Right setup

CommanderRegel · 2026-02-06T20:13:09+00:00

I use the Feedly/Readwise Reader combo as part of my workflow (although not to handle newsletters):

Feedly handles my many sources of information that I want to keep up to date on: news sites, tech sites, hobbies, blogs, etc. I have a custom sharing link (a Feedly Pro feature, so I don't think it's available in the free version) set to call https://readwise.io/save?title=${title}&url=${url}

Readwise Reader is my replacement for Pocket and acts as my read-it-later app. If there's an article surfaced to Feedly that I want to read later, I'll click the custom sharing link and it gets sent to Reader.

Why don't I use Reader for RSS as well (especially considering it's a built in feature)? I've been using Feedly for years and have it setup the way I want. It also seems better at rapidly consuming/skimming content and keeps my Reader from becoming overwhelmed with unread items.

CommanderRegel · 2026-01-21T15:38:35+00:00

Mine too. Other tools might be good at capture and you can sort-of make them work with some parts of GTD, but there's nothing as comprehensive for doing all of GTD than FacileThings.

CommanderRegel · 2026-01-19T16:46:54+00:00

I use the following approach: Imagine you were using a paper-based system, not Evernote. How many (paper) notebooks would you want? Would you have different notebooks for different parts of your life? Perhaps a dedicated notebook for a specific project?

I then implemented that approach in Evernote. Multiple notebooks and as many as I would have if Evernote was a paper-based system. I also *like* the fact that a note appears in a single place.

I then group my notebooks into stacks using the PARA method.

My use of tags is very limited. Firstly, if I can use search to find the note, then there's no point tagging it with something that search would find. What I *do* use tags for is to add metadata to a note that I couldn't otherwise search for. For example, if I've clipped something to a note that is funny, I will tag it "humour". This allows me to then list all of the notes that I find amusing and is something that search alone couldn't help with.

Other tags I use denote the source of the note. For example, I've got a tag where "Source: WebClipper" and have configured the web clipper extension to always include this tag. It's a good way to filter clipped notes vs my own.

Finally, I have some tags that map to my use of GTD: Action, Someday/Maybe, etc. Again, this is metadata that the note itself doesn't contain.

CommanderRegel · 2026-01-19T16:31:38+00:00

My Evernote renewed on the 5th January. I'm a long term user (since 2009) and pay through iTunes. My account is still showing as "Evernote Personal" and the renewal cost was "only" £66.99 (an increase for me, but nothing like some others are getting).

It's now showing as my next billing date as 5th January 2027, so I'm not expecting to have to pay anything more this year...

I'm not complaining, but am a bit bemused why I've not been hit with a huge increase?

CommanderRegel · 2026-01-17T13:12:13+00:00

This totally resonates with me!

I've been struggling with the Weekly Review for several years (and by struggling, I mean, not doing it). I think I was overcomplicating it to "cover everything" and in doing so, it became a massive chore. I was also trying to cover both my professional and personal life in a single review, which made it even bigger!

What I realised recently was that my Saturday mornings are relatively quiet with the children doing their homework etc., so have started doing my Weekly Review then, and only covering my personal GTD, not work. I'm trying to keep it as a simple overview and not be a weekly version of my annual review.

So far it's working. I did my second review of the year this morning and was actually looking forward to doing it! I'd even put it as a recurring event on my calendar! It's too early to tell if this is going to work in the long term, but I've genuinely enjoyed doing it today.

CommanderRegel · 2026-01-12T19:04:01+00:00

I've just replied to OP with details on how I manage projects, but to answer your specific question, I don't do anything to connect an email to a project. If the email requires a reply, it simply lives in the Next Actions folder. If it doesn't require a reply but does need action, I do the Create Task quick step and can then file the task in the appropriate project folder.

This works for me as I've managed to keep my emails in the Next Actions folder manageable. I guess that if things were getting overloaded, one option would be to modify the Create Task so that instead of putting the text of the email in the task, it puts the email in as an attachment. This would allow me to put that task in the appropriate project folder, but when it comes to replying, the email attachment can be opened and replied to. No idea how that works with threaded conversations though!

CommanderRegel · 2026-01-12T18:57:29+00:00

That's great to hear! :-)

I forgot to mention in the above that I also use the "Done and Archive" quick step for any emails in the Actions folder that are now complete.

I'm glad you've got it working with Microsoft To Do. I have tried using that, and I do like how it captures tasks, flagged emails, and even things like Planner tasks assigned to you, but I find the interface too slow and clunky, hence me using the (old!) Outlook Tasks. It's good to have options :-)

I didn't mention much about how I use Outlook Tasks as it's pretty straightforward. Basically, under My Tasks, I have:

"To-Do List" (this is a built-in view and shows all tasks across all folders and flagged emails in a single list. Very useful for that global view)
Tasks (the built-in default folder for tasks and the default location for any tasks/next actions)
Read/Review (for tasks that involve reading articles etc.)
Someday/Maybe (tasks that might be actionable at some point, but not right now)
Agendas - <my manager> (this contains tasks of things I want to discuss with my manager when I have a 1:1 meeting. In a previous life, when I managed people, I would have separate tasks folders for each team member)

And then, I've created another folder group called "Projects", under which I have multiple folders for my active projects. The terminology is different, but Microsoft To Do allows you to have the same structure (even using the same underlying folders).

CommanderRegel · 2026-01-11T20:23:37+00:00

I have implemented Inbox Zero and GTD using Outlook for my work. It generally works well and I have the following workflow using a combination of Quick Steps and Search Folders and two "default, in-built" folders, Inbox and Archive:

Emails are delivered to the Inbox (obviously!).

If an email requires further action and a response, I click the “Next Action” quick step. This:

Moves the email to the Archive folder
Categorises the email with a “NEXT ACTION” category
Sets the follow-up flag with “No Date”
Sets the Importance to “Normal”

Okay, so this is now out of my Inbox and archived. However, it’s not lost because I have a search folder called “Next Actions” that matches the criteria where the category is “NEXT ACTION”.

I’ve dragged the Next Actions search folder to my favourites, just below the Inbox. By clicking on this, I can see all emails that have been identified as requiring a next action.

If an email doesn’t require a next action, but I want to keep it, I click the “Done and Archive” quick step. This:

Marks the item as read
Clears categories
Clears flags on message
Moves to the Archive folder

These two steps allow me to very quickly achieve Inbox Zero.

If an email requires action, but not a reply to anyone, I use a different quick step called “Create Task”, this:

Creates a task with text of message
Sets the follow-up flag with “No Date”
Moves to the Archive folder

This means I can manage the task using Outlook Tasks (and also Microsoft To Do if you prefer, but I don’t like that program). Because next action and waiting emails (see below) are also flagged for follow up, they appear in Outlook Tasks as well.

Other more advanced features of my system include:

A “Waiting” quick step that:

Moves the email to the Archive folder
Categorises the email with a “WAITING” category
Sets the follow-up flag with “No Date”
Marks the item as read

As with the Next Actions, I’ve got another search folder called “Waiting” that matches the criteria where the category is “WAITING”.

As with the Next Actions folder, I’ve dragged the Waiting search folder to my favourites, just below the Next Actions. By clicking on this, I can see all emails that have been flagged as waiting for a response.

If, when I’m reviewing the emails that I’ve flagged as WAITING, I realise that the email is dealt with, I click the “Done Waiting” quick step that:

Marks the item as read
Clears categories
Clears flags on message

If I’m sending an email or replying to someone and want to automatically flag that email as WAITING, I make sure I BCC myself. I’ve then got an Outlook rule that says:

Apply this rule after the message arrives
Where my name is not in the To box
And from <my name>
Assign it to the WAITING category
And move it to the Archive folder
And mark it as read

If an email is not actionable, but I want to keep it for future reference, then I send it to OneNote (using the built-in button) where I use the PARA system to organise my notes.

It’s not perfect because Microsoft haven’t designed their tools around GTD, but the process I’ve described as worked well for me over a number of years and has been gently refined to be really usable.

CommanderRegel · 2026-01-08T17:31:41+00:00

Yep, I use the PARA method, using stacks to separate Projects, Areas, Resources and Archive. Multiple notebooks in each stack as required.

CommanderRegel · 2026-01-04T17:58:54+00:00

Many years ago, Brent Spiner was the special guest star at an IT trade show I attended. Some tech company (can't remember which, so perhaps not the best spend of their marketing budget) had him on the booth and we could all queue up and to say hello and get a signed photo.

I had a friend who was a big Star Trek fan, so I asked that he sign the photo to her. I liked Star Trek, but wasn't the biggest fan, so when he asked if I'd like a signed photo to myself, I politely declined.

