Friday, February 13, 2009
COMPLEXITY FIELDS
Wherever you are, you are on a journey of possible actions. Whatever is near at hand is the field of action you are likely in, have just left, or about to enter. Whatever is far can be rehearsed and visualized, but is not tangible. Close is more physical. Far is more metaphysical.
So, being in the now, zen-like means staying with what is close and putting what is far in its place. You can't work on what is not here.
If you identify what it is you are doing right now and define it as a plane of action, you will see that you are in a complexity field. And, you will not be in it for long. You will move on. From one field to another.
You have the ability to choose what field you are acting in. And, to render it more or less pure, perfect, and distinct in its definition.
You can actually control the present.
It's the past and the future that are the problem.
How might The MasterList fit into the management of the past and future, so you can focus on the Now?
It is true that "naturals" can exist without a system. I am not a natural. The MasterList is a system for handling what is not now. Is that contra the spirit of the Now? If I live perfectly in the Now, doesn't what's next present itself purely like manna from the heavens? Or, can I honestly be in the now and "provision" the future, even for paths I have not yet decided upon?
This is the philosophical stuff that underlies the tool The MasterList. But, it's practical too.
There's a certain circularity involved also. Like chicken and egg. If I strive for perfect existence in the now, What Me Worry? Why a MasterList? But, if I am not yet actualized in the now, maybe I have plenty to be concerned about. Ideas, plans, dreams, links, and other incoming flying objects do, after all, constantly assail us in the now, like Hamlet having to take arms against a sea of troubles. Can I belay them and tie them down somewhere other than now, and put them to good use, as needed, when needed? And, avoid having to deal with them altogether, Now? The MasterList does that. It cleans up the Now. Worthy tool or not?
I invented it. Very useful for the unactualized me. But, it takes a "higher" kick to get purely into the now than a tool that just pushes concerns out of the now, down the road for future consideration. It's a balancing act.
This tool helps me keep my balance in the now. Very useful for that. The MasterList, a prosthetic mind-tool for storing what I don't need or want to think about now.
More later.
Wherever you are, you are on a journey of possible actions. Whatever is near at hand is the field of action you are likely in, have just left, or about to enter. Whatever is far can be rehearsed and visualized, but is not tangible. Close is more physical. Far is more metaphysical.
So, being in the now, zen-like means staying with what is close and putting what is far in its place. You can't work on what is not here.
If you identify what it is you are doing right now and define it as a plane of action, you will see that you are in a complexity field. And, you will not be in it for long. You will move on. From one field to another.
You have the ability to choose what field you are acting in. And, to render it more or less pure, perfect, and distinct in its definition.
You can actually control the present.
It's the past and the future that are the problem.
How might The MasterList fit into the management of the past and future, so you can focus on the Now?
It is true that "naturals" can exist without a system. I am not a natural. The MasterList is a system for handling what is not now. Is that contra the spirit of the Now? If I live perfectly in the Now, doesn't what's next present itself purely like manna from the heavens? Or, can I honestly be in the now and "provision" the future, even for paths I have not yet decided upon?
This is the philosophical stuff that underlies the tool The MasterList. But, it's practical too.
There's a certain circularity involved also. Like chicken and egg. If I strive for perfect existence in the now, What Me Worry? Why a MasterList? But, if I am not yet actualized in the now, maybe I have plenty to be concerned about. Ideas, plans, dreams, links, and other incoming flying objects do, after all, constantly assail us in the now, like Hamlet having to take arms against a sea of troubles. Can I belay them and tie them down somewhere other than now, and put them to good use, as needed, when needed? And, avoid having to deal with them altogether, Now? The MasterList does that. It cleans up the Now. Worthy tool or not?
I invented it. Very useful for the unactualized me. But, it takes a "higher" kick to get purely into the now than a tool that just pushes concerns out of the now, down the road for future consideration. It's a balancing act.
This tool helps me keep my balance in the now. Very useful for that. The MasterList, a prosthetic mind-tool for storing what I don't need or want to think about now.
More later.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
THE SECRET TO MULTI-TASKING
The secret to multi-tasking is to create a beacon or marker for all tasks that are not the one that you are currently working on. The reason is that multi-tasking always involves leaving-off where you once were to switch or change to another task. This switching creates the possibility that you will forget, delay, or otherwise not get back to the task you switched from.
Obviously, the last task that you are on, current task minus one, was itself a priority until it changed in an instant. Why then should we forget to get back to it?
Keep in mind that multi-tasking involves numerous instances of these switches or changes in one person’s work day or ongoing workload. Thus, there is the possibility of numerous undone, uncompleted, ongoing tasks. There is also the possibility, that we will get wrapped up in the latest task and forget the immediacy that drove us to the prior task including possible important deadlines.
The secret of multi-tasking then involves marking and getting back to the marks. And, that itself, involves the requirement of a system. After all, all undone tasks that were switched from on the way to the one we are currently on, cannot be the utmost priority. Only one of them would qualify for that.
Hence, the need for a system to handle the beacons and markers of multi-tasks and not just to mark them. The MasterList is just such a system.
The secret to multi-tasking is to create a beacon or marker for all tasks that are not the one that you are currently working on. The reason is that multi-tasking always involves leaving-off where you once were to switch or change to another task. This switching creates the possibility that you will forget, delay, or otherwise not get back to the task you switched from.
Obviously, the last task that you are on, current task minus one, was itself a priority until it changed in an instant. Why then should we forget to get back to it?
Keep in mind that multi-tasking involves numerous instances of these switches or changes in one person’s work day or ongoing workload. Thus, there is the possibility of numerous undone, uncompleted, ongoing tasks. There is also the possibility, that we will get wrapped up in the latest task and forget the immediacy that drove us to the prior task including possible important deadlines.
The secret of multi-tasking then involves marking and getting back to the marks. And, that itself, involves the requirement of a system. After all, all undone tasks that were switched from on the way to the one we are currently on, cannot be the utmost priority. Only one of them would qualify for that.
