... One Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey Typing!

... One Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey Typing is moving!

2006-07-08T04:16:00.000+01:00

... One Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey Typing will be moving to a new address: ie http://www.pascalvenier.com/blog/ and will now be powered by Wordpress and hosted by BlueHost.

I have transfered all the posts and comments which can now be viewed there.

Do not forget to update your bookmarks or feeds.

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Foldera: the new free virtual office

2006-07-06T20:19:00.000+01:00

Although I still have not received my own credential for a beta account (hint! hint!), I nevertheless have been able to take a good look at the way Foldera works, having been given this week the opportunity to use an existing account. This is thanks to Marc Orchant, who has recently very kindly invited me to become a member of the virtual advisory board, which he is currently setting up for his new endeavour, ClassFolders, Foldera’s proposed education vertical solution.

The Foldera vision is a simple but very powerful one: organizing the user's work instantly. According to a blurb:
"Foldera is a new way to access and manage your applications, teams, activities and information, sorted by project, from wherever you are in the world. Using Foldera, you can instantly share, organize and archive your information and data."
A, or rather the, key feature in Foldera is the Activity Folder. Activity Folders allow for the automatic sorting and filing of information and documents. Once an Activity folder has been created, each email message, IM, but also documents created in other applications are accessed from within the folder in question. I have found Foldera surprisingly easy to use and managed to do everything I wanted to do quasi-instinctively. It is only later, when I decided to prepare this post, that I took a good look at the online manual, which is unusually clear and helpful.

Foldera is great for group collaboration and working on a common project, as it makes exchanging documents and making comments about them very easy, but it would undoubtedly benefit from including a wiki capability, which is unfortunately missing at the moment. As the concept of automatically filing documents is so central to Foldera, I did find paradoxical that there is currently no possibility to actually archive email messages. The gmail message archiving function has become so central to the way I process emails and get to an empty in-box by the end of each day, that I was disapointed not to find something similar here.

As someone working across platforms (MacOS/Windows) and from two different places (home office/office at the university), I can fully appreciate the advantages using Foldera would have for myself. It could also benefit friends: tongue in cheek, I would venture in saying that using Foldera, my friend Chris Brogan, of Lifehack fame, would no longer be loosing his USB memory sticks! ;^) I was initially seduced by ContactOffice, which I find very useful. However, Foldera really seems to have the potential to take things to a whole new dimension. It seems clear that the Huntington Beach folks are going in the right direction: talks of the integration of applications and possible mash ups are in this respect most encouraging. Now, could it bring about a real paradigm shift? It is perhaps early days to tell, but it seems to be a real possibility.

Coming soon: an interview with Marc Orchant on Foldera and Getting Things Done.

technorati tags:Foldera, ClassFolders, Collaboration, ContactOffice, Virtual Office, Marc Orchant, gmail, GTD, Getting Things Done, GTD, Chris Brogan, Productivity, Activity Folders, Huntington Beach,

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Flock Browser Beta

2006-07-05T16:36:00.000+01:00

I am taking the opportunity of the summer break to try and blog more regularly.

As no detailed blog post seems to have been published on Foldera since the release of the Beta on 19 June 2006, I have decided to prepare one of my own which should be posted later this week. For the time being, here are my first impressions on the new Flock browser.

I have been trying the Flock Browser Beta 1 (v. 0.7) for Mac OS X since yesterday and must say that I was so impressed that it was pretty much an immediate adoption. I would therefore very strongly recommend it to anyone. Two of my favourite features, besides the favorites toolbar à la Safari, are:

Flock's Photobar which allows you to view online photos from a Flickr account (yours or a friends) at the top of the browser,
The built-in blog editor, which allows you to write and edit blog posts and which I am using to write this post. It is really user friendly and so easy to use. The way it creates very simply technorati tags is really cool.

technorati tags:Foldera, Flock, Flickr, Web2.0

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An interesting business model for book publishing

2006-07-05T10:29:00.000+01:00

I was listening this morning in my car to the French state-owned radio France-Inter, which had a good programme on La Révolution internet, de l'e-commerce à l'e-citoyenneté (The Internet Revolution, from e-commerce to e-citizenship). One of the guests was Joel de Rosnay who has published earlier this year a book entitled, La révolte du pronétariat (The Revolt of Pronetariat). I did find the pun on proletariat/pronetariat rather amusing. The new concepts created by Rosnay are those of "pronétaires" (English "Pronetarians") and pronétarians (Eng. "Pronetariat"), which he defines in the following way in the introduction of the book (my translation): "I call "pronetarians" (from the grec pro, ahead, before, but also favorable to something, and the English net [...] a new class of digital networks users capable of producing, diffusing, selling non-proprietary digital content, by implementing the principles of the "new New Economy".

What did really get my attention is the business-model the author described for the marketing of the book which really did got my attention. He explained how the book published by one of Paris' leading publishing house, Fayard, was initially released in a traditional way through bookshops in February 2006. About six months later, it was then made available online for free download, under a Creative Commons licence. The book sold very well the first time round, but the release of the free online version resulted in a second wave of purchase of the print version of the book, as people like to own their own copy. It seems to be a good win-win strategy which allow to combine making knowledge freely available online (a principle Rosnay advocates in the book) and profitability for the printed book.

Also of interest is the fact that the book is available online in three different versions. The originality here is that it is not only available as as html and as pdf, but also as a podcast. The technology used for creating this audio version is the ReadSpeaker.

I really much like the idea. So much so that I intend not only to have a good look at the ReadSpeaker technology, but to contact the publishing house which published my first book, back in 1997, with a view to emulating Joel de Rosnay's idea.

technorati tags:Pronetariat, Publishing, JoeldeRosnay, Internet, e-citizenship, ReadSpeaker

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Lars Plougmann on "When and where should be free information"

2006-07-04T10:52:00.000+01:00

Writing about current devates on regulations governing the internet, Lars Plougmann, over at Mind this has written a very interesting post on When and where should be free information:

He writes: "This weekend I learned about two government follies. One is a lesson from history, the other is a current example. Both are about restricting access to information, limiting freedom and economic activity", and elaborates on the facts that "in 1797 the English parliament decided to impose a tax on personal timepieces" and that "in Russia today, civilians are not allowed to use GPS. The government is afraid that decentralised mapping threatens national security. This makes it difficult for organisations to record locations of their assets and use of car navigation systems is almost unheard of."

I, of course agree with his overall argument. I nevertheless would like to add that the regulations mentionned about GPS in Russia do sound rather odd, probably pointless, and most definitelly anachronisticly reminiscent of the spirit of the Cold War, one needs to bear in mind that whislt widely used by civilians, GPS remains a military technology. It was set up by the US DoD and is managed by the 50th Space Wing at Schriever Air Force Base. Let us bear in mind that historically, as French Geographer Yves Lacoste famously once put it, "La Géographie, ça sert d'abord à faire la guerre", "Geography's prime purpose is war".

The Russians incidently maintain their own global system, the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) and the European Union is developping its own, Galileo, which should be up and running (Sorry about the lousy pun!) in 2010.

More in the wikipedia article on Global Positioning System

Breaking News: Tom Raftery's Mac Crashed!

2006-06-22T20:52:00.000+01:00

Astonishing news from Tom Raftery IT's blog: his Mac crashed!.

Why e-mails are so easily misunderstood

2006-06-16T18:11:00.000+01:00

The Christian Monitor carried yesterday a most fascinating article on It's all about me: Why e-mails are so easily misunderstood. I came accross the article in the Slacker Manager's link fest. I could not agree more and I speak from experience.

A few thoughts on Improv after the Life Hack podcast

2006-06-14T22:39:00.000+01:00

Matt Cornell commented on my earlier post on by telling me that he is finishing the book now and that it is neat.

I must say that after listening to the new Life Hack podcast for Lifehack.org, I really feel like trying and getting hold of the book, if it is available in Britain. What I have heard about the book in this podcast has inspired a number of comments I would like to make. Here they are.

I must say that the thought which came to my mind, whilst listening to the podcast, is that what I perceived as having been some of the best lectures I ever gave at the university were those when I had forgotten my lecture notes at home, or the time when the university network was down a few years ago and when I could not use the powerpoint presentation I had prepared, and had to speak from the top of my head, after spending a couple of minutes drawing a very basic mind map.

I also sometimes, when I have difficulties writting a paper and I feel really stuck resort to using a digital dictation system, and improvising a 15 minutes lecture. Transcribing what I said may take time but it is a very good way to get un-stucked

When it comes to actually delivering papers at academic conferences, I have in the last 4 years increasingly resorted to separate the text of the actual paper, which is destined to be published, and the actual "talk" I give. I have usually used either powerpoint presentations or a series of OmniGraffle showed as pdf files. My key idea, is to improvise on the spot, summarizing the argument of the paper which would be much longer, and which most of the participants would either have read before or will read after the conference anyway. This form of improv can be scary at times, but it does get the adrenaline pumping and on the whole seems to be a much more effective form of delivery. This is especially so when the visuals used in the slide presentation do play a reinforcing role.

Thinking of it, there is nothing more sad and depressing, than someone reading a paper, never lifting one's head from one's notes. Very few university teachers would get away with it in the lecture hall. It is however not so uncommon to hear colleagues doing just that at academic conferences. I have done it in the past but I have since realised that it was not a good way to go about things. The less so when you try and read a paper which is not written in your mother tongue.

