Mimi Yin: Getting Things Done: Technology and Practice

PERSONAL INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE AND CHANDLER Too much information No time to understand it

UN -INFORMED DECISION-MAKING It’s the Information Age and we’re still making decisions based on: Gut instinct High level impressions Tunnel vision aka Knee-jerk reaction (The last person we talked to, The last email we got) Someone else’s summary What has your information done for you lately? Not just in the workplace Lawmakers make decisions about legislation How individuals make personal decisions (What we buy, Who we vote for)

WHAT IS GTD A task management methodology. { or } A way of life. Put things where they mean something to you Mind like water A Trusted System is one that is Complete and Up-to-date

OUR RELATIONSHIP TO GTD Spirit of the law. { v. } Letter of the law We’re sort of the Unitarian Church in relation to GTD Picked out high-level concepts that we feel are universal Paid less attention to the specifics of the methodology that we feel were developed to fit into the framework of how existing software tools behave

WHAT IS CHANDLER? An inter-“Personal” Information Manager and Platform Sharing and Collaboration "Personal" is in quotations because our definition of Personal is at the same time both different and broader than traditional notions of Personal. Extensible with the ability to define new kinds of data from a broad range of sources: Flickr, del.icio.us, Amazon, eBay, Blogs via RSS and Web Services

A COMMON GOAL To help people Get stuff done . Efficiently. Without losing focus on what’s important. In order to do that, we must help people answer the question on a moment by moment basis: What is the best use of my time right now?

WHO IS OUR TARGET USER? THE KNOWLEDGE WORKER. Not just someone who gets a lot of email or signs up for a lot of newsletters. The knowledge worker is someone who is regularly bombarded with ill-defined tasks, someone who doesn’t appear to be “doing” or “producing” much, except that the success or failure of an endeavor depends on their ability to define, drive and close on “virtual” work items. Increasingly, we are all becoming knowledge workers. (Customer Service Rep example.)

OVERVIEW: SYMPTOMS, PROBLEMS, SOLUTIONS I don't write everything down I keep stuff I’m working on, open on my Desktop I just keep everything in my Inbox I keep a to-do list in my Drafts folder I email tasks and documents to myself I miss important emails I don't bother assigning due dates anymore I'm always over-committing myself I make lots of lists, but I never go back to them My notebook is write-only I keep it all open on the desktop GTD takes 3 days to set up Just add items Where do I put this so I will come across it at the right place, at the right time? Technology-centric organization of data LINEAR and BINARY workflow structure Location-based organizational paradigm Centralized Collection Bin Stamping Organizing around User Semantics Managing FOCUS with Triage Making progress iteratively Multiple views of the same data Connect the dots between views I mark Read mail as Unread I just can’t deal Some emails sit in my Inbox for months Some tasks sit on my Task list for months Data Diaspora I keep getting interrupted and then lose track of where I was I’m too busy to have a system

DIAGNOSIS Tools are too generic. Users are left to set up their own system. Most don’t. To reply to folder. Flagged folder. Data is organized around “technical” semantics File formats: .ics, .png, .doc, .ics, .htm Protocols: IMAP, POP, Jabber, Exchange, HTTP Generic tools: Folders, Items, Categories, Tags User semantics are pre-defined (Fixed Schema) Poor workflow framework for: Adding user semantics (Folders) Organizing user semantics (Hierarchy) Short-sighted, binary definition of task workflows We’re living in an Age of Data Diaspora How many places do you store data? Email client, spreadsheet, scraps of paper, text files, your brain…

PRESCRIBED REMEDY Provide users with a basic system right out of the box. Re-define the notion of workflow. Design for it. Hammer a nail versus Build a home. Connect the dots between disparate sets of data. Practically speaking, that means… Organize views of data around User Semantics (aka metadata) Labels: People, Subject matter, Projects, Timeframe, Places, Status. Kinds: Communications, To-dos, Events, Media, Resources, Directories (e.g. Correspondence versus Chat, not Email versus IM) As a result, items can “show up” in more than 1 “view”, a feature supported by bi-directionality at the data model level. Sub-text: We don’t believe that lack of discipline is the problem.

