📚 Getting Started

Disclaimer

Yata is inspired by David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. However, you don’t have to know about GTD or subscribe to it to find benefit or enjoyment out of the app, but it would help you understand the reasoning behind certain features and design decisions.

📊 GTD Processing Workflow Diagram

For context, Yata is mainly inspired by the following workflow:

graph TD 

ActionableBranch[ ]
NotActionableBranch[ ]
NextActionBranch[ ]
Calendar["`📅 Calendar
		 *at a specific time*`"]
Next["`➡️ Next Action
	*as soon as appropriate*`"]
Waiting["`⏳ Waiting For
		*someone or more info*`"]
In["📥 Inbox"]
What[What's the next action?]
Start[ ]
Actionable[Is it actionable?] 
Outcome[What's the Desired Outcome?]
Trash["🗑️ Trash"]
Tickler["🔔 Tickler File"]
Project["🎯 Project"]
Maybe["`💡 Someday/Maybe
	  *Possible later actions*`"]
Ref["`📦 External System(s)
	*retrievable when required*`"]
Do["✅ Do it"]
Delegate[Delegate it]
Defer[Defer it]

Start -->|Stuff| In
In --> Actionable

ActionableBranch -->|Has Multiple Steps| Outcome
Actionable ---|YES| ActionableBranch
Actionable ---|NO| NotActionableBranch
ActionableBranch --> What

Outcome --> Project
Project -->|Project Planning| What
What --> Project

What --- NextActionBranch
NextActionBranch -->|<2 minutes| Do
NextActionBranch --> Delegate
NextActionBranch --> Defer
Delegate --> Waiting
Defer --> Calendar
Defer --> Next

NotActionableBranch --> Trash
NotActionableBranch -->|Incubate| Maybe
NotActionableBranch -->|Reference| Ref
NotActionableBranch -->|Hold| Tickler


style ActionableBranch stroke-width:0px,width:1px,height:1px
style NotActionableBranch stroke-width:0px,width:1px,height:1px
style NextActionBranch stroke-width:0px,width:1px,height:1px
style Start stroke-width:0px,width:1px,height:1px

click Waiting href "./⏳-Waiting-Fors"
click Project href "./🎯-Projects"
click Next href "./➡️-Next-Actions"

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📥 Captures

Captures are similar to ✅ Actions in many ways, but are unique as there is no notion of completion. You cannot complete a capture; instead, you process a capture.

Consider the Stuff at the very start of the workflow diagram. This could be anything - a thought or idea that’s been running through your mind, a website/article you want to read later, a cool gadget you’re considering buying, a restaurant you thought looked good, something you want to bring up to someone in your next conversation, the list goes on and on.

Many of these thoughts aren’t actionable, or it isn’t immediately clear what the action is. Instead of letting them remain in your subconscious and constantly remind yourself of them or risk forgetting them, captures are a great way to free up your brain for more productive thinking.

The Inbox displays all unprocessed captures

You can process a capture by doing any of the following:

• convert it to an action
• trash/delete it
• defer it by setting a reminder for a later date (i.e. tickler item)
• store it in a someday/maybe list

Why are captures useful?

Unlike many task management apps, Yata allows you to create, store and manage non-actionable items. This encourages you to “capture” your thoughts in an unfiltered manner, without the cognitive burden of fleshing out the thought in the moment or the psychological effect of having “incomplete” tasks that actually aren’t completable.

Of course, if your thought is already actionable, simply create the action and skip the processing that you’ve already done! Creating a capture just to immediately process them adds an unnecessary layer of complexity.

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✅ Actions

Actions are essentially to-dos under a different name. An action always satisfies one of the following conditions:

• be scheduled to be done at some date
• be marked as a ➡️ Next Action, to be done as soon as appropriate
• be marked as ⏳ Waiting For someone else to do, or for some more information

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🏷️ Contexts

Contexts are essentially tags, but named as such to encourage you towards certain use cases.

Contexts can represent people (e.g. “Dad”, “Mom”, “Boss”), places (e.g. “Work”, “Home”, “Computer”), or functions (“Call”, “Email”).

Actions and captures can be associated with multiple contexts. This will be useful to form Agendas, which can be used to filter items relevant to a specific set of contexts.

For example, using contexts allows you to configure your Now agenda to filter out items that are not relevant/possible in your current situation.

Stay tuned!

In the future, you would also be able to save frequently used filters as new agendas for quick access.

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🎯 Projects

An outcome that requires more than one action to achieve.

Similar to ➡️ Next Actions, how strictly you follow the definition above should be tailored to your needs.

If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed and desiring more structure, you may find it useful to be stricter about what constitutes a Project.

Name Projects by their desired outcome

In this way, it’s clear when a project is completed. For example, “Submitted CS4225 Assignment on Canvas” instead of “CS4225 Assignment”

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📋 Lists

Lists are used to group captures, actions and even projects in a single place.

Create Someday List(s)

A common use case for lists is to store Someday items, like “Books I want to read” or “Places I want to travel to”.

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