Introduction

The GTD Series is a series of articles where i share about how i carried out GTD to help me function in daily work.

Part 1 here talks about my plan and overview of my GTD system

Part 2 here talks about why i eventually chose iPod Touch 2G as my main to do list console

Part 3 here talks about why i choose Appigo ToDo for iPhone as my main task manager

Part 4 here talks about how to plan for big projects and smaller projects

Part 5 here talks about how to make use of Contexts, Tags to Execute your tasks

Part 6 here discuss about how you can review projects better using iThoughts mind mapping software

In this article, i will talk more about making use of mind mapping softwares such as iThoughts to plan projects and take notes.

Viewing things from an overall perspective

One of the flaws that i realise for using Appigo ToDo as my main GTD application is that if you want to get a holistic view about things, its difficult.

Why is this so?

In the first part of the series, i highlighted that should you have a new multi step action collected or an action that belongs in an existing project, you should flow back to your Appigo ToDo to perform your project planning assessing what is the actionable task that you should be doing.

Dependencies and Bottlenecks

To me, with my ipod touch on my side all the time, collection is great and dropping it into sub projects. However, certain difficult projects, you would want to see what u have done in chronological order, or an order that shows u dependency. This can’t be done well with most GTD software on the market.

Many folks that use Microsoft project would have realise the importance of dependencies in milestones and tasks and would like to have this flexibility.

For further example we go back to our buying a bicycle example i illustrated in planning for projects and big projects:

1. Ask Son what kind of bicycle he likes
2. Find out how much your family have to pay for the bike (budgeting)
3. Research on where to buy the cheapest bike on the internet
4. Give son a look at the bike see if he likes it
5. Find out what to look out for if it is the first time you are buying a bike
6. Go down and buy the bike
7. Wait for the bike to be delivered to you

In the example here, there are certain things that have no dependency and some that  you have to execute it in a chrono logical order. Example u need to research where to buy the cheapest bike if u are tight on your budget. If you haven’t done that, you can’t carried out the rest of the other actions.

The there are some such as get the son’s approval which, depending on what kind of parent you are you might not care about that and would most likely proceed to action 5 or do it concurrently.

Those actions that do not generate a bottleneck or have dependency are easier to settle. You use your Context management of where you are at such as @Home, @Errands to help u do it fast.

Difficulties in Weekly Review or Daily Review of Project

Those that do, its difficult to use Appigo Todo to view that.

Here we have 3 tasks. If we go by my plan. I would most likely be scheduling my day to solving this client problem. Then i can see what is my next action in office and resolve them. Suppose the bottle neck or the dependency is under @Waiting For or @Contact, then i need to do that first in order to start my actions in @Office.

You can’t see that link in such a GTD application.

If that is the case, what we need to fall back on is to our Weekly Review, Daily Review or Project Review, where we identify what is really the next action.

However, the thing about all these to do list is that, unless you use the desktop ones, you get to see in an order which task you have done and what is left to do.

In Appigo ToDo if you done with the task, it automatically removes it and puts it at the bottom should you chose to show it.

The solution to this is that you should be looking for a mobile task management software that is THAT flexible. But if that is the case, you are looking at something ah la Microsoft Project + Context filtering on iPhone. Do we have that? The answer is i have failed to locate such an application.

iThoughts as a solution

The discovery of mind mapping software such as MindJet and iThoughts have brought about a possible solution to this.

I am still experimenting with it but so far its been a complicated planning process. I don’t want to make it overly complicated so its purely to test out how good iThoughts is as a GTD planning tool.

As a primer to what iThoughts can do, please review this article that shows how powerful this would make your iphone and ipod touch.

Viewing the Vision,Goals and Areas of Responsibility

The thing about iThoughts is that you can bring your map from your favorite desktop mind mapping software Freemind or Mind Manager to this app and vice versa.

So it means that if iThoughts close shop on you, you are not screwed.

So back to topic. You can actually create a vision map to enable u to plan and review your goals and what you hope to achieve.

