Episode 130 of the Getting Things Done® podcast. Listen above, or read the full transcript below.
Transcript
Automatically transcribed and lightly edited. Timestamps omitted for readability.
Morten: Hi, and welcome to another episode of the Getting Things Done podcast from Vital Learning. I am Morten Røvik, and as always, I'm here with my good friend and colleague Lars Rothschild Henriksen. Privet, Lars. Privet, Morten.
Lars: Good to see you as always, and as always, good to be with our listeners and viewers out there. We always start off with a quick reminder of the purpose of the podcast, which is to help you learn GTD or become even better GTDers. We hope that today's episode supports you in that. If you're new to GTD, we always recommend you go back and listen to the first episodes, episodes 1 through 6, to get an introduction to the basics of GTD. You'll find that in the audio version of the podcast. Today's episode number is number 130. And today's episode is our yearly tools check-in.
Morten: We were talking a little bit about in the pre-show that, you know, people are generally interested in what kind of tools you and I are using. And I just want to lay the premise that we have found our way and Lars's way is not exactly like mine.
Lars: The Larsen way is the right way, Morten.
Morten: You're doing it wrong. Okay.
Lars: No, I completely agree.
Morten: I'm happy you came to that conclusion. Right. I have to continue this alone. No, but because my way is the right way. No. No, but it is important for us to emphasize that, you know, Lars and my way of doing this is not, you know, it's not kind of getting things done. And what we are teaching you is not religion. It's not— don't take everything we say and do for like the gospel. It is not. It's just the way that we handle this. And you have to find your way. Of handling things. So, and we talked about this also in the pre-show that we should start with hardware. So where would you like to start with your hardware, Lars?
Lars: Yeah, no, that's, it's become a yearly tradition to do this check-in. And so I looked back at the notes from last year and had a look at what did we mention there. And last year I basically had no changes except for a new phone. Back then, which is still the same one that I have today, the iPhone 16, I guess it is, because you have the newest one and that's 17, right? So, so it should be 16, I think. No, I think the biggest, one of the biggest changes, of course, is that those of you on video will notice that I am not at the old office anymore. So we used to have an office in the main, you know, main street of Odense where I live. But we closed that down and I moved to a home office instead as part of the we bought a new house. So all of the stuff that I had at the home office was merged with all of the stuff that came from the office office in the, in the city center. So I think that's probably the biggest trigger of changes because that started, you know, to put everything together and what do I want to keep, what I want to change, how do I want to restructure and rebuild this. So, so some things have certainly changed since, since last year for me. I think that, yeah, to start us off with, you know, the basics, it's, I think last year was still, I was on the M1 Mac Mini, where I am now on the M4, which I must have bought just after the last Tools check-in after last year, the updated version, really happy with that, but, you know, not really too focused on the hardware anymore. It's really different than it was to what it used to be in the old days. I have the M2 MacBook Air for presentations and speeches, trainings, just happy with both of them. Nothing fancy. They're really fast, but the older ones were fast as well. So it's funny how that has changed over the years that you really wanted a new fancy computer and same for phones, right? It's, yeah, I bought the 16 for the AI stuff only to find out that, well, I think it's just now, just this last week, I think some of that AI stuff that they promised last year started to show up on the phone. So, and that was the reason why I bought it. So.
Morten: Marketing hype. Yes.
Lars: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Buy things for what they can do now, not what they say it will do in the future. I think that's solid advice. But I get to use it as a camera now. I used to have the Canon DSLR behind the screen and now it's just the iPhone made more sense for me in the office setup that we have here to utilize the smaller space. And it works really well. It just sits there with the, you know, one of the, I think Belkin made the one that the magnetic holder that you just put on top of the screen. I have two old Apple screens here. That seems to work well. It does a decent job with the camera quality, and I can do my gestures if I want to have fun and do, I think, lasers. Does that still work? Oh yeah, there we go, right? So for those of you on audio only, you're missing out right now. There was a laser show that you just missed. Now, other than that, it's, you know, it's It's pretty straightforward. I have my next to me, my, you know, all the normal Apple gear. One new thing that has been added was the Stream Deck. The Stream Deck has finally found its way to my setup. I ended up buying the 15-button version. I bought it on the last day of the summer camp. So they got to me. The Fountain Pen Mafia, the Stream Deck Mafia, those two have a good hold of me now. So I've joined it. There's still a lot of ways for me to go to really fully utilize it. But, but I use some, some basic things that I'm really happy with. I have it right here in front of me, use it every day. But there's still a lot of cool things that I could, could build and set up. But, but for now, I have not, you know, begun to investigate further. I've set it up for the, the most basic daily use cases that I have. And, and I'm happy with that.
Morten: One thing for those of you who don't know what the fountain pen and Stream Deck mafia is, is that that's an expression Lars has just made up to talk about the people.
Lars: That's the imaginary world.
Morten: It's not imaginary. It's very much real, but they are not a mafia, but just to make sure people understand this. But it is just groups of people inside the GTD Summer Camp community that has embraced, for example,, for example, fountain pens as their, what they find to be the correct writing tool for them. And ditto for Stream Deck, that some people love the Stream Decks and are, you know, using them and teaching each other how to use them. So that's the mafia. So now you know.
Lars: Exactly. No, and I think actually, looking back at my notes from last year, I think that's where some of it started because at least I mentioned in last year's episode that I was starting to, you know, get a feel for the, the difference in pens and writing and all that. So last year it was just a, you know, a basic pen and an A6 size notepad. But now I have a Rhodia pad and I have my fountain pens here with me. Uh, not like the, the animal of last year, just writing stuff down, basic paper. Now I'm a, a gentleman. I'm a scholar. I'm writing with my fountain pens. Um, no, it's fun. I, I enjoy playing with it. Uh, and it, there is a different feel to it.
Morten: And I'm— whatever makes Whatever makes you tick, man. Whatever makes you tick.
