Chandler: integrated information manager / organizer

A Java- based, cross organizer available for MacOSX, Linux and Windows, Chandler
aims at being an integrated approach to information management. Its quick Entry Bar with smart date parsing lets you enter everything from ideas to reminders and meetings, so you can efficiently capture any thought. Triage Lists let you manage everything from deadlines and meetings to drafts and ideas. Incorporated tickler Alarms to auto-re-focus deferred items to NOW, and a wealth of sync tools for Calendaring | Organization | Web Access | Sharing. See the short video description to the left.

Some of Chendler’s features include:

Integrated Calendaring
Manage, preview and add to your Calendar, without having to go to the Calendar:

• Schedule Tasks on your Calendar
• Turn Reminders into Events on the Calendar
• Prepare for Meetings by tracking them from the Triage List
• Preview what's on your calendar in the Mini-Cal Preview Pane
• Create Events from the Quick Entry Bar
  

Each Collection comes with a Calendar View so you can easily maintain multiple Calendars.

Rich Calendaring Features

• Color-code and Overlay multiple Calendars
• Recurring events
• Time zones
• Alarms
• Day, Week and Month Views
• Mini-Calendar with Busybars and Preview Pane
• Share your Calendars or Create a Group Calendar

Flexible Organization
Organize information into Multiple Contexts By project, by people, by importance, by status, on your calls list, on your calendar, on your task list, on your spouse's task list...

• Gather Notes and Events into Collections you define
• Drag and Drop them into as many Collections as you see fit
• Triage items in each Collection into NOW-LATER-DONE sections.
• Easily maintain a Calendar for each Collection
• Star important Notes and Events
• Filter your collections to see only Starred Notes and Events

Back up and Web Access

• Access your data from the web thru Chandler Hub
• Sync Chandler across multiple computers
• Sync your Apple, Google and Mozilla Calendars
• Add new items to Chandler from iGoogle
• Set up Chandler IMAP Folders to download email

Sharing and Collaboration
Share collections to:

• Share your Personal Calendar
• Maintain a Group Calendar
• Collaborate on Drafts
• Maintain Checklists together
• Brainstorm as a group
• See who's done what in shared Collections
• Share Calendars with Apple iCal, Mozilla Cal users
• Subscribe to Google Calendars
• Give others access to collections from the web
• Send Notes and Invitations to others by email...
• Edit and re-send sent items with Updates

Chandler Desktop is free and it is available in English, German, Finnish, French, Swedish and coming soon in Portuguese. Find out more in the product tour and the comprehensive documentation and help in their website.

Some more GTD applications

Here is a handful of GTD applications that I've recently heard of and I'm about to try.

TaskFreak! is a simple but efficient web based task manager written in PHP that you can install in your server, single or multiuser.

TaskStep is an open source, PHP-powered web application designed to help you organize your ideas and responsibilities.It is a simple and elegant way to keep track of what's on your mind.

Combining a functional, attractive interface with familiar task-tracking methods, plus a sprinkle of GTD, TaskStep will let you get over the hill of managing your todo list and well on your way to actually getting things done.



Taskwriter is a streamlined approach to GTD organization. In this case it is a hosted (free) service: it shows careful attention to user interface design and principles of simple contextual productivity. Check it out for an simple online solution with zero learning curve.

Similar to Taskwriter: Simplegtd, again a free hosted service with ease of use and focused interface.

And, don't forget all the programs and services linked in the sidebar -->

GTDAgenda

GTD Agenda is an online organizer based on the GTD method. I have had it listed on the sidebar for a while, but I haven't tried it out until recently.

You can try it out or sign up for a basic or a premium (pro) account here. Unlike other applications commented here before, this is a paid service, starting at $4.45/month for the basic plan.


Extra care has been taken to provide a frawework consistent with the GTD method, with:

• Goals to concentrate your effort and move you in a direction;
• Contexts where or how a task is accomplished. By default, GTDAgenda comes populated by just a few contexts, but it is very easy to add as many new contexts as you need. You usually prefix them with the “at” (@) sign to keep them grouped together;
• Projects sets of actions, that map to one of your goals;
• Tasks and Next Actions break out each project into specific actionable items;
• Schedules
• Checklists in weekly, monthly of year frames, with priority scale;
• Calendar for important reminders, you can also use it as tickler file. It can be hooked to an online iCal calendar for easy synchronization with other calendars or online organizers.

There is a someday / maybe folder and an Archive / reference folder, but they don't seem to appear in the sidebar. (only contexts and next actions are listed there). However, you can access these folders in any of the items you add to next actions or projects. A workaround to have a list of those missing items could be to create a “project” for each category named respectively someday/maybe and archive.

Whenever you need a list of actions, goals or any other item, you can print it out or send by email.



GTDAgenda provides mobile access in a specific url (http://gtdagenda.mobi/) and it can also be integrated with Twitter.

For team / collaborative organization, you can invite other users to get them into your contact list.

Support options
You can browse or participate in the forum, request support by email with an online form. It is advisable to read first some of the help articles and usage examples. The help is comprehensive and you will find specific articles like Use Gtdagenda to implement Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen, Make Gtdagenda a part of your 7 Habits for becoming Highly Effective, How to implement Zen To Done (ZTD) with Gtdagenda, How to use Gtdagenda for the Gym, How to use Gtdagenda for School or How to use Gtdagenda for Software Development.


What could be improved?

• Include more pre-filled contexts by default and example database files, so you can customize and start using it faster.
  
