I was going to begin this saying: ‘unless you leave under a rock, you know by now that Apple announce that Mobile Me will disappear in June 2012’; but then I was reminded that the fact that I am constantly checking under certain rocks, doesn’t mean, people is looking under those too. There is no certainty if the new service, iCloud will allow us, OmniFocus Users to continue putting our OmniFocus Files there, or if by June 2012 we will be out of sync ability. One of the things that allow me to do so much with OmniFocus is the... Continue reading

Somedays I need a list like that. We all somedays want to or simply procrastinate, today it has been one of those days. I just put on Twitter the following set of tweets: I am honestly considering not doing nothing, I don't want to even see the short list (yes this post is in the short list), so I begin considering look into software that I don't need, to do functions that I don't use, so I don't do what I need to finish. (and I will complaint later on about not doing that stuff, but that's other story) I... Continue reading

One of my favorite things on OmniFocus are the Flags. OmniFocus allow you to put flags on Projects as well as in Actions. In my particular case, I only used Flags for Actions, but let me explain the concept as I understand it for Projects. Using Flags for projects generate that all actions bellow that project contain the flag, if you are wishing to have a way to make the project or all their actions different or easier to filter, this may be a way to go. As you can see in the image bellow, when you flag the Project,... Continue reading

I am guilty of trying to accomplish more than what I can. Over the years I have push, organize, work harder and eventually sadly some things had failed. Some projects that I don't really care, and some that I care a lot for. The reason some of this projects had failed is because they weren’t real priority. The real priority is the thing for witch you will stop doing other things in order to do accomplish that. For some people is reading, for others is TV, for some is their family; regardless what it is, that's the real priority, and... Continue reading

Unless you are in denial, May will end soon and June will be moving in fast. Summer is coming, the hot weather, the playing outside, and more. What are your Summer plans? Did you write them down? Did you have defined goals for what to expect? Most likely NO. I that a problem? most likely, YES. Let's stop and think in your last summer, the one from last year, did you regretted that you didn't accomplish things, that was shorter, that you didn't do this or that or nothing? Most likely. We dream on the idea of the summer and... Continue reading

There is this little feature in OmniFocus called: 'Mark Complete when completing the last item’. This give you the option to mark a project complete when the last item is done. It is one of those trick options that OmniFocus provide for you. As I said before OmniFocus is a great tool, but you need to be careful, because there are certain things that if you are not careful will bring you in the down spiral fast; you know the crash and burn one. Why do you want to click the project automatically. In my book, is because you are... Continue reading

I know this is something that has never happened to you, but I am also sure you know people that suffer from this and people that this happen to them all the time. They begin the weekend with great plans, exited about it, full of hope and even wake up early. By Sunday night you feel miserable, you feel that you waste so much time and didn't accomplish anything. This is the weekend of most of the productive people I know (including some of my weekends too) we over plan, assuming that everything will take less than what actually take,... Continue reading

This is a new idea we are playing with, during the week, Tara (The Productivity Maven), Dan and Augusto will exchange emails on a Question or a Topic. The next monday, we will post the conversation un-edited or minimally edited. If you wish to submit your question, please do, to mindlikemonkey at gmail.com and put in the subject: Monkey Talks! We will work on your question and place it here the next time. For now enjoy! The Question of the Week: I've noticed I have a problem with never finishing. I start so much, but I never finish much. I... Continue reading

Continuing in our path to learn to create a solid system using OmniFocus, today we are going to talk about assigning a default context to an specific project. There are projects that will be done in an specific context all the time, there are no others, there is in general only that, so you can configure OmniFocus to create all the actions for that project for default in an specific project. Let me provide you with an example. You have a project called Buy Groceries. (Last week we talk about creating an Grocery List on OmniFocus, if you didn't read... Continue reading

In a recent interview on the Harvard Business Review by Daniel McGinn to David Allen and Tony Schwartz I found a fantastic quote, something that we should constantly remember!, something that I should constantly remember!, something that I actually notice last week and was thinking to write about it. If you have not read the article you should, but going back to the question you can continue reading here: David, how has Tony’s thinking influenced the way you work? Allen: The piece that’s made the biggest difference is his work on energy cycles. I actually brought a pillow into work.... Continue reading

This is a new idea we are playing with, during the week, Tara (The Productivity Maven), Dan and Augusto will exchange emails on a Question or a Topic. The next monday, we will post the conversation un-edited or minimally edited. If you wish to submit your question, please do, to mindlikemonkey at gmail.com and put in the subject: Monkey Talks! We will work on your question and place it here the next time. For now enjoy! The Question of the Week: A few next actions (tasks) seem to hang around on my lists. Suggestions? I'm not sure I can be... Continue reading

The last time I came here and talk about OmniFocus, I was talking about Contexts, about the Context View. By now you should have a set con basic contexts, and even others more complex and even interesting. Please share with us those, you may be giving us ideas. When I did the GTD Seminar, (I was lucky enough to be able to attend) I sit next to a lady that I have never met before. She wasn’t a beginner, she had her Palm, her lists, and seem to me to be in the top of her game. We begin talking... Continue reading

