GTD Review with a Palm Pilot and Outlook

My primary GTD system is my Palm Pilot. I like it. It's small, easy to use (except I can't write the letter "k"), and I can carry it with me everywhere.

So the Palm Pilot was the obvious choice when I started using GTD (I mean, I already owned it and everything).

But when it came time to do my weekly review, I had a problem. It was almost impossible for me to reconcile my task lists with my project master list. I was constantly having to switch between screens - do I have a next action for this project? what about this project? where was I? Back and forth, back and forth. It was maddening.

The next step in my Palm Pilot GTD evolution was syncing with Microsoft Outlook. When my Palm Pilot was synced, I could sit at the computer when I did my weekly review. I would look at the project list on Outlook, and see if I had a next action in my Palm Pilot. Still a little clunky.

Now? I print out my project and task lists from Outlook (syncd with my Palm Pilot) so I can reconcile them more easily. Whoever invented paper deserves mega kudos.

In Outlook, I only want to see my "Active Tasks." So I choose that from the left sidebar.

And I want to see them in Categories (but if I click on the "Categories" column header, it says I can't sort by that field. whatever.). So I right click the header >> Arrange by >> Categories, and I'm good to go. Look at the process in the screen grab.

So I still use my Palm Pilot as the core of my system. But when it comes to the review, I go to the computer, sync my Palm Pilot, open Outlook, go to tasks, print out the list, and then work from paper.

And now I don't dread the reconciliation part of my weekly review.