If you are a MindManager user and have wanted to give these tools a try in the past, but prefer your software installations to be "two-minute actions" instead of "projects", now might the time to give things a go. If you have used the tools, but haven't kept up with the incremental improvements over time, this also provides an opportunity to get caught up and keep up to date.

A big thanks goes to Hans, who developed the installation program using Inno Setup, and to Reenie, Marco, Stefan, Ron, Mike and others for testing out the early versions. The installer has performed well, with most of the glitches related to my overhaul of the tools themselves in preparation for use with the installer.

As part of this effort the wiki documentation for using and customizing the tools has been cleaned up with the help of Reenie. I'd recommend browsing the pages for MindReader, Mark Task Complete, and Next Action Analysis. In particular you might want to have a look at using the MindReader m tag in order to familiarize yourself with the full capabilities of MindReader.

For detailed instructions on downloading and installing the software, visit the Setup page on the wiki. Note that OutLinker still needs to be installed manually and should be updated as part of this upgrade if you are a legacy user.

If you do run into any issues, post comments below so they can be addressed.

Related posts:

1. Mark Task Complete Update
2. 2008 GTD Challenge Results
3. Next Action Analysis Updated

Previously you needed to add the destination map keywords directly in the MindReader.mmap configuration file. Now all you need to do is install the packed text for the new MindReader "k" tag from the GyroQ tag library into your GyroQ dialog box. Once installed, navigate to a frequently used map, toggle to the k tag, and then enter a keyword to associate with that map.

I have keywords associated with the map centrals associated with each area of responsibility and for frequently used maps. You can associate as many keywords with a map as you like (e.g. "2007 Taxes", "2007Taxes", etc). Be sure to choose keywords that are unique enough that they won't cause false positive matches on unrelated topics.

Note that you can now also organize the links branch of your mindreader.mmap into layers rather than as just one big list. MindReader will search from the bottom up so you can have a keyword like "MindReader bugs" that will fire off before the parent "MindReader" keyword. In order to get this functionality, you need an updated copy of MindReaderOpen.mmbas from the Macro Library.

Related posts:

1. GyroQ: Open maps, documents, web pages, and applications using keywords
2. A Configurable GyroQ Tag for Parsing Action Items
3. Choosing the GyroQ Destination Map on the Fly

Until I learned about ResultsManager, I had never heard about David Allen or his famous "Getting Things Done" ("Organízate con Eficacia" in its Spanish version), so I bought the software before reading the book.

I must admit that I felt a bit disillusioned initially, since adding a large number of activities was somewhat cumbersome. As I results I stopped using ResultsManager a few weeks later.

That is pity because, conceptually speaking, ResultsManager is really a brilliant idea though its current version's usability can be improved, especially regarding data entry, e.g. adding activities.

Nevertheless, after reading David Allen's book, I was so convinced about how powerful GTD was that I decided to try ResultsManager once more. At that time GyroQ had been released so I was able to gather all my thoughts, reminders, etc. as they came and send them to a single Central Map.

The problem was that converting all those ideas, reminders, etc. into activities remained cumbersome so my Central Map eventually become a substitute for dashboards. Over time my Central Map had so many activities, and they were so different in terms of importance and priority, that it became useless. When my hard disk died it was the straw that broke the camel's back so I decided, for second time, to stop using ResultsManager.

But I was lucky and found MindReader, which is the philosopher's stone that converts ResultsManager into the gold nugget of Productivity.

However it was not an immediate process. At the beginning it took me a while to try it, since I had the feeling that it was too complex and also requiring a high level of technical knowledge. But during the last Summer holidays I decided to invest a couple of days "in depth" to really understand what MindReader could do for me.

As soon as I started using it I became addicted to it. Adding activities to ResultsManager changed from being a cumbersome process to something natural and enjoyable. MindReader is like a powerful vitalizer that converts a slightly limping ResultsManager into a champion race horse.

Even though I use almost all the features of MindReader, I personally use some of them such as "q", "o", are "s" than the others. The ones I use more often are, in this order, "c", "m", "b", "p" and "a", not to mention "Mark Task Complete & Log". I have the "c" tag assigned to the contextual topic menu as "Process with MindReader", same as I have for "Mark Task Complete & Log".

Normally I add the project or subproject as plain text and then I add (always in plain text) the remaining activities. Once I have added all the activities I select them with the mouse, right click and then click on "Process with MindReader", which converts all those plain text topics into tasks with all the necessary information. If I see that something is missing in an activity I modify it using the "m" tag. If what is missing is an activity I add it using "b", "p" or "a".

I use the brackets quite often, for example "Call Juan to discuss project A [p2 Friday 3 days before]", which MindReader converts in a few seconds into the task ("Call Pepe to discuss project A"), with Context "Phone", Priority 2, StartDate "3 days before", DueDate "Friday" and Resources "Juan@".

As you can see, it is simply brilliant.

The more I used it, the more ideas for improvements I had but, as my MindManager/ResultsManager ObjectModel and programming knowledge were close to zero, I dared to propose them to ActivityOwner.

As you can imagine, his answer was excellent and speedy and that cooperation resulted in quite a few improvements that have been added to MindReader since its initial version.

Needless to say that collaborating with ActivityOwner to improve and develop all these tools is not only a honor and a pleasure but also a relaxing intellectual stimulus.

Happy 2008 to everyone.

Related posts:

1. Mapping the MindReader Configuration Map
2. David Allen on Huffington Post
3. GTDT (Getting Things Done Together)

Hasta que descubrí ResultsManager nunca había oído hablar de David Allen ni de su famoso "Getting Things Done" ("Organízate con Eficacia", en su versión en Español), así que me compré el software antes de leer el libro.

He de reconocer que al principio me desilusionó un poco, ya que añadir actividades era un proceso demasiado lento e ineficiente, por lo que unas semanas después dejé de usarlo.

Es una lástima porque, conceptualmente hablando, ResultsManager es una idea realmente brillante aunque la usabilidad de su versión actual es muy mejorable, sobre todo en lo que concierne a añadir actividades.

Sin embargo, después de leer el libro de David Allen, era tal mi convencimiento sobre la potencia del método GTD que decidí probar ResutsManager una vez más. Por aquel entonces ya había aparecido GyroQ así que al menos iba enviando a un Mapa Central todas las ideas, recordatorios, etc. según iban ocurriendo.

El problema es que convertir esas ideas, recordatorios, etc. en actividades seguía siendo un proceso lento e ineficiente por lo que al final el Mapa Central acabó sustituyendo a los dashboards. Con el tiempo el Mapa Central contenía demasiadas actividades y de distinta importancia y prioridad, con lo que dejó de ser útil.

Un fallo en mi disco duro fue la gota que faltaba para abandonar completamente, por segunda vez, al ResultsManager.

Pero tuve la suerte de encontrar www.activityowner.com y pude seguir día a día el desarrollo del fantástico MindReader, que es la piedra filosofal que convierte a ResultsManager en una pepita de oro de la productividad.

Sin embargo el proceso no fue inmediato. Al principio me costó mucho decidirme a probarlo, ya que me daba la impresión de ser muy complejo y de requerir un alto nivel de conocimientos técnicos para utilizarlo. Pero durante las pasadas vacaciones de verano decidí dedicarle un par de días "a fondo" para realmente entender qué podía MindReader hacer por mí.

