Managing GTD systems on two machines

Any GTD implementers out there have this same challenge and setup and want to tackle this one?  Patrick is looking for some advice on managing GTD systems across two systems.

I wonder if there is any conventional wisdom/tools/tips/tricks for implementing GTD (I am using the Outlook plugin) when I have to navigate TWO Exchange profiles and  a personal email address, too.

My gut reaction is that I want to have a single place to implement my GTD methodology – and it worked fine when it was just a work exchange address and a personal one – Outlook could easily handle the Exchange account and the personal profile.

Now, I have a 2nd Exhange address (everyone at my new agency does – we’re also a vendor for a software company). So we have our @ourcompany email address AND we have the @their company email address, too.

So – some of my co workers use one or the other, some try to use Outlook Web Access to keep an eye on both and so on. I’m wondering if anyone else has had to solve this challenge?

-Patrick

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19 Comments

  1. The challenge you describe has a solution. It is called Lotus Notes with eProductivity: designed to do replication across multiple instances and designed to be the optimal GTD application!

  2. Patrick,

    As David Allen’s technologist for 15 years, I can share that David uses Lotus Notes, from IBM, to solve this challenge and it works very well.

    With Lotus Notes, he can maintain his projects and actions in a single trusted system that replicates across ALL of his computers, including his Mac, PC, and mobile devices (e.g. Treo).

    If wants to work on his PC, he can pick up his ThinkPad and everything will be there. If he wants to play with his shiny new Mac Air, he can pick that up and all of his information will be there. And, if he’s on the run, he takes his Treo with him and his stuff is there.

    In short, he simply picks up whichever tool he prefers and gets things done.

    Lotus Notes makes it seamless.

    In addition to Lotus Notes, David also uses and recommends eProductivity (http://www.eProductivity.com), an optional tool that makes GTD in Lotus Notes easy. You can start with basic Lotus Notes and follow the GTD Implementation guide to create a very nice system.

    Eric Mack
    eProductivity Specialist
    http://www.eProductivity.com

  3. Have you checked out Nirvana or other web-based GTD solutions? A web-based To Do manager seems the natural way to go, at least for folks who are always connected to the net (multiple computers, iphone, crackberry…) I tried keeping multiple task lists in sync, but in the end found it too cumbersome to manage. If twitter has taught me anything, “the cloud” is a pretty great place to post messages to and from anywhere, and via any device.

  4. Hi Patrick,

    I’ve found running 2x copies of Microsoft Outlook works well. Not a graceful solution, but certainly workable enough to get your GTD Mojo cranking.

    I favour one version of outlook as my primary, and drag/drop/copy/paste to it on the fly.

    Review products such as VMware Fusion, that will allow you to run two copies of Outlook.

  5. Hi

    I had the same dilemma. In the end I conculded that the only option was to move to the cloud which meant my GTD system was device independent.

    I know use Gmail (Google Apps), Remember The Milk and Evernote which together give me everything I need no matter what device I use.

    Currently I use the above across 4 MAC’s 2 PC’s and 2 iPhones.

  6. Do you need access to more than just email from the second Exchange account? If not, you might be able to set Outlook up to use IMAP or POP to access the email-only one. That would work just like your personal email address at that point. IMAP would be preferred, but if your IT department is anything like mine, they’ll laugh at you for even suggesting it.

  7. This is not a GTD Centric problem. I’ve had to tackle this problem with Mail, calendaring and RSS reading. In every case I found the magic solution in a web based app. For all of the above I use Google’s product (GMail, GCal, GReader) but there are others in each arena that would suffice.

    That doesn’t answer your core question though. If you’re adamant about using the outlook plugin to GTD your best option is to do as Steve H suggests and use IMAP. Another option, if it doesn’t violate your security rules at work, is to forward all emails into a central mail account that is JUST for GTD. A GMail account could get every email, and outlook could read it as IMAP.

    I’d recommend a web based GTD setup. Both RememberTheMilk and HiveMinder have email addresses that you can use to forward something directly into your GTD inbox. You could set it up as an alias and as you process your email inbox, anything that needs GTDified could just be forwarded to [email protected].

    There are several web apps out there, Nozbe is one I haven’t looked at yet. If you can host your own site, there are several in Python and PHP.

  8. Here is what I do. Forward all the accounts to one IMAP account (like mobile me or gmail). From outlook, you recieve all your emails and when responding you can select what account to send from. For tasks, sync your outlook tasks and/or iPhone to toodledo.com. There is a windows program called toodledo sync and there is an adobe air app you can use on your mac. For your notes, plans, general lists, ideas, horizons of focus, use Evernote (which works on windows, mac, and iPhone.)