• Print options are a bit limited. You should be able to customize the printouts.
• A private RSS for any of the lists or queries in the organizer would be great for those who keep an eye on their RSS reader.
• An export / import utility to have your data backed up, or transferred to and from other desktop or mobile applications.
• The look of the application. This is a very personal opinion, but an appealing interface encourages you to use the application and enjoy more the task of getting organized. A suggestion: include different skins and theme switching in future updates of GTDAgenda.

Task Merlin: advanced GTD organizer

For your personal organization a very basic program might be enough, but some eye candy and extra features won't hurt. I have recently heard about TaskMerlin, a Windows application that fits the bill, from simple to-do lists to complex collaborative project management. As a bonus, it looks really great —this really helps making your organisation more attractive.

When you start TaskMerlin you are welcomed by a Tip of the day, a good way to learn its features and how to use bit by bit:


The program interface is divided in five panels and a common icon / menu bar on top. This is the default view, but you can activate or deactivate the separate panels as you wish:

The top left window is a folder structure where you access your documents and folders. If you open the included example file, this space includes an Inbox, where any thought can be temporarily captured, waiting for processing, a Projects folder with topic or place subfolders, where you save your current projects, an Archives folder for reference, storage, ideas that you set aside, etcetera, and finally a Trash Bin. Of course you can customize all these folders or rename them at your convenience.

Once you open a Project, the second panel, top right, presents a list of the different tasks and action it includes. The data associated to each task is comprehensive, but you are not required to introduce all the possible fields: type, context, status, priority, summary, progress, assigned to, due date...

You add new tasks, actions, projects or items like research, purchases, information, events, administration... right-clicking in this top right panel. The list of possible items has been thoroughly populated for you, so it's very likely that you'll find exactly the specific item you need to add for any project, be it purchasing something online, doing maintenance work on your terminal or whatever task you might think of:

The bottom left panel lets you filter and one-click access to your saved items, based on their associated fields. For example, you can get a list of what you have to do today, next actions, what needs to be done in a specific context...

If you need to create a filter, TaskMerlin provides a step-by-step wizard that will guide you. This Wizard will pop up when you hit the "new filter" icon on the Filters panel:

In the bottom centre panel, the contents of notes, actions and other items are displayed. Unlike other utilities of this type, TaskMerlin provides a rich text editor that gives you a fine control of the appearance of the notes, including a mini text editor. These notes can also include pasted objects, links, time stamps...

The last panel, on the bottom right side of the window, is a properties panel called Document. It displays all the characteristics of a given item. The sheer amount of information you can associate to any item may look overwhelming, but it just means you can choose whatever information you really need and leave the rest.

My overall impression is of a well-designed and robust program that offers very advanced capabilities, and goes hand in glove with the GTD methodology. Yet at the same time, you may choose to use a subset of its features and a simpler interface, hiding the panels you don't need.

The program requires Microsoft .NET framework and it is available at the moment only for Windows Vista, XP, 2000, Server 2003/2008, Me, 98. There are two editions, one personal and one professional version, plus an evaluation version. A comparison matrix is available. All of them can be downloaded from the TaskMerlin website.

Now available: the book

Related to some of the imagery published in this blog: 1000 Heads is an imaginative collection of illustrations in which the human head experiments the strangest transformations, actions and variations: a fascinating and mesmerizing trip through the world of symbols, associations and memories. It is now available from Lulu.

Description of the book:

158 pages, softcover, 19.05 cm x 19.05 cm, black in white interior, colour cover, available from Lulu.com (in Spain you can also order it from Bubok.)

To see what's it like, you can see some page spreads here (32 of its pages) or visit the (different samples) page preview in the online bookshop. A video showing the book being browsed is also available at Youtube.

Plotting the improductivity

Or the antiproductivity. Come on and admit it: you're always trying to find the lamest excuses to waste your time without getting to work...

(click the image to see a larger version!)

The 1000 Heads project

Here's a new daily image project, called 1000 Heads. It's based on human head images in my sketchbooks. They are filled with imaginary heads containing all the stuff one could possible think of.

Either as a warm-up exercise, to develop a new idea, or just to have fun for a while, I find myself making variations on the theme all the time.

A selection of these peculiar heads, after scanning and cleaning up, were vectorised and published at Typephases as a collection of dingbat fonts called Capsbats (a set of 3 fonts) and Entestats (3 more fonts.)

In this project I am going to post one of these heads every day, with some further modifications and usually paired with some quotation (be it related or not to the image.)

This collection of images is part self-entertainment, part concept visualization. I hope they are inspirational for you and make you think, hopefully sparking some new insight.

Making plans for the semester

Making plans for the semester, originally uploaded by DailyPic.

Thinking on the things I want to do best in the next few months or so...
I just couldn't bring myself to just write down a list, so after a while of fooling around with pencil, markers and some washes, this is the "decorated version" of the list. Now if I only can do some of it.

See more of my artwork in my Flickr page!

Simple, easy and light todo list apps

Managing to-do lists is an essential piece of your personal organization. You can either (or both) create and use lists on your computer (online services or standalone applications) or with the most simple and portable setup ever: pen and pencil.

There are many to-do list applications available, providing different feature lists.You may find the to-do list function included in more complex programs, such as full-featured organizers, but sometimes it's preferable to use a fast-loading, focused tool to quickly access your task lists. These are a few applications of this kind I have tried and found to be useful. There are also online services to create and manage your to-do lists (see the sidebar and the bottom of this post.)

ToDoList is a rare form of task management tool, one that allows you to repeatedly sub-divide your tasks into more manageable pieces whilst still presenting a clean and intuitive user experience.

