tonygoodson

I'm Back! Productivity discussion with Daryl Cook

"Well hello there, It's been a long long time. How ya doing, I guess I'm doing fine. It's been so long and it seems that, It was only yesterday. Ain't it funny how time slips away?"

So let's get back to this blogging and podcasting thing, starting with some Productivity, Technology,and Life, with my mate Daryl Cook.  Just the raw sound to listen to, no intro, no music, let's just get it done.  And no show notes!

Have a listen and tell us what you think, what you'd like to hear about.  Should we go back to The Productivity Show?  Expand to other subjects?  What do people want to listen to?  Do they want to listen!!

Click here to download the interview mp3

My Productivity for 2010

My productivity for 2009 has been shocking!

Partly because I have some very big issues to sort out, which can be kinda distracting, and it makes it very difficult for me to concentrate at times.  Consequently, most of my good productivity systems collapsed in 2009.  My MindManager mindmaps, my Weekly Review, my capture tools and filing (not that my filing was ever any good!).

What I’m most struck by is the difficulty in planning and setting aside time for the thing I most want to do, Podcast.  Why is it, we have our dreams and we don’t fulfil them, even when we are able to.  I had a good crack at my dreams in 2009, but just couldn’t seem to keep them going.  Also, there are some things which happened, including work, which just needed complete narrow focus, to the exclusion of everything else, and sometimes, no time or energy for anything else.  And in the latter part of 2009, I really enjoyed my work.

And so to 2010, loaded with my iPhone, my Sansa Clip+ mp3 player, and my Dell Netbook.  I’ve stopped using my thin leather pocket Filofax for note capture and diary/calendar.  I’m currently using a cheapo spiral A4 book for capture, and no diary system, because my time has been in blocks of months.

Given that I’m on Gmail and iPhone, I think Google calendar and some kind of iPhone note capture would be nice.  Today, I’ve just created a simple shopping list on a Google Docs spreadsheet, and my Actions in columns, on another Google Docs spreadsheet, so that I can view them easily from my iPhone.  I’m having a play with a few iPhone productivity Apps but nothing has hooked me yet.  Dan Bricklin’s Note Taker to finger write notes on the iPhone, Evernote, iThought mindmaps, and gCalWall which produces a photo of your Google calendar and puts it up as the wallpaper.  Not long before that will be automatic.

My main obsession right now is listening to podcasts and audio books rather than producing podcasts and audio books! One may lead to the other.

Every decade for me has been significant in terms of moving onto the next decade, but this time, 2009 feels like it’s dribbling into 2010!!  Is it just me or did decade ends used to me more exciting!  And so, my productivity is dribbling into 2010!!

2009 Purchases of the year!

Just got a Sansa Clip+ 4GB mp3 player via eBay, and it set me thinking what my favourite purchases of 2009 are.  I’m not a big consumer of goods, not a big shopper, brick or online, so there’s not much to choose from.  I tend to choose well, and hence my goods last a long time, if I use them!

1. Hush Puppies – Zinc classic formal shoes

You wouldn’t think there would be a pair of formal shoes I’d actually look forward to wearing.  Given that I’m on my feet, training groups a lot, I thought I’d treat myself and spend a bit more. Well worth it.  Comfortable, “Extra Wide”, “Bounce Technology”.

2. Apple iPhone 3GS

So, I claim I’m not a typical consumer!  Well I am with this one.  Never fallen for the Apple hype, but I have to say, the iPhone is fantastic.  Easy to use, beautiful usability, great as a phone, and of course the Apps.

pUniverse – See the stars as you move around the night sky, find the planets.

AlarmT Lite – Alarm Clock which enables me to wake to my MP3s

Games – FreeCell, Sudoku, Action Blox, Touch4, Labyrinth 3D, Racer Free

tramTracker and Metlink for Melbourne transport

Getting Things Done – Notes, Google Apps (inc Gmail), Guitar Tuner, Laptop Cafe, Evernote, Note Taker (finger write), iThoughts (MindMaps)

3. Sansa Clip+ MP3 player

See, I don’t fall for the Apple hype.  I’m sure iPods are fantastic, but are they value for money?  I reckon the Sansa Clip+ is the best player, depending on how you use an MP3 player.  It’s small and it clips on!  If you cycle, walk around a lot, and go on public transport, it fantastic.  Also the Clip+ has more sound options than the Clip.  Volume/Equalizer adjustments, Audio Book options for double play speed, and micro SD slot for an extra 16GB.

