Posts filed under 'Organisation'
I love the DIY spirit. People have been taking the classic and Hipster PDA versions of the D*I*Y Planner sets and doing some amazing things with them. For example, I’ve heard of some people using the graphics versions of the card to produce pages for pocket size planners (among other sizes), some have been colour-coding their pages, some have added dates and pictures to their calendars, others have been translating the PDFs into other languages, and then there’s this: SVG Planner - D*I*Y Planner cards you can tweak yourself. It uses the ‘Planner look and feel, but the cards are redone in SVG format. SVG is an open graphics format that uses XML for “describing” the shapes and contents. Theoretically, that means that one can use a simple text editor (or a not-so-simple one: Chris uses Emacs) to edit the file, modify things, or add one’s own content. This is brilliant, in my opinion. If you have your actions or calendar events in an electronic format, they could (eventually) be imported into the cards for easy printing. It might make an ideal bridge over the paper and digital divide. Right now you have to be a techie to do much with them, but that will soon change, it seems.
Says Chris:
I’ve taken the step of reimplementing a few of the D*I*Y Planner cards in a 3×5 SVG format. This allows those with a little knowledge of SVG to be able to endlessly tweak the formatting of your printed index cards to your liking.
Future plans include more cards, and a web application to produce PNG cards from SVG automatically, allowing you to specify the exact dimensions, colours and proportions you want from a web form. Ultimately I want to include the ability to add a list of tasks and appointments to be included in the printout…
I should mention that his project is a “licensed derivative” under the Creative Commons license chosen for the D*I*Y Planner, and so has my continued support and enthusiasm. The SVG Planner has a lot of potential, and I wish Chris all the best in his efforts.
He redesigned some cards using only Emacs? Incredible!
June 15th, 2005
From a link left within the comments, I found a collection of Hipster PDA templates like none other. John Norris has produced a set that breaks all the rules, and he includes a music staff, a few games to get the mind in motion (or forestall your Next Actions), a morse code cheat sheet, a sundial (no doubt to help manage your time), and even a star chart. It’s probably not for everybody, since there’s some serious right-brain activity happening there, but I find it a lot of fun. Mine looks positively boring in comparison.
Regardless of how it may –or may not– boost your productivity, there’s something to be said for breaking past the borders of conventional thinking, and John has done this admirably. And you’ll never know when his semaphore chart will come in handy….
June 15th, 2005
First, I just wanted to thank Merlin Mann over at 43 Folders. It was an honour and a privilege to contribute an article to the mothership of productivity fans, geeks and gurus.
However, there’s something I wanted to mention here that really didn’t fit into the article, especially since I’ve received quite a number of thoughtful emails on the subject: how the new D*I*Y Planner Hipster PDA Edition contrasts with the original concept. As Merlin conceived it, the power of the Hipster PDA was in its elegant simplicity: it was simply a few cards, a clip and a pen. Jot down your actions, your appointments, and a few notes. Done. And, lo — it was a thing of beauty. The only problem is that beauty is still very much in the eye of the beholder, even when it concerns a matter as mundane as time management.
Going back through the 300+ requests for this kit, I see two important (and yet beautiful) themes emerging: structure and choice.
I’ve mentioned structure already in the 43 Folders article. Some people like to have prompts for thinking and exploration (e.g., on the Project form, there’s a space for “Objective,” which tends to slip our minds all too frequently). Some people like everything to be in its proper and pre-defined place — think about how you organise your dresser, and what clothes go in which drawer and how you fold them. Some people experience life as a puzzle with ill-fitting pieces of chaos, and need to impose order to see the bigger picture. Part of the eternal quest of any productivity tweaker is in implementing structure, and many wish that this was inherent in the tools themselves.
But I see choice as the guiding principle behind all the D*I*Y Planner kits and templates. It is impossible for every person on earth to effectively use the same time management system. A “classic” D*I*Y Planner may work for you, or GTD using a Palm, or a set of index card boxes, or Outlook running DavidCo/Covey add-ons, or a large spinning wheel with tasks and prizes. My day, my life, is different from yours: why should I dictate the best way to organise your time?
The way I see it, the more choices we have, the better the chances of discovering one’s perfect system. True, some folks –perhaps most– could no doubt use the original Hipster PDA to its best effect. But the new ‘Planner kit is there simply to provide a wider array of choices to augment the system wherever necessary. One does not need to use the whole kit, and frankly I would be shocked if you did. But you might want to set up a monthly calendar, or a Next Actions list you can check off, or an Agenda for certain people and meetings, or a yearly calendar, or even a reference card (either GTD or Covey) to trigger an effective planning/review process. Any tweaker will soon discover the gaps in his or her system, and if there are cards to help eliminate those gaps, that’s great. This kit is meant to give you a few more options, ones that can be modified as necessary to suit your specific situation. One card might be handy, as could twenty. Or none at all.
To be honest, I began to create this new set simply because so many people asked me for it. In the end, though, I found that it provided me with more structure and choice for my own daily kit. Of course, I still carry around some blank cards and paper. That’s my choice, and a free-form (read: unstructured) option that works for me.
Your life will demand different structure, different choices. And that’s fine, too.
June 14th, 2005
Update : This set, and many more, are now available free at www.DIYPlanner.com. If you want the (much, much better) version 3 set, please jump directly to the D*I*Y Planner 3 Hipster PDA Edition.
The escape was carefully orchestrated. Congo made sure the coast was clear, Bonzo distracted me with his endearing rendition of Polonius’ farewell speech to Laertes, Pierre engaged my wife with the latest Daniel Smith artists’ catalogue, and Polly constructed the electromagnet that attracted the key to the cage from atop the bookshelf. They waited till after midnight, then opened the padlock and quietly crept to the Mac to get to work.
This morning I found the fruits of their labour, stacked neatly in a small pile atop the printer.