Main Features of ToDoList:

• Simple interface
• Freeware
• Support for hierarchical data. The number of items/subitems is limited only by memory (although performance may be the deciding factor before you exhaust memory).
• Marking a parent item as 'done' will also gray-out child items, but they are not disabled or automatically marked as 'done'.
• Top-level items and sub-items are created using different toolbar buttons. An ellipsis (...) indicates that an item has sub-items. All items can be expanded or collapsed (by double-clicking).
• There are task-specific context-menus.
• The tasklist is automatically saved when closing the software or minimizing it to the system tray. The previously open tasklists are re-opened on startup.

Smart To-Do List
Recently it has come to my attention a very fast and unobstrusive program called Smart To-Do List. You can run it in portable mode from a usb flash drive (also meaning that you don't need to install it and clutter your windows registry) and it's very lightweight yet still well focused on managing to-do lists. You get a project list (you can use templates for similar projects) and within each project you add tasks as you need.Tasks can be associated to different tags (which you can use as contexts) and a degree of priority can be assigned to each. Then, you can customize the display by context or by priority... The data can be exported as html or xml. Although this application is intentionally limited, it does its job quite well. And as you can resize its window to a rather small size and yet access all its functions, it comes very handy to quickly add tasks to whatever projects you are involved with.

As it happens with many productivity tools and services, Smart to-do list is available both in a free and paid version, the second one without the limitations of the first, obviously.



To-Do Desklist and Swift To-Do List
To-Do Desklist is another simple, nice looking and easy-to-use tool with good interface and good features:

• You can place To-Do notes directly on your desktop, assigning priority levels to to-dos.
• All to-dos can have a reminder to a specific date and time.
• Hotkeys for adding a new to-do and displaying all to-do notes in front of other windows
• Sorting To-Do Notes by priority or by date
• You can add an alarm to an item
• Desklist also allows you to assign priority and add extended notes to tasks.

It's freeware for Windows only.They have a more feature-rich program called Swift To-do.
Swift to-do, again, has a free and a paid version.
An online version of the program exists and you can even try it out on your browser as a demo.

Online services
For a comprehensive list of online todo list services, check out the following articles:Distraction Free GTD: 32 Todo List Web Applications Online todo lists compared
do also check the sidebar of GTDrawings, where we list several online to-do lists.

In / out

In / out, originally uploaded by DailyPic.

A drawing about being positive despite negative input in your day-to-day.
Scanned from my current journal / sketchbook, A4 size. Ink (brush pen.)

The text says something like
"every day we're under a rain (if not a storm) of negativity, trouble, limitations, frustration. We need to turn all this over, and always bring out some positive thinking. No escapism: being rational if necessary, passional sometimes, but always trying to find the positive elements. These are what will brin us forward, leaving the ballast of negative weight behind."

See more of my artwork in my Flickr page!

GTD: 22 visual side notes more!

Here are some drawings that I missed in previous posts. I've realized a few of them are repeated, but most of them are completely new. These are visual side notes sketched on the margins of the Getting things done book, but I traced them on three layout paper sheets for a cleaner appearance (and less scanning work!)
Soon I will post bigger versions and individual comments for the drawings. Meanwhile, take a look: find them at my Flickr page, together with other samples of my artwork.

See more of my artwork in my Flickr page!

Browser-based GTD organizers

There is a variety of free and commercial solutions for your Getting Things Done-style organisation. Among these we find several browser-based applications. Some are quite simple and easy to set up (or with no setup at all), while others require more complex installations and system configurations.

Let's examine a few of these applications.

You can download GTD-PHP from http://www.gtd-php.com. An application focused specifically on organizing your tasks and projects, the GTD-PHP project provides detailed documentation, including screencasts. Here's how you create a new project explained visually:

We already talked about Nexty, a similar GTD-compliant organizer similar to GTD-PHP and with similar system requirements.

Those two applications have common requirements: you must install them on a webserver with PHP and MySQL (the typical requirements for most CMS and blog systems such as Wordpress, and other popular web applications.)

You can alternatively run either GTD-PHP or Nexty in your own computer if you install a personal webserver application, as we explain in the post about Nexty. It is even possible to set up and run those appls in a portable fashion, so you can take them wherever you want with your usb drive. I've recently discovered a portable webserver called MoWeS thats comes with a selectable bunch of preinstalled software that includes GTD-PHP!

Tracks and What's next

What's Next is a personal productivity application that supports David Allen's Getting Things Done system, or GTD. What's Next provides an environment in which to be effortlessly productive - it has been designed to offer a great user interface and generally be a joy to use:

The application works under Mac OS X, Windows, various Unix- and Linux-variants. It is a browser-based application that comes with a small local web server based on Ruby. The installation in Windows and Mac OS X is pretty straightforward, while on Linux it's a bit more complex. See the downloads page in the What's new project for more information. You will also find a detailed user manual explaining the different features and uses of What's next.

Tracks is another browser-based GTD application that also requires a more unusual (and fairly complex) setup with Ruby on Rails. It looks really good and it is fully compliant with the GTD philosophy. While its requirements and installation procedure may seem more discouraging, there is also an option of installing it more easily. Check the Bitnami Tracks Stack solution.

One of the most peculiar features of Tracks, apart from the expected Projects, Actions, Lists and other GTD elements, is the statistics page, which provides a comprehensive information about your projects, actions both in numbers and in graphics. You also get a very useful tickler file to remind you of necessary actions.

TiddlyWiki-based apps
TiddlyWiki is a single html file which has all the characteristics of a wiki - including all of the content, the functionality (including editing, saving, tagging and searching) and the style sheet. Because it's a single file, it's very portable - you can email it, put it on a web server or share it via a USB stick. (definition from the TiddlyWiki project page.)

