Getting Things Done: integrating the Outlook add-in with Palm synchronization across multiple machines

Getting Things Done Outlook Add-In Support Site

GTD is the latest geek fad. It translates "anxiety into action" and makes productivity very much like a flowchart. Geeks like flowcharts and methodologies -- esp. if they render the world of social interaction more programmatic.

Heck, I'll give it a whirl. Problem is, I sync Outlook with my Palm and I took ten years off my life getting all the outlook/exchange/palm bugs working. I use Chapura's KeySuite for synching my Palm to Outlook/Exchange at work, and PocketMirror for synching to Outlook at home. (I'll skip the part about using iSync to ALSO sync with my iBook -- I haven't dared go there. Yet.)

I also have all kinds of ways to use Categories that aren't compatible with GTD. Also, GTD expects to OWN Outlook -- it doesn't know anything about PST files outside of the core Outlook files. I keep all my data in local PST files.

Then it occurred to me -- the Chapura KeySuite Palm app can sync with multiple Outlook folders. I can use GTD without disrupting its operation.

GTD owns my OST (root folder). KeySuite sync is set so all task/notes/contacts from that folder overwrite my corresponding Palm folders. So no exchange issues. Those items are read-only (for now).

My PST folders (contact, tasks, etc) continue to sync with the Palm. They work the same as ever with their own categories.

And, of course, I continue to use Lookout voraciously, updating its index hourly and rebuilding completely at every opportunity.

The best revenge on Outlook is to crush it mercilessly with programs and techniques that make that abomination useful. Too bad Word is unredeemable.