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ResultsManager/GyroQ Tutorial Video

ActivityOwner — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:40:50 +0000

Nik Tipler recently did a webinar with the GTD Study Group on using ResultsManager and GyroQ.

You can watch the video of the webinar here.

It has also been added as a link on the wiki ResultsManager Resources page.

Put it in front of the door in 2010

ActivityOwner — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:50:44 +0000

Two of the biggest barriers to making good use of ResultsManager for Getting things Done (GTD) tend to be (1) the need to manually refresh dashboards and (2) the need to access to do list items away from your computer.

When you sit down to get too work, the last thing you want to do is to tie up MindManager with a several minute dashboard refresh as this is a perfect recipe for going off on some web distraction.

One way to get around this is to make use of your computer's task scheduler to automatically refresh your dashboards on a regular basis. This approach was first described 3 years ago in in the "Put it in front of the door" post.

I recently got this running again on my new Windows 7 computer and did some work to clean up the script and make it easier for others to implement. The script is now installed as part of the MindReader Setup program and can be run by running the "rfd.bat" file in the "My Maps\AO" directory. MindReader and Mark Task Complete have also been updated to work better with multi-computer synchronization.

The script also does several other things now such as running next action analysis and a recently added capability of saving the dashboard in html format. If you are a hard core ResultsManager user, this script is for you.

For more information, see the "Put it in front of the door" page on the wiki..

Please comment below with questions/suggestions/problems.

Happy New Year,

Begin with the End in Mind

ActivityOwner — Fri, 01 May 2009 01:39:13 +0000

…or begin with the beginning (next action) in mind. It's your choice.

Whether you are following Habit 2 of the Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People or the "Next Action" mindset of Getting things done (GTD), is all about learning to identify and break down the sequence of individual steps to get from point A to point B.

I spend most of my time interfacing with capture tools (GyroQ or OutLinker), processing the input through MindReader, and then using Next Action Analysis to review and prioritize activities harvested from MindManager by ResultsManager. For better or worse, I actually spend relatively little time planning in the underlying project maps themselves.

This works fairly well with one exception. I typically only capture the "next action" associated with an idea or email. If it is not linked to a project or subsequent action and is subsequently marked complete from a dashboard, I sometimes forget to enter the subsequent step and risk having the project fall off my radar.

The latest version of MindReader can help address this issue with its new capability for it to recognize and process sequences of activities separated by << or >> delimiters. For example, you can now use the << delimiter to enter a sequence starting at the end:

which yields:

or you can use the >> delimiter to enter the sequence of actions starting with the next action and leading to the final action or project:

which yields:

MindReader processes each portion of the sequence separately based on keywords in each activity, so if you enter:

Report Complete isproject next month! << Review draft << Waiting for Bob to draft report << Ask Bob to write report tomorrow

you get:

You can use this functionality from the MindReader q or b tags or from OutLinker. I think it has a lot of potential uses that I haven't thought of yet. For example, you could conceive of having a library of "template" sequences that you queue in as needed for routine work flows.

You can download the new functionality by grabbing the ao_mindreader_common.mmbas macro from the macro library or running the setup program.

Export a MindManager Map to Microsoft Excel

ActivityOwner — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:23:46 +0000

Mind map users need to deal with the rest of the world, which lives in lists and spreadsheets. Even MindManager users themselves often have a need to look at their map context in a less graphical format for analysis or printing.

Map2Excel is a simple no-frills macro for exporting a map or portion of a map to Excel. It can be launched as a macro or using the new m2e GyroQ tag. If you select the central topic or nothing is selected, the whole map is exported; otherwise the children of the selected topic are exported.

The macro prompts the user as to whether to export the map in tabular format, with parent information for each child topic included in each row, or in outline format:

Tabular Format	Outline Format

The macro and GyroQ tag can be downloaded from the export tools section of newly reorganized MindManager Macro Library. The GyroQ Tag used to more conveniently launch the macro is optional and can be installed by pasting its packed text into the GyroQ input box. The easiest way to get both is to run the setup program, which will install them along with MindReader, Mark Task Complete, and other tools.

Use GyroQ as a popup Calculator

ActivityOwner — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:35:37 +0000

The new "calc" tag in the GyroQ tag library provides you with a popup calculator:

To install it, paste the "packed text" for the tag into GyroQ.