Fue empezar a usarlo y convertirme en un adicto. Añadir actividades a ResultsManager dejó de ser un proceso lento e ineficiente para pasar a ser algo natural y divertido. MindReader es como un potentísimo revitalizante que convierte a un renqueante ResultsManager en un caballo de carreras.

Aunque uso casi todas las características de MindReader, algunas como las tags "q", "o", o "s" las utilizo menos. Las que más uso son, por este orden, "c", "m", "b", "p" y "a" y por supuesto Mark Task Complete & Log. La opción "c" la tengo asignada como opción de menú contextual ("Procesar con MindReader"), al igual que "Mark Task Complete & Log" (Marcar como Completada y Registrar).

Generalmente añado el proyecto o subproyecto como texto plano y a continuación voy añadiendo, siempre en texto plano, actividades adicionales. Una vez añadidas todas ellas las selecciono con el ratón, pulso botón derecho del ratón y pulso en "Procesar con MindReader", lo que convierte todos esos tópicos de texto plano en tareas con toda la información necesaria. Si veo que algo falta en alguna actividad la modifico usando "m" y si lo que ocurre es que falta alguna actividad la añado con "b", "p" o "a".

Utilizo mucho los corchetes, por ejemplo "Llamar a Juan para discutir el proyecto A [p2 desde el lunes durante dos semanas informar a Pepe]", que MindReader convierte en segundos es una tarea ("Llamar a Juan para discutir el proyecto A"), con Contexto "Teléfono", Prioridad 2, Fecha de Inicio "el próximo lunes", Fecha de Finalización "dos semanas a partir del próximo lunes" y en Recursos "Juan@;Pepe@". [Editor's Note: Jose Miguel has customized his parsing of date and resource keywords slightly]

Como podéis ver es simplemente genial.

Con el uso se me empezaron a ocurrir mejoras y como mis conocimientos de programación y del modelo de datos del MindManager/ResultsManager eran casi nulos me atreví a proponérselas a ActivityOwner.

Como podéis imaginar su respuesta fue inmediata y excelente y fruto de esta cooperación fueron un buen número de mejoras que se han ido añadiendo a la versión inicial de MindReader.

Ni que decir tiene que poder colaborar con ActivityOwner en mejorar y desarrollar todas estas herramientas es no sólo un honor y un placer sino también un estimulo intelectual de lo más relajante.

Feliz 2008 a todos

Related posts:

1. Here's how I use MindReader in Practice
2. MindReader 2.0
3. Feed your to-do list into MindReader

MindManager may crash intermittently if you are using a add-ins or macro-based program like ResultsManager, GyroQ, or MindReader and you have not disabled "Save AutoRecover info every X minutes". As I understand it this may be due to some type of conflict set up when a add-in/macro saves a map that is subsequently saved by autorecovery. As a result, I recommend keeping this feature disabled and learning to compulsively save your maps manually. MindReader will save maps frequently as it interacts with them.

You can find this and other MindManager Setup Tips" on the wiki.

Sample Screen Shots:

Related posts:

1. MindReader: How to best read your mind?
2. Delay or Extend an Activity with MindReader
3. Logging Things Done (faster)

"How many thoughts and ideas do you have daily which represent useful things to do or potentially enhance or improve projects, situations, and life in general? How many have you had and forgotten, and forgotten that you've forgotten?"

Unfortunately his example captures could be better written if he had MindReader in mind:

""I ought to call Susan and ask her about where she stayed in Hawaii…"
"I need to write up the meeting agenda and email it to the team."
"Wonder what marinade I'd use to cook a lamb on the grill…"
"I ought to update Bill about my conversation with his customer."

MindReader wants to see the "Action verbs" (call, write, wonder, update) at the start of the sentence so it can infer the context (@phone, @computer, @research) and partners (Bill@).

Well, in the theme of David's article….
Control-Q q Draft mindreader code to automatically parse out I-ought-to and I-need-to someday :-)

While you are in GTD-refresher mode, check out this YouTube video of David summarizing GTD principles (thanks to whatsthenextaction.com)

Related posts:

1. MindReader — let GyroQ read your mind
2. GTD Audio
3. Chapter 1 – Getting Things Done

I've really enjoyed the interaction with readers and the ability to quickly share ideas, custom dashboards, and code snippets via the blog and wiki; often in less than an hour from when they were conceptualized. It has been surprising how "time-neutral" this hobby has generally been, in that it invariably comes at the expense of less structured web surfing. It has also been surprising how doing a little extra work to make a tool "customizable" for others actually translates back into something much more useful personally. For more background, see the "about activityowner.com" page.

The site's focus is driven by reader comments and questions here and on the Yahoo GTD_MindManager group by power users like Mal E. and encouragement by folks like Kyle M. The focus has shifted over time as we've tried to understand and lower the barriers in the GTD workflow. Initially this meant understanding how to build custom ResultsManager dashboards, for things like a Meeting Next Actions, 1:1 employee meeting, and how to get them refreshed automatically overnight. Along the way we discussed some philosophy behind GTD such as "are your projects projects" and are you contexts contexts?

As GyroQ came on the scene, the focus shifted more towards lowering the barriers to "capture" by leveraging and customizing GyroQ for various purposes like phoning in tasks via Jott and closing the loop by having them sent back out by email in processed form. Along the way we had fun solving the Sunday crossword puzzles of interfacing in and out of other formats like wikis, RSS, mail-bucket, basecamp, nactionr, and html. In the meantime, the wiki site itself turned up on the net as a map!

As we tried to develop custom tags for to capture and mark up with the infinite possible permutations of context, owner, category, area, home-map, priority, etc, we realized it wasn't feasible in the standard GyroQ paradigm. The initial concept of what became MindReader was introduced in September 2006, but a workable implementation remained on the "someday/maybe" list until January, when the strategy of using macros and a configuration map to drive the program came into being.

After several rapid improvements catalyzed by readers including Curtis B., James H. and others, the tools quickly stabilized to something that we just used, rather than tweaked, and that significantly reduced the need for multiple GyroQ "capture" tags.

After a quiet summer, there was a recent flurry of improvements suggested by Jose Miguel and refined through off-line discussion that you should check out. These include the ability to automatically recognize previously unspecified resources as well as a Spanish version of MindReader.mmap! One quick way to bring your system up to date is to use the AO-Pack zip file.

In addition to MindReader, the other tool that I've found very useful personally is "Mark and Log Tasks Done". Although the completion-logging aspect is satisfying, its real utility is in managing repeating tasks. This functionality was improved this week based on a suggestion from Bill S. to handle fixed date deadlines. If you are already a user, check out the latest version in the macro library.

Ironically, one of my favorite tags is actually "clo", which closes all the unmodified maps you have open and lets you focus on the ones you are actually editing.

So what's the next action on GTD barrier removal?
My feeling is that we all need tools and tricks to overcome the "cringe-factor" of dealing with a red-hot dashboard. I'm finding the "Are your next actions eligible for retirement?" macro provides a useful reality check and its metrics provide some incentives to address stale tasks. I'd like to build more metrics into this type of analysis to help catalyze more frequent and effective weekly reviews.