Lars: Yeah. Other than that, still the good old in-trace in the bag, support material, home folders. At home, still the HomePod Minis all over the place. IKEA smart stuff with different automations. Still use it with the, you know, meetings like this. I have an enter meeting, exit meeting, which stops the music, starts the recording, starts the— yeah, everything puts you on do not disturb. Basic things. Still have the old Apple Watch Ultra, the first one that came out.
Morten: Just for people, you're using Shortcuts for that, right? So the Shortcuts app? Yes, exactly. In macOS/iOS system.
Lars: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm really liking that and how that's evolved over the years. And we'll get to that. Same as well for the phone that has the action button. It's also connected to an shortcut that I have set up. So other than that, the Muji in-trays are now stacked here next to me. Still really liking them. And I think that's about it with the setup still the same recording setup still. Yeah, I think everything otherwise is still the same. Elgato lights.
Morten: It's all there.
Lars: Okay.
Morten: What about you? Well, I'm also more or less like last year. And since you skipped the nitty-gritty parts, I won't mention them because people will go, do I really need to go back to listen to the last year to understand what's now? No, we will repeat ourselves. So I'm still on the same Mac Mini. It's an M2 and I will go details because some people like details. So I have 24GB of internal memory and 1TB storage, which is a lesson I learned many years ago as a Mac user, is that you will never skip on the internal memory because that's going to give the longevity of it. And I've had my Macs for— before I changed them, specifically that what I call the workhorse in the office— for on an average for 7 years. So looking at the longevity of it, and I think the number of gigabytes you can add a year or half a year for extra gigabytes. So, and that's— so I have a Mac Mini with an M2 and I have a 27LG monitor. It's a 5K monitor with— well, it's not very expensive, but it works really good. It has enough color accuracy so that I can— I feel comfortable. It's not what used to be the iMac, which iMac was my favorite computer ever, and but it is— that's you know, as good as you can get it because the iMac is no more. And I have a MacBook Air, which is my, you know, travel, home office, and sometimes presentation computer. That's the MacBook Air M1. And I really hate myself because I bought it— I didn't— I skimped on the— well, it was in a time where money was hard to get in the company. So I went for an 8GB internal and 500GB storage, and that is way too little. Specifically, it's fast enough with 8GB and the M1 processor, but that is 500GB is way too small for my needs. So I should have had 750GB or 1TB internal storage. And I have, as last year, I have a sit-stand desk, and sit-and-stand desk which is placed upon a normal desk. So I can buy the pull of a lever, levitate everything that I need to levitate up to a standing level, or I can descend and sit. So that's very good because I need to move a little. I sit too much, as most knowledge workers do. And I, as Lars, do have a Stream Deck. So now that I'm touching this button, you can see Lars and me, and you can see Lars and you can see just me. And that's buttons on the Stream Deck connected to the— from the Stream Deck to the the software that we use to record this. This is recorded on Ecamm Live, both the audio and video. And that's a software that we've grown to like, both Lars and I. And we use the microphones, our Heil PR 40. So Heil PR 40 connected to a Focusrite box. What do you call your red box, Lars? What's the name of that?
Lars: You know, Solo, is that the one?
Morten: Yeah, it's a small red one. Yeah, but what's that kind of box called? And now Lars is disappearing outside the— Scarlett Solo.
Lars: It just takes the audio input and converts it.
Morten: Yeah, because then— and the reason we are doing— talking about this, because the Heil PR40 doesn't have a USB connection. It is what's called a XLR connection, thank you. And it converts the XLR to a USB signal so you can put it into your computer. And those, we, we, I bought these mics for Lars and I, I think maybe 3 years before we start using them. So more like an aspirational, we need to start a podcast, yes. And 3 years after it happened or something like that. But it is good microphones. People are, well, the feedback is that we have good sound. So, and I do as Lars do, I have 2 Elgato Key Lights that I can then, if I want to change how it works by just the Stream Deck, so I can up and down the lights, of course. We are not savages anymore. I've had the Stream Deck a lot longer than you, Lars, so I don't remember. Mine is maybe 5 years old, so it's an old one. Or maybe 4, I don't remember. I'm old, okay, that's my excuse.
Lars: And I.
Morten: Have Elgato Key— sorry, Elgato Teleprompter. The teleprompter is— I'm using that for meetings, not for as a normal teleprompter. Using this now. So when I'm looking at you, the viewer, and Lars, when Lars is here, and when we do side by side like this, I look at Lars exactly in the teleprompter. So it's a way to— I move the, the, the whatever video conferencing meeting, like Teams, Zoom, and now Ecamm, I move that to the teleprompter and I can look Lars in the eyes. And I think that's. And that's something that at least my coaching clients, when we do remote coaching, they feel that I'm looking at them. And in fact, actually, I am looking at them. I'm not looking at, you know, hey, Lars, how are you? This is not the same feeling. And I do that recording through an Elgato FaceTime Pro. It's a 4K camera that's made by Elgato. So a lot of Elgato stuff here. It's the Stream Deck, the Key Lights, the prompter, and the camera. And that works, works well. And I have on my desk a ScanSnap iX500 scanner. Remember where we used to scan Lars? From 2014? Probably, probably. But I'm still using scanner as a scanner. Sometimes, and it's really fast and really convenient. Still works still fairly good. You know, most of these scanners, they fail that the wheels that are supposed to grab the pages, the rubber there becomes not so rubbery, and it gets a little— you need to help it. And that has happened to the ScanSnap as well, but it's been really good. And I have a Brother label printer, a QL-710. Do you have a label printer, Lars?
Lars: You didn't mention that. No, no, you're going way deeper than I anticipated.
Morten: Yep, that's me. But you do have a label printer.
Lars: Yeah, both have a Dymo, two Dymos and one Brother.
Morten: One Brother, okay.
