Messages

1626

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: MyLifeOrganized - a journey in search of the perfect GTD software

« on: August 22, 2006, 03:19 AM »

Actually, the literature on project management can be useful here too. I just bought Berkun's "The Art of Project Management", and seems really relevant.

Also, Steve pavlina (in his famous blog) advocates that knowing your purpose is the most important thing, and then derive the actions top-down. The thing with GTD is that it can be very bottom-up, I agree. Although Steve uses GTD himself.

1627

Living Room / inline search highlighting in word?

« on: August 21, 2006, 06:20 PM »

Hi, is there any way to get inline search highlighting in word?
i.e., all the occurrences highlighted?
and tab completion? (I know open office does it).

These are the two things that keep me going back to vim...

1628

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: What is the Great DonationCoder.com GTD Experiment of 2006?

« on: August 21, 2006, 06:03 PM »

Here is a extremely nice doc explaining how real users of MLO feel after using open lists (to dos) for a while, and what they think the software should provide.

http://www.cunningha...=The_Real_To_Do_List

I think the idea of closed lists is tied to the idea of scoring.

1629

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: What is the Great DonationCoder.com GTD Experiment of 2006?

« on: August 21, 2006, 05:08 AM »

Nudone,

Before anything, thanks a lot for the huge effort that you seem to be putting into this!

About Forster's score system:
In the page you mention he has an 'all or nothing' approach. That is, if you don't do all the tasks you set up for your day, you get 0 points.

I *think* I have read somewhere in his 2 books that he relaxed that scoring system but I might be wrong.

I spent 15 min looking for it and couldn't find it (damn paper version of books, if it was a pdf I'd be done!).

I think Forster is a dormant giant. Right now, GTD is completely dominating the field. But... watch out for GED. He is in the UK, whereas David Allen is in the US and a lot more 'commertial' (he has an entire company doing marketing, etc). GED is a one-man operation.

I think somebody with experience designing games *here at donation coder there must be someone!* should take care of the scoring system.

I encourage you to read at least "do it tomorrow". It's tiny.
I commit myself (here, a first commitment even before the GTD challenge has started ) to read the two books and post a review.

1630

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« on: August 21, 2006, 04:20 AM »

problem with the file:// idea in plain text is portability (something rjbull was worried about). Hmm. Not such a good idea.

Is there any program of those you tried that works with voice notes (i.e., one can attach a wav/mp3 file and the program would play it?

1631

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« on: August 21, 2006, 04:17 AM »

Tagging is a very interesting concept (seems well implemented in MyInfo). But, I wonder how fast and efficiently one can tag all notes. Ideally all should be done with keyboard shortcuts, otherwise tagging may be too much of a chore.

Which makes me think...

In a simple text file, everything is a tag! One can do a simple text search and avoid the pain of tagging implemented as a different concept.

Example, in my notes I have: IdeaGTD, ideaPost, ideaPodcast, etc. for ideas. tab completion makes it easy to tag things this way. If there's need for a non-text element, such as sound or an external file of some kind, a file:// url would do the trick.

Just thinking outloud...

1632

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« on: August 21, 2006, 04:11 AM »

MyInfo looks nice.
It doesn't have a forum with a developer that responds to user queries fast, and/or a plugin system, which are two of the things that I now look for before I give new software a try.

Two other things that I'd love to have in an application like this:
   tab completion
   one key searches, with highlighting of all occurrences and one key to jump to next/previous

This is why I like vim.

1633

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: XYplorer File Manager

« on: August 20, 2006, 01:39 PM »

zaine,

How is the search function compared to locate?
Does it do continuous indexing like google bar, copernic etc?
Thanks a lot

1634

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: What is the Great DonationCoder.com GTD Experiment of 2006?

« on: August 20, 2006, 05:55 AM »

NA = next action

1635

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: What is the Great DonationCoder.com GTD Experiment of 2006?

« on: August 20, 2006, 05:55 AM »

just an example of how GED works: it advocated closed lists, not todo lists. The problem with todo lists is that they grow and grow, and for any item crossed you manage to add two. The solution proposed is to have closed lists:

To Do Lists -- How we hate them!
http://www.markforst...et/index.php?view=46

PS: I'm in no way related to this site, just found the two books really good and easy compared to my struggling with GTD...

1636

Living Room / Re: Traineo - weight loss and fitness tracking website

« on: August 20, 2006, 05:48 AM »

the sign in first screen 'next' button doesn't work under opera and maxthon. I quit already

1637

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: What is the Great DonationCoder.com GTD Experiment of 2006?

« on: August 20, 2006, 05:02 AM »

A big question that many may have is: How easy it is to implement GTD and stick to it?


Also, how many people here have tried GTD and fallen off the wagon one way or another?

I know I have. For a start, the GTD book is dense, and not a good read. Second, the system can be implemented in so many ways that it takes a lot of effort to find the right one for you. Third, it is complicated!

There is even an entire category of post in 43folders for people who have dropped GTD and are trying to be back

I mean, I don't doubt it works, but... it has to be learned and practiced. It's like playing an instrument.

On the other hand, I found the advice by Mark Forster (Get Everything Done, GED) easy to implement. really easy in comparison.

Check the reviews:
http://www.amazon.co...mer-reviews.start=21

http://www.amazon.co...s=books&v=glance

And it complements GTD fairy well...

1638

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: What is the Great DonationCoder.com GTD Experiment of 2006?

« on: August 20, 2006, 04:34 AM »

Just a quick question... how many of us are using MLO? If we are quite a few, maybe a special thread with tips and tricks here would help.

If you are not using it, and plan to join the GTD experiment, this is a good time to give it a try. It really is a fantastic application.

