Today is The Return of Super Tuesday, the big primary to see whether we get any closer to knowing which of the Democratic candidates will go up against John McCain in the general election. There are big, exciting, important things happening all over the world as we speak, and analysis I’m eager to share, but what’s really got me going tonight is a new super-slick research tool, Zotero.
Conducting research is a little bit like laying out the patterns of your thought process, in all of its associative glory. For all the research I do, I’d be hard pressed to recreate how I discovered an important idea, innovation or person; mostly it feels like I’m scurrying down rabbit holes without knowing what I’ll find or when I’ll resurface. But now it looks like I’ll be able to capture all my activity in one place with Zotero.
Produced by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, this tool puts the best of both disciplines together in one sweet online application (but that can be used offline as well). It’s a Firefox extension that lets you drag and drop pages or references, take notes, link to any desktop document, and store related links, PDFs, images and entire web pages all in one place. And ever so considerately, it automatically records and stored citation references of your sources. I’m looking forward to using it, and expect it will become a part of my regular self-management system.
Zotero’s been launched in its 1.0 phase, with expectations for a Zotero server to hit in 2008. This 2.0 application will make digital research collaborative, allowing recommendations and feeds for new resources to be shared. As they say on their site, it’s supposed to be research, not re-search. I call it b-u-tee- ful!
If you’ve already gone to xobni.com, you may have noticed that the beta version is now available only to those who have an invitation. I have 5 invitations that I can share with any 5 individuals who’re interested in using it. Let me know: csommers [at] pushthefuture [dot] org. Once they’re used up, I’ll remove my address from this post.
I was born a Mac user.
From my first experience with an Apple II in the late 1980s until my first PC two years ago, I used Macintosh computers with love and appreciation for their intuitive interface, solid performance and great design.
Macs are a pleasure to use, and every new release of hardware, operating system or software inspires lust and longing, as well as mourning for a certain sexiness that my tech life now lacks. But it was an ongoing frustration with being locked out of innovative 3rd party software, difficulties with or lack of access to online services, and discontinued editions or support for Mac versions of programs such as QuickBooks, that finally convinced me to cross-over to what Mac users have long regarded as the dark side: Windows.
While the latest operating system released from Apple, Leopard, and the ingenious MacBook Air are absolutely drool-worthy, I’m now finally comfortable living my life in a Microsoft world. And here’s why:
I’ve discovered fabulous tools for managing the massive amount of data and communication related to a wide variety of projects that can be integrated with one another. I want systems that capture and activate random ideas in an organized fashion, with the ability to connect them to documents, contacts, delegated tasks, communications, actions, reminders and all the behaviors that it takes to get a view of the big picture and make smart decisions for the range of commitments I manage.
There are a ton of tools out there, both Mac and PC, that claim to make productivity masters out of all us overloaded workers, and I’ve tried a lot of of them. Here are my faves:
I LOVE this program. I use it to plan projects, speeches, writing, meetings, strategy, marketing, trips, dinner parties, even to organize errands on those full week-end marathons. In short, I use it anytime I need to collect my thoughts and think something through.
The sweetest thing about it is that it links to Office. While I’m creating the map, I can insert tasks into Outlook, as well as email, contacts and calendar items; documents from Word, Excel, PPT, image files, web links and references. Maps can also be exported into Word documents and outlines, or into PPT. With the exception of a collaboration function, it’s a terrific project, time, self management tool (available for Mac).
If you’ve gone to their site, you’ve already learned that Xobni is Inbox spelled backwards. For every email that comes into Outlook (sorry, it’s only for Windows), you can see the history of communication, stats, contact info for that person, and threaded conversations all in a simple, attractive interface.
Too often Outlook is no better than a bucket of data you have to search through to find anything. It’s long needed something like Xobni to bring useful information to the surface, right when you’re using it.
Clear Context also helps bring relevant data to the fore in Outlook, bringing focus to the priorities and activities of the day. Again, the problem with Outlook is that it holds all the critical information I need to manage my world, but it has a deadening effect if I have to look at all of my responsibilities at the same time. That’s been my experience with my to-do list, anyway, it’s just so long and overwhelming that it zaps motivation - the opposite of what I want it to do. But Clear Context helps cut through all of that, shifting focus to “projects not emails.” - love that.