There are numerous templates out there on the web, and the good thing about iThoughts is that you can always have a template map and duplicate that map so that you can reuse and reuse a map template again.

Here is an example of a map illustrating your goals for the year or 3 years and what are the area’s of responsibility to bring you to that. The great thing about this mind mapping tool is that it can take a large area so u can literally go on to plan your projects here as well. But for me i just find it very clustered if i go on further. I would rather plan sub projects in a seperate map.

iThoughts enable you to show progress as well.so that means you can do quarterly review of these maps to see how far you are from achieve these goals and whether for example you need to redefine your big projects( your big projects will be those Area of Responsibilities, which are equivalent to large lists in Appigo ToDo)

Planning projects in detail

By setting a Project Planning Mind Map Template, you can easily duplicate this template and start planning your projects.

A note is that, it would be best to plan really extensive projects that are more complex here in iThoughts. For simple stuff like buying a bicycle, i would recommend software like Things or Appigo ToDo. It makes life easier. Different software have their strengths and weakness and GTD to-do list excel in quick collection and filtering based on contexts.

Mind Mapping software like iThoughts do not do filtering that well.

The goal of project planning is that you have an idea about

1. Why you are doing this (Purpose)
2. Where you are at
3. Where do you want to be (Outcome)
4. What are my constraints? (time? resources? other complexity?)
5. What do i have to do (Milestones)

And in a template such as this, things become very clear at one glance. This is an example about buying an insurance policy. So the purpose and  outcome and constraints are spelt out clearly whenever you review and plan.

You will also be able to see your progress of each milestones clearly plus how much time you have left or whether a milestone is overdue (denoted by the red clock in “REquest advice from advisor”)

Here we drill down from the milestones to tasks. The conflict that i have is that you can’t really filter your tasks by context. But really if you are someone who wants a once glance review and plan ahead, such a task management mind map will be great.

Here you see that a target icon marks my next action and what i should be focusing on. This would work, if you schedule a time to carry out such a sub project. If you don’t schedule it on your calendar then if you keep so many sub projects map you end up checking here check there to see what you should be doing.

This is where you really give and take and really appreciate Appigo ToDo. You can view all your sub projects and which is your next actions easily but not iThoughts.

I would suggest that for someone who is using a task management application like Things or Appigo ToDo, put your tasks necessary in your Appigo Todo, don’t double entry. it wastes time.

Use iThoughts purely as a review and planning from a higher perspective.

1. Review your iThoughts Milestones
2. Move to your Appigo ToDo check if its completed
3. If it is and all the tasks in the milestones are completed move the progress to the appropriate level.
4. Re-evaluate milestones and brainstorm if there are tasks that needs to be added into any of the milestones.
5. Review if you can still meet your deadline.

Conclusion

This is by no means a good solution. But iThoughts is such a flexible software that it can weave into this purpose of reviewing and keeping track of your 50000 – 20000 feet stuff.

That way you don’t lose track of what is the overall objective.

Introduction

In one of my previous post, i did a brief overview on Mindjet, a mind mapping software that is available for your ipod touch or iphone. Mindjet is also the company that brought you mind manager, a state of the art mind mapping software that is pretty expensive for most of us.

Digital vs Analog Mind Mapping

I used Mind Manager before and really its a great software to mind map on your laptop or desktop. But my good friend Melvin made a comment, that if he were to mind map, he would rather use a piece of paper.

I find that digital mind mapping have advantages, particularly, you can:

• re-arrange the nodes so that you can structure your thoughts
• you can easily archive and reference them next time for notes
• you can translate them into project plans or tasks list
• you can link them to your word,excel and web documents

Perhaps the problem with a desktop or laptop is that for Kinetic people they need to scribble down things instead of clicking and typing and looking at a screen.

For me though, I find it difficult to collect my thoughts or do planning facing a digital mind map. I am a kinetic person, which means i remember things better if i scribble it down. But really, the problem for me is that i tend to misplaced by maps all over the place. So i like something digital, but also enables me to mind map wherever i can, not bounded to any desktop or laptop. The best option is that if i were to be able to find something good on the Apple iPhone app store it will be good!