Hence, the need for a system to handle the beacons and markers of multi-tasks and not just to mark them. The MasterList is just such a system.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
THE POWER OF ALGORITHMIC THINKING
Believe it or not. Running the term "algorithmic thinking" on Google, I come up with 10,500 hits. What does this mean? When we discovered mechanics, we became mechanical. We are now becoming computational. Not because our computers are computing for us, but because we are mimicking them in what we do at a personal level.
Can we integrate our algorithmic thinking with our computational devices? When we say we are "on the go", or "gotta run", more often than not we are getting into a motor car, with which we feel "one-ness". Having used The MasterList for the past 9 years as my algorithmic brain prosthetic, I am pleased to see that the concept of algorithmic thinking has taken off. If I can use a relational database to help me get things done, why can't I think like a relational database? And,if I can do both, why can't I have a synergistic relationship between the two, just like I do with my car!
So, here are my comments on what I am reading. Someone writes of "the algorithmic thinker". That makes me think of Einstein, with a pipe. I am thinking more of the algorithmic "actor". Someone who combines analysis and decision in the same algorithmic process. That process of course requires algorithmic formulation.
But, formulation of what?
I say: Rules of Action between Objects in Relation to Self.
By the way, getting back to the simple relational database that is The MasterList, isn't that what calendars and ticklers and Outlook are trying, primitively to get to? Think! 500 years ago small swiss gears were designed with a clock face to be carried as a personal "relational" device to bring people, objects, place, and agenda together from otherwise disparate possibilities. We are progressing. Outlook is now the Model T.
Someone else writes that a "recipe is an algorithm". Yes! And, algorithmic thinking requires that we try to make recipes out of the ad hoc, messy fields of action in which we find ourselves.
But, how do we do that?
I say: Identify and observe relationships between actors, objects, field, and self. Then, observe action. Then define rules for intervention.
One further observation. Just as working with modern flexible weight training machines such as Nautilus, "machines" the body to conform its movements to the tool to which it trains, so working with a proper relational database, the mind, the self, and the decision-making aspect of mind and self tend to develop their "strengths" in accordance with the power and the flow of the tool provided. In this case, the now-freeware The MasterList.
The MasterList is a tool for algorithmic thinking that not only computes and stores and manages relational knowledge for you, it trains you to do so for yourself.
Believe it or not. Running the term "algorithmic thinking" on Google, I come up with 10,500 hits. What does this mean? When we discovered mechanics, we became mechanical. We are now becoming computational. Not because our computers are computing for us, but because we are mimicking them in what we do at a personal level.
Can we integrate our algorithmic thinking with our computational devices? When we say we are "on the go", or "gotta run", more often than not we are getting into a motor car, with which we feel "one-ness". Having used The MasterList for the past 9 years as my algorithmic brain prosthetic, I am pleased to see that the concept of algorithmic thinking has taken off. If I can use a relational database to help me get things done, why can't I think like a relational database? And,if I can do both, why can't I have a synergistic relationship between the two, just like I do with my car!
So, here are my comments on what I am reading. Someone writes of "the algorithmic thinker". That makes me think of Einstein, with a pipe. I am thinking more of the algorithmic "actor". Someone who combines analysis and decision in the same algorithmic process. That process of course requires algorithmic formulation.
But, formulation of what?
I say: Rules of Action between Objects in Relation to Self.
By the way, getting back to the simple relational database that is The MasterList, isn't that what calendars and ticklers and Outlook are trying, primitively to get to? Think! 500 years ago small swiss gears were designed with a clock face to be carried as a personal "relational" device to bring people, objects, place, and agenda together from otherwise disparate possibilities. We are progressing. Outlook is now the Model T.
Someone else writes that a "recipe is an algorithm". Yes! And, algorithmic thinking requires that we try to make recipes out of the ad hoc, messy fields of action in which we find ourselves.
But, how do we do that?
I say: Identify and observe relationships between actors, objects, field, and self. Then, observe action. Then define rules for intervention.
One further observation. Just as working with modern flexible weight training machines such as Nautilus, "machines" the body to conform its movements to the tool to which it trains, so working with a proper relational database, the mind, the self, and the decision-making aspect of mind and self tend to develop their "strengths" in accordance with the power and the flow of the tool provided. In this case, the now-freeware The MasterList.
The MasterList is a tool for algorithmic thinking that not only computes and stores and manages relational knowledge for you, it trains you to do so for yourself.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
THE MASTERLIST IS MY BRAIN
The MasterList is a relational database I invented in 1998. For 10 years the idea and the reality of it have been my constant working companion. For 3 or 4 years, my wife Jo-Anne and I successfully sold hundreds of licenses annually to end-users to manage their lives and careers. Because I can't live or breathe without threading my thoughts, ideas, and actions through it, my fondest dream was to make The MasterList web-based and as portable and ubiquitous as my cellular phone. At that I have failed. So, Jo-Anne has been been winding the business of The MasterList down, while I have gone back to work for the past several years as a trial attorney. And, at the end of this year (2007) we will shutter the business operation of the operating company, Sumac Consulting Group, LLC. Now, Jo-Anne is preparing to resume an outside career to take advantage of her MBA.
That being said, The MasterList will live on as freeware for anybody who wants a license. For an unlimited free license, just email me, billnbrt@yahoo.com, after you download the trial copy.
The good news is that the custom crafted .dll file for the original Visual Fox Pro database has gotten better with age. With today's super fast, high-ram computers, the program functions at whizzing speed. That's a factor of it's simple, uncomplicated functionality, which is not burdened by trying to do too much and not having had to "live up to" the creative and graphical opportunities presented by today's desktop PC power and speed. And, because PC's are so quick today, with 1 gig ram now being standard as opposed to 32 MB when The MasterList came out, the one original flaw in the Visual Fox Pro database format, the occasional database corruption, never occurs anymore. Across thousands of users, we have not had a report in at least 4 years of any database corruption with the program.