In general the wiki has become very useful way to improve the tools and documentation in small steps rather than through multiple blog posts. It has also enabled several users to contribute and improve things (Thanks!). If you are a MindReader user and can contribute something about how you use it, I would bet others would benefit. Just create an account and jump in.

If you like to follow the site, but have become too focused and productive with its tools to waste time browsing the internet or RSS feeds, feel free to utilize the subscribe function to be notified of new developments.

Thanks for a fun year,

AO

Related posts:

1. What is the Next Action for ActivityOwner.Com?
2. GyroQ: Top 20 Uses Revisited
3. 2008 GTD Challenge Results

Related posts:

1. 20 MindManager 9 Setup Tips
2. Top 12 MindManager/ResultsManager Setup Tips
3. GyroQ 1.9.3 pre-release

The new ResultsManager tab (below) on the "Ribbon" toolbar pulls all its functions and features together into one place — accessible visually with one mouse click or by their familiar short-cut keys. This simplifies day-to-day use as well as providing a focal point for training new and potential users. I've been beta testing the program for a couple weeks and got the OK from Nick to give a a quick run down for ActivityOwner.Com readers. Here are the highlights by command group:

Dashboard
You can create a dashboard or send changes from a dashboard with a button click (or Alt-e-d). In addition, you can now open the dashboard's underlying template in one click. This previously took several steps to track down which template was associated with the dashboard, find it, and open it. This is a huge time saver if you are developing a template or just curious what is going on behind the scenes.

Activity
You have quick access to the "edit activity" button, or can access it with Alt-e-y or by clicking right on a topic. You also have button access to insert activities (alt-i-y) or set them complete (alt-e-c). My favorite new feature is quick and visual access provided to the common icons used by ResultsManager. Now you have one-click ability to toggle a branch's exclusion or toggle its activity, project, or someday/maybe status. You previously would need to launch the (sometimes sluggish) "edit activity" dialog to do this or drag icons from other topics. Again, this is a huge time saver.

Tools
The "Multimap Checker" searches your map network for broken links, maps you have a role in, and outlook business topics. This has been around for awhile, but the accessibility granted by this button will increase its use. I actually hadn't even used it frequently enough to realize the benefit of the "has tasks I own" functionality. The "add dashboard filter" button aids in building custom dashboard templates. Again, this is something I've tended not to use when it was buried in Mindmanager 6 menus.

Options
You can customize the order of the the command groups in the ResultsManager tab under "options". Some may prefer the order to be "Dashboards" followed by "Activity" (as shown above), rather than the default "Activity", "Dashboards".

Help
Help is more accessible along with the demonstration and implementation maps.

"Instrumented View"
A final new feature (available for version 6 users as well) is an "instrumented view" of what ResultsManager is up to while it is generating a dashboard. Instead of seeing a progress bar advance and reset multiple times, now you can watch the program progress through opening all your maps and then generating the dashboard. This gives you a good sense of the where the program is as well as to identify opportunities for improving generation speed.

General
The Ribbons is "smart" — it knows what type of map is currently open and only highlights the applicable functions. This helps you understand what you can do in a given context and avoid error messages. Commonly used ResultsManager commands have also been added as appropriate to the individual MindManager "Home", "Insert", and "Tools" ribbon bars for more convenient access.

Gyronix could have easily taken the easy road on this upgrade and just assigned the existing commands to shortcuts under the Application menu and the topic context menu. Their hard work here really hits it out of the park and saves MindJet's bacon by making V7 a compelling rather than disruptive upgrade that adds significant value to new and existing ResultsManager users.

MindManager 7 is available today for a 21-day trial and an upgrade price of $119. Although not recommended, you can use V7 side by side with v6 (a feature in itself) with just occasional glitches due to v7 "winning" (e.g. when you double click on a map, Snag-it imports) on ties. The earlier ActivityOwner.Com review of MindManager 7 points out some of the nice features in upgrade. The main downside cited was the learning curve associated with the new Ribbon interface, which lessens over time. You can avoid a major portion of the learning curve if you re-enable the side-bar tabs. Instructions for exercising this somewhat hidden option are available in the "MindManger 7 Setup Tips" under construction on the wiki.

ResultsManager is still in beta testing as Gyronix runs the new code they have added through its paces. Current licenced users can download it at http://www.gyronix.com/go.php?750 and help Gyronix shake it down, recognizing that is is not officially released at this time.

MindReader has been upgraded to work with Version 7 and works well with our without GyroQ. The only remaining "ActivityOwner Tool" issue to be worked out for v7 is getting the automated GyroQ "Put it in Front of the Door" script working reliably. It current can be made to work for one dashboard by using send keys to trigger the dashboard regeneration rather than the GyroQ run:rm:dashboard command. Hopefully this can be simplified in future MindManager releases. . See Putting it in front of the door again for instructions on addressing this issue.

Related posts:

1. Building a Custom ResultsManager Dashboard
2. MindManager 7
3. Creating a ResultsManager Dashboard Template

Here is a list of the new features that impressed me enough to note them down in a map when I learned them:

• Hide Parent: You can hide the parent of any topic and center the focus on it and its descendants using the "Filter – Show Branch alone" functionality. This has strong potential to overcome what I'd call the "82% rule" — once a map grows beyond the point where it doesn't fit on the screen at 82% zoom, its utility starts to drop dramatically.
• ResultsManager robustness is better: For those of you who have let your dashboards get a bit too hot, or have added custom branches, you know that eventually MindManager 6 can "cry uncle" under the weight of the intermediate dashboard complexity with an "incorrect parameter" or "out of memory" errors. I've taken v7 up over 1.2gb of memory usage during dashboard generation and seen it easily handle dashboards that were crashing under V6. I haven't seen the v7-compatible beta release of ResultsManager yet, but the basic functionality of the current 2.7.8 release works with the V7 Beta if you manually assign the macros for editing activities and refreshing dashboards to the topic and application context menus respectively.
• Copy as hyperlink: You can copy-as-hyperlink a topic and pull up that topic using that link from a browser or other application. Previously you could only link to a map in general. This has a lot of potential as sometimes a general link into a complex map leaves you (or another user) with some navigating to do.
• Shortcut key reminders: When you hold down alt-F (for example), all the menu options have a little square with their short-cut key pop up. It is amazing how much you can use a function and never learn to use the best short cut for it (to this day I use Alt-F-S instead of Control-S).
• "My Maps" in the File Open Sidebar: When you go to open a file, in addition to the normal "My Documents", "Desktop", "History", and "Favorites' short-cuts on the right-hand side, there is now a "My Maps" button to jump you to your default "My Maps" directory. That can be a big time saver, particularly if you use a directory that isn't sitting right under "My Documents".
• You can keep running V6: You can continue to run V6 side-by-side with v7, giving you the ability to edit two different maps at once or fall back to your v6 comfort-zone in a pinch. V7 wins "ties" in terms of control (e.g. when you click on a file). GyroQ can be configured to interact with either one and switching back and forth is fairly fast by just re-running the GryoQ installation program.
• You can grab the center topic and drag it around: This provides a quick way to re-center the map and move around.
• You can Customize the "Quick Action Toolbar": V7 comes with a "QuickAction Toolbar" that you can customize to add a button for any of the standard commands. A similar toolbar is available in V6, but it becomes a critical part of lowering your learning curve for the ribbon toolbar.