I’m hereby pleased to announce the release of the much-requested D*I*Y Planner 2 Hipster PDA Edition, a series of 34 organisational and planning templates designed for printing onto index cards (a.k.a., the Hipster PDA). These are a subset of the regular D*I*Y Planner forms, re-designed for the smaller size, and may be used either in conjunction with the full kit or as a stand-alone system. Although chiefly inspired by David Allen’s Getting Things Done, an emphasis has been placed upon tweakability and multiple methodologies. The package includes:
- A cover, including an “if lost, please return to” form
- A Getting Things Done Quick Reference Card, including a flow chart, a weekly review list, and a list of “Stuff” (TM, patent pending)
- A Covey Planning Quick Reference Card, including salient summaries from First Things First
- Yearly calendars for 2005 and 2006
- Three variations on the monthly calendar, both horizontal and vertical
- A weekly calendar
- Day Keeper, a daily time management form, with timed and untimed versions
- More Day Keeper forms, with areas for actions
- A “GTD All-In-One” with Next Actions, Waiting For and Notes areas
- Separate full-size Next Actions and Waiting For templates
- Agenda cards for people or meetings
- Someday/Maybe project and quick-list forms
- Single- and double-line ToDo forms
- Covey Roles and Covey Quadrant, for the top-down fans
- Basic Project and Checklist templates
- Shopping and Finances forms
- Notes templates in lined and grid versions
- Matrix, a form for writing or tracking tabular data (exercise/fitness logs, calorie counting, grades, borrowed library books, budget items, etc.)
- A basic Contacts template, four to a sheet
- Instructions for printing, cutting, modifying, troubleshooting, etc.
This edition is available in three different packages. Please read the descriptions to determine which one you need.
- 1-Up Version
- This PDF package is for printing directly onto index cards. You will need the correct size and weight paper, as well as a printer that can handle 1/8 inch margins. (Many printers only have 1/4 inch margins, and will clip the edges of the forms.)
- 4-Up Version
- This PDF package is for printing four adjacent cards onto regular letter-size (or A4) card stock, then cut using a guillotine or scissors. If you can’t print onto regular index cards without clipping, this is probably your best option. (This is the package I personally use, and it works perfectly with a decent guillotine.)
- Graphics Version
- This package contains all 34 templates as graphic files (8-bit PNGs, to be exact). Choose this version if you want to use your own layout program, if you want to modify the forms in any way (including changing colours, margins or text), if you want to use your own preforated forms, or if you experience problems using the above PDF files with your printer. The graphics may be edited in any standard graphics application, like Photoshop or The Gimp (which is free), and layout can be done in OpenOffice Draw (free), Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Publisher, CorelDRAW or any number of other publishing programs. (See the accompanying instruction file for tips and license details.)
I would ask that you read the accompanying documentation before sending along any questions or complaints: I’ve tried to address most formatting and printing-related issues therein.
Many thanks go out to all the D*I*Y Planner users who have provided valuable feedback over the past year, as well as to the uber-productivity mavens of the 43 Folders Google Group, whose advice has been beyond compare.
Feedback, as always, is much appreciated.
Update 1: Photo Release Kit add-on
Update 2: Job Tracker add-on
June 11th, 2005
One of the things I wanted for the hipsterPDA Edition of the D*I*Y Planner kit is a nice little GTD diagram that fits on a “Quick Reference” index card. Unfortunately, the original is almost completely unreadable when shrunk down to that size, unless you possess a very good printer and happen to be a gerbil.
Although there are quite a few Getting Thing Done flowcharts floating around, I decided to produce one of my own, since I can then control the sizing of all the elements –including the text– and I don’t have to worry about dealing with multiple layers of intellectual property (one is enough).
You can click on the thumbnail at right to see a larger version of the reference card I’m working on. It’s not finished yet, but it gives you an idea of where I’m going. I’m trying to get away from the whole “intricate flow chart” concept, and stay a little more with the spirit of the original –hence some of the comfortable but cheesy design elements. The one thing I did fix up was the flow around “What’s the next action?” since the book’s version has always been bothersome to me. (Those items should be or processes, not a series of then.)
Any GTD gurus out there care to send along any feedback, suggestions or complaints?
PS: Before anyone asks, this template will also be made available in other sizes, like 5.5×8.5 and A5.
Update : A polished version of this is available in the Hipster PDA Edition, and now contains a weekly review list and a prompts for emptying your brain. Which is nowhere as painful as it sounds.
June 8th, 2005
As of this weekend past, the downloads of the D*I*Y Planner kits have reached 200,000 (40,000 for version 1 and 160,000 for version 2). I’m still reeling from those numbers. Who would have thought that do-it-yourself paper planner templates would be so popular in this day and age?
Another milestone is on the way, and should be ready for next weekend: the D*I*Y Planner hipsterPDA Edition, which is a set of templates suitable for printing onto 3×5″ index cards. There will be a subset of about 30 forms altogether, designed for the much smaller format; most will take their cues from their big brother kit, and the two can be used hand-in-hand if you wish. (For those who don’t know what a HipsterPDA is, see the HipsterPDA post at 43folders.)
June 7th, 2005
I’ve been asked a number of times, “What’s the deal with the reference numbers in your templates? Aren’t they just taking up valuable space?” Well, no: a reference number is a very handy thing to have in an organisational system. Although I’m sure other people implementing the D*I*Y Planner (and DayRunner and Day-Timer forms) have no doubt come across other uses for them, there are two that do stand out in my mind: Dockets and Links.
Reference Number as Docket
If you’ve ever worked in a large organisation, you’ve probably experienced the ubiquitous “docket numbers”, and may have even considered them the bane of your existence. They are numbers, usually created and tracked by an accounting department, that are assigned to each project. When you spend time working on the project, you must note its number, along with the time spent, on your timesheet. The accounting department then adds up all the time for that docket as a way of tracking project costs. Numbers often have several parts; for example, “04-0543-012″ might be department 4, client 0543, project 12 for that client.