Even better news is that the program was advanced enough in its coding, that it functions completely in all Microsoft operating systems, including Vista, which to our relief and surprise accommodates The MasterList with complete backwards compatibility. The possible weak link in future use is the connectivity of successor Microsoft Outlook email, assuming that MS program continues to evolve through future iterations faster than the Vista operating system. On the other hand, I am seeing a consumer gravitation away from MS email, at least on the personal side. And, if I were running a small to medium business, I would buy into Yahoo or g-mail accounts for my employees, and would migrate to Mozilla FireFox rather than Internet Explorer as my browser.
Part of the plan of our web-based version was to integrate web-based email into the program hopefully in partnership with Yahoo, Google, or even Microsoft. Either our naive business instincts or our capital dry-up, or both, led us to a considered rejection from Google at the CEO level, and an inability to penetrate the "institutional firewalls" to communicate meaningfully with Yahoo and Microsoft.
So, to the point. Why is The MasterList My Brain? Because I integrate almost all that I am through this database as if it was my most precious tool. I use it. How? Too many ways to count. So, let me go through an arbitrary exercise of listing some things we do in life, and how I do them with and through the MasterList. So, to implement this ad hoc promotion, I have first run a Google search on the following terms: ""things we do in life" list". By the way, The MasterList is a list of things I do in life. I have a MasterList program loaded at work. And, another at home. If I had a web-based version, I could connect these and even connect in other users to create ad hoc teams ala My Space. Alas, I do not.
So, to continue the exercise on the theme of The MasterList is My Brain.
First site I come to is gapingvoid.com. The author has a cartoon. He says he has drawn over 5000 cartoons on the back of business cards. This one has the caption: "Glob of chaos that follows me around like a dog." This intrigues me. For years, I have drawn very practical diagrams, maybe hundreds of them, to outline tactical situations. And, in my MasterList databases I have thousands of entries relating to the various projects, threads, action horizons, call-them-what-you will's of my life. A MasterList task as defined by me is a word cartoon of something that is following me around like a dog. And, I need to do something about it. So,I write it up as a "task". I give that task a home in a project. Then, I relate it, to taste, to knowledge through notes and linking. Anytime I want, I can penetrate the chaos and follow a simple thread right through one end of the chaos and out the other, without ever missing a molecule of relevant data on that thread.
Second site I come to is soriano-ph.com. The title of the relevant blog page is "The Way Our Priorities Should Be". The author writes: "We live in a very complicated world under a myriad of human activities that we have to take care of a lot of things. ... Understandably, no one else would be able to define what our priorities in life are, except ourselves." What can I say. This author understands the problem. For me, The MasterList, which is a system applied through a relational database, is a way to define and act on my priorities, but it is so much more. It is a vehicle to traverse and penetrate through the complex myriad the author speaks of and to find simple, malleable focus that is action-directed, or not, depending. And, as for those dependent conditions, to even provide an architecture for handling the definition and bigger "questions" of how to deal with those.
Third link, and then I will put this essay to rest for the evening. It's a Christian blog called Happy Mama. The Motto of her site is a quote: “We MUST have an unconditional readiness to change in order to be transformed in Christ.” — Dietrich von Hildebrand. OK. The MasterList is my readiness tool for change, be it conditional or unconditional. It is the Field of Play in which I deal with the issue of life change. I can filter Christ out of the equation on this and say that Happy Mama understands. She writes: "I like to categorize. I began grouping together my goals and ended up with 6 different areas of study, which I prioritized according to general importance. Under each of the 6 areas were a set of specific goals to achieve and then a set of sample topics. Sure, as the years go by, I’ll end up re-wording, tweaking, and adding things. ... Maybe because I’m a “list” person and a visual learner I needed to see these goals drawn out. Maybe you ...don’t need such a list, because most of the things are obvious. What the list did for me, however, was: 1. It put into perspective the length of time I have ... 2. It gave me a visual hierarchy of importance among the areas of study." I don't need to go on. Happy Mama does not have The MasterList, but she is living a MasterList.
I find it curious that by just running the search term: ""things we do in life" list", I came up with these 3 sites authored by fulfilled people each tackling the chaos, the myriad, and the changeableness of life in similar ways.
The MasterList was designed to tap into this way of seeing and doing things. It still works and because I work through it in an iconic, sacramental way, it works for me and helps me work my way through my life.
Amen.
The MasterList is a relational database I invented in 1998. For 10 years the idea and the reality of it have been my constant working companion. For 3 or 4 years, my wife Jo-Anne and I successfully sold hundreds of licenses annually to end-users to manage their lives and careers. Because I can't live or breathe without threading my thoughts, ideas, and actions through it, my fondest dream was to make The MasterList web-based and as portable and ubiquitous as my cellular phone. At that I have failed. So, Jo-Anne has been been winding the business of The MasterList down, while I have gone back to work for the past several years as a trial attorney. And, at the end of this year (2007) we will shutter the business operation of the operating company, Sumac Consulting Group, LLC. Now, Jo-Anne is preparing to resume an outside career to take advantage of her MBA.
That being said, The MasterList will live on as freeware for anybody who wants a license. For an unlimited free license, just email me, billnbrt@yahoo.com, after you download the trial copy.
The good news is that the custom crafted .dll file for the original Visual Fox Pro database has gotten better with age. With today's super fast, high-ram computers, the program functions at whizzing speed. That's a factor of it's simple, uncomplicated functionality, which is not burdened by trying to do too much and not having had to "live up to" the creative and graphical opportunities presented by today's desktop PC power and speed. And, because PC's are so quick today, with 1 gig ram now being standard as opposed to 32 MB when The MasterList came out, the one original flaw in the Visual Fox Pro database format, the occasional database corruption, never occurs anymore. Across thousands of users, we have not had a report in at least 4 years of any database corruption with the program.