How long is a typical email message?

ActivityOwner — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:07:04 +0000

Awhile back an OutLinker user ran into trouble transferring a large Microsoft OutLook message into MindManager via GyroQ. We determined the shear size of the transfer was the problem. We don't know precisely how big is too big, but in order to minimize the risk of that happening, OutLinker now has an upper limit on the quantity of text transfered in that manner. Picking a reasonable value for that required some statistical analysis.

In order to come up with an answer, I found a large email archive and wrote a short macro that looped over its 15295 messages. The macro spit out the length of each message yielded the chart below:

This may not be a representative distribution of "typical" email messages and threads, but it was roughly consistent with a second work-based archive I analyzed. The average length of an email message was 3150 characters and with a median of 1304 characters. There were six over 100,000 characters and one over 200,000.

In both data sets, 98-99% of tof the messages were less than 20,000 characters, so that seemed like a reasonable upper limit to implement for transfers from OutLook to MindManager via GyroQ for now. If you try to transfer the body of a message larger than that limit, OutLinker will warn you and trunicate it down to 20K. You can avoid this limit by doing a direct transfer using "Send to Active Map" or "MindRead"

With the younger generation moving to txt messages and 140 character twitters, some day our kids will marvel that we used to write short novels in our email exchanges.

MindReader 2.0

ActivityOwner — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 02:16:53 +0000

After a few weeks of shakedown and clean-up, it seems the setup.exe program created to install MindReader, Mark Task Complete, and Next Action Analysis and their associated Gyronix GyroQ tags is just about ready for prime time.

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.

Mark Tasks Complete Faster

ActivityOwner — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:54:04 +0000

The Mark Task Complete macro evolved incrementally from a short GyroQ tag into a fairly involved macro and got inefficient along the way. The new version is streamlined and should perform quite a bit faster. If you are a regular user of this GTD tool, I'd recommend downloading it. This version also defaults to storing completed tasks underneath each topic instead of in a floating topic. Let me know if you encounter any bugs.

One other way to speed things up if you are a long time user is to clean up your completedlog.mmap file by moving all the branches to a separate mindmanager map. Frequently used maps may also have a lot of tasks accumulated in the floating completed topics, although speed issues associated with that are addressed with the move to project-based storage.

Gyronix has made great progress in their early beta versions getting GyroQ and ResultsManager adapted to MindManager version 8 and I imagine they will be broadly available (at least in beta form) soon.

I've been keeping notes on how to migrate use of tools from this site on the wiki Migrating to MindManager Version 8 page.

Six Components of a GTD Review

ActivityOwner — Thu, 01 May 2008 02:46:51 +0000

Things have gotten a bit quiet in "gyrospace" lately. Perhaps this is because folks have given up on their new year's resolutions or moved on to other tools. I'm hoping it is because we are all successfully focusing on Getting Things Done rather than tinkering with our systems and surfing blogs.

After three years of exploring and tinkering (I bought ResultsManager in May 2005) and collaborating with many of you, I feel I've finally developed a balanced "trusted system" approach that works for me utilizing OutLinker, MindReader, Next Action Analysis, and Mark Task Complete. These macros have finally allowed me to fully leverage the MindManager, ResultsManager, and GyroQ applications.

The Next Action Analysis approach has been pivotal in proving a look at things in a more balanced and comprehensive way. The "game" of trying to empty Outlook inboxes and raise my NAA score has provided just enough incentive to get me to plug my GTD leaks and attack those lingering "high cringe factor" items clogging up my dashboard.

Previously I would spend all my dashboard and review time at the top of the Daily Action Plus Dashboard trying to empty in-trays and deal with items past their deadlines or targets, and neglecting other aspects. Now I feel like my focus shifts appropriately to the 5F that needs the most attention.

After using this set of tools for four months, this week I finally hit a perfect 10.0 on my personal maps and also got my work maps up over 9. If only I had got here during the contest :-).

A trend of my score over time is included at the bottom of the post based on the data collected in the NAALog.mmap. I tend to work with my personal maps on the weekend while doing chores and errands and paying bills :-(. Along the way I spent a lot of time fighting back the tide on each of the 5F's in turn. Once the macro gave me my "perfect score", the question became "what is the next action"?

