I would appreciate it if you could please click here to take a brief Survey Monkey survey or comment below.

I've recently cleaned up the layout of the site with a new site overview map and new "related post" links added to the entries. I hope it will help folks navigate around the posts on their topic of interest.

Related posts:

1. ActivityOwner.Com turns 1.0
2. GyroQ Tag Usage Survey
3. search.activityowner.com

This version also improves the display of the archive folder name and store. See screen shot of outlinker interface.

This function mimics the mindreader "nm" tag.

Related posts:

1. Outlinker Update
2. OutLinker Setup Gets Easier and New Attachment Feature
3. OutLinker Update: Process your Microsoft Outlook inbox with one click

• Option to pick from 5 archive folders
• Fields for up to 9 contexts and 20 tags (use for context, area, category, destination keyword, etc)
• Ability to process OutLook 2007 RSS folders
• Ability to create appointments with message as attachment
• Greatly improved ability to correctly delete Gmail IMAP messages from multiple accounts
• Macro scripts to delete, archive, mindread sets of selected messages
• Streamlined user interface

Give it a try (download).

Related posts:

1. OutLinker: A new tool for draining your Microsoft Outlook inbox
2. Outbox Zero
3. OutLinker Unlinked

Thank you in advance,

The "Put it in Front of the Door" script is a great way to keep your ResultsManager usage alive and well. I must admit it fell off my windows scheduler with an operating system upgrade awhile back and its time to bring it back.

I've been using MindManager and ResultsManager for over 4 years now and have never heard of anyone successfully using OutLook Task syncronization with both. I tried in my very early days and moved away from it quickly.

If you think about it, it is a quite complex series of operations to ask for. First ResultsManager harvests tasks out of dozens of maps and summarizes on a transient dashboard. Then MindManager needs to syncronize those rolled up task copies with an OutLook task list and figure out what is new/done/deleted in each. Then ResultsManager needs to push some of that completion information back to underlying maps. Too many things can go wrong.

In practice I use the OutLook Task List as as dedicated input flow to MindManager rather than something it populates or syncronizes with.

At work I send and receive about 120 message each day. I drag my sent items into my inbox so conversation threads are in same place. I use OutLinker to process these messages. If something seems like a short term item I push it to the task list using the "OutLinker Lite" functionality. For example if I expect a reply in a week or so or expect conversation to continue. Most items tend to be "waiting for X next week". OutLinker puts the task due date in and associated person in the "company" field. I will also sometimes capture into task list directly on blackberry. Every so often I run OutLinker on the task list and push lingering items to MindManager maps using MindReader. So in practice I work from my daily action dashboard and from my outlook task list. Not ideal but better than no list!

If you wanted to do the reverse and dump your full Next Action list to the OutLook task list, that would be relatively easy to do with a macro. You would just need to empty it each day before hand or perhaps the macro could look for duplicates and delete them. I just wouldn't want to pull back from this list.

At home what I do is use the "mna" (Mail Next Actions) GyroQ tag to send my next action lists to my gmail account as emails by context (see "You've got Mail…from ResultsManager". This gives me ready-access to my lists at work and on the road. I don't worry about checking them off remotely and sync-ing back.

Questions? Suggestions? Experiences?

Comment below.

Related posts:

1. OutLink to your OutLook Task List and other new options
2. Synchronize Outlook Task Lists with MindManager
3. Six Components of a GTD Review

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.

Related posts:

1. New MindReader features: the "m" tag and explicit context
2. OutLinker: A new tool for draining your Microsoft Outlook inbox
3. GTD and MindReader Q&A

OutLinker and OutLinker Lite now automatically detect conversation threads and allow you to navigate across them using the "nt" (next in thread) and "pt" (previous in thread) buttons. You can now also ThreadZoom(TM) your selection to focus on just the messages in the thread. You can "UnZoom" back to the full list as needed or wait for OutLinker to automatically "UnZoom" once you have whittled the thread down to one message.

