RobiNZ CAD Blog

MindManaging your day ~ Part 4 - The Map!

This really is Part 4 but I don't expect many remember Part 3, posted in February 2007, or Parts 1 & 2 from, umm, August 2004!

First a Review: What were MindManaging your day 1-3 about?

They cover how I track projects and activities with a combination of MindManager and Outlook. In brief, the MindManager map links to Outlook with the map topics creating and managing Outlook Tasks. Dragging these tasks into the Outlook Calendar tracks time and can be exported analyse. if you want to review the previous posts see the: MindManaging your Day Index.

A reader had done that wrote and asked me to share my map so this post has a sample to download and shows how I use it.

What is this Map for?

I use my "Work & Project Plan" as a "dashboard" to store current tasks and critical information for a project. It's not super detailed, doesn't have everything to do with a project but does have the immediate to-do's and information I reference frequently. That can be anything from links to folder locations, web sites, critical documents, contacts or whatever. I keep it pretty organic and only add information that's needed for a particular project rather than adhering to a strict template. For some this may be nothing more than a folder link, others much more complex.

This isn't the result of some finely crafted scheme, a methodology like GTD, or anything more than what has evolved over the years to work for me. I'm not sure how much use it will be for anyone else but may provide a starting point to develop something that works for you.

 

I just keep vital information and "next action tasks" here. If a project gets complicated I save the topic out to a separate map with a link back to the dashboard map. MindManager's Right Click > Send to > New Linked Map does this in a click.

Why bother?

• You'll be able to forget stuff. It's in the map.
• You'll find stuff. That project, the link to the planner, who was the contractor, what platform/version was used etc all no more than a click or two away.
• Track & plan time. The Outlook link means you can plan & track time. Export your calendar to excel to aggregate and report time.
• It's more than a to do list, but is also to do and review list.

How do you use it?

Download the the sample map at the end of this post. I've added topics and relationships which describe how to use the map which you can hide, or delete, as you see fit.

Finding and hiding the instruction topics

I've marked all the topics that describe the map with an  icon. The Power Filter command in MindManager can use icons to filter enabling these topics to be hidden/revealed as you wish.

Power filters can be saved as Queries for instant re-call. The filter above can be applied by choosing Filter > Hide > For Use Info Only. Remove a filter with the  icon or Ctrl + Shift + Alt + A!

By doing this you've just learnt how MindManager can rapidly filter and display topics. This is a powerful way to have the map display critical information. Add icons to your projects then filter by them, priority or % complete and you have an immediate action list.

Connecting to Outlook:

While you can easily connect individual items, or folders, from Outlook to MindManager or create Outlook items by dropping MindManager Map parts in a map I use a different method for this dashboard map. 

The Export > Sync Task Info with Outlook command in MindManager will synchronise all topics in a map containing task info in one operation. This is vital to my process as it creates the Tasks which are then used in my Outlook calendar. It also creates a special "Categories" map marker category which will sync with Outlook where they become,  . Apply some sort of logic to creating these and you can organise the resulting tasks. The benefit of this is tasks can appear in multiple categories so my task list is grouped by a-Action, i-Individual, p-Project name and s-Software. You could add any others but having a constant *- prefix allows easy sorting and review in MindManager, Outlook and Excel exports.

I strongly recommend only using Sync Task Info with Outlook with a single dashboard map. This is to avoid potential chaos as topics can be automatically generated in MindManager and Outlook depending on the options selected. Get several maps doing that and things can get very muddled, very quickly.

I regard MindManager as the master, Outlook the slave, for tasks and use the Export & Synchronise options below to enforce this. If I change a task in Outlook the updates will be seen in MindManager and new tasks created with MindManager will be added to Outlook. Deleting a task in Outlook will not delete it's MindManager parent. That is possible but I find it can result accidental deletions as you don't see dependent MindManager sub-topics that will also be removed.

Once the tasks are in Outlook you can record or plan time in Outlook by dragging them to the calendar. For Details on how to use and analyse this info see Part 3

Get the file:

Download the file which contains some example topics. It should give you a feel for how MindManager can help organise your work. Don't regard this as gospel, the secret is to start small and build something that works for your work-flow. If you find it useful, or have any suggestions let me know via the comments.

Download Blog Work and Project Plan.mmap (236.8K)

If this download results in a file with .zip file extension change it to .mmap before attempting to open it in MindManager.

