GTD with FogBugz

David Allen’s Getting Things Done(GTD) has inspired an entire category of task management software.  After reading his book and playing around briefly with several examples of the GTD software out there, I wondered if FogBugz could be a legitimate GTD application.

I found very little written about GTD and FogBugz.  But after getting my feet wet with GTD and trying a few GTD applications, I realized that there was a very natural way to use FogBugz to achieve some of GTD’s key concepts.

I am not a GTD Ninja.  But my implementation has been pretty successful for me.  If you are interested in employing GTD and you are already a FogBugz user, this may be a good way to proceed rather than purchasing and learning yet another tool.  Here is what I found…

GTD Project vs FogBugz Project

The primary hurdle was finding synergy between the GTD concept of a project and the FogBugz concept of a project.  This conflict appeared to be a deal breaker at first.  Why does the definition of a project matter?  First, take a look at at the FogBugz website:

“FogBugz is a complete project management system designed to help software teams communicate.”

GTD, on the other hand, isn’t really about managing projects.  GTD is about “managing your actions.” ⁽¹⁾ The difference in scope may sound syntactical, but there is a reason why you don’t use Microsoft Project to implement GTD.   

GTD’s concept of a project is probably not natural for a programmer.  Consider this from the FogBugz help file:

Each installation of FogBugz can be used to keep track of multiple projects. On typical software teams, you might set up a project for every individual product that you develop. ⁽²⁾

Versus this statement from David Allen:

I define a project as any desired result that requires more than one action step. ⁽³⁾

This would lead a GTD’er to create, well, hundreds and eventually thousands of projects.  FogBugz just wasn’t designed for that.  Hundreds and thousands of tasks, sure thing.  But hundreds of projects?  It takes too many steps to create a project for that to be practical even if the software could handle it.

Puzzled by this conflict, I tried a few other GTD tools, like Things and OmniFocus. I liked Things in particular, but found its usage of projects a bit cumbersome too.  And, I was frustrated to find that most of the good GTD apps were only available on a Mac.  Which is fine for me at home but not very helpful for me at work.

One thing I did get out of those tools was a shift in my perspective to better understand the GTD mindset.  Actions are more important than projects.  You can still use your existing tools to manage your projects.  GTD does not aspire to do that.  The trick is managing your actions.

Even more specifically, the trick is to manage your lists of actions.  I found an old post from Kelly Forrister about her lists helpful.  Her list of lists at the time was:

@Anywhwere – for things I can do anywhere, as long as I have the thing (such as hard copy critical reading)
@Calls – no mystery there
@Errands – things to do out and about such as shopping lists, things to drop off, pick up etc.
@Home/Office – things I can only do at home and/or in my home office
@Laptop – actions that require the computer
@Talk To – Agenda lists for key people (boss, co-worker and husband)
@Waiting For

This is not very far off from what is generally recommended in the book.  But for whatever reason, I found it helpful to see the lists she used to make the mental leap I needed. 

List Management

I wasn’t looking for project management software, I was looking for list managementsoftware.   And, as it turns out, FogBugz is also great at managing lists.  Let me show you how.

Step 1: Personal FogBugz

I am assuming that you don’t want to manage your personal task list with your team’s FogBugz installation.  I strongly recommend that you sign up for a FogBugz On Demand account for yourself and switch it to the free Student and Startup Edition.

This gives you a personal FogBugz workspace that won’t get mixed up with your employer’s or employees’  project management.  You can always expand your usage of FogBugz to manage your own personal projects like building a deck, planning a wedding, or writing your own software to overthrow Google. 

Step 2: Inbox Project

Every On Demand account comes with one pre-built email inbox named ‘cases.’  So, if your account is spolsky.sharepocket.com, then your inbox address will be cases@spolsky.sharepocket.com. 