To celebrate I took a break this evening to create the diagram above, which captures the NAA framework concisely and graphically. This may be helpful to you whatever GTD system or tools you actually use. What makes the next action analysis macro useful is that it generates quantitative metrics for these components and links out to the items that impact each of them (e.g. overdue or aging tasks) rather than requiring separate dashboards for these purposes.

The figure adds a 6th component to the five covered by the NAA tool, which is asking whether you are capturing the "Full Picture" of your work. You can't automate that, although GyroQ can be used to run a full "MindSweep". The other aspect captured in this component is the need for a regular review of "someday/maybe" lists to see what deferred projects merit activating. You might implement this by using a weekly repeating task reminder and then ensure that it stays fresh!

Of course for me what really remains now is finally giving more attention to "non squeaky wheel" projects and actions not currently in the penalty box. I won't be at 10.0 for long if I don't attack the 60 next actions on my home list and 80 on my work list. Unfortunately blogging isn't on either of them :-).

All the best,

OutLinker 2.0

ActivityOwner — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:40:55 +0000

It is actually more like version 122, but "2.0" sounds better. It has been about four months since my last post on OutLinker and I wanted to let folks know that several improvements and bug fixes have trickled onto the wiki since then.

The macro now defaults to routing transfers to MindManager through GyroQ, which is much faster. I didn't want to publicize this until I'd tested it out on a few thousand messages. It is working well now that issues with escaping quote characters have been resolved. If you choose, you can avoid use of GyroQ by setting the "usegyroq" setting to 0 and just have items transfer in real-time. You can also avoid use of MindReader by setting "usemindreader" to 0. All you really need is Outlook and MindManager.

The script now uses session variables and a cache to hold information in memory between uses, which has improved speed quite a bit — thanks for the tips Mike! The menu of commands has been expanded as shown below:

I use the macro by selecting anywhere from 1 to 250 messages at a time and then dispatching them quickly by either deleting (d), archiving (a), or by typing in an action item to send to MindManager. Non-action reference items can be sent over by adding a "isinfo" keyword.

It can be mentally challenging to transfer "urgent" items over to MindManager, but if you resolve to get all the way to "zero" and add short term target dates to urgent items, you can move over to MindManager and use your ResultsManager "Daily Action" dashboard and the
"Next Action Analysis" macro to guide your day.

All settings and counters for the scripts are kept in a "OutLinker Settings" Notes folder:

If you are currently using the script, I'd recommend pasting the latest version of OutLinker.bas into your macro file. If you have tried it in the past but ran into bugs or glitches, give this version a go. If you haven't tried it yet, have a look at the installation instructions on the wiki and post below if you have any questions.

GTD and MindReader Q&A

ActivityOwner — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:35:58 +0000

Chuck Brown posted some questions on GTD and MindReader as a comment on AO-Pack blog entry. I thought answering via a post would make sense as it provides some elbow room and an opportunity for others to chime in.

… I understand that GTD is not a set of absolute rules, but tools to use to your benefit, but am not comfortable with something key in the Next Step, concept. We're told that if something will take more than say, two minutes, stick it in the system. I assume this leads to documenting every step that will take more than two minutes? But it can't, or we would document going to the grocery store as 200 steps, obviously making the process more laborious than is beneficial. So how do you know how to break projects down?

Is it entirely arbitrary? The system is very keen on next steps, but what about all of the 'other' steps? So, I'm going to build a house myself, and the Next Step is to draw blueprints. But I know that to draw blueprints I need to buy big paper, and when I have them I'll need to go to the copy store and make copies, and I'll need to look in the yellow pages for contractors, and I'll need to make a list of contractors to call, and I'll need to call each one, and, and, and… By breaking this into discrete components (especially if I'm going to take the time to enter them into an electronic system), I would seem to exponentially increase the time it will take to get the project actually done. Maybe I'm missing the bigger picture, and I admit, I'm on the very outside edge crawling towards the center of all of this…

David Allen has a knack for ironic phrases like "the center is the edge", "being complete with your incompletions", etc. Perhaps the analogous phrase he might use to answer your question would be "Getting things done is about getting things done".

