Posts by Vaughn Donahue

Conversion Consternation The greatest resistance we hear from new people considering TSW is that, although they really need a better system, and understand the benefits of this new methodology, they have a really hard time abandoning that system they have used for years, and worry about to-do items “disappearing”. We encourage converts to begin by…

Multiple Contexts This deserves re-mentioning. Adding more contexts to an item gives you more ways to find it when you are in various frames of mind, and is what gives TSW the power over many other solutions. Drag and drop the item into additional contexts when applicable. iPhone Use “Forward to Evernote Contact” to quickly…

“Mind like Water” is the mantra of the über GTD folks. The notion is that your mind has no waves or ripples trying to remember all you need to do, nor is it working to not forget! Just still, zen calm, 100% focused on each task individually, with a system to keep all other tasks…

Collect, Process, Execute, Review. The GTD mantra. Four words: Collect, Process, Execute, Review. A mnemonic (memory device) for remembering them: C-PER (See Per). Let’s go through what each of these four mean: 1. Collect Through each day (especially when you wake up on Monday), invariably your email Inbox will become full of new items, and…

(IMPORTANT: Evernote calls each new entry a ‘note.’ Since we’re using the application mainly for action items, we generally call each new entry a ‘to-do’ but both note and to-do can be used interchangeably) For most of us, the FIRST goal with TSW is to get all things out of your email Inbox. The reason…

Mac Version: Download the latest version of Evernote (EN). Install it. Windows Version: Download the latest version of Evernote (EN) and Run the program. For both PC and Mac Next, install Evernote onto your mobile phone. Like the rest of Evernote, it’s free. Create a new user name and password. We advise a good user…

The Secret Weapon is a merging of the GTD concept with a powerful program/service from Evernote, (EN for short) that allows us to re-organize our emails, ideas, and to-do items into one system that stays synchronized across our varied devices, and has the ability to help us capture ideas when we suddenly come up with…

If you dreamed of the “perfect system” what attributes would it have? We think it would: Keep everything in one system (versus one way for one kind of to-dos and another method for other types of to-dos). Allow you to group items in different ways, so that you’re not staring at all 80 to-dos that…

From the time we are small, we are given tasks to perform, starting with “make your bed,” “clean your room,” “take out the trash,” and “be nice to your sister.” Once we attend school, those requests begin to increase as we are assigned homework and projects to complete. During high school and college we have…