UPDATE 2009-10-09: The same map in alternate formats:

MindManager 2002: Download Blog Work and Project Plan.mmp (50.7K)

MindManager Map (XML) Format: Download Blog Work and Project Plan.xmmap (871.7K)

Mindjet Player PDF File (Acrobat) Download Blog Work and Project Plan.pdf (1728.4K)

MindManager 8 rolls up your task load

MindManager has always managed task information and exported/linked it to other applications that can process it. In fact it's ability to link topics to Outlook tasks is crucial to my work flow. MindManager 8 greatly improves reporting with automatic aggregation of task completion and date information. Select the topic you want to see the "roll-up" on then on the task pane tick:. There are a few other options for task management including dependency (Start to Start etc), status colours and a calendar to set work days and holidays.

The topic below shows tasks demonstrating priority, start & finish dates, % complete, resources and relationships. Without expanding sub-topics you get a dashboard like report of the status of child topics. If dates have been added you also see colour change and icons warning of "at risk" or "overdue" tasks on the child topics.

 

The roll-up icon indicates this topic is aggregating child topic information. A faded appearance and dot on the % icon shows this topic is "rolling up" progress marks from the topics below it in the tree. Days and % complete update as you adjust the sub-topics.

Although you can add complete data to a topic it's not necessary to populate all the task fields. Just using % complete without dates and the roll-up function makes for a very useful checklist for tasks, meetings or projects. This is one I used for documenting the upgrade of a cad machine:

.

Below is my map for the MindManager for Kiva auction and posts, like this one, supporting it. It shows varied use of task information including dates, % complete along with standard MindManager topic features like topic hyperlinks, topic relationships (the arrow topic link), and call-outs. Being able to mix date driven and generic "to do" topics in the same tree allows different aspects of a project/task to be tracked. Create a higher level report by simply collapsing the tree as required.

Benefits

• Simple roll-up of task info
• Work week and holiday aware
• Quick to review progress in nested map topics.

Limitations:

• Applying roll up to many topics, a deep tree, can take a while. Once done the map will perform normally but the initial application on a large map had me thinking MindManager had locked up. If that happens wait for MindManager to come back to life, you'll see signs of life on the MindManager Process in Task Manager.
• Durations are only displayed in days:
  • Durations added in Weeks/Months convert to days, honouring the calendar settings
  • Durations added Hours round up days, 1 hour is seen as 1 day?
• If tasks are linked to Outlook and you haven't specified start and due dates you may get long projects! The default date seems to be some time in 1970 so I had a 30,000 day project. I'm not sure if this happens in Outlook or MindManager but it's easily fixed by applying the correct dates, or removing them entirely, in MindManager and updating the link.

Duplicated contact in Outlook? Let it merge the changes.

I use the Grab feature from LinkedIn to gather contact details from emails and also manually sync some contacts between work & home. Sometimes Outlook will create a new contact rather than updating the existing one which is a hassle. Tonight I stumbled on an easier fix. Just make sure the name is the same, delete the newer contact, then Undo immediately. Instead of restoring the duplicate the new details are merged to update the old contact.

I have two contacts with Fred A’s old & new details. You could move this to another folder then back to prompt a merge changes but delete, undo does the same.

Select the new one, Delete, then immediately Undo

The changes are merged by default

Outlook 2007 Update breaks MindManager link

A recent Outlook 2007 update has broken the MindManager/Outlook linking facility for some, including me! Mindjet have published a temporary workaround, to their Knowledge Base, while they research a permanent solution.

Outlook 2007 crashes when loading MindManager Outlook add-in - Mindjet Knowledge Base

After downloading a recent Microsoft Office 2007 update, some users are no longer able to open up Outlook 2007 with the Export to Mindjet MindManager add-in enabled.

The behaviour is that Outlook 2007 will hang upon loading the add-in and requires shutting it down manually with the task manager. When launching again, an error message will display… cont.

Using Outlook Categories to manage my email

Late last year I also stumbled on the email sorting technique mentioned in the OfficeRocker’s post. I started using Categories on emails related to my Autodesk University trip and changed my Inbox to show grouped by category. I then wondered why I don't do the same for all emails!

I've adopted it at home as use Office 2007 which has enhanced category tools. The odd thing is it took so long! I already make extensive use of Categories for my Tasks (MindManager assigns them then linked to Outlook) and Contacts.

The huge advantage over folders is one item can belong to several categories. It’s one reason I’d like to see “tag” based storage rather than folders at the operating system level. Sadly I’m stuck on Office 2003 at work so still tend to use date sorting in that Inbox.