Lars: And which was pretty impressive. I have to, you know, give a shout out to Brother. So this, this is actually a label printer that I started using maybe, maybe 2 years ago. So the reason why it's impressive is that it was actually a present to me from my father who passed away in 2013. So that means that it has been sitting in a box somewhere in our house, in our apartment, for at least 10 years before using it. And I put it out and I plugged it in and it just printed. Everything worked, the ink, everything. The software looks dated. It, it, it really, you know, I printed a to and from sticker on the present and it just looked like something, you know, from the '80s, but it works. And, you know, for most label purposes, I'm fine with just the basic one. So we use it for, you know, boxes in the summer house with the kids' clothes and, you know, winter clothes, summer clothes, stuff like that. But it's pretty impressive that it was, you know, at least 10 years in a box. And it just still worked just as new.
Morten: Yeah. I don't know how many years my Brother printer is, but it is starting— the plastic started yellowing, which means that it is a few years old, but it still works. Perfectly. So, Brother, way to go.
Lars: Continue that.
Morten: Impressive. Yeah. So, going to the more the news of the hardware part is that I.
Lars: Have.
Morten: A new iPhone 17 Pro. And the reason I upgraded, I had a 14 Pro before, was.
Lars: That I Wanted the orange.
Morten: I wanted the orange one. No, not exactly, but I got the orange one. And you can't see that now because it's hidden between the black case. But it is the orange one. And I wanted to have a faster phone because I felt mine is a little lagging behind. And I have a, you know, my wife, she loves her.
Lars: Hand-Me-Downs.
Morten: And so now she's a 14 Pro and she is very happy. And, um, and I— the battery life of this, um, was— I was envying the 17 Pro battery life because it's a lot better. And actually, the Apple intelligence start working, which is— I, I love. And, um, I don't know if you noticed that, but on the, the phone, when you click that, and you have a dedicated camera button now. That's news from, I think, from 15 or.
Lars: 16 Pros.
Morten: Yeah, something like that. Yeah, and if you continuously press and hold the camera button now, you should get visual intelligence. So I've been using that for a couple of times, you know, showing, you know, taking photo of a leaf, which tree is this, and it shows me the information about that. And I see a product and I ask, what is this? Where can I buy this? And suddenly I have a lot of different information about that. That is, that's helpful. And what I also like, because I didn't have that before, was the action button. And action button is, I've set it up. I don't know how you've done that, but I have, you know, you can set up with a group of actions. I don't know if you knew this. You know, have you done that? Or how are you? No, because the group shows up as— I can show you on the camera here. Let's see if I can do this. Oops. No, it's not showing very well, but you can see the square where I have 8 shortcuts that I want to be able to use fast and easy. And it is It is the 4 shortcuts that's there are, you know, the essential. I couldn't find one, so I had to have 8. But it is really cool. And I have the Ultra, Apple Watch Ultra first gen, so I haven't upgraded that. But it still works. It's a little The batteries should probably be changed, but it's still working. I charge it once a day and up to 80-85%, and then it still can last for 24 hours. So that's enough for me. But the action button on the phone has proven to be very good for me because I really like the shortcuts that that I can fire off. And the shortcut could be like, I don't know, it's like when we leave home, we have a leave home button. That's a shortcut that locks the door and opens the alarm app so that I can arm the alarm from the phone. So we can just, when I lock the door or close the door on the outside, I just touch that and start walking, and I can then just turn on the alarm. Because then I can hear the lock behind me. And then the same when you come home. It's easy when you're in the elevator coming home. I can make a come home shortcut. It will do just reversed whatever we've done. And also it turns off the lights when we leave, and it turns on the lights in the house when we come. Because I am a Hue Few lights. And we have a main door downstairs and a garage door into the garage that has, you know, it's a digital, sorry, electronic locks. So I can just open them when I'm close and the door just automatically opens. It's, you know, it's a motor and I feel like I'm living in the Next Century. Yeah, and then I have some others that's not very— I have someone when I go for my morning walk where it will open my audiobook at the same time as it starts my Apple Watch for my ex— what do you call it— exercise walking outside. And yeah, and a couple of others. So We are now venturing into the land of away from hardware into software. Do you, what kind of software do you use, Lars?
Lars: Well, I think the starting point was sort of to look at the different steps and how we use software for the different steps, right? So for capturing things, we already mentioned the Rhodia Notepad, the fountain pen for digital capture. Other than that, that brings us back to the shortcuts, which is, you know, like I said, in and out of meetings. I have a lot of automation set up somewhat similar to what you described. I have two that I really like when it comes to capture, which one is for the audio version, which is connected to the Action Button on the phone, which takes your audio, sends it to OpenAI, transcribes it, comes back, sends it again to ChatGPT to sort of using the Whisper model to transcribe it, and then to ChatGPT GPT to say, okay, so here's the audio. Based on that, what would you guess the next action and project is? If you do this one, just for fun. Okay. Yeah, we're starting to get into the AI stuff. No, it's just for fun, but it's, but it's fun to see because for, you know, for really specialized, specific personal projects, it doesn't really know what it's, you know, doing. But for many generic projects, a lot of what it comes up with is, is pretty good. So I still type it out. I still use it. It's just to, to play around with it. But it's, it's fun to see how well it actually does inspired by the Masterclass retreat that we had earlier this year where one of the participants also had something similar built in OmniFocus. So I set this up. I really like it. It's more for fun. It's basically just to have a transcript of the audio recording instead of having to go and listen to all of the memos, which I used to do. And I still do that sometimes, but.
Morten: I like that one. Just for clarification, what kind of— are you using Apple Reminders? Yes, that is Apple Reminders. But then I'm a little curious to know, you feed it into, you know, the host system that returns something that could look like an extraction. But then why are you not using the Apple Reminders? You know, Siri, remind.
Lars: Me of. Yeah, you can certainly do that. And I do. I've used it twice this morning. So that's That certainly still happens. Remind me to run the vacuum cleaner at 2. Remind me to hang the laundry in an hour and 5 minutes. No, no. So that's, that certainly still happens. It's for the more complex stuff. So when I have some, you know, client names, product-specific names where I just know it's going to fail and typically something that will take me, you know, 30 seconds to record as an audio version. That's where I find that Siri finds its limits getting better. Yeah, absolutely. Good enough. Nah, I'll still stick with the, the, the audio recording and transcribing otherwise for now at least. Okay.