GTDTiddlyWiki is a GettingThingsDone adaptation by NathanBowers of JeremyRuston's Open Source TiddlyWiki. The purpose of GTD Tiddly Wiki is to give users a single repository for their GTD lists and support materials so they can create/edit lists, and then print directly to 3x5 cards for use with the HipsterPDA.


Next Action is a Getting Things Done todo-list tracking tool. It's a personal database for your action items and todo lists that you use through your web browser. Now a Google Gears enhanced service, it stores its data in your computer while running from a remote server. You can also try to find the old version, which stores your data internally in the html file (saving it each time you use Next Action, by using the save as complete webpage option.)MonkeyGTD is yet another wiki-based solution:

My recommendation? If you don't want to waste time setting up your applications, you can start using any of the three last TiddlyWiki-based apps. They offer full functionality and you will be using them within minutes. Your decision will depend, however, on what you prefer: a usb app, a server-hosted app or a local install.

Finally, do check other GTD applications (not browser-based) already commented here in GTDrawings, such as Thinking Rock and other services and programs you will find in the blog.

File synchronization

Here is a variety of file synchronization utilities. Very handy to make sure you have exactly the same files on different storage systems: backup, equalize, restore, update, synchronize...

The one I use is Toucan, but you can try and decide for yourself. All of these programs are freeware and portable: no need to add unwanted junk on your system, no installation necessary.

A good selection of GTD and productivity books

Where have all the GTDrawings gone?

I conceived this blog basically to share my visual side notes of the Getting things done process. My most recent posts about GTD software and related topics have “masked” the original posts.

You can access most GTDrawings in the archive of december 2005 and january 2006.

Here's a miniature with most of my sketches: this is what you will find, commented and in larger sizes, in those previous posts.

GnuCash (Portable)

If you need a reliable program to track your expenses, income and other personal finance management, GnuCash Portable, available PortableApps is an excellent, and free, choice.

GnuCash Portable is the open source financial management. It has all the same great features as most commercial money management programs (see some links on the sidebar of this blog) and more.

Some of its features include:

• Double-Entry Accounting
• Bank/Liability/Expense Accounts
• Stock/Bond/Mutual Fund Accounts
• Small-Business Accounting (Customers, Vendors, Jobs, Invoices, Accounts Payable/Receivable)
• QIF/OFX/HBCI Import, Transaction Matching
• Reports, Graphs
• Scheduled Transactions
• Financial Calculations

The version available from Portable Apps is a piece of software packaged as a portable app, so you can take your financial data with you. Plus, it leaves no personal information behind on the machine you run it on, so you can take your finances along with you wherever you go.

You can also visit the Project page for GNUCash (gnucash.org), with a good Documentation section and a tour of the program through screenshots / features.

GanttProject and other project management software

Recently I have been organizing a series of complex projects and I have used a program called GanttProject as a helper. Ganttproject is a free project scheduling program, by means of Gantt charts and resource load charts.

This kind of chart is an invaluable tool when you have to plan complex projects that must be developed in specific time spans and with clear dependences. You can break down your project into a tree of tasks and assign human resources that have to work on each task, identifying which are the dependencies between tasks, and the time frames for each, deciding which tasks can't start until some other taks is finished.

Quoting from a Project management article,

The project schedule is the core of the project plan. It is used by the project manager to commit people to the project and show the organization how the work will be performed. Schedules are used to communicate final deadlines and, in some cases, to determine resource needs. They are also used as a kind of checklist to make sure that every task necessary is performed. If a task is on the schedule, the team is committed to doing it. In other words, the project schedule is the means by which the project manager brings the team and the project under control.

GanttProject renders your project using two charts: Gantt chart for tasks and resource load chart for resources. You may print your charts, generate PDF and HTML reports, exchange data with Microsoft(R) Project(TM) and spreadsheet applications...

This screenshot of the program, lifted from their website, gives an idea of what GanttProject is about —this specific example is a building project:

There is a similar program called Open Workbench, with an impressive feature list. SmartDraw also has a nice feature set for Gantt charts. And you might want to check out other Gantt chart tools for Mac or PC.

If you are a Linux Ubuntu (with KDE desktop, or Kubuntu) you can use KPlato, which is opensource and completely free to use. Its features include:

• Gantt chart with task list and resource allocations per task.
• Resource view with task allocations per resource.
• Accounts view showing planned cost with configurable cut-off date and periodicity.
• Tasks are organized in a work breakdown structure (WBS).
• Resources are organized in a resource breakdown structure (RBS).
• Accounts are organized in a cost breakdown structure (CBS).
• Gantt chart can optionally show:
  • Task links (dependencies).
  • Task name.
  • Allocated resources.
  • Float (slack).
  • Critical path.
  • Critical tasks.
  • Progress (% completion).
• Summarytasks, Tasks, and milestones are supported.
• Dialogs to create and edit the project, the different types of tasks, calendars, resources, accounts and progress.
• Task links can be of types: Finish to Start, Finish toFinish or Start to Start. All types can have a time lag defined.
• Different scheduling constraints are supported:
  • As soon as possible (early start).
  • As late as possible (late start).
  • Must start on target time.
  • Must finish on target time.
  • Start not earlier than target time.
  • Finish not later than target time.
  • Fixed interval. (Target start time and target finish time.)

This is a screenshot of this application:
See more details and download the program at the KOffice project page. As you know, there are several ways to install programs in Ubuntu, and it is getting more and more trouble-free every day. Choose what is best for you.

Then there are several online, or web-based, applications for Project Management. Dotproject
is a PHP + MySQL opensource solution, with excellent documentation and online courseware. If you have a Dreamhost hosting account you can install it with their one-click install utility. Super-easy!

