Why Do We Still Not Have a Great #PIM for #GTD?

For 60 years, I've been looking for a great system to manage all the information that I collect in life.  A great system still eludes me, and apparently all others that I can find.  I use several apps and programs to do the best I can under the circumstances, using my Windows 10 computer, and Apple iPhone and iPad (and formerly, some Android ones too).  I've written earlier about some of the key ones, like TheBrain.

It would seem that with the availability of essentially unlimited server storage, and lots of artificial intelligence development, that there would be great personal information management systems and services available.  Do you know of any?

I recently discovered that David Allen, the creator of Getting Things Done or GTD fame, is also still pursuing the goal, but without satisfying completion; I've mentioned his earlier efforts previously.  The latest is reported as a GTD Summit in Amsterdam in 2019:

"The Ultimate GTD App – Part One

At the June 2019 GTD Summit, David Allen briefly shared a vision of the ultimate GTD app, which consists of 19 pages of hand-drawn drafts of the screens he would want to use. To expand on that topic, we recorded David talking with Eric Mack and John Forrister about the past, present, and future of GTD software. It’s a wide-ranging discussion with stories that will inform, entertain, and maybe even surprise you. This episode is part one of two. Start with this one and then listen to part two."

https://gettingthingsdone.com/2019/08/episode-51-the-ultimate-gtd-app-part-1/ 

 One person, Bert Kruisdijk, has taken David Allen's sketches of the ideal GTD app from that conference, and claims to have converted concept to a working app.

"GTD’ers who attended the GTD Summit in Amsterdam know it . During the Summit @DavidAllen unveiled some of his sketches of the killer GTD app user interface and later he send it to the GTD community.

I was able to (copy) build the setup as indicated in the drawings of David Allen at the GTD summit and I do think it comes close to the concept of David Allen. It is working on iPhone, iPad and iMac (the first two with Shortcuts and the latter with Keyboard Maestro)."

https://bertkruisdijk.wordpress.com/2019/07/24/david-allens-killer-gtd-app-system-brought-into-practice/

Will we ever see it available for our own use?

iPhone and iTunes Catch-22 Solved! Windows 10

I was confounded when I updated my iPhone 6s to iOS 9.3 by a single problem -- the Apple Health app was corrupted by the update.  All of my health apps, that connect to the core Health app, were no longer connected, and the Sources list was totally empty.  My Apple Watch health functions were all broken, not on the watch, but on the iPhone Health app.  There were no graphs, nothing!  Everything else about the update seems to have worked.

The usual troubleshooting methods, forcing the phone to restart, etc., did nothing.  The Apple Health app is built in to the iOS, so there is no way to delete it and reload it.

As far as I could find, Apple and the support blogs never mentioned this problem.

Faced with a phone not operating properly, the choices are to take it to an Apple Store (and probably wait a week for it to be sent back, and pay a fee), or to try a Reset to factory settings.  That means that all the customization, downloaded apps, etc., are wiped out.  Fortunately, I had backups on iCloud, and a months-old password protected backup to my PC (which preserves the passwords in the apps, etc.)  So, resetting to factory, then Restoring a backup wasn't too bad.

But then came the bigger problem:  iTunes wouldn't recognize my iPhone on either of my Windows 10 desktop PCs. The phone interface didn't pop up when connected by cable, and all of the menu choices under File_Devices were grayed out.  So, there was no way to Reset to factory settings.  Restarting the PCs and the iPhone did nothing.

Through some searching, I knew that there should be an Apple driver, Apple Mobile Device USB Driver, shown in the Windows Device Manager, under Universal Serial Bus controllers category, but there wasn't!  More searching indicated that the way to fix that problem was to re-install iTunes.  So, more time and effort doing that, but the result was the same -- no driver, no iPhone device in iTunes.

Hence the Catch-22.

I contacted Apple Support, both by Chat, and by calling on the phone (and giving up after half an hour on hold).  I got nothing that helped, except the instruction to Reset the phone using iTunes, and to re-install iTunes, which wasn't possible or did no good, on either PC.

After much Google searching, I finally hit on one article that solved the connection to iTunes; once that was done, I could go through the the procedure and hope that the Health app would work (which it did, thankfully).

So here's the procedure for getting the Apple driver into Windows 10:

 http://www.technipages.com/itunes-fix-iphone-or-ipod-not-detected-in-windows .

