Getting Projects Done 4 CRM

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1 Welcome to GPD4CRM I m a huge fan of ACT! and use the calendar portion to manage my life. I m also a big fan of David Allen and GTD. GTD is an acronym for Getting Things Done, a process developed by productivity guru David Allen that encourages you to get stuff out of your head (your psychic RAM) and on to lists, so that you can truly focus on the task at hand. Your head is the place for having ideas, but not for holding and managing them. Since I live in ACT!, I want to create these lists in ACT!, but I m not always ready to schedule things yet, AND I don t have a way to include many of the activity properties that are an integral part of Getting Things Done (like Context and Energy Available). Welcome to GPD 4 ACT. We ve developed a system inside of ACT! to help capture and organize your Projects and Goals in one place. You can define the Next Steps necessary to complete those projects and keep you on track while managing all of the daily details of your life in ACT! Let s see how easy it can be. Entering a New Project Goal 1. Lookup the contact (if the contact is not in the database, you can create one or just add the project to your own record). 2. Click on the Project Goal tab to display it. 3. Click the Add icon on the top toolbar. 4. Fill in the fields as desired. 5. Click OK when finished. Let s look at the Project Goal dialog and the fields that you can fill in. There are no required fields. You can fill in as many or as few as you like to help you in keeping track of your Projects and Goals and getting things done.

2 Project: Give your project a name that helps you to easily identify it in a list. Type: The Project type helps you categorize your projects into categories such as Work, Personal, Goal ST, Health, etc. It can be used in the List view later to filter which Projects display. You can select from one of the pre defined types or just type in a value. You can also easily add any value to a drop down. Just scroll to the bottom of the drop down list, click Edit List Values, click the Add button and enter your own Project Type. Status: By default, all new Projects are assigned an Active status. When you complete the Project, use the drop down to change the status to Completed. You might choose On Hold to keep all of the work that you have entered without displaying the project in the currently Active list. Or you might select a Status of Someday/Maybe for those crazy ideas that you might want to implement someday. End Date: Use the drop down to select when the Project or Goal is expected to be completed. You do not have to select a date if you are not ready to assign a time frame to the project. Days Left: This is a calculated field. Each time you log into your ACT! database, all Days Left fields will be updated to reflect the correct number of days remaining until the assigned End Date. Priority: Four values are included (1 High, 2 Med, 3 Low and 0 Today) to help you define a priority to your workflow. The default value for all new projects is 3 Low (Do not remove this value.) However, you can quickly use the drop down to change the value or add other values to help you establish your priority values.

3 Review: The review field value is used to help you keep projects in perspective. Longer range projects may be assigned a Monthly review cycle where on the first of each month you will filter your display to the show only Monthly projects to be sure that you are still on track. More immediate projects may be assigned a Daily or Weekly review value. Next Actions: This area displays the Next Actions that you have defined to move your toward completion of the Project or Goal. See the next section for more information on defining next steps. Leader: Click the looking glass icon at the right of the field to select the Contact in your database that should be defined as the leader in charge of the Project (you cannot type in a value). In the Look for: area, type the last name of the contact that you want to include in the Leader field. Then scroll to the actual contact and double click it or select it and click the > arrow in the middle of the screen to add their name to the Selected contacts area at the right. Record Manager: By default, your ACT! login name is automatically included here. If you would like to assign this project to another ACT! user, use the drop down to select the user. Private: You can mark this Project as Private by clicking to place a checkmark in this field. It will be Private to the defined Record Manager. Only when you login to the database using the Record Manger name, will you be able to see this Project. (Marking the Project as Private does not automatically mark the associated Next Actions as Private.) Document: This field can be used to create a shortcut to any file type. Click on the ellipsis button at the right of the field to navigate to the file that you want to link to this Project. If you have a folder that you would like to link to, create a shortcut to the folder and then use the ellipsis button to select the shortcut. When you have