All well and good if you’re in a large organisation, but there are benefits to using them for small companies and even personal projects. First and foremost, it serves as a way of separating projects for filing. Now, a paper planner is not infinite. If you use it much at all, you’ll probably want to clean out all the “done” stuff every month. The reference number serves as a valuable way of grouping the material for your files. Simply keep a folder in your file cabinet labelled with the docket, and move all work with that reference number into that file. That way, you won’t have hundreds of pieces of unsorted paper teetering in a pile atop your scanner or other semi-flat purposes.
Second, the number becomes important when you’re tracking work for clients. “043-03″ could stand for client #43, and the third project with them. Tracking projects in this way becomes important if you provide ongoing service for a client, or are sending them an invoice for work completed. It can also be used to track contracts, bills paid, expenses incurred, agendas, and so forth.
Third, a reference number can become an easily-understood identity for certain types of projects. “ENG2201-04-01-03″ to an English teacher might mean the 2201 course, unit 04, section 01, lesson 03. When you sort your work later, keeping all the course resources together and in the right order becomes a no-brainer.
Of course, if you’re using a docket reference system, be sure to keep a list of ongoing docket numbers in your @Reference tab of your planner, so you have an easy look-up system when the number escapes you.
Reference Number as Link
Even if your work situation demonstrates no clear need for dockets, the reference number can still become invaluable for linking material together.
An example might best demonstrate this. In my planner, I have a tab for a certain project, and in it is a Contact Log form for keeping track of discussions with that client. Normally, there’s only a line or two for the subject discussed, and the date on which it occurred (as well as a date for follow-up, if necessary). Let’s say, though, that we discussed quite a number of matters on a particular date. I write up the details of that conversation on a Notes form. But how to link them together? Simple: with a reference number. Atop the Notes form, I might write “CL-050603-01″ (using the date as a basis), and in my Contact Log I write “See CL-050603-01″ in the appropriate line for the date. Voilà! Instant link. I simply put the Notes form behind the Contact Log in the planner, and have immediate access to it when I need it. I use similar “links” for material in Project Details, Project Outline, Objectives, Finances and anywhere else there isn’t enough room on the base form to contain all the important details.
People using software or Palm PIMs will no doubt have their own way of creating linked notes, but I’ve found that this concept works fine on paper too.
I’m sure there are other ways of using reference numbers in planners, and it is very much dependent upon how you work, who you work with, and how your filing is set up. Regardless, the reference fields can prove quite handy — if you get into the habit of using them regularly and consistently.
June 4th, 2005
There’s a little light at the end of the tunnel with regard to my workload, so I’m taking this time to mention the status of the D*I*Y Planner.
First, there is still no version 2.0 of OpenOffice.org yet, so my template kit is still pending its “any day now” release. I am quite encouraged by the drawing tools in the beta, but the program still rather buggy at this time.
Second, my focus for the next while will be on “add-on” packages for the D*I*Y Planner which would be targeted towards more specialised users. The first two will be Education and Creativity. I’m still very much in the embryonic stages of what’s to be included, and how they will be structured.
Which brings me to the reason for this post: are there any students and teachers out there who have ideas about what you’d like to see in the D*I*Y Education Package? Currently, I only have the following templates in process:
- Lesson Plan
- Unit Plan
- Course Overview
- Materials
- Bibliography (MLA), including an index card variant
- HowTo: MLA Citations
- Timetable, both five-day and blank versions
- A marking template or two
- Attendance
- Perhaps some new brainstorming charts?
I lean towards the arts, not the sciences, so MLA is my first choice for documenting sources. That being said, I can see no reason why I couldn’t create other styles while I’m at it. I would like a few pros to double-check my work, though.
If you have any suggestions for additional templates, I’d love to hear from you: please leave a comment below or send me an email. (My address is found at the bottom of the menu at right.) Scholars, educators, students and educational methodologies being what they are, I sincerely doubt that these templates will suit everybody’s needs, but I’m trying to ensure that I take into account as many as possible. Your feedback is thus very important to me.
May 26th, 2005
“You see,” he explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”
- Sherlock Holmes to Watson during their first case, A Study in Scarlet
From hints in the Canon, I’m positive that Holmes nurtured a own home-grown content management system (CMS) of notes, newspaper clippings, pages torn from journals, snippets from medical textbooks, monographs on fingerprints and head measurements, observations on mud types and tobacco ashes, criminal trial transcriptions, and so on. Some of this was no doubt kept in his “attic” for casework, but there was much that didn’t fit (such as the fact that the Earth revolved about the sun, he claimed) and –should a pertinent nugget need to be recalled to solicit a possible solution for a case– that would require safekeeping for ready reference and analysis later.
I’ll leave the theorising as to whether Holmes would even bother with computers in this day and age to those Baker Street professionals who take great joy in debating such topics. However, I can’t help but wonder what sort of system he, as a knowledge worker, would utilise today.
I guess one might refer to me as a “knowledge worker” in the purer sense of the term (if you can indeed filter out the buzzword poisoning). Most of my time is spent instructing, consulting, preparing coursework, developing (mainly educational) multimedia, researching, writing, and coming up with solutions to uncommon problems. To do this requires a tremendous body of knowledge and information, very little of which I can actually retain in the little attic of my mind. Over the past few years, I’ve tried quite a number of ways to store and retrieve information, and they all have their pros and cons. In particular, I am very impressed with Tinderbox and the way in which it leverages agents, queries which act upon its freeform database and associated metadata to produce groups of links to items that match (and that can be further utilised in other scripts, like exporting to HTML for a website). However, I’ve never been able to find a content management system that also does an excellent job of handling non-textual media and concordance –finding items that are similar, based upon word relationships drawn out by context. That is, until now. Its name is DEVONthink.
