Saturday, May 23, 2009

So much for that…

After investing too many hours, and enlisting help from teh interweb, my attempts to get the Lotus Notes / eProductivity combo rocking at home on my Mac has come to a completely unsatisfying end.

It’s not going to happen for me. Period. End of discussion.

Apparently, I’m asking too much from the software.

What I wanted was something I’d already been able to do back when I was using Entourage—have my contacts, calendar, tasks, and several email addresses all in the same place. I didn’t think it would be near impossible for Notes to pull in the several email addresses. It was the one thing from keeping me from migrating to Notes.  No matter how many tries, no matter how many screen grab filled tutorials I received, I just couldn’t get it done.  Then I found out why.

From an email I received from one of my helpers:
1. POP3 mail in Notes will deliver to a single Inbox unless multiple locations (profiles) are setup.
2. Mail rules will not work locally without some workaround.
3. Notes does not know about multiple senders.

The steps recommended to resolve these issues sound just as labor-intensive as my old iCal / OmniFocus / Apple Mail combo.  If I wanted that level of inefficiency, I’d have stayed with that and never looked for something more streamlined. The problem I have with a lot of the GTD software is that it’s all focused on task lists and sorting them into the appropriate contexts.  That’s awesome IF your life is only your task lists.  I love eProductivity because it isn’t a Microsoft program, and contains my contacts, calendar, tasks and Horizons of Focus in one place. Yes, I can hack OF to do the Horizons of Focus, but I’d have to keep everything else separate like they currently are.  This is ridiculous and unacceptable.

GTD is supposed to get rid of the “drag” and help you become more efficient / more productive.  You can’t do that if your system is slowing you down. 

I guess I shouldn’t trash OmniFocus - it’s not OmniGroup’s fault that it’s not as well integrated as I’d like it to be.  It wasn’t built for that and I knew that going in.  When I was using OmniFocus, I was in the process of earning my second undergrad.  It kept me focused, it kept me organized and it kept me productive. Not an easy feat when you’re taking classes, working a full time job and trying to have a life outside of work and school.  I completely credit the OmniFocus / GTD combo for my graduating with a 3.84.  I never expected to do that well, and it brought tears to my eyes when I heard, “Tamara Nelson, Summa Cum Laude” announced at Graduation. I was awarded a Gold Key and I was also initiated into the Delta Mu Delta Business Honor Society… that’s not too bad when you think about how hard those things are to accomplish when you’re NOT working a full time job.

I can’t tell you how much it upsets me that I can’t use eProductivity at home, but I CAN and WILL continue using it at work.  It’s the best software combo out there if you’re serious about using a hi-fi GTD system and have ONE email address you work with.  In the meantime, I’m just going to continue to flounder at home as I try to find a system that works for me in terms of how my home life has changed since I finished school.

*sigh*