SHALLOW RAMP: CHANDLER IS A SYSTEM OOTB Frame of reference: Types of Attributes, Kinds of items Who, What, When, Where, Status, Value Communications, To-dos, Events, Resources, Media, Directories

USER SEMANTIC NO. 1. STATUS: UNPROCESSED. USERS NEED A CENTRALIZED COLLECTION BIN (Something that will eat Any thing)

SCENARIOS WE’RE TRYING TO AVOID I don’t know where to put this so that I will… Find it again Find it again in the right place at the right time … which results in an incomplete system. … and how can you make decisions with incomplete data? GTD: A Trusted System is one that is Complete and Up-to-date.

USER SEMANTIC NO. 2: FOCUS. TAKING THE LONG-VIEW ON WORKFLOW. AN ITERATIVE APPROACH TO TASK COMPLETION. T ake big things and break them down , take opaque things and clarify them meanwhile… .stages lifecycle their through items track you as move information in and out of F O C U S GTD: Traditional Time Management…Doesn’t work New information comes to light…all the time Tasks today are amorphous and evolve over time (aka get bigger)

IT’S A BINARY WORLD IN YOUR PIM Are you Done or Not Done? Is life ever that simple? To you find yourself re-processing the same information over and over again? Do you lose track of information you weren’t quite done with? Do you ever wish your PIM was better at helping you keep track of incremental progress you make on your tasks?

INFORMATION LIFECYCLES Stages Black box Research Stalled - Waiting for something or someone Can do Can do < 2 minutes Done - No (further) action required GTD: Most of what you think of as tasks are actually multi-step mini-projects

THE DASHBOARD: WHERE YOU FOCUS (Also Something that will eat Any thing) Tasks Meetings Documents Contacts Drafts Unlike GTD, we’re not going try and remove the Inbox I.V.

TRIAGE: SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF MANAGING FOCUS Meeting reminder example. Again, we’re careful not to remove the Inbox I.V.

ADDING SEMANTICS EACH TIME YOU RE-FOCUS = PROGRESS SUPPORTING INTERATIVE PROGRESS ON TASKS User semantics OR metadata is the substance of information work. It’s how we make progress on our tasks. What’s my status on this task? What are the due dates and milestone dates? When do I need to start focusing on this task? (Reminders) Who do I need to discuss this with? In what context am I going to accomplish this task? What project is this for? What is kind of task is this? These are all Questions that will help you clarify and break down big, complex, opaque tasks into an obvious progression of executable next actions. You don’t need to answer them all at once, the goal for Chandler is to help you 1) answer these questions, iteratively over time; and 2) to keep track of your progress GTD: Put things where they mean something to you

TRIAGE: A TOPOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF THE LIFECYCLE OF A SINGLE INFORMATION ITEM Spiraling through information lifecycle phases Black box R&D Waiting for Plan action items Done and Archive Initial Triage to get rid of non- essential noise items

RUNNING TASKS IN PARALLEL: FINDING EMPOWERMENT THROUGH INTERRUPTION GTD: Achieving Mind Like Water NOW LATER NOW LATER NOW NOW DONE LATER NOW LATER NOW LATER DONE NOW LATER NOW LATER NOW NOW LATER DONE NOW LATER NOW

USER SEMANTIC NO. 3: EVOLVING WHAT AN ITEM “IS” (STAMPING) Items of all kinds represent tasks to you* Draft of an email A meeting you need to schedule Document you need to work on Photo you need to clean-up and send out Blog entry you’ve been meaning to read Not just for Tasks: Send an Event out as an Invitation, send a Photo out as an Email, comment on an Article and post it to your Blog. *Tasks are a remnant of action-oriented workplace where people actually “did” things. What we really mean when we say we’re living in an information age and we do information work, is that all of the things we “do” have digital artifacts (emails, documents, phone logs). And these digital artifacts are our tasks. Not some “action” we need to record as a task item on a task list. GTD: Put things where they mean something to you.

