The wiki.activityowner.com now has three independent stand-alone add-ins installs with domains that point to them:

• http://mindreader2.com,
• http://marktaskcomplete.com
• http://map2excel.com,

and of course http://outlinker.com.

Each add-in is really stand-alone now and will be less intimidating for new users to understand and install separately. The buttons on the toolbars can be added to the quick-access toolbar as well. The add-ins only act when their command buttons are pressed, so one should expect any impact on performance or other incompatibilities by installing them.

Map2Excel interface:

It has been an interesting puzzle to convert legacy MindManager macros to more modern (and faster executing) VB.Net code. Thank you to the folks who have tested early version of these. I think the major bugs have been worked out, but there will be a few more for sure. Please kick the tires and comment below as you encounter them.

The new add-ins are no longer depend on GyroQ or the legacy setup/installation, but they backward compatible and share the "legacy" MindReader for GyroQ configuration files, so old and new can be used in parallel. OutLinker still needs to be ribbon-ized in OutLook to simplify its installation.

MarkTaskComplete interface:

The wiki has been overhauled to point to the new add-ins. All four should have some appeal to regular MindManager users. You don’t need to be ResultsManager user to make good use of them. With some menu elbow room they should grow a bit in functionality over time (e.g. new button to open last months completion map, analyze it, etc).

Note that Mindreader install brings along dashboard buttons, NAA, and Outlook dashboard syncing, but hides them unless user has RM installed.

The site is up to about $85 in donations (thank you), so we will need to see if this can be sustained once my Visual Studio trial expires.

MindReader interface:

Related posts:

1. Any Interest in an ActivityOwner Tools Add-in for the Ribbon Toolbar?
2. Outlinker GUI
3. OutLinker Contexts

If you have gotten this working, feel free to contribute by editing the wiki to add some further narrative to the limited instructions.

Related posts:

1. OutLinker 2.01
2. OutLinker: A new tool for draining your Microsoft Outlook inbox
3. Wiki Authors/Editors Wanted

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

There is a new macro installed by the MindReader installer and also available on the wiki MindManager Macro Library that will do a basic syncronization of tasks between your ResultsManager Daily Action Dashboard in MindManager and your Microsoft Outlook task list.

The macro (ao_nextactions_to_outlook.mmbas) does the following:

1. Delete previosly transferred or exported items from oulook unless marked complete
2. If marked complete in outlook, run mark task complete on them in the daily action dashboard.
3. Transfer new items from Outlook into MindManager via MindReader.
4. Leave them behind as well but add "ao_transferred" into note to mark them as transferred
5. Export next actions from daily action dashboard to Outlook task list. Set basic attributes like context, due date, and priority.

Note that this is designed specifically for use with a ResultsManager Daily Action Dashboard.

This basic macro isn't smarter than described above, and will not detect changes in attributes (beyond completion) to sync back to MindManager. Attempting to do anything fancier than this is is buried deep on my GTD someday/maybe list.

I've never had much success in attempting to do this type of synchronization with other "built-in" methods. This provides some basic functionality that might be of use to those who need it.

If you want to have ready access to your next actions from outlook or your smart phone, this can be a good strategy. This also allows you to capture new actions in Outlook and feed them in. For 1-way transfers into MindManager from OutLook, OutLinker provides a more robust approach.

You can run the macro manually or incorporate into the "Put it in front of the door script" for overnight processing.

Next Action: "Waiting for reader feedback on Outlook Task Syncronization".

NAA score +0.1 :-).

Related posts:

1. Synchronizing MindManager and OutLook
2. OutLink to your OutLook Task List and other new options
3. Next Actions to Go

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

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. GTDT (Getting Things Done Together)

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. ButtonReader: 40 configurable buttons for MindReader

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. Synchronizing MindManager and OutLook
3. OutLinker Contexts

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. Four ways to add tasks to your maps from your phone

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. New OutLinker feature — create set of topics with links contacts, notes, tasks, or messages
2. OutLink to your OutLook Task List and other new options
3. Don't leave OutLinker Code on your Clipboard after Installation

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. Four ways to add tasks to your maps from your phone

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 for Microsoft Outlook 2010
2. OutLinker 2.0
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. How long is a typical email message?

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. GTD Phone Home
   2. Feed your to-do list into MindReader
   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/2008/01/22/important-mindreader-update-for-outlinker-users/ http://www.activityowner.com/2008/01/22/important-mindreader-update-for-outlinker-users/#comments Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:50:27 +0000 ActivityOwner http://www.activityowner.com/2008/01/22/important-mindreader-update-for-outlinker-users/
5. MindReader Update: Capture notes and links without using keywords
6. GyroQ: Open maps, documents, web pages, and applications using keywords
7. Don't leave OutLinker Code on your Clipboard after Installation

While your inbox contains a mixture of spam, bulk mail, info-only cc's, and perhaps 10% actionable information, your "Sent Items" will tend to have a much more concentrated set of …

• commitments you have made to others
• things you are now waiting for
• things you need to contact others about
• things you need to inform others about
• things you want to retain for ready reference

These are open loops you want to capture in whatever GTD system you are using at the end of each day. If you are using MindManager with ResultsManager and have Outlinker installed, open your sent-items, select the messages you sent, and run OutLinker. At the prompt you can type …

• d – to delete the message
• a – to archive the message
• ra – to reply all to supplement the message (rad will reply and delete)
• f – to forward the message

..or you can type in your "next action" to send it to MindManager. If you precede the text with "info:" or "info only:" it will not be marked with a action icon.