Edit your Inbox project to create an area for each GTD list you will manage.  My list currently looks like this:

• Articles To Read
• At Home
• At Work
• Calls To Make
• Errands To Run
• Inbox
• Projects, Home
• Projects, Work
• Someday
• Waiting On

Consistent with the FogBugz philosophy, I think a smaller number of areas is probably easier to manage as it makes it easier to decide which area to use for a task.  I would like to consolidate this list once I’ve got enough experience to see which areas make the most sense over time.

Step 3: Go Mobile

One advantage of FogBugz On Demand is that you can access your account from virtually anywhere.  One of the first things I did was bookmark my FogBugz URL on my iPhone and put that bookmark on the homepage labeled as GTD.

Wherever I am, my list of things that need to be done is always accessible.  For me, this was a key requirement for any electronic GTD system.  Of course, Things and OmniFocus have iPhone apps too.  But this solution would work on most any smart phone.

Step 4: Submit Tasks

When I’m at my desk, I keep my GTD FogBugz page open in a browser window all of the time.  When tasks comes up I can quickly flip to that screen and use the quick case entry to add the item to my Inbox. 

One trick to be aware of here.  By default, the quick case entry will categorize your new cases as a Bug.  My to-do lists doesn’t make much sense as a bug list, but there is a work around.  If you set your filter to only show Scheduled Items then any cases created using the quick case feature will also be Scheduled Items.  I think Inquiry or Scheduled Item makes the most sense for most GTD purposes.

Don’t forget about the email inbox!  You can always shoot an email to your ‘cases’ email account and they will be automatically added to your Inbox project.

Step 5: Autosort

Getting Things Done is designed to work first as a paper based task management solution.  It translates well into the digital world, thus all of the GTD applications you will find out there.  But when translating GTD to the electronic medium, don’t forget to take advantage of the power of your electronic tools.  Case in point…

GTD’s process says that you put things into your Inbox as they come in and only deal with organizing tasks when you are ready to set aside a small amount of time to organize and “process” your inbox.  The steps we’ve identified thus far, would lead you to that same process in FogBugz.  However, with the “Autosort” feature, you can have FogBugz do some of that work for you with minimal extra work when submitting tasks to your Inbox.

Say you have just received an email asking you to review a sales brochure related to a project at work.  You could forward that email to your cases@spolsky.fogbugz.comaccount.  FogBugz will, by default put it in the Inbox area (if you’ve configured this as the default area).  Later, you can login to FogBugz and move this case to the ‘To Read’ area.

However, you know when you send the email to FogBugz that this is something you want to read later, so you could update the subject line from “Fw: Hey, checkout the widget brochure” to “To Read: Checkout the widget brochure.”  Consistently using a couple of key words on the subject line that matches your Areas will help FogBugz Autosort to figure out what to do with each case.

After a little bit of Autosort training, FogBugz will handle the processing of your Inbox for you!  Of course, as I mentioned previously if it can’t figure out what to do with a case it will leave it in the Inbox area for you to manually sort.

Step 6: Get Things Done

As is recommended by Getting Things Done, frequently review your lists for tasks that you should be doing wherever you are.  Since you can access this list from your smart phone or any computer, most tech savvy users will have near continuous access to their FogBugz GTD lists.

Conclusion

One common recommendation with GTD is try to use the tools you already have, know and love to implement GTD rather than invest in new tools specifically for GTD.  The latter method complicates your attempts to adapt to the rigors of GTD’s system.  Thus, for me, it made sense to tailor the GTD methodology to use the tool I already know and love.  If you are a FogBugz user already and you are looking to adapt GTD, you may not need to look any further.

On the other hand, if you are not currently a FogBugz user I would suggest you follow David Allen’s recommendations and don’t immediately try to integrate new software into your process.  After you’ve given it some time, see if your current software tools will come through for you.  If they do not, then give FogBugz a shot.  It won’t cost you a penny and you may find it is useful in many other ways as well.

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(1) – Getting Things Done, David Allen, p18

(2) – FogBugz Help, Projects and Areas

http://www.fogcreek.com/FogBugz/docs/60/topics/basics/Projectsandareas.html?isl=103193

(3) – Getting Things Done, David Allen, p37