More information about Gantt Charts in the Wikipedia article. Also in the Wikipedia, a list of Project management software.

Web-based mind mapping software

My favourite mind-mapping software is the open source Freemind, but I also use some online tools such as Mindomo and Bubbl.us.

Mindomo is a versatile Web-based mind mapping tool, delivering the capabilities of desktop mind mapping software in a Web browser, and it gives you complete freedom to access your maps in your Web browser from home, school or work.

Bubbl.us is probably the simplest way to brainstorm online: it's extremely easy to use and has almost no learning curve. The intuitive user interface lets anyone brainstorm and organize ideas without getting in the way. The mind maps created with Bubbl.us can be shared and edited collaboratively.

Total text container

Total Text Container is a freeware multi-purpose personal information manager that lets you to store all kinds of different content within a single encrypted XML database.
You can type simple or rich text, alone or mixed in any way you want with images. The entries may also include information such as tabular data (spreadsheets), URLs, passwords, contacts, calendar events, catalogs, files... like in this example taken from the developer's page:A good tool for organizing your digital life! What's better, this application is portable (ckeck out the Portable Freeware collection entry.)

Some digital alarms

AM-Notebook (pro and lite versions available) is a multi-featured tabbed note-taking program that provides an easy and reliable way to save notes and formula supported spreadsheets in a light weight tray icon tool. Lots of text formatting features allows you to create clear and well designed notes which can be stored at different locations and also be shared in a network. Other nice features are the integrated alarm clock and address book.

Sveglia is a simple alarm clock. With Sveglia is possible to activate an alarm, run a program, shutdown or restart the Pc at certain time. The alarm can pop up a sound file in mp3 and other formats.

Citrus alarm clock also has this nice touch of playing the music you choose. Set as many different alarms as you'd like; MP3, WMA, and any other media types are for which you have the right media player installed; fade in alarm audio for relaxed awakening; mute audio overnight until alarm time; easy to use and free

A great place to find similar utilities is the Productivity section in Portable Freeware, where the applications discussed can be run in portable form, that is, without installation. Just place them in a folder, either in your computer or in a USB stick, and go.

There are dozens of related utilities in Softpedia, searching the term "alarm".

Task Coach

Task Coach is a simple open source todo manager to manage personal tasks and todo lists. Often, tasks and other things todo consist of several activities. Task Coach is designed to deal with composite tasks. The application is also available as a portable application (see the Portable Apps page), so you can run it anywhere from your usb drive.

A survey of the GTD app landscape

A very nice compilation of commented links about GTD - related software, online services and other utilities related to GTD.

Basket Note Pads

I am working more and more in Ubuntu lately, and I am testing different kinds of applications. One very nice discovery I've made is Basket Note Pads, a multi-purpose note-taking application helps you to:

• easily take all sort of notes
• Collect research results and share them
• Centralize your project data and reuse it
• Quickly organize your thoughts in idea boxes
• Keep track of your information in a smart way
• Make intelligent To Do lists

And a lot more features, well explained in the attractively presented project site, with detailed explanations and many screenshots.
The program is very easy to install: just check its selection box in the add/remove applications utility and that's it.

Very often, mystery is preferable to knowledge

J.J. Abrams: The mystery box at TED.

Picasso and creativity

This illustration is my imaginary portrait of Picasso.

Picasso and creativity. Both words are almost synonymous. These last days I am engaged in a printmaking workshop (you can see some examples in my blog Acuarela), and browsing some of the catalogues of Picasso's prints I've found some great quotes and anecdotes by the master. One of them has become one of my all time favorites. In its apparent triviality, you see the spark of creativity at its purest.

When Picasso made his first etching, of a horse-riding man with a spear, he realised that the image was inverted in the print and he said "Damn it, he holds the spear with his left hand!". When asked for the title of the print, he promptly said: "El zurdo" (the left-handed.)

Some years later, when he painted his portrait of Gertrude Stein, the model said: "But Pablo, dear, I don't look that way at all". Picasso replied, "You will, with time. You will."

These are other of my preferred quotes by Picasso (or attributed to him):

• Action is the foundational key to all success.
• All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
• An idea is a point of departure and no more. As soon as you elaborate it, it becomes transformed by thought.
• Are we to paint what's on the face, what's inside the face, or what's behind it?
• Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.
• Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.
• Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
• Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
• God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephantand the cat. He has no real style, He just goes on trying other things.
• I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
• I do not seek. I find.
• Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working.
• It takes a long time to become young.
• It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.
• My mother said to me, "If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope." Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.
• Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.
• Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility.
• The chief enemy of creativity is "good" sense.
• The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.
• The world today doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?
• To copy others is necessary, but to copy oneself is pathetic.

Q10: no distractions allowed

In a previous post I commented several text editors that shut the door (or the screen) to distractions.

I have had the pleasure to find yet another implementation of this idea, only it is nicer and more feature-packed (for Windows users only). The program, called Q10, has been developed by Joaquin Bernal, it's freeware and you can either install it, just extract it to a folder or carry it wherever you go as a portable app (in a USB drive.)

I really need this kind of application. Do you?

A book about to do lists

To do lists are one of the centerpieces of any organization system.
I like to see what other people do with their to do lists, for example in blogs like To-do list.

Sasha Cagen, a true to-do-list-ologist is the writer in charge of To-do list, both a magazine and the aforementioned blog. And now it's also a book, To-Do List: From Buying Milk to Finding a Soulmate, What Our Lists Reveal About Us, a collection of 100 lists and the stories behind them. Freshly published this month by Simon & Schuster.

Creative vision: a mindmap

Here is an ongoing mindmap I’ve been annotating with what I think are the keys for personal creativity. You could certainly expand this web more and more, but some of these ideas are worth considering.