Barriers to getting things done

What barriers get in the way of getting things done? Not capturing the "things" in the first barrier. "Things" can sit in your inbox, on your desk, workbench, garage floor, or mind. GTD stresses capturing all your "stuff" in a trusted system of some type. This is where tools like GyroQ and OutLinker come in. The "2 minute" rule relates to the trade-off of the time needed to process something into your projects and next action lists versus just doing it. I think with advent of fluid tools like those covered on this site, that guideline might need some revising, but that's for another post.

Once something is "captured", the next "not getting done" barrier can be lack of clarity on what is the first baby step to get it moving. This is where "next physical actions" come in. Although it has evolved to do quite a bit more, MindReader was initially conceived as a way to try to automatically assign "contexts" based on action verbs in phrases going into GyroQ or in MindManager topics. Sometimes the thought process of identifying the "next physical action" involves a backward sequencing process (replace tires – schedule visit – call store – lookup phone number) that generates a string of next actions. Once you have gone through that thought process, you might as well capture it in a map so that checking off the 1st step automatically queues up the next, but its not essential. Often just getting that 1st physical next action identified early catalyzes the rest of the process to move ahead quickly and naturally.

The third barrier to getting things done can be lack of having all those unrelated baby steps organized by "context" so that you can advance them efficiently. Among its other capabilities, ResultsManager excels at harvesting all your next actions from a network of project maps and laying them out for you in a single dashboard of next actions by contexts. Having a convenient "context" list can make you more productive in the little snippets of time that might otherwise be used inefficiently or go to waste. With gas prices being what they are, an "errands" list is all the more important.

The Chess Analogy
So how you do you break projects down? When I envision GTD, I think of what it could be like to be one of those grandmaster chess players who can run around a room and play 30 games (projects) at once. Now perhaps they do that by instantly recognizing the pattern on the board each time and the best next move. If I was going to do it, I'd have a project map for each game with some working notes and reference links on it, and a task reminder that the other player had the next move and to make sure I came back to it. I might also have a "next move" lined up based on the previous "review" of the situation for that game (project).

Thinking about this in another way, "Getting things done is not about what you are getting done". You don't need to document each completed action, or plan each next action for a project you are actively working on. You just want make sure you set projects up (or set them aside with) at least one next step to keep things moving.

Next question: Just want to make sure I understand something about the technology. I understand that MindReader requires MindManager/MindJet and Gyroq, but does it REQUIRE ResultsManager? (I have all of these tools, just trying to wrap my head around what does what). If I understand correctly, RM is really just a reporting tool (maybe an important one, but still a reporting tool). Is this correct?

No, technically MindReader doesn't require ResultsManager or even GyroQ (it has some limited functionality running directly on topics as a standalone macro), but there is a lot of synergy amongst the tools. MindReader enables GyroQ to capture and set the context, due date, priority, etc of a large quantity of tasks and spread them across many maps in one step. This is most useful if you have the ability to pull all that information back together into a dashboard with ResultsManager.

Other readers can provide additional insights below.

2008 GTD Challenge Results

ActivityOwner — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:48:27 +0000

Back on New Year's day I proposed Five Metrics for assessing the state of your GTD system. The idea was to assess the Freshness, Focus, Feasibility, Foresight, and Finishing (5F's) of your current next actions and combine these into an overall score.

The Next Action Analysis macro calculates and sorts these metrics for ResultsManager users by harvesting information from the Daily Action Dashboard. It also creates lists of actions and projects associated with the various components (e.g. aging tasks) as well as provides targeted advice on how to attack and improve your situation.

To have some fun with this, and provide readers with a framework for "climbing back on the GTD horse" in the new year, we initiated the "Next Action Analysis 2008 GTD Challenge". The goal was to get an initial assessment in the 1st half of January and then work to improve it by the end of the month.

Thanks to everyone who entered. It isn't easy to share the state of your "system". I think it was helpful to everyone to see that others are in the same boat. The entries and results are summarized below (Courtesy of Map2Table):

	Initial Score	Final Score	Improvement	Current Score
Juan	2.00	6.07	4.07
AO	6.40	7.50	1.10	9.59
Arkadiy	6.77
Bill S.	7.60
DW	7.95
Jose-Miguel	8.20	9.82	1.62	9.41
Mal	7.00
Renaldostheold	7.40	9.22	1.82	9.96

And the winners of the 2008 GTD challenge….

