Can Google Docs be a Part of Your GTD System?
Although my initial use of this application was limited to three or four files, Google Docs has grown on me over the past couple of months. I’ve moved more and more documents online now and use it for everything from budgeting to tracking the trades in my fantasy football league.
Of course, being a web application, accessibility is part of the usefulness—I can get to my documents from any computer. But there is more to this app. For an online offering, it has been designed in a way that is reminiscent of a desktop application, offering a familiar feel to the user.
I’ve been mulling over whether or not Google Docs could be used as part of a GTD setup. After some thought, I think it can fit the needs of two GTD tools.
Research/Information Management
Whether you use paper or an electronic tool, there is always a need to hold on to pieces of information. Sometimes that information is used for active projects and sometimes it’s kept for some potential future purpose. With GTD, the idea is to have a trusted filing system where that information can be easily accessed at any time.
I currently use Yojimbo in my setup, but I think Google Docs would be another solid option.
The prime reason for this is the use of tagging. Now, on a first look, it doesn’t look like Google Docs uses tags. Rather, it employs the more traditional file folder structure. And this is true—Google Docs uses folders and for folks who prefer this hierarchical structure, they can file away to their content.
But if you take a closer look, you’ll find that Google Docs uses folders the way GMail uses labels. Which is to say that they both make use of the concept of tagging. Documents can be added to multiple folders at once, the same as applying tags in applications like Yojimbo, Together or Evernote.
Here is the dialogue where you have two options: 1) you can move the document(s) to a different folder, essentially removing one label/tag and adding another, or 2) Add the document(s) to another folder, in essence adding a second label/tag.
And here is how the document is shown to belong to two ‘folders‘.
For whatever reason, the interface has been designed in such a way that it’s not immediately obvious that your docs are taggable. But once you get used to working with the menus, you can start to organize your files in a structure that fits your system.
Folders can be created for each project you have. And documents can be added to those folders and even shared across multiple folders.
Task Management
This is another need where you could possibly use Google Docs. By using the tagging folders in conjunction with saved searches, you could manage all your tasks in similar fashion to other applications of this type.
It’s not the easiest setup for creating tasks, but if you want an online that’s free, try the following:
Creating Tasks
Create a new document and write the name of your task. This will be the name of your document as well. Then, add some kind of special character combo that you would rarely use in an actual document—I use °T. Next, save and close your new document.
Creating a Task List
Once you’ve created several tasks, enter your special character combo into the search field and hit return. You should now see a list of the documents that contain your special ‘code‘. That’s it—you’ve created a task list.
Now, any good GTD setup gives you the ability to quickly look at all your tasks—even on pen and paper. So you would not want to enter a search every time you needed to see your list. That’s where the saved searches in Google Docs is helpful.
These saved searches are the same as a smart folder in Finder in OS X or Mail.app. Click on the link titled, “Show Search Options” and enter in your criteria. Save the search and give it a descriptive name.
Now when you look at your source list (sidebar), there is an expendable Saved Searches option. I gave my saved search the name Tasks. See below:
Deleting Tasks
When you start knocking off tasks, simply return to your list, check them off and hit the delete button.
It would be simple from here to create folders (again, tags) for each project. You could create all the task documents you needed and assign various characters to them. °T for tasks, °NA for next actions, °C for @computer if you use contexts etc. Tasks could be added to these various project folders and then you could create saved searches to pull your different types of tasks together.
It wouldn’t take much to set up Google Docs to be almost as robust as a lot of full blown task management applications. Creating tasks is not as simple as some other tools, since you are essentially creating new documents. But aside from that, the benefits of a free, searchable and taggable application are tempting.
You could use Google Docs to meet both these needs listed above—it could easily handle your reference information as well as your tasks.
Throw in Fluid or Prism for SSB and Google Gears for offline access and you’ve got a quality tool to help you be productive.