The image can be enlarged at a mouse click, but I also have some other goodies for you if you wish to take a closer look or even use it as a starting point for your own version:

• PDF version
• Simple html version
• Clickable (expand and collapse) html+ javascript version

All of these versions have been generated from a single master file in the Open-source program FreeMind.

I hope you find some stimulating idea in this map!

Mind maps, concept maps and related diagrams are a very good tool not only for creativity, but also for organization. You get a bird’s view of the whole project and the associated tasks. And there is a variety of Mind Maps Books you can check out.

Nexty: GTD for one or multiple users right in your browser

I have been busy trying out different kinds of CMS systems lately, and I have set up a whole suite of applications to run web applications locally. This means I’ve been able to try a particular piece of software that has been designed from the ground up for the GTD system: Nexty. Open–source, it works in PHP using a MySQL database, the usual combination in most CMS systems.

You can set it up on your hosting service, and use it anywhere, or install it locally on your computer. For a single computer install, the details may vary from one OS to another, but in the case of Windows XP all it takes is two minutes (or less). Yes, I mean it.

For such a quick install of Nexty, you must have first set up a combination of Web Server (such as Apache), PHP, MySQL. The most convenient and super–easy is the XAMMP suite (Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl, PHPMyAdmin and more conveniently packaged), a portable application suite that you only need to extract to your computer, following the instructions provided in the XAMMP project page.

You can use XAMMP to test locally different CMS solutions, such as Wordpress or Textpattern, and of course to install and run Nexty.

You only need to download Nexty from the project page, extract it to the htdocs folder in the XAMMP directory, then create an empty MySQL database using PHPMyAdmin: call it “Nexty”, (quite imaginatively), then run Nexty by typing http://localhost/nexty and follow the simple instructions. Two screens later you’ll begin to enjoy this multi–user capable application for GTD–ing. To run it again, save a bookmark to the aforementioned location in your hard drive.

(I’ve found Nexty checking out the big list of GTD tools I’ve recently added to the sidebar.)

Inspiring workplaces

Belgian designer Veerle Pieters has written a nice piece about inspiring workplaces in her blog, and she has also set up a promising and, well, inspiring Photo set in Flickr, called (surprise!) The Inspiring workplaces Pool.
The article in question is full of interesting ideas you can apply to your own working environment!
I certainly need to have a stimulating place to work, and from time to time I take my sketchbook and try to imagine what it would be like to work in one imaginary place or another... Here is an example (click to see a bigger version):

The following one didn’t get past the stage of a quick pen sketch, but I might add some colours and post it here soon —bigger version available if you click it, too:
I actually have quite a few drawings like this. It’s some kind of projection-exploration-imagination about the relationship between work, leisure and living that I do from time to time.

Communication

Theme of the week @ Illustration Friday: Communication.
Mixed media: watercolour as a background for two heads belonging to my Capsbats pictorial fonts, available from Typephases (to see a bigger version, click the image.)

Focus on writing!

There are many distractions that are likely to catch your attention while you are supposed to be writing. If you are easily distracted, there are just so many temptations right here on your screen... Confess it: how many times, while you were supposed to be writing, have you wandered off in the internet, checked innecessarily your email, lurked around in some forum, or drifted apart from your task in any other way?

Paradoxically, many users who work with a state-of-the art Mac or Windows computer, with all the visual appeal of modern systems working online, deliberately choose a spartan write-only interface to prevent themselves from getting distracted, making their computers look like one of their almost forgotten ancestors from the early eighties. How? Using a simple program to voluntarily hijack the computer screen for the only purpose of writing. Any distraction is hidden behind an impenetrable wall.

There is a variety of programs with this purpose, such as the (shareware) Writeroom for Macs and (freeware) Darkroom for Windows, each providing a full screen, distraction free, writing environment. Unlike standard word processors that focus on features, they are just about you and your text. Whiteroom is a Mac program, Darkroom needs the .NET framework to run in Windows; then we have a Java application you can run in any platform, called JDarkRoom, which is freeware and a mere 100K download. And there is a more recent favourite: Q10, which is equally portable, installation-free if you want and basically does the same as Writeroom or Darkroom.

So, if one of your problems while trying to focus on writing is getting distracted by all the rest in your computer, isolate yourself from any potential screen temptation with one of these applications! While they are active you can write and only write.

Bonus: if you don't want to install anything, there is an online service by BigHugeLabs, Writer, you can use for similar purposes.

49 Resources on GTD software

Need a GTD application to start getting organised? Why not check first the 49 Resources on GTD software?
You'll find this list at Listible, an online compilation of contributed topic lists.

Two great online note taking solutions: Google notebook and Scrapbook extension for Firefox

Whenever you do some web-based research, be it for a school paper, gathering documentation for any project, collecting reference for an article you are writing, or compiling information about a particular purchase, you need a good system to save snippets of text, images and links.

You will be using the internet and your browser more and more for this purpose in the foreseeable future, and the necessity of a good way to store, access and organize your collected information is crucial.

Of course, you can always copy and paste the text using regular office software, an outline editor or some other program. Or you can just copy images, save PDFs and complete web pages in a particular folder in your computer. But using your own browser to save, organize and access this repository of information is a more practical approach. How?

There are two good, free and easy to use solutions that live right within your Mozilla Firefox browser: the Google Notebook and the Scrapbook extension for Mozilla Firefox (the first one will work, with some limitations, in any browser.)

