I do wish the Mac version had some of the cool functionality of the Windows version but still, the main aspect of being able to create awesome Mind Maps is there in the Mac version.
In my opinion, MindJet have really raised their game, especially since Michael Deutch (a regular reader of this blog) has joined the team and started writing for the blog.
I recently received an email from MindJet that provided a summary of some of their recent productivity and GTD activity via their blog and website. It is that good that I decided to repeat some of these great links here for the benefit of my blog readers.
So, here is the list of MindJet links to check out:
I am a MindJet affiliate and do make money if you follow my links and buy MindManager. I love this tool and have been using and promoting it a long time before they launched an affiliate program!
As always, I would love to hear any other tips, tricks, or links you have regarding GTD and Mind Mapping!
Oh, and if somebody from MindJet reads this, get a move on with an iPhone application as I would really love to see MindManager on the Apple iPhone!
I am sat writing this on the train from Leeds to London. Free Wifi on the train is powering my Internet so no need for the 3G card.
Here are my collection of links for this week.
My first link for this week is a link to an interview with David Allen from the Washington Post. The interview is about how to Get Things Done and Organize Your Life.
My second link is a link to the Shoeboxed Blog that announces integration with Evernote. Shoeboxed is a service that allows you to mail in your receipts as and when you need to and now with the Evernote integration they will scan them into your Evernote account. If only they had this in the UK I would be a customer for sure!
My third link is a link to a review of Making it All Work, the latest book from GTD creator David Allen. I am quite shocked to admit that I have not yet read this book, but it is the next on my reading list after I have finished with Twyla Tharp and the Creative Habit.
My fourth link is a link to a great article comparing Getting Things Done and Autofocus. Both are great productivity methodologies and it is good to see the writers viewpoint of the differences between these two systems.
My fifth and last link is a link to some information about the latest version of reQall. reQall is an iPhone application that I reviewed back in November 2008 when it first came to my attention. One of the main new features of reQall is the ability to do location based reminders. All in all reQall should be looked at if you have an iPhone and want to improve your productivity.
Well, the WiFi is still holding up so I will publish this whilst I still can. I am down in London for a couple of days on a training course, should be fun.
I have just returned from a great four day break in the English Lake District with my wife. We were lucky to get babysitter for our children and we escaped for three great nights in the Lakes.
On Friday we did an 8 mile walk of Loughrigg Fell. Taking in Loughrigg Tarn, Grasmere, and Rydal Water. On Saturday we walked three of the Langdale Pikes, Pavey Ark, Harrison Stickle and Pike Of Stickle.
Had a great relaxing weekend away from the usual stresses and strains. I manged to eventually start reading “The Creative Habit” by Twyla Tharp. I bought this book around Christmas and I am enjoying reading it. Full review to follow.
Quite a big GTD week this week with the GTD Summit taking place in San Francisco. No doubt there will be loads of news to follow.
Here are my collection of links for this week.
My first link for this week is a post about Email Zero! – We have all heard of Inbox Zero, well how about Email Zero!. This is a post that outlines what an MIT Professor has done to only read his email once every three months.
My second link is a link to a 7 Step Program of Stress Management. We all have stress and we all handle it in different ways. I do not tend to show stress but that can be the worse way to handle it as it is there building up inside of you. This is a neat little post with 7 steps on how to handle your stress.
My third link is a link originally from Twitter about the way one user uses OmniFocus. I love OmniFocus and I love reading about how other people use it in their lives.
My fourth link is a link to a new GTD application called Getting Things Gnome. Getting Things Gnome, or GTG is the first true GTD application for the Linux GUI, Gnome. This is a great step forward for any Linux GTD’ers and I will be trying this app out in the coming weeks on one of my Linux laptops.
Had a great day yesterday at ThinkVisibility which was a one day social media, SEO, and blogging conference that was held in my home town of Leeds. Great speakers and I left the day feeling inspired!
Here are a collection of links for this week.
My first link for this week is a great post on GTDTimes from David Pierce explaining why the Web Works for GTD. David is a reader of this blog and regular commenter and it is great to see him turn his hand to writing, well done and great post!
My second link is a link to a post that reviews Things for the iPhone. I briefly tried Things but I am still firmly routed to my GTD App of choice, OmniFocus.
