Using Bonsai With Getting Things Done: The Overall Outline

Posted on May 9, 2007 by LJ

Setting Up the Overall Outline

First Level

In the first level of the outline, I have three items:

Processing. Category: unfiled; Keywords: none.
Projects. Category: @Area of Focus; Keywords: none.
SomedayMaybe. Category: @Area of Focus; Keywords: none.

Second Level

Underneath both Projects and Someday Maybe, I have the same list of items. There is one entry for each of my Areas of Focus, and in some cases, there are expansions on the item. This is primarily to allow me to find things quickly. All are categorized as @Area of Focus. Here are some examples:

Creativity. Keywords: Creativity.
Creativity-Writing. Keywords: Creativity
Family. Keywords: Family
Family-Parent. Keywords: Family
Financial. Keywords: Financial
Home-Inside. Keywords: Home
Home-Outside. Keywords: Home
Partner. Keywords: Partner
Self-Improvement. Keywords: Self-Improvement
Self-Improvement-Reading. Keywords: Self-Improvement
Service-Environmentalist. Keywords: Service
Service-OrgComputers. Keywords: Service
Service-OrgWeb. Keywords: Service

When things are not sub-classed, it is the catch-all category. When things do not have a catch-all category, it is because I know I can sub-class all items.

Additional Areas Under Someday

There is one Area of Focus that does not appear under Projects, but does under SomedayMaybe. This is Consumer. I use this area to track things I might wish to purchase at some point.