So, what are the current downsides of the V7? Here are my main concerns:

• The Ribbon toolbar will have a huge learning curve: Version 6 has an excellent user interface that is very intuitive and makes use of all four side-borders for tabs, buttons, and menu commands. Several users have commented to me over time on how strikingly easy the program's learning curve is for new users and how you can incremental grow your use as you use the program.

  The Office 2007 Ribbon Toolbar can be baffling. One gets the sense that privately-held MindJet might be a bit too focused on impressing the folks in Redmond than catering to their current user base.
  . This was a bit harsh. The new interface is ultimately friendlier and easier to use once you are past the learning curve.

  The menu options have gone from:

  "File", "Edit", "Insert", "Topic", "Format", "Tools", "Window", "Help"
  to:
  "Home", "Insert", "Format", "Review", "View", "Tools"

  I was totally stuck the first time I went looking for "Edit", "Undo". Luckily I remembered I could use "Control-Z" until I found the "undo" arrow button, which is in plan sight in V6 but I'd never gotten around to using. The rest of the frequently used "Edit" options have been spread to the wind. The "File" menu items are hiding under a big MindManager logo button in the top right corner. Apparently this deletion must be part of the Ribbon standard?

  The sidebar tabs of "My Maps", "Map Markers", "Task Info", "Map Parts", "Library", "Search", and "Learning" are gone and have to be summoned up by a menu command.

  Now even though the "hide parent" command was one of my favorites, it took me over 3 minutes to find it in the menu this evening . The intuitive spot would be the click right context menu "Hide Parent". I think someone could make a very useful blog post if they summarized the "mapping" of commands from one version to the other.

  The bottom line is that you need to be prepared to invest some time in totally relearning the interface (stepping through it command by command) and to leverage the customizable toolbar to make your frequently used command more accessible. Ultimately the interface may "save time", but for existing users that will be weeks or months down the road.

• MindReader isn't fully working yet: V7 introduces some type of bug that causes file commands in macros to fail when the macro is called by an external program like GyroQ or ActiveWords. You can assign the "mindreaderNLP.mmbas" macro to the topic menu to "process" existing topics, but the "o", "q', and "s" commands won't work. is working now. See MindReader 7 and download updated versions of the macro code.

  The same underlying macro issue prevents "run:rm:dashboard" from working, and thus the "put it in front of the door" script won't work. Hopefully MindJet will be able to prioritize the work necessary to address this issue soon. . See Putting it in front of the door again for instructions on getting this to work.

Note that the above is based on the Beta testing experience and I'm sure much of it will be addressed in the official release.

So should you upgrade? A lot will come down to what MindJet chooses for its v6 upgrade price. I'm hopeful they will make it attractive for its existing user base to keep up with their latest version. I would hate to see a steep upgrade price cause the group to fragment the way MS-Office users are. I personally will likely upgrade but will continue to work in V6 until the fixes can be made that enable "MindReader" and "Put it in Front of the Door" to work under V7.

Related posts:

1. ResultsManager 7 Preview
2. Auto OutLinker
3. MindReader 7

This morning I noticed that while the targets and deadline messages were showing up fine, the "My Next Committed Actions towards Success" messages had stopped coming in a few days ago. I tested a few times and couldn't identify a problem. I figured my dashboard had finally gotten so hot that it was crashing the system somehow.

This evening I happened to venture into my Gmail spam folder and discovered the missing messages. Apparently the catchy subject line or my next actions looks like spam to Google. Perhaps I should identify a more specific next action than "make money fast" :-). Hopefully the "this is not spam" button will allow it to come through tomorrow. I figured I'd give readers a heads up in case you run into the same problem.

While I have your ear, I want to point out Nick Duffill's latest post on Spiral Presentation Maps and Virtual Donuts. I'd recommend giving it a good read along with the others on his essay sidebar. If you are new to mind-mapping and excited to increase its use in your organization, you'll find that nothing is more pivotal in shaping senior management's viewpoint (positively or negatively) than how effectively the tool is used in presentations.

If MindJet's marketing department was smart, they would require user to pass a quiz on Nick's essay along with The Rights and Wrongs of Sharing Maps before unlocking the "presentation mode" button :-).

Related posts:

1. 20 ways to detect a bulk mail message
2. A Configurable GyroQ Tag for Parsing Action Items
3. Committed Projects and Next Actions

On a related note, David Allen's long-time tech guru Eric Mack has a MindJet Webinar on Wednesday March 28th on "MindManager as a Knowledge Management Tool:How I use MindManager and Lotus Notes to get things done".

Related posts:

1. MindJet GyroQ Webinar
2. GTD Audio
3. GTDT (Getting Things Done Together)

RSS Feeds

You still need to subscribe to the groups in order visit the web site to post or to search the archives, but these feeds provide a means to monitor the group using a News Reader without needing to receive individual email messages or remember to visit the website.

Related posts:

1. GTD Phone Home
2. search.activityowner.com
3. A MindManager-based RSS News Reader

See background info below:

Event:Having trouble staying focused on your project?
Date and Time: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 10:00 am,
Pacific Daylight Time (GMT -07:00, San Francisco)
Panelist(s) Info:Nik Tipler, CEO Gyronix
Duration:1 hour
Description: Taking Control of Interruptions and Forgotten Commitments with GyroQ and MindManager. Join Mindjet and Gyronix CEO, Nik Tipler, as he guides us through a simple, powerful system to effectively manage interruptions and distractions. Studies* show that interruptions account for 28% of a typical workday, and it takes an average of 23 minutes to return to the original task or project from a diversion – costing $588 billion per annum in the US alone. GyroQ www.gyronix.com/gyroq for MindManager lets you actively manage interruptions and flashes of inspiration by capturing them and making them wait for your full attention.

Related posts:

1. GyroQ Webinar Replay
2. ResultsManager/GyroQ Tutorial Video
3. New Blogs

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Next Actions to Go

You've got Mail…from ResultsManager?

GyroQ: Open maps, documents, web pages, and applications using keywords

]]> One of my favorite GyroQ tags is "cna" (Copy Next Actions), which is described in the "Next Actions to Go" post. It takes my current ResultsManager "Daily Actions" dashboard (typically the one I've regenerated overnight), finds the next actions branch, and copies them to the clipboard as a plain text outline for pasting into another application.

As much as I like the tag, I find I don't use it nearly as much as I should. Why? I'm guessing it is a combination of (1) needing a few more steps to open an application to print it from or a web form to mail it and (2) some aversion to seeing a few "cringe factor" action items hanging on my list.

To address #1, I took my new found familiarity with MindManager macros and added a line of code to the "cna" tag that writes the clipboard to a nextactions.txt file in the default MindManager directory and launches notepad.exe to view the file.

This additional code:

f=GetPath(mmDirectoryMyMaps)&"nextactions.txt"
Open f For Output As #1
Write #1, Clipboard
Close #1
Shell("notepad.exe "&f,1)

pops this up in front of you:

This removes all the barriers to reviewing the list and leaves just one step to hit print or paste into email. Once I see the action items laid out in a simple list, I often can quickly find quite a few that can be checked off easily or are already done. These might have otherwise been hidden in a collapsed map branch like "contact about". The content remains on the clipboard for easy pasting to another application.