My advice to younger colleagues I meet at academic conferences is always to tell them: be yourself! Ignore the fact that you will be addressing colleagues who are a lot more senior than you are! Try and speak in the same way you would normally speak to you students in the lecture hall! Most paradoxically, easy does it!

Life Hack podcast for Lifehack.org

2006-06-14T16:37:00.000+01:00

Friend Chris Brogan is announcing the new Life Hack podcast for Lifehack.org:

"The Life Hack podcast covers weekly productivity tips, insights into how to speed up your life, interviews with people who can help you develop yourself, and highlights from our community platform. Lifehack.org is the creation of Leon Ho."

I have just finished listening to Episod one, which consists of an interview of Patricia Ryan Madson, the author of Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up. This sounds like a fascinating book, which really seems worth reading.

Plagiarism

2006-06-12T22:08:00.000+01:00

One of my daughters has recently acquired a DVD of The Man of the House, staring Tommy Lee Jones as Texas Ranger Roland Sharp. This is very light entertainment but there is there a wonderful one liner from the main character which will surely appeal to all university teachers, the more so if they have had to deal with plagiarism.

... and yes! The internet does make plagiarism easier ... to detect!

It is so much easier to uncover plagiarists who lift stuff from the internet than from a book!

Thank you Google!

The quotation from the character is :

"Plagiarism is an academic crime. It is punishable by academic death."

GTD® on MindManager Template

2006-06-11T19:14:00.000+01:00

My GTD® on MindManager template is now available for download as a zip file. Update: Please follow this link to the most recent version.

All feedback most welcomed.

For more information on Getting Things Done ® visit the website of the David Allen Company, read his books and attend his seminars.

There were problems with the file download earlier, but it now seems to be solved. If not please leave a comment. Many thanks in advance.

Coming soon: GTD® on MindManager Template

2006-06-11T18:23:00.000+01:00

A few words to announce that I am currently putting the finishing hand to my Getting Things Done on MindManager Template, which I hope to post on this blog later today. I am preparing it using the all singing, all dancing Mind Manager for Mac OS.
... Watch this space!

OmniGraffle and MindManager

2006-06-09T20:43:00.000+01:00

Commenting on a recent post on the new MindManager for Mac OS, Eric from Organisation et méthode, the French GTD blog, asked: "Have you tried to use OmniGraffle for mindmapping?
Using the automatic layout and the outline functions, building the map is as fast and easy as with any specific mindmapping application. And the graphic possibilities are much richer. You can also go back and forth between OmniOutliner and OmniGraffle.

I have indeed tried OmniGraffle, which I use for two main things:

Instead of Powerpoint for slide presentations, with great graphics, which I display using a pdf version of the file.
For creating high quality graphs.

It is nice for creating simple mind-maps.

MindManager seems largely superior for mindmapping for several reasons:

Branches can collapse. This is essential to manage very complex maps (for instance, the MindManager mindmap I use for my implementation of GTD).
MindManager is both available for Mac OS and Windows, and my other computer, at the University of Salford is a wintel machine! :-(

Before MindManager for Mac OS, I was using Freemind which is a brilliant open source software.

The time of the day

2006-06-03T23:52:00.000+01:00

Map the Mac

2006-05-19T10:05:00.000+01:00

In a comment to an earlier post on Mind Mapping, Anonymous drew my attention to www.mapthemac.com. Thanks Anonynous

Présentation de GTD® en français

2006-05-14T14:08:00.000+01:00

Je viens tout juste de découvrir cette présentation de GTD® en français, qui offre une excellente synthèse de la méthode. Elle est disponible sous forme de fichier pdf: GTD: organisé ... et branché, les recettes de l'organisation remise au goût du jour
Etrangement, le livre n'a toujours pas été traduit en français.

Presentation of GTD® in French

2006-05-14T14:01:00.000+01:00

I have just come accross this presentation of GTD® in French, which offers a very good synthesis of the method. It is available as a pdf file: GTD: organisé ... et branché, les recettes de l'organisation remise au goût du jour
Strangely, the book has still to be be translated into French.

Towards a going-back to basics open-source generic productivity system?

2006-05-06T18:55:00.000+01:00

A few words inspired by my exchange with Jason Alan Moore about his post on Getting the right things done. I think that Jason's idea of comparing, and when relevant combining, different systems is indeed very worthy. Matt Cornell has also been writing very interesting posts by looking the same aspect of different productivity or time-management systems. See for instance: How to process stuff - A comparison of TRAF, the "Four Ds", and GTD's workflow diagram. Such exegesis of productivity system is indeed very enlightening.
My intention in my previous post was simply to point out to what I see as a major dimention of GTD®.
I must say that it took me a very long time to actually become involved in the process of looking at this dimension of the system, about 16 months of trying to implement GTD®. It is only when I started using mind mapping to implement the system, but after listening to the Getting Things Done Fast CDs, that I started to "get it".
When I first went through the process of brainstorming the branches of my mind-map using the three top-levels of "The Six-Level Model" (ie 50,000+ feet, 40,000 feet, 20,000 feet), that reminded me a my reading of Covey's 7 habits five years earlier, and especially the idea of writing a mission statement. GTD® is perhaps more pragmatic than Covey's 7 habits, but aspects of both can be combined to good effect. I also later copied in this section of the mind-map a inspirational quote from Peter F. Drucker, found on a blog, which is "Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things." Following for about six weeks Matt Cornell idea's of a Productivity Master, I did a lot of reading on productivity in the late winter. My general impression is that the more you read books about productivity, the more you have the impression that the core of most systems revolves around a set of basic principles which are often very similar.
It could, perhaps, be an idea for productivity bloggers, to explore further something along the lines of a "going-back to basics open-source no-frill generic productivity system", which will combine the best productivity principles, which have been around for decades and decades.

GTD®'s The Six-Level Model for Reviewing Your Own Work

2006-05-04T00:37:00.000+01:00

A thought provoking post on Jason's rantings on the theme of Getting the Right Things Done, which does makes one reflect on one's own implementation of GTD®.
I however have some reservations about part of Jason's interpretation, especially when he writes: "To me, there is no forward look as to where we are heading - it is focused on getting the items right in front of us processed, categorized, and completed. We never stop to think that we have the "ladder against the right wall".
I would like to believe that it is what the "The Six-Level Model for Reviewing Your Own Work" (ie 50,000+ feet, 40,000 feet, 20,000 feet, 10,000 feet, and runway) is there for (see GTD, chapter 9, pp. 200-209). Whilst Covey works from the top-down, Allen is working from the bottom up.
In the chapter about "Reviewing keeping your system functional", David Allen has a section on "The 'Bigger Picture' Reviews", in which he writes: "Yes, at some point you must clarify the larger outcomes, the long-term goals, the visions and the principles that ultimately drive and test your decisions." Later he also make plain that "The explicit focus of this book is not at those "30,000-" to "50,000+ -foot levels. Urging you to operate from a higher perspective is, however, its implicit purpose - to assist you in making your total life expression more fulfilling and better aligned with the bigger game we're all about.
At a practical level, using mindmapping for my current implementation of GTD® proves very effective. I started by using a Freemind for my implementation, but I am currently using MindManager, as I am beta-testing MindManager for the Mac.
He are a few screenshots of my implementation using Freemind: A larger version of each is available on www.flick.com. Please click on the picture to see it.

The Failed States Index Map

2006-05-03T13:24:00.000+01:00

A fascinating map: The Failed States Index Map by Foreign Policy and the Fund for Peace.

The Wold as you have never seen it before

2006-05-03T09:44:00.000+01:00

A fabulous website: Worldmapper

Mainewebreport blog sued by Warren Kremer Paino Advertising.

2006-04-29T12:46:00.000+01:00

What a disgrace! Mainewebreport blog is being sued by Warren Kremer Paino Advertising. The firm CEO is a man of the name of Peter Kremer, who according to his corporate profile, "a rare combinaison of intensity and congeniality, Peter as a way of making even total strangers feel welcome".

Here is what Lance of the Mainewebreport says

"State Contractor Files Federal Lawsuit Against Me
Warren Kremer Paino Advertising has filed a 3 count multi-million dollar federal lawsuit against me for the reporting I’ve done in this blog. They are claiming defamation, libel, and copyright infringement.
Getting the sheriff to deliver the suit to me, in front of my kids and neighbors, is the latest freaked-out situation this Office of Tourism has put me in. I have to say this has disrupted the Dutson household a bit, that’s what happens when someone files a crushing lawsuit that, if successful, would utterly destroy my life.
So here I am, one man against the state and its contractors, put in the position of shutting up or being pounded by their deep pockets and a wild misconception of what the court system is supposed to be used for. One person who has exposed a cavalcade of incompetence and who has to choose to allow it, or face an onslaught of personal attack and legal action."
This is crap, total crap and I’m not going to fold, not at this point. They’ve already screwed with me and my family so much, and I will not be bullied into discontinuing my work here. This state agency is wasting money, telling stories, and paying subcontractors who seem more focused on spending their time and money bludgeoning critics with legal threats and lawsuits rather than working to promote Maine tourism.
This is supposed to be our biggest industry, but it’s being run like a trailer-park daycare on its 3rd notice from the Human Services people.
Here’s the ad they’re suing me for showing, an ad I pulled from the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development website, that features a phone sex number instead of the real number to call for Maine tourism information"

Mind Mapping

2006-04-28T21:59:00.000+01:00

In a comment to an earlier post, Claire Tompkins wrote: "I've tried mind mapping a little bit but I got lost quickly in a forest of lines and words. I found it difficult to keep the map organized enough to remember what I'd written and where. Could you give a brief explanation of how you do it? Thanks!"