Morten: So that's where that comes from. Okay. But please go into little details. You go very fast there. So how is your setup with the OpenAI WhisperSync, everything? Just walk people through that. How do you, how do you do that? How do you record? Where, what's the app you record from?
Lars: You need a lot.
Morten: Of time.
Lars: So for setting it up? Yeah, it actually took a while because there was no direct support for this. I don't know if it's better now. It probably is. But back then in Shortcuts, you could just record an audio snippet and then to send it to the— I think it's called the Whisper model, which transcribes the audio., it, you would have to go in and edit the JSON stuff that shows up and, you know, add your API keys and really, you know, all of that good technical stuff that you need to go through and set up. So that's why I don't want to go too deep because I don't, and that's, you know, that's the whole problem with, with all of this stuff right now because it moves so fast. What I'm describing now, and some of the things I'll mention as well with some of the AI stuff that I'm doing, It's likely outdated by the time this episode airs in, you know, 1, 1.5 months. We're recording this before the, the release, right? Because things are moving so, so fast. But, but that's how it's set up. Records the audio, puts it in, you know, an HTTP request to, to OpenAI, comes back with the transcription again, sends it to OpenAI to ChatGPT to then, all right, look at this. You're in, you're my GCD AI executive assistant, what should I perhaps do with it? What could be the next action? Is there a project? Then please mention that as well. So that's what then comes back, and then you create a reminder in Apple Reminders where that then shows up. So again, it's also to limit the number of inboxes and, and trying to keep it as simple as possible. But we could probably discuss if it's as simple as possible with the setup that I have made in this, in this case. Case. Yeah. No, but the other one I want to mention, and, and I use that more frequently than this one, is what I have, you know, I've been looking for for a while, and I know people have used other applications for this, such as the Drafts, for example, a simple way to capture without seeing your whole inbox. It's been driving me crazy. And back in the old Todoist days, you would have the quick add option. So it's not like I've invented something new, but in the for example, Reminders version. You could talk to Siri, or you could go into Reminders, open up the inbox, and start typing. So I just made the simplest of shortcuts, which is just open a text box, write whatever you wanna be reminded about. As, as I click okay, it just puts that into the inbox.
Morten: So I have actually, I have that on the map.
Lars: The same thing. Yeah. It's, I have that on the Mac. I have it on the phone. I have it connected to the Stream Deck. So it's just nice to have, you know, again, having that almost frictionless way to capture things. And for me, especially not seeing all the stuff that I don't want to see right now. I don't want to wake up the, I was listening to a podcast where they talked about the clown and the editor as being the clown that comes up with the ideas and the editor as in clarify and organize. So it lines very nicely with GCD. And I don't want to wake up the editor when the clown is at work, to use the terminology of the.
Morten: Podcast I just listened to. But I do also, that's why I created that shortcut. I gave it a, you know, Control-Option-Command-P for pøminnes, which is reminders in Norwegian. And then it just shows up on the screen. Just write it down and then close it and you know it's in your inbox. You don't have to do anything and you don't have to see everything else. It's like everything you capture can just by the sheer numbers overwhelm you if you look at it and you kind of get distracted. Am I really going to add something more here? Do I really need to do this? And no, exactly. Yes, you have to. Don't fret.
Lars: But it's the way to, especially in the weekends, I find, I don't know if my GTDs practice has shifted over the years somehow, but it seems to be the case that I capture a lot over the weekend. Then we're recording this on a Monday. I know I'll have 10, 20 items in my inbox that I've, you know, ideas that I've come up with over the weekend. And like you said, if I had seen, you know, 15 items when idea number 16 came up during the weekend, I might have, you know, stopped having more ideas. But having that, it's the first button on my phone. It's the bottom right one, the most easy one for me to access. That is the capture shortcut. And again, very simple.
Morten: But okay, so you use that on your phone as well? Yes. Yes.
Lars: Okay.
Morten: Because I don't do that. That is, that is because I'm using just the tap and hold on the Apple Reminders if I need to write something. But then I still see that because you can then just tap and hold and you can get a new item in inbox. The problem there is that then you see what's what else is in the inbox. You will see the, the, the 2 or 3 other items that's not covered by your keyboard. So it's not the best. That's why I'm also using the Siri a lot, you know.
Lars: Yeah, I know that makes sense.
Morten: That makes sense. I don't, I don't know if this is something that has happened recently, but with iOS 26 and with the Apple intelligence is that it feels like the it has more names, like you can give it a, like, I can, I don't know, I can say Stream Deck and it's not like something really weird where you don't understand what did I write here or what did I mean? Because she don't understand exactly what you're saying, but have you seen the same thing or do you feel it is.
Lars: A little bit more intelligent? Yeah, definitely better. And also then, you know, knowing the names and drawing from the Yeah, I think the data on your phone. So it does that, certainly no more.
Morten: Absolutely. Yeah. And, um, yeah, so the capture is for me, if you are, are we switching?
Lars: Yeah, I think, although it, other than that, it's, it's basically the same as last year, still on Apple Mail and Google Mail, switching a bit between those two interfaces, still on reminders, still using memos, still have my physical in-tray, um, I still have my my Pipedrive CRM system set up and my Apple Notes. So I think all of those are pretty much the, the same as last year.
