Comments on: MindReader: How to best read your mind?

By: Chris Dixon

Chris Dixon — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:54:54 +0000

I've been using ResultsMananger for a couple of years. MindReader is a fantastic addition to my toolset, and I'm still not using all its functionality. Thanks again.

Chris

By: ActivityOwner

ActivityOwner — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:44:47 +0000

No problem — It probably needs to be noted more prominent on the site and wiki as its a frequent source of mystery bugs. Glad to hear the tool is getting some use.

By: Chris Dixon

Chris Dixon — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:50:02 +0000

Hi AO,

That fixed it. It also explains why MindReader worked for a while and then had some issues. I can't belive I didn't spot that article. Sorry for the wild goose chase, thanks for your support.

Chris

By: ActivityOwner

ActivityOwner — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:40:08 +0000

MindReader doesn't work with 1.9.4.9. You need to install 1.9.4.7. See link below for more info:

http://www.activityowner.com/2007/11/10/mindreader-and-gyroq-1949/

By: Chris Dixon

Chris Dixon — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:39:14 +0000

I'm using GyroQ 1.9.4.9 and MindManager Pro 7 version7.2.374

By: ActivityOwner

ActivityOwner — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:20:21 +0000

Hi Chris — I'm stumped on this one. I particularly can't think of any situation where "email AO about X" would work but "contact AO about X" would not.

Are you using GyroQ 1.9.4.7?

By: Chris Dixon

Chris Dixon — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:15:29 +0000

Because of your comment about the mindreader.mmap, I've started again and downloaded the AO-pack. With the default map supplied, I get the following results:
Email gives R:Activityowner@ as you would expect
Contact, Waiting for and I owe assign nothing

Chris

By: ActivityOwner

ActivityOwner — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:29:20 +0000

That's strange. Can you try some other resource verb tasks? For example:

"Contact AO about mindreader bug"
"R:AO fix bug"

Its possible your mindreader.mmap has some type of problem. It is also important for tasks to start with resource verbs.

By: Chris Dixon

Chris Dixon — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:56:44 +0000

Hi AO,

I've been using MindReader for a while. Just recently I've noticed that when using the resourceverb 'Waiting for' the resources name isn't added as the resource. Any help you can offer will be very much appreciated.

Chris

By: Ken Florian

Ken Florian — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:01:10 +0000

the "same day" topic was broken in my mindreader.mmap.

Thanks for helping me figure it out.

Do you have a specific suggestion or two on a tutorial to record? I will try to do a couple in the next month.

Ken

By: ActivityOwner

ActivityOwner — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:05:48 +0000

Hi Chuck —

ResultsManager has the capability to learn/remember your contexts/areas/categories and present them as drop-down menus in the edit activity dialog (and in GyroQ if you prgram it that way). I personally don't make use of that feature as I usually just prefer to type it out quickly or (even better) to have them set by inheritance from project above or by MindReader keywords. So, to answer your question, there isn't a programatic connection between the the MIndReader configuration and the RM lists.

re: People/Contexts
This can be a little confusion at first. If you wanted you could have a context (e.g. @Joe) for things you want to talk to Joe about and that would work fine from a context list point of view.

The power of the ResultsManager "relationship central" branch is that it combines a "Contact Joe About" list with a "I owe Joe" and a "Joe owes me" lists, so when you have Joe in front of you or on the phone, you have a lot to talk about..

In order for ResultsManager to "know" that "Joe" is a resource and not a place, it uses the convention of Joe@ rather than @Joe and puts then entry in the resource field rather than the context field.

MindReader automatically sees the word after some key "resource verbs" as a resource (e.g. waiting for Joe, Talk to Joe, I owe Joe, Ask Joe, Remind Joe, etc).

The "ResourceList" branch is mindreader is optional. It is just for cases when you want to use a short name in the text but need a formal resource name (e.g. "Chuck" for "Chuck Brown"). This applies when you are working in a group settting where everyone needs to stick to one name for each person.

I think I'm caught up on your questions — if any have slipped by let me know.

By: ActivityOwner

ActivityOwner — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:17:39 +0000

Thanks Ken — That screencast was great — Can we sign you up to do some tutorials and demos! Thanks for taking the time to help get to the bottom of this.

I love this hobby. No need for Saturday morning crossword puzzle when you have mysteries like this one to solve.

I think I figured out exactly what is happening and replicated. I suspect you have a keyword entry on your mindmanager.mmap in the "starting" branch that is blank and has a "0" in the notes. Specifically you might have blanked out the "same day" keyword. That would cause anything you "read" to be effective considered as having the "same day" keyword.

I have updated mindreadernlp.mmbas and mindreaderopen.mmbas to avoid this issue generally for any entry in mindreader.mmap. You can download or just look at the mindreader.mmap and fix there.

Let me know if this doesn't address your problem.

By: Ken Florian

Ken Florian — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:15:11 +0000

Here is a screen recording of the behavior.

http://www.kenflorian.com/sample/tabid/454/Default.aspx

By: Chuck Brown

Chuck Brown — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:00:01 +0000

Sorry for the disjointed posts… trying to collate the GTD book, MR documentation, and RM documentation in my head! :) RM says to add people to whom you speak with frequently to the contexts list. In MR, we have resource verbs that seem to do this, but also have contexts. So, if I have 'Joe' working for me, that I assign things to and discuss things with frequently, should Joe be a resource, a contact, or a context, or all of the above?