I think having a look at Tony Buzan website, www.mind-mapping.co.uk and better still reading his book The Mind Map book, would be a great starting point.

I use mind maps for three main things:

Firstly, my implementation of Getting Things Done. This was initially using FreeMind, but at the moment I am beta testing MindManager for Mac.
Secondly, to take notes on specific issues. For instance on I may synthesize an important book I am reading, as part of my research, in the form of a mind map, or I might prepare over a period of time a synthesis on a specific theme as a mind map. In this case, I would normally follow closely Tony Buzan guidelines, creating a mind map based on individual key-words. This forces you to reformulate the content material in your own word. I very strongly recommend this to my students, as a good way to prepare for their exams.
Thirdly, I may prepare the plan of an article or a book chapter, or prepare a lecture, as a mind map. In that case in it more a matter of one liners rather than single key-words.

A few screenshots

1. Six weeks ago I set myself a challenge, in the spirit of Eric Mack's paperless challenge. Mine involved getting up to date on Contemporary China by making a commitment to read every day at least one newspaper article on China. Here is a shot of part of the mind map. A larger version is available on www.flick.com. Please click on the picture to see it.

2. Another screenshot from work in process. This is part of a mind map about the work of American leading Sociologist Randall Collins on Geopolitical Theory. A larger version is available on www.flick.com. Please click on the picture to see it.

How to avoid office politics

2006-04-19T14:14:00.000+01:00

The Slacker Manager has a very good piece today on How to avoid office politics. A must read.

Higher Education: ... the missing link?

2006-04-19T02:59:00.000+01:00

Two blog posts have given me thought for thoughts on what I believe to be an important issue.
The first is a post on David Allen's blog, published on 17 February 2006, Can we get to the kids?, in which, he quoted from a message received from Tim Noyce, a senior ING consultant in Amsterdam who commented on his experience of having given a couple of talks on Getting Things Done at a secondary school in the Netherlands.
The second is a more recent post by Jason Womack: Creative thinking...some assistance please. There the David Allen Company star blogger, who had been asked at a recent seminar to provide a short-list on productivity in the workplace, listed Tony Buzan, Edward de Bono, Roger Von Oech and Evelyn Wood.
I must say that the book, which has had the most influence on my personal productivity is indeed Tony Buzan’s The Mind Map book.
I, in fact, discovered it through a trial version of MindManager available through a computer magazine around December 1999 and was immediately conquered. I immediately purchased the book and my daughters very kindly soon offered me for my birthday a copy of MindManager 2002 (Educational Licence). As a result my productivity was considerably enhanced and I never looked back. I use mind mapping virtually everyday.
After nearly twenty years lecturing, I often reflect on how such vital skills as mind mapping and personal organisation have had so far so little impact in higher education and are nearly always completely absent from the curriculum .
Why aren’t such essential skills systematically taught to students?

New versions of NovaMind and Inspiration mind-mapping announced

2006-04-14T00:20:00.000+01:00

Inspiration is announcing today a new version of its mind mapping software, Inspiration 8. So was yesterday NovaMind, which is incidently with great humility branding itself as "The Most Powerful Mind Mapping Software Available Anywhere", with the long expected NovaMind 3.0 for Mac OS.

Packing you bag

2006-03-30T00:33:00.000+01:00

A great site on packing you bag and traveling light: http://www.onebag.com

Organizing from the Inside Out on-line course on Barnes & Noble University®

2006-02-24T11:35:00.000Z

Barnes & Noble University® is offering as part of its free online courses and reading groups a course on Organizing from the Inside Out. The course in question will start on 6 March 2006, last for 4 weeks and the estimated completion time is of 16 hours. Registration is now opened.
It will be based on two of my favourite productivity books Organizing from the inside Out: The Foolproof System for Organizing Your Home, Your Office and Your Life and Time Management from the inside Out: The Foolproof Plan for Taking Control of Your Schedule and Your Life by Julie Morgenstern. I have found these two books a very complement to Getting Things Done

Foldera

2006-02-21T13:04:00.000Z

I came accross another virtual office site today: Foldera. It sounds a lot like ContactOffice but is Web 2.0.

ContactOffice, the Professional Virtual Office

2006-02-17T18:00:00.000Z

Checking links from my personal website today, I visited the site of my Alma Mater, the University of Provence in Aix-en-Provence, and was very interested by a mention of a Bureau virtuel (ie a virtual office), bringing together all the universities of South Eastern France. This service is provided by ContactOffice, a name which really did not ring a bell. Looking at their website, I discovered that this Belgian company offers quite an interesting service, Professional Virtual Office. The blurb describes it as follows: "Easily manage your data (emails, contacts, meetings, documents, tasks, ...) in your virtual office from any computer with a Web browser and an Internet connection. Share your data and access shared data efficiently in the context of work or leisure groups. Your data are safe and available anytime on the Web, on a PDA (online or offline) or on a WAP capable cell phone." I signed on for a free account and must say that I find the package very attractive and it might be worth for you to have a look at it. There is a free version with limited storage capacity (5MB) but the US$6.40 version offers 150MB of storage. This seems to be an excellent alternative to Backpack or Basecamp or both. The service is available in French, Dutch and English. The English address is www.contactoffice.com.

Calendering with Time-Design planners

2006-02-14T14:20:00.000Z

I have recently come across the Time-Design(R) website. The Time-Design line of planners is the most impressive I have come accross so far. It also seem to be one which seems to be remarkably compatible with a gtd implementation; not that I would think of giving up on my current setting using FreeMind and mind-maps, which really seem to be ideally suited for the way I think and work.

A whole range of screenshots, which gives a good indication of the quality of the design, is available here.

An interesting feature of the planner system is that it is based on its very own methodology, called 5 Focus Management® Practices, which consists in the following principles:

Free Your Mind by downloading and filtering your activities.
Focus on the Big Picture by managing goals and short- and mid-term projects.
Manage the Details of accomplishing your goals.
Seal the Cracks so you never have to wake up in a panic
Make Success Routine by focusing on your accomplishments.

... more on this is available from the site. It is worth noting that this 5 Focus Management(R) seem to constitute a slight departure from Time-Design earlier 5-D Filter(TM) methodology, the 5-D were Dump it, Differ, Delegate, Diferenciate, and Do.

Interestingly Time-Design also offer training and coaching as part of their portfolio. Besides the usual on-site and public seminars, it also offers training on-line with Focus on Line. Such on-line training course comes in two flavours: Focus Management® Using Outlook® and Focus Management® Using the Time/Design Management Planner. At US $49.95 plus US$ 45 for The Power of Focus Management® Workbook Available in .pdf format it does constitute an very attractive offer.

Please, pretty please ...
If anyone from Time-Design read this post I would like to express an interest in test-driving the online course, if this was possible, with a view to writing an evaluation of Focus-on-line on this blog.

Le diagramme de flux de travail de Getting Things Done

2006-02-12T18:45:00.000Z

Mogore a récemment suggéré la pertinence de créer un site de resources en français sur GTD. Comme Getting Things Done n'a pas encore été traduit en français, j'ai pensé qu'il pourrait être utile aux francophones de pouvoir disposer d'une traduction du diagramme du flux de travail de GTD et en ai préparé une. Elle n'est pas parfaite et tout suggestion pour l'améliorer est bien sûr bienvenue.
Il est bien dommage que le livre ne soit pas encore disponible en français, car je suis sûr que ce serait un grand succès.

Le document est bien sûr (c) David Allen Company et tout usage commercial en est interdit.
Pour plus d'information visit: www.davidco.com.

GTD seminars in French

2006-02-12T17:51:00.000Z

I have recently come accross a website which might be of interest to French speakers in Europe.
The French branch of a Dutch consultancy firm, SRS Consulting, is now offering seminars in French based on the David Allen method: www.srsconsulting.fr/gestion-du-temps/david-allen.htm.

French translation of the GTD workflow diagram

2006-02-12T17:15:00.000Z

Mogore recently suggested creating a site of resources in French on GTD. As GTD has not yet been translated into French, I have thought it might be useful to french speakers to have a translation of the GTD workflow diagram and have prepared one. It is not yet perfect and any suggestion for improvements is most welcome.
It is a shame the book is not yet available in French, as I am sure it would be a great success there.

The document is of course (c) David Allen Company and should not be used for any commercial enterprise.
For more information, visit: www.davidco.com.