You can installed the updated "cna" tag by pasting its packed text into the GyroQ dialog box (make sure you have extended tags enabled). I'll likely tack this code onto the end of my personal "Put it in front of the door" script so I wake up to a nice plain text list of next actions.

Related posts:

1. Next Actions to Go
2. You've got Mail…from ResultsManager?
3. GyroQ: Open maps, documents, web pages, and applications using keywords

]]> http://www.activityowner.com/2007/03/03/next-actions-to-go-farther/feed/ 4 http://www.activityowner.com/2007/02/27/top-12-mindmanagerresultsmanager-setup-tips/ http://www.activityowner.com/2007/02/27/top-12-mindmanagerresultsmanager-setup-tips/#comments Wed, 28 Feb 2007 03:21:02 +0000 ActivityOwner http://www.activityowner.com/2007/02/27/top-12-mindmanagerresultsmanager-setup-tips/

MindManager AutoRecover = AutoCrash?

AutoSave = AutoCrash?

GyroQ: Top 20 Uses Revisited

]]> Creating a detailed post on installing and configuring MindManager and ResultsManager has been on my someday/maybe project list for awhile. After seeing Kyle's very useful "Top 10 Mapping shortcuts" , I thought perhaps banging out a bulleted list sooner rather than later would be useful (and get it off my list as well). The list below is just based on my personal experience and preferences. Here goes…

1. Get up to date
   The current versions of Mindmanager and ResultsManager are 6.2.399 and 2.7.7 respectively. This combination is more stable and robust than some recent versions of MindManager. Upgrade if you are using earlier versions. You can check the versions from the "Help" "About MindManager" and "About ResultsManager" menus.

   [Note: There are now also pre-release versions of GyroQ 1.9.3 and ResultsManager 2.7.8a available. The 1.9.3 pre-release for GyroQ has several fixes, including the ability to handle large packed text files and the elimination of a rich-text bug that can trip up GyroQ when importing clipboard text. The 2.7.8a ResultsManager release allows the sendchanges now command to work in GyroQ. ]

2. Always show full menus
   The ResultsManager shortcut keys (e.g. alt-e-y) won't work correctly unless you configure MindManager under "Tools", "Customize", "Options", and check the box to "always show full menus".

3. Tell the system who you are
   You have to set your identity in two places. First for MindManager under "Tools", "Options", "User Information" and then for ResultsManager under "Tools", "ResultsManager Options", "Dashboard Options", "me".

   Setting your name in MindManager is important in a multi-user environment as this will tell users who to call when they try to open a document left open on your desktop. It also sets the name that shows up in the footer of a printed map. Setting your name in ResultsManager tells the system who you are and what tasks/projects you own.

   For large multi-user installations, Gyronix recommends using first and last name, but first name is fine for home use and last name (with first initial when needed) works fine in a corporate environment. Using full names still leaves nickname variability to deal with.

4. Be a Power User
   Although it is intended to provide some beginner hand-holding, I'm not sure a typical user necessarily needs the "ResultsMerlin" application. While ResultsManager is just a set of macros running within MindManager, ResultsMerlin is a separate application that requires admin rights in a corporate environment to install and can add .net complications. I think it is OK to just uncheck the box for it during installation. I'd be curious if new users have found it helpful.

   Go ahead and switch to "Power User" mode right away under "Tools", "Change ResultsManager Mode". You have a few more options that come up when editing activities, but you may as well start getting the feel of what the software can do.

5. Turn off auto-recovery
   The last few versions of MindManager will sometimes spontaneously crash several minutes after using ResultsManager or GyroQ. I traced this to the time MindManager was trying saving auto-recovery information. If you turn off auto-recovery ("Tools", "Options", "Save", uncheck "Save AutoRecover"), then these crashes go away. You will still have occasional crashes, so you need to get in the habit of hitting Control-S or Alt-F-L (Thanks Kyle) often. It seems to be less of a problem with 6.2.399, but I'm hesitant to venture back.

6. Disable Outlook Synchronization Support (unless you need it)
   If you disable Outlook linking, you gain the ability to set a start date without a due date and vice versa. Outlook linking requires either neither or both to be set (Tools, ResultsManager Options, Support MM/Outlook synchronization).

7. Reduce interaction during dashboard generation
   If you like to regenerate your dashboards overnight or walk away while they are refreshing, set up ResultsManager to ignore missing maps (Tools, ResultsManager Options, Dashboard Options) and to use fewer confirmation messages (Tools, ResultsManager Options). Just make sure to clean up broken links routinely using the Multimap checker (Tools, Macro, Macros, ResultsManager MultiMap Checker).

8. Exclude notes from dashboards
   They can slow down dashboard generation (Tools, ResultsManager Options, Dashboard Options, Exclude Topic Notes).

9. Tell MindManager not to fix hyper-links
   If you at some point get prompted by MindManager that "Map location has changed, update hyperlinks", say no (and no for good). In my experience the cure is often worst than the disease and you end up with broken links.

10. Watch out for interactions with other add-ins
    Things change over time, but in the past, the use of some Mindjet labs add-ins (e.g. map explorer) have led to instability with ResultsManager.

11. Use filenames as your map tabs
    If you often have several maps open at once, you can keep your workbooks tabs manageable by keeping your filenames short and using filenames as your tab labels instead of central topic text (Tools, Options, View, Workbook Tabs).

12. Take a break
    MindManager gets "tired" after extended usage of ResultsManager or GyroQ. Just save your files, quit the application, and launch it again, and things perk up.

Have some tips to add? Comment below.

Related posts:

1. MindManager AutoRecover = AutoCrash?
2. AutoSave = AutoCrash?
3. GyroQ: Top 20 Uses Revisited

]]> http://www.activityowner.com/2007/02/27/top-12-mindmanagerresultsmanager-setup-tips/feed/ 0 http://www.activityowner.com/2007/02/20/gyroq-top-20-uses-revisited/ http://www.activityowner.com/2007/02/20/gyroq-top-20-uses-revisited/#comments Wed, 21 Feb 2007 01:15:44 +0000 ActivityOwner http://www.activityowner.com/2007/02/20/gyroq-top-20-uses-revisited/

Choosing the GyroQ Destination Map on the Fly

A Configurable GyroQ Tag for Parsing Action Items

Next Actions to Go (farther)

]]> The most popular post on the ActivityOwner.com site is an early review of the pre-release version of GyroQ. The “Top Twenty Uses for GyroQ?” blog entry speculates on how users might ultimately choose to populate the 20 tag slots the software provides. Since that time, the Activityowner.com tag library has accumulated over 30 tags and Gyronix has distributed several sets of “bonus” tags. Combined with the default set of three tags that come with the software, the universe of useful tags is now nearly triple what the software can currently handle.

For me this leads to a process of "GyroQ Idol" in which I must vote off one of my existing tags to make room for a new one. Given this situation, and the six months of experience with the software, now seems like a good time to review the inventory of tags that have emerged over the past six months and put them in context.

Note that you can toggle to a GyroQ tag quickly if it is named with a short name followed by 3 spaces. These short names are used to refer to tags in the remainder of this post and can be used to find them in the tag library. Note that these tags are often updated based on user feedback, so check the revision dates of any you have found useful for an updated version.