PUTTING THINGS WHERE THEY MEAN SOMETHING TO YOU GTD Tickler files: Using the item itself to be the Reminder

STAMPING 101 Put on calendar Location Date/Time Attendance Put on task list Context Dependencies Estimated size Relative priority Relative importance Communicate To CC BCC Date sent/recd Overlapping Attributes Title Creator Date created Last modified Body Triage status Personal annotations Comments

USER SEMANTIC NO. 4: ALTITUDE ( straight out of GTD) 5,000 ft: @supermarket 10,000 ft: Project: Dinner party Runway: Today Runway: New stuff I just thought of 20,000 ft: Sphere: Home stuff

CONNECTING THE DOTS: CHANDLER AS A SYSTEM Beyond GTD

HOW TO ORGANIZE AROUND USER SEMANTICS. LABELING VERSUS COLLECTING, ITEMS AND COLLECTIONS Labels = Collections As a result, collections have semantics. Project collections, Agenda collections, Status collections, Timeframe collections, etc. All Collections are attributes on their member items All Attributes are in turn collections of items based on this attribute. This is bi-directional references at work This is what we mean by Organizing data around User Semantics Labels on items include: Tag Labels (without Semantics) e.g.. Brown Attribute Labels (with Semantics) e.g.. Hair color: Brown

WHY WE ORGANIZE TODAY Save for later Tags, Keywords, Topics, Descriptions Capture information Phone number, Location, Size, Status Attendees Monitoring FOCUS, Projects, Agendas, Shopping lists Label (Bottom-up) Collect (Top-down) Separate affordances for Label & Collect

USAGE PATTERNS Save for later Tags, Keywords, Topics, Descriptions Capture information Phone number, Location, Size, Status Attendees Monitoring FOCUS, Project, Agendas, Shopping lists # of items # of times you handle the items Label Targeted retrieval via Search Focus on Item Tree Collect Navigation Focus on Group Forest Different affordances for Retrieving and Viewing Labeled items v. Collections

THE ADAPTIVE SCHOOL OF DESIGN TOOLS SUBSUMED BY USER SEMANTICS Keep attribute-based collections easily accessible in the sidebar Or just search for them occasionally Add tags to items Assign attributes to your tags tags Movies, Billy, things to see But affordances flow naturally from Labels to Collections

OUR CONCEPTUAL MODEL FOR ITERATIVE PROGRESS

RECAPITULATION Chandler as a New World PIM RAMP UP /FALL INTO GTD Provide users with a Semantic Frame of Reference Provide a system out of the box…add a shallow ramp STRAIGHT OUT OF GTD Re-define the notion of Workflow Design for interruption Take the long (iterative) view on workflows BEYOND GTD Connect the dots: Providing a dose of bottom-up Reality to top-down Planning.

INFORMATION Mimi Yin, Interaction Designer Open Source Applications Foundation [email_address] Slides available at: http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Journal/BayCHITalk OSAF website: http://www.osafoundation.org 0.6 experimentally usable calendar: http://chandler.osafoundation.org Design Philosophy: http://chandler.osafoundation.org/philosophy.php More research on organizational paradigms: http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Journal/ClassificationPaperOutline2

SETTING UP A STRUCTURE TO CONNECT THE DOTS all kinds communications tasks calendar resources media directories all collections who when where what status value All messages with who: Pete All restaurants within the price range: $20-40 per person All resources with the status: needs review All items in all collections aka CENTRAL COMMAND Different views of data defined around user semantics Runway view Each view can contain items of any type

ATTRIBUTES EMERGING FROM THE TAG SOUP City Location San Francisco sanfrancisco SF SanFran sf San Francisco Saint

Mimi Yin: Getting Things Done: Technology and Practice

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