Because of the necessity for heavy-duty content management in a recent contract, I’ve spent quite a bit of quality time recently with DEVONtechnologies’ DEVONthink. I had tried the 1.7 series a while back, and found it rather lacking for my purposes. However, the most recent versions have seen quantum leaps forward, especially with a number of features that are helped along by Apple’s new Safari/WebKit and OS X 10.4.x. While the basic DEVONthink 1.9.3 is quite suitable for most purposes (especially since it has received a number of features hitherto reserved for the behind-schedule Pro version), the professional version certainly piques my interest. I spent a week exploring the demo of the standard version, and the past few month using the DEVONthink Pro beta. While the latter is definitely not quite ready for prime time –there are quite a number of minor glitches, and some features that are not implemented or honed yet– I think I can say with a great degree of certainty that this is the type of application for which I have been searching several years.
Obviously, my needs may not be the same as yours. Here is a list of the most important criteria upon which I must determine an application’s suitability for knowledge management, at least for my purposes, and how DEVONthink (or DTPro) fills those needs.
- Full textual support: This goes without saying, since most of my material will be text in some way. The system should make allowances for plain text, RTF and HTML, and be able to somehow import Word .DOC and PDF files without too many extra steps. Reading this material should be easy on the eyes, with decent aliased fonts, multiple zoom levels and various ways of viewing information (for example, outline views vs 3-pane views).
DT has no problem with the cut-and-paste, import and writing of plain text, RTF and HTML. For example, I can copy a body of text from a web page (in Safari) or a word processor, and paste it straight into an RTF page in DT. It retains most formatting, links, colours, and even graphics. The Word import uses OS X’s native text conversion abilities to translate .DOC files into RTF, and PDF files are likewise no problem. Since DT is a native Cocoa application, you have full font anti-aliasing, and can use styles for paragraph spacing and so forth. Multiple font sizes and zooms are available, and there are several views for laying out the various panes to show information in different ways (with extra views available in DTPro).
- Web integration: A goodly portion of my digital information comes to me via webpages, either as snippets of data that I trip across in online journals, wikis, blogs, news articles or static pages, or via email, most of which I read in a browser using Gmail. All of this needs to collected and categorised with due attribution (URL, date, author, etc.).
There are a number of mechanisms for important web-based data into DT, depending on what you want and how you want it. For example, I can drop an URL straight from Safari into a DT group (that is, a topic folder). Clicking on that item will then call up a webpage live for browsing. I can then right-click and “Capture Page”, which saves a local copy of the page as an archive, complete with graphics. Or, I can select some text and –via an provided AppleScript– send the text/graphics to a new text or RTF entry, or even append to an existing one. I can also use scripts to send the page straight from Safari to a selected or predefined group within DT. Any type of URL import or capture will also save a copy of the exact URL as metadata, so you know exactly where it came from, and can refresh to a new copy if you wish. (Note: because Firefox is not a 100% Cocoa application, it doesn’t support a number of OS X services and abilities that Safari does. This means that I’ve actually been spending far more time in the latter lately; it hasn’t been too unpleasurable.)
I should mention that DEVONtechnologies sells a product called DEVONagent, a web search agent which is supposed to integrate quite well with DT in ways beyond a standard browser. While I did download the demo for it, I must admit that I haven’t spent more than an hour with the application: I’m so familiar with the strengths and foibles of Google that I have a hard time wrapping my mind around why I’d user another application to search. However, given how strong the company’s other offerings are, I have no doubt that I’ll devote some time to it in the future. (The two are available as a bundle from DEVONtechnologies’ shop.)
- Non-textual file support: I also create or use a number of other files, including various graphic formats, PDF files, OPML, video, audio, spreadsheets, charts, presentations, and so on. These need to be stored, categorised and annotated.
This is one of the areas where DT really shines over many of its competitors. You can drag any of these files straight into DT and –depending on your settings– either link to the originals, have them copied into the DT file storage, or insert them directly into the database itself. Scripts allow items to be added from the Finder as well. PDF files can be converted into regular text for indexing, and you can view the PDF files right inside of DT. Graphics are displayed as thumbnails, and you can view full size or zoomed versions. Any QuickTime-supported video or audio file can be viewed inside the system as well. DT seems to have support for more file types than any other application I’ve tried so far; file formats that are unknown are simply linked into DT for viewing in external programs, but you can add annotations, comments, etc., for searching, and then classify and categorise them appropriately.
- Writing tools This system should ideally hold my writings, as I consider them as another part of the work I must collate and reference. In peak form, I write over 20 original pages a day, and need an application that does not impede my flow, but yet has enough capability that I’m not aggravated by a lack of basics. As such, I need a simple word processor that can accept the occasional graphic or chart, and the system should certainly allow me to view multiple files at the same time (a major fault with a couple of other applications that I’ve tried). Also, I don’t want tools distracting me or getting in my way: I need to concentrate on content, not fonts or ligatures.
DT has a good balance of writing tools, in my opinion. If I’m writing in RTF, I can choose to show the “Ruler”, which has controls for styles, spacing, lists and justification. I can turn on the “spell-check as I write”, do a find/replace, insert graphics easily, choose fonts, do highlighting and so forth. However, there aren’t a half-dozen panels splattered all over my screen to distract me from the task at hand: writing. DTPro also has a full-screen mode, all the rage amongst writers nowdays seeking to avoid distraction.
One handy writing feature I have to mention is DT’s wiki abilities. You can create wiki links to items within the database quite easily, and even give a document multiple aliases that allow you to reference it under different names (which Pascal Vernier notes is handy for uses like bibliographies).
