Comments on: Doing GTD Weekly Reviews on the iPad

By: Hilarie

Hilarie — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 20:02:01 +0000

Jason – I’ve got one big hurdle that I can’t seem to get over with this. I use the Netcentrics GTD plug in. When I send my task list info over to ToodleDo, I cannot find a way to send the Netcentrics specific fields over (Project, etc). How did you handle this?

Thanks for any advice you can give!

By: T Salley

T Salley — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:24:51 +0000

The speed of the iPad has made a world of difference for me. It simply takes too long for my laptop to fire up. I often let ideas go because I didn’t feel like waiting for my laptop to boot, or even for my iPhone to open an app (still on an old 3G….4 is in the near future). This is the same logic that requires me to keep those things I need most often near my desk.

Jason is right about how different the iPad feels from a laptop.

By: Tom Miller

Tom Miller — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 04:07:09 +0000

I just got my iPad and am fascinated with the thought of using it for the weekly review. For those uncomfortable with the touchscreen typing (I’m used to it now because I have an iPhone), try the Dragon dictation app. It allows you to speak and then copy the text into any app you like. It’s quite amazing..

By: Richard George

Richard George — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 22:19:52 +0000

I like to have the iPad in Landscape mode, and not be forced to have the keyboard attached, so the Apple Bluetooth wireless keyboard works well. The black Apple case allows the iPad to be tilted up in Landscape mode.

By: Jason Verly

Jason Verly — Wed, 26 May 2010 21:58:27 +0000

Craig – Thanks for the tip on iThoughtsHD. Grabbed the app after reading your comment.

By: Jason Verly

Jason Verly — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:13:29 +0000

There is definitely a difference between doing a review on an iPad and doing it on a laptop. Portability was only part of the appeal I’ve found with doing my weekly reviews on my iPad. The biggest difference I found was the perception barrier and tool sets when using an iPad. I was able to sit down next to my son for an hour and get through a review that I normally would have done upstairs and away from him. I probably would not have pulled out my laptop and done the same thing because of how I feel a laptop intrudes in that kind of space. Now that’s just me. I know plenty of parents who are comfortable sitting down and pulling out their laptop on the couch with their kids. Great, that works for them and they are able to get things done.

Ultimately, do what works for you so that you are getting a weekly review done. That should be the biggest thing to take away from the post. And the picture… I did that just for fun.

By: Hopefully Anonymous

Hopefully Anonymous — Tue, 25 May 2010 17:04:10 +0000

Christine beat me to the same question. I’m guessing your life wasn’t changed by watching Avatar in 3d either, Christine?

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 22 May 2010 21:29:56 +0000

This post seems too much like an iPad advertisement to me (especially with that travel mug in the picture). I don’t see the advantage of doing your weekly review on an iPad versus a laptop, since the main virtue you’ve espoused here is its portability. Am I missing something?

By: Jason Verly

Jason Verly — Sat, 15 May 2010 05:26:53 +0000

I’ve been trying to keep my reviews on my iPad partly as an experiment, but mostly as a way to force other aspects of how I work to conform to being able to do the review on an iPad. For example, I’m guessing I’ve increased the number of emails I send to myself from from 0-5 per day to 15-20 per day. The email may include an attachment I need as reference during my review or it could get fed into OmniFocus to automatically create a new task for me. The point is I know the formats I have to play with on an iPad to allow me to get my review done. This is making my collection phase to be a much tighter process.

Am I getting 100% collected? No, but I can see the results in how my upcoming week is getting planned and the accuracy of my collection steps are better now than they were when I did my review sitting at my desk on a Sunday night. Am I getting better? I sure am. I’ve closed a gap that I knew existed in my system for a long time related to meeting minutes, I’ve cleaned up my contexts, and I’m able to do this in a manner that’s less obtrusive to me and my family.

My goal for my weekly review is to get my inboxes empty, process/file new information I’ve collected in the past week, plan out my upcoming week, review/update my action lists and take care of any two minute or less action items. For creative parts, like mind mapping a new process or delving into a deeper review of some action, those become tasks that I will do outside of my weekly review.

The keyboard and the predictive typing the iPhone OS is definitely something you have to get used to. I know I’m not as fast on the touch keyboard as I am on a normal keyboard. But the amount of typing I have to do in my review, as compared to the capture phase, is much smaller. My list manager’s inbox is pretty much filled out due to the emails getting processed by OmniFocus.

Hope this helps.

By: Kim Nielsen

Kim Nielsen — Fri, 14 May 2010 18:49:36 +0000

Interesting stuff and a great point about spending time with family and doing your work at the same time.. instead of hiding away in the office or at the desk. What a win-win situation

But, Jason, do you do all your weekly reviews like that?

For me your style seems perfect for the two first parts of the weekly review if you split it up into “Get Clear, Get Current and Get Creative”

.. but how do you get “properly” creative?

Do you have all your project plans, drafts, written-down-ideas etc. on the iPad and are you able to juggle with all your creative components in the lounge chair and on the iPad form factor (i.e. (IMO) not high-speed-typing friendly, not so much screen-real-estate to unfold the big mindmaps, spreadsheets or plans, not near to your reference files and physical project folders)?