4 selected a file, this field will display as a hyperlink. Click on the hyperlink to open the file (or folder) you have linked. To create a shortcut to a folder, in Windows Explorer (or a My Computer window), right click the folder and choose Create shortcut. A shortcut file will be created with the same name as the folder with the word Shortcut appended to it. If you have trouble finding the file alphabetically, sort the list by date modified to find the file you just created. Then use the Document ellipsis button in the Project dialog to select the shortcut and link the folder. Description: Use this field for a quick description of the project. Usually it will be something longer than the Project name, but shorter than the Goal. It is used to differentiate one project from another. Purpose Goal: By filling in the Purpose Goal, you can better define the parameters of the project. For smaller projects you may never fill in this field, but as the projects become more complicated, it is often a good idea to define your goal in writing and have it available for review to be sure that you stay on point. Outcome: By writing your expected Outcome, you have a much better chance of meeting your objectives. It is one more way to ensure that you are moving in the right direction as you define your Next Actions. (Does this Next Action contribute to this Outcome?) Contact: This field displays the name of the contact that the Project is associated with. By default it is the contact that you looked up adding the Project. This field works the same as the Leader field. Use the looking glass icon to the right of the field to select another contact(s) in the database. (e.g. I usually create a new contact in the database for major projects. For example, I might create a contact in ACT! called ACT! Tips. Then I can create a Project on that record. I am the leader, but I want to add two other team members in my database in the Leader area so that they can be reminded that they are also expected to contribute to the company ACT! Tips newsletter.) Company: This is not the value contained in the Company field for the Contact record at the left. It references the Companies feature in ACT!. If the Contact record is Linked to a Companies

5 record, then that Companies record name will display here. You can also manually add this Project Goal to a specified Companies record in the ACT! database. By linking to a specific Companies record, you can see all Projects associated with that specific record. Group: If you like, you can associate this Project Goal to a specific Group record in ACT!. By linking to a specific Group record, you can see all Projects associated with that specific record. (For example, you might create a Trade Show group and then associate different Trade Show projects that you are creating with the Trade Show group. This allows you to get an overview of all of the Trade Show related Projects and Goals.) Opportunity: If you actively use the Opportunity feature in ACT!, you may want to associate some Projects with specific opportunities. In fact, if you are in the Opportunity Detail view for a specific Opportunity, you can click the Project Goal tab and click Add to create the opportunity from this view. It will automatically be associated to the current Opportunity, with the associated Contacts and associated Companies. Because they are all linked, whether you are looking at the Contact, the Company or the Opportunity, you have a shortcut to the Project Goal that you are working on. To link any Project to a specific Company, Group, Opportunity or different Contact record, click the looking glass icon at the right of the field to select the desired record from the database list (you cannot type in a value). In the Look for: area, type the name of the record you want to associate with this Project Goal. If necessary, scroll to the actual record and double click it or select it and click the > arrow in the middle of the screen to add the name to the Selected area at the right. Created: This is a system field that enters the date and time the Project Goal record was created. (As a system field, the value cannot be changed.) Start Date: This field automatically enters the current date as the default Start Date. You can easily change it to a different time if you like. Last Edited By: This is a system field that displays the name of the ACT! user that last made a change to the Project Goal record. This might be handy to know in a multi user environment. (As a system field, the value cannot be changed.)

6 Edit Date: This is a system field that displays the date that the Project Goal record was last edited. (As a system field, the value cannot be changed.) OK: OK saves the changes of course. However, it is handy to know that if you have no Active Next Actions defined, when you click OK, you will see the dialog displayed at the right. Yes Changes the Status of the current Project Goal to Completed (if there are no more Next Actions to add and everything has been completed, then it is time to mark the Project Goal as Completed as well). No Confirms that don t want to mark the Project Goal as Completed yet, but that you are not ready to enter any additional Next Actions yet. The Project will be saved with an Active status without any Active Next Actions. Cancel Indicates that you are not finished and want to be returned to the Project Goal dialog so that you can enter more Next Actions. Entering Next Actions When you create a Project Goal, begin by making a list of every Next Action that you will have to complete to finish the project. While you can add Next Actions from several places within ACT!, it usually makes more sense to associate a Next Action to a Project Goal. So it will take fewer steps to locate the desired Project Goal, doubleclick it to open it and add the Next Actions from within this window. 1. While in the Project Goal dialog, click the Add icon at the top of the Next Actions window. 2. Fill in the fields as desired. 3. Click OK when finished.