Highest Final Score: Jose-Miguel
Biggest Improvement: Juan
Random Drawing: Renaldostheold

I think a few of these folks may have already claimed their prizes :-).

Here are some random thoughts and advice on use of the tool…

Context is King
In general it felt like the revised scoring was well balanced, and put me on the areas needing focus, but the one area that probably merits more weighting is the penalty for actions lacking context. The "no context" list is always with ripe with "blobs" that need more thought and review. Eliminating items from this list tends to help several others scores. For example sending them to someday/maybe, defining a new/younger physical next action, marking already complete items done, can be impactful on several dimensions. I am looking at raising the weighting here but need to decide where to steal the points from. Thoughts? My guess is "project proritization" or "Target Dates".

My Favorite?
If I personally had to give up using all but one tool from this site, this would be the one that I would keep. I have found it has kept me focused on all aspects of my system and forced me to address the stale tasks that were bogging it down. The delay in getting this contest entry posted is a testament to that as the "game" of improving your score can keep you focused on your important projects (rather than your blog :-).

How Many Next Actions are Too Many?
In order to get 10.0 on the "feasibility" scale, you need to knock your next actions down to 80. You'll only get a 5.0 on that dimension if you have 150 actions. That's a pretty stiff penalty, but the purpose is to reinforce the concept of actually doing the items on your list rather than carrying them around for weeks or months at a time. The scoring make your next action list expensive real estate that you want to populate with things you are committed to doing in the near term.

Do you Trust your Trusted System?
I've found the key to using tools like GyroQ, MindReader, and OutLinker to capture commitments into MindManager, is knowing that you maps are not black holes. If you don't trust it, you'll tend to keep "important" items piled up on your desk or in your OutLook Inbox. Keeping your NAA score up, and reviewing the flags it raises regularly, can help you build that trust into your system such that it become closer to 100%.

Are your Projects Projects?
It is very easy to fall into the trap of throwing all your tasks under "area" buckets (e.g. "Home Repair") that last forever rather than defining specific projects. The project priority and target date metrics are there not so much to yield benefits to your dashboard, but to help you decide whether a project should go to the someday/maybe list or be broken out as a smaller/more specific project.

Are your Targets Targets?
As mentioned above, the purpose of the target date assignment metric is not so much for the value of setting targets, but for forcing as many items as possible into defined/do-able projects. One thing you want to avoid is perpetually setting unrealistic targets such that you spend your time discouraged by them or postponing them.

If you use "Mark Task Complete" to set up routine "good habit" reminders, try setting just the start date rather than both the start and due date. For example, if you have a daily reminder called "empty in-tray", set it as a "daily" with just a start date. That way it will show up on your next action lists, and you'll take satisfaction in checking it off, but it won't clutter your "overdue" lists.

How to Deal with In-trays?
Based on my experiences with this tool, I've begun setting up my in-tray's with a "project" icon, particularly on "map central" maps. The key advantage of this approach is that it ensures that its parent "project" flags as needing next actions if it becomes empty. It also helps you avoid letting random "bits and pieces" actions find there way in under a map central map. I'll blog more about this later. You can also remove a central topic from the project list by giving it a category of "mc*", but this option should be used with care.

Have you tried it?
The script has improved quite a bit over the last month, so if you haven't done so recently I would recommend downloading the latest copy. Recent versions provide the option of opening a wiki page dedicated to providing advice on improving the weakest aspect of your score. If you are a routine dashboard user, or have ResultsManager, but have "fallen of the GTD horse", give this a try. It doesn't require that you have any other "AO" tools. All you need is ResultsManager for generating Daily Action Dashboards.

Next Steps?
Any interest in further contests? Are there any other aspects of the DA dashboard that could be assessed? I'd write more, but I need to get going on some procrastinated "next actions" so I can improve my "Freshness" score :-).

New GyroQ "k" tag: Set destination map keywords

ActivityOwner — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:32:59 +0000

One of MindReader's handy features is that it allows you to send tasks to specific maps based on a keyword. This allows you to avoid having to deal with a huge "Daily Capture Map" backlog when you want to sort out things related to specific project or area of responsibility.

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.

Don't leave OutLinker Code on your Clipboard after Installation

ActivityOwner — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 02:36:01 +0000

One handy feature of MindReader is its ability to set the current contents of the clipboard as a task's hyperlink or note if you include a keyword (isnote, see note, islink, see link). As currently configured it always grabs the contents of the clipboard and puts it in the queue file because it can't know ahead of time if one of these keywords is present.