Rediscovering FreeMind

2006-01-29T17:33:00.000Z

Another couple of great episodes on The Personal Productivity Show, #020 with Chuck Frey on mind mapping sofwares and #021 with Jason Womack on GTD. The series is a great help and both truly entertaining and inspirational.
Chuck Frey, a leading expert on mind mapping, runs both Innovation Tools, whose Friday updates are a must, and the MindMapping Software Weblog. Having been using mind-mapping softwares for the last 5 years, I was really interesting in what he had to say. The show inspired me to look again at the possibility to mainly rely on a mind-mapping software for my implementation of gtd. I spent some time over the week-end last week looking at how Nova-Mind could be used, looked again at Tinderbox, but finally discovered that FreeMind was perhaps the best choice, even if Chuck was not really keen on the open source software in question. After a week of using it, I think I have now come to find the best solution for me and will only in the future use Devonthink for my electronic reference materials and keeping track of my projects support materials. I now have a giant mind map, which remains very manageable, thanks to the way in which FreeMind allow for the branches to fold and unfold.
I have spent about an hours each day of the week, looking further a all the aspect of my system, doing the inventory of all my open loops, looking at my priorities from 20,000 ft, 30,000 ft, 40,000 ft, and 50,000 ft. After my GTD week at the end of last year, which incidently turned into a couple of weeks, I must say that the result to date is very spectacular and my levels of stress have been reduced in a very pleasant way.
My system is however far from being fool proof. I managed to make a stupid mistake when I entered in my mind map an appointment on the wrong day (Friday instead of Thursday at 0930). This was accordingly a source of much embarrassement, when I failed to turn up. Mea culpa, mea culpa maxima. gtd getting things done FreeMind mind mapping

Gtdrawings

2006-01-27T21:43:00.000Z

Joan M. Mas has posted a new series of her wonderful drawings on the gtd processs

MindManager for the Mac

2006-01-19T17:40:00.000Z

A comment of the Mindjet blog indicates that a Mindmanager for the Mac is in the making. This sounds like a very exciting development, even if NovaMind keeps improving. Erratum. This is very strange! As Anomymous rightly point out in his comment, I have misread the post in question! My deepest apologies.

Now ... is GTD really about time management ?

2006-01-17T23:09:00.000Z

My friend Matt Cornell has recently had another great post. This one is on Is GTD the "Extreme Programming" of Time Management? One which I am glad to see very well received in the blogsphere. Many blogs I regularily read are making reference to it. ... It goes without saying that Frenchmen are, across the pond, expected to be akward. ... so here it goes. One of the key questions in my view is : Now, is GTD really about time management ? The more I am attempting to implement GTD, as a gtd white belt, the more I am wondering. Is it not more about task management or process management, rather than time-management per se. As an academic, I must say that I have found at time difficult to implement it, as most of my core activities, such as carrying out research, writing lectures (writing an hour university lecture can take up to 10 hours, and this is without preparing the powerpoint presentation and matching hand-outs), marking course-work or examination papers, require, as they absolutely necessitate very high concentration, large chunks of quiet time. This fits with what David Allen calls the "hard landscape" but there is little in the way of specific advice about this sort of things in the book. I have read it and re-read it. I have also since Christmas listened, and re-listened, to the GTD Fast CDs. This is something which is primarily a matter of prioritising, making the best action choices and using the "6 level model for reviewing your own work". The longer I have been working at implementing GTD, the more I see myself as a GTD white belt, which is a great lesson in humility. I indeed feel it is vital to be modest and go through the basic moves, which in themselves can already be so very empowering, before thinking of adapting the method. The only exception however, is the way I started adapting Morgenstern's Time Management from the Inside Out recommendations about using a time-map, which allows you to isolate every day a number of time-slots, during which you will not be disturbed and during which the "real" work will be done.

Weapons of mass productivity

2006-01-10T14:10:00.000Z

Des Paroz of the Personal Productivity Podcast has today on his blog a very interesting new post on his favourite productivity applications. There he very rightly stresses "that it is important to focus on working with your productivity system, as opposed to on it. I see a classic trap (one that I have been guilty of falling into myself) is to procrastinate by working on the system too much, trying to change things, playing with every tool/gadget/application available. You really need to understand the techniques and principles of your system before modifying it too much." I could not agree more and this is this very idea which what has led me about three weeks ago to go back to using Devonthink for my implementation of GTD.
I have a long time ago announced a post on my favourite applications but however never did. The time has perhaps come to get round to do it.
Mac applications
Devonthink is at the heart of my implementation of GTD and it is where I also store my research notes. . In one of their earliest productivity podcast, Des and Cameron Reilly regretted that there was not yet a do-it-all application. As far as I am concerned, Devonthink is as close to that as it goes. Its main weakness is of course the absence of any mind-mapping dimension .
Nova Mind therefore comes very handy, and has improved a great deal recently. I always recommend FreeMind as an alternative to my students.
Mellel. The official blurb says: "Mellel is an advanced word processor for Mac OS X designed especially for scholars, creative and technical writers, and anyone seeking a feature-rich and crash-free word processor". It really in my view puts the pleasure back into writing, without all the non-sense of MS Word. You can truly focus on your writing.
OmniGraffle is very useful to create presentation slides with great quality visuals or to create interest story boards.
Neo Office is extremelly useful to create or edit files using the excel or powerpoint format.
Online applications
Backpack is a great applications. I mainly used it to create next action lists for things I would do on campus at the university, where I did not always have access to a Mac. I am now however trying to keep all my lists in Devonthink.
Furl is most useful to keep interesting webpages/websites for future reference.
Gmail. Gmail has become really key to the way I manage my email in-flow. This has been the most spectacular change, since I have started to try and implement GTD, even as a white belt. I have in the last three months managed to keep, most of the time, an empty in-box by the end of the day. I catch emails from my work address and from my general address using the online facility offered by my ISP on Yahoo. The Gmail account has become both an address for friends/familly/collaborators/and VIPs. It is also an address where I forward from both my university address and general email address, which deserve to be kept for reference. Other emails are promtly transformed into next actions by been forwarded to my backack account or simply processed in my Devonthink system. A key idea is for both the Yahoo and Gmail addresses to be empty by the end of the day. I would be tempted to compare the way this email workflow operates with the spirit of Aikido. One description found online says that "Aikido focuses not on punching or kicking opponents, but rather on using their own energy to gain control of them or to throw them away from you. It is not a static art, but places great emphasis on motion and the dynamics of movement." Emails are not opponents but their own energy is used to transform them into next actions.
From Des Paroz list, two applications seem to be of special interest, and worth a try. NetVibes and Skype. I have already registered on Skype, but now need a new helmet as mine is unsuitable. I have little luck in trying to look at NetVibes tonight but it does sound like a great idea.

Talkdigger

2006-01-05T22:03:00.000Z

www.talkdigger.com sounds like a brilliant tool to follow blog conversations. See Frédéric Giasson's blog post on this.

Virtual Reading Room

2006-01-05T00:42:00.000Z

I have been toying for a few days with the idea of switching to using wordpress for my blog. For the time being I thought it would be a good experiment to try and transfer my very own "Virtual Reading Room" from my website to a new wordpress site. It is now available at virtualreadingroom.wordpress.com. This was originally a page I created a long time ago, before delicious or furl existed, to help me with my daily international press fix, as a news junky.
This reminds me of the days when, as a teenager, in the 1970s, the only way to get instant access to the news of the world was to use a short wave radio. This permitted to lesson to such exiting things as as the BBC World Service, Radio Canada, the Voice of America, and on the other side of the Iron Curtain: Radio Pékin (ie Radio Beijin which was relayed from Tirana in Albania), Radio Moscow, Radio Prague.
If a man had walked on the moon, who would have then thought that the internet would bring such a wealth of resources, readily available.

Presentation design

2006-01-02T22:03:00.000Z

Doing the rounds of the blogs I read regularily, I have come accross a link to a new blog: “Let the Good Times Roll” by Guy Kawasaki, who is a PowerPoint guru. He is "trying to evangelize the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points." This sounds a very useful resource as I am always looking at improving the quality of my presentations.
I am not sure how this could apply to the standard British university 55 minutes lecture but will look at adapting this for my lectures during the coming semester. I have noticed last year that I had a tendancy to prepare a deck of slides which was far too long and will look at cutting drastically this year. Perhaps having two mini-lectures of 20 minutes each à la Kawasaki, each followed by 5 minutes of questions could be a way forward.
Guy Kawasaki links to another site Presentation Zen, Garr Reynold's blog on issues related to professional presentation design. In contrast with Kawazaki's argument Reynolds argued in a recent post that The size of your deck does not matter.