7 4. Continue to add Next Actions as desired. Let s look at the Next Actions dialog and the fields that you can fill in. There are no required fields. You can fill in as many or as few as you like to help you in keeping track of the Next Actions involved to completing the Projects Goal. Regarding: Give your Next Action a name that helps you to easily identify what you need to do. If you opt to schedule an Activity in ACT! from this dialog, the Regarding will be used to populate the Regarding field in the Activity dialog. Status: By default, all new Next Actions are assigned an Active status. When you complete the Next Action, use the drop down to change the status to Completed. You might choose On Hold to keep all of the work that you have entered without displaying the Next Action in the currently Active list. Or you might select a Status of Someday/Maybe for those crazy ideas that you might want to implement someday. Due Date: Use the drop down to select when the Next Action is expected to be completed. You do not have to select a date if you are not ready to assign a time frame.

8 Est Hrs: Use this field to estimate how long this Next Action will take. You can use this field later to help you define how much time you should allow for this task as you block out your day. Be realistic and don t underestimate how long it will take. You can use fractional hours. Entering.5 would indicate a half hour. Context: Assigning a Context to your Next Actions will help you group your tasks to be more effective. You can select from among the ones provided in the drop down list or add your own. For example, you can group all of your Calls or Errands together in list view and print them out (see how, below). You might have some tasks that you can only accomplish when you are at Home. There is also a Waiting for Context to remind you that you have delegated this Next Action to someone else and you will need to hear back from them about when it is Completed. Priority: Four values are included (1 High, 2 Med, 3 Low and 0 Today) to help you define a priority to your workflow. The default value for all new Next Actions is 3 Low (Do not remove this value.) However, you can quickly use the drop down to change the value or add other values to help you establish your priority values. Days Left: This is a calculated field. Each time you log into your ACT! database, all Days Left fields will be updated to reflect the correct number of days remaining until the assigned Due Date. Energy: This is an often overlooked element of planning activities. There are some tasks that will be quite easy to accomplish and you can mark them as Low or Med or just leave the Energy field blank. However, there are other tasks that will require a great deal of will power to get started or concentration to complete. These tasks are best scheduled for the first thing in the morning before you get started or on days when nothing else is scheduled. For these Next Actions, you might want to change the Energy Level to High, so that you can carefully schedule these tasks. Review: The review field value is used to help you keep Next Actions in perspective. Longer range Next Actions or ones for which you have not yet assigned a Due Date may be assigned a Monthly review cycle where on the first of each month you will filter your display to the show only Monthly Next Actions to be sure that you are still on track. More immediate Next Actions may be assigned a Daily or Weekly review value.

9 Detail: This is a memo field that you can use to capture your thoughts. You can enter as much as you like here. Document: If the Detail field is not enough, you can also use this field to create a shortcut to any file type. Click on the ellipsis button at the right of the field to navigate to the file that you want to link to this Next Action. When you have selected a file, this field will display as a hyperlink. Click on the hyperlink to open the file you have linked. Record Manager: By default, your ACT! login name is automatically included here. If you would like to assign this Next Action to another ACT! user, use the drop down to select the user. Private: You can mark this Next Action as Private by clicking to place a checkmark in this field. It will be Private to the defined Record Manager. Only when you login to the database using the Record Manger name, will you be able to see this Next Action. Delegated to: Click the looking glass icon at the right of the field to select the Contact in your database that you have delegated this Next Action to (you cannot type in a value). In the Look for: area, type the last name of the contact that you want to include in the Delegated to field. Then scroll to the actual contact and double click it or select it and click the > arrow in the middle of the screen to add their name to the Selected contacts area at the right. When you delegate the Next Action to someone else, you will be prompted to change the Context to Waiting For. Click Yes to change the Context. Answer No to leave the Context as is. To remove the contact from the Delegated to field. Click on the looking glass icon at the right and double click the name at the right to remove it from the list. Click OK. Schedule Button: See details below.