- Rapid data entry and management: All the above needs to be stored, categorised and catalogued extremely quickly, within seconds. I cannot spend all my time cutting and pasting, adding keywords, creating meta-tags, and massaging information to fit.
In addition to the cut-and-paste and import tools mentioned above, DT has many ways to create items, as well as a fairly easy classification system to push items into the right topic. (It has an auto-classify feature that I don’t dare turn on yet, but later I’ll get up my courage.) Once an item is imported or entered, you can Cmd-Shift-I to see its info box, and add comments, aliases, an URL and so forth. This is mainly only needed if the content is not text (and therefore difficult to index).
- Nested topics: There should be multiple tiers of topics, subtopics, subsubtopics, and so on, so I can group information how I see fit, and drill down to an appropriate snippet in the hierachy. For example: “Technology -> Education -> Learning Management Systems -> Open Source LMS -> Moodle”. My “sweet spot” seems to be four or five tiers deep.
This was one of the major problems I had with AquaMinds’ Notetaker. I wanted to be able to create nested topics, but wasn’t able to go any deeper than sections, subsections and pages. Sure, I could put different topics into different “notebooks” and select each one from the library, but that didn’t seem to be too wholistic to me, nor condusive to the ways in which I manage information. DT allows me to nest topics quite deep, and so I can categorise and group topics in a neatly-maintained taxonomic hierarchy.
- System integration: There should not only be an easy way of storing information from the file system, but also retrieving information (i.e., copying data) into the file system. For example, a graphic could be dragged from the application straight into a folder for synchronising with a webserver. Synchronisation with an external file folder would be an added bonus.
To store information from the file system, either use an import script or drag and drop the item from the Finder into the appropriate place in DT. To move items out, simply drag the item from DT into the Finder. I tried this with a mounted FTP server, and was easily able to upload a graphic right from DT to my webserver. DTPro also has a file synchronisation feature forthcoming, whereby it can “watch” a folder and sync files to and from DTPro to the folder.
- Data surety: The system should allow for peace of mind via: a) intermittent (preferably user-defined) back-ups; and b) easy export to non-proprietary forms, like RTF, HTML, JPG and so on.
DT standard allows you to back up and optimise the database whenever you want. (You can set the preferences to say how many back-ups you wish to keep.) Also, the folks at DEVON Technologies believe that your data shouldn’t be held captive, and that’s a refreshing change from the multitude of commercial applications that hold your work hostage within a locked-in proprietary system (forcing upgrades, enforcing loyalty, and so forth). With this in mind, they allow you to easily export folders and files. Personally, I’ve only tried this once, but it seemed to work well. You can also concatenate entries; for example, you can write chapters of a novel in several different documents, select them all, and then export them as one RTF file.
- Semantic “searching” of material: The search should be smart enough to find items by meaning, not just exact words or regular expressions. For example, a search for “primate” should also find texts that contain ape, monkey, chimpanzee and so forth, but not necessarily contain the word “primate” itself. This semantic connection can be made either through concordance derived from context, or from dictionary lists. In either case, it should be very fast.
This seems to be a particular strength of DEVONthink on OS X (and Nota Bene on Windows, someone mentioned to me). Concordance in DT seems to be generated based upon words in a similar context. For example, it’s quite natural that articles about primates would also use the words “ape”, “monkey” and so on, and the proximity of these words within articles would indicate a relationship. Or so the theory goes: it sounds perfectly sound to me. The only problem with this is that the concordance must be built over time: the more text and articles you create or import, the better the system becomes as recognising these relationships. At first, it’s a little hit-or-miss. That being said, the thousand or so articles I have within my system have already led to a drastic improvement in DT’s ability to find similar pieces.
Speaking of seaches, this is one area in which I find fault in DT’s current version: non-semantic searching. The base search function allows you to find exact words via ALL or ANY, a phrase (words in an exact order), or wild cards. However, it lacks decent boolean and more advanced search techniques. For example, I’d like to search for primate AND (monkey* OR chimpanzee*) NOT ‘a million monkeys typing’. Mind you, I’m sure that this would require quite a bit of CPU as your database swells in size, but it’s very hard to refine word searches otherwise. I hear that DT is getting the boolean search capabilities of its counterpart DEVONagent, so this is definitely a step in the right direction.
- Smart folders: I need to be able to find, group and save items gathered from the system, essentially query result lists that refer to items stored elsewhere. For instance, I might have a smart folder called Primates that contains all the articles found in the search mentioned above. Whenever I click on this folder, I should see all the relevant items from all throughout the system on this topic in one place.
This is a feature in DEVONthink Pro. It consists of groups (folders) which automatically “trigger” AppleScripts whenever they are opened. This script can be a regular query, a request to download feeds, a gathering of to-do items with checkboxes (theoretically, as I haven’t tried this) and so on. However, because the current beta of DTPro is currently lacking meaningful metadata capabilities and therefore the ability to search using it, it can only find items by querying regular content and comments. From perusing the forums and the README file, it would appear that keywords, tags, categories and (hopefully) the ability to search using this information is forthcoming. In an email to Eric Boehnisch-Volkmann, President of DEVONtechnologies, I asked about this. He responded:
The final version of DEVONthink Professional shall feature categories, that could be used for what you’re suggesting, and a future version is supposed to also have the possibility to add custom metadata fields.
- Alternate data forms: Although I definitely require a freeform database, it is sometimes helpful to have a more structured form for storing and manipulating data, like that you might use for a bibliographic entry, a contact, or an application form.
The DTPro betas have just started to incorporate something like this. It certainly shows promise, but I’m going to hold off expressing any opinions until it’s more complete.
- Dependable developers: The system should be developed by a team whom I can trust, and they should respond well to user feedback, incorporate improvements on a frequent basis, and be dedicated to the product for the long term.
