Lean GTD 2007

Back in 2006, I created a set of Outlook macros supporting David Allen’s Gettings Things Done (GTD) methodology, since the original GTD Outlook Add-in didn’t work for Outlook 2007 back then. Here‘s my post from 2006 on that. Recently, a new version of the add-in has been published, which works for Outlook 2007, but since my macros worked so much better for me than the original add-in (and due to the significant price tag of the add-in) I don’t consider switching back.

Instead, I keep developing my macros, and publish them on this page for anyone to download. I intend to update them with new functionality as long as it can be considered “lean”, that is, it won’t contain any complex functionality, just the little things that make the most difference when you’re using GTD with Outlook 2007. And it shouldn’t be geared towards a specific way of using it, but I guess I’m biased anyway. :-) Another important design consideration that I won’t drop is that it should be possible to synchronize everything to a mobile device and further to a second computer, without losing information about your GTD system.

A quick overview of the macro package is that it installs a menu bar with four buttons: “Next Action”, “Act on Item”, “Schedule Item” and “All Day”.  The first one creates a task and prompts for a category (but inherits categories if a task is already selected), the second creates a task out of an item (email or any other item) and prompts for categories, the third one makes a calendar item out of an item (email or any other item), and the last one helps you with creating an all day event without a reminder. You get support for your “@Waiting For” actions automatically (read the manual in the file!), and also for all day actions. Try it out, it’s completely free!

This version of the macros only works with Outlook 2007, and I haven’t tried it with Office 2010. Please tell me if you have tried it (you need to change the version check in the code in that case) and it works. Or if it doesn’t.

Included in the package are installation instructions, user manual and change log.

So, finally, here comes the code. Comments and suggestions for improvements are welcome! I’ll post updates on my main blog.

Download LeanGTD2007.bas

Update 2010-06-19: bgbuffalo reported that he couldn’t get the macros to work with Outlook 2010, which I don’t have. Thanks! We worked together to find a solution to this: I’ve commented two lines in the code that should be removed in order to get this to work. The backside is that you won’t get email attachments to tasks and appointments, only the text itself. But those disappear in sync anyway, so that’s not such a big issue. So if you want to use the macros with Outlook 2010, remove those two lines. (Search for “Outlook 2010″.)

19 Responses

  4. Thomas Drakengren, on September 8, 2009 at 4:45 pm Said:

    Just fixed so that the “All Day” button gets its date either from a selected appointment, or in case none is selected, from the first day in the current view. Or the current date, if the calendar isn’t visible.

    Reply
  5. Sean Firestine, on November 24, 2009 at 9:39 pm Said:

    Thanks! These macros are perfect for my needs.

    Reply
  6. Thomas Drakengren, on November 24, 2009 at 9:50 pm Said:

    Thanks, I’m happy that you like them! :-)

    Reply
  7. Funkyrake, on December 27, 2009 at 4:22 am Said:

    Thanks. wonderful tool. How can I add Keyboard shortcuts to these buttons to further speedup my GTD worksflow?

    Reply
  8. Thomas Drakengren, on December 27, 2009 at 9:09 am Said:

    Thanks! The keyboard shortcuts are already there, actually, but they may or not collide with some other shortcut in your Outlook. Look at what letter is underlined in the button text. If you can’t see it, try to press “Alt” first. If you need to change the shortcut, you just need to change in the code where the “&” is placed in the button text.

    Reply
  9. cuttingEdge, on February 7, 2010 at 7:16 pm Said:

    I’m curious to know if this is still working or is outdated for you. Are you still using this successfully? What works, what has it’s sticking points for you?

    Reply
  10. Thomas Drakengren, on February 8, 2010 at 12:36 pm Said:

    Yep, I’m still using it! I haven’t found any better solution for handling my tasks and calendar, although I’m always looking around , especially now that I’m looking at other phones than Windows ones.

    I just haven’t found any major points for improvement, except perhaps that my keyboard shortcuts always collide with some plugins that I install. Except for that, things are working smoothly for me!

    You can always tell me if you have any suggestions.

    Reply
  11. cuttingEdge, on February 8, 2010 at 8:32 pm Said:

    thanks. What do you use for your project lists, brainstorming, etc.? I thought of using oneNote and Outlook but I have the concern that I would have to use Windows phones as well… so I’m debating with myself whether to go that route or not. Outlook is very robust but seems that it may be slow. A lot of people favor just using paper.

    Reply
  12. Thomas Drakengren, on February 9, 2010 at 6:37 pm Said:

    I’m using a task category “Projects” in Outlook for my project list, and in the notes field of those tasks I can store any nontrivial project plans. I’ve got some plans on paper, too, and those are either in their own folders, or in a folder “Project support”.

    I started using OneNote for project support, but for some reason I never look there, so apparently it doesn’t work for me. Lots of my stuff still is on paper.

    For brainstorming I have used MindJet MindManager, but I’m sure that some free alternatives are as good.

    I think Outlook is good enough; I prefer functionality and stability over quickness. Perhaps if Google Tasks get a bit more mature, I’ll buy an Android phone and do it all online. But I think I’ll miss my macros then, unless the tasks with mail integration gets really smooth!

    Reply
    • cuttingEdge, on February 13, 2010 at 12:23 am Said:

      Thanks for your quick response!
      Possible alternatives to meet the mobile phone needs that we can look into. (It would be nice to have the option of using other phones)
      Remember the Milk – it integrates with gmail, google tasks, calendar, etc. Haven’t used it but will try it.
      Google Apps – you can work with it instead of Microsoft Exchange so you can use Outlook with it as well. Don’t know if it will work with mobile but I just read that “Google Apps gains remote admin controls for mobile” so it might.
      http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,40022670,00.htm

      Reply
  13. Martin Hones, on May 12, 2010 at 2:43 pm Said:

    Hi Thomas, thank you very much for your macro. It is very useful, helpful, simple and genial ;-)

    Reply
  14. bgbuffalo, on June 17, 2010 at 10:36 pm Said:

    Just upgraded to Outlook 2010. The macro installs and the 4 buttons show up on the “add-ins” tab of the ribbon. Two of them, “next action” and “all day” open up a new task or appointment, but the text of the email are not carried into the new windows. “Act on item” and “schedule” bring up error message “8004010f object could not be found”.

    Clicking on debug brings you to “newTask.Attachments.Add selectedItem” and ” newAppointment.Attachments.Add selectedItem” respectively. Unfortunately my knowledge of VB is nil, hopefully it is a simple fix. I had been using the macro regularly.

    Reply
    • Thomas Drakengren, on June 18, 2010 at 8:14 am Said:

      Thanks for reporting this. I haven’t yet upgraded to Outlook 2010, so probably some changes are needed. I’ll look into this to see if I can make some changes based upon the documentation only. Perhaps I can send my attempts to you for testing?

      Reply
  15. Lean GTD 2007 for Outlook 2010 « Conceptual Integrity, on June 20, 2010 at 9:28 am Said:

    [...] Outlook 2010 Posted on June 20, 2010 by Thomas Drakengren Reader bgbuffalo was so kind to point out that my macro package for simplifying GTD with Outlook 2007, Lean GTD 2007, didn’t work with [...]

    Reply

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