I am so very grateful to Mitch Bartlett for posting this fix!  This is an eleven-step process, so I won't copy it here. It involves manually finding the driver and installing it to Windows 10 for the Apple device.  Once that's done, iTunes sees the device, and the rest of the Reset and Restore can be done.

iTunes: Fix iPhone or iPod Not Detected in Windows 10

AUGUST 1, 2015 by MITCH BARTLETT 251 COMMENTSFiled Under: IOS, WINDOWSTagged: IPHONE 6, IPOD TOUCH, ITUNES, WINDOWS 10, WINDOWS 8

I'm still finding apps that I have to re-enter the ID and password, that weren't in my previous encrypted backup.  And I'm backing up my phone to the PC more often now, not relying on the iCloud automatic backup.

BTW, iOS 9.3.1 came out not long after this problem, but nothing was mentioned about fixing the Apple Health app, so I don't know if that would have done anything for my problem.  Never saw a reference to my problem from the iOS 9.3 update.  Also, fyi, I had been running the 9.3 Beta on two iPads, for all of the nine or so updates, without major problems, so I had felt fairly confident in doing the update from 9.2 on the phone.  Never again will I update on the first day or days of release of an update!!!

Hope this post helps some other folks.

Just found the following post by Steve Zeoli:

Using TheBrain as digital bullet journal

Posted on April 12, 2015 by Steve Zeoli

"For the past 14 months or so I’ve been keeping a journal using the bullet journal method, which I wrote about here and here. During this time, I’ve found using a paper notebook quite fun and effective. I’ve been curious about how these same methods could be used with software on a computer and/or iPad. I’ve considered many apps for this, but none seemed to come close to matching the facility of pen and paper. However, I think I’ve finally found an option that could work very well for me.

The following discussion is a bit of a thought experiment on my part, rather than a report on my successful use of TheBrain for bullet journaling. That is, I’ve still only dabbled with TheBrain for this purpose, but I see real promise and wanted to share my thoughts."

Read more at https://welcometosherwood.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/using-thebrain-as-digital-bullet-journal/#comment-2529 -- many interesting ideas here, including "36 Broken Spokes" -- a log of cross country bicycling.

Update on TheBrain, Workflow, Mohiomap and Other Apps

The biggest news since I last posted to this blog is the release of TheBrain for iOS devices, the iPhone and the iPad.  This opens up new possibilities not available with the desktop version of TB, in particular, interactivity with other iOS apps. See http://thebrain.com/products/ios/ .

Unfortunately, this interactivity, at present, is somewhat round-about, using other apps, particularly the new WorkFlow app. See https://workflow.is .

Mohiomap has expanded from mindmapping Evernotes to include files from Dropbox and Google Drive.   See https://www.moh.io/mohiomap/welcome.php .

I am re-posting here some commentary I wrote today in TheBrain Forums regarding these developments:

". . . thanks for the excellent outline of the problem of connection and interchange between TB and the many other useful information repositories.  I've been searching for the golden solution for decades now, back to the days of DOS Lotus Agenda and before.  In October 2013, I posted a diagram of My Knowledge Network at http://myknowledgenetwork.blogspot.com .  

Much progress has been made, particularly thanks to Evernote, and to a degree, TB, but the current state is still short of the ideal IT brain.

I am appreciative of Zenrain's bringing the iOS Workflow app to my attention, and to the custom workflows he's developed for adding to TB iOS app inbox.  Look forward to even more.

One other app to mention is Mohiomap, which has expanded from mapping EN notes, to now include Dropbox files and Google Drive files.  They are doing some interesting things with auto-linking of tags and Wikipedia articles.  I am hoping they will expand to include other repositories, such as Instapaper, Pocket, and maybe email.

Cloze is also doing some interesting combinations of calendar, email, social, contacts and saved articles, both in a web site, and in iOS apps.

p.s. Another hope I had in October 2013 was for a project between David Allen and Charles Simmonyi that sounded like had a lot of promise; unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any sign of progress or further mention since I posted the following to a LinkedIn group:

"I came across Charles Simonyi today -- billionaire, two times in space in the Soyuz, author of the word processor that became Microsoft Word, and an early MS employee, and much more.

