The system and tools have been pretty stable from a development point of view, but I recently noticed an opportunity to slightly improve the default ResultsManager daily action dashboard template that I thought I would share.

A key concept of GTD is translating your projects into next actions and organizing them by context. Often the value of context assignment is the journey rather than the end. If you think about the specific "how", "where", and "when" of the next action, you will force yourself to translate it into a more "physical" action than it otherwise might be.

One area I am trying to improve is better defining contexts that match my personal situation and style. In practice there have been only a few lists that I proactively seek out from a context point of view:

• "phone" (short for "weekday 9-5")
• "errands" (particularly important in this era of high gas prices)
• "contact X about" (very useful in combination with the the "relationship central" "I owe" and "waiting for"

The problem comes when a "contact about" next action also involves a context. For example…

• Take ActivityDaughter to store to shop for camp supplies (@errands, ActivityDaughter@)
• Call TravelAgent about summer vacation (@phone, TravelAgent@)
• Call mom for mothers day! (@phone, mom@)

The default ResultsManager Daily Action dashboard filters are set up to avoid you getting a long list of "No Context" next actions that are really "Contact X about" items, by filtering out next actions that involve "partners" from the "@" lists and channeling all these to the "contact…" branch. The result is an errand or call that has a partner doesn't show up on the errand or calls list.

This can be addressed by breaking the context-list branch into two such that one captures specific contexts (regardless of partner) and another captures "no partner/no context" items. I thought I would share the procedure for those interested in learning more about customizing dashboards.

Assuming you already have a daily action dashboard generated, you can quickly open the underlying template by clicking on "open template" on the ResultsManager menu:

If you expand the "Next Actions" branch you can see there are parallel "partner" filters, with the first excluding any "contact about" partners from the next action lists and the 2nd to enumerate them:

What we have done here is leverage a lightly documented filter parameter of "_undefined" and "NOT _undefined" to channel defined contexts to the first branch and then "No Context" items to the 2nd, which are further filtered by the original "Partner=N" filter.

Once you have adjusted your dashboard template, you can save it and start using it. If you would prefer to keep the original, you can change the dashboard name (under application/prepare/properties):

and then save it in the "My Dashboards" folder (or elsewhere if you choose):

If you have chosen to save the template as new, you need to "install template" from the ResultsManager menu while it is active to add it to your list of available dashboards:

If you have questions, just comment below. If you want to learn more about how to build a dashboard template from scratch, see the 7 steps on the wiki. If you don't want to go through the "do-it-yourself" exercise above, you can just download the template from the ResultsManager Dashboard Library.

Related posts:

1. Map2Table — Export your map branches to a linked web page table
2. Putting Things in Context
3. Focusing in on One Area of your Life

In these cases it can be handy to convert this into a tabular format for sharing or review as shown below.

The tabular format can be particularly appealing to map-averse "list people".

The map2table macro can do this conversion quickly for you. The resulting html file can be shared on a web site or easily imported to Excel or Word. It creates the table by compiling a list of the main topics under the selected topic (usually the central topic) and then searching each branch to accumulate the 2nd dimension of the table. You have the choice to set the 1st layer topics as the row to column headings.

The tabular format is also useful when you want a new way to look at a custom ResultsManager dashboard like "Committed Projects and Next Actions" and assess the balance across your areas of responsibility (see earlier blog entry).

Note that the macro will capture a 4th level of detail by combining the text of the underlying topics into the title text of the table hyperlinks so they can be view if you hover on the entry. It also adds hyperlinks associated with the topics by default. More details are available on the macro's wiki page.

Related posts:

1. Export a MindManager Map to Microsoft Excel
2. Map2Table — Export your map branches to a linked web page table
3. GyroTimer 2.0

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

1. Create a new Map

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

2. Set the File Properties

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

3. Build your filter(s)

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

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

4. Save your dashboard template

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

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

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

6. Save and close your dashboard template

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

7. Open a simple project map and test the template

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

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

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

Related posts:

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