Vortex User's Guide

Table Of Contents

Introduction

Vortex was built to help you be more productive, with less effort. It supports the ideas and methods in Getting Things Done, the best-selling guide to personal efficiency by David Allen. If you want to learn more, his book is the definitive guide.

Just about everybody has used a to-do list because they are simple, quick and useful. However the items on the list have no idea how they relate to each other, so you have to spend time arranging and rearranging them as the days go by. This wastes time and means your list isn't as helpful as it could be.

It was this frustration that led to Vortex. Vortex holds everything on your list, knows how the items fit together and, finally, understands how they all depend on each other.

A pencil and paper can give you a simple list. Many of the to-do list software applications out there can group your items in a few different ways. But we need one that can remember how the items depend on each other and then use this knowledge to save you time. Vortex is it.

Quick Start

Here's how to get going straightaway:

What's Going On?

Sometimes you just want to do something simple, like clean the fridge. There's only one step to take and that's, well, cleaning the fridge.

At other times you want to do something which takes several steps, like painting your room. To do this you might need to pop out and buy some paint, borrow some dustsheets from your neighbour, cover up all the furniture, paint the first coat, let it dry, paint the second coat, let it dry, move all the furniture back, and return the dustsheets.

We call anything that takes more than one step a project, and each step an action. Some actions can be done in any order, such as buying the paint and borrowing a dustsheet, and some depend on other actions — you don't want to start painting until you have all the furniture covered up.

Vortex understands all this and lets you specify that you can't paint until the furniture is covered up. Your list will just say, “Cover the furniture” until you have ticked it off; then your list will update itself to say, “Paint the first coat”.

Now if all the actions for your room-painting project were on one list, it would be a little confusing. Imagine you were in a paint shop, getting the paint, and you glanced at your list to see whether there was anything else you should get while you were there. It would be hard — you would have to wade through all the non-shopping items, such as cleaning the fridge, to find any shopping items which might be tucked away.

Your list should show you exactly the things you can do where you are — and no more. Anything else gets in your way. If you're out shopping, it should show you what you need to buy. If you're at home, it should show you what to do around the house. And so on. We call each place a context. Every action belongs in a context and Vortex groups your actions by context as well as by project.

The upshot of all this is your list shows you exactly the things you can do where you are, at that point in time. The other items, which can only be done elsewhere or once the current items have been done, keep out of your way until needed.

A Little More on Actions, Contexts and Projects

Actions are the little steps which achieve your projects. We don't “do” projects; we do actions. To be most effective, an action should be a single, specific, physical task. “Hoover the stairs” is a good action; “sort out pension” is not.

An action may achieve what you need on its own. On the other hand, if what you need requires more than one action to achieve, we group those actions into a project. An action may be shared by several projects.

Sometimes the next action isn't a task for you to do but one you are waiting for someone else to do. We call this kind of action a waiting-for item. It still goes on your list, because you want to track it, but it lives in a special context (every action belongs to a context, remember?) called the Waiting For context.

Continually asking yourself, “What is the next action?” is a sure way to clarify what you need to do next. Focusing on the next action helps you to avoid procrastinating and reduces those nagging feelings of guilt when you know you should do something but you're not sure what.

Deciding What To Do

Just pick something on your list and do that! If every action is a single, specific, physical task you should be able to get on with it without further ado.

So which action do you pick? Well, at any given time you can only do the actions of the context you're in. It's simply not possible to do things around the house if you're shopping. And if you like to start and finish actions in one go, then rule out those actions which you wouldn't be able to complete in the time available.

Now the only items left to choose from are those you can do right where you are and have the time to finish. And you have freed yourself from even having to consider all the other, currently irrelevant things on your lists.

So of the remaining items, which to choose? Some actions need more energy than others. If it's the end of a long day and you're tired, rule out the tasks requiring clear thought and stick to the simple ones like taking out the rubbish. If, on the other hand, you are full of beans, tackle the difficult actions while you can.

Now that you are left only with those actions that you can do, and have the time and the energy to do, pick the highest priority one first.

Vortex helps you work though all this simply and quickly. You can mark any and every action with the time it needs, the energy required and its priority. You can compare every action's time, energy and priority at a glance. Of course you don't have to: if it helps, then great; if not, then don't bother and it'll stay out of your way.

You can choose exactly the level of detail that you want to see for every action and waiting-for item in Vortex. Pick the columns you want either via the View menu or by right-clicking on the table's column names and choosing there.

The “Someday, Maybe” Pile

Sometimes you have an action or project which you don't want to do now, but equally don't want to forget about. These actions and projects belong in the Someday, Maybe pile.

It's pretty simple: things in Someday, Maybe just sit there until you say otherwise. You can move them back onto the lists of live actions and projects if you like, or you can delete them, or keep them safe for a rainy day. It's up to you.

Reviewing Your Progress

It's a good idea to take stock regularly of how things are going. Vortex's Review section helps you do just that.

It shows you all the actions and projects you have completed since your last review, and all the ones you have added.

When you're ready to move on, clicked the Reviewed button to let Vortex know that you have done your review.

Printing

Vortex lets you print the actions in each context, a list of your projects and a list of everything in your Someday, Maybe pile. You can print some or all of these as you prefer.

You can also choose whether your actions print as-is or with their project(s) appended too. If you wish to include the projects for each action, tick the final option — “[Include project names]” — in the Contexts section.

Vortex remembers what you chose to print last time round so, unless you want to, you don't have to choose which lists to print from scratch each time.

Once you have decided exactly what you'd like to print, Vortex sends it to your browser for the browser to print. Yes, it's an extra step…but years of development have gone into your browser's printing capabilities and Vortex can't compete with that!

The Hipster PDA

I am delighted to say that Vortex works seamlessly with the highly-regarded Hipster PDA. Just tick the 3x5 Index Cards option when choosing what to print and the paper size will be set automatically when you print from your browser.

Getting Your Data Out

The actions and projects and contexts that you type into Vortex are important to you.

That's why we've ensured you can easily get all your data out of Vortex at any time. Just choose Export from the File menu and you'll get a nice, clean XML file containing all your data.

Installing, Removing and Upgrading

Installing

To install Vortex on OS X:

To install Vortex on Windows:

Removing

To remove Vortex from OS X:

To remove Vortex from Windows:

Upgrading

To upgrade Vortex, follow the instructions in the Removing section above for removing the application. Make sure you only remove the application, and that you leave your preferences and data intact.

When you have removed the application, follow the instructions in the Installing section above. The new version will automatically pick up your preferences and data.

You can verify that the upgrade worked by looking at the version number in the About Vortex menu item of the Apple menu (OS X) or Help menu (Windows). If the version number matches the latest on the website then you are a computer genius and have successfully upgraded Vortex.