Even better news is that the program was advanced enough in its coding, that it functions completely in all Microsoft operating systems, including Vista, which to our relief and surprise accommodates The MasterList with complete backwards compatibility. The possible weak link in future use is the connectivity of successor Microsoft Outlook email, assuming that MS program continues to evolve through future iterations faster than the Vista operating system. On the other hand, I am seeing a consumer gravitation away from MS email, at least on the personal side. And, if I were running a small to medium business, I would buy into Yahoo or g-mail accounts for my employees, and would migrate to Mozilla FireFox rather than Internet Explorer as my browser.
Part of the plan of our web-based version was to integrate web-based email into the program hopefully in partnership with Yahoo, Google, or even Microsoft. Either our naive business instincts or our capital dry-up, or both, led us to a considered rejection from Google at the CEO level, and an inability to penetrate the "institutional firewalls" to communicate meaningfully with Yahoo and Microsoft.
So, to the point. Why is The MasterList My Brain? Because I integrate almost all that I am through this database as if it was my most precious tool. I use it. How? Too many ways to count. So, let me go through an arbitrary exercise of listing some things we do in life, and how I do them with and through the MasterList. So, to implement this ad hoc promotion, I have first run a Google search on the following terms: ""things we do in life" list". By the way, The MasterList is a list of things I do in life. I have a MasterList program loaded at work. And, another at home. If I had a web-based version, I could connect these and even connect in other users to create ad hoc teams ala My Space. Alas, I do not.
So, to continue the exercise on the theme of The MasterList is My Brain.
First site I come to is gapingvoid.com. The author has a cartoon. He says he has drawn over 5000 cartoons on the back of business cards. This one has the caption: "Glob of chaos that follows me around like a dog." This intrigues me. For years, I have drawn very practical diagrams, maybe hundreds of them, to outline tactical situations. And, in my MasterList databases I have thousands of entries relating to the various projects, threads, action horizons, call-them-what-you will's of my life. A MasterList task as defined by me is a word cartoon of something that is following me around like a dog. And, I need to do something about it. So,I write it up as a "task". I give that task a home in a project. Then, I relate it, to taste, to knowledge through notes and linking. Anytime I want, I can penetrate the chaos and follow a simple thread right through one end of the chaos and out the other, without ever missing a molecule of relevant data on that thread.
Second site I come to is soriano-ph.com. The title of the relevant blog page is "The Way Our Priorities Should Be". The author writes: "We live in a very complicated world under a myriad of human activities that we have to take care of a lot of things. ... Understandably, no one else would be able to define what our priorities in life are, except ourselves." What can I say. This author understands the problem. For me, The MasterList, which is a system applied through a relational database, is a way to define and act on my priorities, but it is so much more. It is a vehicle to traverse and penetrate through the complex myriad the author speaks of and to find simple, malleable focus that is action-directed, or not, depending. And, as for those dependent conditions, to even provide an architecture for handling the definition and bigger "questions" of how to deal with those.
Third link, and then I will put this essay to rest for the evening. It's a Christian blog called Happy Mama. The Motto of her site is a quote: “We MUST have an unconditional readiness to change in order to be transformed in Christ.” — Dietrich von Hildebrand. OK. The MasterList is my readiness tool for change, be it conditional or unconditional. It is the Field of Play in which I deal with the issue of life change. I can filter Christ out of the equation on this and say that Happy Mama understands. She writes: "I like to categorize. I began grouping together my goals and ended up with 6 different areas of study, which I prioritized according to general importance. Under each of the 6 areas were a set of specific goals to achieve and then a set of sample topics. Sure, as the years go by, I’ll end up re-wording, tweaking, and adding things. ... Maybe because I’m a “list” person and a visual learner I needed to see these goals drawn out. Maybe you ...don’t need such a list, because most of the things are obvious. What the list did for me, however, was: 1. It put into perspective the length of time I have ... 2. It gave me a visual hierarchy of importance among the areas of study." I don't need to go on. Happy Mama does not have The MasterList, but she is living a MasterList.
I find it curious that by just running the search term: ""things we do in life" list", I came up with these 3 sites authored by fulfilled people each tackling the chaos, the myriad, and the changeableness of life in similar ways.
The MasterList was designed to tap into this way of seeing and doing things. It still works and because I work through it in an iconic, sacramental way, it works for me and helps me work my way through my life.
Amen.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
DECISIONEERING
A plan is not a decision. A database is a place to lay out choices, but it is not a decision-making tool. You are the decision making tool. The MasterList helps you make decisions by giving you the ability to organize lists and track task queues by project, category, type, priority, chronology. It allows you to view fields of activities with related knowledge connected in. This way you can see the fields and clear the fields according to a system of organized, rationale decision-making.
As stated, The MasterList is just an important tool. You are the decision-maker. One of the fatal flaws of industrial-grade mission management software is that the programmer's algorithms, keyboard sequences, and screen flow/report choices preempt the decision making process in favor of the built-in agendas. This degrades the ability to choose, indeed punishes it by providing no options to deal with insight, or to implement analysis of critical issues in a creative way.
The MasterList is a free-wheeling decisioneering tool that adapts to the way you organize, think, and choose.
Which brings me back to Microsoft and its failure to revitalize Outlook to become a decisioneering tool rather than a mere crippled PIM. If it did, it would circumvent the Innovator's Dilemma and could leap-frog ahead of Google. It's a shame because Microsoft is probably the only company besides Yahoo that has the bankroll and the server farm expertise to leapfrog ahead. But, unlike Outlook and its Office Suite, which was the killer application, which through Microsoft Exchange bound the world, and any organization of any size to its operating systems, Microsoft has no application which makes it indispensable in a world dominated by subscription based online applications tied to robust, secure, flexible My-Space shareable-like server farms.
The MasterList is and could have been that application. Outlook could easily be transformed to be that application. But, nothing happens. Our paradigm sits on the back shelf and Outlook's market is being chipped away. We don't need its email anymore. Are Word and Excel really so indispensable. And, its most important feature calendar and to-do list are no more sophisticated than they were in DOS 15 years ago.
So, The MasterList is and Outlook could be a tool for decisioneering. A good calendaring and to-list system needs to give you multiple ways to overview tasks, inventory them, store them, link stuff together fast when you need to organize it quickly and specially and separately on the fly. As the designer of the MasterList I have worked also within other companies and utilized industry-centric case and project management programs which are time-consuming, frustrating behemoths. Outlook has never attempted to compete with these non MS-products. The MasterList is genius compared to these products, but has had insufficient financial backing to market itself competitively. Again, Outlook could be that product. But, Microsoft seems to be unapproachable to this idea. The MasterList utilized with a personal decisioneering regimen beats David Allen and Franklin Day Planner hands down for keyboard facility of linking stuff in a way that makes you want to get back to it; and to know exactly how to do that in a balanced way.
In the real world of management, stuff comes up you can't do now and you need to make notes or lists about that. That's where The MasterList comes in. One of my favorite uses of The MasterList is debriefing an event. That means I am not going to engage in a decision to do all follow-up possibilities now. Only 3600 seconds in an hour and my potential choices are vast. So, my feeble brain cannot hold more than 3, 4, ideas, elements, bullets, of anything for more than a few minutes. That's where The MasterList comes in to store stuff on a project centric, task sequenced basis, or as an undifferentiated task, or in special "master" lists for dealing with fresh knee-buckling tasks screaming in from outlying spaces.
We are not to Prioritization yet. Let's suppose I decide I want to see what my task inventory is. This is "pare-down" prioritization made very easy by The MasterList. Let's say, in The MasterList, at a single key stroke from the home page, I pull up a list of all tasks for today for me and any in the past that are lagging. First thing I want to do is reduce the number of these tasks to a manageable subset for today. The MasterList has a built in triaging tool called Time-Blaster where with a right click I can blast a task 1 day, 3 days, 5, 7, 14, 28 and essentially pare it off my list and sequentially prioritize it quickly and even en bloc with basically 1 or 2 keystrokes.
How do you keep your tasks up to date? If it takes 7 keystrokes to clear a single task to the future, what do you do when you have 100 or 200 lagging tasks in your industry-specific management program, or in Outlook? Neither Outlook nor any industry specific PIM/management system has such a concept built into it that I know of.
With The MasterList hundreds of lagging tasks could easily be cleared and organized logically and sequentially to create a meaningful subset of today's plan within just 5 minutes.
The MasterList doesn't just organize by projects, it also has task codes which help because they can also be used as task organizing and priority signals. This is not unique to The MasterList, but we have unique reporting tools that take advantage of these "codes"; and, we know how to use them creatively. Oh yes, The MasterList has color prioritization too.
But, this note is about The MasterList as a decisioneering tool. Prioritization is important. But, when you are in an action landscape, either professionally or personally, one thing you want to do is cut down the number of possible decisions you have to make. The best number of possible decisions is one. That's hard to achieve. Most to-do list, PIM, and industry specific case/project management systems are designed to throw you dozens and hundreds of choices. The problem is that even an octopus can only put on one pant leg at a time. So, what would be least stressful for the user is a program that can help "pare down" the choices to one, or something close to one.
One of the best features of The MasterList is that it not only can handle 100, 1000, 10,000, 100,000 or even 1,000,000 tasks, chores, links, ideas, concepts, plans, choices, notes for you or a team, it can then pare them down to 20, 2, 1 very fast. That's the real goal of a well designed professional case/project management higher order PIM in my view.
The MasterList was designed to incorporate the decision-maker, the decisoneer. You are the human tool with which it is intended to synergize. No software can substitute an algorithm for your mental process. Outlook wisely stayed non-specific in that regard. But, it fails to incorporate a possible vision by which it can become more and still remain universal.
Our only regret at The MasterList is that we did not have the clout to convince Microsoft, Yahoo, or Google to buy into our vision. They all have their own paradigms and their own agendas. The tool that does what The MasterList does has not yet been invented as a pure Internet application. Web-based PIMS are the future, and you will just fire up. Good design, along the lines of The MasterList, something ala a professional My Space, would make it fly. You would be ubiquitous and not even be thinking about it.
Tommy Vu can be reached about this article by emailing billnbrt@yahoo.com
A plan is not a decision. A database is a place to lay out choices, but it is not a decision-making tool. You are the decision making tool. The MasterList helps you make decisions by giving you the ability to organize lists and track task queues by project, category, type, priority, chronology. It allows you to view fields of activities with related knowledge connected in. This way you can see the fields and clear the fields according to a system of organized, rationale decision-making.
As stated, The MasterList is just an important tool. You are the decision-maker. One of the fatal flaws of industrial-grade mission management software is that the programmer's algorithms, keyboard sequences, and screen flow/report choices preempt the decision making process in favor of the built-in agendas. This degrades the ability to choose, indeed punishes it by providing no options to deal with insight, or to implement analysis of critical issues in a creative way.
The MasterList is a free-wheeling decisioneering tool that adapts to the way you organize, think, and choose.
Which brings me back to Microsoft and its failure to revitalize Outlook to become a decisioneering tool rather than a mere crippled PIM. If it did, it would circumvent the Innovator's Dilemma and could leap-frog ahead of Google. It's a shame because Microsoft is probably the only company besides Yahoo that has the bankroll and the server farm expertise to leapfrog ahead. But, unlike Outlook and its Office Suite, which was the killer application, which through Microsoft Exchange bound the world, and any organization of any size to its operating systems, Microsoft has no application which makes it indispensable in a world dominated by subscription based online applications tied to robust, secure, flexible My-Space shareable-like server farms.
The MasterList is and could have been that application. Outlook could easily be transformed to be that application. But, nothing happens. Our paradigm sits on the back shelf and Outlook's market is being chipped away. We don't need its email anymore. Are Word and Excel really so indispensable. And, its most important feature calendar and to-do list are no more sophisticated than they were in DOS 15 years ago.