The first step in OutLinker Installation is to copy/paste the macro code into the Microsoft Outlook macro editor. As it turns out, something about the size or specific content of the current macro text confuses GyroQ if it is captured from the clipboard while using the "q" or "fq" command. This leads GyroQ to choke on the clipboard contents. This has impacted several OutLinker users in last few days (including me). The fix is to clear your queue and then make sure you clear your clipboard by clicking on the clipboard icon on the GyroQ dialog box or replace the context with something smaller.

I'd like to avoid the problem above in general. There are two options I can think of to address it. One is to create a separate tag (cq, lq, nq?) to use on occasions when you plan to capture the clipboard contents as a note or link. This option could either use the clipboard as is or prompt you to paste in content to a dialog box directly

The 2nd is to change q/fq to require you to invoke GyroQ with the "textgrab" option (Control-ShiftG). This feature wasn't available when MindReader first launched.

Comment below with your preferences.

Here's how I use MindReader in Practice

Jose_Miguel_Bolivar — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 00:21:49 +0000

[Editor's Note: Jose Miguel is a the MindReader power user and has driven the development of many of its features. In this guest post, he describes how he came to use the tool and how he uses it day to day. A Spanish version of his post is also available. ]

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.

Así es como uso MindReader en la práctica

Jose_Miguel_Bolivar — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 00:00:16 +0000

[Nota del editor: José Miguel es el poder MindReader usuario y ha impulsado el desarrollo de muchas de sus características. En este puesto de invitado, él describe cómo llegó a utilizar la herramienta y la forma en que lo usa día a día.
Una versión en Inglés está también disponible]

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

Next Action Analysis 2008 GTD Challenge

ActivityOwner — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 03:17:44 +0000

2007 was a year we largely focused on improved capturing and staging of tasks with tools like MindReader, Mark Task Complete, and OutlLinker. Perhaps 2008 can focus on improved weekly review and action? To kick it off and to provide some group moral support for getting things done, I'd like to propose the following contest:

Run the Next Action Analysis macro on your ResultsManager Daily Action dashboard sometime over the next 11 days.
Submit your NAA score in the comments below (anonymously if you choose) or by email to info at activityowner.com. The deadline is midnight your time Sunday January 13th.
Work on improving your dashboard's 5Fs as you do you weekly reviews and plan for 2008.
Submit a 2nd (hopefully improved) score before the end of the month.

To be eligible your dashboard must have at least 30 tasks in it.

The three contest winners will be the entries …

with the highest score
with the most improved score
chosen at random (only one reported score required)

As "prizes" I am offering to build each winner a (moderately-sized) custom ResultsManager dashboard, GyroQ tag, or MindManager macro to address a problem of their choosing. In the case of ties the winner will be chosen at random. Beware this commitment might linger on my someday/maybe list for a period of time :-).

If you are not a ResultsManager user, you are welcome calculate your submitted score manually based on the status of whatever paper or computer-based GTD system you are using. I will compile a statistical summary of the results. Along the way we can assess the applicability of scoring model.

Let the "transferring to someday/maybe lists" begin….

MindManager AutoRecover = AutoCrash?

ActivityOwner — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 23:30:03 +0000

I noticed I began experiencing frequent "The application has been requested to terminate"-type crashes since upgrading to the SP1 release for MindManager 7 where as the original release was pretty stable. I was a bit worried this was due to MindReader or OutLinker, but realized this evening it is likely due to my options being set back to the defaults with the upgrade.

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:

Outlinker Update

ActivityOwner — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:16:40 +0000

I made a few big improvements to the OutLinker macro today.

It now stores its configuration settings in a notes folder so it is easier to upgrade/configure without editing code. It will also prompt user for the archive store/folder if it doesn’t find them.
For fun it counts the number of messages you have processed with the macro and displays it each time you finish working with a set of messages. This also lets you know when the macro is done getting the information into MindManager.
I added three leading “keywords” (olio, olwf, olca) to let the macro automatically assign sender/addressee as a waiting-for, I-owe, or contact-about. I’m not sure what the right keywords should be – could just use io/wf/ca but some might want to reserve those for use in mindreader as resource verbs.
I’ve also added short codes for “d” “a” “s” for deleting, archiving, and skipping messages you don't want to process.