Using Sheets in Devonthink and GTD implementation

2005-12-31T11:28:00.000Z

French 'femina geekoides' Mogore has developped an interest in GTD and recently alluded to the possibility of creating a blog on GTD en français. Surprisingly there seems to be no plan to translate the book in French. Her delicious list on GTD has a link to an interesting new web based task manager, TaskFreak!, a todo list written in PHP. I have, as far as I am concerned, decided to go back to basics and living in Devonthink, using exclusively the template I have designed for this purpose GTDthink, which seems to be what works best for me. I combine it with using Airset for my hard landscape, which allows me to see my calendar from within Devonthink. Looking at TaskFreak! however gave me the idea of looking again at using sheets, one of Devonthink latest release new features, for my implementation. I had already toyed with the idea a while back when I discovered on the Personal Productivity Show #012, Safari Software's product MasterList Professional, a task management software, which has evolved from an Excel spreadsheet template. The sheet function of Devonthink, combined with replicants, seems to offer interesting possibilities. The only down side, is that for the time being, it is not possible to create link from a sheet or a record. I have created such a sheet, which I am now testing. If it works well, I shall update the template I had uploaded on my blog a while back, together perhaps with a list of reviews to be regularily conducted as part of the gtd process. gtd getting things done gtdthink devonthink

To Douglas Johnston (A Million Monkeys Typing)

2005-12-25T17:02:00.000Z

I have been trying to email Douglas Johnston for a little while, but my emails seems to be bouncing! I have therefore decided to resort to posting my message on this blog. (The original was of course in French). Dear Douglas (but also dear Jennifer and dear Conor), Please allow me to send you my best wishes for Chrismas. There is very little in my view to be said about comments recently made by Lee Philips, they do not deserve it. Thanks again, on behalf of so many GTD-ers for your altruism and generosity. Bien amicalement. Pascal

13th Sign You're a GTD Disciple

2005-12-25T15:46:00.000Z

Your wife and daughters offer you of all things ... a Bonsai for Christmas!

gtd getting things done

12th Sign You're a GTD Disciple

2005-12-25T15:44:00.000Z

Your daughters offers you for Christmas a 6.5 centimeters pen, which with its 3.8 centimeters top, will be perfect for your Moleskine.

gtd getting things done

The 11th Sign You're a GTD Disciple

2005-12-25T15:42:00.000Z

Santa Claus brings you Getting Things Done Fast for Christmas

gtd getting things done

GTD Week

2005-12-23T21:55:00.000Z

If last week was "Clear your clutter" cum Autumn cleaning week rolled into one - it is quite frightening to see how much junk a family of five can accumulate in a year, and at the same time how much stuff which has not been used in the lasr 8 years deserves to be disposed of-, this week has been decreeted GTD week. After the end of the semester at the university and falling very badly from the GTD bandwagon, it was time to regroup and get back to basics. In this respect, Des Paroz's was as ever spot on and a great source of inspiration. His post on Knocking Down Walls: GTD Ownership vs Orthodoxy, which pointed back to his Shu-Ha-Ri and GTD, an all time favourite of mine, was coming just at the right time. Likewise, the long expected latest release of Des and Cameron Reilly's The Personal Productivity Show on TPN - Episode 017. Cameron was away on hols, lucky devils it is summer down under, but Des nevertheless did great. Of particular relevance for me was what he said to the effect that : "This time of year is a common time to be a bit out of control, but the quieter period many of us have coming up is a great opportunity to get things back on track for the new year - clean up your inboxes, review your projects lists, brainstorm for new ones and rethink the optimal time for a weekly review". The quote comes from his blog posting, but he elaborated nicely on the theme in the podcast. It was interesting and encouraging that it is not only GTD white belt like myself who fall down and bite the dust in this way. Keep up the good work lads (Hope you enjoyed the Cricket last summer would probably! ;-) Of course as a Frenchman I am neutral in such matters).
In my letter to Santa Klaus, I must say, in the stricted confidence that I have asked for a copy of David Allen's Getting Things Done Fast. Let's hope that the letter arrived. Let's cross fingers.

gtd getting things done

OmmiGraffle as a substitute to PowerPoint ?

2005-12-06T22:13:00.000Z

Since switching from a wintel machine to a mac in July 2004, I must say that I have progressively walked away from using PowerPoint. I must say that I have had some rather unpleasant surprises when preparing presentations on my mac and later trying to use them in lecture rooms at the university where wintel machines are the standard issue.
I tried using Keynote in September and although the graphics were great, I was not overall that impressed. Using Neo Office remained the best option
Lately I have started experiencing using OmniGraffle Professional instead. The result is in fact quite impressive. The hack is to save the OmniGraffle slides as a pdf files and to use Adobe Reader to show the slides presentation. This does not allow for sound effects as PowerPoint does, but I must say that I have never used that function in a public presentation yet.
I enclose a sample of the slides I used for a lecture I gave last week to Officer Cadets from the French Air Force École du Commissariat de l'Air who were visiting the University of Salford for a short course. The presentation was based on a paper I gave in March 2004 at a Mackinder Forum conference at the University of Oxford. They have been saved as jpeg files rather than pdf files as in the presentation I gave. They are best viewed on flickr as a large version of the file.

OmniGraffle PowerPoint NeoOffice

Punkey on Backpack and GTD

2005-11-29T23:06:00.000Z

Punkey at What's the next action has a great post on Backpack and GTD.
I also use Backpack as part of my gtd implementation and find it great. What I find most frustrating with Backpack is however the absence of a calendering function. The best way I have found around it is to also use Airset and have an iframe of the calendar on the homepage of my Backpack account.
Punkey expresses the view that "The predefined mailadresses are a pain to remember. This should be something like pagename@accountname.backpackit.com instead of the random names you get now."
What I do to go round the problem is to enter each backpack email address as a contact in on my email account.
For instance the @Office page is entered as
First name: Office
Surname: Backpack
This therefore give something like "Backpack, Office" in my contact list.
This way there is no need to remember each Backpack page email address. I found Backpack extremelly useful to process my email in-box and to easily forward emails to the relevant Backpack page, easily transforming every email which warranties it in a next action item.

gtd getting things done backpack

Nova Mind 3.0.2

2005-11-26T18:34:00.000Z

A while back I was comparing mindmapping softwares for Windows and Mac, and expressing my disapointment with the Mac softwares. I since (re)discovered Freemind which is very handy as it works on both my Mac Powerbook and my Wintel machine at the university. More recently, I have been testing the brand new version of Nova Mind, Nova Mind 3, for which I have now purchased an upgrade.
Whilst Nova Mind version 3 looks and feel very similar to the old Nova Mind 2.4.6, it is apparently a completely re-write of the application and according to the product blurb, "almost 200,000 lines of new code ... make it all work". Subsequently there are still slight teething problems and since the launch of new NovaMind 3.0 on 8 November, regular upgrades are being released and I upgraded to 3.0.2 earlier today.
A windows version is also announced which will work with the same licence, therefore allowing the same user to use it on both Wintel and a Mac machine.
Whilst Nova Mind boldly claims to be "the Most Powerful Mind Mapping Software Available Anywhere". I am not yet sure I would agree with this statement as MindManager 6 which I test drived at the university a while back still seems to keep the edge.

nova mind mindmapping mind map

GTD aphorism

2005-11-08T22:35:00.000Z

Project: Thinking outside the box. Next action: Find your way out of the paper bag.

Making a fool of myself one more time!

2005-11-03T22:21:00.000Z

This post is inspired my Merlin Man's Disk maintenance small boost to productivity? There is maintenance and ... maintenance. Having upgraded from Panther to Tiger in the summer I noticed a slowdown of my Mac. I therefore had to reformat everything after backing up all my files. Four months later, I discovered that the first chapter of the book I was writing has now vanished!!! For years I have not only been backing up everything - or at least I thought I was! - but also telling everyone, students and fellow academics alike, how vital it was to suitably back up all your files. Making a fool of myself once again! Indeed I am! Is not technology such a wonderful school of humility. Is this a way for Providence to suggest that this chapter ought to be started from scratch again. It does sounds like it. I am left with no alternative in any way!

Internet and International Relations

2005-10-21T06:45:00.000+01:00

The forthcoming issue of Foreign Affairs has a fascinating article on "Who Will Control the Internet?", by Kenneth Neil Cukier, who covers technology and regulatory issues for The Economist. Its summary goes as follows: "Foreign governments want control of the Internet transferred from an American NGO to an international institution. Washington has responded with a Monroe Doctrine for our times, setting the stage for further controversy." Kenneth Neil Cukier, Who Will Control the Internet?", Foreign Affairs, November/December 2005 is, for the time being, available on line.

Introducing Remember the milk's Bob T. Monkey

2005-10-20T14:30:00.000+01:00

One of, if not the key figure of the Remember the Milk team is Bob T. Monkey. Here is the text of his official profile:
"While Emily was initially skeptical about the contribution that a stuffed monkey could make to Remember The Milk, she was convinced by Omar to give Bob T. Monkey a chance.
Bob has far exceeded our expectations and made an extremely valuable contribution to the project, writing several thousand lines of JavaScript while we were relaxing on the beach.
Bob resides on a desk in Sydney, Australia.

One Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey Typing was indeed very impressed by this cousin from down under. So was Wolfgang the Bear (pictured below) who dropped Bob an email to congratulate him: "Wolfgang the Bear to Bob T. Monkey
Congratulations mate! You have done on hell of a job on this one. Keep up the good work!" Today a reply came from Australia: "Thanks! I've tried my best, but Emily and Omar have me answering over 1,000 emails at 4am in the morning!
Such is the life of a monkey, I guess...
-- Bob."

