From the first time I tried out Springpad, I have decided to use it, and gradually add it to my personal system’s workflow. I admit it was not an easy process, mainly because the large number of features and the fact that some of them are still unrefined.
I have read some articles of users tried to build a full GTD system out of Springpad, some of them pretty interesting, and found out that there are many requests to the developers for GTD-like specific features.
While extra polishing of features is something desirable by all users, existing and potential, we should keep in mind that Springpad is a note organization tool. That is its main mission and it just works.
How I setup Springpad
While my main GTD system is pretty complete, I was always on the look out for a way to keep additional information, like extended reference for my projects, journaling, or temporary notes and lists that could not fit in any conventional piece of software. Even myself, as a developer, was unable to implement that functionality right, into my own applicationfor Outlook Jello Dashboard.
So I came to use Springpad as a reference companion to my main GTD system. It can hold any type of information, which can easily be organized in many ways.
So I’ve set up the following notebooks:
- Inbox (for information I can easily collect and should review sometime later)
- Projects (for all my active projects)
- Potential Projects (my someday or not started projects)
- Archive (for all my completed projects)
- Reference (for general storage of reference material not related to projects)
- Goals (for checklists that has to do with higher views of GTD)
- Media (for music/books/movies I want to hear/read/see)
- Shopping (things I want to buy someday)
I have also set up a couple of folders for specific large continuous projects for which I plan to gather material as snippets from other sources.
It would be really great if there was the ability of nested notebooks, so every project could be a notebook, but I solved that quite easily by creating a Springpad Task for each of my projects, active or not.
So for each of my projects I’m taking advantage of the ability to attach sub-items, especially notes for keeping track of my project’s progress or add useful information.
I can do the same thing for potential or inactive projects, something that helps me brainstorm, plan and bring them to shape before I start working with those.
When a project is done and after I complete adding journal information in it, I just mark it complete and move it to the archive. I don’t use tags or categories for the moment, but I’m sure I will as my system grows larger.
The rest of the notebooks are filled with other item types: Reference holds notes of useful information, Goals contains mainly checklists and Media/Shopping takes advantage of Springpad’s product finder to build my shopping lists.
I also use the Springpad’s Android application a lot, and I’m especially fond of its ability to create shortcuts of items to desktop. I have a homescreen dedicated to shortcuts of the active projects I want to focus on for the current week, a couple of frequently accessed checklists, and some reference notes with important information.
And last -but not least- I have added Springpad to my weekly review routine, cleaning the Inbox folder, taking a look at my project list and deciding on my next projects I will work on next. A monthly review includes a look on my shopping lists and my Goals checklists.
In conclusion, there are many GTD task organizers which can do things that Springpad is not able to do, but not many of them can do what Springpad does so well. I think it’s a great addition to any GTD system.
Read also: My review