The sections that follow catalog the ActivityOwner.com tags by the phase of the GTD methodology they contribute to:

1. Collect — corralling your stuff
2. Process — getting "in" to empty
3. Organize — settting up the right buckets
4. Review — keeping your system functional
5. Do — Making the best choices

Collect

GyroQ is pitched primarily as a capture tool – the default set of three tags provide ways to quickly log ideas, information, and "amorphous blob" action items into a default “Daily Capture Map” without needing to launch or get bogged down in MindManager. Unfortunately this can result in the accumulation of a daunting swarm of unrelated tasks to “process” into home maps. The “map” tag tries to address this problem by prompting for a specific destination map and allowing the optional addition of a context, hyperlink, and/or note. Since this aspect bleeds into the “process” phase, it is described below.

The "GyroTrigger" (gyt) tag captures your “open loops” by running you through David Allen's incompletion trigger list".

Tangent: The Swamp and the Stream

Many years ago (in the days of the HP95LX) I used a custom to-do list program to manage my action items. I found the "average" age of my action items (both complete and incomplete) typically ran steady at about 35 days, but few actually fell in that age range. My inventory of action items segregated into two populations. The first set consisted of short lived items that flowed by like a stream — completed almost as fast as they were identified. The second set consisted of items that had drifted into the “swamp” adjacent to this stream, and hung around much longer than 35 days. In the Post-GTD era, I now recognize the first set were likely well-defined “physical next actions” (widgets that could be cranked), while the second population consisted of "amorphous blob" projects or items that belonged on a someday/maybe list. Even with good GTD practices, my to-do lists (and I suspect many others) still tend to fall into this paradigm.

While canonical GTD might suggest hard edged between "capture" and "process", I think it often makes sense to give those "swift stream" items an immediate boost in the "capture" phase by adding obvious "process" attributes such as context, deadline, priority, “contact about”, etc. At a minimum, having them fall in with related items on a project or “area of focus” in-tray can make the subsequent “process” step less daunting than having to crunch through a long “daily capture map” list. This risk is letting a “blob” destined for the swamp slip through without due consideration. Having everything go to in-trays can help guard against that risk.

Process

While some items that come up in a typical workday are pure capture (“buy milk”) from the soup, much of what is needed in practice is "transfer" — from paper inboxes, from Outlook, from pockets notes, etc — into your "trusted system". Should you fully "process" items during this transfer? I think it is situation dependent — when time is short, it may be better to consolidate into ResultsManager in-trays than leave your email and paper inboxes half full.

A popular tag on the site is "map", which provides a way to direct an action item to the in-tray of a particular map (rather than the "Daily Capture Map") while prompting to optionally adding context, notes, and/or hyperlinks. This tag could be customized this tag to direct to a predetermined map (e.g. "blog"). Using this approach allows subsequent processing of smaller in-trays that already contain related items for a particular project or area of focus. "q" and "c" provide a generic way of doing this (more later). GyroQ can also be used to aid in processing using ResultsManager (e.g. the "ea" tag to edit an activity).

Mike W. has shared a method for turning a outlook email into a ResultsManager activity that provides a streamlined method for the outlook to ResultsManager trip

Organize

The “organize” phase is largely handled by ResultsManager Dashboards that summarize information captured and processed by GyroQ. This site has a library of customized dashboards as well as instructions on how to create your own.

Review

Two tags emerged that can aid in the review process. The "Put it in front of the door" script ventures out of GyroQ to provide a GyroActivator script that can be scheduled nightly and provide up to date dashboards each morning, lowering the activation energy to keep your daily action lists up to date or doing a Sunday morning review. This can also be done manually from within GyroQ using the "rgd" tag, but the external approach is better as it leaves GyroQ free for "capture" during the sometimes lengthy dashboard generation process.

The "1o1" tag enables the generation of “1:1 meeting dashboard templates" that allow the action items in a set of maps to be framed and organized to set the agenda for an effective 1 on 1 meeting. The manager or employee can rapidly update a diverse map entries in real time via the dashboard. This provides a way of building commitment to the approach and releasing potential uses of the software.

Do

Unless you are one of the lucky early beta-testers of "GyroDo", you still have to get your actually work done yourself. Using GyroQ in concert with ResultsManager can help keep your tasks "in front of the door". The “ldb” tag (customized for your system) can quickly load the dashboards that the “rgb” macro has refreshed overnight.

The “Next Actions to Go” (cna) tag automatically copies the “next actions by context” list from your Daily Action dashboard to the clipboard as a plain text outline for compact printing or pasting into a mobile format (e.g. gmail, outlook, palm). The "clp" will do the same for the currently selected map branch.

The “Logging things done” tags ("dit", "diw", "dim", and “mtc”) tags provide a way to quickly reset repeating tasks on a daily, weekly, and monthly horizon as while logging the current item complete in a "completed map". The "mtc" tag logs a set of selected tasks as complete (note: the original only logged a single task).

GyroTimer (gts,gtf) can help you maintain your focus and priority by measuring the amount of time spent on a project or area-of-focus.

Utilities

Navigating between linked maps and dashboards you can easily find yourself with a dozen open maps. The Close unmodified maps (clo) tag allows you to quickly close all previously saved maps. The MindReader “OpenMap ("o") tag lets you quickly open maps based on keywords you have defined. It also enables applications, documents, or web pages to be opened quickly based on a keyword. "fn" puts the absolute name of the current map on the clipboard for use in hyperlinking or emailing to colleagues in a network-server environment. Frequently used tags can also be set up as GyroActivator scripts to be run as batch files or placed on the Windows Toolbar.

What's made my list?

My current tag list in roughly order of use frequency is rgd, q, o, c, ldb, clo, cna, dit, mtc, dit, diw, dim, 1o1, gts, gtf, gyt, fn, clo, and cnt, with one spare slot for testing new tags.

The ”Put it in front of the door” is probably the most valuable and impactful “tag” in the collection; helping keep the system current and complete.

GyroTrigger (gyt) should get more use, but I usually have my hands full with obvious action items without searching my subconscious for more trouble!

Gyrotimer (gts, gtf) needs a bit more polish, but it’s a tag I wish I used more as it encourages deliberate focused time rather than multi-tasking and surfing.

The “map” tag was my most frequently used tag. It was followed closely by several variations with hard-coded destination maps (e.g. one for each one of my direct reports at work). Unfortunately this led me to quickly exhaust the 20 available tags and required a solution as described below.

The Task Mark up Challenge

ResultsManager activities have more than 20 different attributes that a user might want to set including the items listed below:

• destination map
• icons: task, project, sub-project, someday, committed, deadline
• priority
• start date, due date
• resources: delegated to, owed to, contact about
• contexts, areas, categories
• notes
• hyperlink

While you can program a tag to prompt the user for all of these items, that results in a tedious process when you just want to capture a simple action item. On the other hand, if you want to customize tags to prompt for or hard-code a subset of these attributes, you quickly find there are an astronomical number of possible combinations and permutations that rapidly consume all your spare GyroQ slots.

A Solution

One solution to this problem is the MindReader “q” tag. MindReader allows you to optionally choose the destination map set all of the above attributes using user-defined keywords and no prompting. This eliminates the need for “map” and custom variations on it. The "q" tag is now my only "capture" tag. The “c” tag skips the destination map selection phase and instead acts on one or more selected topics.