The post on OfficeRocker! has details and tips on setting up & using the system. 

OfficeRocker! : I found a better way to manage my email

Goodness knows its about time. I get between 50 and 200 emails a day depending on what's going on. It's dropped a lot since instant messaging really took off. I thought I had tried every possible way of working with email and had arrived at the best system for me but then I kind of stumbled on a new approach and it's really working…

UPDATE 06-01-2008: I got an email related to this post from a reader in the U.K. regarding some Kiwi made software that assists with using, organising and sharing Outlook Categories. I’d not heard of it before and will be trying it!

Saw your blog about outlook categories…… you may know about this already…. but in case you don’t…. I use great add-on for categories (as well as the labels one) from your fellow countryman - http://www.software-solutions.co.nz/aladdins_co/alcoabout.asp  I’m very impressed by the quality of his programming and the thought he has put into his products – gets used on a daily+ basis here J

 

Hope it helps.

Cheers, Cameron

Tags: OfficeRocker

Previewing Attachments in Outlook 2007

I use Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 at home* and love this feature. The first time I stumbled upon it I wondered why I hadn’t found it before, only to find it was new in 2007!

Previewing Attachments in Outlook - Microsoft Office Outlook Team Blog
Next time someone sends you an attachment, instead of double-clicking, try single-clicking on it. Outlook 2007 has a great new feature that previews an attachment…

* Sadly it’s still Office 2003 at work.

Taming the To-Do Bar in Outlook 2007

The To-Do bar is one of my favourite new features of Outlook 2007. It provides a constant reference to tasks and appointments but can be minimised or restored with a click. If you have lots of tasks, mine come from MindManager maps, it can be a bit cluttered. This tip from “the How-To Geek” filters the To-Do tasks, only showing what you need today.

Introducing the To-Do Bar... - Microsoft Office Outlook Team Blog
The To-Do Bar is brand-new to Outlook 2007, and enables you to track your time and tasks…

Make To-Do Bar in Outlook 2007 Show Only Today's Tasks :: the How-To Geek
One of the best new features in Outlook 2007 is the To-Do bar, where you have quick access to your calendar as well as your task list. Unfortunately, the default setting of showing all of your tasks regardless of date can be overwhelming…

Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Message Editor, it's Word but it's not...

In earlier versions of Outlook there was an option to “Use Microsoft Word as your Message editor”. This meant other applications, like MindManager & SnagIt, which had Word integration also worked with e-mails. I often used MindManager “Send Topic to Word” and SnagIt “Send Capture to Word” while composing email messages, just like any other Word document.

Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 uses the HTML parsing and rendering engine from Microsoft Office Word 2007 to display HTML message bodies. There has been some flack about this as Word 2007 isn’t as good at rendering HTML as the old I.E. based rendering engine. That aside, the Message Editor does have “Word’like” features, even uses Word 2007 components if installed (see table in extended post), but crucially it’s NOT Word.

It’s also the only editor as there is no longer a “Use Word…” option. This means applications that integrate with Word will not find the Outlook 2007 Message Editor and integrate with email anymore.

Both Mindjet & TechSmith are aware of this and I expect they’ll integrate the new editor with their applications in future updates. You can still copy/paste to the Message editor but it’s not as elegant. Something to consider if you are planning to upgrade to Outlook 2007.

What time is it? Outlook Time!

Have you noticed when working with .pst files Outlook seems to enter another dimension. Why bother with a “x time remaining” when it has no connection to the time the operation will take, or any clock I’ve seen. A progress bar without time is better than the wrong time!

This 60 seconds lasted about 15 minutes. All the data is on a local drive so it wasn’t waiting for servers!

MindManaging your Day Year ~ Part 3 - Appraisal time with MindManager & Outlook...

This really is Part 3!  Even regular readers are forgiven for not remembering Parts 1 & 2 which were posted in, um, August 2004! The last line of Part 2 read: More to follow... I must admit I didn’t think it would be several years later!

First a Review: What were Parts 1 & 2 about?

Those posts covered how I track projects and activities with a combination of MindManager and Outlook. They showed how MindManager links to Outlook with the map topics creating and managing Outlook Tasks:

• Mind Managing your day - RobiNZ CAD Blog
• Mind Managing your day ~ Part 2 - RobiNZ CAD Blog

I use the same techniques today but my “work map” has evolved over the past couple of years! The structure is similar but there is a little more content and a lot more colour! What I didn’t show in 2004 is how I then use the tasks generated to fill in my Outlook Calendar to record activity and time.