Morten: Okay. Yeah, now for, for capture, and that's not digital, I have this, the Exacunta Block Faf, which is something we got from David Allen Company one back in the day, and this is a very good notepad And this is for, you know, easy capture. I have gone into pencils. Now I think I've shown people this before. It's just— it's a— and what is special, it looks like it's just a big pencil, but it is— it's what you call it when you can— you have a spec— you can have the lead come out. It's a 2mm, so it's not 0.7 or 0. 5, what's normal, but this is a 0.2. And you have to sharpen it with a pencil sharpener, so it feels like a pencil, but it's like for forever. And it has a hefty, what you call that, an eraser on the top. This is an Ohto, that is O-H-T-O. It's like you can't say Otto, but it's like an H before the T, but it's called the Ohto Sharp Pencil 200. It's made in Japan and it is wood, so it feels like a wooden pencil. So it feels good in the hand. And the last experiments I have is the same kind of pencil, but this is like in a more modern version where you have— but it has the same lead inside. And I'm, I'm having two because I want to experiment a little bit, two different hardnesses of the pencil lead. This one is HB and this one is 2H, just to try out the different ones. And I like the feeling of a pencil. I don't know why, but I don't use ballpoint pens anymore. I haven't used it for a long time, so it's pencil. And for other notes, like the notes we have now, I have the reMarkable. What's that called? Remarkable 2. And I have a new toy. I think you've seen this. It's the Remarkable Move Pro, which is a smaller version. It's like a notebook. It's more like a journalist notepad size. And it is, it is, the jury is still out on how I will use this. Because when you write on this, the notes that you get are smaller. It's not as wide as you have on the other. So it feels a little strange to write on because what the result you have, because it is synchronized. So I can look at the notes on both. I can pick up the notes I had made on the Moop Pro and look at it on the Remarkable 2. And I can also see it on the web or the apps that I have, you know, the reMarkable app with the Connect subscription. So, but it is— I used it— the best case that I can see that I will use the Moop Pro is when I'm in meetings with people and where I need to be able to take notes. And this balances with the COVID that I got I got. It's the cheapest one I got, but it balances well on your knee, so you can have it on a knee and take notes if you don't have a table, which made a lot of sense to me in that meeting because we were a lot of people around a smaller table. And yeah, so it's for note-taking and capture. I have as a capture tool as well— this is not used very often— but I have my I have a wallet, and inside that wallet I have my little trusted super mini super cute little pen. And that's also a Japanese pen called— this is also by the Ohto, so O-H-T-O, Minimo pen. Minimo. Ohto Minimo. And I have some, some cards inside the wallet. That I use to take notes on. And these cards are from usem.nl. So use like in use and then an M. So usem.nl. So it's, I don't know, like these cards, they are easy. And the reason I want to have something is because sometimes it doesn't look good when you take out something that has a screen on it. So if I need to take a note.
Lars: Yeah, I have the same. I still have the old Capture Wallet, but that's basically the use case now is in trainings and people are doing their first mind sweep for the next 5 minutes and you just remembered something. So that's when I, well, let's go and find it.
Morten: So still have that, still use it as well. Yeah. And it is David Allen, the Getting Things Done methodology. It's says that you should have as few of these as you can get away with, but enough to encompass your life. So I have— and if I'm going to— if you tell me scale down everything and just focus on one, it would be the Apple Reminders inbox, by either by voice or by typing, if I had to choose one. So, but it is What I use in the Apple— the Remarkable has a way to tag notes, and it is— you have— it's divided in books inside shelves. So it's like a folder with books, and then inside a book you can mark a page with a tag. And I have a tag called clarify, or tidlere in Norwegian. And when I make— I have something that shows up on my radar. I have to do this later on, I have to send this PDF or something. I will just make a square and write what I need to do and then go tag that page with Clarify. And I will sooner rather than later go through the tag and then just move it into my system or just send that email or whatever I need to send and then tick it off. So I know that nothing is lost. Lost. So that's my way to capture on the go and in the office.
Lars: Okay. So it looks nice. I saw it when we were in Amsterdam together recently and yeah, looks nice, the Remarkable.
Morten: Yeah. The Remarkable, if I only have one Remarkable, would be Remarkable 2, because that's the right size for me, I think. Yeah, so scaling down, the jury is out on the place of where this lives in my life, but it's the Pro, Move Pro, because it's smaller. The smaller form factor comes with some negatives. That makes sense.
Lars: Should we move on? Let's go on to the list, and we already touched on this, I think, if we talk about organize, because you know, as we talk about the hardware and the capturing, we know we kind of see where it leads. So I am still on Apple Reminders, have my groups for work and home, playing around with some different setups now, sharing more lists with other people in the household, my wife, my oldest son. So trying out some things in that perspective. And it's, there are still some strange limitations that you cannot, you know, put a shared list in a group and things like that. So there are still some— it's not built for this, it can do it. You cannot create a smart list that searches across lists to find things that are assigned to you, which will be very helpful for me to look at. So it's— there are still some limitations, still playing around with this, but for now I'm fine in Apple Reminders. Again, the integration across the ecosystem and also with primarily mail. It works well for me. Playing around with trying other things, because as I also want to mention, the AI stuff is— I want to give it access to my data. And as always, the walled garden of the Apple ecosystem is normally good. But in this case, when I do want to share stuff, stuff, it's actually a bit tricky. So I may switch things around a bit. But otherwise, it's the same setup as last year. Very simple. Don't have any tags. It's, it's all old school GCD with separate, separate lists. I have my agenda still in the notes. Still very happy with that, that I can, you know, have a note for each person that I talk to, and I'll put stuff on that list. And as we go through them, I'll check them off and I'll drag them down to the bottom where I note down the date in which, where the meeting was that we spoke about this and what the decision was. So for me, it's nice to have that history. I don't use it very often, but it's nice. It gives me more of a calm that I can go back and say, yeah, we spoke about this. We agreed such and such on this day. So that works for me. And you know, just for day-to-day stuff, That's really it. It's reminders, it's notes. It's of course the Apple Calendar that then draws on the different calendars that I use both for home and at work. But it's staying basic when it comes to the tools out there still. May change, who knows? Let's see. But for now, it's still the.
Morten: Same.
Lars: What about you?
