On May 11th Nozbe 2.0 for iPhone was released in the AppStore. As I was waiting for this version, I downloaded the moment I could. In this post I’ll try to explain the (new) features, what it means to you and me and what I think about it.

Nozbe for iPhone v2.0

The first thing that has changed is the logo. The logo is refreshed and I like it. Nothing more to say about that, it is just a nice logo. The home screen of the Nozbe 2.0 for iPhone has changed slightly. There was a great demand for an Inbox, and since it was implemented in a previous release of Nozbe on-line, it is also implemented in the iPhone App. For the rest, the menu remains the same except the Inbox is added (Inbox, Next Actions, Projects, Contexts, Calendar), but the layout has changed, and there are new icons.  The icons at the bottom of the page have the same functionality as the previous version, but for them who haven’t used Nozbe for iPhone before, there are 5 icons as you can see in the screenshots

I added 1 2 3 4 5 above the icons in the picture above. These figures match the list hereunder.

1. Go to the Home screen (this screen)
2. Show the Next Actions
3. Sync with Nozbe online
4. Add New action/Note/Project or Context (see extra screenshot) (Power Add Button)
5. Add an Action

screenshot of menu item 4 Power add Button:

Adding a new action (5) will add a new action in the current Project. You can enter a description and Edit the Details.
In the details you can easy check it as done, make a Next Action of that Action, assign it to somebody else (remark:your Project where you create this action in must be shared) or add a comment. It is also possible to change the Project, add one or more contexts, set a time for that action, enter a Due Date with or without an hour(extra screenshot) and there are very nice and easy to use buttons to set the due day to Next Monday, Tuesday, … of Next day, week, month or year) and you can also define a recurrence.

When adding a new Project, you can edit the details.
In these details you can specify a label, you can Share it and make it your Inbox.When you want to share the Project with somebody you didn’t share anything with before, you can invite that person via an email. This is all pretty straightforward.

Adding a note will bring you to the Edit note page, but it is strange that this doesn’t use the Inbox, but uses a random Project (at least, I didn’t found a pattern in it except it uses the same Project)

Adding New Context will allow you to create a new Context and assign an icon to it.

What does this mean?

It will definitely be easier to use Nozbe on an iPhone. The fact that you can use Nozbe on iPhone without having to create a Nozbe account might be a step forward to have somebody use it without registration, but then the price of the App would obstruct this advantage.

The navigation and collaboration features are really nice and being able to comment on your tasks might be useful in some cases.

Being able to sync files within the App is certainly a great feature. Now you carry your presentations, documents, .. with you, attached to the Project. I was only able to open a Word document (.doc) and a PDF. These files failed:  and docx, ppt(x)(s) failed when I created these document in my Office 2010. I could not open them in the iPhone App.

What I think :

This is definitely a fantastic step forward for Nozbe iPhone users. The new layout is easy to use and gives peace of mind. The collaboration functions (delegate) and comments is also a nice features.

The fact that you can carry files with you in your trusted GTD system would be just great if it worked like it should. I’m not quite sure if this is a Apple, Nozbe or Microsoft Office 2010 issue.

Since this is the first release of V2.0, there is some serious margin for improvements. Here is a list of improvements I would like to see.

Wish list: (in order of importance for me)

1. In the Next Actions overview the project should be listed somewhere (next to the Context icon?)
2. Integration with Evernote®
3. It should be possible to filter on context in the Next Actions overview.
4. Adding an action should also be possible in horizontal mode. Now it is just modifying an action that is horizontal-enable.
   In fact, I think the whole application should be available in horizontal mode
5. Notifications on iPhone (overview of what has a deadline that day)
6. Notification via irect message on Twitter, email, text, ..
7. Nozbe users should have the ability to upload their own icons,
8. The Help functions is acting not logical. It starts with the Add New Action, then moves left to the Sync, then left to Home, then right to Next Actions and then right to Add more. Even I move my finger each time from right to left on the screen.

On the Nozbe blog there were several posts that refer to each other and my purpose is to create this one page overview with everything you need to know when sending email to Nozbe. Since GTD is also about having an ubiquitous capturing tool, this is the ubiquitous Email to Nozbe page.

So, here is my overview of everything you need to know when sending emails to Nozbe.

First of all, it’s important to understand the “Nozbe language”

Syntax

The syntax for a (Next)action is simple

Example:
Write a blog post about Email and Nozbe #blog @computer @home on today %30 min !

You just have to follow this syntax :

• #projectname : Add a # sign before the name of the project
• @context : Add a @sign before the context. Multiple contexts can be used.
• dates : write the date in the action like ‘On today’ , ‘ on tomorrow’, ‘next week’, ‘on June 18”. Nozbe understands these all. If you use a date, you also need to use “on” or “at” before the date. If you use next week or  next month,  you don’t need to use the prefix.

• % stands for time needed. Just note % and the time needed (there are limitations. These values can be used :  5min, 15 min, 30 min, 45 min, 1h, 1.5h, 2h, 2.5h, 3h, 4h, 5h, 6h, 7h, 8h)
• Repeat Actions : write down “every …” before the repeating interval. Eg. Every day, every week, every 2 weeks, every month,…
• !: If you want this Action to be the Next Action, just add a ! (exclamation mark)  in the action. The order is not important.

So : Read Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen #become productive ! @home would result in adding the Next Action  Read Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen in project “Become Productive” in the context Home

The special formatting can also be applied when entering a Action with this syntax in the Web Client of when using the email to Nozbe  functionality.

Creating Actions and Notes from your email client to Nozbe

Now that you know the syntax, it’s easy to send emails to Nozbe with your actions.  There is one thing you need to know about your account. On your Settings page, you need to configure a Nickname and a PIN code.

Adding an Action to your inbox or a Project.

