Inside eProductivity

2 Tips for Organizing Digital "Reference" Items

Ryan Heathers — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:45:33 -0700

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

Criteria for Picking a Digital Filing Cabinet

Ryan Heathers — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:00:00 -0700

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

eProductivity Summer Savings

Ryan Heathers — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:35:02 -0700

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

Key GTD Terms and Definitions

Ryan Heathers — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:49:09 -0700

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

No Post-Vacation Email Woes

Ryan Heathers — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:46:14 -0700

Editor note: This is a guest post from Amanda Bauman that was originally posted on the Lotus Technical Information and Education Community Blog. She regularly blogs there. Amanda first learned about eProductivity and GTD from the "Getting Things Done with Lotus Notes" webinar in April 2010. She is now a passionate fan and is working on sharing her story with others.

As you may know by now from my previous blog posts, I've been trying out David Allen's GTD methodology, and have also taken a keen interest in eProductivity, created by Eric Mack.

Lucky girl that I am, I got to take a much needed vacation with my family in Mexico for almost 2 weeks. In the past when I took any sizable chunks of time off, It was always with the dread knowledge that I would come back to hundreds of emails to wade through, many of which require me to do something, and many of which would fall through the cracks until somebody reminded me that I missed something. Not what you want to face when you're coming down from a sun-soaked, fun filled, stress-free couple of weeks with the family, right?

So it was with a little bit of pessimism that I started my day on Tuesday -- my first day back at work. I felt myself kind of wince a little bit as I launched Lotus Notes and synchronized my local replica mailbox. I had visions of a slot machine in Vegas with prize going up up up, finally stopping at the number displayed in my inbox, but without the euphoria. Let's just say that had my number of unread emails equaled a Vegas jackpot, I might consider taking another (shorter) vacation ;).

So I set about processing my emails. I'm using the eProductivity for Notes 8.5 beta. I chose to process newest to oldest because in the past I've gone the opposite way and managed to respond unnecessarily to a couple of issues that had resolved themselves in my absence. Turns out I shouldn't worry about this in the GTD model anyway because you sort, organize, THEN act. Or at least that's how I chose to implement it for myself. So the order in which you tackle your in box backlog isn't important.

So I sorted, organized, filed, and deleted my way through my in box until I had what I thought was a pretty good representation of all the things that I needed to respond to or handle in some way, in my "Action Needed" folder. Then I employed the power of eProductivity to create projects and actions for each one. When you copy an email into a new action or project in eProductivity, the system asks you what you want to do with the email: do nothing, move to folder, or delete. I mentioned in my previous blog post on this subject that I have a bit of redundancy in my process and that I would always choose to move the original email to my "Action Needed" folder because I wasn't quite ready to let go of my old (but relatively new) system. I suppose 2 weeks of not thinking about GTD gave my brain the time it needed to let go, because I found myself choosing to either delete, if it was something I could just do and move on from, or move to one of my project folders for reference if I thought I'd need to go back to it later. Now I had a nice tidy (but long) list of "Actions" to work from.

It took me only a few hours to get to this point and I observed that in the past it had taken me many days, sometimes over a week to get to this point. This made me think of using GTD and eProductivity as having a time machine. It gave me back hours if not days of time I might have spent getting a handle on all the things I had to do. It also gave me confidence that I hadn't dropped the ball on anything, and who doesn't want to feel like that? (picture me now standing on the bow of a big yacht with my arms outstretched yelling "KING OF THE WORLD".)

Yesterday I attended the two eProductivity webinars hosted by Eric Mack (there are more if you're interested in attending: Webinar schedule). As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm not a "read the manual" kinda girl, so I purposefully attended this webinar to learn more about the capabilities of the software. I'm not going to list all the features because, of course, you can read all about it elsewhere, but I will share a couple of things (tips from Eric and features) that I didn't realize were there, that I found interesting and, upon starting to use them, very helpful

The "today" view: Initially, when I saw this it looked like my "day at a glance" in Notes (which I love and use every day). It listed all of my calendar entries for the day. So I pretty much ignored it. Then I learned that there's a little flag you can use to flag something that you need to do today, which causes that action item to then show up in your "today" view along with your calendar entries. So using that tip, this morning I went through all of the actions in my "At computer" context view, which is where I categorize almost all of my actions, and flagged those that I could commit to completing today (one of which was to finish this blog post). I like it. I can use the "today" view as my dashboard for all the things I need to accomplish today.