By: Chuck Brown

Chuck Brown — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:45:38 +0000

How do the mr resources, contexts, categories, and areas relate to the 'master' context, owners, categories, and areas in Results Manager? Do they flow to each other, or are they independant?

By: ActivityOwner

ActivityOwner — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:40:44 +0000

If you want to move a topic from one map to another, highlight it and hit "s keyword" in gyroq. The "s" toggles to the s tag and they destination keyword dictates its destination. You have to have configured the destination keyword using the "k" tag.

By: Chuck Brown

Chuck Brown — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:18:29 +0000

Should 'm {link}' move an existing task to a different map? It doesn't seem to; if not, is there another 'mindreader' way to do this, other than cut/paste?

By: Chuck Brown

Chuck Brown — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:45:43 +0000

Should changes made in a dashboard be pushed back to the source map? For example, I found that there were a few items showing up on my dailyactions/Committed Next Actions that were really info items. So, I highlighted them, did a 'm isinfo', and the task icon cleared. However, when I went back to the source map (Bits & Pieces), the items were still flagged as tasks, so of course, when I rerun the dashboard update, they are tasks again.

I was pretty sure the update should have pushed through, because when I selected another task, and did 'm next wednesday', that DID update the source.

By: ActivityOwner

ActivityOwner — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:49:10 +0000

Hi Ken — I'm puzzled by this one. Just to clarify, you have a due date of 4/18/08 and no start date set right? You then type "m 2 days before" and the due date toggles to 4/16/08 and then back to 4/18/08? (the "m " toggles to m tag).

I have no idea what might be causing this. I've tested on my system and don't see any issues. If nothing else, the "2 days before" keyword shouldn't be touching the due date; only the start date.

What happens if you type "m 4/19/08"? Does that move the due date successfully? How about "m start in 2 days"

By: Ken Florian

Ken Florian — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:21:28 +0000

Just restarted using the various "set date" functionality of mindreader. I have the latest macros and the 1.9.4.7 of gyroq.

I am unable to set a "start date" using the "m" markup tag. I have a topic with a due date of 4/18/2008. I try to set a start date with "m" by typing 2 days before.

The task information marker in MindManager actually flashes to 4/16/2008 but then sets itself back to 4/18/2008.

I don't want to set durations or anything like that…just absolute start and end dates using the markup tag. I am overlooking something.

Thanks for your help.

Ken

By: ActivityOwner

ActivityOwner — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 21:11:09 +0000

All the GyroQ and MindReader configuration lives in "My Maps". If you have custom ResultsManager dashboards, you need to open them and select "install template" from both computers. I don't know if it is possible to instead sync a configuration file somewhere else. Alterhatively, you can export/import your ResultsManager configuration from the mindmanager menu.

By: Chuck Brown

Chuck Brown — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:34:43 +0000

Off topic here, but this is as good a place as any… I have a desktop in the office, where the suite is working great (MM, MR, GQ, RM). I have 'My Maps' in 'My Documents', which is a network based folder that my workstation (Vista) sees as the real 'My Documents'. I synchronize My Documents on a notebook PC as well, as offline folders. I had assumed that was it to keep everything in sync, but I'm not so sure. Are there any other files or settings that I need to make sure get sync'd between them? I believe the gyroq tags are in gyroq.ini, which is in my maps, so it should be fine.

Other than My Maps, what should I need to make sure stays the same between the two computers, or is that really all that needs to happen?

By: ActivityOwner

ActivityOwner — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:10:08 +0000

Hi Chuck — islink is obsolete. MindReader originally put the current clipboard into the queue for every command just in case the user might have wanted to use it as a note or link. That just created too much risk/bloat for the queue file so I changed it to only grab links/notes when using the control-shift-g.

See:
http://www.activityowner.com/2008/01/27/mindreader-update-capture-notes-and-links-without-using-keywords/

By: Chuck Brown

Chuck Brown — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:28:40 +0000

I've been using the CTL-SHIFT-G/fq method for links, but am trying to understand how the [islink] tag works. My first assumption was that it would take what was on the clipboard and use it as a link, but this doesn't happen for me. The sequence:

Highlight link, copy to clipboard
GyroQ "Q Keep this link
Simply creates a task with a label "Keep this link", and wipes out the clipboard.

Is this not the correct use of "islink"?

By: ActivityOwner

ActivityOwner — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 02:25:38 +0000

Hi Chuck — "m isinfo" should remove the task icon from the topic. Its primary purpose is to allow info to come into mindmanager via gyroq and outlinker and not create an action item. When you use the keyword from the gyroq m command the white square should flash onto the topic and then be taken off.

The "c compose" command doesn't really have that much use in outlinker. It is just a command to open a new blank message not associated with the one you are currently viewing. I added it early on thinking it would be a more convenient way to initiate a new message while outlinker was running, but I don't tend to use it and it seems to generate some confusion.