Morten: Well, I have my I want to touch upon the, my, you know, the workflow that I have on Notes is that I use the, as you know, the Apple Notes to take notes that I might want to, that's not finished yet. So it could be like I'm having a prelim call with a client where I have created a template that I can duplicate for the calls. And when that's, and that's Note lives until it's finished. After we have the meeting, then that's converted to, to a PDF, and then that PDF is put into the database that I use, the database software called DevonThink. And then that will go under the client's name under active coaching clients. So it's kept there. And I, I've been experimenting lately with I'm moving a lot of my personal stuff and some of the work stuff into iCloud. And that's just a personal preference I buy. You know, I have 2 terabytes there, so it's kind of like— and it's very easily accessible on all my things. I don't need a specific app because it's integrated into the operating system, easily accessible. But I'm using— what is the new part? I don't think I did that last time, but I tried to structure it after the PARA method. Have you heard about PARA or PARA? Yeah. So, and that is Thiago Forte is the name of this person who created that. And that makes a lot of sense to me. So I structured the, you know, the folders in iCloud for exactly that. So see if I can just pull it up quickly for reference for myself more than anything else. But it is, I have the iCloud Drive and then I have, and I gave them numbers just to make sure that they are sorting in the right order. But it is, the first one is what I call an _ActionSupportPrivate or personal. And there is where I just put stuff that I know has a limited length of time to— that will be— it doesn't need to— it doesn't have a— it could be like a photo or it could be a scanned document that I know I just need for like an action support. When that action is done, I don't need this, and I can scrap whatever is in there after. And then I have zero_clarify. And there is where I put things that I need to take care of later. And then I have in the PARA method, it will be projects, areas of responsibility, reference, and archive. So projects will be, you know, divided into the two squares. So it's for work and personal. And then under area of responsibility, it is also in the different— I I have two companies that I'm involved with on a daily basis, and then I have some personal projects or areas of responsibility that I have information in. And then I have Reference, which is like a general reference archive where the things that I like to make sure I don't lose, but at the same time there's no action to it, just for me to go inside and book. Like, I, I, I just decided I want to learn how to play Redemption Song by Bob Marley on my guitar, and I have now the chords inside my reference library for music and the chords, and then the PDF for that.
Lars: And look out for the Christmas episode of the podcast where Morten will play this for all of us, and we look forward.
Morten: To that, Morten. And you are now on my naughty list. I will not play the guitar.
Lars: I'm sorry. I'll bring out the piano behind me.
Morten: We can— yeah, yeah, yes, piano, which you just in the pre-show told me was not even connected, so it's like a prop. It's also true. So yeah, but last but not least, in the PARA, there's Projects, Areas of Responsibility, Reference, and Archive. So anything that's not like a project that's finished, you will put to the Archive. An Area of Responsibility that you don't have anymore, like I had one that was about my mother, was on a Responsibility because she got sick many years ago, but then she unfortunately— well, that's life— but she died, and now she's in my Archive with all the information I had about that.. So anything that's not just for— that has a future possible need to refer to, then it's in the archive. And anything that is active as a reference is also then in the reference. So it's projects, area of responsibility, reference, and archive. And that works fairly well for me. Have you— how are you doing 8 to.
Lars: 7, or what's your— it's the same as we spoke about last year. Lars throws things in one big pile and searches. That is still the thing. No, I have, I have a few groupings, sales meeting, podcast notes, coaching client notes. Those are certainly distributed, but for the most part, it's just a a reference archive and I'll search it up because as in previous years, so rarely do I need to click my way through the structure. I find it easier to simply search through it. So have my notes from the meetings, checklist for travels, checklist for weekly view. You know, some of those, they have their places, but for the most part, it's, yeah, it's just the big pile.
Morten: And search my way through it.
Lars: But that means that you still play around with it for, you know, with, with paper. I think the, the interesting mix to reference back to maybe in next year's episode will be to how will, how much will AI influence us and how much will I be perhaps more on paper? Because that's, that's probably one of the bigger changes in, in my world where even though the Stream Deck, for example, found its way, a daily checklist and then actually a mix. I have a note on an Apple Notes that I'll bring up every morning, run through my calendar, my projects, next actions, my due today in the reminders, my due today in Pipedrive CRM. And, and out of those, I will compile my plan for today. I used to have it on a, on a laminated piece of paper. I think we mentioned that before. Until 2 weeks ago, I think, where I picked up the wrong pen. Which was a permanent pen. So unless I planned on doing the same for the next couple of days, weeks, then I had to make a change. So for now, I'm actually playing with bringing out the iPad again because I, the iPad Pro, which I still really like as a device, but I did struggle to find a place. Thank you for the tech help. I appreciate that. Templates. So I'm playing around, just started playing around with that. But could I perhaps, you know, use that for the daily checklist as well? In any case, it's really nice for me to have this sort of structured approach to the day, and I'm playing around with where I put it. But, you know, I have that now in digital form. I have it, had it on paper recently. I think if we would have recorded this in a few weeks, I would probably have some more paper versions on the wall with the projects, ongoing stuff. I'm, I'm starting to feel that, you know, pull away from some of the digital stuff, even though I just mentioned that I'm, I'm also playing around with, with AI. So it's a fun mix.
Morten: Yes.
Lars: To see, see where it all shows up. But I think there is, there is something.
Morten: To it. Torn, torn is what you are. Torn to pieces. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Tech and low-tech in each. Yeah, just trying to pull Lars apart. Yeah, no, true, true. No, the, the experiment is also part of being a GTDer. You have to experiment, um, and it is, as David would say, that in order to, to, as long as you're your understanding of the system is solid, you can experiment with a lot of different stuff without— but you have to understand what is the function of an archival system. So why, when you archive something, why is that important and what you need to think about to find it. I'm sure that when you said that.
Lars: You.
Morten: Have everything in your, you know, the The digital files that you have, you said that you're just having it a big pile.
Lars: So it's like— For the notes, to clarify. For the files, they still have a structure. Yeah. Oh, okay.
