Get Everything Done

Until i found this, my iPad was occasionally used as i couldnt hack it for notetaking and so it was just videos and reading except usually id use a computer.

Simplemind is just a basic mindmapping tool but it's extremely fluid and in it I discovered a very powerful fact: It's not just for mind mapping. It's actually a whiteboard for writing short notes and organizing them with lines and circles and colors. And you can move things as easy as post-its but the connectors stay with them.

So it now replaces my whiteboard chart of values-goals-projects-schedule as it can do the same thing with things organized into columns. And I can take it with me.

It also serves as a project planner following the Mikado technique/Barbara Sher's goal mapping tool. Start in the corner with the goal (the root) and add what you need to do to get there. Then add the tasks you need to enable those to be done, and so on until you are at the elementary tasks that you can do. This is the process I outlined in my notebook thread but in diagram form instead of book form. I think I prefer this new form, as I can see and navigate the project. But it only works because of the digital implementation makes drawing and editing it fluid. I still retain the book for writing my thoughts and working things through, but the project plan goes on the iPad.

I think it shall also host my general todo list for AutoFocusing just because it keeps things together. It's not especially good at checking things off but I can imagine ways to do this.

Cricket, I'm not actually considering this as a system but as simply a canvas to draw on. As such any outliner isn't remotely the same thing. As far as closed lists, I haven't really applied this to listmaking at all so far. My big aha here is simply that the right mindmapping tool can draw all kinds of things that don't even look like a normal mindmap, like an org chart or a 43 folders thing, or the 3 examples I listed above.

I finally figured out a workable Autofocus-type system in SimpleMind; in fact it's the same one I successfully used in years past. Everything I wrote above remains valid. In fact, many tasks have a link to other maps for planning details.

Any mindmap is also an outline laid out differently, and any outline is mainly a list of lists so I shall describe things in these terms. The system below is essentially the same as I've done before, except I now lay it out on a dynamic canvas instead of a notebook. The layout drives me to small daily lists versus page-sized lists.

1. Each day start a new list. Date it, and divide it into two parts for New items and Active (Unfinished) tasks. All previous lists are closed.

2. In addition, I have a list for Recurring tasks and a section for Future (dated) tasks.

3. Whenever any task anywhere is worked on, it goes to today's active list. New tasks, and tasks brought in from Recurring or Future go on today's new list.

4. Work in this order:
a) Yesterday
b) Today's new tasks
c) Today's active tasks. (Stay here until done, or tired of these tasks)
d) Skim recurring tasks and future lists.
e) The oldest dated list. At least one task must be selected and processed (by working a little, filing away or deleting). This requirement only applies to the oldest dated list.
f) All other dates in order.

I use the standing out principle.

As for cycling, these are really short lists of only what comes up in a day. Also I myself don't write out tiny details here; just big rocks, and/or key tasks. And since it's done in a mindmap, it looks more like a cluster of tasks than a list. So there's no linear way to go through them, and thus no cycling. I just see them all at once and keep picking things to do until I nothing more stands out.

I think I would find the iPhone too small for comfort in this app. I am using SimpleMind for tracking complex projects, yes. It can include pictures and capture notes associated with each node. I find it's superior to anything else for giving an overview you can intuitively follow for planning purposes. Only I would switch to something else (OneNote?) when it comes to detailed documentation.

No?

Tap the writing pad icon on the top left.