Toolbox + Workflow = GTD

I suppose everyone gets those proverbial late night wild hairs every once in awhile and I'm no exception.  Around 11:00PM last night I decided it was time to finally do some work flow diagramming; taking my toolbox list and laying out how I use them to Get Things Done (GTD). Truth be told, I love doing this sort of stuff. Yes...as I've admitted before, simply playing with tech toys is high on my list, but the process of laying out my workflow has in fact helped me tighten up some workflow gaps and push me to better utilize the tools I use. I highly recommend it to everyone. A special tip of the hat to Michael Gilbert for the kick in the butt.

Caveat: I make a lot of assumptions here about the reader's knowledge of many of the applications I describe.

Interface
First and foremost, I have consolidated all of my workflow processes to be accessed via the Firefox browser.  I have set my default homepage to open 5 different tabs every time I open Firefox: Gmail, Newsgator, Salesforce, Basecamp and Backpack.

Information Aggregation
I use two primary buckets to collect information: Newsgator and Gmail. Newsgator aggregates all my RSS feeds from news sources, blogs, Del.icio.us and search feeds (like PubSub). As for email, I forward all my accounts (personal, work, listservs, blog comments/pings) to my Gmail account.  I use different filters in Gmail to view different sources of information while routing all listserv emails to the archives so as not to clog my inbox. Honestly, its taken me awhile to get out of Outlook thinking and use Gmail effectively...some Greasemonkey plugins have helped.

1. Personal GTD - Bloginess
In Newsgator, if I find an  posting of particular interest, I do one of two things: I clip it to a folder which streams it to a feed in the left hand column of this blog called Read List. Or if I potentially want to write about it, I use the email function of Newsgator to send it to the Blogging List in my Backpack account.  Each category in Backpack has an email address that allows you to collect emails under a task list. Even though the email address is fairly cryptic, Firefox remembers the address when I put in a key letter. In Backpack, I look over the postings I emailed myself and create "would like to blog" lists and notes from there.

2. Personal GTD - Consulting, Family, Misc
Essentially I do the same thing in Gmail I do with Newsgator.  If I receive an email in which I need to take action (for either consulting work I do on the side or a family matter), I forward that email on to my Backpack account and manage it as a task.  Although, sometimes I go right to the list and create a task and reminder for myself.

3&4. Workflow/Project Management
I have set up a Basecamp account to project manage all the different aspects of my job: IT Admin, dB Admin, Website Admin and Program Development.  If one of my work colleagues needs me to do something or has a request, they post a message to Basecamp (which is accessed through a Salesforce tab...integrating it into an existing interface).  Basecamp creates an archive of those messages (much like a blog) and I get emailed the message.  I then comment on the message (when I can do it, or requesting more information) and add it to my task list for that project.  I will associate a milestone for the task if applicable.

5. Project Oversight
Additionally, I oversee the office manager's (who I supervise) workflow using Basecamp.  I don't get emailed/CC'd on all the tasks that are asked of her. Luckily, Basecamp provides an RSS feed;  I use the Firefox plugin Sage to give me a quick glance at all the communication, task management and benchmark date completions that occur.  I also do this through the Basecamp interface...I just like the redundancy in case I miss anything.

6&7. Task and Event Aggregation
Both Backback and Basecamp use iCal subscription services (and I really wish Salesforce did too).  In Mozilla Calendar (another Firefox plugin), I have subscribed to those iCal feeds and now have a snapshot off all my events and tasks, including a few local calendars and an additional Backpack subscription from our web designers account...all in one calendar.  Therefore, when a project is updated in Basecamp, it is reflected in my Calendar as well, where I can see right away if there is a scheduling conflict.  I primarily use Backpack and Basecamp to manage tasks and workflow, but the Calendar is a great way to see everything in one succinct place.

Conclusion
As you can see, there are some great points of workflow integration between these tools, but also some effortless layers of redundancy that help me manage tasks regardless of which tool i'm using (Salesforce, Basecamp, Mozilla Calendar).  I would love know what people think of this madness and hopefully inspire you do the same sort of workflow diagram and outline.

Comments

[Ed Batista]

Hey, Sonny--you've been missed. Great post--as someone who works primarily from home and is trying to bring all the strands of my workflow together (both to increase my productivity and to make it easier to just pick up my laptop and go when I need to), this is a very helpful thought exercise. Thanks--

[Sonny]

Thanks for the kudos Ed.

One of the big perks for me of having all my work based in on the web through ASPs (except for my Calendar), is that I can access it anywhere. I don't need to bring a laptop with me everywhere I go. I still take it with me when I travel or if I present to a group, but I truly enjoy being free of of it much of the time. Then again, I love being free of my Cell and PDA as well...I'm too crunchy I suppose.

As for the Calendar, I did come across a project on Technorati's wiki the other day to create an iCal Web Calendar called hCalendar: http://developers.technorati.com/wiki/hCalendar

[Jon Stahl]

Great post, Sonny! (And greetings from Waitsfield -- unfortunately I'm shipping out Back West tomorrow, or it would have been great to catch up in person.)

Perhaps SchoolBell (http://www.schooltool.org) will someday evolve into the web-based calendar you need. It's headed in the right direction, methinks. And its developers are very Web 2.0-savvy.

[Beth]

Nice post Sonny and thanks for some inspiration for moving out of outlook thinking .... what software did you use for the diagram?

[Robert]

Great post! Integrating everything into Firefox looks like it saves you a lot of time.

[Sonny]

Beth wrote: "what software did you use for the diagram?"

As with most diagramming I do, I started with paper and pen. After the forth draft, I was ready to go digital and being that I was at home and limited to my software choices, I actually ended up using MS Word. Getting a word doc into a graphic file...not fun. If I remember right: I saved the doc as a webpage > opened it in Explorer > opened print preview > did an "ALT+print screen" > pasted it in photo editor > cropped it > then saved as a gif. Silly...silly...silly. My Mac user friend Jason sadly shakes his head.

[Ruby Sinreich]

Hey Sonny. Your new filing technique sounds unstoppable! (Sorry I couldn't help it.)

The question I have about this is when do you do all this? Are you checking everything constantly? And what about stuff on paper, like bills?

I'm wrestling with these issues too (see: GTD + Basecamp = ???). I just hate having stuff all in different places...

[dahowlett]

Want to say more about the interface end of things?

[Evan]

I assume that you can now use Google Calendar as a web-based replacement for Mozilla? Have you decided to do this?

I also use Google News Reader instead of Gator as it's more integrated with Gmail.