The Scrapbook extension deservedly won a contest for the best Firefox extension organized by the Mozilla Foundation. Scrapbook provides a reliable system to save anything from a page, from an image or a small text selection to whole pages. The saved snippets and pages can be further edited, for example to get rid of non-significant parts such as ads or navigation items; you can also highlight or annotate passages. Scrapbook adds a new panel in your sidebar (which can be accessed at a mouseclick if you add its icon to the program toolbar), some items in the Menu and contextual commands. For example, if you want to save a snippet of text or an image, you simply right-click it and choose Capture Selection.

This extension provides extensive control on the way you save your selections, and you can organize them in folders and subfolders, reorder them, export the items or generate a list of references telling you exactly where you found what. Compiling a list of links for an anotated bibliography is simplicity itself. Scrapbook comes with an excellent and detailed user manual.

To install this extension you only need Mozilla Firefox. Visit the Addons page, install it, restart your browser and you are done. You can also find more information and the detailed manual and tips in the developer page.

Google Notebook makes web research of all kinds easier and more efficient by enabling you to clip and gather information even while you're browsing the web. Google Notebook lives in your browser, you won't be left with a scattered collection of notes, Word docs, and browser bookmarks to sort through; all your web findings will be gathering into one organized, easy accessible location that you can access from any computer. You can organize your notes in sections; all the linked materials are saved the server together with links to the original websites you used to take your notes. Notes can be shared or private; this makes the Google Notebook a good collaboration tool.

To access the full potential of Google Notebook, it's better to install a small extension for Firefox that adds two features: a contextual menu to save selections, and a mini-notebook on the status bar. When you have installed this extension, you can add web clips to your Google Notebook in three easy steps: a) Select content from a web page; b)Right-click and c) Select "Note this (Google Notebook) You can open and close your mini Google Notebook by clicking the icon on your browser's status bar (bottom right-hand corner).

The Notebook can be integrated in your Google homepage by adding the Google Notebook gadget.

Filed in: GTD notetaking notebooks organization getting-things-done

My personal GTD workflow

This image (click it to see a bigger version) represents the practicalities of my normal organisation system. As you can see, I try to keep it as simple as possible. Otherwise, you must spent your time organising your organisation!

Both the digital and the paper-based sections are equally important for me, but I could skip either the digital or the paper compartments if necessary. If I only needed the digital tools, for example if most of my projects were done in the computer, I probably would need fewer printouts and I could even get rid of the paper organiser, except for the occasional to-do list and other kinds of reminder lists. Similarly, if I seldom used the computer, I would work it out only using the paper-based tools on the outside of the circle.

This method seems to work for me. Note I have put the ThinkingRock program as the centerpiece of the digital section, but you could use other GTD-centric applications as well, either alone or in combination. The list on the right side, GTD-relevant links, points to some of these solutions. But as I said, I prefer the leanest option available, and I prefer using a single program in a single instance (running from an USB drive.)

Feel free to download the bigger graphic and use it with a Creative Commons Licence.

Of course: I would like to hear your opinions. Is your system even simpler? Do you have some brilliant hack? What do you think?

Clear mind: the mind as water state

As a contribution to the Illustration Friday project, I created an image for the theme of the week, clear. A rather abstract concept which admits a great variety of treatments. My concept can be related with one of the central ideas in the GTD method: keeping a clear mind, a mind as water state, with all the worries related to the organisation of your tasks safely removed from your body “RAM” and put into an efficient and trusted external system.
This illustration is made up of some forms suggesting the open space and a head taken from my Capsbats series. This is a digital image made with vectorial shapes (although these heads were originally ink drawings, prior to scanning and tracing.)
If you wish to see a bigger version, just click the picture above or this link.
The bigger version, by the way, makes a beautiful wallpaper for your computer. Use the centered setting and choose a dark blue background color, and you should enjoy the picture while having neat space on the four sides to have your desktop icons arranged.

ThinkingRock: a GTD-centric organizer

Before posting a few more sketches, I want to recommend ThinkingRock: it is a free software application for collecting and processing your thoughts, following the GTD methodology. It is simple, easy and quick to use.
First, I must say I love their slogan: “If you don't have time to download and use this software then you really need it.”

What ThinkingRock can do for you is better explained quoting the developers’ explanation:

The philosophy of the program is simple: it allows you to collect your thoughts and process them into actions, projects, information or future possibilities. Actions can be done by you, delegated to someone else or scheduled for a particular date. Projects can be organised with ordered actions and sub-projects. You can review all of your actions, projects and other information quickly and easily to see what you need to do or to choose what you want to do at a particular time.
Why we recommend ThinkingRock:

• It will help you to store in one safe place all the things you have to do or would like to do one day;
• Unlike many task management applications, ThinkingRock lets you to group your actions in projects and sub-projects;
• It gets you moving on your thoughts by encouraging you to think of the next physical action to take;
• It has good on-line help;
• We provide free customer support;
• The data file is separate so you can have the application installed on your home computer and at work, and transfer the small data file between computers; or simpler still: run it from your pen (USB) drive;
• It is multi-platform (Java): use it on Linux, Machintosh, or Windows;
• And, best of all: It's free.

I like the export functions of the program: it will generate custom lists of actions, projects with actions sorted by context, an ical calendar with tasks and events, and even print in a Pocketmod format. It’s a great piece of software!

About GTDrawings

Whenever I’m reading something, and it doesn’t really matter what, be it a breathtaking novel or a boring manual, I just can’t help myself doodling and sketching whatever comes to my mind —and to my hands.

Sometimes the drawings have something to do with what I’m currently reading, sometimes they don’t. They may be completely unrelated. Some of the sketches are detailed representations of some character or situation, with detailed line or textural work and details; others are more careless and impulsive.