Requirements of my mind mapping software

In my exploration of apps on the Apple iPhone App Store, i found a few softwares that does mind mapping. Some of them are great like Mind Meister, which touts that their app for the iphone can sync real time with their online maps.However, as part of my needs to keep notes offline and away from the web, i need better solution. Specifically:

• Maps must be sophisticated compare to desktop mind mapping tool
• Maps must be able to view both on iPhone and desktop
• Maps must be portable
• Pricing must be affordable

So i stumble upon Mindjet and iThoughts.

iThoughts Overview

iThoughts was released first before Mindjet. And the similarities between the 2 applications are very very similar. I got a feeling the folks at Mindjet copied what the folks at iThoughts did to come up with theirs (don’t sue me! everyone will think the same way after looking at the comparison here!)

The problem of them being so similar is that for the same price which one should i go for?In the end i took my plunge with iThoughts instead of MindJet and i have not regretted since.

Pricing

Both iThoughts and Mindjet cost USD6.99. Its not cheap, but its not that expensive compare to GTD apps that i bought such as Appigo ToDo. The cost is nothing if it brings improve productivity to my life. Hey, some of my dinner cost like USD15, so i believe i am not paying an expensive price for an independent application.

Version

Version reviewing is version 2.1.

Why is it good?

Basically, most of the basic things you are able to do on your desktop mind map software such as Nova Mind and Mind Manager you can do it here

Able to handle large maps

iThoughts uses a canvas to paint the topics and they tout that you can go greater than 1000x the screen area which is more than enough for me.

You can zoom in zoom out of maps to get a better vantage view after you have rearrange or finish composing

Very good performance

What i really like about this application is that not only does it have a lot of good functionality, those that i expect to be in it, but on the iPod Touch 2G it does it with a very good performance.

• Double tapping immediately brings out the Topic input screen
• Not much lag on scrolling around canvas to review Map
• Organization of the above map neatly is fast

Very friendly Topic input mechanism

Entering a new topic or nodes is a breeze! All you need to do is touch on a parent topic once to select that topic. You can enter a new topic by touching the top buttons to either enter a child or sibling topic.

Additionally, the fast way is to double tap an area to insert a child topic.

(More screenshots and functionality explanation after the break)

[Read the rest of this entry...]

Edited. Found the solution for Palm Pre!

I guess its about time some one comes up with application like these. Granted you might wonder, why would you want to turn your 3G phone into a wireless router?

Why do you need this?

1. You own an iPod Touch. its applications are far superior to your Android applications and you would rather surf web on the go on it ( why i am interested in this!)
2. Checking email on the bus/commuting. You have a laptop and would like to pass time by checking the internet for cool stuff. You want something that can connect without the hassle of bring too much devices with you
3. You have a PMP player like Archos or Creative device that is big on multimedia usage and screen size but it doesn’t have a 3G connection BUT it has WIFI!

Whats the draw back?

1. Software like these normally are very intense on the battery life of the device. you are essentially broadcasting wifi and 3G at once. your battery life can’t last long. this is not a long term solution. It is only a solution for at most an hour.
2. The connection might be quite flaky depending on how good the software is
3. In the case of Windows Mobile, the solution is quite expensive!
4. Do watch your data usage as it might burst your phone bill!

The solution for Android – Android WIFI Tether

The software solution enables tethering (via wifi and bluetooth) for “rooted” handsets running android (such as the Android DevPhone 1). Clients (your laptop for example) can connect via wifi (ad-hoc mode) or bluetooth and get access to the internet using the 3G, 2G mobile connection or (in case you are using bluetooth) the wifi connection which is established by the handset.

The Cost: Free for now

[android-wifi-tether site to download application  >>]

The solution for Symbian – JoikuSpot

The solution for symbian nokia phones is JoikuSpot Light. FREE limited edition of JoikuSpot that connects your laptop to internet via Wifi using your mobile phone’s 3G.