Morten: Good to clarify that. Yeah. Okay. So because— okay. So, but the notes could also be— you have to give them good names to be able to find them again. And that is, you know, if they are in a big pile and everything is called just note 1, 2, 2,000, then it's difficult to find them again. But you can find parts of the content of the notes, I guess, if you make it searchable. Now I have created problems for myself. I just mentioned that also in the pre-show, this, that my reMarkable has ability now to search all your notes. And I don't know how pages of notes I have. This must be many hundreds. But the problem now is that when I search for something, anything that, for example, I want to pull up the podcast notes book, it gets buried in everywhere else where I have written podcast, which is in many different notes. And it's not easy to understand which one is Twitch. And, yeah.
Lars: The challenges of life.
Morten: Oh, it's hard. Yeah. No, but, so do we have anything we haven't covered yet? Yes, yes, I have one thing. I have one thing. Just for the hardware, I just realized I have forgotten to show this. This is the AirPods Pro 3. And I am super happy with these. I have the 2, and I've used it when traveling, and it is absolutely fantastic when it comes to noise canceling. So it becomes even quieter inside a plane or in a— and the second thing that I really like about them, the AirPods Pro 3 is that they have, it's called, I think the, what do you call it, the SoundTrue, or it is a function, I don't remember the name of it, where you can, it's pass-through. So you have 3 different modes. One is pass-through, then you have what you call intelligent pass-through, and then you have noise cancel. So the 3 modes of them. But if you have the pass-through, you can hear what's happening around And before, with the number 2 version of this, it felt awkward because it felt like parts of your ears is blocked. You can hear what's happening around you, but it feels— don't feel natural. These takes a step up to that, and that helps me be able to put them in my ear and move around, and I don't remember they are there until somebody calls me, and then I hear. Lars is calling. Would you like to pick up? And I can just nod and it picks up. Or I can say yes and it picks up, which is awesome. So these are some of my new favorite gadgets.
Lars: So cool. And the last thing I wanted to add as well was the AI stuff that I've been playing with as well. And again, this is probably, I don't think it's updated when this episode airs, but it's Google just, you know, released something that might replace this. So things are moving so fast. But what I've been playing with is a platform called NHN. So the letter N, the number 8, the letter N, which allows you to build workflows. So I have been building workflows to help me do some of the things that As you know, my wife was previously employed in the company. She is no longer employed in the company, was very much focused on marketing as one of her key activities. So I'm trying to— I'm building a digital version of my wife is what I'm trying to say in some of the activities, at least, that she's doing. So, you know, making sure that we have the content ready, the post ready, that we follow up on the marketing, that we have a plan, that we have some good ideas for posts. And I'm not, I'm really allergic to those completely AI-generated posts, but I find that I get a lot of value from having a template or at least a starting point to write something. So, so that's where it is right now. I have, I think, 3 or 4 agents that, that, that work on, on that drawing on content that we have written previously. So it, it knows GTD, it knows what we've written, knows how we write. I've given it some other input and that's, that's where all the data that I want to share with it, that's where that shows up. So that's been really helpful. So I have a Google Sheet that just, you know, has templates ready for me to work from, not to post, but to work from. I think that's, that works really well for me. The same is the case for following up with clients. I don't tend to reuse what it suggests that I follow up with. It's all integrated with email system, the CRM system. So I've connected all of that stuff in, in the workflow, but it's, it's helpful for me just to have a starting point into, oh yeah, that's right, we spoke about that because the follow-up email suggests that I ask about this and that. So it did look through the previous email thread. It looked through how I normally write my emails and it then provides that back. It took an email I was playing around with just, you know, having drafts responses and your colleague in Norway, Espen, sent me an email and it drafted a Norwegian response to Aspen, which was actually pretty spot on, and I could have said it, but I think Aspen would probably have been wondering why he's.
Morten: Now writing to me. You are, you are half Norwegian.
Lars: You have the rights. And true. So I could, in theory, I could, in theory, do that. No, but that's, that's really helpful to just, you know, play around with again, not using it as is, but, but it helps me get started on some of the things that I might have I have postponed, procrastinated perhaps even to get done. I actually get them done right now. So if you're following me or connected with me on LinkedIn, following the company on LinkedIn, you'll notice in the last month or two that this is the activity has grown quite a bit. And the reason is simply this, that I have a good starting point. And the last thing that I'm playing with now is to see if I can create that PA. That personal assistant to the first thing that I want to do is just get us, you know, the daily overview. What's in my calendar, some of the key things that I have to get done, what's in the sales system, you know, things like that. Oh, you have to pick up the kids there. Don't put too many things on your to-do list because you actually have an early end to the day or whatever it might be. So I'm playing around with that, actually having it write me an iOS application. So it runs on my phone. And the plan is now for it to connect from my phone to— it's connected to OpenAI, so I can, can get the voice feedback. And now I just need to connect it to my computer, and it has access to my calendar and everything. And that will be the first step. But again, I am sort of on hold on this because I think, you know, in a couple of months' time, there'll be, you know, OpenAI or Apple or whoever, whoever's out there will have an app that, that basically does this. So I don't wanna spend too much time on it, but it's having all those connections, my specific setup just the way I want it. It's, it's fun to, fun to play with at least. And that's where, that's why I said that I might migrate some of my stuff to another platform because if I want a daily overview of what's due in my system today, Apple Reminder Assistant isn't working that well. I've played around with having an Apple shortcut that does the same, takes my calendar, my juice, my, but it doesn't get from our CRM system, but I can, can send it to OpenAI and get that same feedback, but you get it with the Siri voice and you, yeah, no, no, I'm, I'm nerding out a bit with N8N running in Docker on my, on my Mac Mini M4.
Morten: So that's my, That's my playground right now. I've been thinking about, because there is a lot of different systems out there, the one N8N that you are referring to is one of them. You have Perplexity Comet, which is part of doing the same thing, but it's connected. It's a browser who has an AI built in where you can do a lot of automated stuff. You can tell them, you know, order me an Uber. And it will ask where you want to go, and then it orders that Uber for you online. Or, you know, order toilet paper, I don't know. It goes where you need to go, and you teach it how to do. But being a, being an, you know, we both have backgrounds in IT, and having that background, I'm scared to put all that data inside an AI and have it it being connected to the internet with such a wide open access. It is just a— it sounds like an AI is going to hack the other AI and get all that information about Loris and what he's doing and how he's connected and starting misusing that. How do you feel about that? That's why— that's what's holding me back. I'm waiting for Apple because that is kind of like a closed system and you have more control on what goes to OpenAI because you can connect it to ChatGPT and probably later on some of the other AIs as well. But what is your take on this, Lars?