10 Is Scheduled: Once an activity has been scheduled using the Schedule button, this field will display the date and time of any linked activity. You can use the looking glass icon to the right of the field to open the activity to make any changes. You could also make any changes to this linked activity using the ACT! calendar or Task List, since it is now a regular ACT! Activity. Project Goal: This field displays the Project Goal that this Next Action is associated with. Use the looking glass icon to the right if you need to transfer this Next Action to a different Project. Grouping: This is a field that you could set up for Grouping your Next Actions. It could be used for sorting purposes. For example you could Group your Errands by store name or by purchase type. Or you could group your calls by Prospecting or Client Maintenance. Use the field anyway you like to make your days more productive. Contact: This field displays the name of the contact that the Next Action is associated with. By default it is the contact that is associated with the parent Project Goal record. Use the looking glass icon to the right of the field to select another contact(s) in the database. Company: This field references the Companies feature in ACT!. If the parent Project Goal record is Linked to a Companies record, then the Next Action record will also contain that link. You can also manually add this task to a specific Companies record in the ACT! database using the looking glass icon to the right of the field. Group: If the parent Project Goal record was linked to a Group record, then the Next Action record will also be linked. If you like, you can use the looking glass icon to associate this Next Action to a specific Group record in ACT!. Opportunity: If the parent Project Goal record was linked to an Opportunity record, then the Next Action record will also be linked. If you like, you can use the looking glass icon to associate this Next Action to a specific Opportunity record in ACT!.

11 Edited By: This is a system field that displays the name of the ACT! user that last made a change to the Next Action record. This might be handy to know in a multi user environment. (As a system field, the value cannot be changed.) Edit Date: This is a system field that displays the date that the Next Action record was last edited. (As a system field, the value cannot be changed.) Record Creator: This is the name of the ACT! user that created the Next Action record. Created: This is a system field that enters the date and time the Next Action record was created. (As a system field, the value cannot be changed.) Schedule button If you have assigned a Due Date and you would like to schedule this Next Action in your ACT! calendar, you can click the Schedule button in the middle of the Next Action dialog. When you click the Schedule button (NOT the looking glass at the right of the Is Scheduled field), the regular ACT! Schedule Activity dialog displays with many fields already filled in. The Start Date will be pulled from the Due Date. The Duration field will be pulled from Est Hrs field.

12 Any Detail notes in the Next Action will be transferred to the Details tab of the Activity dialog. The Activity will be scheduled with the Contact associated with the Next Action. The Regarding will be prefixed with # and the Context, followed by the Regarding from the Next Action dialog and the Project name in parenthesis (e.g. #Computer: Handling Unattached Messages (ACT Tips)) This way you can tell in your Calendar which activities where scheduled from the GPD4CRM software. Also the Hash tag (#) followed by the Context allows you to click on the Regarding column in the ACT! Task List and easily sort the list by Next Actions Context. Before clicking OK, you may want to change the Activity Type from the default To do to a Call or Meeting. You may also want to change the Start Time from Timeless to a specific Time or make any other desired changes. Promote (Prom2Proj) button Sometimes a Next Action can be so big and have so many sub parts that it seems like maybe you should promote it to be its own Project Goal. Fortunately, it is easy to do. 1. Double click the Next Action that you wish to promote to a Project Goal. 2. Click the Prom2Proj button at the lower right of the Next Action dialog. 3. Click Yes to delete the current Next Action after the New Project Goal has been created. Click No to maintain the Next Action record after the new Project Goal has been created. Normally you will say Yes, since most all of the field data is transferred to the Project Goal record. 4. Click OK to exit the current Project Goal record. 5. A new Project Goal record is created using the following fields: Regarding becomes the Project name, Due Date, Days Left, Priority, Review, Document shortcut, and Details (which are mapped to the Purpose Goal field).

13 Working in List Views There are two list views available with GPD4CRM: Project Goal and Next Actions. To view the list of Projects that you have entered, click the Project Goal button on the Navbar at the left. This displays a list of all of the projects you have defined in your database. To view your list of Next Actions, click the Next Actions button. You can also click on the ACT! menu, View, Project Goal List or View Next Actions List to display the same view. Notice that there are columns for each of the fields If you are viewing the Project Goal list, you can see whether the Project Goal is Active or Completed. You can see the Name, the Type (whether it is a work or personal or marketing project). You will see columns for Priority, End Date, a calculated Days Remaining until that Due date, how often you think you should review, the Delegated to column so that you can see if it has been assigned to someone else. Notice the name of the contact in the database that this project is associated with. You can add other columns as well, but these are the default columns that you should see. The key to working in the List Views is to filter and sort these displays. For example, the first column is Status. You may want to start by filtering the list to Active Projects or Next Actions (even though everything is active now, this will help you later). You could also filter by 1 High Priority, as well as other fields. 1. Click on the Filter icon of the column you wish to filter. 2. Select the option to filter by 3. The icon will display as filled when a filter has been applied. To quickly un filter the list, click on the Remove Filter icon at the bottom of the List View to remove any filters you defined in the current list view. Click on any column header to sort the list. For example, you could click on the Date to sort by date to be completed. Click the column header again to sort the list in reverse order. Sort or filter the Review field.