If you are using the macro, I'd recommend downloading an updated version. I've used it to grind through several hundred messages at a very rapid clip.

Documentation will lag, so post a comment or send an email if you run into trouble.

Getting to Zero

ActivityOwner — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 14:52:28 +0000

Outlinker is evolving quickly as it gets some use and the suggestions trickle in. I used it to successfully drain my Gmail inbox to zero for the first time using Microsoft Outlook this morning and made several edits along the way.

The macro now lets you select the messages you want to process and then opens them one by one so you can read them while you are deciding what to do with them. It will also recognize several keywords:

skip: I'm sorry David — I just had to add this one :-)
archive : move message to folder without adding task in MindManager
delete : delete message (will be archived if you are using Gmail)
reply, stop, or cancel : stop the macro
help : not so much
gdelete : move Gmail messages to trash (required customization)

Here is an screen show showing the macro dialog box asking for a next action and keywords for an email message from Google new MindManager posts:

After hitting enter, the macro moves the message to an archive pst folder and creates an action item in in my MindManager MindManager "Blog" project map (below). Note that MindReader placed the activity on my "Blog" project map based on the "blog keyword and based on the rest of the text entered added…

Activity icon
"Someday" icon based on the "someday" keyword
hyper-link back to the original message in the archive folder
Body of the message as a note underneath the topic for backup/quick reference
"letter" icon to remind user there is a message behind the hyperlink
@web context based on "research" verb
Idea icon based on idea keyword
Start date of today

If you have already gone through the OutLinker Installation, be sure to grab the latest macro code from the wiki.

Once you start actively using OutLinker, keeping your ResultsManager dashboards refreshed daily will become more important. Now might be a good time to have a look at the "Putting it in front of the door" script and/or "You've got Mail from ResultsManager?".

OutLinker: A new tool for draining your Microsoft Outlook inbox

ActivityOwner — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 19:26:51 +0000

When was the last time your inbox looked like this?

The holy grail of Getting Things Done (GTD) is routinely emptying your various Inboxes to zero and processing the context into projects and next actions. Tools like GyroQ can help you capture ideas and process your paper in-trays, but if you are working in the corporate world, you probably find that 80% or more of your activities flow to and from your Microsoft Outlook inbox and sent-items folders.

Chances are your Outlook inbox has over 100 items in it right now and you feel swamped, but let me ask you a question — how many of those message are actually unread?

If you are like me, you have probably read or glanced at most of them, but hesitated moving them because you….

were not sure what to do with them
were afraid that if you moved them to an archive you would forget to do them
worried you wouldn't find them and their associated attachments when needed to act on or reply to them

While MindManager and ResultsManager provide a great framework for managing projects and next actions, it can be somewhat time consuming to copy/paste email content and manage their attachments via topics if you are dealing with 100's of messages each week…

Until now.

Mike Wilkerson of NodeGlue.com has been tinkering with various ways of integrating Outlook and MindManager for a couple of years and has recently adapted his macros to work with MindReader. With his permission I've been tweaking his code to better work with MindReader and enhancing MindReader to work with it on the receiving end. Along the way the code has been simplified and combined into a single Visual Basic Outlook macro – Outlinker.

Once you have installed OutLinker, clicking on the button for the macro will prompt you for the "next action" for the selected message and for MindReader keywords to mark up the task. It will also provide the option of using the message sender/addressee as the person who you need to "wait for", "owe to" or "contact about" for the action.

It will then create an marked up activity in the intray of the destination map identified by MindReader and add a hyperlink back to the original Outlook message so you can readily access it for the attachments or for future replies. The content of the message is also added to the note of the activity. ~~Note that the hyperlink may not work if you are using Outlook 2007.~~

I am finding it very useful to run through both my inbox and sent-items in this fashion.
The program is currently set up to transfer this information directly into MindManager via MindReader, but you can also have it queued up via GyroQ by changing the "UseGyroQ" setting at the top of the code. Make sure you are using GyroQ 1.9.4.7 rather than 1.9.4.9.