My third link is a link to a Helpful Guide on how to Reduce Stress. Nice little post where the author identifies Procrastination as the largest issue. Worth a read or listen as they have the facility to play the blog post via a podcast.
My fourth link is a nice list of Top iPhone Apps from the Molanphy Blog. I am posting this link as I read the short review of Ambience and then went ahead and bought it.
My fifth and last link for this week is a link to a competition on the Nozbe Blog to win a free pass to the GTD Summit in San Francisco. This is a free gift with a $2295 value and if you are around the bay area a great prize to win! You have to comment on the post at the Nozbe blog in order to stand a chance of winning.
Just a quick post to let you all know that the Nozbe GTD Application is now available for free download from the iTunes Store.
Nozbe has been up to now a web based application without any desktop client. The launch of the iPhone App has made Nozbe mobile, and surely appeal to a much wider audience.
Now, I do not use Nozbe myself, and the main reason has been due to the lack of the iPhone client. So, maybe now I will take a proper look at Nozbe as I do like the idea of having a Web App front end to my GTD system and this is what is currently missing from my OmniFocus set up.
OmniFocus is App based and I use it on my Mac. I would welcome the use of a cloud based web app and will try to get Nozbe working for me.
I have been using OmniFocus both on my Mac and iPhone since beta versions of both products.
I have had my gripes with OmniFocus on the iPhone, mainly due to the speed and I am glad to say that v1.2 definitely feels snappier, but still there is still some room for improvement before that annoying lag is removed from the application startup.
Here are a list of new features in v1.2 of OmniFocus for the iPhone.
The Nearby view now displays each context as soon as its distance is determined, rather than waiting to figure out the distance to each context before showing any results. It also scrolls much faster.
Checkboxes are much easier to touch.
When creating a new action, the keyboard appears immediately rather than sliding in after the screen.
On the home screen, Settings have moved to the Info button in the bottom right corner.
The Reset Database button in Settings will now reset the saved sync password in addition to the database, and will then take you back to the original welcome screen.
Syncing automatically compacts the database on a regular basis, but when syncing is not enabled there’s now a Compact Database button in Settings. (There’s also some text there indicating how many tasks are stored in how many zip files, so you can tell whether your database could benefit from compacting.)
Added underlying support for the new autocomplete settings for projects and groups which are coming in OmniFocus v1.6 for Mac.
Actions without contexts are no longer considered unavailable
Version 1.6 of the desktop app has just gone to Sneaky Peak so that will hopefully be due out soon, bringing with it improvements.
Zoho is a popular project management program which has only been available for desktop and laptop usage up until last year.
The addition of the iZoho iPhone application is meant to branch the service out to smartphone users who require access to the organizational software while away from the computer.
The release of iZoho effectively boiled down the existing formula of the program in order to provide an optimized experience for mobile users.
This effort has resulted in the iPhone version hosting only document, presentation and spreadsheet access, something which is still fairly impressive but ultimately of lesser worth than competing programs.
Users are able to open, edit or create new Zoho documents and organize their data through this format but are forbidden write authorization for the other two categories.
While it may be useful to view presentation and spreadsheet information the document-only usage of iZoho cuts the service off from being of any real use past a simple convenience for pre-existing Zoho users.
Although there is certainly nothing wrong with iZoho it’s difficult to shake the feeling that there are better uses of your time and effort while perusing the software.
Taken as what it is, iZoho is sufficient as a somewhat limited productivity app but fails in holding itself up against the competition and it’s own, non-mobile renditions.
Do you have any experience with iZoho? Please leave a comment and share if you do.
I have got quite a few reviews stacked up for release on this blog and I cannot believe that I have never published a review of Evernote before.
I did review the Evernote iPhone application a few months ago. I love Evernote and it really is one of those applications that I use on a daily basis.
Evernote is one of the most well-known organizational programs on the internet and is a great choice for users looking for a GTD application or just a better, general tool to help sort out their daily lives.
Its “remember everything” slogan encapsulates the main goal of the app; to provide an easy and convenient method of taking digital notes from the user’s daily life.
Visually, Evernote is outstanding. The simple yet detailed aesthetic cultivated by the developers makes the program very welcoming and a joy to check into.
Evernote’s main features are all clearly laid out and easy to access for new users or those who only ever really use the program at a basic, surface level.