14 Filter the Next Action Context type to Errands or Calls, then click the Export to Excel icon on the view toolbar to print out the list. Or just click the Print icon to print the currently filtered, sorted list. Click the Group icon, then drag one of the column headers to the header to group the list. For example you could drag the Priority field to the header and group all of the records by Priority. Click the + signs to display the grouped data detail. Click the Group button again to ungroup the list. Clearing an Activity or Next Action There are several ways to mark a Next Action or ACT! activity as Completed. Double click the Next Action that you have finished and change the Status field to Completed. When you change the Status to Completed, if you used the Schedule button to schedule the Next Action in ACT!, then you will be prompted to clear the associated activity. If you click Yes, then the Clear Activity dialog will display to allow you to add any additional Details before clicking OK to save it to History. When you clear an ACT! activity from the Calendar or Task List (that was scheduled using the Schedule button), then it will automatically change the Status of the Next Action from Active to Completed. Completing a Project When you have marked all of your Next Actions as Completed and the Project Goal is finished, you will want to change the Status to Completed so that it no longer displays in your list of Active Projects. Keep in mind that any associated Next Actions that are still displaying as Active will not be marked as Completed and will continue to display in your Active Next Actions list.

15 If you have no Active Next Actions defined, when you click OK, you will see the dialog displayed at the right. Yes Changes the Status of the current Project Goal to Completed (if there are no more Next Actions to add and everything has been completed, then it is time to mark the Project Goal as Completed as well). No Confirms that don t want to mark the Project Goal as Completed yet, but that you are not ready to enter any additional Next Actions yet. The Project will be saved with an Active status without any Active Next Actions. Cancel Indicates that you are not finished and want to be returned to the Project Goal dialog so that you can enter more Next Actions. Deleting a Project If you have created a project that you no longer want, you can delete it by selecting it and clicking the X on the top toolbar and answer Yes to complete the deletion. Keep in mind that any associated Next Actions will not be deleted. You will need to delete them separately or reassign them to another Project Goal. Daily Scenario So let s look at a daily scenario of how you might use the List View to plan your day. Each day, when you log into ACT!, you display your calendar to view what you have scheduled. Then click on the Next Actions List View to determine if any Next Actions should make it to your Task List or Calendar for today. If you have an hour in your schedule, sort the Est Hrs column to see which Next Action might fit into your schedule. Sort by Days Left to see which Next Actions are coming due. Sort by Priority to be sure you are not missing any high priority tasks.

16 When you have determined which tasks you might fit into your schedule, double click the Next Action and change the Priority to 0 Today until you have determined what needs to go on your list today. You can use the Schedule button to actually schedule the Next Action on the ACT! calendar if you like. When you have completed the Next Action, double click the record and change the status from Active to Completed. At the beginning of each week, sort the lists by the Review field to see if there is anything that needs to be updated. Review your Project Goal records to see if any Next Actions need to be added or updated. Work your lists to be sure that nothing is slipping through the cracks and that the actions that you are taking are moving your toward your goals. Brain storming If you are just starting to get everything off your mind and organizing them into GPD4ACT, you can use the brainstorming method. 1. Click the Next Actions button on the Navbar at the left. 2. Click the Add button on the toolbar at the top of the view. 3. Enter the first task in the Regarding area. 4. You don t need to fill out anything else. We can organize everything later. Just click OK. 5. Continue to create a Next Action for each task that you have been trying to remember. 6. When you are ready, you can use the Promote button to create Project from the current Next Action. 7. To change the Project s Contact association (be default it is associated with the current record when you created the Next Action), click on the looking glass to the right of the Contact field and remove the current name from the list at the right and add the correct name from the left. 8. To assign a Next Action to a Project, click on the looking glass to the right of the Project Goal field and select the Project association. (You may need to click the Show All Records option to see Projects associated with all contacts in the database.) Click OK. 9. Fill in the details as you organize your data. Custom Queries (First condition, second condition, etc.) As you are filtering the list (by clicking on the filter icon at the right of each column), you may find that you want to include more than one item or a range of dates for the filter.