Just send an email to Nickname.PIN@nozbe.us. If you want the Action to be created in a certain Project, use this email address : Nickname.PIN.Project@nozbe.us. If your project contains spaces, replace them with an “_” Nickname.PIN.Project_with_spaces@nozbe.us

Adding Actions to multiple projects

Send an email, using the syntax of §1 but as a prefix you must use an asterisk with a space “* “ before each Action.

Adding Notes to a Project

Send an email to Nickname.PIN.Projectname@nozbe.us and the body of the email will be added as a Note. The Subject of the email will be the title.

You can also BCC your Nozbe account to add some reference material to your project. (if you reply to an email for example)

Adding Actions and Notes to a Project

This is really cool. Almost as cool as the Evernote integration

Send an email to Nickname.PIN.Projectname@nozbe.us . The subject of the email will be the title of the note, the body of the email will include everything before the “* “ as a note and will threat the “* “ Actions independent. So, you can send this email to projectname and add Actions to Project2 if you want.

So everything before the first “* “ will be a note to the project as mentioned in the email address, everything after the last “* “ sentence (in this case blahblahblah) will be ignored.

With this post you’ll see how powerful the Nozbe syntax is, and how easy it is to email (Next) Actions and Notes right into your GTD tool.

–Update may 23rd 2010 :

Adding a note to an action

–> will be saved as a comment in your Action in this case:

I have discovered this feature by accident. Well actually last week when i forwarded some e-mails, I noticed that in some cases my Notes weren’t saved as notes in my Projects. When I did some trial and error I discovered this: When you want to add a note, and have just one Action, you have to be careful. When you email the note with that action, the note will be added as a comment on that action. Only when you have more actions in the email, the note will be attached to the Project

 –End Update may 23rd 2010 :

Macro designers and Visual Basic for Office developers, start creating some nice scripts, macros, …. . And off course, everybody who is not using Microsoft Outlook, but another email client, feel free to develop you add-on for your preferred email client!

Je organiseert alles in lijsten zodat je de openstaande acties kan opvolgen. Het maakt eigenlijk echt niet uit waar deze lijst is. Je kan ze bijhouden op je computer, op een PDA, op je IPhone, op papier of je kan ze zelfs op je benen schrijven (het maakt uiteraard wel uit voor jezelf als je ze op je benen schrijft ), zolang dat je de lijst(en) maar hebt. Ik zal in een volgende post mijn GTD installatie beschrijven.

Next actions

Alle next actions zijn verzameld en staan genoteerd in deze lijst. Je kan (en ik raad het sterk aan) een context voorzien voor deze next actions. De context is extra informatie over hoe, waar of waarmee je deze next action kan voltooien. Enkele voorbeelden :

• Op kantoor
• aan de telefoon
• aan de computer
• op het internet
• in de winkel

Waarom is deze context belangrijk? Stel je hebt net een goede lunch meeting gehad, maar op moment dat je terug op kantoor bent gaat al je beschikbare energie naar je spijsvertering. Dit is misschien een goed moment om wat telefoontjes te doen. Enkele low level, low brainpower telefoongesprekken die je dan kan voltooien en afpunten op je lijst.  Je neemt dus de lijst next action met context aan de telefoon en voila, daar heb je een overzicht van alle telefoongesprekken die je nog moet voeren.

Een algemene regel is dat je energieniveau ook zeer belangrijk is. Zowel je lichamelijke als je psychologische energie. Als je energieniveau en je denkkracht nog de grootte heeft van een insect, wat moet je dan doen. Dingen die je kan doen met deze niveaus van energie of denkkracht. Vul je nietjesmachine bij, of geef je planten in kantoor water (wacht niet tot ze afgestorven zijn) Geloof me, als je dit niet doet zal je op een bepaalde dag, wanneer je een overvloed aan energie en denkkracht hebt een document afdrukken, en dit document moet je meenemen naar een superbelangrijke vergadering maar je moet het eerst nog nieten. Net dan merk je dat je nietjesmachine zonder nietjes staat te staan op je bureau. –> STRESS.
Of ineens merk je op dat alle planten in je kantoor dood zijn…
Gebruik je ‘braindead’ momenten goed

Project

Als de voltooing van iets meer dan 2 next actions vereist, is het een project. Yep, soms moet ik zelf nog aan dit idee wennen, maar het is wel iets dat werkt. Deze projecten dien je regelmatig na te kijken om zeker te zijn dat elk project zijn next action heeft om het project verder te sturen richting voltooing.

Waiting for

Op deze lijst houd je alle actions bij die je gedelegeerd hebt naar iemand anders. Via deze lijst kan je deze acties allemaal opvolgen en indien nodig een herinnering sturen.

Someday/Maybe

Dit is de lijst bevat  eigenlijk niet ‘actionable’ zaken die je misschien later zou kunnen doen. bvb ‘informatie zoeken voor een reis naar Peru’ of ‘leren ontwikkelen op SharePoint’

De kalender

Je kalender gebruik je om je afspraken bij te houden. De opvulling ervan is eigenlijk een zeer groot glas waat je stenen in legt. Tussen de stenen is er nog plaats voor kleine keitjes , en daarna is er nog plaats voor zand en daarna nog voor water. Dus je agenda bevat de ‘grote’ zaken. Plan nooit meer dan 60% van je dag, want als je dit wel doet ga je serieuze problemen krijgen als er iets of iemand tussenkomt.

Wat staat er nog in je kalender? Alles dat zou sterven (ik vind de uitspraak ‘Anything that would die’ zo goed dat ik ze in het Nederlands gewoon letterlijk vertaal maar het klinkt veel serieuzer in het Engels). Dus alles dat een negatief gevolg kan hebben als je het niet voltooid voor een bepaald tijdstip. Alle deadline gestuurde acties dus.