New to Nirvana, confused about some features
Keith
via web
Hi, I just came across Nirvana the other day thanks to Lifehacker featuring it. I'm hoping that this could finally be the system that will let me get all my tasks out of my brain, help me be productive, and reduce my anxiety.
I'm just confused about some of the features. I'm not sure how projects, areas of responsibility, and tags are different.
One of the sets of tasks I need to work on is all financial stuff. I recently switched banks and I need to deposit some checks, and call my old bank to close my checking account there, but first I have to make sure I have nothing else auto-paying out of that checking account, so I need to check my old bank's statements. I think at least my car payments and student loan are drawing from that account, so I need to figure out where to call to switch those over to my new bank account. And before I can close the old checking account I have to write a check for the remaining balance and deposit it into my new bank account (but that's only after I've made sure nothing else is going to try to draw from the account). I have some other bills to pay, like some deductibles for some doctor visits, and I don't even remember whether I set up my cable bill and utilities to automatically draw from my credit cards or checking account or whether I have to pay them manually (and maybe I'm late on them!). And apparently I have some unclaimed money linked to an old address, so I need to mail in a form to claim it. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to model all this using Nirvana.
Also, I'm confused about the difference between "later" and "someday", but from reading the forums it seems a lot of other people are too and that you'll likely remove "later", so nevermind :)
Finally, I can make a task "scheduled" so it won't show up to bother me until a given date, but is there a way to make a task dependent not on a date but on another task, so it doesn't show up to bother me until I've completed something else?
Thanks!
BTW the forums' "preview" popup seems to be broken in Chrome (Mac).
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2 Posted by hallucngn on 09 Aug, 2010 10:56 AM
hi, gtd is wrapped up around 3 pillars
I. working with the inbox
II. working with next actions
III. reviewing
What the user should do is reflected in 2 areas (not counting calendar)
a) next actions <-- time around now
b) tickler file, waiting for & someday/maybe <-- future
GTD doesn't specify dates unless it's an independent event. It means, that the user should avoid at all cost using the calendar for self-organizing. So GTD is a stacked and a context based system of ongoing tasks.
I. working with the inbox
You dump your thoughts to the inbox file. Then you decide what type of action it is and whether you can act on it now.
Can you act on this action now (1-5 days, depends how you define 'time around now')?
a) yes -> move it to the next action list (do it, if it's less than 2 minutes)
b) no -> move it to the 'tickler file', 'waiting for' or 'someday/maybe'
II. working with next actions
It's about doing the stuff based on context, energy, time etc. To make it simple use your intuition to decide or follow a pre-labeled system. After you've done it, tick it off.
Projects are groups of actions. They are the same as 'next actions', but grouped together and kept for reference. First 1-3 action tasks from the project reside in the 'next action' list. For every 3 completed actions you add 3 more from the same project until it's finished (that's the answer for task dependencies, it's not automated, yet). If a project doesn't have any actionable items in the 'next action' list, it's inactive or frozen and should be kept out off sight (and thus resides in the tickler file).
III. reviewing
Reviewing is about reevaluating your lists.
ps. the tickler file is called 'scheduled' in nirvana
3 Posted by Proximo on 09 Aug, 2010 03:52 PM
Great reply @hallucngn
Here is a great link that covers GTD.
http://help.nirvanahq.com/discussions/gtd/39-10-big-ideas-from-gtd
David McLaughlin closed this discussion on 21 Jan, 2011 08:35 PM.