Related posts:

1. Outlinker GUI
2. OutLinker Lite (OutLinker for "list" people)
3. How long is a typical email message?

Related posts:

1. OutLinker Installer Now Available
2. Updated "New Project Map" (NM) tag posted
3. Don't leave OutLinker Code on your Clipboard after Installation

Note that the contexts assigned with the buttons (or by just putting the @context in the next action) are now automatically set as the category if you choose to send the task to your Microsoft Outlook task list. This is particularly useful for OutLinker Lite users who are not yet working with MindManager or ResultsManager. OutLinker also recognizes some common "context verbs" and sets an associated context.

The text associated with the "context" buttons can be fully customized under the Options menu and can be re-purposed if desired to set different mindreader keywords (e.g. destination map keyword, alias).

Related posts:

1. OutLinker Lite (OutLinker for "list" people)
2. What are your next action verbs?
3. ThreadZoom

A picture is worth a thousand words. If you have been on the sidelines, give OutLinker a try. Make sure you grab the latest version of MindReader to take full advantage of it.

A big thanks to all the victims beta testers of the new form-based version developed over the last few months.

Related posts:

1. OutLinker Installer Now Available
2. OutLinker 2.0
3. OutLinker Setup Gets Easier and New Attachment Feature

The program was recently enhanced with the option to create Outlook tasks with message attachments and/or links. It occurred to me that this tool might be useful to non-MindManager users. OutLinker Lite is a new version of OutLinker that removes dependencies and options related to MindManager and focuses on creating OutLook tasks. As time goes on, more "MindReader" functionality can be added to mark up those tasks in a manner similar to what is done in MindReader.

If you are an OutLinker power user, you might have a friend give "OutLinker Lite" a try. If you are not a MindManager user, but are suffering from a full inbox and struggling to avoid exceeding your Exchange quota, this could be a useful tool for you.

Related posts:

1. ThreadZoom
2. OutLinker Unlinked
3. Synchronizing MindManager and OutLook

In order to achieve this, I set up an OutLook rule which looked for key phrases in the body of the message. Legitimate businesses will almost always provide "opt out" links or instructions a condition of successfully making it past spam filters. The text associated with this opt-out option is diverse and continues to evolve. I suspect this is somewhat intentional as means of avoid crude spam filters or rule-based systems such as mine.

After several months of experimenting, I had come up with the list below as the phrases typically associated with bulk mail:

1. "unsubscribe"
2. "opt out"
3. "outopt"
4. "register now and save"
5. "register now & save"
6. "further emails"
7. "in the subject line"
8. "adjust your preferences"
9. "to stop receiving such messages from"
10. "to be removed from"
11. "address-book"
12. "email communication preferences"
13. "from out mailing list"
14. "prefer not to receive"
15. "if you no longer wish to receive"
16. "if you do not wish to receive"
17. "if you do not want to receive"
18. "excluded from this list"
19. "subscription"
20. "receive these messages"

If you have suggestions to improve the list above, please comment below…

The latest version of OutLinker now incorporates these rules and will automatically flag bulk messages as you read them and recommend you consider un-subscribing. Down the road perhaps other actions could be taken (sort to bottom of list, button to move to a "bulk" folder, etc.).

It is an open question whether you should risk exposing your address as active by un-subscribing. If you trust the messages is from a reputable vendor who doesn't want to deal with the wrath of unhappy customers, it is probably safe to unsubscribe.

If you take the approach of using OutLook rules to implement the strategy above, you want to be careful in setting up such a rule to exclude messages forwarded from "helpful" collegues (look for "fw:" in subject line) or that originate from your organization (look for domain name of sender). You will have occasional false positives, so you want to scan your bulk folder frequently.

Side note: This version of OutLinker also includes a version check button you can use to see if updates have been made since you last downloaded the program.