    This solution runs about $0. It may not be as integrated as lotus notes, but it works for me.

    PS I love the outlook gtd plugin. Is lotus notes somehow even better than that?

    Email me if you have any questions.

  9. Hi Pat,

    My mainstay Mac laptop recently gave up the ghost, so I’ve been straddling other machines in the interim (one Mac, one PC). Lotus Notes does work very well to remain in sync across platforms, as Eric points out. Also, applications are increasingly providing mechanisms for synchronizing with “cloud” storage. For example, I can run OmniFocus for Mac on any number of Macs and also my iPod Touch, because it synchronizes with a WebDav server. Same goes for iCal, especially when coupled with Google CalDav. And Evernote. And a host of others (many of them Mac-only, others available for PC as well). So, I think this is a trend we will see continue as people demand ubiquitous access to their data. For now, Outlook remains a bit of a beast.

    Best,
    Robert

  10. Wow – thanks for all of the great tips – here’s some additional info, and what I’ll do next:

    I can’t get IMAP/POP for those Exchange server accounts – rats. I DO have one Outlook profile configured for ONE of the Exchange accounts, and my personal account – so that leaves just that pesky 2nd Exchange account.

    I’m probably “stuck” with Outlook for now because of the nature of my work and customers. The Netcentrics plugin works nicely for me – so a cloud based solution isn’t in my future as a primary too.

    Here’s what I’m going to do:

    Explore the tools you all recommended (save for Lotus notes)
    Experiment with Outlook Web Access and cut and paste
    Experiment with forwarding email to my primary address

    And I’ll send an update in about 2 weeks to let you know how I fare. Many thanks for the great tips!

  11. Free solution: ThinkingRock + Dropbox

    I use ThinkingRock (free, but you can support further development with a membership purchase) and Dropbox (free for 2GB but you can buy more) for a multi-machine, multi-platform solution that works brilliantly both online and offline.

  12. I use MindManager on the Mac (Personal) and Windows (Work) to keep my systems in-sync from the Project level up (20K, 30K, 40K, 50K). I manage my runway in Outlook Tasks on Windows. I just started trying out the oneline MindJet service and it works pretty well for getting access to your MindMaps from a cloud perspective.

  13. Our company is currently developing a web based service called Peep! that is specifically designed to solve the problem of using GTD across several machines (or several locations). Right now our service is in the alpha stage but it is free for you to try and we value your feedback greatly!

    Head over to http://trypeep.com and try it and let us know what you think.

  14. I would recommend not trying to dual purpose tools. Using Outlook for reference, inbox, collection, and next action lists. You’re going to have to compromise for everything but what it’s good at (IMO collection).

    My suggestion would be to auto-forward all your mail to a web mail client (I use gmail), and label/file it as needed. As long as you have OWA that should work. But in that case auto-forward everything to that account (if you have more then one email account). You just need to be careful about the “reply to” address, and where you’re sending mail from, gmail has some nice features for automating this.

    Evernote is fantastic for reference material, you can forward emails to it, and even scan in hard copy. You can also do something similar with MS Onenote, and a cloud storage service like Box.net or Jungledisk.

    As for next actions, I’m in the group using a cloud solution (gtdagenda currently, vitalist is a nice one too), I’ve switched computers too many times and lost too much data to bother keeping it local any more. Yes I’m dependent on those sites to stay up and running, but I can access it from anywhere, any time (even my phone or public computers). You can also implement a cloud like solution by using box.net or jungledisk as I mentioned above.

    That said, pen and paper will always win for accessibility, have you thought about dropping digital all together?

    David Allen refers to creating hard edges, I’d think about that when choosing tools to implement GTD.

  15. Hi All, revising this; Outlook 2010 (currently in beta) now supports more than 1 Exchange Account at the same time. I’ve been using if for a little while now, and is a very welcomed improvement.

  16. Hi
    See this is an old article. I think Trello is a great free way to most of everything in.
    I paid and downloaded the GTD guide for Trello that has all the basic info (I know how to add a list to Trello!) but also very practical with GTD methodology.

    I find it hard to believe someone still uses a spreadsheet as opposed to the cloud – but I suppose if it works for you do it. This article’s writer uses a spreadsheet (but doesn’t share it).
    https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/06/getting-things-done-ten-years-in/

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