Getting Things Done
iKanban follows David Allen’s Getting Things Done: capture everything in one inbox, decide what each item means, and work from lists of next actions you trust. Because every card is a reminder, your whole system lives in Apple Reminders and syncs to all your devices.
The GTD tools sit in the Workflow area of the sidebar: Inbox, Today, Weekly Review, Waiting For, Someday/Maybe, Contexts and Colors (see Colors and the Color Legend).
Set up Inbox and Someday/Maybe
Section titled “Set up Inbox and Someday/Maybe”Two lists have a special role. In the Kanban sidebar, open a list’s context menu and choose Set as Inbox or Set as Someday/Maybe. The Board’s inspector also has both under GTD Roles when nothing is selected. Until you choose, iKanban uses a list named “Inbox”, and a list named “Someday/Maybe” or “Someday”.
Capture
Section titled “Capture”Put everything that has your attention into the Inbox. Outside a project, New › New Card (⌘N on Mac) suggests the Inbox as the list unless you’re focused on another list. Anything you add to that list in Apple Reminders — with Siri, for example — lands there too. In the Todo column, the Inbox always comes first.
Clarify the Inbox
Section titled “Clarify the Inbox”Workflow › Inbox shows how many captures are left to clarify. Workflow (on Mac) or the diagram button (on iPad and iPhone) shows GTD’s workflow diagram. Then choose how you want to work:
- List shows every capture. Its ⋯ menu offers the outcomes: Did It (2 min) — Done, Delegate → Waiting For, Defer to Calendar, Move to List (Next Action) — and for things that aren’t actionable, Someday / Maybe or Trash.
- Card by Card asks the questions one capture at a time and highlights the step in the diagram: Is it actionable? What’s the next action — a single step or a multi-step project? Will it take under two minutes? Each path ends in an action: done, delegated, deferred with a due date, or moved to a list. Skip for Now leaves a card for later. On Mac: press Y or N to answer the first question.
Reference material belongs in a project’s Files: import it there. When everything is clarified, you see Inbox Zero.
Next actions and Today
Section titled “Next actions and Today”A next action is a card on a list, phrased as the very next physical step. To mark it as Next, flag it in the Todo column: open the card’s context menu and choose Set Flag.
Today collects what’s up now from all lists: Overdue, Due Today and Next (flagged).
Waiting For
Section titled “Waiting For”Cards you’ve handed off carry the context @waiting; Delegate → Waiting For in the Inbox adds it for you. Waiting For shows all open waiting cards, grouped by list.
Someday/Maybe
Section titled “Someday/Maybe”Someday/Maybe shows the open cards of your Someday/Maybe list — ideas you don’t want to commit to yet. The Weekly Review scans them.
Contexts
Section titled “Contexts”A context says where or with what you can do something: @phone, @errands, @mac. It’s an @word in the card’s title; set it in the Context field of the card inspector.
Workflow › Contexts is the place for contexts: All shows every card, and each @context row shows its cards in Todo, Progress and Done. On the board, contexts are a filter: @ All Contexts ▾ at the top shows the cards of one context, or the Unassigned ones.
Going further
Section titled “Going further”Outcomes that need more than one list — with their own plan, mindmaps and files — belong in Projects. Keep everything current with the Weekly Review.