Related posts:

1. Outbox Zero
2. My Committed Next Actions Toward Success
3. OutLinker Setup Gets Easier and New Attachment Feature

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.

Related posts:

1. OutLinker 2.0
2. OutLink to your OutLook Task List and other new options
3. Getting to Zero

The latest release of OutLinker uses a form to set configuration options rather than the OutLook notes folder. The configuration information is now stored in the registry, which speeds up startup significantly and allows settings to be changed on the fly during the session (e.g. change archive folder for a set of messages).

You access this by hitting the "Options" button on the main form:

The archive folder can now be chosen by browsing to it by clicking on the button.
.

This change has enable the restriction on archive folders being at the root level to be removed. Now any folder in any location can be used. Usage statistics can now be viewed by clicking on the "Stats" button on the interface:

The other big change is that OutLinker can now attach a .msg file with the full outlook message (and its attachments) to a topic in a map in addition to providing a link to the archived message. This is a key feature if you want to use it on collaborative maps where links to your pst file are meaningless or confusing to your collegues. It also reduces the risk that your will misplace information if the link between your map and pst gets broken at some point. You need the latest release of MindReader for this feature to work for queued items. The "Send to Active Map" command will work out of the box.

The one other new feature is the addition of a "Relationship Map" button. I often direct items that are not associated with a specific project to a dedicated map for the individual I'm communicating with. I do that in MindReader by setting up a destination keyword for that map in the form of "namemap". I found I was doing this manually quite a bit with the form version of OutLinker. Now if you check the "m" checkbox in the "relation" section, a keyword will automatically be composed using the other person's email address name.

I'm hoping this is the last of the major OutLinker updates for awhile. If you have found installation to intimidating in the past, I think this may be the version for you. The setup form simplifies things quite a bit.

Related posts:

1. OutLink to your OutLook Task List and other new options
2. Don't leave OutLinker Code on your Clipboard after Installation
3. Outlinker GUI

Several new options have trickled into the OutLinker GUI interface as it has gotten some use. These are available in the latest Beta download from the OutLinker Installation page.

If you review the screen shot above most are self explanatory, but here is some background:

There are four ways you can "send" the item you are processing:

1. TaskList: Lets be honest. You've got 300 items in your ResultsManager daily action list and you are afraid to send urgent/important items into the abyss. The "TaskList" button will let you move the selected email message to the archive and create a new task list item with an OutLook hyperlink to it. This allows you to use the OutLook task list as a near term action list. If you later run OutLinker on a task created in this way, it and send it to MindManager, it will create a link to the message (rather than the task).

   The ability to create OutLook tasks with links to messages has general use as well. In particular this opens up the opportunity for people to use OutLinker even if they don't have MindManager. Note that OutLinker already had the ability to function without ResultsManager or GyroQ as well. A version will need to be created that doesn't complain about lack of MindManager Type Library references. As time goes on, more "MindReader" like parsing can be added that mark up the OutLook task. Note that the Input box keyword for using this feature is s2tl.
   This is a new feature so tread carefully.

2. MindRead: Send to MindManager immediately with destination determined by MindReader
3. Send to Actve Map: Sends immediately to the subtopic of the currently selected topic. This button won't be shown if MindManager is not open. . Outlinker will open MindManager and send to a new map if it is not currently open.
4. Queue: Add to GyroQ queue to be sent to MindManager later. This will be shown as "Send" if you don't have usegyroq option set.

New Features on Interface

• Average Processing Time: Are you moving along at "2 minute action" pace? The form now keeps a running average time on task. It resets when you "Exit" from the form. This will need some tweaking to figure out when it should be running and reset.
• Delegate: You can now delegate to addressee or sender. The "addressee" check box automatically get set if you are processing a message you have sent rather than received. The other persons name is now shown in the form rather than cryptic olwf, olio, etc keywords.
• Done: If a task is complete but you want to log it in MindManager, you can check the "done" box.