There are essentially 2 solutions: the Free and the Premium. I have not tried the premium but the free one is quite good. It enables me to surf the web on safari on my iPod Touch but not connect to the App Store.

Premium Edition comes with all internet protocols. You can also secure your connection with Premium and use VPN to access secured corporate intrawebs. Premium supports email protocols so you can use email clients like Outlook and Gmail. All settings (like WiFi network naming and default access point) are adjustable in Premium. There is no forced default landing page in Premium Edition. Premium has best performance and connection quality, and auto-reconnects to 3G if the connection is dropped to e.g. 2G temporarily.

Here is a video of Joikuspot working with iPod Touch!

The Cost: Free or EUR 6 for Premium

[JoikuSpot Site to download application >>]

The solution for Windows Mobile – WMWIFIROUTER

WMWifiRouter instantly turns your wifi enabled smartphone* into a wireless internet hotspot. Now you can use your laptop and any other device with wifi to get online and surf, email, instant message, and anything else you normally use the internet for!

This is an expensive software but do download and try it for 14 days you will know why you pay so much for it because it is so robust. I personally tested it. its good!

Here is a video on how it is used:

The Cost: EUR 19.99 (!!!!)

Edit: Refer to post here. There might be a way to use an earlier WMWIFIRouter version when it was free.

[WMWIFIROUTER homepage for more info >>]

Alternative solution:HTC WIFI TETHER Software

HTC is developing their own version of WMWIFIRouter and we are excited as this would likely be free if you know where to look (XDA!)

The Cost: FREE

The solution for Palm Pre – My Tether

* Allows sharing your Sprint EVDO from your Pre to your computer or iPod Touch.
* WiFi network name & WEP key customization options
* Makes Palm Pre into a MiFi-like hotspot at your convenience to share your 3G connection.
* Converts Palm Pre into a Wireless Network adapter by letting you share the WiFi connection on the Pre instead of EVDO when tethering over Bluetooth or USB.
* Option to disable sleep mode on Palm Pre
* Ability to turn off the LCD only, doesn’t put the device into sleep.
* Convenience features such as restoring the old WiFi connection when tethering is disabled, prompts to take care of pre-requesties to tethering, remembering settings and last tether options, restoring modifications to settings back to original value upon exit, and many more to list.

Cost: FREE (Do Donate if you find that its worth it!)

[My Tether download site >>]

The solution if you don’t have a phone – Novatel MIFI Wireless Router

If you do not own the above devices, the solution is to buy a MIFI Wireless Router explained here in my previous post.

Here is a video on it in action:

The Cost:USD 299 without plan

Summary

Right now what i am missing is the solution for creating a wireless modem out of iPhone and Blackberry. I believe that it can be useful to invest in such a software. If you have an alternative to these or cheaper solutions (especially for Windows Mobile) do let me know!

I saw this article on an introduction on Android’s Quick Search Box, which is sort of an universal search for the Android phone. My opinion is that Universal Search might not be for everyone. Most phone users do still prefer clicking on the application icons to access the application for its functionality. This kind of application is more for Geeks who uses the equivalent of Universal Search box like Launchy on the desktop.

However, the benefit of this would increase greatly when:

1. Number of application increases such that you cannot recall the name of the application
2. You don’t search for apps here. you search for content
   1. Email
   2. Contacts
   3. Location
   4. Notes
3. Third Party application codes for Quick Search Box to search for custom content (powerful!)

The last point is the most appealing and it will work as well as the notification for the Android.

This is also where it will win out the iPhone SpotLight, since i dun know whether third party developers can leverage on this spotlight. I do know that for Android the developer can do that, and this gives Android the advantage.

Here are video introduction on both the Android Quick Search Box and the Spotlight:

vs

So which one you think is better?