Waiting for: If I'm sending an email, and I need to wait for a response before I can act, I can flag the email as "Waiting for" with a check box. This automatically puts the email in the "Waiting for" view. I tried it this morning, and when I get the response back, i'll then turn that response into an action.

Language to use when creating actions: I found this tip interesting. Eric recommended that you put your to do/action items in past tense, for example "Updated wiki help". The logic here is that your brain automatically checks to see if that's a true statement and if not, you'll feel compelled to make it a true statement (get it done and off the todo list) - That's my interpretation of what Eric said. He was far more eloquent.

So I'm going to continue to explore eProductivity. I see it's potential, I'm already hooked, I love it, love it, love it. Did I mention I love it? My only hesitation is this: what if I become dependent on this tool? (which is SO easy to do) and what if my license expires? (which it will), and what if I can't get access to it in the future? What if I had to revert back to using Vanilla Notes and folders? what would happen to all my actions and to-dos and waiting fors and flags? It's not keeping me up at night (I have other things for that), but it is something I think about.

If you're interested in trying out eProductivity, you can download a trial version for Free.

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

3 Things I’ve Learned about Being Productive when Telecommuting

Ryan Heathers — Wed, 19 May 2010 22:00:00 -0700

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

The challenge of a new productivity system

Ryan Heathers — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:46:16 -0700

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

Create ’Waiting For’ items with fewer clicks

Ryan Heathers — Fri, 7 May 2010 16:03:25 -0700

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

Categorized or Standard Inbox?

Eric Mack — Mon, 3 May 2010 13:01:00 -0700

As a result of last month's "Getting Things Done with Lotus Notes" public and IBM Employee Only webinars with David Allen, thousands of Notes users around the world are now exploring and choosing eProductivity as an alternative to the standard Lotus Notes Mail/Calendar/tasks experience to increase their personal productivity. Today I want to discuss a little-known feature hidden inside of Lotus Notes that allows you to categorize the messages in your inbox.

This 'categorized' functionality has been provided by IBM in all Mail template releases since Notes 7. Apparently some organizations - like IBM - have modified their standard mail template to make categorization of messages in the inbox become the default.

How the 'categorized' inbox works in Lotus Notes:

In the standard Lotus Notes Mail inbox, emails are presented in chronological order with the oldest message at the top and the newest at the bottom. No preference is give to messages flagged 'High priority' or calendar invites and meeting notices:

In the 'Categorized' Notes Mail Inbox, emails are presented in a categorized fashion so that:

Calendar Invites/Updates will appear at the top of the inbox
Next, all high priority emails will be displayed
Finally, all normal priority emails will be displayed

Here's how the above mail box looks with the 'categorized' inbox:

I'm not sure whether I prefer the categorized inbox or not yet, but if you are a current eProductivity beta user and want to experience this, we've posted version 2.0.1.5 in the beta forum so you can try it out for yourself. Meanwhile, read on for my reactions...

My thoughts on the categorized inbox so far...

On the surface, this categorized view would appear to be a boon to anyone that gets lots of emails and wants to be sure that they won't miss an urgent email. At least that was my initial reaction. I like that all calendar items appear at the top of the inbox -- it makes it easier to process all of my calendar related invites, notices, and changes at once. At first glance, having the high priority emails at the top of the inbox means that I won't miss a high priority item -- as long as I remember to check that part of the view.

But is this really the most productive way to go, or does it encourage less productive email habits? That's what I wanted to know, so I made the change to my inbox and worked with it for a while.

What I like about the categorized inbox
As I stated earlier, I like having all of the calendar information in once place. That makes it easy for me to handle all calendar information at once. What I lose, however, is the context as I can longer see the email messages that came in before and after the calendar request or update. I haven't reached a conclusion about whether that is a big deal or not.

In the same way, I like that I can see and get to all urgent (flagged as High importance, but let's call it how people use it) email in one place. Here again, context is lost because these messages are now at the top instead of in the message flow.

What concerns me about the categorized inbox
For me, the biggest concern about a categorized inbox + lots of emails is that I'd FORGET to check the top of the stack. David Allen and I teach that the best practice around email is to process it once into a trusted system and then work from an empty inbox. We teach that your inbox should only be a temporary collection point for incoming stuff.

If you work this way and your process your inbox to zero at least once every 24 hours, then a categorized inbox might be helpful and may even be more productive. If you are buried in email and have a considerable backlog, then my concern is that a categorized inbox can become a hindrance to your overall productivity by encouraging you to deal with what's latest and loudest -- your urgent items -- and not the rest of the messages.