Misc. Notes
Below is a summary of some items from discussion of previous release as well as a few lurking "Mention this on the blog" items I wanted to check off:

• Note that OutLinker assumes you have MindManager 8. If you are using 6 or 7, you will have to go into the OutLook macro editor and check off the appropriate type library when it complains.
• If you use other custom OutLook macros, manually install the macro and forms from the wiki rather than using the setup program.
• If you prefer the old "Input Box" interface, which retains focus and is better for keyboard processing, you can toggle back and forth using the "oltf" command (entered by itself).
• Note that if you put in the keyword "aey" in MindReader or OutLinker, it will pop up the ResultsManager edit dialog after MindReader finishes so you can add additional mark up.
• OutLinker will transfer OutLook Categories into MindManager
• You might want to turn off the "putmsginnote" option if you frequently process messages with a large body of text as this will sometimes cause GyroQ to fail during the transfer. It will also bulk up the size of your frequently used maps.
• If GyroQ does ever fail during transfer, edit the "My Maps\GyroQ\GyroActivator-Queue.txt file with a text editor and edit out the offending "{Queue:…" block in order to resend the queue and get at the items that went into queue after it.

Anyone care to volunteer to take the action item of editing all the above into the wiki documentation?

Related posts:

1. Outlinker GUI
2. Synchronizing MindManager and OutLook
3. Synchronize Outlook Task Lists with MindManager

The installation program for the software is on the wiki.

This means you can now:

• Interact with messages directly while program is running (e.g. scroll)
• Use mouse to navigate and choose options in addition to using command line (a,s,p, etc still work)
• Use additional check boxes and option buttons to set target date, etc (see image)
• Send messages to the currently open map/selected topic using the "send now" check box (s2am command).
• Open attachments — either directly or using the "open attachment" button (o command)

In particular this now makes it easy to set the transferred task as being owed to or form the sender or to be put on a "contact about" list for them (previously using olwf, olio, olca keywords at beginning of task).

The send now command can be handy if you want to keep your short-term items on a current map to work on during the day rather than send into your longer term GyroQ queue.

Note that the form communicates back to the main OutLinker program via the text box codes familiar to earlier users. The start up of the program is also about 2x faster now after some code optimization.

Related posts:

1. OutLink to your OutLook Task List and other new options
2. OutLinker Installer Now Available
3. OutLinker Setup Gets Easier and New Attachment Feature

An installation program was one of the main requests coming out of the OutLinker Survey. The survey suggested that while OutLinker has a very small user base (perhaps just a couple of dozen users) , those users are seeing large benefits with the typical user processing about 5000 email messages over the past several months with it.

Hopefully this new installation program will enable a broader range of users to give the program a try. Note that although the defaults assume you are using the program with GyroQ and MindReader, you can configure it for use without these and just transfer items directly to MindManager. The simple hyperlinks generated by this program are cleaner and more compact that those created by MindManager's built in tools.

The latest version of the program has a trimmed down interface (above) that is placed in the top right of the screen so that the message you are processing can be more easily read. If you need to interact with the message (e.g. to scroll), just use the "i" command. At the bottom of the interface are statistics about how many messages you have processed today, how many are left in the current selection, and how long it is taking you to move through them. The program now also keeps track of how many times you skip each message.

Ideally you practice good GTD and only handle things once, but if you do find yourself falling off the GTD wagon and skipping over messages, this field can be handy. You can add this field to your inbox column headings by clicking right on the heading, choosing "Field Chooser" and the selecting "user defined fields in inbox". If your inbox is swamped, you can identify the messages you haven't given a 1st pass review to as well as the ones that you are dancing around by sorting on this field. Note that you can bypass the GyroQ queue and move message directly to active maps using the "s2am" keyword. This can be handy when are working with groups of messages on a particular topic that you are trying to sort out.

