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I've posted about the new Gmail Priority Inbox over on the "Notes on Productivity" blog. Did you know that Notes has had a similar inbox style available for almost 10 years? Find out more.

Join eProductivity creator Eric Mack and special guest David Allen, creator of the GTD® methodology, as they share best practices gleaned from over 30 years of combined experience using Lotus Notes.

Inspired by over 200 audience questions from April's Getting Things Done with Lotus Notes webinar, these hard-hitting podcasts dive into the secrets of being productive with Lotus Notes.

Join Eric and David as they share their insights on how you can get more done with Lotus Notes.

Subscribe to the special podcast feed so that you don't miss upcoming episodes!

See all Episodes |  Subscribe | Subscribe with iTunes

In Episode #2, topics addressed include:

• How to stay productive when you're feeling overwhelmed by the volume of incoming information
• How to organize all your "collection buckets" - phone, paper, email, etc.
• GTD and cloud computing
• Calendar vs tickler file - what goes where?
• GTD and the tyranny of the urgent

Episode #2 Details:
Length: 18:56 minutes
File Size: 17.3MB

It's been a little while since I've blogged. This is due to spending much of my time preparing for tomorrow's Getting Things Done with Lotus Notes web event with featured guest David Allen and eProductivity's Eric Mack. The time seems well spent because we have 785 folks registered as of right now. Wow!

We're delighted to have David Allen join us for this special event. For Lotus Notes users, it's an extraordinary opportunity to hear from David himself about the techniques he uses to get things done in Lotus Notes. Based on the number of sign-ups, many folks agree that this is an interesting topic.

Speaking of having 785 folks registered, we're giving away a 1-year eProductivity Professional license to our 800th registrant. So if you haven't signed up yet, that person could be you! Register here: www.eproductivity.com/gtdwebinar

If you'd like to participate in the conversation on Twitter before, during, and after the event, I invite you to use the #GTDLN hashtag that we created for the event. Happy tweeting!

Update:
I think this is worth sharing. Following the GTD & Lotus Notes webinar on April 8th, one IBMer was able to reduce her inbox from 5000 emails to Zero, and she's been maintaining inbox zero since then. You can read her story here.

Last Thursday, we held an IBM employee-only "Getting Things Done in Lotus Notes" webinar with eProductivity's Eric Mack and featured guest, GTD® creator David Allen. Judging by the 725 IBMer registrants, the 200 questions asked during the session, and the multitudes of follow-up emails that attendees sent us, the webinar was a resounding success.

The webinar even generated the Tweet of the Month! (trademark pending, of course...)

Hat tip to @sachac, @elsua_b, and @jmsidhu

David and Eric were on fire and shared many things they've learned about being more productive with Lotus Notes.

David delivered a passionate explanation of the Essentials of GTD. He spoke on the vital importance of a trusted system and reminded us that you can only feel good about what you're not doing if you know what you're not doing.

For those who had never heard of GTD, it was a eye-opening experience (based on their comments afterwards) and for those of us familiar with GTD, it was a welcome refresher.

Eric then showed how to set up Lotus Notes for GTD. First, he demonstrated how regular Lotus Notes can be an effective GTD list manager, and then he showed how using eProductivity takes Lotus Notes to the next level. The best part? It was all stuff people could put to use right away.

Plus, all attendees received a free resource kit which included an eProductivity Reference database full of great GTD articles from David's library.

First, let me say a big thanks to everyone who attended the webinar. Your participation was appreciated and it's been great to hear from so many of you about how the webinar benefited you.

Let me also say thanks to everyone who helped spread the word about the webinar.

Another opportunity to hear David and Eric live:
On April 28th, you have another opportunity to experience David and Eric's extensive knowledge of productivity.

This time, the free event is open to the general public but spaces are filling up quickly. So before the event is booked out, make sure to tell all your friends who use Lotus Notes and could use more time & less stress in their lives!
Register for the webinar

Now, in case you're still deciding if this is the webinar for you, here's the planned agenda:

Agenda

• Your Personal Productivity Equation
• Essentials of GTD
• How to set up Lotus Notes with GTD
• David's Productivity Toolkit
• eProductivity™ for IBM Lotus Notes
• Getting Started with GTD and Lotus Notes
• Q&A

As you can see, this is a must-attend event! Register today.

To get automatic updates on eProductivity's webinar events, you can sign up for the free eProductivity newsletter.

As you probably know, David Allen's book "Getting Things Done - The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" is the inspiration behind eProductivity.

David's GTD methodology has revolutionized the way millions of working men and women tackle their work. His system turns achieving control and perspective over your commitments into a daily reality.

Many people know this about GTD. What you may not know is that for the past 17 years, David has used Lotus Notes as his personal organization system. (For several years, he's used eProductivity as well.)

This month, David and Eric Mack will be co-presenting two webinars on GTD & Lotus Notes. The webinars will be full of great information for non-eProductivity users and eProductivity users alike.

