My GTD Odyssey - Part 2

In part one of my tale, I explained my agony and ecstasy with GTD, and how I found myself in search of a better way. Today, I'll discuss how I got off of my productivity plateau and reached the next level in my journey toward mastery with Getting Things Done.

Sometimes things show up at just the right time

I was experiencing some performance issues with my installation of Outlook, so I uninstalled everything and began to gradually add programs back in a more controlled way. The day after my clean install, I got a note from Brad Meador of ClearContext Corporation, informing me that there was a a new version of their ClearContext Information Management System going into Beta. I'd had a ClearContext license for a while, but really hadn't used it for two main reasons:

• I was accustomed to using David Allen's GTD Add-In for managing my email inbox, and
• the last version of ClearContext I tried required too many steps for me to create follow-up tasks (like "waiting for" tasks).

From the feature list for the Beta version (v3) looked like it had some cool improvements, so I downoaded and installed ClearContext's Beta and began getting familiar with it. I found I liked it quite a bit - this version made it much easier to delegate messages and create follow-up reminders.

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ClearContext kills seven at one blow

ClearContext uses "Topics" to organize your messages, and has buttons to automatically file messages by thread, or by topic. The program makes assigning topics very simple:

• If you move a message to a file folder, ClearContext will automatically assign a topic matching the folder name to that message - and any related messages in your mailbox.
  • For example, I have a folder called "Customers" and a folder for each customer under that. To assign a topic, I can either use ClearContext to assign the topic.
    • There are multiple ways to do this, but I typically go to the Topic field on their menu bar and type the topic in there. This is an autocomplete field which helps minimize typos, and if you type a new topic in there, ClearContext will automatically create a folder to match the topic you've just assigned.
  • Additionally, version 3 actually prompts you for a topic any time you reply to or forward a message without an assigned topic. That helps make the use of topics a part of my workflow.

The real power -- indeed, leverage -- of this comes into play when you are processing your inbox, and you need to deal with a thread of message about a specific topic. By assigning a topic to one of the messages in the thread, they all become part of the topic. Then, by clicking the "Topic" button on the toolbar (the far right icon on the screen grab above) all of the messages in that topic disappear into the appropriate filing folder. Seven (or more) at one blow!

There are more subtleties and powerful aspects of ClearContext's topics, but this one use case alone has played a big part in making my inbox more manageable. The ability to deal efficiently with threads and topics is a big differentiator between ClearContext and other tools I've used.

ClearContext as taskmaster

Another work stream in any information management workflow is task and "future action" management. ClearContext has some useful tools in this area, as well. Another toolbar provided by ClearContext has a number of task and future action buttons.

• "Task" creates a an Outlook task out of the highlighted message, opens the new task dialog, and populates the task with a copy of the message.
  • From there, can change the ClearContext Topic, change the Outlook Category to match a particular context (more to come on that), set a reminder, etc.
  • You can also (via the ClearContext task toolbar) tell ClearContext whether to file, delete, or take no action on the original message.
• "Delegate" forward the message to someone else and creates a follow-up task to aid in tracking and follow-up.
• "Schedule" creates an appointment out of the highlighted message so you can specifically schedule time to follow up on that item and block it out on your calendar.
• "Defer" will make the highlighted message disappear and magically reappear after a specified amount of time - this is now my equivalent of GTD's "tickler file."
• The last button, "Unsubscribe", is a pretty interesting one - if you find yourself cc'd on a thread that holds no interest for you, press this button and ClearContext will move the entire thread to a "ClearContext Unsubscribed" folder. Furthermore, as additional message come in on that thread, they'll be automatically moved out of your inbox, too! And the messages remain there safely in case one of these irrelevant topics suddenly becomes relevant again.

Try it for free

If you're interested in ClearContext, it's easy for you to check it out. The product is very cool, and they offer a free trial on their download page. If you decide you don't like it, it is very well behaved and its uninstaller does a great job of cleaning up after itself. If you buy the current release version, you'll automatically receive a copy of v3 when it is released.

Savings Alert: If you decide to buy ClearContext, please use this coupon code when you check out: CC15-15113
That will get you a $15 discount, and I'll get my upgrade to v3 for free!

Hey wait - ClearContext rocks, but I've still got problems...

As happy as I was with ClearContext for zapping inbox clutter, it still didn't solve my bigger problem. I was still:

• leaving things in my inbox because I didn't have a system I trusted, and
• tossing things into lists I wasn't reviewing regularly, and (biggest of all)
• I was holding lots of commitments in my head.

So clearly (no pun intended), ClearContext was necessary but not sufficient.

In my next post, I'll tell you about the "next big thing" that showed up on my doorstep just when I needed it.

Note: Yes, I realize that this is very Windows- and Outlook-centric, but such is my odyssey. Fear not - I will try to "net this out" with some platform agnostic learning from this experience at the end of this series of articles. And I have discovered a cool GTD resource for Mac users, as well.

>>Continue to part 3

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Related items:

• GTD and another meaning for "zero peer pressure" (8/5/2005)
• Outlook and GTD - Filing and Archiving Tips (9/1/2005)
• In sanity: Tips for inbox sanity (8/28/2006)

Comments

[Brad Meador]

Dwayne - thanks for taking the time to write such a thorough review of ClearContext! I am pleased to hear that the product is working for you.

FYI for your readers, we will make the release candidate of the 3.0 product available to the general public very soon - probably sometime next week. Watch our weblog (http://blog.clearcontext.com ) for an announcement.

[Ginger Derrickson]

Dwayne,
I have been 'trying' to use the GTD system since earlier this year. I got started with the process and then got 'side-tracked' with day-to-day work and have not been able to use it efficiently.

So I was very pleased to find your articles on what has and has not worked for you.

I am going to check out ClearContext, but before I do wanted to ask you - Do I need to unistall the GTD Add-in before installing ClearContext? Or will they work together?

Thank you,
Ginger Derrickson

[Dwayne Melancon]

Ginger, I used them together intitially but am now only running ClearContext. Of course, when I started using them, Delegation / Follow-up Tasks were harder to use in ClearContext. Now, I prefer ClearContext for those tasks.

ClearContext is only part of the solution - it's a tool that helps (but doesn't totally solve) what is essentially a process problem.

I just returned from helping run a large Boy Scout campout Friday-Sunday, and am now in the process of writing up chapter 3 of my saga (I have a mindmap done - now I just need to write it).

It should be posted Tuesday, at the latest.

Thanks for the comment, by the way!

[Jerry]

Can this be used on outlook express?

[Marlon]

hey,

this page is very intersting.

i Added your posting!

I hope to see a lot from you in the weeks.

[wintervssummer]

I very much love summer :)
Someone very much loves winter :(
I Wish to know whom more :)
For what you love winter?
For what you love summer? Let's argue :)