17 1. Click on the filter icon of the column you wish to filter. 2. Instead of selecting a value from the drop down, you can select Custom. 3. Enter the value for the first condition (e.g. For example, say you want to filter the list for Priorities of 0 Today and 1 High. Click on the filter icon for the Priority column and select Custom. In the Operator field, select = Equals, and in the Operand field select or enter 0 Today.) 4. Click the Add a condition button and enter the next condition. (e.g. For example, select = Equals, and in the Operand field select or enter 1 High.) 5. Since none of our Next Actions contain both the words 0 Today AND 1 High, we need to change this query to an Or query by click the Or conditions option. 6. Add more criteria as desired. 7. Click OK. You cannot save the queries, so if you change it to something else, you will need to create the query again from scratch. To save specific views, you may want to consider installing Topline Dash, which is a dashboard tool to help you create saved views/queries of your Project and Next Action Data. One Time Custom Tabs and Column Views Setup 1. Tools, ToplineDesigner Manager 2. Click About 3. Click Erase Personal Settings 4. Exit ACT, and then open again. This should create appropriate columns in each of your tabs. To manually change Column Display in List views If you want to change the columns in the Project Goal or Next Actions List View 1. Click the Project Goal slider bar in the Nav bar at the left. 2. Click the Change Columns icon (3 rd icon) on the tab s toolbar 3. Use the left and right arrows in the center of the dialog to add or remove fields. 4. Use the up and down arrows at the right to change the order of field display.

18 5. Change the column width by using your mouse to hover over the line between the column headers. When your mouse becomes a double sided arrow, click and drag the column to the desired width. Your new widths will be saved until you click the Change Columns icon again on the tab toolbar. Recommended order for the Project Goal List View, Status, Project, Type, Priority, End Date, Days Left, Review, Leader, Record Manager, Contact, Company (Contact Table) Change the Filter for Status to Active (click the filter icon on that column and select Active). Filter other columns (like Date) as desired. Recommended order for the Next Actions List View, Status, Project Goal, Regarding, Context, Priority, Energy, Due Date, Days Left, Est Hrs, Review, Is Scheduled, Contact, Type (Project Goal Field), Delegated to, Record Manager, Grouping Change the Filter for Status to Active (click the filter icon on that column and select Active). Filter other columns (like Date) as desired. Manually changing the tab columns on the Contact Record (or Company, Opportunity, or Group Record) If you want to change the columns in the Project Goal or Next Actions tabs 1. Display any contact record. 2. Click the Project Goal tab.

19 3. Click the Change Columns icon (3 rd icon) on the tab s toolbar 4. Use the left and right arrows in the center of the dialog to add or remove fields. 5. Use the up and down arrows at the right to change the order of field display. 6. Change the column width by using your mouse to hover over the line between the column headers. When your mouse becomes a double sided arrow, click and drag the column to the desired width. Your new widths will be saved until you click the Change Columns icon again on the tab toolbar. Recommended order for the Project Goal tab on the Contact record, Status, Project, Type, Priority, End Date, Days Left, Review, Leader, Record Manager, Description Change the Filter for Status to Active (click the filter icon on that column and select Active). Recommended order for the Next Actions tab on the Contact record, Status, Project Goal, Regarding, Context, Priority, Energy, Due Date, Days Left, Est Hrs, Review, Is Scheduled, Type (Project Goal Field), Delegated to, Record Manager, Grouping Change the Filter for Status to Active (click the filter icon on that column and select Active). Pre requisites for GPD4CRM You must have ACT! 2010 or greater installed. You must have Topline Designer installed. Installing GPD4CRM adds two sub tables to your database, but it does not change any core fields. It adds seven Drop Down lists to your database. Their names are prefaced with GPD. You can easily modify any of the drop down lists using the Edit List feature at the bottom of each drop down. The two tables add the Project Goal and Next Actions tabs to the Contacts, Companies, Groups, and Opportunities Detail views. The tables also add two list views to the Navbar You can modify which fields display in any list view as well as the order that they are displayed.

20 Contact Us If you Have any questions about GPD4CRM or would like some additional customizations, or would like to be on our mailing list to receive more productivity tips please let us know how we can help by getting in touch with us at: