MindManager and OneNote Thoughts

First off I must again apologize for the long delay. As I am sure you have guessed I have joined the following of individuals striving to become more productive this year. To accomplish this feat I often find myself transferring all those items and subjects I would like to blog about on DorkoTech onto that ever increasing someday/maybe list. Maybe when I wipe out all those Incompletes from last semester, trim down my current hours at work, and find my place in some of these new business classes, things will return to normal...but knowing how my world operates I wouldn't invest too much into that thought.

However this subject required special attention as it involves the two programs (I really don't count outlook or IE) I use most often as a student, web master, investor, sales rep....etc. MindManager and OneNote have always had this magnetic pull on me that seems to grasp onto my notes, research and planning and then pull in opposite directions.

OneNote may sometimes seem linear and fall into that category of boring traditional note taking but I can't replicate the experience and instant ability to capture my ideas and write anywhere, with any color with such ease. And then to have the ability to audio record lectures, OCR images, and even recognize and find my own handwriting continues to amaze me to this day. Of course the Tablet PC makes much of this all possible but even without a Tablet PC OneNote can still holds its own. (I've been using OneNote years before I had a Tablet PC) Also with OneNote 2007 and my new phone/toy I find the Microsoft posse of aplications actually working in sync with one another while leaving my valuable mind maps to fend for themselves.

Then there is MindManager and its ability to capture and organize my ideas in a visual manner that also allows me to expand and collapse ideas and topics at will. Throwing Gyro-Q and ResultsManager definelty allows me to pass on the responsibility of holding everything anything and allowing me to devote more brain powers towards creative thinking on the go. I also am trialing Pocket Mindmap at the moment so that I can at least view some of my maps but I still finding difficulty in setuping up a process and allows me to edit maps on both systems with ease. I really have no desire to save my maps to the activesync file folder but simpling copying them over all the time doesn't work well either. Although I loved using ResultsManager and MindManager on my tablet all the time I find using my smartphone to view, edit and orgazine my tasks easier and more automatic. Taking all that MindManager stuff on the road doesn't work out to well and may have to be demoted to project planning only and leaving the actionable items and daily GTD topics for OneNote.

I use both programs each and everyday and if I had to pick just one I honestly would probably go with OneNote as its 2007 features have really stepped up its use as productivity tool. Sure ResultsManager and MindManager together automate much of my day but I sometimes question just how many programs do we really need in order to be more productive. Also considering ResultsManager alone is more expensive than OneNote I feel I may be able to get away with doing a lot of that dashboard creation jazz simply by keeping more structured and up-to-date context lists. If I want to bring my mindmaps with me on my phone I need to buy the $63 (in US dollars) version of Pocket Mindmap. To bring OneNote 2007 with on the go... install the free version of OneNote Mobile.

All this along with thoughts (do I even dare say it) of possible going the mac route in the future have left a lot of doubt in my current system. GTD is suppose to be simple with a fluid with a process that flows and doesn't form bottlenecks at every turn. I actually that feel getting away from all these many programs that everyone tells me will make me more productive may actually allow me to find this dream path of productivity. A pipe dream at the moment I guess but one that I will continue to ponder about.

posted by Jason Dorko at 2:51 PM 0 comments links to this post