We know how slick the Google Reader, Gmail and Calendar client is on iPhone and Android. They seem to be like a regular application rather than a browser. Its no disappointment that one of the biggest highlights this month which is Google Wave is now like the great Gmail web client. Techcrunch Noticed something special about bookmarking the Wave page though:

Just like with any Web page on the iPhone, you can save a bookmark on your Home screen, and it creates a little icon which launches mobile Safari to that page. When you save the Wave bookmark to your Home screen, however, something different happens. You go to Wave, but without the Safari wrapper which allows you to navigate to another page or search the Web. Instead, it looks more like a regular app and there is no way to navigate away from it. Everything else works the same as in the mobile browser version.

I haven’t gotten a Wave Account, but i hope someone would be kind enough to give me an invite for this! can’t wait to try it.

Introduction

This is part of a series where i talk about my GTD experience and  my setup.

Part 1 here talks about my plan and overview of my GTD system

Part 2 here talks about why i eventually chose iPod Touch 2G as my main to do list console

Part 3 here talks about why i choose Appigo ToDo for iPhone as my main task manager

Part 4 here talks about how to plan for big projects and smaller projects

Part 5 here talks about how to make use of Contexts, Tags to Execute your tasks

Part 6 here discuss about how you can review projects better using iThoughts mind mapping software

In today’s article i will share with  you how I normally go about planning for tasks, projects and sub-projects.

Where are we now?

Ok, so in Part 1 I have presented this workflow chart which is how i would illustrate my collection, planning, processing and execution model.

Today, I will talk a fair bit on project planning. I skipped the collection portion cause I think this is a more complex portion of GTD thus i would explain more on this first.

What Constitutes as Projects?

When you collected an idea, piece of information or a probem, you decide if it is actionable. If it is, the key to decide if it is a project or a simple actionable task is how much steps you need to execute to reach your successful outcome.

Remember, thinking about your successful outcome is important, just like defining clear and manageable goals, it keeps you on the right direction on what you are suppose to do.

Personally, that was what is described about projects, but to me there is no hard and fast rule. Why this is important is because you need to break a task down to actionable steps.

If it is too complicated, you do not know how to start the blardy task and you end up procrastinating on it.

So for task that is named:

“Get Son a new bicycle”

It can be a very simple actionable step, like go downstairs go to the nearest bike shop and buy the bike. That is, if you already know what you are looking for.  But most of the times it is not so simple.

That simple task normally consist of:

1. Ask Son what kind of bicycle he likes
2. Find out how much your family have to pay for the bike (budgeting)
3. Research on where to buy the cheapest bike on the internet
4. Give son a look at the bike see if he likes it
5. Find out what to look out for if it is the first time you are buying a bike
6. Go down and buy the bike
7. Wait for the bike to be delivered to you

So, you see, our task may not be that simple at all.

Another small problem that maybe isn’t that small

In life, most of the time don’t end up the way you wanted it to turn out. Take the example that in your work as an IT engineer, you are suppose to solve a problem on your IT system you are supporting.

So again, the simple task will go something like this in your normal to do list:

“Solve why the entries do not show up on the procurement page.”

It is a simple task, if you investigated and found that a bug in your source code will delete off these entries when the user view it. So Simple

Or it could be you investigated and turn out that the entries don’t come just from your system but goes to another system and then back to your system.

Then it becomes a bigger problem that could go something like

1. Find out from database whether the entries are there
2. If database entries are there, investigate at source codes to find out if there is a problem with the codes
3. If your codes do not have a problem, find out if the other system did give us the right entries to combine to ours
4. If they didn’t inform the engineers from the other system to investigate and get back to you
5. Engineer gets back to you say that the problem is related to them but they do not have the expertise to fix it nor the budget
6. Inform your boss about this and discuss with him
7. Set up a meeting between the manager of both projects
8. more shit stuff
9. more shit stuff

Yes, sometimes our lives can get quite bad in IT line. but it is a good illustration and our friends in other industry can attest that one small problem can remain small but most times they just get bigger and bigger and take longer and longer.

The above 2 serves as examples of why certain task, you have to break them down into projects with actionable steps. Had they remain as the original task entry, you will not see what needs to be done. I can list down the steps to this xamples well because i have experience with them, but sadly not everything is like that. Making them actionable and asking “What is the next action?” would enable you to kick start the engine to perform the work.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

Introduction

For those new to this article, it is part of a series of articles where I share my GTD system.