Some of the things they'll show:

• How to go home at the end of the day with an empty inbox
• How to tackle your work week with the confidence of knowing you’re being as productive as you can possibly be
• What's in David's productivity toolkit and how he uses Lotus Notes to get things done

Webinar exclusively for IBM employees
On April 8th from 10am – 11:30am PST, we’ll be doing a webinar exclusively for IBM employees on applying GTD to Lotus Notes. Many IBMers are fans of GTD already, and this will give more insight into David’s master tips, tricks & strategies. We’ll also look at eProductivity – the only software tool for Lotus Notes that’s earned the distinctive “GTD Enabled” certification.

If you’re an IBM employee, sign up now. Space is limited.

Webinar open to the public
On April 28th from 10:00am - 11:30am PST, David and Eric will be doing another "Getting Things Done in Lotus Notes" webinar for the general public.

Go here to get more details and sign up now. Space is limited.

 

To keep current on eProductivity webinar news, you can subscribe to the eProductivity newsletter to receive updates on this and other events and specials.

Slow software is such a drag on productivity, not to mention downright annoying to work with. When you work with the same software, such as Lotus Notes, every single day, even the smallest performance slowdowns can result in huge productivity losses over time.

The good news is, speedier performance is possible if you're armed with the right information.

To give you the inside scoop, Eric Mack wrote an article on the Notes on Productivity blog about improving the performance of your Lotus Notes software.

An excerpt:

As I work with and coach clients around the world that use Lotus Notes, I'm often asked why Notes and their systems in general seem to get slower and slower. While there are many parts to the answer, the good news is that there is much you can do to improve the user experience in terms of performance.

Before we can talk about the things that can be done to speed up Lotus Notes, we must first understand what aspects of your system and Notes affect performance. I have broken these down into three areas: System, Lotus Notes, and User Data. Elements in each of these areas will affect end-user performance. Some are things you can change easily; some are not. Let's take a look.

Read the full article at Notes on Productivity

(Tip: watch the video in full-screen mode for the best viewing experience...)

Learn more about setting up eProductivity sidebar widgets by viewing Paul Gardner's excellent tutorial video above. Paul is an eProductivity customer and a prolific blogger. This video shows how Paul setup the widgets for himself. Remember that these widgets require Lotus Notes 8 to run.

And, if you want to know more about pastors and ministry workers using GTD, Paul writes a great blog on that subject.

We receive many requests from people who have learned about Lotus Notes for the first time, either as a result of David Allen's mention of Notes at the Office 2.0 Conference, a public GTD seminar, or podcast or as a result of learning about eProductivity. They usually contact us to ask if individuals can purchase Lotus Notes (yes) and if it is possible to evaluate Lotus Notes for free (yes).

Unfortunately, as many people have learned, the IBM web site can be an overwhelming experience for an individual user that simply wants to download and try or buy Lotus Notes. Here's some information which you may find helpful:



How to experience Lotus Notes for free:
You can evaluate Lotus Notes for free, with the Lotus Notes 90-day Test Drive.

Lotus Notes Product Manager, Dwight Morse, recently posted a detailed tutorial that explains how to use Lotus Notes to retrieve your personal email (e.g. from a hosted account.) Dwight provides detailed screen shots for each step. If you are a first-time user of Lotus Notes and you want to use Notes as your personal information management system, I think you will find this tutorial helpful.

When you are ready to purchase Lotus Notes:
When you are ready to purchase Lotus Notes, choose the license for "IBM Lotus Notes with Collaboration Authorized User License + SW Subscription & Support 12 Months (D5CS2LL)."

Visit the Lotus Notes Product Page and look in the right colum under the green button that says "View US prices & buy".  If you are outside of the United States, use the "Choose your country" link below the green button.

For those of you in the U.S., here is a direct link to the U.S. Pricing & Purchasing Options.

Note: To experience the full features of Lotus Notes, select the "IBM Lotus Notes with Collaboration Authorized User License"

Lotus Notes Product Manager, Dwight Morse, has just posted a detailed tutorial that explains how to use Lotus Notes to retrieve your personal email (e.g. from a hosted account.) Dwight provides detailed screen shots for each step. If you are a first-time user of Lotus Notes and you want to use Notes as your personal information management system, I think you will find this tutorial helpful.

I'm pleased to see this tutorial. Many first-time users are installing Notes for themselves, either to get eProductivity or because they have learned that GTD Author, David Allen, uses Notes. Either way, these people need simple steps to find, download, install, and configure Notes. This is an area in which IBM has historically been light on information for the end-user.

Dwight's tutorial is a step in the right direction to making it easy for people to install and use what David Allen and I believe is an outstanding information management and self-organization tool.

I look forward to Dwight's future tips and I will blog about them as I see them.

Here's what's on my wish list for the future:

• An equivalent tutorial for a first-time installation of Notes 8.x for Mac and PC. (Including how to locate, navigate to and download the software.)
• Videos for each tutorial posted on YouTube to make it easy for people to find and get started

What first-time Notes user topics would YOU like to see IBM blog about?

Link: How to use Lotus Notes to retrieve your personal email