4. Audible Audio Books

I’ve been an Audible user since 2006 for the Ricky Gervais podcasts, but only recently started listening to audio books.  My first book was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which was a bit dire as a book, but I persisted, and Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers read by Malcolm Gladwell, is unbelievably good.  Just listened to some other Ricky Gervais podcasts and more to come.  I was crying with laughter.  And currently listening to Scott Adams’ (Dilbert) God’s Debris.

Just one product I wouldn’t buy again, the Dell Mini Netbook, on the Vodafone plan.  The keyboard is too small to enjoy using and they’ve moved the apostrophe ‘ key and made the right hand shift key smaller, which makes it a pain in the arse to try typing with.  It’s still a good data plan, but would I buy this netbook again?  I don’t think so.  I’ve seen better netbook keyboards.

3D MindMaps

I've just seen the future, and it's 3D MindMaps!
Great idea by Michael Scherotter at MindManager to us XML to stack revisions of a MindMap.  Have a look at the sketch!!

And whilst I'm at it, I'll use this post to remind MindJet that many of us users want more graphics flexibility and less devotion to working with more and more applications.
1. Lets the branches/topics Zag as well Zig, back on themselves and be able to angle them.
2.  Printing a MindMap is still a nightmare.  Sometimes the human brain/eye can fit more in.  Let us be able to scale parts of the map to fill the whole printed page.
3.  And let us go back to being able to slot branches/topics behind each other or overlapping each other so we can fit more on the printed page!

Getting Things Done in 2006

I'm just having a look at my 2005 New Year's Resolutions, and almost everyone of them ended up as the opposite, which is largely how I intended them.
More Chocolate in 2005! was an attempt to give up chocolate by eating more.  And it worked.  I ate so much chocolate in the early months of 2005 that I think I've become allergic to chocolate by the end of 2005, so now I don't eat any or drink it.  Fantastic Tony, well done! Other 2005 resolutions;

2005 Resolutions
1. More Chocolate
2. Longer meetings!
3. More chocolate!!
4. Less food More Food!
5. More Cycling/Windsurfing
6. More holidays
7. More Blogging
8. More Improv
9. More time with Annie

I've blogged less, done no Improv, forgot about longer meetings, eaten the same amount of food as I always eat, cycled a bit, not windsurfed at all (but that wasn't a literal resolution), not been on holiday, and we now have a pool of babysitters, so Annie and I do spend more time together.  So all in all, my resolutions have mostly come true and how I wanted and expected them.

And so to 2006.  Getting Things Done.  Yes, partly following the book, and it's something I want to help more people with this year.  I think how we manage our lives, especially with information overload, is a big thing, and even if I can't get it right for myself (Ha Ha!) I can help others, who can then help me.

2006 Resolutions
1. GTD.  Work, Home, Network, Money,
2. Health.  I think this can be solved in one event.  Drink more water!
3. Cycle/Windsurf.  When it's windy windsurf, when it's not windy, cycle.  This applies to life.
4. Family.  I'd like to help teach Georgie to read, this year.  And more sport with Jay.
5. Tablet.  Take notes in meetings on my Tablet, with MindManager (and maybe learn OneNote).
6. Fun.  Go-Kart, Beach, Improv, Football, Ski/Snowboard, Annie.
7. MP3. Listen to more, maybe create more.

Oh, and one more thing.
8. $15Million!

p.s I've used Performancing, a Firefox add-on to create my first 2006 Typepad weblog entry.

Tender Response and MindManager

I've been responding to a Tender for the first time in years and years.
That must bring memories back to some of you.
Working late.  Stress.  Knowing in your head what you want to say, and struggling to get it down in a 2 dimensional serial proposal.
And why are large tenders always urgent and set just before Christmas?

It also reminded me of University days.  Late night essays, large projects to write, many sleepless nights, turning to my colleagues and stating "Never Again" and bursting into laughter because we knew, "Always Again". I struggle to write for someone else, in a "business" language. In this weblog, I write for myself, whatever idea comes into my head, and it's so much easier.
Interesting that my writing in the tender was starting to take on the language of a blog, with some exclamation marks as well!!  We had to submit printed copies of the tender, so unfortunately we couldn't use hyperlinks.  I'd love to have referred to things on the web.