@Contexts and Real-Life(tm)

2005-10-18T23:01:00.000+01:00

"If I where a Mac user I would try Kinkless GTD" says Christian Eriksson in a very interesting posting on his blog Sanctum mekkanicum, A analog soul in a digital world, I have come across on Technorati.
My initial thought (in gtd talk):
Next action: Switch over!
;-)
I did it 15 months ago and there is no turning back.
A new version of Kinkless GTD", which keep getting better and better, has incidently just been released. Thanks Ethan! Keep up the good work!
Saying that, I was very impressed by Masterlist very recently presentented on the quintessential Personal productivity Show, by in Cameron Reilley and Des Paroz on the Podcast Network. I downloaded it on my wintel machine at the university and it does sound very good.

kinkless gtd

Next action: Remember the Milk

2005-10-12T21:22:00.000+01:00

Remember the Milk is a new free online service coming to us from down under. I am currently evaluating it and must say that I am so far very impressed. It might be a suitable replacement to either or both Backpack and Airset to create next action lists to implement gtd. One of the coolest features is the ability to generate new to dos by simply sending an email to the Remember the Milk.

Minezemac on Tracks, Getting Things Done properly

2005-10-01T08:00:00.000+01:00

Minezemac is a very promising new blog on "all things Mac or not", with its companion wiki. It is all about such things as Mac, GTD and Mind Maps.

I discovered it through a post on GTD+Moleskine+Tracks=Hipskine.

I had, of course, already heard much about Tracks which has been developped by bsag at But She is a Girl, one of my favourite blogs and a great source of both wisdom and Mac tips.

I had another look at Tracks, which is indeed so impressive, judging from the screenshots and the screencasts. I spent several hours trying to understand how to install it but my abilities. It is such a shame there isn't a web-based version à la backpack, it would be a great success. There might be a great business idea there.

FreeMind

2005-09-23T17:51:00.000+01:00

After writing yesteday's post, I decided to have a look around for new versions of mind map sofwares. I downloaded the Windows version of FreeMind at the university and later the Mac version at home. I must say that I am very nicely surprised. The latest version is indeed much better and might be a workable option for me.

MindManager Pro 6 v. NovaMind

2005-09-22T17:54:00.000+01:00

Just after I posted my previous message on MyMind, I received yesterday a message from Minjet announcing the new version of their mind mapping software MindManager. If I have switched back to the Mac last year, I still have a Desktop Wintel in my study at the university. I was therefore able to test it today and I must say that I am rather impressed. I would be tempted to say that it seems to be superior to its Mac equivalent NovaMind. I must say that on the whole Mac Mind Mapping softwares have been one my two main (only ?) disapointments about now mainly using a Mac, the other being the impossibility to use TheBrain.

Have I overlooked any cool mind mapping app for Mac OS X?

Mind Mapping MyMind

2005-09-19T07:34:00.000+01:00

I am increasingly seduced by Backpack which I use more and more to implement GTD. A few days ago, I came to think how cool if would be if it also included somekind of mind mapping function.

Today, browsing through the daily update of www.versiontracker.com for Mac OS X, I have come accross the neetest of mind mapping applications: MyMind. This donationware, a desktop application, designed by Sebastian Krauß, which I have just started testing seems both very simple and very effective. I must say that I am most impressed.

Link: Definition of Mind Maps

Matthew Cornell on Becoming a GTD Coach - Learnings from my first client

2005-09-12T07:45:00.000+01:00

Matthew Cornell has recently published a great post on Becoming a GTD Coach - Learnings from my first client. An excellent illustration of how one learns by teaching/coaching and how much it is a two ways process.

"No one can say they didn't see it coming" says former Clinton Advisor

2005-09-07T20:03:00.000+01:00

"In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City. But by 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent." This is what a former Clinton advisor writes in an article published in the Spiegel Online English Edition: Sidney Blumenthal, "Former Clinton Advisor: "No One Can Say they Didn't See it Coming", Der Spiegel Online, English Edition, 31 August 2005.

Weekly Review

2005-08-20T19:17:00.000+01:00

"I think hard and strategically at least once a week - doing a complete weekly review - so the rest of the week [...] I just work off of those updated, clear, current, complete lists." This is what Jason Womack writes in a recent post", reflecting on this simple but essential, weekly process. There, he also links to an older post on A systematic approach to cleaning up

As a GTD white belt like myself, to use David Allen's image, it is an habit which does not necessarily goes without saying.

As a rather disorganised person, I must say that whilst I enjoy the process of clearing and cleaning up, what can take hours to organise, can take just minutes to disorganise.

GTDthink : Template for GTD using Devonthink

2005-08-16T22:50:00.000+01:00

I have prepared a downloadable version of template I have created and have been using for a while for GTD using Devonthink Pro.

It is available here

devonthink gtd gtdthink

New Unix Geek War on Terror

2005-08-14T13:21:00.000+01:00

Sun Ray Blog has a very funny post on the War in terror as unix code: New Unix Geek War on Terror.

... and if you don't get it, the version with explanations : The War on Terror - For Dummies

and there is also the tee-shirt

French Terror Alert System

2005-08-08T10:50:00.000+01:00

Another piece of political humour. This French Terror Alert System, a variation on the theme of the Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys, is found on a tee-shirt sold by www.tshirts365.com

This is of course based on the official Homeland Security Advisory System.

Two Plus Two Equals Five

2005-08-07T23:30:00.000+01:00

Vlad Spears recently has this photo on his 2second(fuse) blog on Two Plus Two Equals Five.

Getting Things Done the Devonthink Way

2005-08-07T15:14:00.000+01:00

In the few lasts months, I have posted on this blog and on flickr, a number of notes and screenshots on implementing Getting Things Done on devonthink.
I am currently thinking of taking the opportunity of my summer break to prepare a more detailed document on the subject, some kind of write-up, which might be useful to other Devonthink users, or prospective users.
I would therefore be very keen on hearing from other Devonthink GTDers to compare views, practices and also screenshots.
An issue I have only started looking into is that of using applescripts for my implentation. Are there around cool applescritps which are of relevance.
Do not hesitate to leave a comment on this blog, or on the thread I have just opened on the Devonthink Forum or by contacting me using pascal.venier at gmail.com
devonthink gtd getting things done

... Action Without Vision is a Nightmare

2005-08-06T12:32:00.000+01:00

... More on this photo by Brandnewbrain.

Applications We Live In

2005-08-05T12:37:00.000+01:00

I have come accross a very interesting post by Rusty Haskell on Bactroid.net, a blog I had never visited before, on Applications I Live In. As he puts it: "I find comparison to be extremely beneficial to re-evaluating my own workflow. I love when someone on a blog talks about the applications they use to get through every day. Sometimes it teaches me about an application that I had either not heard of previously or to which I just hadn't bothered to give more than a passing glance. Here then is the currently list of applications that I live in every day and whose absence would make my life much more difficult." This is a great idea and I have decided to follow his example and will be writing shortly a post along the same lines.

Of special interest to me, in his post was a brief description of his implementation of GTD on OmniOutliner, about which I would be very curious to learn more and perhaps also to see some screenshots.

gtd

The "Not Insane" To-Do List

2005-08-04T10:11:00.000+01:00

The American Digest has a brilliant post on a cool to-do list template for a hipster pda card. Simplify, simplify, simplify!

gtd

Wolfgang the bear working late at night

2005-07-27T17:53:00.000+01:00

Using Devonthink for writing and research

2005-07-27T16:28:00.000+01:00

I have come across a very interesting discussion on the Devonthink forum, initiated by Andrew who is a research student on the use of DT. Rather than posting a long reply on the forum, I have thought it made sense to post on my blog.
If I was to choose only one application to take with my Powerbook on the proverbial Desert Island, I probably would take Devonthink Pro.
One of the great joys of switching back from Wintel to Mac was to discover so many cool and affordable softwares. The Applications Overload can however be an issue and I have become a strong proponent of simplifying as possible, when it comes to academic work, even if discovering new softwares is one of my hobbies (ie in my own time.)
Devonthink - lovely software but a terrible name; marketers at Devon-Technologie might want to look again at their brand name - is core to the way I now work. I like to say I live in Devonthink.
I use it in conjunction with:

a mind-mapping or concept-mapping software (CMap or NovaMind). Hopefully one day Devonthink will also provide a concept mapping capability à la Tinderbox
a word-processor (Mellel or MSWord). The key issue here is the ability to create footnotes
iCal. This is in the absence of any Tinderbox type agent in Devonthink. Applescripts might however in the future provide a solution in this respect.

As I have already explained somewhere in this blog, the way I organise myself using Devonthink is based on the principles of David Allen's Getting Things Done. According to some commentators, GTD is allegedly becoming some kind of cult. In essence the methodology's main originality is its sheer simplicity to stay on track in the way one organises one's own workflows.
If I compare with xuanyingzi very informative post, in the discussion in question, in which she/he uses for her/his use of Devonthink the metaphore of a library, the metaphor I would use would be the workspace in which workflows flow (note to self and fellow GTDers: in search of the elusive mind-like-water ?).
devonthink gtd

A wiki dashboard in DevonThink ?

2005-07-22T07:37:00.000+01:00

I am currently testing the open-source "web-based todo-list manager in the Getting Things Done style" named NextAction, which I mentionned earlier.
Playing with it, I had the idea to import it in Devonthink Pro and it seems to seem to work quite well in there.
My technical expertise is more than limited, but I wondered whether it would not be possible to create a specific wiki to use as a dashboard in DT or simply use something like NextAction or customize it to suit DT.

devonthink gtd NextAction

NextAction

2005-07-19T01:25:00.000+01:00

TrimPath is offering an open-source "web-based todo-list manager in the Getting Things Done style" named NextAction, which does seem well worth trying out.