The owner, chief developer and an “evangelist” hang out on the DEVONtechnologies Forum, and take time, effort and care to respond to users. Ideas for future additions to the application are often acknowledged with gratitude, problems tend to be quickly solved, and (although there aren’t a lot of members) there appears to be a sense of community at work. Regarding frequent improvements to the software, I can personally vouch for the vast number of changes since the 1.7 version not so long ago, and few point versions I’ve seen and used lately have demonstrated a continual commitment to adding functionality and addressing user concerns. True, the Pro version is quite a bit behind schedule, but many of the Pro-only features have actually been added to the standard version in the meantime, so users certainly shouldn’t feel neglected.
In passing, I just wanted to mention a particular topic in the forum: it was announced that DEVONtechnologies had a new partial owner, a U.S. firm who does work as a contractor to the Pentagon. Now, you can imagine the feelings of many international (and more liberal American) users: the thought of doing business with a company that has anything to do with the Iraq war, the prison scandals, bullying (”You’re either with us or against us”) and an irrefutable record of power-mongering and curtailing of personal freedoms, well… it’s not unforseen that strong opinions and resentment should occur. The president of the firm posted his feelings on the matter and how his company was handling the situation, and his posts were passionate and devoid of the PR spin that I had half-expected. I must say that not only did I overcome any feelings of apprehension, but I actually formed a much stronger sense of respect and trust in them.
- A dedicated tool: I want a tool for managing information, not planning my schedule, laying out newsletters, retouching red-eye, or finding studs in my wall. I simply want a quick and powerful system to store, annotate, categorise, organise and retrieve multiple types of data.
Although I’m sure that some AppleScript or Automator wizards will no doubt be able to twist DEVONthink to do many things (a little AppleScript that’s provided to translate languages is a nice example), its central focus is on managing and organising information, not creating blogs, setting up GTD, or any other peripheral task. Although some people will no doubt push the application in innovative ways, the DEVONtechnologies folks know where their primary focus lies.
Please note that the above is not a slight against an application like Tinderbox, which is extremely powerful and adaptable (and –with the proper encouragement, scripts and attachments– could act, no doubt, as a stud-finder). The point is, I want a freeform database that’s easy to use with many types of data without extra clicks, writing import/export scripts, many hours of (albeit pleasurable) experimentation, or being distracted by all kinds of alluring but complicated geek tools, all stock-in-trade of Tinderbox. In effect, Tinderbox is much like the Emacs of personal content management systems. But, like Emacs, its power and peculiar ways of doing things are often far too complex for simple tasks. DEVONthink, on the other hand, lets me concentrate on gathering, creating and organising content with intuitive and almost reflexive methods.
- OS X friendly: While I would generally prefer for the system to be cross-platform and server-enabled for multiple users, my main “hunting and gathering” machine is a Mac, and so this application should at least take advantage of Mac OS X services, scriptability, integration, and other enhancements.
This is one of the major reasons why I ultimately chose DEVONthink instead of Tinderbox. True, the latter can be controlled via powerful internal scripting variables, agents and other mechanisms (witness how people can actually produce quite functional blogs with the tool), but it is not aware of the Cocoa services and AppleScripting that make working with DEVONthink such a joy. For example, I can drag an “import droplet” into my dock, and whenever I drag a file from my Finder onto it, DEVONthink will copy it into the DT database directories, index the contents, and even create RTF/text from certain types of binary files like PDF and Word docs. The application has an embedded (Safari) web browser, and can view pages right in the main window, as well as capture full web pages –complete with graphics– for offline or archival use. It works with Tiger’s PDFKit to view and manipulate PDF files. It uses OS X’s WebKit to allow you to create HTML files right in the application, with access to source coding. You can cut-and-paste material from a Cocoa browser like Safari, and all formatting and graphics can be preserved. With the new Pro betas, there are quite a lot of AppleScripts included to use and learn from; the AppleScript dictionary for it is quite impressive. In other words, it is very OS X friendly, and a good citizen.
So there you have it. Aside from a few issues surrounding searching and metadata, which are currently in development, DEVONthink fits my criteria almost perfectly.
Dealing with a CMS should be a long-term commitment. Once you have begun to insert entries, categorise data, and feed it daily, the last thing you want to do is export the whole mess and start again with something else. It is a sign of my high opinion of DEVONthink Pro that –for the first time– I feel perfectly comfortable in entering all my more important data into it without any apprehension of a time when I’d switch to something else. (Although, since the application is still in beta, I’m not foolish enough not to back up the my daily.)
So there you have it. A great personal content management system that is able to handle almost any type of data and find those relevant associations that aid and enrich almost any project. It is an infinite and well-organised attic. Holmes, I think, would appreciate DEVONthink Pro.
May 22nd, 2005
Just working around the clock….
On the plus side, I think I finally found my Holy Grail of personal content management, the new version of DEVONthink (Mac OS X only, I’m afraid). It hasn’t impressed me as an ideal solution in the past, but the last few iterations are amazing. It’s been quite an enabling little beast for my job at hand, allowing me to sift through thousands of pages of text (plain, RTF, HTML and PDF), find related entries, track my sources, manage all related media, and write various documents without bother or fuss. Its capabilities are constantly surprising me. Stay tuned for a write-up….
April 29th, 2005
I was doing some work in the local library (a fairly small one), when I decided to take a little break and peruse the shelves. The productivity section was small indeed, but it yielded a little unexpected treasure: Getting Things Done by Edwin C. Bliss, subtitled “The ABCs of Time Management”. Now, I’ve heard this book mentioned a couple of times, mainly in the context of David Allen’s more famous book of the same name, but I had little idea as to its content. A glance at the sign-out stamps indicated that has been borrowed roughly once every three years. Obviously not a very in-demand book in this neck of the woods. Without further ado, I slapped down my library card and took it home.