The installation procedure has been simplified over time and the customization options enhanced, so check the MindReader page for instructions if you are interested. "ActivityDaughter" took a shot a drafting a French version, which is available at the bottom of the project page.

Wrap Up

So what has proven useful to you? What gaps need to be filled? The existing tags have benefited from user feedback and user contributed tags have started to trickle in (see the bottom of the library for a tag from a fellow reader). If you have one you want to share let me know.

Related posts:

1. Choosing the GyroQ Destination Map on the Fly
2. A Configurable GyroQ Tag for Parsing Action Items
3. Next Actions to Go (farther)

]]> http://www.activityowner.com/2007/02/20/gyroq-top-20-uses-revisited/feed/ 6 http://www.activityowner.com/2006/11/17/upcoming-resultsmanager-webinar/ http://www.activityowner.com/2006/11/17/upcoming-resultsmanager-webinar/#comments Sat, 18 Nov 2006 01:45:13 +0000 ActivityOwner http://www.activityowner.com/2006/11/17/upcoming-resultsmanager-webinar/

GTD Audio

Chapter 1 – Getting Things Done

MindManager 9 Task Date Issue

]]> Mindjet just announced an upcoming Webinar by Gyronix CTO Nick Duffill on Visualizing Outcomes: Managing Simultaneous Projects with MindManager and ResultsManager on Tuesday, November 28 at 10AM PST (GMT-8:00).

MindJet has increasingly been promoting the use MindManager for Project Management. While MindManager alone does have great utility, using it for project management without ResultsManager can be like using the internet without a search engine.

In the meantime, if you hadn't previously stumbled across it, you might find it useful to review The Productivity Show's podcast interview of Nick last year on the use of ResultsManager. His essays on Beyond Crayons are also essential reading if you are using ResultsManager in a group environment. Some of the lessons won't sink in immediately, but as you gain experience using the tool, you'll eventually circle back and see the wisdom (e.g. his excellent advice on the rights and wrongs of sharing maps).

Related posts:

1. GTD Audio
2. Chapter 1 – Getting Things Done
3. MindManager 9 Task Date Issue

]]> http://www.activityowner.com/2006/11/17/upcoming-resultsmanager-webinar/feed/ 0 http://www.activityowner.com/2006/10/17/gyroq-launches/ http://www.activityowner.com/2006/10/17/gyroq-launches/#comments Tue, 17 Oct 2006 16:30:17 +0000 ActivityOwner http://www.activityowner.com/2006/10/17/gyroq-launches/

OutLinker: A new tool for draining your Microsoft Outlook inbox

search.activityowner.com

MindManager 9

]]>

After a solid round of beta-testing and customer-driven improvements, Gyronix launched their GyroQ product today. Among other things, it has utility as a "GTD Capture" tool. Gyronix is following a novel "invitation-only" approach similar to what Google used in launching their Gmail service. Visit the "GyroQ Invitations" page for more information.

Related posts:

1. OutLinker: A new tool for draining your Microsoft Outlook inbox
2. search.activityowner.com
3. MindManager 9

]]> http://www.activityowner.com/2006/10/17/gyroq-launches/feed/ 0 http://www.activityowner.com/2006/10/13/gtd-audio/ http://www.activityowner.com/2006/10/13/gtd-audio/#comments Fri, 13 Oct 2006 22:56:54 +0000 ActivityOwner http://www.activityowner.com/2006/10/13/gtd-audio/

GTDT (Getting Things Done Together)

Import nactionr xml files into ResultsManager format

How to improve MindManager?

]]> Individuals and teams adopting ResultsManager as a productivity tool can increase their chances of success if they are familiar with (if not adherents to) David Allen's "Getting Things Done" ('GTD") methodology. The abridged audio version of David's book is a good way to get started, particularly if you spend a lot of time in the car.

Several short interviews with David recently been posted to the net provide a brief (and free) introduction to GTD as well as some interesting Q&A. These include a two interviews at donationcoder.com, which can be downloaded as MP3s, and the interviews on Procrastination and patching GTD Leaks with Merlin Mann posted on
43 Folders. [Note: These two were followed by 6 other podcasts and are now available as a single MP3 or ITunes file].

David Allen's Webinar from earlier this week on the Best Kept Secrets of Personal and Team Productivity on on MindManager is now posted on the davidco.com site. David seems to be a strong map user, having gotten his initial introduction to the software from the Gyronix folks.

The Productivity Show has a podcast with Nick Duffill on ResultsManager that provides a very good introduction to using ResultsManager for GTD. Nick also did a podcast in June 2006 with Eric Mack on getting started with ResultsManager.

More recently, Nick did a webinar with Mindjet on the use of ResultsManager.

Related posts:

1. GTDT (Getting Things Done Together)
2. Import nactionr xml files into ResultsManager format
3. How to improve MindManager?

]]> http://www.activityowner.com/2006/10/13/gtd-audio/feed/ 1 http://www.activityowner.com/2006/10/04/mapping-your-maps/ http://www.activityowner.com/2006/10/04/mapping-your-maps/#comments Thu, 05 Oct 2006 02:30:22 +0000 ActivityOwner http://www.activityowner.com/2006/10/05/mapping-your-maps/

MindManager Housekeeping with the ResultsManager Multi-Map Checker

Simplify your ResultsManager Map Central Strategy for 2010

GyroQ: Open maps, documents, web pages, and applications using keywords

]]>
Kyle McFarlin observes in his blog entry that prolific map generation can lead to organizational "opportunities". As he and Walter Terry point out, ResultsManager Dashboards help out quite a bit in this regard; greatly reducing the frequency in which you need to dig around manually for individual maps. ResultsManager can even scan entire directories for projects, without needing to have linked each into map centrals. To Mindjet's credit, the "Search" function on the sidebar provides a very powerful method for finding maps quickly.

Nevertheless, some reflection on folder structure ultimately becomes necessary when maps are used extensively. Projects and idea maps often spawn a set of several related maps. For example, once the "zoom factor" on a map gets down to around 75%, creativity and communication seems to benefit greatly from breaking things out into a few maps with some elbow room. Disposing of obsolete maps and keeping track of the "master" map in these situations can be difficult unless you are careful about naming and housekeeping. You can also get a spurt of map growth when you start clearly defining what you consider as a project. Perhaps maps will evolve as spreadsheets did, with "MapBooks" that group a set of closely related maps together in one file and help address this?

On a home system, browsing around an organized folder structure is much easier than scrolling through a long list of unrelated maps in the root of your "My Maps" directory. This is particularly true if you take the approach of using GyroQ to choose the map destination on the fly. In a team environment, developing a consensus approach to a file-share folder structure is critical if you are going to successfully generate and use hundreds of maps and dashboards. In addition to the organization of the maps, you also need to decide as a group what to do with supporting documents and files. Should you store them in the same folder hierarchy with the maps or in a separate organizational structure? Should you move them once they are "complete"?

Because MindManager maps benefit greatly from extensive file and map hyperlinking, the need to be thoughtful about long-term folder structure ahead of time is important, as subsequent renovations may break many links. Note that can quickly detect and fix broken links using the powerful "ResultsManager Multimap Checker" function that Gyronix slipped into version 2.7.6 (found under tools, macros).

