The First Part of a Book Review - Time Management for Dummies

Ten days ago I sat down with Clare Evans at the Guoman Tower Hotel. We have been living parallel lives on Ecademy occasionally interacting but never really getting to know much about each other. Now we have 90 minutes of face to face insights and I have volunteered to publish some maps of her new book Time Management for Dummies.

Its a comprehensive book covering a wide range of time management issues. There are a few helpful chapters focussed on home workers and small businesses. I recently exchanged messages with an ex-Lehman Brothers employee on Ecademy. More and more of us will be running our own business or at least considering our employed position as our personal business.

The book is full of useful tips "Focus on important tasks not just urgent ones" and processes such as the Wheel of Life, for improving your time management.

Here is the first map, the links mentioned in the book plus some extras. I am trialling the scary: Rescue Time, it records and graphs the web sites and applications you are using on your PC!

Time Management for Dummies - The Links

Using the MindManager Sketch Tool for the Tablet PC

Since MindManager version X5 there has been a Sketch Tool which Tablet PC users (or graphics tablet users with Vista) can use to add sketches to their maps. I often use this to make representations of speakers flip charts and slides when there are graphs.

At last week's Ecademy London presentation on using body language and your voice to influence (or at least not give the game away) I used the tool to make a few cartoons.
Click the map to see the big picture of this presentation by Richard Newman and Christian Billet of UK Body Talk on Can You Walk the Talk?.

You won't be able to see that there is some degradation of the sketch in conversion from the Ink to being part of the image map jpg but there is. If a higher quality sketch is required employ someone like my friend Simon Ellinias (see below) and use a drawing package like ArtRage2 export to jpg and include in the map.

Its easy to use the sketch tool in MindManager. Just make a triangle gesture in ink mode and the sketching window appears. If you were focussed on a topic it will a sketch in the topic otherwise a floating image. Once your sketch is complete you can resize it by selecting the topic and right clicking to get the resize option.



Please note Simon and I were talking about Tablet PCs when he drew this particularly second hand TC1100s. I was holding a TC 2710p at the time. Both are excellent mobile Tablet PCs.

Using MindManager to take snapshots of a project or business development

If you create a map which is linked to or has all the documents / files attached to it, you can use this to create a snapshot or version control process.

With attached documents only (these are embedded in the map file) all you have to do is use Save As to save a version 1, 2 etc of the project.

With linked documents use Export > Pack and Go to create a zip file with all the linked files included in it. During the process you can exclude files from the zip. Use version numbering for the zip file. The attached files will be there whatever you do.

Warning: This will take up disk space.

A serious dashboard in MindManager

By which I mean a seriously big one. Michelle Thompson has published these articles in her blog, a "A Scrapbook album Dashboard in Mind Map Form using MindManager" and MindMapping a Scrapbook Album. Check out her blog Scrapability to find out more.

Inspiration to publish some of mine.

Mindjet Connect - What is it?

Mindjet Connect is a great way of collaborating with MindManager users. The Web Browser client also allows non-MindManager Pro 7 license holders to interact with the maps stored in the workspaces. Gradually I am finding partners to work with: Associates in Ecademy, my new Virtual Assistance (can we manage the admin via a workspace and a few maps?) and a team building a event for 2009.

It takes a while to grasp what Mindjet connect is and how it all hangs together. Not everything has been obvious to me or some of my clients. So I have built a map to reinforce my own understanding and to help you up the learning curve.

Click the picture or this link to the Mindjet Connect Summary map. There are several clickable areas which take you through to the full details on the Mindjet web site.

What have been your experiences using Mindjet connect?