First, let me say that I’ve heard a little bit of condescention and smugness used when mentioning Bliss’ book, mainly from hard-core GTD fans who have never read it and somehow seem to resent the back that an earlier productivity book could somehow use the sacred nomenclature. Folks, the term “getting things done” is a pretty run-of-the-mill –even bland– title that… uhm… seems to offter advice on getting things done. While I hesitate to congratulate either Bliss or Allen (or their publishers) on their creativity when naming books, I certainly don’t hold a lack of originality against them either. “It is what it is.”
On to the book. I was very pleasantly surprised. In a way, this is more in line with what Allen hopes to achieve in Ready for Anything, a collection of productivity ideas and wisdom. Bliss, also a consultant of many years’ experience with megacorporations and a lecturer on organisational and time management issues, has put together a book that is deceiving in its randomness. Rather than start at a particular point and build up to a complete, self-contained system (as Allen, Covey and others do), he instead organises the sections alphabetically. He moves from “After-Action Reports” to “Alcohol”, and finishes with “Xenelasia” and “Yesterday Trap”. (There is no “Z”, but I’m not going to hold this against Bliss; I would have liked his take on Zen, though.) In other words, you can open the book, start anywhere, and absorb of few pieces of advice before you rush off to actually get things done.
While Allen and Covey back up their ideas mainly with anecdotes, Bliss is more logical about presenting evidence to back up his thoughts. While he does share the occasional personal story, his approach is far more scientific. He quotes surveys, statistics and studies, and gives well-researched examples for certain topics. These little “mini-essays” –each averaging a page or so– are filled with practical advice, insights into the leaders of large companies, figures from little-known but meaningful reports, and plenty of great little (dare I say it) “life hacks” that cause your neurotransmitters to suddenly figure in the right sequence.
For example, he mentions the “Stand-up Desk”. Now, I’ve never really considered this idea. Apparently, not only great writers like Hemingway, Woolf, Carroll, Nabokov and Winston Churchill used standing desks, but many leaders of large organisations do. This caused me to reflect on something that I’ve noticed about my own thinking habits: all my heavy duty thinking, I tend to do while pacing or standing at whiteboards. Bliss quotes a USC study that indicates an acceleration of 5-20% in the brain’s information-processing speed while standing instead of sitting, as well as a marked improvement in reaction time for anyone working on difficult tasks. He also mentions the fact that a desk should be about elbow height, and that there should be a bar to raise one foot occasionally to prevent back problems. This entry alone has kick-started the creaking gears in my mind: the next time I change around my office, I will certainly try a standing desk for a while. I might have to play around with the ergonomics, especially with regard to using a laptop, but it sounds like a worthwhile experiment.
Bliss covers many other topics in the same way, including the need for sleep, how to overcome mental blocks, the use of exercise in increasing productivity, procrastination, a step-by-step guide to handling correspondence quickly, and so on. There’s plenty of solid, practical advice that one can put into play almost immediately, and enough scientific research to feel informed about your choices.
I am not sure if this book is still in print or not (my edition was updated in 1991), but Amazon.com carries some copies that are quite inexpensive. Highly recommended, especially considering the price.
April 11th, 2005
There’s quite a favourable review of D*I*Y Planner 2 online over at the UK-based Home Computer Magazine. I must say, I was a little amused to find a “screenshot” of the planner. 
(Thanks for the tip-off, Dave!)
April 10th, 2005
How do you make a “trusted system”, the term David Allen uses to denote a planning and organisational system which can be relied upon to contain your events, tasks, projects and thoughts? It’s easy to get carried away in tweaking productivity methodologies, but mind like water is only achieved when such a system is fully implemented and consulted on a day-to-day basis. One of the biggest obstacles for many people, myself included, is how to create a system that is always there, at the ready, and worthy of your trust.
When I was in high school and university, I used to keep journals. Not only did I write rather copiously about all my daily happenings, my far-fetched ideas and my roller-coaster relationships, but I’d also sketch, write lists, insert my favourite new photographs, tape in interesting clippings from newspapers, practise other languages, and so on. For years, I was never without my journal.
After university, I joined the regular work force and started lugging around a day planner instead of a journal. I had every intention of doing everything “by the book” and figuring out how to use all the fancy forms to organise my life and job. I started by entering all my personal and work information into the planner, buying special inserts and folders, and stuffing it with every conceivable type of professional form.
Gradually, though, my enthusiasm began to slip away into apathy. Soon, I rarely carried around the planner. I wrote people’s addresses on stickies and stuck them to the monitor, with the intention of later entering them into my contact sheets. Things to be done, I tried to memorise, believing I could remember them when the time came. Project details degenerated into loose notes jotted on the back of meeting agendas. And my calendar was scattered thoughout my planner, digital PIMs, various stickies, a “motivational” wall calendar, and random scraps of paper (usually crumpled in pockets or lost in manuals).
Obviously, it didn’t take long before I recognised a problem. As Mr. Allen points out, I had no system I could trust. And I had no system I could trust, because I didn’t have a convenient system at hand that felt like an extension of myself and my work habits.
The past dozen years have been a learning experience, trying dozens of different systems in an effort to find one suitable for me. Being a web professional, most of the systems have been web-based or at least digital in some way. But none of them were particularly streamlined for my usage habits, nor were they where I needed, when I needed them. Even lightning-fast Graffiti skills on the Palm tended to seriously cramp my hands after a half-page.
Lately, I’ve finally decided to settle upon a paper-based system, which is what we techies refer to as analog. (This is obviously no surprise to anyone who has poked around this site, as this was the main motivator behind the whole D*I*Y Planner.) Between the Getting Things Done methodology, the forms I designed and the processes I tweaked, my productivity and project planning skills have never been better.
