thought

examining the concepts behind how we think and various tools to help us document those thoughts

Org-mode – the extensible emacs add-on for outlining and project management

Jonathan gtd, links, programming ,

Org-Mode: Your Life in Plain Text

emacsOrg-mode is for keeping notes, maintaining ToDo lists, doing project planning, and authoring with a fast and effective plain-text system, and it’s FREE.

Org-mode is an add-on for the popular free EMACS editor (programmers editor) and adds a full outline and todo list. All the files are stored in standard txt (ASCII) format so can be edited by any software if required. If you have a dropbox account you can store your outlines on your dropbox account and edit them using any editor or use the EMACS add-on to see the proper outlining.

The author suggests that this wonderful outline tool can be used for GTD, planning, notebooks and web/pdf authoring. There is also extensive documentation. There are some good tutorials covering introduction and power users guides with a useful screencast overview (25 minutes).

The beauty of this product is that it is very extensible and can be adapted by power users to do just about anything that requires outlining and maintaining lists. The files can be published to HTML and XHTML plus other formats such as LaTeX and Gantt Charts for project management integration. There’s a very interesting tech talk from GOOGLE that discusses Org-mode (46 minutes) and well worth listening to.

Leo Laporte’s Podcast network has recently published a podcast that discusses and talks to the author (Carsten Dominik) about org-mode – well worth a listen (as are all the FLOSS podcasts)

GTD articles and information

Jonathan gtd, templates , ,

GTD Websites and software

GTD Getting Things DoneDavid Seah – http://davidseah.com/
Brilliant task planning templates for Getting things done (GTD)

D*I*Y Planner Kits – http://www.diyplanner.com/templates/official
The D*I*Y Planner is a system of do-it-yourself, printable forms in several different sizes and layouts, including Classic (5.5×8.5″), A5, and Hipster PDA (3×5″ index cards). There are over a hundred different templates currently available, covering time management, project planning, creative uses, David Allen’s Getting Things Done, and miscellaneous checklist and note-taking uses.

RememberTheMilk – http://www.rememberthemilk.com

David Allen – http://www.davidco.com/what_is_gtd.php

43Folders – http://www.43folders.com/

WikiPedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done

d-cubed d3 – http://www.dcubed.ca/Welcome_to_d-cubed.html
A system that captures the essence of the “Getting Things Done” approach using the innovative TiddlyWiki browser notebook

MonkeyGTD – http://monkeygtd.tiddlyspot.com/#MonkeyGTD
MonkeyGTD is a Getting Things Done ™ system powered by TiddlyWiki and MPTW. Can also be hosted on TiddlySpot website (use either locally on online)

GTD TiddlyWiki – http://nathanbowers.com/gtdtw/
GTD Tiddly Wiki is a GettingThingsDone adaptation by Nathan Bowers of JeremyRuston’s Open Source TiddlyWiki. The purpose of GTD Tiddly Wiki is to give users a single repository for their GTD lists and support materials so they can create/edit lists, and then print directly to 3×5 cards for use with the HipsterPDA.

ToDoList – http://www.abstractspoon.com/tdl_resources.html
A great free todo list and project management tool. ToDoList is a rare form of task management tool, one that allows you to repeatedly sub-divide your tasks into more manageable pieces whilst still presenting a clean and intuitive user experience. Uses a great outline metaphor for project management and task management. The software has been in production for over 6 years and is very reliable. It is ideal for IT related projects that consist of tasks and sub-tasks, etc.

Evernote – http://www.evernote.com/
Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer or device you use. For free.

GTD using Outlook – http://home.comcast.net/~whkratz/id3.htm
This method is based on treating a Project as if it were an Outlook Contact item.  As a result, you can link all of your associated tasks, contacts, notes, journal entries, documents and any other “objects” to your project, and view them from an Activities Tab, just as you would with a “person” contact.

My Life Organised – http://www.mylifeorganized.net/
– Create tasks and subtasks
– Combine tasks into projects
– Set dependencies
– Assign contexts and flags
– Collaborate
– Track progress
– Sync to Outlook
– Run from a flash drive
– Complete the correct actions!
– Adapts to your to-do system

PocketMod – http://www.pocketmod.com/v2/
Great FUN way of printing out miniature todo lists for yourself with this template and wizard system.

Decent Blogs on GTD

http://www.virgoguidetomarketing.com/
http://www.marketingmixblog.com/posts_by_colleen/

TIPS

AwayFind – Abolish email interruptions – http://www.awayfind.com/
Article on LifeHacker – http://lifehacker.com/5084883/awayfind-gets-urgent-email-through-when-youre-offline

REFERENCES

Mashable articles – http://mashable.com/2009/01/29/getting-things-done/
GTD Wiki – http://gtd.jeffsandquist.com/gtd/Default.aspx?Page=GTDTools&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

What are the BIG 8 things that lead to SUCCESS

Jonathan thought, tips & tricks, video ,

What are the 8 secret things that lead to success?

Listen to the TED video (it’s only 3 minutes long) and it will tell you what the 8 things are. If your even more impatient and don’t even want to have a short explanation here’s the list – do it – become successful – not my words, but sounds like good advice!

  1. Persist
  2. Focus
  3. Work
  4. Passion
  5. Serve
  6. Push
  7. Good
  8. Ideas

The value of Pi

Jonathan thought , ,

What’s the value of Pi (Pie)?

Strange as it may seem the value of Pi (Pie) is actually easy to remember and strangly symetrical…

Bubbl.us – free brainstorming online

Jonathan mindmapping, utils ,

Bubbl.us – free brainstorming online

Bubbl.us is a simple and free web application that lets you brainstorm online. Why use bubbl.us? Because you can: * Create colorful mind maps online * Share and work with friends * Embed your mind map in your blog or website * Email and print your mind map * Save your mind map as an image And it’s FREE!

MindMeister – a brilliant free online mindmapping application

Jonathan gtd, mindmapping , , ,

I’ve just started using MindMeister; a free online mindmapping solution. Mindmeister lets you create up to 6 mindmaps absolutely free. You can share the mindmaps or keep them totally private.

You can share any of the maps by making them either ‘public’ (everyone can see them) or you can ‘invite’ people to collaborate with you and edit the maps. This makes this online application very powerful. The application also allows you to add task information (priorities, resources, dates) and icons to branches on your mindmap. You can also add url links, formatted text and attachments.

Overall mindmeister is a very useful GTD (getting things done) tool and great at collaborating/brainstorming with friends. Multiple people can edit the map at the same time; the application shows all changes to the map over time with a very easy to use slider date control.

I have created several maps; some I share with friends and some are public. “Top things that are interesting” is a map I created recently; I use it as a repository for articles I find on the web where the title says something like: “Top 10 things xxxxx”. This map is easy to share, you can see it here.

The applications sharing abilities allow you add a password so that people have to enter a password to view the map. You can also ’embed’ the map into your web page or blog – again that code to do this is included under properties for the map.

Mindmapping with the Database linker add-on

Jonathan mindmapping , , , ,

Mindmapping with the database linker add-on
Installing the database linker
The Mindmanager database linker addon can bedownloaded and installed. The database linker allows you to Connect to a Microsoft SQL Server Database and show a dataset from the database in a map. Once downloaded and installed you will notice an addition to the tabbed area on the right hand side of the work area:

The database linker requires either MSDE or SQL server of some description installed in order to work. For this example I am using SQL Server 2000 and the Enterprise manager to create and add records to a table.