I used MindManager to run the tender response. We brainstormed ideas using a projector on to a wall.  We reviewed our progress every day as a group. We planned our response, and did lots of rearranging of all the info and ideas we'd gathered, across the MindMap.  And finally, I wrote my part of the response in MindManager, whereby I'd write my response in the Notes section of each main Topic/Branch, whilst looking at all the sub-branches I'd gathered.  Then I exported all the notes into Word - a complete response that needed nothing but formatting.

On the whole it worked extremely well, and this was hardcore stuff with hundreds of sub-topics and not just a few pretty branches.  Sometimes difficult to keep track of so much information, but how else can you do it, in the two weeks we had to respond, and we now have an electronic capture of our whole planning and writing process.

We're due to hear this week if we've been short-listed, and if we have, we present in January to the client.  I'm tempted to present in MindManager presentation mode, which is a bit different to the usual PowerPoint (yawn) thing. (Damn, just read Kathy Sierra's list ....but is it interesting; we could have gone further!)

I've not worked with a group of people using MindManager, but that's starting to happen. Very Exciting. Stuff like MindManager doesn't excite others as much as it does for me. I have intense curiosity.  If I'm walking past someone's screen with lots of graphics and colours on it, I want to know what it is.  If I see something colourful on a desk, I want to see what it is.

Others don't have my visual curiosity, so I guess MindMapping isn't always for them.

The one thing I haven't done yet, which MindManager 6 can do, is package the whole project, including supporting documentation, into a single MindMap, whereby all the supporting documentation is carried by the MindMap so if I send it to someone, it sends the attached Excel, Word  documents with it.

MindManager 6

I'm enjoying using MindManager 6 Pro, the recently released upgrade to MindManager X5 Pro.

I have been beta testing the software for nearly 2 months, but I wasn't sure what I could say, so I said nothing!
Now it's on general release, there are a few things I really like.
1. Topic Alert means that a topic can have a timed reminder, making it more likely that I'll use MindManager for task alerts rather than Outlook.
2. New topic formats means that each topic can have its own format e.g an Org Chart for part of the MindMap.  This also almost gives me my dream suggestion which is to have branches facing each other so that I can show a many to many relationship.
3. Even better integration with Microsoft Office, including Excel now, and a preview pane for creating PowerPoint slides from the MindMap, even in ink, which it converts on to the PowerPoint preview as typed text.
4. More upfront taskbar icons for formatting topics, a bit like the direction Office12 is moving in.
5. Attaching files as part of the MindMap.  This isn't just a hyperlink, but the MindMap packs all the files in with the MindMap, so you can send the whole project including all attachments as a single MindMap. (Not to self, remember to pick a project and run the whole thing from MindManager including the storing of files)

There are lots of other improvements I haven't tried yet.
Two suggestions I'd still like to see:
1. "Left Map" so that floating topics can face the main MindMap for a many to many relationship.  This only works on the left of the MindMap with "Right Map"
2. More flexibility with printing and viewing.  Some of us do actually have more than 20 items on a MindMap so require the human brain to fit it all on the screen or printed page, by being able to tuck some topics/branches behind others, or even have them crossing each other.  This used to be possible with previous releases of MindManager.  Give us the option again please!

At some point it would be really cool if the topics could angle up and down, and also be able to angle text. And we'd be able to Zag topics/branches back on themselves and fit even more on to the page.

Outliners v MindMaps

Am I missing something with Outliners?  Never having used one, I'm not quite sure what one is, but doesn't MindManger give you everything an outliner does, and much much more?
It's interesting reading what Dave Winer is up to with his next Outliner, and still I wonder if MindManager can already do all this.

I also wonder if Scoble as a Tablet Evangelist is using MindManager. 
Time to put the pressure on, if he isn't!!

Getting Things Done and MindManager

Blimey, I've made it!  I'm on the MindJet recommended blog list, so I'd better say something nice about them!
Funnily enough, that's exactly what I was going to write about anyway.
I've just started reading Getting Things Done, because many of the weblogs I read recommend the book and philosophy.  I've just started the book, and I'm a bit wary, because so many books are good at describing the symptoms, but the solution and keeping it going is less palatable.