If you lead the string with "olwf", "olio", or "olca", MindReader will markup the task as being something you are waiting for, owe to, or need to contact about the person you sent it to. [Note: its not working right for multiple recipients at the moment]. Gmail is more persistent in its desire to keep things in the Sent Folder, so you need to implement a filter that labels all your outgoing mail and then act on that label folder as if it was your sent items.

Matches: from:(yourname@gmail.com)
Do This: Apply label "_Sent"

Related posts:

1. Getting to Zero
2. OutLinker: A new tool for draining your Microsoft Outlook inbox
3. Synchronizing MindManager and OutLook

The initial version required MindReader and GyroQ, which narrowed the potential user base quite to a small niche of power users. The new version does not require GyroQ (it will be added back in future versions) and asks you if you want to use MindReader. This enables any of the 1 million MindManager users who may also use OutLook to start using the program quickly. You can switch to using MindReader later if you like with the change of a configuration setting.

All you need to do is Install the Macro in your OutLook macro editor and you are ready to go. If you are not using MindReader, it just places all the entries in "OutlinkerCapture.mmap" in your "My Maps" directory and then you can move topics from there to other maps.

This enhancement is hot of the press so post comments or send email if you run into problems.

Having used the program for a month now, I've found that its important to be able to avoid sending items to MindManager so the interface has been enhanced (see above) with several options for dealing with messages in place (e.g. reply, reply-all, reply and delete, reply all and delete, forward, etc). The is reducing the quantity of tasks I need to process in MindManager quite a bit and providing a general improvement in email handling efficiency.

The program now also accumulates statistics as to what you are doing with your messages:

The numbers in my example don't add up as the individual counters have been added over time.

If you are already using the program, make sure you download the latest version as it has improved rapidly based on feedback over the holidays. Make sure you answer "yes" when prompted on use of MindReader.

P.S. Only 7 days left to get your "Next Action Analysis" Contest entries in.

Related posts:

1. Outbox Zero
2. Getting to Zero
3. OutLinker Lite (OutLinker for "list" people)

Outlook category text is also now being brought over as hidden text that can be recognized using keywords (e.g. to assign area, priority, etc). The outlook categories are automatically used MindManager categories but that can be done easily by setting up your category keywords in the mindreader.mmap file.

You need the latest version of MindReader in order for the meeting deadline portion to work.

Side Note: If you are meeting with someone who you have a lot of project information to discuss, you might want to consider using the 1:1 meeting ResultsManager dashboard template.

Related posts:

1. OutLinker Unlinked
2. MindReader Syntax Updates
3. MindReader Repeat Category Keyword Updates

• 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.

Related posts:

1. OutLinker Update: Process your Microsoft Outlook inbox with one click
2. Outbox Zero
3. OutLinker 2.0

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?".

Related posts:

1. Outbox Zero
2. OutLinker 2010
3. OutLinker: A new tool for draining your Microsoft Outlook inbox

David Allen stresses that your should process your inbox by starting at the top and working your way down — no skipping the hard stuff and cherry picking the easy or interesting stuff.

Now OutLinker can help you keep that discipline.

The original macro was designed to move one item at a time over to GyroQ for entry of the next action, but by sending information directly into MindReader, the latest version can loop one by one through as many items as you choose to select. This means you can bite the bullet, select all 100 items in your inbox, and bungee jump into making "Next Action" decisions on all of them. The items will end up in your MindManager in-trays (based on your destination keywords), so you'll have another shot at processing them, but it always helps if the next-action comes alive in your dashboards immediately if possible.

In order to enable the looping feature above, I also added the ability to "archive" or "delete" un-actionable messages by typing those strings as the next action. "Archive" just sends the message to the same folder that the other messages are headed to without sending an action/link to MindManager.

The other change is that the code now defaults to use a single "MindReader" prompt to enter the next action along with any bracketed keywords that you like (the same way you would use the GyroQ "q" tag). I and others were finding that, while it is nice to have the sender/addressee extracted automatically, stepping through the additional prompts and reaching for the mouse was more of a distraction. You can toggle back to using the resource prompts by changing the "oneprompt" parameter at the top of the code. One power user is currently is working on developing a comprehensive form to gather these choices in one step.

Be careful with the new code until you've tested it out on some junk mail – it's hot off the press. Keep the suggestions and bug-reports coming.

Happy Holidays,

AO

P.S. With all the MindJet SP1 upgrades and downgrades going on, it might be a good time to review the Version 7 Setup Tips on the wiki.

Related posts:

1. OutLinker: A new tool for draining your Microsoft Outlook inbox
2. Outlinker Update
3. Synchronizing MindManager and OutLook