So, The MasterList is and Outlook could be a tool for decisioneering. A good calendaring and to-list system needs to give you multiple ways to overview tasks, inventory them, store them, link stuff together fast when you need to organize it quickly and specially and separately on the fly. As the designer of the MasterList I have worked also within other companies and utilized industry-centric case and project management programs which are time-consuming, frustrating behemoths. Outlook has never attempted to compete with these non MS-products. The MasterList is genius compared to these products, but has had insufficient financial backing to market itself competitively. Again, Outlook could be that product. But, Microsoft seems to be unapproachable to this idea. The MasterList utilized with a personal decisioneering regimen beats David Allen and Franklin Day Planner hands down for keyboard facility of linking stuff in a way that makes you want to get back to it; and to know exactly how to do that in a balanced way.
In the real world of management, stuff comes up you can't do now and you need to make notes or lists about that. That's where The MasterList comes in. One of my favorite uses of The MasterList is debriefing an event. That means I am not going to engage in a decision to do all follow-up possibilities now. Only 3600 seconds in an hour and my potential choices are vast. So, my feeble brain cannot hold more than 3, 4, ideas, elements, bullets, of anything for more than a few minutes. That's where The MasterList comes in to store stuff on a project centric, task sequenced basis, or as an undifferentiated task, or in special "master" lists for dealing with fresh knee-buckling tasks screaming in from outlying spaces.
We are not to Prioritization yet. Let's suppose I decide I want to see what my task inventory is. This is "pare-down" prioritization made very easy by The MasterList. Let's say, in The MasterList, at a single key stroke from the home page, I pull up a list of all tasks for today for me and any in the past that are lagging. First thing I want to do is reduce the number of these tasks to a manageable subset for today. The MasterList has a built in triaging tool called Time-Blaster where with a right click I can blast a task 1 day, 3 days, 5, 7, 14, 28 and essentially pare it off my list and sequentially prioritize it quickly and even en bloc with basically 1 or 2 keystrokes.
How do you keep your tasks up to date? If it takes 7 keystrokes to clear a single task to the future, what do you do when you have 100 or 200 lagging tasks in your industry-specific management program, or in Outlook? Neither Outlook nor any industry specific PIM/management system has such a concept built into it that I know of.
With The MasterList hundreds of lagging tasks could easily be cleared and organized logically and sequentially to create a meaningful subset of today's plan within just 5 minutes.
The MasterList doesn't just organize by projects, it also has task codes which help because they can also be used as task organizing and priority signals. This is not unique to The MasterList, but we have unique reporting tools that take advantage of these "codes"; and, we know how to use them creatively. Oh yes, The MasterList has color prioritization too.
But, this note is about The MasterList as a decisioneering tool. Prioritization is important. But, when you are in an action landscape, either professionally or personally, one thing you want to do is cut down the number of possible decisions you have to make. The best number of possible decisions is one. That's hard to achieve. Most to-do list, PIM, and industry specific case/project management systems are designed to throw you dozens and hundreds of choices. The problem is that even an octopus can only put on one pant leg at a time. So, what would be least stressful for the user is a program that can help "pare down" the choices to one, or something close to one.
One of the best features of The MasterList is that it not only can handle 100, 1000, 10,000, 100,000 or even 1,000,000 tasks, chores, links, ideas, concepts, plans, choices, notes for you or a team, it can then pare them down to 20, 2, 1 very fast. That's the real goal of a well designed professional case/project management higher order PIM in my view.
The MasterList was designed to incorporate the decision-maker, the decisoneer. You are the human tool with which it is intended to synergize. No software can substitute an algorithm for your mental process. Outlook wisely stayed non-specific in that regard. But, it fails to incorporate a possible vision by which it can become more and still remain universal.
Our only regret at The MasterList is that we did not have the clout to convince Microsoft, Yahoo, or Google to buy into our vision. They all have their own paradigms and their own agendas. The tool that does what The MasterList does has not yet been invented as a pure Internet application. Web-based PIMS are the future, and you will just fire up. Good design, along the lines of The MasterList, something ala a professional My Space, would make it fly. You would be ubiquitous and not even be thinking about it.
Tommy Vu can be reached about this article by emailing billnbrt@yahoo.com
Sunday, June 17, 2007
OPEN LETTER TO MICROSOFT: THE PERFECT TO DO LIST
The perfect to do list is a blank piece of paper or vanilla white computer screen, with all the world in order, just the way you want it. Nothing to list.
The perfect to do list exists only in the perfect world.
The perfect world is one where all actions are balanced out and all end objects of action are perfectly clear. Nothing to do but what is being done. Nothing undone before, nothing to do next. No competition of choices.
Here's the to-do list I would like to see Microsoft build.
Home Page: Scrollable Window with List of All Projects. Scrollable Window with List of Last 10 Projects accessed. Scrollable Window with List of 10 Most Non-accessed projects. Window with today's calendar across all Projects. Window with My Day (list of current ticklers for today and past). My 10 favorite links. My non-Outlook email account.
Better yet. Make the Home Page skinnable, with an option to determine what kind of letter box windows of the above type you want to put on it for you.
Oh, yes. Like this Blog. It will be web-based. Of course, it will be shareable.
Let's get to the projects.
Project Page: Calendar event window. Timed to-do list window, where tasks have dates and are sequenced. Undifferentiated task list window, where tasks are just created ad hoc like a shopping list and have no time-table. Thus, 3 types of tasks. Calendar. Timed. Untimed or undifferentiated. Of course, links and logs just like The MasterList.
Special Priority Tools: See The MasterList.
Features:
1. The model begins with a server farm, where your to-do "space" is housed.
2. Each user has their own "space", broken into projects as above
3. Key focus is Organizing what to do by project, category, type, date.
4. Key focus is clustering links, notes, and connections with tasks/projects.
5. Key focus is creating discrete permission connections for multi-users.
6. Document and file storage would be a plus.
7. A dedicated email account would be a plus.
8. Syncability with Outlook would be a plus.
9. Readbility from non PC devices such as cell phones, pda's, IPOD's is a goal.
There's more. Key focus is derived from The MasterList model. This configuration has not yet been created by Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, anyone. This configuration is beyond the economic capacity of The MasterList creators to provide.