But there was still one missing piece to the puzzle. What would make me carry around the planner, and use it as my “trusted system”? Mind you, once a planner hits critical mass and contains all your pertinent information, you tend to carry it anyway because it becomes essential to your life. The problem is, how can you keep it handy and employ it as a trusted system long enough to get to this stage?
For this, I decided to… uh… “borrow a page” from my journal days: when a planner becomes a personal extension of my life, rather than a simple collection of work-related information, I feel better about carrying it with me wherever I go. It literally becomes a piece of me that I feel somewhat empty without.
Getting to this stage is not very difficult, but it means using a planner in ways that often don’t seem obvious to those people using a daily planner for business reasons. Each night, I curl up with my Day Runner and a smooth-writing Pilot G-2 pen and open it up to the Notes (or “Inbox”) section. I use simple plain or unlined paper, because I don’t want a tightly structured form to restrict my free thinking. And I write. I doodle. I make lists of ideas. I play around with concepts. I note interesting news items that might make good stories some day. I make anagrams. I brainstorm design ideas. I note events that, in several years time, will serve up memories of moments potentially forgotten. I write things that are important to me. I write frivolous things. In short, I make the planner personal. I make it mine.
Going to a cafe? Bring it with you and doodle the likeness of the person behind the counter. Going to be caught in traffic? Scribble down a few ideas about what albums you want to get. Grabbing a bite in a restaurant? Jot down the twenty things you want to do before you die. Watching a little TV? During the commercials, write down the list of places you’d like to go for a vacation. Waiting at the doctor’s office? Note ten things you could do on a daily basis to live a healthier life. And so on.
Some of these items will no doubt become projects and objectives someday, but don’t think about that now. Download your brain, express yourself, and worry about structure later. Not only does this jive with GTD, it forges a strong personal connection with your planner. And that’s a vital part of building trust.
For all those people who haven’t yet got into the spirit of toting a planner, I invite you to do one or more of the following:
- Every night, write down a list of ten things. Use the following to get you started:
- 10 things I want people to say about me at my funeral
- 10 books I’ve always wanted to read, but didn’t
- 10 things to do every day to be healthier
- 10 best films I’ve ever seen
- 10 things I can do to help my career
- 10 ideas for a time travel story
- 10 happiest moments of my life
- 10 worst moments of my life
- 10 of my greatest strengths
- 10 of my greatest weaknesses
- 10 things I find exciting/sexy/sensual
- 10 other lists I can write
- Draw one picture a day. (If you’re not an artist, don’t worry: after all, you can only get better.)
- Keep your planner near the bed. Write down any dream you remember as soon as you wake up. (If you are in a rush, put down some keywords and elaborate when you can.) Analyse it, if you can.
- Carry around at least one photograph in your planner that is meaningful to you, and you can show people.
- Carry around at least one photograph in your planner that is meaningful to you, and you cannot show other people. (Nothing too incriminating!)
- Keep a receipt envelope or folder in your planner, and keep clippings of news or magazine articles that speak to you in some way. Each month, read them and transfer to your filing cabinet.
- Keep a tab called Journal in your planner, and keep your personal writings, sketches and ideas there. Clean out every couple of weeks (or 20 pages, whichever comes first) and store the pages in a safe place.
- Make personal writing a daily habit. Put aside fifteen distraction-free minutes a day to write in your planner.
If you’ve never felt a bond with your planner before, I suggest building one. Not only will it become your trusted system, a safekeeper of schedules and tasks, but an omnipresent companion which transcends mere productivity and serves as the caretaker of your thoughts, desires and aspirations. You more effort you put into it, the more important a role it plays in your life.
Keep it handy, keep it personal.
April 9th, 2005
Update : This set, and many more, are now available free at www.DIYPlanner.com.
I’ve heard your requests, and thanks again to Nate Howland, we have a version of the main template file as a 2-up. This means that you can print two 5.5″x8.5″ pages on one letter-size piece of paper, then guillotine them afterwards, just like the original DIY Planner 1.0.
Tell Acrobat Reader to auto-rotate and center but not scale, and print even pages on back of odd pages. Experiment, and you’ll pick it up easily enough. Link to download: diyplanner2_2up.zip.
Note that this does not include the other files from the D*I*Y Planner package, only the main PDF template file. (If you’re looking for two A5 pages printing to one A4 sheet, check out the A5 Version entry.)
April 5th, 2005
Update : These sets, and many more, are now available free at www.DIYPlanner.com.
Well, my little simian office-mates have come through yet again. I’m pleased to announce the release of the D*I*Y Planner 2.0, A5 Version.
As we don’t have access to A5/A4 paper or planners, we were especially reliant upon overseas testers for this release, and a few people really stepped up to the task and provided some excellent feedback. If you find this version useful, there are a few people who really deserve your appreciation: Yann Abraham, René Yssing Rasmussen, Ronald Schaten (yet again), and especially the eagle-eyed Krzysztof Wysocki. Any errors still left are mine, and mine alone.
Note that most of the templates have been scaled slightly to allow for the difference between the original 5.5″x8.5″ paper size and A5, the receipt envelope should work with A4 paper, and the cover kit has been redone for A5. Please draw my attention to any weirdness you might notice.
Without further ado: diyplanner2_a5.zip.
As an added bonus, Nate Howland has created a version of the main template file as a 2-up, meaning that you can print two A5 pages on one A4 and then guillotine them. For this, tell Acrobat Reader to auto-rotate and center but not scale. Link to download: diyplanner2_a5_2up.zip. (This does not include the other files from the main package, such as the covers and handbook.)
Enjoy!
…
Shameless plug: Oh yes, and if you can’t send bushels of bananas as thanks, please feel free to buy yourself some productivity books (like Getting Things Done or First Things First) at Amazon.co.uk: the monkeys will get a cut.
April 5th, 2005
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