The second useful feature of Mike's macro is that if you run it on task list, it will transfer the selected items into MindManager via GyroQ. Mike uses this feature to capture action items on his PDA and then transfer them into MindManager later. I haven't used this feature as much yet, but sense it will be very useful in enabling capture on devices like Blackberries.

If you have Outlook on your system, but manage your mail in GMail, you might want to explore GMail's new IMAP functionality. I was surprised how well Mike's macro worked with Gmail folders via Outlook and have even been able to archive mail on one gmail account from the inbox of another Gmail account with it. Gmail also supports bookmarks/permalinks now so you can use the approach here to link out to Gmail messages from MindManager activities as well. In that case you just want to copy the link into your clipboard and then enter a task into GyroQ and include the "link" keyword to tell MindReader to add the hyperlink.

Getting the OutLinker macro code installed and configured requires a couple of steps which may be intimidating to novices, but I think it is worth the effort. Please log into the wiki and make improvements to the OutLinker home page or instructions based on your experience or just comment below with suggestions.

Gyro-gone?

ActivityOwner — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 13:42:43 +0000

If you or your company use McAfee for virus scanning, then your GyroQ executable was likely automatically deleted yesterday afternoon due to a false-positive in their virus signatures for 32/YahLover.worm. The McAfee signature file was fixed by midnight, but you'll now have to reinstall GyroQ. See Gyronix Forum for more info and a download link. Your configuration files should still be fine.

Note that the latest version of GyroQ (1.9.4.9) is currently incompatible with MindReader so you should install GyroQ 1.9.4.7 instead.

MindReader and GyroQ 1.9.4.9

ActivityOwner — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 19:29:48 +0000

I've noticed several other incompatibilities between the MindReader tags and GyroQ 1.9.4.9 in addition to the q issue described earlier. Gyronix will likely have this address shortly, but in the meantime you'll want to stay with 1.9.4.7 or below if you want to use MindReader. If you have already upgraded, you should download and install GyroQ 1.9.4.7.

Mapping the MindReader Configuration Map

ActivityOwner — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 03:08:24 +0000

One of my long-time "Someday/Maybe" tasks has been to draft a blog post on the MindReader Configuration Map. I figured I'd push this off my aging task list with a quick post this evening and follow up as needed.

Although MindReader is designed to work "out of the box", the mindreader.mmap file provides a way for users to customize it to their liking or language. You can access it quickly by typing "o mapmap" in the GyroQ dialog box. Curtis B. (who I believe was the first user of the tool along with James H.), recently suggested adding call-outs to the configuration map itself to better explain what each branch did and how to customize it. I went ahead and took a shot at that and uploaded a fresh copy to the wiki and as part of the AO-Pack.

If you are using Internet Explorer or have IETab installed, you can browse the sample configuration map by clicking here or download it by clicking here .

MindReader loops around the map for each task you enter or process and looks for keyword matches under each main topic. If it finds a match, it marks up the task based on the branch's function and the note underneath the topic. Once you familiarize yourself with the various branches in the map, you will have a very good sense of exactly what MindReader can do and how it does it. Further (limited) documentation as well as French and Spanish versions are available on the MindReader Configuration Map Page on the wiki.

If you have questions or suggestions, just comment below as its always easier to answer questions than to anticipate them.

[click on image below for larger version]

Next Action Roulette

ActivityOwner — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 12:34:14 +0000

My ResultsManager Daily Action dashboard has gotten a bit bloated over the past year with a subset of tasks and projects that are lingering. In theory a good GTD Weekly Review would help address these, but I've been playing with some alternative strategies to break the log jam.

I now use the GyroQ naaa tag each time I review my daily action dashboard to see what the oldest tags are. Note that this script now calculates a grand total age of your tasks (e.g. 120 30 day old tasks = 10 years!).

I try to force myself to address one of the oldest tags in some fashion or another by either…

Doing it
Adding a smaller more doable "next-action" to precede it or adding a relationship from an related task that needs to come first.
Pushing it to the someday/maybe list (if its old, that may be its rightful home)
Pushing its start date to the future
Delegating it

To augment the approach above, I added a new "rnd" tag which picks a random next action from the next action list. You can install it by pasting the rnd packed text from the GyroQ tag Library. A random task is also added onto the report generated by naaa.

When you have a block of free time and are struggling to pick an activity to work on, run this and either do what it says or ask yourself why you don't want to do it and then do something to change the situation