On of the most interesting variants of the tools I saw for organizing the tasks in Getting Things Done conception is Post-It Portable Workspace (PPW). I found it in Tammy Cravit's blog - here (visit it for some pictures and notes).
He says:
"The basic idea of the PPW is simple: I took a series of plastic sheet protectors, which provide a nice surface for Post-it notes to adhere to. Inside them, I placed sheets of card stock (file folders, cut down to 8-1/2 x 11) for rigidity, and I put the whole mess in a 3-ring binder.

Some features of the PPW that are worthy of note:
 - Inside both covers of the binder, I’ve arranged extra Post-it notes; this allows me to capture incoming stuff on the go.
 - The context labels on each page (in this view, the blue square in the far upper right corner, which says @Computer) are under the sheet protector. This prevents them from getting lost or stuck to the notes arranged on the page, but allows panels to be easily re-purposed if need be.
 - Each panel is double-sided; my Getting Things Done contexts occupy both sides of the first three pages; I have another three or four panels in the back for projects.
My last panel is labeled “Inbox”, and provides a temporary storage area for incoming Post-its before I process them. "

This idea seems to me very interesting, because in such workspace you have two-dimensional space instead of notebook and list. It allows organizing your sticky notes as you need. For example, in mind map format. On the other hand, I'm afraid, that stickies are not such sticky as I need for stable fastening of my notes.

On the home site  of Idea Champions you can find a set of articles  about different methods for creativity increasing.
Idea Champions is a consulting and training company specializing in creativity, innovation, team building, leadership and out of the box products.
For example, you can find there an article about 68 Ways to be More Creative on the Job. They say: “It's possible to be a creative superstar at work without ever using a creative thinking technique. How? By adding one or more of these CREATIVE PICK-ME-UPS to your daily routine.”
I hope it will be interesting for you.

I would like to draw your attention to this new book - Goal Free Living by Steve Shapiro.

Than main idea, as I understood, is that not all people can be goal-oriented. Many people can't motivate themselves by the goals of our achievement-oriented society.

Steve said:

"I've done a number of surveys on the relationship between people's goals and their happiness. What I've found is that most people keep sacrificing "today" for "tomorrow." They'll set a goal, plan it out, work hard, achieve the goal, and then say, "Okay, that was great; what's next?" They're constantly striving to achieve these goals in the belief that life's going to get better."

Maybe, such point of view also can be useful. For me life is great as a process, including the process of goal achievement. But if you have problems with being happy in this process - you should review the necessity of your goals.

This blog is running by authors of Mind Pad  (www.mind-pad.com)

I have found one interesting link about creating self-made calendars.

It is really fun to compose it. Also it could be a useful tool for you or a gift for your friends. Download a dodecahedral calendar after your own specifiation from this site.

You just need to print it and to laminate. That's all. Have fun!

I have recently found an interesting way to keep myself orgenized: Pocket Mod.

As they said: "The PocketMod is a small book with guides on each page. These guides or templates, combined with a unique folding style, enable a normal piece of paper to become the ultimate note card."

You can keep it in your back pocket and it is really comfortable. Take notes during your day for further planning and thinking. Then, it is cheap as one piece of paper, it opens like a book and this book and can be designed as you want. You can easy create your own format of your Pocket Mod, becouse it is just a good idea.

During my work with mind maps I have understood one important thing and I want to share with you.

One of the most powerful advantages of mind mapping is universal viewing. Possibility of seeing all sides of the problem, all nuances and points of view. All you need – is to use brainstorming for describing your problem in the mind map. Other structures, such as lists and trees, restrict your thoughts, because they assign a direction of your mind somehow or other. Your ideas are organizing in compliance with a structure they should be wrote. So, if structure has limitations and directions, your ideas will be the same. And you may lose something.
Security professionals have an assertion that security of the whole system depends on security of the weakest link. In project managing it means that carelessness with only one side of your problem or project may cause a total failure.
I think mind mapping should be the same habit or rule of good form as a representative appearance or collective discussions.
It is not just a tool for increasing your effectiveness. It is a tool for protecting your work from unfortunate mistakes.

This blog is running by authors of Mind Pad (www.mind-pad.com)

I found useful idea in John's Ideas and Creativity blog. He suggest a technique for naming and listing people who can help you with your project.

As he said: "It can help to generate a list of disparate people to help with creativity; considering the fantasy input of others - both real people and fictional people - can provide interesting perspectives on creative effort or problem solving. The lists can also be used to help kick-start creativity at the blank page stage." Then he talks about concrete directives for doing this.