Related posts:

1. Outlinker GUI
2. OutLinker Lite (OutLinker for "list" people)
3. OutLink to your OutLook Task List and other new options

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. 2008 GTD Challenge Results
2. Mark Task Complete Update
3. Put it in front of the door in 2010

It has changed my work practices significantly, with an empty inbox at home and work becoming more the norm than the previous rare exception. It has also significantly increased the ease in which I could make ResultsManager a "100% of my stuff" GTD system.

I am at 18880 processed at work and 7796 at work for a total of 26,676 messages processed over the past year. That works out to just over 100 messages per work day, which is probably not as atypical as it sounds for the average knowledge worker.

I have no idea to what extent OutLinker has been adopted by others. It could just be a dozen or so of you for all I know. The prospect of figuring out how to paste the macro text into Outlook and adding references probably intimidates all but the most desperate. It took me quite awhile to venture into trying out Mike's code.

So maybe you can help me out with estimating the user base as well as have some fun seeing how much it is being used. I've been thinking about using SurveyMonkey to get reader feedback and figured this is as good a place to start as any. Whether you are an outlinker user or not, please visit the link below and answer a few quick questions.

Click Here to take survey

It includes questions on messages processed, so we can add up the total number of messages that OutLinker has dispatched. I'll let this run for the next 10 days and then summarize the results.

Related posts:

1. OutLinker Installer Now Available
2. Outlinker Update
3. GyroQ Tag Usage Survey

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,

AO

Related posts:

1. 2008 GTD Challenge Results
2. Next Action Analysis 2008 GTD Challenge
3. Logging Next Action Analysis Results

Related posts:

1. OutLinker 2.0
2. OutLink to your OutLook Task List and other new options
3. OutLinker Installer Now Available

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.

Related posts:

1. Outlinker Update
2. OutLinker Setup Gets Easier and New Attachment Feature
3. OutLinker Unlinked

… 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.

Related posts:

1. Six Components of a GTD Review
2. GTD Phone Home
3. 2008 GTD Challenge Results

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 :-).

Related posts:

1. Next Action Analysis 2008 GTD Challenge
2. Six Components of a GTD Review
3. Next Action Analysis Updated

Here are four options for getting items into your maps from a mobile device.

1. Use bitbucket.org to mail yourself task from the PDA and then pull
   the tasks in via an RSS map part (see A MindManager-Based RSS News Reader.

2. Take that approach one step farther, and call in your tasks verbally
   to Jott with the phone rather than typing them in. This is handy for
   use when driving (see GTD Phone Home. ActivityDaughter also uses it to remind Dad of things like the need to get started on her upcoming Volcano project.

3. If the phone's task list is Outlook synced, you can pull the Outlook tasks into MindManager using OutLinker.
4. If you capture the tasks in a note, you can paste the list into the
   MindReader GyroQ "q" tag, and it will process and parse each line separately into
   separate tasks. You don't need to paste them 1 by 1. See Feed your todo list into MindReader.

   I personally tend to just carry two thin Moleskine notebooks (one work/one personal) in my pocket and log things there for later manual transfer with GyroQ.

   Related posts:

   1. Feed your to-do list into MindReader
   2. GTD Phone Home
   3. Synchronizing MindManager and OutLook
   ]]> http://www.activityowner.com/2008/02/15/four-ways-to-add-tasks-to-your-maps-from-your-phone/feed/ 1 http://www.activityowner.com/2008/01/24/dont-leave-outlinker-code-on-your-clipboard-after-installation/ http://www.activityowner.com/2008/01/24/dont-leave-outlinker-code-on-your-clipboard-after-installation/#comments Fri, 25 Jan 2008 02:36:01 +0000 ActivityOwner http://www.activityowner.com/2008/01/24/dont-leave-outlinker-code-on-your-clipboard-after-installation/
5. Add Notes and Hyperlinks to GyroQ Entries (or not)
6. MindReader Update: Capture notes and links without using keywords
7. Important MindReader Update for Outlinker Users