The "more" includes being chairman of a company, named Intentional Software, in Bellevue, WA, A year ago, they partnered with David Allen, author of "Getting Things Done" aka GTD, (GTD® and Getting Things Done® are registered trademarks of the David Allen Company.) The problem they seek to fix is that "Many GTD Enthusiasts today are constantly looking for new ways to incorporate applications and their numerous computing devices into their workflow." That's me, and maybe you too.

Unfortunately, they don't have the solution yet -- at least, I couldn't find it. So, I did a Tweet to the CEO, and hope I will be able to report some interesting things later. The tie-in here is to TheBrain software that I mentioned yesterday, which has the new version 8 beta now available for free download. (I can't stress enough that you need to take a look at TheBrain -- it could change the way you handle information for the rest of your life!)

Read more about Charles Simonyi and the GTD project at Intentional Software, TheBrain, and knowledge management at these locations:

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/08/softwares-final-frontier-a-conversation-with-charles-simonyi/278644/ ;

http://www.intentsoft.com/overview/gtd/ ;

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/16/seeking-a-magic-tool-for-personal-productivity/ ;"


p.p.s:  See http://www.intentsoft.com/solutions/gtd/ for a current link to Intentional and the GTD project, which appears to have not gotten off the ground; the above links are through LinkedIn or may no longer be available, but currently, this one is."

See http://forums.thebrain.com/post/my-second-topic-about-evernote-and-thebrain-glitch-in-my-first-topic-7286002?trail=15#3

A quick update on Mohiomap:  there is a discussion on MM in the LinkedIn Evernote Users group that might be of interest to you.

       "Marcus Boswell posted:
        Have any of you been utilising Mohiomap to build smart mind maps out of your 
        Evernote data? I am curious about your experiences."

I provided some responses there, particularly about how I am linking my Mohiomap of Evernote notes to my "TheBrain" application on my PC (and which then becomes available on my personal webbrain page, and on my iPod, iPhone and iPad).

Here's a clip of some of my Mohiomap Evernote links in my personal Brain program:

(Click to enlarge)

See the Mohiomap discussion in LinkedIn here.

(note -- you need to be a LinkedIn member, and possibly, an Evernote Group member to view the post; go to www.linkedin.com .)

Quick follow up to previous post -- here is what my Outlook toolbar looks like with the addins I mentioned:

Click to enlarge

Sticking Yellow Notes on My Emails -- New "Notes4Email" from Caelo

I've been trying out a new add-in for Outlook on my PC (Office 2010, 32-bit, Win 7 Pro, 64-bit) for the last ten days or so.  I think it is a keeper, so thought I'd let you know.

"Notes4Email" is new from Caelo; they describe  "adding a Note to your e-mails" as "Outlook's most wanted feature."  (See http://www.emailorganizer.com/support/notes4email.php .)

For me, the important things are that it is easy to write a note, easy to find the note, and that the add-in doesn't interfere with my numerous other ones.  It has passed these criteria with flying colors! (with a yellow color, that is.  :>)

I've been a big seeker of the perfect Personal Information Manager since back in the DOS days.  I still mourn the failure of Lotus to support and develop Agenda.  I became a fan of ECCO Pro, but unfortunately, that too became faded (but not dead, there is still a bunch of devoted fans, and I still have it on my 64-bit Windows 7 PC --- more on that maybe later).  In my previous posts here and in the future, you can see some of the programs I currently use.

But Outlook is nearly unavoidable, having driven so many others out of business or into obscurity.  So, I keep adding things to Outlook, to try to make it do all that I want.  They don't always work well together, and I've had to give up on some because of the crashes, or failures to load, that occur too often.

I get over 100 emails a day, so I really need something to make some standout, where I want to add a quick note; I don't have time to delete, or move to folders, all those emails every day.  I was already using "Single Click Filing," "Track Your Sent," and "eeminders" along with EverNote and OneNote add-ins.

Fortunately, "Notes4Email" is not one of those that crash or fail to load, and hasn't caused any problems since I installed it.  It works, and does just what it promises to do.  (I'll let you read the Caelo page for all those things, rather than repeating them all here.) But here are the highlights, quoted from their website:

"Easy, effective and reliable...
No complicated software, no additional database systems, no additional areas on your screen...
Simply add your comments in a native Outlook Note to your e-mail.
The note will be added as attachment so you will benefit from all features of Outlook attachments:

• See the first line of your Note directly in the reading pane of the email
• Simply click the Note attachment icon to see the entire content
• Forward the e-mail to share your note with others or use Reply to send without the note
• Use Outlook Search to search within your notes (Outlook also searches within attachments)
• An additional yellow category ('Notes4Email') makes your noted e-mails clearly visible and even easier to find.

