So it was with great excitement that I found Digitizd’s recent post, “9 Tools for Simple Productivity,” which highlights Fictive Kin‘s TeuxDeux, a bare-bones, elegantly designed and eminently usable list-based task manager, which also incorporates a “someday list.” (The post also discusses Ommwriter, a tool that was recently covered here at WWD).

TeuxDeux orients the user around days of the week, rather than the traditional task and priority view of most to-do applications. Each day is displayed as a column on a horizontally scrolling carousel; underneath each day is a simple text field and a list of things to do that day.

The simplicity and elegance of the user experience is striking and immediate — a running list of days, one-click editing and a separate list of “someday” tasks.

Though the user experience and clean design is wonderful, TeuxDeux is missing a few useful features — a mobile app or desktop widget would be useful, and I would like to see a lightweight API, or even an RSS feed. It seems however, that the constrained feature set is actually part of the value of TeuxDeux and such distraction-free and simplicity-driven applications are always welcome with its team.

Coincidentally, I just discovered that Netscape luminary Marc Andressen practices a “3 x 5 To Do List“ methodology, writing out three tasks he wishes to accomplish each day, constraining his goals to only those with the highest importance.

Such boundaries and constraints could actually enhance services such as TeuxDeux even further, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the service develops and, in turn, how it affects my own productivity.

Do you use TeuxDeux? Does the constrained feature set enhance its value?

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Moving to Pen and Pad

One weekend when all the kids were sick, I sat on my comfy bed with my laptop. Growing tired of my Internet fiddling, I closed the laptop and pulled out the notepad that I keep in a bedside drawer, where I had jotted down a blog post idea before going to sleep the previous night. I also grabbed a ballpoint pen. I added bullet points to expand those thoughts. Since I was already at it, I figured I might as well keep on thinking of blog ideas and captured about four pages of notes.

Getting the Ballpoint Pen Rolling

This put me in the mood for more writing — with paper and pen. Something prompted me to keep exploring more ideas for my blog. During this process, I discovered my big mistake with past mind map attempts: using software. No matter how fast I could whip up a shape, cut, paste, type — the process felt tedious. Pen. Paper. Brain. For me, these work best for mapping out ideas. In 15 or 20 minutes, I had created seven maps. They could lead to at least 25 solid posts!

Creating More Maps

My first map took a high-level approach with “Writer” being the center of the map with four subcategories: “writing,” “marketing,” “business” and “editing.” Expanding all of them filled the page, so I began a new map on subsequent pages making central themes out of the following:

• business
• marketing
• blogs
• supplies
• social media
• the act of writing

All these appeared in one of the earlier maps. When I identified many ideas for a single category, I gave it its own map so that I had lots of room. The maps and branches grew from there. This process helped dig up ideas faster than I ever could sitting in front of a computer. It also sparked more ideas than I could just sitting and contemplating writing topics; there’s something about seeing them written down on paper.

Those circles and branches held magic. They compelled me to add more. I probably could’ve filled 10 more pages, but I had to rip off my writer uniform to reveal the mommy one and fulfill my duties in saving the world, or, at least, comforting my kids and getting them to bed.

So, I’m a geek who loves her apps but prefers mind mapping by hand. It works. If you don’t use mind maps because you find mind mapping software cumbersome, maybe it’s time to try the good old-fashioned pen and paper route.

How do you come up with ideas for blog entries and articles? What process do you use?

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I’ve found mind-mapping apps such as MindManager and MindView to be a little clunky and over-engineered. Sometimes, you literally want to sketch some thoughts quickly, with little concern for presentation or correctness.

As luck would have it, I recently came across Markus Müller’s Mindnode, a deliciously simple mind-mapping tool that’s designed specifically for Macs. The free edition of the product does nothing more complex than allow maps to be constructed fluidly and quickly. There are no special notations or symbols, just click and drag to add and place nodes, and watch as MindNode colors them automatically, creating a simple, easy-to-comprehend diagram.