Part 1 here talks about my plan and overview of my GTD system

Part 2 here talks about why i eventually chose iPod Touch 2G as my main to do list console

Part 3 here talks about why i choose Appigo ToDo for iPhone as my main task manager

Part 4 here talks about how to plan for big projects and smaller projects

Part 5 here talks about how to make use of Contexts, Tags to Execute your tasks

Part 6 here discuss about how you can review projects better using iThoughts mind mapping software

In this Part 2 of the series I will share about some of my past systems that i used to do organizing and planning as well as my default choice now.

My past systems

I tried quite a fair bit of systems before this since my school days years ago.

Microsoft Outlook

I have never know to use a to do list but find out Microsoft Office opens me to a software that almost every knows about in Microsoft Outlook. It was fashion as an email client, but it does provide a rather robust Calendar, Contact List and To Do list functionality.

Problem

I thought the first thing that i don’t like about it is how hard it is to clear off all the done tasks from the list! I never had problem with the Calendars and Contacts but that is one aspect that i cannot stand.

What got me off this system wasn’t that however. As a student then, it involves alot of moving to school and really i cannot sync my task management system when in school since during that time computer wasn’t that advance and not many schools have very fully functional computers.

PDAs – The Sony Clie and the Windows Mobile PDAs

As i approach university, i began to use my hard earned pocket money on PDAs. They were expensive then, but damn were they useful.  You can plan your time table and create reminders and read books on them.

I especially like my experience with the Palm based Sony Clie. Its very responsive and together with Agendus for palm it was enough for me then.

I subsequently sold off my palm when i decide to move over to Windows Mobile Platform. My options were to get a PDA and i promptly got a HP iPaq 2210. The windows mobile platform offers more software and functionality, but also more niggling problems such as memory leak, crashes and all. But with Pocket Informant, it turned out to be one of the best capturing and organizing platform. I got myself a second hand O2 Mini when i decide to try an integrated device.

Problem

However, it is during this period that i realise the flaws of the To-Do list. Even with a robust software like Pocket Informant, having a single layer task management system  without buckets or multiple lists just does not make sense, cause that is just so much you can put in categories until it overwhelms you.

It is also during this period that i realise i got alot of tasks note down but which one do i do first? Before GTD, I got to the point where i didn’t check on my list for some time and just got completely off the system

Web Based Remember the Milk Heaven

In the first years of my working life, I had a much earlier experience compared to my peers on cloud computing and one of the first software that caught my attention was Remember the Milk.

Remember the Milk is a web based To Do list software that is hosted on their private server. There are paid versions and free ones but really if you are using web based task management the free one will just suffice.

Its got to be one of the most extensive javascript application that i have ever seen. Everything occurs almost on one single page and it works because of the extensiveness of ajax scripting.

When i first saw it i was thinking why i will not use it. I wouldn’t be online most of the time, if i don’t have internet connection, does that mean i can’t plan and do stuff any more? Luckily, Remember the milk have incorporated Google Gears which allow offline viewing. (its really well done.)

I really feel this is the right system and i blog about it extensively here how i used to work with it. Do take a look at this article to find out more.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

Introduction

Folks will be interested to find out how i actually carried out the things thatI often blog about. And this series of articles is an illustration to show how i actually do that.

Part 1 here talks about my plan and overview of my GTD system

Part 2 here talks about why i eventually chose iPod Touch 2G as my main to do list console

Part 3 here talks about why i choose Appigo ToDo for iPhone as my main task manager

Part 4 here talks about how to plan for big projects and smaller projects

Part 5 here talks about how to make use of Contexts, Tags to Execute your tasks

Part 6 here discuss about how you can review projects better using iThoughts mind mapping software

For this series, I will talk about how i carried out Getting Things Done in my daily personal and work life.

What is Getting Things Done and why do I use it?

Getting Things Done is a method Mr David Allen came up with to help get things out of your brain so that it frees up the memory and processing capabilities of our tiny brain to do the things that actually matters.

