According to what I’ve read, I started with the Task List.

I didn’t agree with Sally McGhee that there is a reason to keep goals in the Task list and structurise the goals in several levels - that, in my opinion, should be left outside PDA and Outlook (“43 things”, on the other end, is a great place to maintain goals but it’s a lousy to-do list - everything to its own).

But I agreed with Ms. McGhee that Categories:none task list is a great place to collect actions and project ideas—because in PDA there is also a filter where you can see “No Categories” tasks and work on them everywhere (including queues or sitting on the toilet! :))

So all the “Projects” (complex, non-elementary tasks) will be replaced with “Next Actions” which are what needs to be done on the project right now and has no dependencies. I use square brackets to enclose project name, and put this project reference after the task. My idea of IMS means it must work on PDA as well, so I keep project name and actions concise. Example: Call Dell [Tape Unit Xchange]. This allows to keep the task names mostly readable in PDA 240*320 screen—and jog the memories necessary to complete this task.

Whatever additional information needs to go with the project (yes, whole project, not just this action) – starting with the project action list with checkmarks, required contacts, references – goes to the notes.

When I finish the Next Action, if project has more Next Actions, I just change the title to further Next Action, preserving the project name. This scheme produces much less rubbish accumulating in Task list - only ONE Completed Task for a Project - yet constantly updating Next Action which you mark done within the project Notes—so you still have the pleasure of checking out the items! :)

“Recent” filter in my PDA Tasks list allows to see what I’ve accomplished/changed recently, so if a Next Action arises where you thought it was all done, you just find the last Next Action on this project in Recent list.

So looks like without buying and studying more third-party software, I’m so far fine with what I have on PDA. (I hate the situations when lots of tools exist to do the same job – it’s dirty… I prefer just to find one tool good enough and scrap the others.)

In big Outlook I also drag Tasks to Calendar to schedule them and drag selected text into Notes (not forgetting to put a reasonable title to the first line—it will name the note in the list later!).

Among next To do items now: how to use Outlook Notes -> Microsoft OneNote export capability. I do capture some notes on PDA and Outlook Notes. Must find a way of manually export only relevant ones. Also probably it’s worth to try & always keep Notes to a minimum so they aren’t lost - the relevant should go to OneNote and the short-term ones promptly deleted after they become irrelevant.

The problem so far is I haven’t figured out how do I synchronise OneNote books at home & at work easily. Sending .one files to myself by mail works to a degree but isn’t the pretties way of doing things. Could be, I don’t need it at all – just synchronise home-related notes at my home PC and business-related notes at my work PC. But this all needs more thought.