1639

General Software Discussion / Re: podcast recording application? (dictation?)

« on: August 17, 2006, 09:11 PM »

reaper is great!

1640

General Software Discussion / Re: podcast recording application? (dictation?)

« on: August 17, 2006, 02:32 PM »

Thanks a lot. Nice answers.

I know Cubase and, ... well was it Cool Edit before being adobe audition. I agree it seems like a bit overkill.

What I was thinking is the following.
Sometimes I have random ideas. I open my 'big-arse-txt-file" and type them down. Some other times I work from and outline and fill blocks of text.

It'd be really nice to have an application that, well, simplified the process by just catching all your thoughts while thinking outloud. a really fast, simple, notepad-like application for verbal ideas.

Cubase is an interesting idea though.

1641

General Software Discussion / podcast recording application? (dictation?)

« on: August 17, 2006, 12:45 PM »

Is there any application designed for podcast/dictation?

I'm currently testing goldwave, to insert cue point and title during recording.
alt+e, then o - enter - n, and type title

What I need:
Something that operates on mp3s and cue points directly (goldwave uses wav).
It needs to save a new file everytime I stop talking (and ask me for file name)
shortcuts to play all files, go to next, rewind, rewrite parts maybe.
assignable shortcuts (or really easy ones), preferably only one key.
(say, space to start/stop recording).

if the list of foles (or cue points) is always viewable, so much better.

big applications such as adobe audio do too much (old cool edit).

a bit like windows sound recorder, but not so limited!

I have seen dictation buddy, but it sucks and cost a fortune!

for those of you who do podcasts...
You may see why I need this... I got a good mic but still a long way to go in
terms of usability of the damn thing.

1642

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: What is the Great DonationCoder.com GTD Experiment of 2006?

« on: August 17, 2006, 09:40 AM »

app said:

I am not sure what I have to 'get done'

Don't worry, we'll help you with this. . GTD proposes that you dump all the things you have lurking around in your head to some other media: paper, a file, whatever. That's a start. Sometimes just doing this will help. Looking the stuff you need to get done helps planning. Plus it feels like a relief.

1643

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: XYplorer File Manager

« on: August 17, 2006, 08:49 AM »

but you sure cannot put Dopus in an USB drive! GPS wants you to pay for one license per computer, so that kind of portability is precluded.

1644

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: What is the Great DonationCoder.com GTD Experiment of 2006?

« on: August 16, 2006, 04:08 PM »

I'm in.

1645

General Software Discussion / Re: Switching to VoIP chat...

« on: August 16, 2006, 08:15 AM »

I think talking is more time-efficient.
I don't do any chatting.
Have you looked at your time logs of how much time you spend chatting?
I have. I won't do that, I cannot afford it.

Same goes for posting/reading blogs etc... they are demanding!

The same ideas can be transmitted by talking about 2/3 faster than by typing. *If* you have a clear idea of what you want to say.

1646

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« on: August 16, 2006, 01:53 AM »

Some thoughts on using a simple plain text file and camelCase:

"Big-Arse Text File - a Poor Man's Wiki+Blog+PIM"
http://ideamatt.blog...-file-poor-mans.html

This is very close to what I do right now. With vim (or any decent editor) searches are superfast, inserting dates is easy if needed, word completion helps with tagging, etc.

If you want to do this and be portable, it's easy, any computer can open a txt file. Plus, you can access your list online with this:
http://toolbartogo.com

Lots of interesting ideas here.

Of course, if you want to save formatting, images, etc. this won't work for you. But I have been using this system for ~5 years and it works well for me. In fact I started it just to dump the tel. numbers I had in my cell phone's memory... and started adding all kind of other important stuff to it like software keys, passwords, etc. Then I ended up using this file to annotate ideas as they came (kind of like a scracth piece of paper)...

it is still called telephones.txt

1647

General Software Discussion / very cool blogger tool, post2blog

« on: August 15, 2006, 12:20 PM »

inline spelling, integration with word, many features...:
hotkeys, right-click menus, etc

http://bytescout.com/post2blog.html

$39 though!

What do you think? After w.bloggar sudden death, and the coming of M$'s own live writer (nice use of blog site's CSS!), there seem to be a lot of action in this arena. Anyone up for a review?

1648

General Software Discussion / Opera CEO's interviewed in slashdot

« on: August 15, 2006, 12:14 PM »

Opera has been an innovative browser for some time; it was one of the first to offer popup blocking, tabs (or MDI of some description), sessions, mouse gestures, and so on. However, since then, other browsers have implemented them as well; Firefox has extensions offering mouse gestures and sessions, and popup blocking and tabs are now commonplace. After offering so many features, would you prefer browsers such as Firefox and IE to come up with their own ideas instead of taking them from other browsers, or prefer the sharing of ideas so the web is better off overall?

Jon von Tetzchner:

Although our competitors have opened their eyes to some of our features, many are still only to be found in Opera and we aim to continue adding new ones. I am happy that we are considered the most innovate browser company and that is something we will be working hard to maintain. It is quite flattering that our features are being copied like that and I would prefer us to be in the position of being copied and not the other way around.

from
[link from slashdot.org]

1649

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: What is the Great DonationCoder.com GTD Experiment of 2006?

« on: August 13, 2006, 09:01 PM »

Get Things Done.
http://www.davidco.com/what_is_gtd.php

Now, a generalized acronym for doing things efficiently, getting your goals, administering time, etc

1650

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: What is the Great DonationCoder.com GTD Experiment of 2006?

« on: August 13, 2006, 06:55 PM »

hmm, so this must be the 'game' with points that was discussed before...