Reading David’s Allen Getting Things Done has been no exception. Being such a succesful and enthusiastically envangelised book, I was compelled to create these visual side notes.

Here they are. I’ll post a selection of the sketches (around fifty) and derivative works. The images are available under a Creative Commons licence (see below). Read the licence terms for detailed usage information.



If you want me to create more polished, vectorised or colour versions of these drawings, please contact me for a quote.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

Rounding things up

Today we finish with the original sketches I made during my particular reading of Getting Things Done. I hope some of these images have contributed somehow to enrich your own experience or provided an additional insight about the topics covered in the book.
Next weeks I will upload some related drawings.

The someday/maybe category of your organising system may contain those things that lay farther ahead on your future. It is necessary to envision what really matters to you to set the goals (realistic goals) for the next years of your life.

Try to have your colleagues let you lead a well organised work environment. They should follow your advice and use your IN basket to your advantage.

One of the most important things one should get used to is to taking advantage of odd windows of time. Those moments when you really could do some task and save more quality time for other activities or simply leaving more free time. You can do things whenever you're waiting on a queue, on a waiting room, a traffic jam... just have your laptop, pda or your notebook close at hand.

Why 43 folders? You wonder... really simple. That's how you set up a functional tickler file.

A few more notes about GTD

Another selection of my sketches. Note that most of them are either pencil or pen drawings. I drew them on separate sheets of paper (in different places, both in one of my sketchpads, individual sheets and even on the back of envelopes.)

Even more side notes...

In these post I am rather including the maximum of pictures and the minimum of text, because you'll have enough to read with the book and related websites. I will rather include these pictures about specific points that captured my interest.
Additional description is missing because all of these illustrations are already scribbled with some explanation.

Details and howto images

Today I'll add a variety of my visual side notes about Getting Things Done, together with some text annotations about the context for each of them. You may click any image to see bigger versions. If you wish to use some of these sketches, read about the use licence below. You'll also find contact information in case you should need something more polished.

(Deciding the next action depends on several criteria.)

(Never hesitate to process what is coming into your in basket. On to your filing system.)

Well, the image carries a text note. The monster of anxiety and emergency situations appears often when you leave non actioned lists.

In your daily life you will probably have to dance among many different tasks. You must learn to do it with the safe net of a solid GTD system!

A good filing system, be it digital or paper-based, is absolutely necessary for a sound organisation of your work and life.

The formality factor means that some decisions fail because of the apparent complexity of deciding what to do. If you streamline your decision-making with a good system, you will speed up your activities and get rid of stuff.

Keep a big (or giant) stack of fresh folders and a good supply of stationery items. Nothing is more frustrating than putting of your organisation task because you have just run out of folders, paper sheets or whatever item you need.

At a very simple level, the humble lists are one of the most formidable tools to lead a better organised life. But remember that you must follow some basic rules to be able to write effective lists.

Tools of the trade

To have success in getting your life organised, you really don’t need fancy tools or high tech gadgets. A simple notepad and pencil or pen is almost everything you could possibly need if you have a good and sound system.
Some GTD -oriented stationery like a Hipster PDA (see links on the right side) are fine examples of this simple and trouble-free (and electric power-free) approach.

Idea-generation methods and GTD

Some idea-generation methods frequently used as creativity enhancers are also very good for organizing your stuff and get it on track to get things done.
These sketches are related to some passages in the Getting Things Done book where brainstorming, mind maps and distributed cognition are mentioned (click for a bigger version.)

Miscellaneous notes

These are some miscellaneous sketches about concepts such as:

• the importance of substituting a mess of partial, non systematic lists, by well-structured to-do lists with clear contexts;
• keeping the calendar as a kind of “sacred territory” only for tasks or appointments with a very specific time allocation;
• the back-of-the-envelope planning idea, frequently mentioned in the text;
• the usefulness of brainstorming techniques as a way of organizing your stuff;

As usual, you can click the image to see a bigger version.

When reference becomes “stuff”

In chapter 7 of the Getting Things Done book there is an interesting observation about reference collecting. Reference materials need proper organisation and tidy habits. Otherwise they metamorphose into another breed of headaching stuff!
(Click the picture to see a bigger version.)

Beggar’s PDA and other opinions

The Getting Things Done book has been very useful for me, more as a good advice in specific time management techniques than as a complete philosophy of organising one’s life. I’d say GTD is at least 80% common sense: but we all know this is the less common of senses. And some of the tips, tricks and observations are wonderful and inspiring.

Actually I wasn’t desperate to improve my daily activities, and I had been practicing some of the ideas often mentioned in GTD for many years. I have always tried to take advantage of the windows of time and managed to have a clean workspace with manageable lists and reasonably organised projects. And I have been using my Hipster’s Beggar’s PDA (even simpler and lower-tech: sometimes just a letter envelope and a pencil carried in any pocket) for as long as I remember. The key is having a system: something you can trust in, with a previsible structure and clear rules about where to put your stuff and how to process them.

Anyway, I have really enjoyed this book and it will certainly provide a better framework for my activities. I’m sure I’ll benefit from it too.

Comfortable organising

Getting organised should be an appealing activity: get rid of the daily stress with an attractive and stress-free set of rules. That’s one of the big secrets of the GTD system. (you may click the sketch to see a bigger version.)

The intimidating IN basket

The power of focus

I agree with the importance of seeing yourself doing something if you really want to do it easily. Many painters actually see themselves painting a canvas. What do you think they do, sitting hours in front of a work in progress? Claude Monet’s latest landscapes are very deceptive in this sense: while they seem a very quick and improvisational work, he spent a lot of time in each painting, most of it seeing himself paint.
(Click the image for a bigger version.)