Here's Microsoft's problem:
1. Instead of being an innovator it tried to salvage MSN.
2. Instead of being an innovator it tried to impose Outlook as its internet model.
3. Instead of creating internet product it tried to impose MS PC product online.
4. Because it promoted Microsoft Project, Outlook was handicapped as a project tool.
Here's why The MasterList model above will work;
1. We all want the killer app that ties the world to the computer device in hand.
2. What we do is the ultimate subject matter of the killer app.
3. It's what Outlook, Excel, and Word are about: productivity.
4. The MasterList is a shareable project based PIM, based on connectivity.
5. The MasterList connects tasks, ideas, and links to the world at single screens.
6. The MasterList connects people across networks.
If Microsoft would do this, free, with an email account, free for individuals, it could create a craze like My Space. Particularly if it allowed pages to be developed by users with varieties of skins and content objects, never losing its focus as a person to task to project to target object to links to world connector. (The MasterList vision).
Then, the economics would and should follow in the traditional Microsoft way. Link free to X other people. Subscription fee for more complex links. Build a subscription-based business model that can sync in with the personal model, but with more complex features. Create a workable opt in to syncability with Outlook and Microsoft Exchange. Sell security and backup to off-server farm servers.
The MasterList is the one program vision that can do all of this for Microsoft. Microsoft has not yet seen the way. Microsoft has let the New Innovators take the field because it has tried to fortify its old innovations, rather than risking re-inventing itself and setting up competition with its old product portfolio.
Microsoft needs to take the risk and jump into a new product that is oil to Microsoft's water and stands on its own to capture the user imagination to fulfill one of our greatest societal needs: See, choose, and act as to what needs to be done, in a project-based organizational way, across everything and anything the user is concerned with, securely connected with anything and anyone. Stick with that primary dynamic and invite user participation in creating skins and screen-types that are viewable from any device anywhere, and you have a best-selling product for the wireless millennium.
Comments: write Tommy Vu at billnbrt@yahoo.com.
The perfect to do list is a blank piece of paper or vanilla white computer screen, with all the world in order, just the way you want it. Nothing to list.
The perfect to do list exists only in the perfect world.
The perfect world is one where all actions are balanced out and all end objects of action are perfectly clear. Nothing to do but what is being done. Nothing undone before, nothing to do next. No competition of choices.
Here's the to-do list I would like to see Microsoft build.
Home Page: Scrollable Window with List of All Projects. Scrollable Window with List of Last 10 Projects accessed. Scrollable Window with List of 10 Most Non-accessed projects. Window with today's calendar across all Projects. Window with My Day (list of current ticklers for today and past). My 10 favorite links. My non-Outlook email account.
Better yet. Make the Home Page skinnable, with an option to determine what kind of letter box windows of the above type you want to put on it for you.
Oh, yes. Like this Blog. It will be web-based. Of course, it will be shareable.
Let's get to the projects.
Project Page: Calendar event window. Timed to-do list window, where tasks have dates and are sequenced. Undifferentiated task list window, where tasks are just created ad hoc like a shopping list and have no time-table. Thus, 3 types of tasks. Calendar. Timed. Untimed or undifferentiated. Of course, links and logs just like The MasterList.
Special Priority Tools: See The MasterList.
Features:
1. The model begins with a server farm, where your to-do "space" is housed.
2. Each user has their own "space", broken into projects as above
3. Key focus is Organizing what to do by project, category, type, date.
4. Key focus is clustering links, notes, and connections with tasks/projects.
5. Key focus is creating discrete permission connections for multi-users.
6. Document and file storage would be a plus.
7. A dedicated email account would be a plus.
8. Syncability with Outlook would be a plus.
9. Readbility from non PC devices such as cell phones, pda's, IPOD's is a goal.
There's more. Key focus is derived from The MasterList model. This configuration has not yet been created by Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, anyone. This configuration is beyond the economic capacity of The MasterList creators to provide.
Here's Microsoft's problem:
1. Instead of being an innovator it tried to salvage MSN.
2. Instead of being an innovator it tried to impose Outlook as its internet model.
3. Instead of creating internet product it tried to impose MS PC product online.
4. Because it promoted Microsoft Project, Outlook was handicapped as a project tool.
Here's why The MasterList model above will work;
1. We all want the killer app that ties the world to the computer device in hand.
2. What we do is the ultimate subject matter of the killer app.
3. It's what Outlook, Excel, and Word are about: productivity.
4. The MasterList is a shareable project based PIM, based on connectivity.
5. The MasterList connects tasks, ideas, and links to the world at single screens.
6. The MasterList connects people across networks.
If Microsoft would do this, free, with an email account, free for individuals, it could create a craze like My Space. Particularly if it allowed pages to be developed by users with varieties of skins and content objects, never losing its focus as a person to task to project to target object to links to world connector. (The MasterList vision).
Then, the economics would and should follow in the traditional Microsoft way. Link free to X other people. Subscription fee for more complex links. Build a subscription-based business model that can sync in with the personal model, but with more complex features. Create a workable opt in to syncability with Outlook and Microsoft Exchange. Sell security and backup to off-server farm servers.
The MasterList is the one program vision that can do all of this for Microsoft. Microsoft has not yet seen the way. Microsoft has let the New Innovators take the field because it has tried to fortify its old innovations, rather than risking re-inventing itself and setting up competition with its old product portfolio.
Microsoft needs to take the risk and jump into a new product that is oil to Microsoft's water and stands on its own to capture the user imagination to fulfill one of our greatest societal needs: See, choose, and act as to what needs to be done, in a project-based organizational way, across everything and anything the user is concerned with, securely connected with anything and anyone. Stick with that primary dynamic and invite user participation in creating skins and screen-types that are viewable from any device anywhere, and you have a best-selling product for the wireless millennium.
