Next Action: Remember the Milk

Yuri Gadow — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 06:07:39 +0000

This is very brief description of how I use Remember the Milk with David Allen’s Getting Things Done. Because Remember the Milk doesn’t fit Allen’s system exactly, each person will find a unique way to combine the two that works for him or her; this is only a starting point.

I’ll assume you’re familiar with Getting Things Done and Remember the Milk. If not, read or listen to the book and sign up. They’re both fast and the latter free.

Lists

One list for each company I work with, one Personal, and one Calendar (for actions that repeat or have fixed dates.)

Tags

Statuses start with an underscore, i.e. _today, _waiting, _next, _someday, and _ibnu (important but not urgent), contexts with a plus, i.e. +email, +phone, +web, and +errand, and projects with a dash: -project_a or -project_b.

Locations

Because locations show in the tag list, prefixing with a commercial at helps group and identify them, e.g. @home, @office, @Denver, @BentGate, @WholeFoods, etc.

Smart lists

Today: tag:-today or list:Inbox or dueBefore:tomorrow
05 Min: timeEstimate:"<6 minutes" and due:never
15 Min: timeEstimate:">5 minutes" and timeEstimate:"<16 minutes" and due:never
Personal: tag:-next and list:"Personal"
Company 1: tag:-next and list:"Company 1"

More approaches:

Geektronica: GTD with RTM: Getting Things Done with Remember The Milk
Krzysztof Szafranek: Getting Things Done with Remember The Milk
Remember the Milk Forums: GTD

Merely Interesting » Productivity

Next Action: Remember the Milk