I am a fan of the iOs ecosystem and I think is the future, we can cry, all that we want about how close, or bad, or poor is the iOS/apple ecosystem, but let me tell you a story. I have been a technology advocate, geek and fan for longer that I can remember, I was installing apps in my devices in the mid 1990’s (yes, you could install apps then),for some people the concept of apps is as recent as 2008, even 2010. I began using a Palm Pilot in 1996, I was what you can qualify as a... Continue reading

This is a new idea we are playing with, during the week, Tara (The Productivity Maven), Dan and Augusto will exchange emails on a Question or a Topic. The next monday, we will post the conversation un-edited or minimally edited. If you wish to submit your question, please do, to mindlikemonkey at gmail.com and put in the subject: Monkey Talks! We will work on your question and place it here the next time. For now enjoy! The Question of the Week: The short list. Last week Dan mention he use a short list. Augusto had mention that he do a... Continue reading

If you are going to do a trip to a place you are not familiar with, it will be silly not to consult a map, to check how to go from here to there. The same happen if you are trying to get things done, if seems silly not to have a system. Notice that I said A SYSTEM, not my system. I use GTD, most likely, since you are here, you too, but you don't need to use it in the way I do, or do anything I do, but you need to make sure that you have an... Continue reading

This is a new idea we are playing with, during the week, Tara (The Productivity Maven), Dan and Augusto will exchange emails on a Question or a Topic. The next monday, we will post the conversation un-edited or minimally edited. If you wish to submit your question, please do, to mindlikemonkey at gmail.com and put in the subject: Monkey Talks! We will work on your question and place it here the next time. For now enjoy! The Question of the Week: What tip do you have to deal with the unexpected. I had all plan, and then everything hit at... Continue reading

Years ago, I discover that my computer needed two browsers, one for play, one for work. The reason was simple, I need to differentiate between working online, that at the time was significant and playing online, reading blogs and other stuff.That trick has work for years. I even have a friend, to witch I share this trick that begin using Internet Explorer as his play browser and when I question using it, he told me: “I hate Internet Explorer so much that I almost prefer not to play” This morning, Seth Godin talk on his blog among other things on... Continue reading

Two Weeks ago we work on a definition of Contexts, and it’s important to cover the definition again: Context refers to all those physical places or tools, such as software and specific equipment, or people with whom you need to interact, to accomplish an action Remember the important thing is to Accomplish the Action, you can cut the pie, make it smaller, divided, re-organized, make it small lists or a new big one, but if you don’t Accomplish the Actions, nothing else matters. We were working into make a list of the Places, Tools and People you deal often with,... Continue reading

If you’ve ever been on a ride in Disney’s Magic Kingdom, you have heard the following: “Keep your arms, hooves, tusks and tails (and your hands, feet and legs) inside ride vehicle ” When you hear that warning, you know you are getting ready for a fun ride. That’s what the next three weeks are going to be like on Mind Like Monkey, so quoting Disney’s Magic Kingdom again: “On rides, stay seated with your tail down (you get this one right?)” and enjoy this ride. Contexts are one of those mysteries in the GTD world; they are complex and... Continue reading

*** Thanks for the comments. I miss two important details in this post, and thanks to the feedback I decide to add them to leave a complete post. The 2 updates are at the bottom as well as in the part they should have been. Thanks again! Keeping your system simple is the key, and I cannot emphasize this enough. The key to a functioning system is not in having more than you need, and for sure is not in having less than you need, but in having enough of what you need so you can move fast. This week,... Continue reading

It’s not a secret that I have use an Standup Desk and that I use to love my desk. But life change, I am working more on writing that I use to be, I am spending long hours writing rather that interacting with other people. When I was spending most of my time in Sales and interacting with people, it was great to standup, keep the blood moving, keep the energy going, keep things in a high speed movement. Now that my role has evolve to a full time writer, all that energy and movement I need need to be... Continue reading

Last week I advised you to keep it simple, I advised you to begin with only 3 contexts, @Home, @Errand and @Office. I also suggested that you to put everything in the Someday-Maybe list, because if you are not acting, those tasks are already someday/maybe. I said all this because we need to make an effort to reduce the noise in our systems. I remember how nice the FM radio sounded back the old days. The difference was simple: FM then had no static. The same is true for your system, if you reduce the static, you will move faster,... Continue reading

This is the first post in a series of tips and tricks on how to create a solid Omnifocus system. In case you are not familiar with this piece of Software, Omnifocus, is defined by the Omnigroup (the creators of the software) as: I should point out, that I don’t believe that Omnifocus is the Holy Grail of Productivity, you can be productive and get things done, with a napkin or much more complex software, the reason I talk about Omnifocus is because it is what I use today.In the past, I’ve used Palm Pilot Software, Outlook, Toodledo and Index... Continue reading