Simply put, its  a productivity and organizing technique that serves an alternative to Stephen Covey and his method listed in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Getting Things Done or GTD in short ain’t something new. Its been blogged about for sometime but I would recommend for people who want to practice this seriously to pick up David Allen’s book and read it. You won’t get a better picture then from the man himself trust me.

I know different people work differently but perhaps you can contrast it against Stephen Covey’s methods. In that case, do pick up his book to find out more about his method.

I always wondered if i can organize what i do and the things and people that i worked with better and i used to bump around solutions to make things work, organize tasks so that it makes sense to me. But sooner i realise that it just not working. I would just stay away from my task / todo list or my calendar cause they just don’t make sense.

My Experience With the 4 Quadrants

I even tried out marking things into the 4 categories listed in 7 habits of highly effective people and really to me its very hard to make sense.

Consider things like:

Its a good thing to focus on the 80/20 rule, which is the 20% that is most important and matters, but really, as an individual, the 80% needs to get done as well.

Another gripe about this system is that what if the important and urgent things gets too much. Which one should you focus on first? Hey, they are all important and urgent isn’t it?

Do also note that things that are Important and not urgent would eventually move into Important but urgent. In that case, you will really get your hands tied up with alot of important and urgent stuff.

I always think that this only address the problems of managers who look at things on the strategic levels. When you are a small fry like i am, I have to think about the strategic stuff and worry about the small, time intensive things that i cannot delegate to others since i am the lowest of the lowest.

Why i find Getting Things Done better

GTD in a sense, is a god send. I used to think that GTD is all about creating Tasks and categories. That was before i read David Allen’s book and realise that it actually make a lot of practical sense compare to the 7 Habits.

Applying the living with it shows that its not the perfect system. Rather people spend alot of time creating the perfect GTD system. But hey, i think it gives quite alot of tools in the book to create your own system compare to the other book.

It makes sense to me because it explains strategic and day-to-day planning for an individual well.

The 6 Levels of Focus

The 6 perspectives illustrates planning at different levels and how it all adds up.

• The small Actions forms the goal to finish the Projects.
• The projects will eventually satisfy the Area of Responsibility
• Reaching the goals set for your area of responsibility will satisfy your Yearly Goals
• Which should be inline with your Life Goals or 5 Yearly Goals

As an illustration, I will not list out my Vision, Yearly Goals upwards but my Area of Responsibilities.

I don’t think i need to defined whether they are for work of personal since its pretty intuitive. These areas will eventually be your Big Project Buckets or Lists and you might get increase area of responsibility when

• you evaluate that you have new personal goals, and what is the big areas of responsibility that you need to achieve it. e.g. take good care of grandmother whose health is not in the best condition
• when your boss adds more assignments to you such that, you need special attention to it as it consumes much of your mental and physical resources e.g. handle the transition and knowledge transfer of Project B

My Work flow Process

Your work flow process will take care of how you execute the stuff that you get spammed with in life and how to make sense of it physically. Normally this would be where most people need the most help since people don’t normally think every day about what i want to achieve rather when would be a good time to do task A or task B or should i file or throw away this brochure.

The work flow process described treats every thing that comes along as a conveyor belt that gets rinse and repeated every time things comes along your way:

I am not gonna overload you by explaining my workflow but i will be explaining in the subsequent posts how all these will pan out. Having such a workflow looks complex but really it isn’t. Let me just say that without such workflow things that goes within your brain is even more complex than this diagram!

Conclusion

I realise the hard way that its not at all about coming up with the most fool proof plan. You learn along the way the flaws about your plan, about yourself and you improve upon it.

But i do realise that everyone is searching for the holy grail but perhaps there isn’t.Thats why i blog about this so that i hope people can contrast against the way i do things and refine or justify that what they do is better or worse than mine.

Next Up i will talk about Appigo ToDo, my current Life Planning Project Management software.