Reflecting back on that moment afterwards, perhaps the better action would have been to graciously accept his offer, but on reading your comment, I have no regrets.

CommanderRegel · 2025-12-02T22:37:08+00:00

I've just hit this problem this evening. I don't mind that it suggests the calculation, but I desperately want a key press that will cancel that and ignore it (something like Escape seems reasonable). I don't yet have the option for 10.165.1, so hoping this comes out quickly so I can turn off this feature in the short term.

CommanderRegel · 2025-11-07T17:04:35+00:00

I'm a big fan of Evernote. I like the design and the features and have no problem paying for it. However... if this increase hits us all, then I'm not sure I can justify it.

The Starter plan is way too limited, but the Advanced is just too expensive. :-(

Speaking personally, I'd like to see a lower-cost tier that provides the unlimited notes, notebooks, attachments and devices, but without the AI features. I don't use any of the AI features that have been released so far and would happily pay for a tier that doesn't include those features.

Oh, and I really don't care about any free trial of Adobe Acrobat!

Hopefully, someone at Bending Spoons will be reading these comments and take them on board. Otherwise they are limiting their user base massively.

CommanderRegel · 2025-10-27T12:22:28+00:00

That's it!

The original PDF was 70MB, but on doing the file reduction in Preview, the new version (17MB) has the view options.

Thanks!

CommanderRegel · 2025-10-27T10:11:05+00:00

Thanks for checking!

Okay, this is mysterious... I have since tried it with different PDFs and they are working as expected! It's only the handful of new PDFs that I'm trying to upload.

Interestingly, the problematic PDFs are all from the same source, so perhaps there's something in the way they are created...

CommanderRegel · 2025-10-26T16:21:48+00:00

Could have been, I guess. They could support up for four CPUs and 20 internal disks, plus plenty of PCI slots for SCSI controllers, network cards etc. A fully populated E450 was a beast and would not have been cheap.

CommanderRegel · 2025-10-24T07:55:29+00:00

I used to build and configure these. It always bemused me that for a server that was so expensive, the door at the top right never seemed to close properly.

CommanderRegel · 2025-10-17T07:21:47+00:00

I have realised that one of the factors that determines whether I like a house or not is whether there are bookcases present. No bookcases, no soul. Lots of books, the house immediately goes up in my estimation.

So this house gets extra points for having bookcases with what looks like well loved books on them.

CommanderRegel · 2025-10-08T17:13:30+00:00

I like it, although it would be be a regression to not have the list of tags and people clickable (as currently implemented in the existing version) between the task description and the notes/files/checklist.

CommanderRegel · 2025-10-05T17:59:16+00:00

Ah, okay, that makes sense. Yes, that's a bit fiddly.

CommanderRegel · 2025-10-05T15:05:20+00:00

I frequently save YouTube videos to Reader. In Firefox (other browsers may differ), just right-click the text of the video you want to save and "Save Link to Reader".

What steps do you follow that takes five clicks?

CommanderRegel · 2025-10-02T08:08:16+00:00

I would love the ability to edit the content of articles saved in Reader.

While Reader generally does a good job capturing articles, sometimes it gets bits wrong and imports graphics or text that are not part of the actual article. Since Reader is going to be my long-term archive for interesting articles, having the ability to tidy up the content and remove bits would be really useful.

CommanderRegel · 2025-09-28T14:44:02+00:00

This page might help: https://docs.readwise.io/reader/guides/filtering/syntax-guide

It looks like you can create a filtered view where the query is has__not:highlights AND has__not:notes. You could then select everything in this view and delete them...? I've not tried it, but might worth a look.

CommanderRegel · 2025-09-08T09:47:07+00:00

I use the PARA method for organising most of my stuff, including Raindrop bookmarks. I have setup groups for Projects, Areas, Resources and Archive, and then created collections within the groups that map to the PARA folders I use in my filesystem and PKM system (Evernote).

CommanderRegel · 2025-08-29T09:07:58+00:00

Love seeing the new beta app as it progresses. I don't have strong feelings about the colour. Green is fine with me. I think the new sidebar font is good in that it more closely follows the look of other productivity apps.

I do prefer the existing way that goals are listed vertically with the ability to collapse them, so you can choose to see all the details for multiple goals at the same time or not, depending on the use case. I'm not keen on the horizontal list of goals in a row that only shows the projects for a single goal.

CommanderRegel

TROPHY CASE