The app also offers some useful integration with the underlying operating system. It uses OS X’s Spotlight search to enable the contents of a mindmap to be indexed, and you can also use Quick Look for visual previews.

Mindnode allows maps to be saved in a whole bunch of graphics formats (TIF, PNG, etc) as well as in its own native format and, more interestingly, as OPML and HTML documents. This implies that the resulting maps can be imported into other packages for further — perhaps automated — manipulation and even CSS styling.

Mindnode isn’t feature-rich; it has just enough features to fulfill its purpose elegantly. Even the Pro edition (just $15!), adds only a handful of useful additional features.

There’s a place for the higher-end applications and services that we’ve covered previously, but it’s reassuring to know that simpler options exist. My only bugbear with Mindnode is the lack of a Windows or web edition. Come to think of it, it’d make a great iPhone app!

Be sure to check out Aliza’s post, Mapping Your Work Madness, which contains some great mind-mapping tips.

What mind mapping tools do you use?

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For some people, that’s almost every day.

So how to you get back under control, drop your stress levels, and get back to sanity? How can you simplify an overwhelming day? I won’t say that it’ll be easy, but it can be done.

Here’s how.

1. Stop. And then think. When we’re running around like a chicken with its head cut off, we cannot get our day back under control by continuing to run around. We have to stop the running, stop the madness. Just stop. Take a few deep breaths. If you have to, take a walk around the office or outside if possible. Calm yourself down.

Yes, this might seem impossible when you have a million things to do, and they all have to be done today. But it’s necessary. Just do it, despite the ringing phone and the desk covered in papers.

Then take a step back and think about the craziness. Can it be healthy to work like this? Bouncing from one task to another without break? I submit that it cannot. Time taken: 10 minutes.

2. Clear your desk and make a list. If you’ve got papers all over your desk (or tabs open in Firefox, each representing something you need to do), you need to clear it all away. If you don’t already have everything on a to-do list, start one now. Collect all papers into a pile, and write down the task associated with each on your list. Then put them in an “Action folder” so that your desk is clear.

For stuff on the computer, such as urgent emails and other tasks that are open on your computer, add those to the list too. Put the urgent emails in an “Action” folder in your email program (making sure each item is on your to-do list), and then create a “Temp” folder and put all non-urgent emails in there. You can sort through those two folders later, but you don’t have time now. Your email inbox and your desk should be cleared now, and you should have all tasks on your to-do list. Add any other tasks you have to do today to this list that you can think of. Try to do this quickly. Time taken: 20-3o minutes total, if possible.

3. Pick only 3 things. Look at your list and ask yourself, “If I could only get three of these things done today, which ones would I choose?” Pick only three. Not five, not seven. This will force you to prioritize.

This is your to-do list for today. Write it on a new sheet of paper, or a new index card. Just those three things. Time taken: 10 minutes.

4. Renegotiate the rest. As you can only do those three things today, but you may have other things that are also due (or urgent), you have to renegotiate those other tasks or meetings. Call or email each person to whom these items are due, and let them know that you need extra time on the project or task. Get at least a couple days on each, but spread out the new due dates so that you only have one or two things due on each day (use a calendar while renegotiating).

This may be a difficult step for many people, but it’s necessary. You can’t do everything in one day. You need to be able to face that reality, and you have to stand up to others. Your time is important. Time taken: 20 minutes.

5. Say “no” to incoming requests. If you get new requests for meetings or tasks or projects, make it a policy to say no. You just don’t have the time. Or ask them to get back to you in a week or two when you may be less busy. But don’t accept anything new right now, until you’ve gotten things more under control, unless it’s something that is absolutely more important than one of the three things on your to-do list. If it is, you need to knock one of those things off the to-do list and accept the new task.

6. Schedule time for batch processing. Most of your day should be spent working only on those three items. But you’ll probably have a bunch of smaller tasks on your longer list that need to be done. Try to schedule 30-60 minutes (preferably at the end of the day) for these tasks: knock out the email, make some calls, process some paperwork, follow up on things, etc. Time taken: 30-60 minutes.

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