/podcasts/play/12.html[/url]. It is about 30 minutes long during which he discusses some basics of GTD along with ideas on how to manage your actions.

I found it [I]extremely[/I] valuable. In it he talks about several points which really make a difference, including some things that OF does well and some things it doesn't do so well.

Among them:
[LIST][*]A project need not be fully planned all at once. Much of your further planning will take place as you complete actions or during your reviews. You shouldn't feel as though you need all your action items defined in advance.[*]Your next actions for your projects should represent the next physical action, but they are really just a jumping point to get you started on the project. For instance you may have to 1) get ladder from hall, 2) get light bulb from cupboard, 3) replace lightbulb. You really only need "get ladder from hall" on the next action list...the rest follow naturually when you are doing the task. That said, if you really don't get to step 2 when you get the ladder, then put step 2 on your list to do later.[*]Your projects very likely have many moving parts (subprojects). Each of these items should have a next actions and be listed on your lists. For example Plan Summer Vactaion has a number of parallel subprojects that really can all happen at the same time. Put all those next actions on your context lists.[*]The tie between your context and projects list is really reinforced through your weekly review. This is probably OF's biggest strength since it does this automatically.[*]The goal of GTD is not to get things to the point where you don't think, but rather get them to the point where you think only the amount that is necessary, no more, no less. Don't try to overplan every aspect of your life...part of the point of GTD is to free your mind to be spontaneous.[/LIST]
Anyway, give is a listen and see what you think.

Hmm ...

Sounds like he's endorsing the on the fly, minimal planning several people on this forum have condemned me for using.

--Liz

Re-listened to it this morning and one of things he says is that if you had a great relational database that could sort out contexts and projects, you could use that.

Well, OmniFocus is here.

BZ

Hi,

I think someone of Omni could get a MAC and bring it to David Allen.
He will probably love it and might also get some great ideas how to integrate it with other software.

And, may be OF could go WINDOWS some time. NOOOOO, better get those interested Windows users a MAC. Better is it?

Cheers

Mario