[Productive Organizer GTD Series Part 2:iPod Touch as an organizer]

The folks at MindJet have finally put into place their powerful Mind Mapping Software for the iPhone and iTouch platform.

And its pretty steep at USD7.99. Cheaper than Appigo Todo but nevertheless it should be worth the money.

MindJet have been creating a smashing Mind Mapping desktop client that integrates well with Microsoft Suite of products.

So how good was this? I didn’t manage to test it out but take a look at the video right below this post. It should give you a comprehensive look at what it is capable of.

What can this MindJet do?

• Attach notes to Topics – with hyperlinks to phone numbers, website, email addresses and other MindJet maps
• Wireless upload download
• Auto align and arrange topics relative to each other
• Zoom and Scroll
• Landscape and Portrait Mode
• Cut,copy and paste, move and merge topics
• Insert color and icones
• Change color
• Expand and collapse Topics

How do you Upload and Download Maps?

The way to upload is the same as GoodReader which i mentioned here. It should make use of WebDAV protocol and should be a breeze. Just click on Transfer in the MindJet iPhone software and a url to your iPhone Device will pop out.

Click on that link and you are able to upload and download Mind Maps

What format is supported?

Do note that it supports only uploading and downloading in .xmmap format, which is not the normal MindManager format. Its not so much of a problem as you can open up the map in your  Windows client and Save As xmmap format.

Other than that you can upload it in

• Mindjet Native (.itm) format, which is the native format for MindJet for iPhone
• Freemind format
• OPML format (RSS feeds?)

So does that mean my map on the iPhone can be edited on Windows,Mac clients?

Yes. According to the FAQ.

Can I save my map as an Image?

No you cannot. According to the FAQ

Does it have To Do list function?

Yes it does.

What can i Embed In the Notes?

• www. will auto generate web link
• http(s) will auto generate web lnk
• A stream of numbers will generate a phone no you can call
• SMS:nnnnnnn will generate and link to the SMS application
• [map name] will generate a link to another map (that includes the brackets as well)

How much it cost?

$7.99 for now.

Mindjet for iPhone from Mindjet on Vimeo.

Overall its a smashing new application on the App Store. This is really good offering to your normal GTD To Do list like OmniFocus, Things and Appigo ToDo in that you can really plan your Goals and see how they link up.

I should be buying this soon.

[Buy MindJet at the App Store >>]

How you can assess your word,excel,powerpoint, movies and pdf documents both on your computer,blackberry,android phone,ipod touch and iphone

Joining, SugarSync,Dropbox is another company Soonr, that aims to provide data backup and data on the go for the business worker.

Looking at how the website is set up you will know that they ain’t targeting folks like us but really business users, SME users and the likes.

Why would you use this?

Simply, there are files we do not know where we will need to view. Such as reference PDF, word and excel documents, even photos.

The problem with uploading to a site for sharing or backing up is that you need to have the intention that there is a possibility that you will need to assess it while you are on the go or accross your home and office. You do not always know that

What you do then, is create a folder dump that you put things by category and should you need to access it, you can have assess to it whether its on your iphone, ipod touch, black berry, android phone or another desktop pc with internet assess.

The positive aspect is that for Soonr, you can span it across 2 or more pc, on your iPhone, through your mobile web browser or your web browser. All of them link to one account.

Costing

Like Dropbox,Syncplicity and Sugarsync, the BASIC PACKAGE is FREE! That will give you 2GB of online backup, used by 2 users and up to 3 projects. That is really the bare minimum.

The premium account cost USD 7.95 and that will get you:

• 10GB backup
• File versioning
• up to 3 users
• Unlimited projects
• Team Drive online disk drive

Not so much of a big improvement except that you have unlimited projects

The pro account will set you back USD 19.95 per month

• 40GB backup
• File Versioning
• 5 users
• Unlmited projects
• Team Drive online disk drive

Signing up

Signing up is easy! We will be signing up for the Standard one since i am demoing it.

Installing on your desktop

Once you finish signing up, you can download the client to install and backup files on your desktop

It will then download the 6MB installer for windows

[Read the rest of this entry...]