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MGSD/Users Guide
TiddlyWiki Community Wiki
Contents |
[edit] Background
[edit] Introduction to TiddlyWiki
TiddlyWiki is a personal wiki. It's a little different to other wikis in a couple of notable ways:
- It runs entirely in your web browser from a local file and hence doesn't need a server.
- Instead of pages it has 'tiddlers', and you can have multiple tiddlers visible on screen at a time.
- It is easy to customise and extend using plugins written in javascript.
These have a lot of implications which won't be discussed here, but you can learn a lot more at tiddlywiki.org.
mGSD is a customised and extended TiddlyWiki. If you have used TiddlyWiki before then mGSD should be familiar in many ways. If not, that's okay too, but you might find the learning curve a little steeper.
[edit] Concepts
mGSD is designed to follow as closely as possible to the concepts and methods described in the book 'Getting Things Done' by David Allen (ISBN-10: 0142000280 ISBN-13: 978-0142000281). So these concepts should be familiar to you if you know GTD. If you haven't read the book then you should do so. Not just so you can use mGSD, but because it just might change your life.
[edit] Projects
Projects are multi-step tasks, and it is important to define your desired outcome and at least the next action and its context.
[edit] Actions
[edit] Contexts
A context is a characteristic of a task, that describes one or more circumstances that the task is completed under. These circumstances could be by
- location
- home
- work
- garage
- errand
- gym
- time
- weekend
- evening
- business hours
- anytime
or
- resources needed
- work computer
- online
- calls
While a task can have multiple contexts, you will likely find it easiest to assign it solely to its most descriptive context. Some specific examples:
- Load the dishwasher (home, kitchen, evening)
- Research new computer parts (online, home)
As part of the GTD paradigm, when you're ready to get things done, all contexts containing tasks are displayed. Select the context you are most able to function in, and complete the tasks in that context. This lends efficiency to the process as, for example, you make all of your Calls in one block of time - you don't have to keep finding the phone, or remembering to call somebody. All of the Errands you need to run (maybe during Lunchtime) are conveniently listed in that context.
[edit] Areas
Areas in mGSD correspond to 'areas of responsibility' in the GTD book. In mGSD, Projects can belong to an Area. You can look at Areas to assist with higher altitude reviews (ie, one level higher than your weekly project review).
[edit] Realms
Realms are not something you will find in the GTD book. The purpose of realms is so that you can effectively keep multiple GTD systems in one mGSD. The use case for this is based on when you're at work you don't want to see your personal projects and actions and vice versa. Now you could use contexts to separate home and work actions but this doesn't work well for projects and areas. By keeping work related items in a work 'realm' you can do a weekly project review or even a higher altitude review of all your work stuff without having your personal stuff in there as well, and vice versa. Realms can be 'on' which means you will see items from that realm or 'off' which means you won't see items from that realm. You can switch on more than one realm at a time and realms are flexible. You can use a single realm for everything or have many realms if you want to.
One suggested way of viewing Realms is as "roles" in ones life.
[edit] Processing Your Inbox
[edit] Creating Projects, Actions and Ticklers
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