You can see details here. As I see - it is an interesting creativity technique. Other useful note: when somebody tries to think as another person, it helps him to access other ideas in his mind. Without such position changing he could never find many alternative ideas.

Remember, when you try to think - you think as Mister Smith, for example. You have an image - what exactly you should think as Mister Smith. It is not effective, isn't it? But you can also change your mind if you want. And you will think as somebody else.

This blog is running by authors of Mind Pad  (www.mind-pad.com)

In Phil Gerbyshak's blog you can read about modification of SMART planning method. It seems to be very useful:

"In the past, I've written about, and used, the SMART goal setting model, but after much reading and thought, I realize now that goals need to be SMARTER in order to be most successful for me.

SMARTER goals, broken down:

S - Goals must be Specific and the more specific the better. State your goal in as exact of terms as possible.

M - Targets should be Measurable. That which you measure will be treasured, so think about what will be the measurement of your achievement of your goal.

A - Goals should have Accountability. Who or what are you accountable to for the goal?

R - Goals must be Realistic. Unrealistic goals will lead to discouragement.

T - Targets should be Time based. Decide your time-table for completion, and stick to it.

E - Goals should be Exciting. Exciting goals will be met far sooner than boring, bland goals.

R - Goals should be Recorded, in a place where you can look at it every day.

OK, so let's break down one of my goals for 2006, and see how this works in action.

I will earn by Competent Toast Master (CTM) designation by December 1st, 2006.

Specific - Yes, this is very specific. It says exactly what I am going to do.

Measurable - Yes, this is measurable. CTM designation is something that takes 10 speeches to do in Toastmasters, so if I do these 10 speeches, this goal will be achieved.

Accountability - I'm sharing it with you, so I'm accountable to all of you. I'm also including this in my goals at work, as public speaking is part of what I do, and letting my Toastmasters Mentor know about my goal (I'm sending him this post), so I am accountable to many others.

Realistic - This is absolutely a realistic goal for me. I have given 2 speeches in 2005, so I have to increase my output 4 times. I can do this, but it will take effort.

Exciting - Definitely an exciting goal for me to achieve. As a new Toastmaster, I will be able to improve my speaking ability by doing this, and it will also help our club achieve more distinguished status.

Recorded - I wrote it down here, I'll be putting it on a note card with my other goals, it will be in my HR system at work, and I'll review it every day to remind myself of its importance."

Great post in Michel Hyatt's blog - Working Smart. Michel writes about how to do a better PowerPoint presentation and I'm sure you can easily apply those ideas to any presentation, for instance, created with mind mapping technique (probably our Mind Pad tool.

The question is: when we should use professional presentation software (such as PowerPoint) or when it's a good idea to use mind map program. My answer is: you should think about information you are going to represent. If you wish to highlight a features/comparative analysis, then it's better to use mind map.

How can we integrate mind map into presentation? It's now simple, as most mapping programs allows to export map as an image and you can insert this image into your presentation.

Any thoughts about mind mapping and presentations?

 

If you browse mind-pad.com for a while then you can surely learn what is “frames” and “object-orinted” mind mapping. But we have to explain is to our prospect as there is probably no good analogy in a paper and pen world. But if it were… read Hobart's Mindjet Weblog. The general idea is that if we have a metaphor for something (computer mind mapiing is just like a paper and pen mind mapping) it wodn’t be easier to sell these new things.

 

We do our best to positionate “frames” metaphor. For now we call it “Custom Frames” meaning topics (frames) that can be designed to have custom fields… If one have more ideas about positioning frame approach? It would be great to have a comments about this.

Consider using mind map technique when writing e-mail.

I’ve just found some useful tips about writing sensible e-mail in 43Folders blog. It summarizes some well-known productivity and “make it clear” tips and explains how to stay clear-minded when writing e-mail.

My first idea was that I do already do this! Wow! I use about the same principles when writing articles, when preparing large todo list, when writing e-mail.

What I usually do (with our Mind Pad off course is putting some e-mail/article topic in the center of the map and then create a corresponding topics – my goals, my key ideas, what results I wish to have.

It sometime a time-consuming process and take about few days to write an article or e-mail, so I collect all information in a single map, attaching corresponding files and so on.

Two great posts about innovations and how to be innovative.

 

The first one by David Pollard is about selling innovations, it’s a good idea to think about same problems when you try to convince one to buy an innovative tool for your company.

 

Renee Hopkins Callahan refers David’s post but share her ideas about how to stay productive and open minded.

 

Don’t think you can just download some mind map software and it will let you be innovative. It’s a good thing to read numerous GTD (get things done) and management sites and blogs. In Corante blog you will learn how to become open minded by just letting yourself a little longer weekend.