Thinking about these issues above raises the question of whether a "My Maps" folder is appropriate in the first place. While "My X" folders make sense for music, videos, and webs, perhaps maps should spread out more broadly into a traditional folder structure or live under more generic buckets (e.g. "My Projects", "My Bookmarks"). We don't have "My Visio", "My Word", "My Excel", or "My MSProjects" folders. Ultimately the unified "planning" focus associated with maps makes them feel more natural in their own tree, but if significant associated documentation come in with them, then your "my maps" can start to morph into a rival to your "my documents" trees.

A key opportunity in this general area is having more desktop search companies such as X1 work with Mindjet to insert hooks for searching and indexing mmap files.

Comments and suggestions on directory and storage approaches are encouraged — particularly on experiences and best practices for storing related non-map documents.

Related posts:

1. MindManager Housekeeping with the ResultsManager Multi-Map Checker
2. Simplify your ResultsManager Map Central Strategy for 2010
3. GyroQ: Open maps, documents, web pages, and applications using keywords

]]> http://www.activityowner.com/2006/10/04/mapping-your-maps/feed/ 7 http://www.activityowner.com/2006/09/24/whats-next-for-your-team/ http://www.activityowner.com/2006/09/24/whats-next-for-your-team/#comments Mon, 25 Sep 2006 02:37:54 +0000 ActivityOwner http://www.activityowner.com/2006/09/24/whats-next-for-your-team/

"So how are things going…?" : Setting the agenda for an effective 1 on 1 Meeting

Committed Projects and Next Actions

Generating a 1:1 meeting dashboard template with GyroQ

]]> If you start using ResultsManager in a group setting, you quickly realize that the default set of dashboards focus on you and your relationships with others. If a project or activity is not specifically owned or owed by you, it will not show up in your dashboards. While this filtering ultimately has many advantages, you will likely have a need for a more comprehensive breakdown of activities in your area, regardless of your explicit involvement. This is likely what has started you down the path of learning how to create a resultsmanager template.

The "Meeting Actions" dashboard provided with ResultsManager looks at your maps from a team-oriented view. While it is nominally advertised as providing a summary of action items from a meeting notes map, it can be used to summarize action items across a range of projects and maps linked into a map central.

The "Meeting action" dashboard can be tweaked slightly (by changing the activity filter to "X") to enumerate committed "Next Actions" by person. This dashboard can be downloaded by clicking on the image below or visiting the dashboard library.

This dashboard along with a Committed Projects and Next Actions dashboard can provide a good starting point for team-based usage of ResultsManager.

Related posts:

1. "So how are things going…?" : Setting the agenda for an effective 1 on 1 Meeting
2. Committed Projects and Next Actions
3. Generating a 1:1 meeting dashboard template with GyroQ

]]> http://www.activityowner.com/2006/09/24/whats-next-for-your-team/feed/ 0 http://www.activityowner.com/2006/09/14/creating-a-resultsmanager-dashboard-template/ http://www.activityowner.com/2006/09/14/creating-a-resultsmanager-dashboard-template/#comments Thu, 14 Sep 2006 11:16:03 +0000 ActivityOwner http://www.activityowner.com/2006/09/14/creating-a-resultsmanager-dashboard-template/

Building a Custom ResultsManager Dashboard

Generating a 1:1 meeting dashboard template with GyroQ

Committed Projects and Next Actions

]]> ResultsManager comes with a pre-defined set of dashboard templates that are very useful, particularly for implementing David Allen's GTD approaches to managing projects and tasks. Technical users will often decide fairly quickly that they would like some additional dashboards that are tailored to their needs or provide a more group-oriented view.

The 217 page manual is packed with good content, but you need to dig to the end to gather information on how to build a dashboard template, and it can be a little confusing on how to get started. There are a several approaches, including just customizing or copying the pre-defined dashboard templates. The recipe below provides a seven step approach that some folks might find useful. This is just a first draft, so please offer suggestions.

1. Create a new Map

There are Dashboard Report Keywords" that you can use to customize the central topic text or its notes, but they are not necessary.

2. Set the File Properties

Click on "File", "Properties" and set the Keyword to "Dashboard" and set the "Subject" to the text you want as the dashboard template menu title(e.g. "Relationship Central Dashboard"). If you don't fill in these two fields, ResultsManager will not recognize the map as a dashboard template and tell you it is invalid.

3. Build your filter(s)

The Dashboard filter capabilities of ResultsManager are covered in Appendix E of the manual. The filter is just a normal branch of subtopics in a map, but with icons, topic text, and notes that follow a syntax that ResultsManager uses to generate dashboards.

The filters have magnifying glass icons that identify them as filters. The topic text defines the filter used (e.g. area, priority, context, activityowner, etc). The Notes contain the parameters used by the filter if any (e.g. "1" for a Priority 1 filter). The "#" symbol determines whether a particular filter visibly enumerates all the types it passes (e.g. all the areas) or just acts to filter and sort items without showing them. Filters in series act as "And" statements. Filters in parallel act like "Or" statements. By default, the dashboard will show "Topic Information" and parent project "Call-outs". If you don't want that information displayed, you need to turn them off by choosing "View", "Show/Hide".

4. Save your dashboard template

Once you have completed your template, save it in your "My Dashboards" directory or in another directory of your choice. Sometimes it is better to keep your templates separate from the ResultsManager "My Dashboards" folder just to be able to quickly find your own templates later.

5. Choose "Tools", "Install ResultsManager Template".

If you have correctly added the "Dashboard" to the File Properties keywords, and added a subject, your dashboard will now be added to the dashboard template menu.

6. Save and close your dashboard template

You can not test the template until you have closed it.

7. Open a simple project map and test the template

Choose "File", "Generate ResultsManager Dashboard" to generate your new dashboard. It is best to test new templates on a single map that contains examples of what you are trying to extract. If you make mistake in building a template, and run it from your map central on a large number of projects, you can end up with a huge dashboard and have difficulty figuring out what went wrong.

Once you get over the hurdle of creating your first dashboard template using the approach above, it becomes a matter of tweaking it and adding functionality. For example, if you don't want call outs and topic task information to show up in your dashboard, you need to un-check those under "View", "Show/Hide" before saving your dashboard template. You can get started by cutting and pasting filter branches from one of the pre-defined dashboard templates stored in the "My Dashboards" directory under your "My Maps" directory.

I'll try to augment this post later with more graphics and a worked example, but I thought it would be useful to put something out there for people to have a look at and poke holes in. Here is one previous example of a custom dashboard.

Related posts:

1. Building a Custom ResultsManager Dashboard
2. Generating a 1:1 meeting dashboard template with GyroQ
3. Committed Projects and Next Actions

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GTD Audio

Upcoming ResultsManager Webinar

GTDT (Getting Things Done Together)

]]> Although ResultsManager can be used without it, the discipline to use it correctly and stick to it comes most easily if you are familiar with and motivated to use the concepts introduced in the "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. Chapter 1 of the book is available on the Business Week website. This New York Times article ties things together. The Productivity Show has a podcast with Nick Duffill on ResultsManager that provides a very good introduction.

Related posts:

1. GTD Audio
2. Upcoming ResultsManager Webinar
3. GTDT (Getting Things Done Together)

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