Comments: write Tommy Vu at billnbrt@yahoo.com.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
MY GO LIST
Users often ask us about The MasterList: How Do I Use the Task Tracker button to organize what I do?
Here is a good example of how the Task Tracker can cut across all your categorical projects to bring together a special aspect common to all projects, as if that aspect was a single project. I call it My Go List.
Here's an actual Example from my Home MasterList database. Among my dozens of projects I maintain in The MasterList, I have these 8:
* Cars Project - for car maintenance
* Daughter S Project
* Finances - Business - for maintaining the business side of The MasterList
* House Maintenance Project
* Law Project - for maintaining my law licensing and law practice on the home front
* Personal/Self Project - for my health & personal effects management
* Whiteboard Project - where I track spontaneous ideas and tasks that flash to mind
* Wife J Project
Awhile back it occurred to me that virtually every Saturday morning, I would check through EVERY project in my system (at least 70), not just the above 8, and look for things I had to do on a drive out that morning, like:
* go to the bank
* pick up dry cleaning
* go buy a book on lean management
The problem was that since all these tasks were spread across multiple projects, I had to "manually" search through my project screens to find all the tasks.
With The MasterList, not acceptable! So, here is what I did. I created a special tracking task code called GO, that I apply to any task where I think I will need to leave home and go out into the world to get something done.
Now. Here's the bonus round. For example, this morning, I went to Task Tracker and ran all my GO's from here through next month. I then re-arranged those that I thought I would try to get today into a single list in Task Tracker. So, when I go out to do these things, I call it a "GO RUN". Today, there are 11 tasks in My Go List. Here in a nutshell is the list:
1. Deposit checks for our TML business. From Business Finance project.
2. Deposit check for daughter S for trip to China. From Daughter S project.
3. Go and buy a discounted after-Christmas tree skirt. White Board project.
4. Buy some indoor spotlights. House Maintenance Project.
5. Check mileage on Buick and go to dealer for service if necessary. Cars Project.
6. Ditto on the Cadillac.
7. Get a teapot for the Office. Law Project.
8. Take Dry Cleaning in. Physical/Personal project.
9. Return pants wife bought that are too tight or long. Personal/Self project.
10. Buy an alarm clock for wife J to replace broken one. Wife J project.
So, that is My Go List. It's on my desk right now. PRINTED. I will simply carry it around with me as I get into one of my car's today, on a cold wintry Saturday Morning, with my wife, J, to get all or some of this done. And, when I am done, what is done, will be checked and send to the History Page for each project, or bumped along for another day.
Here's the Beauty of all this. I can manage my business, my law practice, or any business, or professional organization applying the same techniques only found in combination in The MasterList :
1. Create Projects.
2. Add tasks in projects assigning task codes I created.
3. Review all Projects by project.
4. Cut across all Projects for Review by Day. My Day report.
5. With Task Tracker, cut across all Projects by task type. Example: My Go List.
6. Lean screen flow to make all this happen fast.
Have a good day. Let's GO!
Users often ask us about The MasterList: How Do I Use the Task Tracker button to organize what I do?
Here is a good example of how the Task Tracker can cut across all your categorical projects to bring together a special aspect common to all projects, as if that aspect was a single project. I call it My Go List.
Here's an actual Example from my Home MasterList database. Among my dozens of projects I maintain in The MasterList, I have these 8:
* Cars Project - for car maintenance
* Daughter S Project
* Finances - Business - for maintaining the business side of The MasterList
* House Maintenance Project
* Law Project - for maintaining my law licensing and law practice on the home front
* Personal/Self Project - for my health & personal effects management
* Whiteboard Project - where I track spontaneous ideas and tasks that flash to mind
* Wife J Project
Awhile back it occurred to me that virtually every Saturday morning, I would check through EVERY project in my system (at least 70), not just the above 8, and look for things I had to do on a drive out that morning, like:
* go to the bank
* pick up dry cleaning
* go buy a book on lean management
The problem was that since all these tasks were spread across multiple projects, I had to "manually" search through my project screens to find all the tasks.
With The MasterList, not acceptable! So, here is what I did. I created a special tracking task code called GO, that I apply to any task where I think I will need to leave home and go out into the world to get something done.
Now. Here's the bonus round. For example, this morning, I went to Task Tracker and ran all my GO's from here through next month. I then re-arranged those that I thought I would try to get today into a single list in Task Tracker. So, when I go out to do these things, I call it a "GO RUN". Today, there are 11 tasks in My Go List. Here in a nutshell is the list:
1. Deposit checks for our TML business. From Business Finance project.
2. Deposit check for daughter S for trip to China. From Daughter S project.
3. Go and buy a discounted after-Christmas tree skirt. White Board project.
4. Buy some indoor spotlights. House Maintenance Project.
5. Check mileage on Buick and go to dealer for service if necessary. Cars Project.
6. Ditto on the Cadillac.
7. Get a teapot for the Office. Law Project.
8. Take Dry Cleaning in. Physical/Personal project.
9. Return pants wife bought that are too tight or long. Personal/Self project.
10. Buy an alarm clock for wife J to replace broken one. Wife J project.
So, that is My Go List. It's on my desk right now. PRINTED. I will simply carry it around with me as I get into one of my car's today, on a cold wintry Saturday Morning, with my wife, J, to get all or some of this done. And, when I am done, what is done, will be checked and send to the History Page for each project, or bumped along for another day.
Here's the Beauty of all this. I can manage my business, my law practice, or any business, or professional organization applying the same techniques only found in combination in The MasterList :
1. Create Projects.
2. Add tasks in projects assigning task codes I created.
3. Review all Projects by project.
4. Cut across all Projects for Review by Day. My Day report.
5. With Task Tracker, cut across all Projects by task type. Example: My Go List.
6. Lean screen flow to make all this happen fast.
Have a good day. Let's GO!