Also, if you have more than one screen full of email, you will have to scroll to the top to see these urgent emails. As a result, you risk losing focus on the rest of your inbox because you are either at the top or the bottom of the stack. For me, in the sort while that I have been evaluating the categorized inbox I found myself subject to the tyranny of the urgent. And, there was no incentive for be to process everything - I could simply wait until things were urgent enough to flag them as such. I try to process my email when it shows up instead of when it blows up.

What do YOU think?
Do you think the 'categorized' inbox would be a help or a hindrance? Do you currently use the categorized inbox? If so, what do you like or dislike about it ? If you don't, what are your thoughts? I'd like to know.

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

Congratulations to our Webinar Prize Winners

Ryan Heathers — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:40:51 -0700

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

The GTD & Lotus Notes webinar is tomorrow!

Ryan Heathers — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:02:43 -0700

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

Vaughan Rivett - The Power of GTD and eProductivity

Eric Mack — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:41:22 -0700

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

David and Eric live = Resounding Success

Ryan Heathers — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 22:15:00 -0700

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

"Add to Outlook" link can’t be changed, sadly

Ryan Heathers — Tue, 6 Apr 2010 12:25:24 -0700

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

GTD & Lotus Notes Webinar for IBMers

Ryan Heathers — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 23:00:00 -0700

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

ITANA enables eProductivity on the iPhone

Ryan Heathers — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:35:14 -0700

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

Meet Kelly Mack, Beta Program record keeper

Eric Mack — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 19:05:32 -0700

At ICA, we are creating opportunities for the next generation workforce. Here's just one example:

As Beta users install the latest release of eProductivity and accept the license agreement, we record the date so that we know who’s really using the software. This gives us an idea of how many people are actually using the new versions and it helps us identify star beta program members so that we can thank them and include them in future special programs. It also allows us to remove people who, for various reasons, choose not to participate in the beta.

This important task is the responsibility of our manager of Beta Program record keeping, Kelly Mack (age 10). In this picture you can see Kelly faithfully doing her job.

P.S. Kelly's been a Notes user for 6 years and has began using eProductivity last year.

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

Preview of some eProductivity 2.x Beta Features

Ryan Heathers — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 14:15:00 -0700

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

Email Folders vs. Reference Database

Ryan Heathers — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:45:00 -0700

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity

How I set up my external filing databases

Eric Mack — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:59:46 -0700

Depending on which license version you purchased, eProductivity will allow you to define up to three external reference databases and 10 external mail databases. Almost always, at least one of the external mail databases is the user's mail archive.

The ability to file an email into an external database can be used in many ways. In my configuration of eProductivity, I have defined my ten external databases so that I can quickly file something from my inbox into the destination database with a simple drag and drop gesture or by clicking on the File action button as shown here.

So how do I use this?

Well, the first database you see defined, the "ICA Mail Archive" is my mail archive. I prefer not to allow Lotus Notes to archive my stuff. Instead, I do it in the course of my daily email processing. If I have an email that I need to keep, into the archive it goes. But which archive? I actually have three set up. Archive #1 is our company archive. At ICA, we can file an email from our personal email into the company archive. This allows us to keep client communications together in one place. Archive #4 is my personal archive of emails I want to keep but do not wish to share and Archive #10 is our Mack Family archive that my family members can file emails into. Like our company archive, this allows us to keep everything neat, in one place, and out of our mail files.

You will notice that I also have set up destinations for our sales and support team mailboxes. This allows me to take an email that was sent to me personally and instantly get it into the right mailbox - either sales or support so that the right person can read and respond. The benefit to using the eProductivity external filing method is that the message isn't forwarded -- it's moved. That means it can be replied to and the response will go back to the original sender and not back to me (as if I had forwarded it). That's a huge time-saver.

Finally, you will see that I have the ability to move emails into the mailboxes of my wife and people on my team. My wife, Kathy, has similar destinations in her mailbox. Here again, this is a great time saver as we often receive emails that are better addressed by the other person. It's not a matter of pushing it off on someone else, it's about getting the message to the person who can respond best.

All of this allows me to get email out of my inbox quickly and keep my mail file size to a minimum. The benefits are that messages are organized for easy retrieval and easily located.

In another blog post I will share how I use the built-in eProductivity search feature to quickly locate messages in my email and across any of my defined external databases. This, too, comes in handy as I do not have to think about where I put something.

Originally posted on Inside eProductivity