For the time being I am very busy getting things done at the Bodleian Library in Oxford and I am literaly living in Devonthink Pro, which is as resourceful as ever for a researcher using the Getting Things Done method.

devonthink gtd NextAction

You will fail !

2005-07-09T12:00:00.000+01:00

Found on Flickr, this logo says it all:

Text Ken Livingstone, design London Underground, adapted by Aldaron.

Salford : ... One Shocking City!

2005-06-28T21:41:00.000+01:00

I discovered today that I worked in One Shocking City

Apparently, Public hangings are back in Salford

But furthermore, You're never far from a main artery in Salford

and believe it or not, Salford's full of pond life

... to discover the truth visit www.oneshockingcity.com

PS. Of course I had no idea as I work in the Ivory Tower

In the meantime, Bolton, where I live, seems to have set its mind to becoming a slum as the Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council has decided to no longer collect refuse weekly but fortnightly! A Dickensian summer in perspective

Toolbox + Workflow = GTD

2005-06-24T22:51:00.000+01:00

I have just come across a very interesting posting by Sonny Cloward over at Vermont Nonprofit CommunIT blogs. He says "I suppose everyone gets those proverbial late night wild hairs every once in awhile and I'm no exception. Around 11:00PM last night I decided it was time to finally do some work flow diagramming; taking my toolbox list and laying out how I use them to Get Things Done. Truth be told, I love doing this sort of stuff."

I am not completely sure about the meaning of "late night wild hairs", and probably do not have enough hair left for anything wild. It remains that I must confess that not only am I partial to both diagramming and minp mapping, but I was doing the very same thing yesterday night. Using the cMap concept mapping software, I was designing a similar diagramme of workflow and tools to clarify my thoughts on my own little on-going experimentation with getting things done.

This involves in my case DevonThink, Gmail, Backpack and Firefox; I am only really taking the first steps towards using ical and/or Mozilla Calendar. The big incentive in this respect has been that my new cell phone, an Sony Ericsson T610, could talk to my Powerbook G4, and syncronise calendars. Having to use wintel at work complicates things but ...

devonthink gtd backpack Sonny Cloward

Steve Jobs Speech at Stanford University's 114th Commencement

2005-06-19T11:18:00.000+01:00

Steve Job was invited to give the Commencement Adress at Stanford University on 12 July 2005. You may find interesting the account given by the Stanford Report and even more lesson to the actual speech, Heard on Campus: Steve Jobs' 2005 Commencement Address or read Text of Commencement address: 'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says (6/15/05)

Ketchup of the day

2005-06-17T19:13:00.000+01:00

Baker & McKenzie on of the world largest law firm made the headlines tonight on the BBC, but for all the wrong reasons. The story is given in some details in an article on vnunet.com: Ian Thomson, "On the internet everyone knows you're tight", vnunet, 17 Jun 2005. (Accessed 17 June 2005 at 1913).

"Richard Phillips, a senior associate with Baker & McKenzie ... emailed secretary Jenny Amner asking for £4 to cover the cost of cleaning a ketchup spill she had made on his trousers.
After returning to work the day after her mother's funeral to find a note on her desk reminding her about the money, she replied to his email and forwarded it to colleagues.
"With reference to the email below, I must apologise for not getting back to you straightaway but, due to my mother's sudden illness, death and funeral, I have had more pressing issues than your £4," she wrote.
"I apologise again for accidentally getting a few splashes of ketchup on your trousers. Obviously your financial need as a senior associate is greater than mine as a mere secretary."
Despite friends offering to have a whip-round, Ms Amner paid the money back herself. Meanwhile, the email began circulating within the legal profession before spreading to inboxes worldwide."

Good for you Ms Amner! Richard Phillips, is undoubtedly having his fifteen minutes of fame. I wonder how he likes his fries ?

According to the London Daily Mail, he is a a "City solicitor specialising in computer law and electronic commerce", believe it or not. :-)

Devonthink Pro

2005-06-16T17:59:00.000+01:00

Terribly exiting news: at long last DEVONthink Pro is now available as public beta. The final release is scheduled for the 17 August 2005, it should therefore be available by Christmas! :)

I must say that I like the new icon (below) which is much better than the really uggly brain of the PE version.

devonthink

mémoires de la colonisation et manipulations de l’histoire

2005-06-10T12:21:00.000+01:00

mémoires de la colonisation et manipulations de l’histoire lundi 6 juin 2005 La LDH vous invite à une rencontre-débat mercredi 15 juin 2005 - 18h - Aix en Provence amphi Guyon - faculté des Lettres (av. Robert Schuman) avec le soutien des sections locales d’AIX-SOLIDARITE, ASTI, ATTAC, MRAP ... [première mise en ligne : le 20 mai 2005, mise à jour : le 6 juin 2005] * Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison, enseignant en sciences politiques à l’université d’Evry-Val d’Essonne, * Gilles Manceron, historien, membre du bureau national de la Ligue des droits de l’Homme, * Christiane Taubira, universitaire, députée de Guyane, auteur de la proposition de loi du 21 mai 2001 qui reconnaît la traite négrière et l’esclavage comme crimes contre l’humanité. Non au mépris de l’Histoire et des victimes Le 23 février 2005, le Parlement a voté une loi qui prévoit que « les programmes scolaires reconnaissent en particulier le rôle positif de la présence française outre-mer, notamment en Afrique du Nord ». Cette loi oublie les souffrances des peuples qui ont été colonisés par la France, et notamment celles des Algériens. Toutes les souffrances méritent d’être reconnues. Mais, concernant la guerre d’Algérie, les seules victimes évoquées dans la loi sont des Français. Et la République continue à garder un silence prudent sur les crimes commis à l’occasion de ce conflit. Injustice également pour les harkis et leurs familles dont la loi ne reconnaît ni l’abandon, ni le traitement discriminatoire qui leur a été réservé en France, dans la pure tradition coloniale. Cette loi est le résultat d’un travail de “lobbying” d’un petit groupe d’activistes, nostalgiques de l’Algérie française, qui détournent à leur profit la douleur mémorielle des rapatriés. Ils ont réussi à faire inscrire dans cette loi une indemnité en faveur d’anciens condamnés de l’OAS, qu’elle semble vouloir ranger parmi ceux qui ont fait « œuvre positive » en Algérie ! Ce sont les mêmes qui comptent, en leur élevant un monument à Marignane le 6 juillet 2005, présenter les membres de cette organisation terroriste comme des héros ! Peut-on exiger de la Turquie ou du Japon la reconnaissance des pages noires de leur passé tout en dispensant la France d’un tel travail ? Alors que de nombreuses personnes issues des anciennes colonies subissent des discriminations inacceptables, cette loi cherche à imposer une vérité officielle aux enseignants et aux chercheurs. C’est une insulte envers eux et envers tous les citoyens. Cette loi doit être impérativement abrogée. Non à l’histoire officielle ! Non à la réhabilitation des crimes et des injustices du passé ! mercredi 15 juin 2005 - 18h amphi Guyon (fac des Lettres) à Aix en Provence

Problem solved

2005-06-04T17:18:00.000+01:00

I have just managed to solve the problem by changing the template I was using on Blogger. Everything seems to have reappeared. But this was SO frustrating.

Trouble with Blogger

2005-06-04T17:02:00.000+01:00

I have been experiencing a lot of trouble lately with www.blogger.com. Some of my archive postings seems to no longer appear and I my new postings are not visible. The time to move this blog somewhere else might have come and I am now looking into it.

Backpack

2005-06-03T23:33:00.000+01:00

I have recently started revisiting Backpack. It clearly had not impressed me at all to start with. My initial conclusion: so what?
Postings by But She is a Girl, tech ronin and plasticboy among others, have made me think that I should perhaps try again.
I gave myself a week to try and integrate it to my current implementation of gtd. After a few days I must say that I am now very, very impressed. So much so that I have already upgraded to the $5 a month option.
. I find the ability to send emails lists on Backpack hugely convenient. The Backpack account gives me the possibility of creating 20 lists, which I use for context and projects. I am now processing emails every time I check my in-box. I use backpack to translates any e-mail, or the meaningful text from emails, into a next action item on the lists I keep in Basecamp. All it takes is to forward to the page. This is very easy as each page has its very own emain address. I also use a gmail account, completely separate from my main email account, to store emails, which I may need just in case. All emails on my main email account have now been processed and I aim at having it empty by the end of each day.

I keep the research side of my work as an academic entirely in Devonthink, as most of the research in libraries and archives is conducted off-line. I incidently spent a wonderful afternoon working on old Edwardian periodicals at the Manchester City Library today.

gtd backpack

Call for DIY Education Pack Ideas

2005-05-28T00:09:00.000+01:00

Douglas Johnston on A Million Monkeys typing has decided to prepare a follow up to the remarquable "D*I*Y" Planner 2, which would be a D*I*Y Education Pack and launched a call for ideas. What a superb initiative!

Two things immediately spring to mind. The first idea would be a template of a mind map with the famous 7 questions, that one can ask about any topic: how, when, why, who, where, what, how many. I have used them in my teaching to very good effects. They are also very useful to help students revising. Here is an example of a such a mind map, I have recently prepared for my French History and Contemporary Students, using the Cmap software. This was meant as an illustration of the sort of things they could do to revise before the exam. It is unfortunately in French.