But so far so good, I love the idea of getting into a state of flow by only thinking about a single task, and also the great point, that's it's carrying more than one thought at a time, that frazzles our minds.  And it's nice to realise that everyone is struggling just as much, but bluffing along and covering things up. 

One of the suggestions is to create Collections Tools for all the thoughts and "Incompletes" and I can't think of a better tool than MindManager for doing that.

What I've loved recently are doing tasks that absolutely have to be done with single narrow focus, and no time to consider anything else.  That's when the Flow State starts and it becomes really enjoyable.  If the book lives up to its early promise then I'm a convert.

However........how many of us have been through Time Manager, Spiral books, Post-It's, Covey 7 Habits and First Things First, 6 Thinking Hats, Outlook, Spreadsheets, MS Project, Cling Sheets, PDAs, Pocketbooks, Memory Techniques, MindMaps, Desk Management, Delegation, Learning to say No, Workflow, Voice Recording, and of course the In-Basket.  I'm battle weary.

The older I've got the more my job roles have been people oriented.  Making contact with lots of people. That's relatively easy - Microsoft Outlook Tasks.  But the last two roles have been back to task oriented projects.  Lots and Lots of tasks and actions.
And no task is an absolute priority, and they're all waiting for something to complete which I have no say in, so they all get juggled together at the same time.  And so does my head.

So I'll keep reading the good book this weekend and see what happens.

MindMaps and CRM

Now there's an Oxymoron if ever I read it.
Customer Relationship Management system and a MindMap.
And I don't even have to say anything I just need to quote this:

Go and look at any CRM system - for the most part there are all forms and tab-based.  This is not an ideal approach for the information worker, ask yourself when was the last time a form inspired any creative thinking? Yet selling is a highly creative human-centric business process whose success determines the overall success of any business. Go figure.

And where has this quote come from?  Why, the guys who are trying to make a CRM look like the most creative tool ever invented.  There's an old I.T saying, Shit in Shit out.
MindJet are helping Salesforce.com make a CRM look interesting!  Good Luck!!

Putting some fancy graphical front end on a dull form system ain't going to make one bit of difference.  Actually it will make a lot of difference to MindJet and Salesforce.com in the short term, whilst many corporates fall for this trick of fancying up something that should have died 5 years ago.
For the 24 years I've been in I.T. the dream of the single customer record (or single patient record) has been the paradise we've thought we wanted.  I'd love my telco or bank, to treat me as single entity, but that's more down to attitude and a will to do it, and not a CRM.

I love MindJet and MindManager and the ethos of the company, especially now they're blogging.  And this will do very well for them in the short term, but it's not the answer to the woes of CRM.
When is someone going to say the Emperor has no clothes, and that CRMs are a pile of crap?
Nice idea in theory.  Say Mr/Mrs Sales Director, would you like:

1. A single record of all interactions with each customer?
2. Would you like to know exactly what each Salesperson is doing?
3. Would you like to improve your shoddy business forecasting?

Ping!  A CRM is for you.

No No No.  Gathering information and planning is only a part of the selling process.
If a salesperson committed to keeping their CRM up to date for their clients, they'd be on the system 24 hours a day and not actually do any selling.  It's called Over-Preparing and Doomsaying.
And it's implemented because Sales Directors and CEOs aren't walking the floor and talking to their people.

But since the Sales Director is the Decision maker, the poor salesperson and customer is going to have to put up with this crap for a while longer, until a few more of them read Cluetrain!!

I've been a salesperson for many many years, I've trained salespeople for many years, I've even trained salespeople at the beginning of a 1500+ seat CRM role-out to use the damn system, so I have some idea of what I'm talking about, especially seeing the look on those sweet salespeople's faces as the realise what they're letting themselves in for, and that they get absolutely no benefit from using the system.

And if Mr/Mrs Sales Director, you think that implementing a CRM will improve your forecasting, than I will say the same thing again. Shit in, Shit out.  It was never about using the wrong system, it's about conversations.  A good Excel spreadsheet will do fine!!

So MindJet, I hope you're not putting all your eggs into this venture, because some of us would like to see a more flexible, cool, and creative tool.  I love X5, but it's lost some of its organic look from MindManager 2002.  I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.
You'll do well in the short-term trying to shore up CRM systems, but I don't think that's the ethos of your company.