No need to learn Outlook Notes... No need to learn Categories...
Simply focus on the comments you like to add and Notes4Email will do the rest."

http://www.emailorganizer.com/support/notes4email.php

BTW, I also use Neo Pro from Caelo, which is a stand-alone program that integrates with Outlook, for custom organization of emails and particularly fast and robust searching.  "Track Your Sent" and "Single Click Filing" are add-ins also from Caelo.

The "Notes4Email" show in the "Hot" list in Neo Pro, so I can easily see all the emails where I've added notes in one place without searching for them.  Other Outlook Categories all show separately the emails assigned to them in Neo Pro without having to do a search.

See all Caelo products at: http://www.emailorganizer.com/products/index.php#neopro .

They provide free downloads and trials too.

Could Microsoft OneNote Replace Evernote?

An interesting question raised in the Evernote Group on LinkedIn:  

"So with the cross-platform release of Microsoft OneNote, are you still as committed to EverNote?" 

(See http://www.linkedin.com/groups/So-crossplatform-release-Microsoft-OneNote-146528.S.5852158118233915394?trk=groups_most_recent-0-b-ttl&goback=%2Egde_146528_member_5853161558162575364%2Egmr_146528 )

My answer is:  "Yes, definitely still committed to EN. I've had ON perhaps longer than EN, but use it only occasionally. I use EN multiple times each day. It's just easier/quicker to use EN, particularly using the desktop version."

One of the references in the post by Brian Bezanson is:  

"First look: Could Microsoft OneNote for Mac replace Evernote?"

Jeffery Battersby concludes:

"OneNote’s price, collaboration capabilities, and particularly its freeform note-taking feature make it a compelling application for capturing your ideas as quickly as possible. Whether it'll be a compelling alternative to Evernote remains to be seen."

Check out the features and pros/cons here:

http://www.macworld.com/article/2108501/first-look-could-microsoft-onenote-for-mac-replace-evernote.html

Just found this announcement of TheBrain 8, and adding it here for your reference:

TheBrain® 8 Delivers Advanced Information Management with Powerful New Knowledge Visualization Features

TheBrain 8 offers ready-made knowledge templates, over 1500 icons and timeline view for organizing ideas and information.

TheBrain 8 is offers over 50 time management, and mind mapping features for getting things done.

TheBrain 8’s new Timeline View enables deeper insight and understanding of users’ unique work habits and thinking.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) November 20, 2013

TheBrain Technologies, the leading provider of dynamic visualization and knowledge management software, announced its newest release, TheBrain 8.

TheBrain software’s unique approach to information organization enables users to create and link together thousands of digital Thoughts. TheBrain software has been downloaded by over a million users and over half of the Fortune 100 organizations use TheBrain for digital brainstorming, project management, and as a complete knowledgebase to find and connect their information.

TheBrain’s marque context-driven, visual interfaceoffers users an alternative to linear note taking apps, hierarchical file/folder sharing services and conventional mind mapping, by dynamically visualizing and reorienting users’ “Thought display” each time a topic is selected. TheBrain’s no limits semantic network and linking technology enables an unlimited number of topics, links and disparate data sources to be connected and navigated.

With faster application start up, enhanced multi-threading technology and multiple user interface updates, TheBrain 8 gives users even more powerful desktop visualization. TheBrain 8 augments the software’s data management capabilities by offering over 1500 icons to amplify key ideas, new visualization options and knowledge templates with prebuilt Thought zones, Types and Tags for ready-made semantic visualization.

“TheBrain 8’s new Timeline View enables deeper insight and understanding of users’ unique work habits and thinking. You can access all relevant associative connections through an instantly available chronological entry point,” said Harlan Hugh, TheBrain Technologies’ CEO. “Additionally with TheBrain 8 pre-populated knowledge templates users can leverage our Solution Team’s best practices right out of the box and get started quickly.”

TheBrain 8 has over 50 new features and enhancements . . .

