We uncovered a major problem during GTD coaching with Nozbe’s lack of simple list management as a separate area from project-based GTD.
Our coach has admitted that this is one of the most mis-understood parts of David’s methodology but one that is hugely powerful and used extensively by Davidco and their major clients.
She explained that the methodology demands use of simple lists as a fundamental element of ensuring that project lists do not creep to unmanageable sizes and force users to go numb to their project lists.
A great example is that I use a Nozbe project to allow me to add book recommendations I pick-up, where I create a new Nozbe action for each new idea. This means I have one more project and many more actions than the pure GTD methodology would coach us to do.
Instead, I should mainatain a simple “list” called “New Book Ideas” (or similar) with each recommendation or idea on a separate line of this list.
Another example Davidco’s coach used a lot was her lists of “things to do next time I visit… <city>”. In discussion, we agreed that the only workaround is to use Nozbe’s “Notes” section instead.
But again Nozbe forces us to create these Notes INSIDE a project, whereas the pure GTD methodology asks us to keep these lists separate from projects (full of next/actions).
The only workaround we could come up with was to create these “New Book Ideas” or Things to do when in London” type of lists in the Nozbe “Inbox” project.
This will force users to keep their project list short and focussed on real next/actions but it does clutter up an Inbox that should be kept as close to zero as possible.
Of course, we could create yet another “false project” called “LISTS” or similar and store all of our lists there, but this is not really pure-blood GTD, is it?
Any plans to modify Nozbe to keep separate from projects simple lists of “things other than next/actions”?
Comments:
@Mickey
Yes, I agree. I’m a huge Evernote fan. Great for grabbing notes in any media too, not just typewritten stuff.
I do use Evernote alongside Nozbe now, but I can see huge value in Nozbe providing a proper “non-project” Notes/List management area, so that it all stays under one roof.
One area I’ve seen covered well in other GTD apps are re-usable checklists, which can be used with a wide variety of projects as needed.
I can’t see that creating a new Notes area separate from the Project List would be so much of a challenge for Nozbe as it is currently designed.
It would just be a “Notes & Lists” option at the top of the screen, beside Projects, Next Actions or Calendar.
Would anyone else find that valuable?
I gave you a rather long response to projects and their rationale here – in short – I prefer to call all projects/containers/inboxes/lists – simply projects and manage them with Labels to divide them. Less clutter, more flexibility and maybe less of “official GTD” but more of “real world GTD”.
Hi Michael, Yes, thanks for that longer reply on the Inbox. Much appreciate and I have replied there.
On this aspect of your implementation I remain confused.
I just can’t see past the value in keeping “Project List” only for projects, not some random collection of Inbox, Projects, Lists. Everyone I’ve worked with so far finds this confusing. That’s about 10 people so far, entirely unprompted.
This means I have had to spend a lot of time explaining that their project list in Nozbe is not really their project list. It’s a “Projects+” list (that’s usually how I try to help them). I also suggest that they could colour proper projects one particular colour. And of course this works, but it’s just confusing.
All have said that they would prefer a separate place to go for “reference lists”. But I can see that this will not be a planned feature development of Nozbe, so I will advise them that this will never change.
Thanks for the feedback, Michael. This really helps us to move forward with our own implementation of GTD using Nozbe.
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For things like that, I simply don’t use Nozbe. I’ve found Evernote to be an excellent way to keep reference materials and lists. I can dump it all in Evernote, where it’s fully searchable, then create actions/reminders in Nozbe as necessary. It works quite well.
I consider Nozbe an essential piece of my GTD life, but not the only piece.