In my previous post, Bren left a comment touting ActiveWords as a useful tool. I decided to install it an went through the brief tutorial. I've only been using it for about 15 minutes, but I must say it's promising.
It is essentially a macro / shortcut application that sits on top of Windows and watches keystrokes looking for "activation" words. It can act on these words automatically (kind of like the automatic spell check in Word, except that it works in any app - including the HTML entry form I'm using to type this). Pretty slick. You can also force a "confirm" so it doesn't act so much like a poltergeist on you system - the default is the [F8] key, which indicates that you've just typed a trigger word that you want it to respond to.
You can download a bunch of free add-in libraries of commands and shortcuts from the ActiveWords site, and you can add your own.
Why do I like it so far? Here are some commands I set up quickly to check it out:
- When I type ptb[F8] I launch a browser instance with a shortcut that brings me to my "Post to blog" page on my blog site.
- When I type task[F8] (one of the shortcuts in the Outlook add-in I downloaded from their site) it creates a new task in Outlook - very handy since that's how I track stuff for GTD.
And I think I'm barely scratching the surface.
I'm going to use ActiveWords for a week or so and make sure I still dig it before registering, but they have a bodacious 60-day trial period if you want to try it yourself. Thanks for the tip, Bren!
Read MoreI've gotten a few questions recently about my "must have" tools for personal productivity, so here are a few (with potentially more to follow, if folks are interested):
Roboform AI - This is an add-in program that securely stores your personal information and fills out web forms, passwords, and other web-centric information for you.
- It has a toolbar that shows up in IE and Firefox and can track multiple profiles (home, business, etc.) for both address information and payment information. It can even generate random, secure passwords for web sites -- and track them for you. Pretty cool stuff.
- Note: I resisted using something like this for a really long time, and decided to take the plunge about 6 months ago. Now, I have noticed that it saves me a ton of time.
- They have a long trial period - worth a try.
Anagram - This one makes it easy to add appointments, contacts, and other stuff into Outlook (it also supports Palm, and Salesforce.com).
- Pretty simple - highlight the text, hit Ctrl-C twice, and it automagically figures out how to put it into Outlook in the right form. It's pretty smart.
- A very generous 45-day trial period.
Puretext - This allows you to remove the goofy formatting from stuff that's on your Windows clipboard, and paste it in 'plain old text' into any application.
- To use: copy just like you always do, but when you paste you hit the <Windows key>+V instead of <Ctrl>+V and it strips out all the special characters. This is a good shortcut to having to go to the edit menu in Windows apps to select "Paste Special..." from the menu.
- It's free!
Sharpreader - This is an RSS feeed reader / aggregator that I find very easy to use. I have a couple dozen blogs I follow on a regular basis, and use Sharpreader to bring them together. It will grab them automatically and I can then read them off-line (on planes or whatever). It can be scheduled to poll and retrieve my subscribed sittes on a scheduled basis, which I love. I have it running in my Startup group in Windows.
MindManager - I never used to engage other people to help me solve problems. MindManager helped change that.
- This is such a great tool for creating mind maps, facilitating brainstorming, and bringing people up to speed very quickly on 'where my head is at' on issues.
- I've found that using diagrams and maps to discuss issues really makes it easy to keep debates focused on the issue - and it doesn't become personal.
- Again, a decent trial period. And the sales folks are nice (my sales person was Laryssa, who was great to work with). I ended up buying MindManager X5 Pro.
Just so you know, I have no affiliation with any of these products other than being a happy customer.
Others might see me write about in the future:
Read MoreYesterday a couple of cohorts and I were teaching a class on how to do IT audits of change management. This consisted of some lecturing, followed by a few role plays in which auditors interviewed us acting out the parts of a CIO and a Director of IT Operations.
During the exercise, we noticed how large groups of people can hear the same thing and emerge with different pictures of "the truth."
After the class, one of the other instructors said it reminded him of a story he heard once:
A shoe company sent two salesmen to a remote part of Africa to scope out the market.
The first one comes back and says, "It's a terrible market - nobody wears shoes."
The other one comes back and says, "It's a great market - nobody wears shoes!"
A good story, whether it's true or not. Then, on my morning drive today I was listening to "Getting Things Done Fast" and David talks about how you sometimes have to "tune yourself to a different frequency" to change the outcomes your getting.
A good reminder to reflect on what filters might be affecting our results.
Read MoreSteve Pavlina's challenging people to do something different for 30 days (kind of a "new month resolution" sort of thing). When I first read his post, I thought "Naah, not for me." But the idea's been poking at me for a couple of days and I've changed my mind [Thanks, Steve!].
Since I'm currently embroiled in a GTD tune-up, I've chosen a 30-day challenge to: end each day with an empty inbox (physical and virtual), and do weekly reviews every week.
Before I start the 30 day timer, I've decided that this weekend I'll take a radical step (radical for me, at least): I will scrap most of my current lists and start fresh.
Why? As I look over my someday / maybe list, projects, and other lists I've come to realize that there is a big difference in the quality of definition, thought, and specificity in things I've added to my lists in the last week vs. those I added last summer. I also think there is value in taking a clean-slate look over what I'm doing - a lot has changed in the last year.
That means I'll miss the "official" window of Steve's challenge (which ends May 20), but it's my life, right?
Read Moreintr.v. slip·streamed, slip·stream·ing, slip·streams
- To drive or cycle in the slipstream of a vehicle ahead.
I'm doing a bit of slipstreaming myself as I go through my homemade GTD refresher course. I've looked through some of my old bookmarks of Getting Things Done articles, and rediscovered some gems about the joys and challenges of GTD. In case you are on the same sort of quest, I thought I'd share a few:
Anyway, these are a few of the sorts of links that have kept me moving on the "just one more click before I go to bed" routine for the past couple of hours. Hope you get something out of them. And when you've used these links up, if you want more good stuff, click around on my link list over there on the right. Some smart folks in there.
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