Mind Mapping

I find nothing better for brainstorming and working on projects than Mind Mapping. FreeMind is an open source solution for creating mind maps incorporating text, symbols and arrows in multiple colors. It will allow you to link to other files and locations. You really need to give it a try to truly understand what it is capable of. FreeMind is a free download for Windows, Linux, Mac.

FreeMind has made it as a finalist for the 2009 Community Choice Award in the category "Most likely to change the way you do everything"!!

Mind Like Water

In karate there is an image that’s used to define the position of perfect readiness: "mind like water." Imagine throwing a pebble into a still pond. How does the water respond? The answer is, totally appropriately to the force and mass of the input; then it returns to calm. It doesn’t overreact or underreact.

Anything that causes you to overreact or underreact can control you, and often does. Responding inappropriately to your e-mail, your staff, your projects, your unread magazines, your thoughts about what you need to do, your children, or your boss will lead to less effective results than you’d like. Most people give either more or less attention to things than they deserve, simply because they don’t operate with a "mind like water."
-David Allen from the book "Getting Things Done"

Organizational Power and Energy

In organizations, real power and energy is generated through relationships. The patterns of relationships and the capacities to form them are more important than tasks, functions, roles, and positions.
- Margaret Wheat -

Recipe Managers

Need a software application to help sort and manage your recipes. Here are a few open source options available to you.

HMCsoft Recipe Database
At the very basic end of the spectrum is Recipe Database. With Recipe Database all your recipes will be safely stored on your computer, ready at a moments notice.

Gourmet Recipe Manager
Gourmet allows you to collect, search and organize your recipes, and to automatically generate shopping lists from your collection. The latest version also allows you to calculate nutritional information for your recipes using the USDA food database (or entering custom information by hand)

Taco Recipe Manager
With Taco you can download recipes from different web services or create your own. After you have set up a repository of recipes, Taco will suggest what to cook based on the ingredients that you have at home.

Bon Appetit.

Dual Screens and Productivity.

I once thought having more than one monitor was a unnecessary luxury. Well, ever since I got the opportunity to run two I can't imagine going back to just one. What a huge productivity boost. I put all my less important stuff such as reference material, task bars, file links, email and audio on my secondary screen will leaving my main screen's full real estate to the task at hand. Great way to keep the less important stuff you like or need to deal with frequently open but off to the side. This also creates a good reminder of the main job at hand if you find yourself spending to much time focused on the side screen and not enough time on the main screen.

Desktop Publishing

Looking for an open source desktop publishing program. Look no further than Scribus, a full featured program available free for Linux, Mac and Windows. Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, Spot Colors, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation with an award-winning combination of "press-ready" output and new approaches to page layout.

Your Work Day as a Game of Football.

Here's an idea from "The Productivity Show" podcast I was listening to on the way to work. Think of your day as a game of football and break it down into four quarters. At the end of each quarter be the coach and go over that quarter. Look at what you did well. Where you could improve going forward. Was your time well spent. Did you get done what needed to be. At the end of the day go back over the game and see were you might improve for the next days game. I'm going to give this one a try.