Each form of the system from the no-download web access to portable phone usage looks and navigates extremely well so users shouldn’t be worried about how their operating system or choice in medium will be able to handle it.
The developers of Evernote have obviously spent a lot of time packing the program with important features. Interface support is, frankly, quite astonishing.
As mentioned before, Evernote can be used on the web, on a Windows or Mac Client and also on mobile devices including the Apple iPhone. The option of signing in and using the whole array of tools without a download is also great for users who wish to access the program from various computers.
Some of the more innovative aspects of the application include incredibly simple copy and pasting from the web (both words and pictures) into Evernote and text searching within images.
The “Endless Tape” view through Evernote Windows is also interesting in that it allows users to scroll through all of the ‘memories’ they’ve pasted into the program — a great feature for those who want to make sure absolutely everything gets sorted from within their various files.
Once notes have been taken it’s also quite easy to organize, store and peruse your various work which makes it an excellent choice for those who want to incorporate the program into a GTD philosophy of work.
There aren’t too many faults worth mentioning with Evernote when considering the large amount of attention and continued work that has obviously gone into the program. While it may have a fairly overwhelming number of features this is ultimately a pretty difficult aspect of the program to consider negative.
The community attached to the program should help to make the learning curve relatively gradual and exciting. In future versions it would be good to see a greater emphasis on sorting information into more detailed categories, tasks and next actions although users are still able to make this happen on their own accord with a bit of effort.
The support is pretty remarkable and it’s obvious that the popularity of the program has lead to a great, helpful community. From Evernote’s homepage users can peruse press releases, news, updates, tours and manuals along with a quick video tour which highlights the main program features for the uninitiated.
RSS feeds, Facebook fan pages, FriendFeed and Twitter options all help to further increase the level of involvement with the Evernote world that dedicated fans can choose to get into as well.
Users will no doubt be impressed by Evernote and its wealth of features no matter what kind of organizational tool they’re interested in.
Whether accessed through the website, offline mode or via a mobile phone the program is a great bet for the busy user interested in introducing a little more order to their day to day lives.
Twitter has caught on in a huge way for many internet addicts and blog fanatics alike but the biggest problem with the site can be the time it takes to access and peruse when you’re just looking to make a quick update.
The Twinkle app for the iPhone looks to address this by providing a far more productive method of using Twitter.
Twinkle provides a convenient way to posting tweets no matter where you are and does so with a great deal of ease. The iPhone app functions perfectly and allows for quick Twitter use without having to go through the hassle of logging on to your computer to get onto the website.
The most interesting capability that Twinkle brings to the table is the ability to tweet your location data along with your message. While it is a great method of using the iPhone’s technological capabilities to enhance your posts it should be noted that this GPS information is only visible for other Twinkle users and doesn’t show up through the Twitter website.
For hardcore Twitter fans Twinkle is a good call although it does lose points for not having the map feature translate onto the main site (and adding their official user, Twinkleking to your list!). Overall the app is still a great download for those who tweet often enough that portable access is a relevant selling feature.
iPhone owners can pick and choose from a staggering number of productivity applications, many of which are excellent in their own right, but the aim of your organizational goals is usually the most important criteria for choosing the right download.
Round Toit is pretty much just another of many to-do list applications but it succeeds in finding a good way to channel all of your tasks into a solid, temporary holding tank.
I first heard of the term a Round Toit from Zig Ziglar who is told to carry one in his pocket as his business card. Then when people say that haven’t got around to it, he would give them his card and say “You have now”.
Round Toit succeeds in its work toward providing a fully realized grouping and sorting system for all types of data. The application doesn’t aspire to be something that it isn’t and focuses well on the specific task of collecting and organizing all sorts of data the user has collected.
Items can be prioritized in different manners and allow for customized alerts, deadlines and more while unsorted work can be filtered into organized and/or unorganized categories for later handling. All lists can be moved around or edited quite easily and the overall view is clean and pleasant to look at.
The application costs $4.99 to download but may very well be worth the entry fee for iPhone owners in the market for a new productivity application. Probably the best way to assess Round Toit is within its stated framework as a to-do list and nothing else.
Users expecting a fully formed GTD app will be disappointed with the lack of options but those interested in a fantastic, virtual dumping point for new work and memos will likely be quite pleased with what Round Toit accomplishes.