Another template could be one based on what Louis Timbal-Duclaux suggests in his book La prise de notes efficace, Paris : Retz, 1988. That is to process any topic or issue, by problematizing it using the framework Situation-problem-solution-information. In French this is SPRI (Situation, Probléme, Résolution, Informations) and is meant to be pronounced S-PRI, in order to sound like Esprit, the word for mind. Follows a SPRI mind map on the same topic:

The second idea would be an essay writing template. Indicating what is expected and helping students structuring their essays.

GTD ... established circa 1939!

2005-05-25T23:19:00.000+01:00

The term of "Getting things done" has been used as the, or as part of, many book titles. Douglas Johnston at A million monkeys typing had mentionned coming across a copy of Getting Things Done by Edwin C. Bliss. I could not resist (trust an Historian on that one!) having a look at the catalogue of at both the British Library in London and the Library of Congress in Washington, in search of the earlier use of the expression and acronyme.
The ealier use of the Getting Things Done as a book title is :Wilson, Everett Broomall. Getting things done in business. New York : McGraw-Hill, 1937.

The acronyme in question was used as the title of a book published by one Percy Redfern Creed before David Allen was born: "Creed, Percy R. (), b. 1874.
G. T. D.,
[Boston, Mass., The author, c1939]
118 p. pl., ports. 23 cm."
The book in question was republished after the Second World War, this time as Getting Things Done:
Creed, Percy R. (Percy Redfern), b. 1874.
Getting things done, by Percy R. Creed ...
Boston [The Merrymount Press] 1946.
xvii p. 1 l., 95 p., 1 l. port. 24 cm.

gtd

... In praise of procrastination ?

2005-05-23T14:06:00.000+01:00

But She is a girl has a while back written a brilliant post on her Procrastination index, which I very strongly recommend, especially if you work in education, or edutainement as I am more and more tempted to call it. bsag notes that it is "that dreaded exam marking time of year again" and how marking, is "one of the most severe procrastination generators that I’m faced with in my daily life." As a fellow academic it made me laugh, as I know this feeling all too well!!!
My office at the university has never been so clean and tidy and I feel an irresistible urge to finish reorganising my files along the line suggest by GTD. It will have taken me 9 months to achieve this.
... Tongue in cheek one would be very tempted to argue that procrastination is not necessarily a bad thing. Several years ago, I discovered this wonderful text by Standford philosopher John Perry, who is also one of the editors of the Philosophy talk, "the [radio] program that questions everything ...except your intelligence", on what he calls Structured Procrastination. Interestingly, upon finishing bsag's post, I discovered that the first comment from readers, by Scott Lewis was precisely on the very same text.

Mark Bernstein on Protecting the Blogosphere

2005-05-23T12:31:00.000+01:00

Mark Berstein of Eastgate has prepared a most fascintting Podcast ahead of his presentation on "Protecting the Blogsphere" at Blogtalk Downunder in Sydney. See also the posting on his own weblog.

GTD on Devonthink: Bibliographical references revisited

2005-05-22T16:46:00.000+01:00

Jonlemon has made a useful comment on my post on bibliographical reference in Devonthink and points out that 'if you're handling a lot of references and want to produce a reference list for a manuscript, then the collection of all the seperate references becomes a tedious task. [...] Bottom line: I think your setup is a good way to integrate referenes into DevonThink aslong as you're not dealing with a lot of references." This is a very valid point! After giving some thinking to the question I think that I have come up with a solution. Here it goes:

Instead of creating only 1 note per reference as I suggested earlier, I would create 2 notes.

Note 1 The title of the first note would have as a title the shorted reference (Surname, Name. Year. i.e. Allen, David. 2001.) It would contain the full reference (ie Allen, David 2001. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. London: Penguin.).

Note 2 The title of the second would be the full reference and it will contain nothing.

I would then create somewhere a folder called Bibliography and create a replicant of the notes having the full bibliographical reference as a title (ie on the model of note 2).

When I would like to create a bibliography for this project I would simply select all the notes and will then export them as txt, rtf or doc.

The result would be a bibliography arranged by alphabetical order.

devonthink

A GTD group in Manchester ?

2005-05-22T13:14:00.000+01:00

I was recently thinking that it might be fun to set up some GTD group in Manchester. When I had a look at the Meet Up website, I was very surprised to discover that you now have to pay to set up a Meet Up group. ... So if anyone has an interest in such a venture, please do get in touch.
gtd

Getting Hicks Done and Basecamp

2005-05-21T16:57:00.000+01:00

Jon Hicks at Hicksdesign has an interesting post entitled Getting Hicks Done on his implementation of GTD. After trying several applications, he has now settled for Basecamp.
I have been using Basecamp since 8 November 2004 and have kept a to-do-list for what I had to do to manage the website of the academic school school where I work at the University of Salford.

Looking at different ways to implement gtd has become some kind of a hobby for me and I have also tested several different applications.

I mainly concentrate on Devonthink but keep looking at different applications, a good way perhaps to keep in touch with new developments.

gtd

blogcrastination

2005-05-19T12:36:00.000+01:00

I have been too busy actually getting things done to blog lately! This must be blogcrastination

GTD on Devonthink: Thematic notes

2005-05-06T23:30:00.000+01:00

Thematic notes are also stored under "Reference materials". When a thematic note include referencing, this is usually done in the form of the bibliographical reference also stored in the "Reference materials" folder. Just typing the reference in quest automatically create a wiki link to the bibliographical reference, which can be easily navigated.
Only one folder is used for the whole range of of the notes kept in "Reference materials", which are simply sorted by alphabetical order.
This has replaced what I previously kept in my filemaker database and in Scribe.

gtd

GTD with Gmail Whitepaper

2005-05-04T16:04:00.000+01:00

A very interesting post on GTD with Gmail Whitepaper on space-age wasteland. This brings together a series of posts on the topic of the implementation of GTD with Gmail.
The term Whitepaper sounds terribly impressive! I should use it for the series of posts I have started yesterday: a White paper on GTD on Devonthink! ;-)

Getting things done on Devonthink: Bibliographical references

2005-05-03T09:34:00.000+01:00

Each bibliographical reference is stored under "Reference materials", It is convenient to use a shortened form as the title for each entry, for example: Allen, David. 2001.

Each text file contains the full bibliographical details.
Example: Allen, David 2001. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. London: Penguin.
This can be easily cut and pasted in footnotes or bibliographies when the need arise. No need therefore to use a separate specific application (Filemaker, Endnotes, Scribe, etc.), easy does it.
The duplicate function of Devonthink is extremely useful, as using replicants will allow to place an exact copy of the document elsewhere (a second incarnation of the document and not simply an alias).
A replicant of "Allen, David. 2001." could be placed in the folder for the relevant project under Project support materials.
For example "Duplicate to ... > Project support materials > GTD Project Another replicant could also be placed in the Next action lists under At library and so forth.
The wiki-style links function of Devonthink will allow to link to the bibliographical reference by simply entering the text of its title. For example simply writing "Allen, David. 2001" in any document will create automatically an hyperlink pointing in the direction of the original file. "Allen, David. 2001"

GTD for Academics

2005-05-03T08:53:00.000+01:00

I read with great interest last night Mark T.A.W.'s post on What context do I put my Next Actions in? This, together with an ungoing discussion on GTD for Academics on the 43F Google Group , gave me the idea of a write up on my current little experiment with implementing GTD on Devonthink. I therefore propose to start blogging on this, in no particular order and perhaps eventually to bring together the different posts in the form of an article.

Implementing GTD using Lotus Notes

2005-05-01T23:18:00.000+01:00

I have come across the blog of -=KoolPal=-, who is currently implementing the GTD methodology using Lotus Notes blog . He has also posted some graphs and screenshots of his implementation on Flickr which I had not come across before as they are not currently uploaded on the Getting things done pool.

The working habits of Raymond Aron

2005-04-30T14:25:00.000+01:00

Douglas Johnson's post Review: Getting Things Done by Ed Bliss (!), which mentions the “Stand-up Desk” used by "great writers like Hemingway, Woolf, Carroll, Nabokov and Winston Churchill", made me think about notes I had taken about the working methods of Philosopher and Sociologist Raymond Aron, une of the most influential French intellectuals in the twentieth century . Robert Colquhoun in his Raymond Aron. - Vol.1 : The philosopher in history 1905-1955, (London : Sage, 1986), p. 314 wrote : "Aron wanted to be free in the mornings to do his “serious” academic work and this would not have been possible on Le Monde, which appeared in the afternoon. It was at this time, therefore, that Aron established a work routine which when he was in Paris, did not normally vary. On his own admission, he had “great self discipline”, but if he tried to do too much, he slept badly and was unable to continue the next day. Accordingly he used to work at home every morning, from 7.30 till lunch time, week-end included, and this left him free to see people in the afternoons and to read after dinner. Thus to those who asked him how he managed to write so much, his reply was: “I don’t work long hours, but I work every day”. Even on his daughter wedding day he simply stopped working a little earlier than usual." (p. 314) He also gives the following quote from Roger Priouret: “One can ask anything of Raymond Aron, save a single hour of his mornings”(Roger Priouret, "Immuable et changeante", Le Figaro, 30 mai 1959.)