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/11/prweb11352059.htm

I just tried an idea -- linking MohioMap items (which are EverNotes in a graphic SourceURL: http://forums.thebrain.com/post/evernote-integration-3016769?pid=1281650950#post1281650950

I just tried an idea -- linking MohioMap items (which are EverNotes in a graphical display) to TB -- and it worked!  Each EN in MM has a unique URL, so it can be dragged and dropped into TB.  Then, the link when clicked goes to the MM display, which shows the other notes that are linked to it.

You can, of course, copy and drop individual EN URLs from EN, into TB, but that way does not have the advantage of the graphical display of other notes linked to it.

So, this way is a visual or graphical extension of TB in an easy way for individual items, and of course, they then become searchable in TB -- at least, the title of the note does.

I tried the similar thing with CardDeck, a new way to display Evernotes, but that didn't work, because the EN cards don't have unique URLs therein.

See:  http://lifehacker.com/mohiomap-creates-a-mind-map-to-browse-your-evernote-1508827115 
and
http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/carddesk-visual-organizer-for-evernote/

'

'A "visual organiser" for Evernote'

A posting in the LinkedIn Evernote Users group caught my attention today -- a new program in beta, developed by Ashley Rawbone ,Solution Architect, called "CardDesk."  Ashley describes his program as

". . . simply my attempt to wed my love of Evernote with the highly visual, non-linear and creative benefits of index cards. Using the index card analogy, CardDesk allows you to access you[r] Evernote notes and arrange them as “Cards” on one or more “Desktops”. Cards can be moved, resized, stacked and colour-coded. Cards can contain images and links to documents and web pages. They can also be edited using Evernote’s web interface. "

Another approach that I found some while ago is Miohiomap -- "A Visual Memory for Evernote"; the Evernote App Center describes it as:

"Mohiomap is a web application for visualizing, navigating, and exploring your Evernote content. Notes, notebooks, and tags are presented in an interactive graph, similar to a mind map. Mohiomap allows you to see your notes and discover relationships across all the different elements in your Evernote account. Mohiomap also features filtering and search functions to identify the content most relevant to you.
Mohiomap's intuitive and easy-to-use visual display offers a unique and immersive experience for browsing your Evernote content. Simply sign up for free, connect your Evernote account, and start exploring!"  http://appcenter.evernote.com/app/mohiomap/web-apps

 I keep hunting for some way to bring all my information sources together (see a diagram at http://myknowledgenetwork.blogspot.com/ )

I wish I could find some desktop (PC) application that would be a popup search for all my various stores of information. I searched again today for such, and didn't find it -- have Copernic Desktop, but it doesn't appear to search EN -- several questions unanswered on their blog.

My Knowledge Network

I have been a collector of information (my "big data") for more than five decades.  The computer has been a great help; in earlier days I had to rely on 3x5 cards and cardboard file folders.  Now, it is easy to store away all kinds of information.  But, how do I find it again, and even more, how do I get a bird's eye, or higher, view of it all?

Years ago, I found the Personal Brain (now simply called TheBrain) software, and I have been steadily littering it with "thoughts" that can be linked to each other, just like in my human brain. But much still resides outside of this personal computer brain, in places like Evernote, OneNote, PaperPort, hard drive files, Outlook, paper files, and so many more.

Others like me have also been "seeking a magic tool for personal productivity" as the New York Times headlined a story about a year ago.  The announcement by David Allen, creator of the phrase, GTD -- "Getting Things Done" -- and a company of innovative people at Intentional Software described their undertaking a project to solve this dilemma. http://www.intentsoft.com/overview/gtd/ . I thought, GREAT!  But today when I was reminded of this project, my searching on the company website, on the CEO's Twitter postings, https://twitter.com/ec_anderson , and on Google, I could find no new news about the project, nor that anything was available to salve my itch.  (GTD® and Getting Things Done® are registered trademarks of the David Allen Company.)

TheBrain has just released a new beta, TheBrain 8, http://www.thebrain.com/products/thebrain/thebrain-8 , which I quickly downloaded to see what new goodies it contained.  There are some, but nothing to improve the integration problem that I and others have grappled with.  So, I posted another appeal on TheBrain forum.  I wanted to share a Skitch diagram of My Information Network that I had made a couple of months ago, and found that I needed to be able to link to an URL to do so.  As a result, I've started this blog; we'll see where it goes.