Lars: The personal security protection? Yeah, again, like you say, it's a personal preference. For me, I was waiting for Apple for 1.5 years and they are doing baby steps and maybe in the end that'll be a smart strategy. Let's see. But for now, it's the stuff that I want to play with is, you know, I think pretty basic stuff. What might be another way to go would be the, the new, the thing that just came out from Google, which is called Opal, which would make sense because we are on the Google Suite. So we have my, my calendar is there, my email is there. I could probably easily make some kind of synchronization between Google Tasks and Apple Reminders and have that, that, that new workflow, that new way of, of working with the data to get that set up through Google. So that might make sense. I'm a bit less less scared than you, or perhaps I'm not less scared, but I'm just more curious than scared. Perhaps that's the title of the episode, more curious than scared, depending on who you listen to. No, but you're completely right. Who knows what they'll do with it? Yeah, and I don't know. So it's what I have been playing with was to have a local language model running locally in on my M4 because that would actually be doable. So that would be one way from a privacy perspective to actually manage this for now. But I haven't gone that deep yet.
Morten: But who knows, maybe I will. Yeah, maybe you will. And if you want to find out in detail what Lars has been doing on in AI, you need to put a date in the calendar for the GTD summer camp.
Lars: Do we have that date yet fixed? Wow, well done! What a pro. We do have a summer camp planned. We've had that for the last 5 years, and we will do that again. We will do it again in 2026. Um, it was fantastic this year. I'm sure it will be fantastic again in 2026, June. So you asked me for the dates. What And do you have any other questions that you might want to ask? No, I think June 14th to 15th is where we are planning on it. We hadn't confirmed them yet completely. That is why I'm a bit hesitant. But June 14th to— 13th to 14th, sorry, is the plan for 2026. So keep them— I don't know what the English term for it. Yeah, tentatively. Blocked in your calendar. I'm 99% sure it will be there. But in any case, send me an email if you want to be notified. So previous participants will get an email when we open up for signups. If you're out there, I have heard from a couple more this year, actually. So I think there'll be some, some new faces once again this year, as has been the case in previous years. Send me an email if you want to be on that list. We mentioned it in Amsterdam as well when we were there recently with all the trainers and licensees from other countries. So who knows, there might be a few more GTD trainers in the 2026 version as well. So send me an email. You'll be notified if you've already attended and hope to see you there. And the other thing, if I am doing my take us out section so elegantly, I'm not used to this being so smooth. I don't know. We, we always wrap up with also referring you to have a look at vitallearning.eu because that is the starting point for Vital Learning in all the Nordics+ countries. You'll find the links to the different websites, book meetings with Morten and myself and all the other people in Vital Learning Nordics+. So all the stuff that we do relating to Getting Things Done, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Influence, all of the good training and coaching that we have. You'll find the information there. If you're outside the Nordics, cruciallearning.com is.
Morten: The good place to find your local partners. And finally, you can also at vitallearning.eu find the secret landing page for the D2D masterclass retreats that we are going to do in 2026. And the masterclass retreats are exclusive events. Events. We have a maximum of 12 participants, and so far we have 2 in the calendar for 2026, one in February. And the one in February is with David Allen and Catherine Allen, so they will attend and be part of the event and be part of the retreat. And the retreat is how can you find out exactly, or more exactly, What is your life purpose? What is your vision for how you want to live your life? And I don't know if you tried to do this on your own. I know that when I did that on my own, it was really difficult. It took a long time and I had to really think hard. And I must admit that I wish I had the Masterclass Retreat as an option because it is a couple of days is from, from one day, from 2 o'clock to the full day next day, and until 2 o'clock the day after, with 12 other participants, with Lars, with David and Catherine, and myself assisting you in a program trying to figure out what is your life purpose, why are you here, what do you, what would you like your life to be about. So this is Horizons of Focus in the focus. And we did that last year, or this year, actually, 2025, in Denmark. It was so successful, we decided we want to do it again because the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. And I'm going to insert now an audio file from one of the participants who tells you what he would like you to.
C: Understand about this Masterclass retreat. Hi, I'm Sebastian, a GTD practitioner from Germany. Participating in the GTD Masterclass retreat was arguably the best decision I made in this year. I traveled to Denmark without super high expectations, but the hope to get some headspace to sort out my horizons and get grounded and more oriented. But what I experienced over the next 3 days was a thoughtfully curated and wonderfully organized program with a lot of space for personal time as well as good group sessions and one-on-ones with Lars, Morten, and David, all 3 of them being fully dedicated every minute of the program. I very much enjoyed a stunning and breathtaking location And with an amazing small group of GTD practitioners, it was a breeze to work with. All of them were eager to share, grow, and learn. GTD can be life-changing, and the retreat can get you back on course. I am blessed to have participated, and I'm profiting from the takeaways of the retreat every day. I'm looking forward to returning as soon as I can, and I think this is a wonderful opportunity for everyone who.
Lars: Is.
Morten: Listening to this, quite frankly. Of course, you know this person and you know that he is very sincere in the words he says. So I, and everybody was on the, in the show notes of this episode, you can find it both on YouTube and in the audio versions. You can find links to the Summer Masterclass Retreat if you are interested. All the information is there, the dates are there. There is one in Norway in February and then in Denmark in September. And it is really a good arena for finding out— take time out of the daily craziness and focus about you. You really, you find out what's important for you. And, um, okay. I think we are at the end of the episode. And as always, I would like to say to all of you, stay safe and stay productive until next time.
Lars: Take care.
C: Bye-bye.
