Notes on Productivity Home Page

Yesterday, I posted this topic to this blog, seeking an answer to question. The title I chose did not actually ask a question. So, as you might expect, I didn't get the answer I hoped for.

If you are a Lotus Notes for Mac user, I'd appreciate your quick thoughts on this.

Today, I was coaching an executive in how to use Lotus Notes as a tool for getting things done.  In the course of our work together, I went to show him how to capture and paste a shortcut  to a folder or a file into any Notes document (e.g. a To Do, or document or even an email) so that later, when he opens the document, all he has to do is click on it and Notes will take him to the folder or open the file.

Oops. I should have tried it first.

When I drag the alias into a Notes document, Notes properly shows the attachment type:



However, when I go to open the attachment, I get an error indicating that the file is already open in Mac OS X.



I use this capability all the time with Lotus Notes on Windows. Works great. Next to doclinks, this is a powerful feature for managing information that resides outside of Lotus Notes.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that I can do this with Lotus Notes on the Mac.  

I told my client I would reach out to the Lotus Notes Community to see what I could learn...

Please post any feedback below. Thanks!

Here's a quick Bloomberg interview with David Allen talking about the frustrations and opportunitiues of technology.

David Allen's is a long time Lotus Notes user and champion. I set up David's first Lotus Notes server nearly 20 years ago. (He was on cc:Mail before that).

The folks over at GTD Times recently announced a 14-day GTD Challenge, designed to help folks take their productivity to a whole new level. The event is free and will be hosted in the GTD Connect community. (If you haven't taken the time to explore the GTD Connect resources you can get a free two week guest pass here.) The free event kicks off Thursday, September 22 with the first of two webinars by Kelly Forrister and Meg Edwards - both are senior presenters with the David Allen Company. As a side note: I've worked with Kelly for close to 20 years and Meg was one of my personal GTD coaches (Thanks, Meg!) Even if you are experienced at getting things done, this is a fantastic opportunity to sharpen your skills.

The challenge will take place between September 22 and October 6. During this time, Kelly and Meg will challenge you to evaluate your systems and processes to improve your skills. I expect that there will be lively discussion in the forums as well.

I like the idea of the 14-day challenge. I think it's a great idea and anyone that participates is sure to benefit greatly. I've been thinking about ways to help our customers, and anyone that uses Lotus Notes in general, to become more productive. I've decided to run a series of webinars in tandem with the above 14-day GTD challenge to help people that use Lotus Notes apply what they are learning in Kelly and Meg's webinar to the Lotus Notes environment. Most of this will focus around using Lotus Notes and eProductivity to get things done. I'll share with people how I use these tools and I'll provide the opportunity for people to ask questions.

You don't have to be an eProductivity user to participate, as I will share many tips that work with standard Lotus Notes. If you want to use eProductivity but do not already own it, that's not a problem either, as I'll provide the Essentials version of eProductivity free of charge to anyone that wants to participate.

Step one: Register for my GTD with Lotus Notes Challenge.

Step two: If you haven't already done so, quickly sign up for the 14-day GTD Challenge. The first webinar is tomorrow. I plan to attend and I encourage you to do so, as well.

Would you help me tell others about this opportunity?
If you have a productivity community (GTD, or eProductivity, or anything else) please consider making a post and sharing this link. I plan to post updates here and direct people to other resources as appropriate.

I plan to select several names from those that helped share this event and offer them either a free software license or a jumpstart coaching session. However you decide to participate, I am certain that you will get great value (and if you decide to share this page with your coworkers, you will have my gratitude as well).

Thanks,

Eric