The President of ActiveWords is my friend Buzz Bruggeman. Obviously, Buzz is sold on the value of ActiveWords, a great little utility that quickly scripts commands and text substitution to keep your fingers flying on the keyboard, rather than hunting and scrolling for files, programs, passwords, and more. Buzz tried to convince me to use it for years, but since it wasn’t compatible with Macs, I was doomed to use the mouse/trackpad and dock until I started using a PC.
I’ve only scratched the surface with ActiveWords, but already enjoy accessing the files, documents and programs I use on a regular basis with just a few strokes of my fingers.
I was first introduced to MindManager by Buzz too, and started using it shortly after I “switched teams,” (because it, too, wasn’t made for Macs at the time, though it is now). And it was through ActiveWords that I found ClearContext, one of their partners.
One of the smartest functions of ActiveWords is that it recognizes what you use most often, and offers to capture it for you. Again, it’s that kind of real-time connection that makes all the difference - one less thing to remember.
The Push Institute is a small non-profit that includes a number of discrete communities, from board to committees and volunteers, to speakers and contributors, as well as internal staff. The need to share information, documents, calendars in a central place is critical to our function, but enterprise solutions clearly won’t work for us.
AirSet is a beautifully designed online group communication and collaboration tool. And it’s free.
It syncs contacts and calendars with Outlook and cellphones, so again, it’s a tool that integrates - not replicate - your information. Each group has its own calendar and members, as does each member. Select what information of yours - including files of all types - you want to share, and poof, the people/groups are granted access according to your command and their need. Planning and delegation are a snap, as is tracking activity across groups.
There are a lot of features baked into AirSet, including photo sharing, blog and playlists. I haven’t used many of them, though am glad they’re there should the need arise.
My only complaint with AirSet is that it doesn’t sync Tasks with Outlook. If it did, it’d be a mighty complete solution.
SnagIt is a first class image capture and edit program. For non-designers, it has a super easy interface that gives users Photoshop-like options that are out of reach of most people. It also integrates seamlessly with all parts of the Office Suite, which I particularly like when I’m using PowerPoint. Only for Windows.
David Allen has been called the “Guru of Personal Productivity,” and he’s certainly been mine. I first read his best selling book, Getting Things Done, and implemented his systems sometime around 1995. What I responded to most in David’s approach was that his prescriptions aren’t to adopt rigid behaviors, rather he offers systems that respond to the chaos that is life’s basic nature.
The fundamentals are simple: first, establish file systems - physical and electronic - that have a clear, logical categories (i.e. instead of having a file for all your manuals, create distinct files for each one, labeled “Manual - Vacuum Cleaner” or “Manual - Bicycle”). Next, process the piles of mail, emails, papers, etc. by determining whether you can Delete, Do (within 2 minutes or less), or Defer each piece of data.
These are the only disciplines required: create a system, and decide what to do with each piece of information on a weekly basis, if possible. What I like about this way of managing my life is that, even if I go through a super-duper demanding time (as I do fairly regularly), and can’t stay on top of things, I always know what to do to “get back up on the horse.”
I’ve used David’s work with clients and in seminars, and ask staff to read the book. I’m not alone in my praise of GTD; David’s work and thinking is used widely in major organizations throughout the world. We were lucky enough to have him participate at PUSH 2006: A New Life, where he linked vision to everyday behaviors, in support of our motto, “if you’re not busy creating the future, you’re just busy!”
David and his Getting Things Done community of practitioners also use many of the tools outlined above, and no doubt will devise more.
Mac users have fabulous tools too, many of which accomplish some of the same things. The .Mac accounts are great, the only problem is that they have limited use for a large group of people who are Windows users.
The one thing I haven’t been able to find a good substitute for is a smart password utility like Keychain. All the password tools I’ve found for PCs stink, lacking the intuitive integration that Keychain has. I miss it.
There are a number of features on Macs that seem obvious, and it’s beyond me why no one on the PC side hasn’t done a better job of copying what Apple does so well.
There’s green grass on both sides of the divide, you just have to decide what suits your needs better. For me, tools like those above have made the sacrifice of Apple’s advanced design worth the shift.
Any productivity tools you can’t do without?
This year’s PUSH conference will be opening (Sunday afternoon, June 15) with a Productivity Boot Camp featuring most of these players, so stay tuned!
