Mens Rea

Gosh I wish would move faster

I have mentioned previously that I would be going back to school. I am. I am taking some hard science classes that I took years ago, but according to University of Michigan they have "expired." Understandable I suppose. I wish I could take 30 classes a semester so I can put law behind me. I just do not like it. Some people were called to be attorneys. My old boss is one such person. It is part of their being. Others find their niche areas and thrive- my brother for example. Others, like myself, who have strong knowledge in the law in many different and divergent practice areas, are just not inspired by it. Who knows, perhaps I just have not found that niche. But at this point, I am no longer striving to find it. Instead, I move on. Having a law degree is good for so many things and can complement many other fields. So, I will move back towards the biological sciences. It is, in essence, a full circle for that is what my undergrad degree was in. Perhaps this time, I shall not make the mistake and end up with a non-terminable degree.

You know my old boss thinks that I want their clientele. As if. You could not pay me to do so. I am finished with that market niche. Done. Fini. That's all folks. It is time to move on. To different opportunities. To wish my old firm well and prosperity in these difficult times and to be content.

A GTD epiphany

I blog a lot about productivity suites and GTD-type programs that I finally realized I had missed the point of David Allen's Getting Things Done approach. You see, it is not necessarily about having a unified program to keep track of every piece of information, rather it is a system to determine what the next actions of a given project are. I had this "epiphany" while reading a blog entry about how you should start off with a paper-based system first, so you understand the core concept of the GTD methodology. GTD appeals to the geek-class, of which I am a card-carrying member. But, being a geek, makes me want to tinker with everything under the sun. Sometimes the KISS system is best (Keep It Simple Stupid for those who have been living under a rock). It is precisely why kGTD and iGTD sparked my enthusiasm I could not completely grasp how to use them. They always seemed to missing something. Thus I began exploring more "involved" and "comprehensive" programs such as Entourage, Daylite, or any number of other programs. You see, I have been conditioned since the original Outlook to have a unified system. While Outlook is not the demon or pariah many have labeled it, it leads many of us to search only for a unified solution.

Therein lies the *DING DING DING* moment. Why David Allen's approach gets so much attention is that it is a paradigm shift. In reading the book a few times, I never could quite figure out what the shift was. Then, while reading the blog entry it dawned on me that it is not the program. It is not the day-timer; it is about a change in the way you think. Brainstorming is central to the system. Brainstorming is agnostic with respect to how it is done. It does not matter whether its on a napkin or on a sophisticated piece of software. The point is, use it. This means that a low-tech implementation is just as effective as the most cutting edge device. Determining your tasks is the key to getting things done. A calendar is not for to-dos, it is for appointments. A calendar may have a reminder that a given task is coming due or that action may be needed, but your calendar should be tidy. Additionally, David Allen suggests that you have to have confidence in your system. That it is bulletproof. For me, this has been the hiccup. I get nervous about missing something so much that I lose confidence in the system and then stop using it. I have always said that I am one great secretary away from doing great things. A cop-out? Perhaps. But, such is not my forte. I can get things done quickly when they are quantifiable, microchunked and determinable. But, I also need that gentle reminder to follow up on things.

This is precisely what iGTD and kGTD are all about. David Allen does not speak about your address book or "logging" emails. Rather, he 'processes' these items as they come through your mail inbox or your desk. Touch each item once and then figure out what to do with it then and there. This what iGTD allows you to do. It allows you to create the mystical Inbox that you, in turn, process by the Perform, Delegate, Defer. Of course you have to add some additional programs such as MailTags and MailActOn are all about. Let's face it, in today's world, 85% of your "mail" is in the form of email. Thus, a letter requesting a response is a Task. Therefore, while it is your email, you need to process that to determine if there are any actionable items. If so, what? You then have two checks and balance to ensure they get done. First, you have sent your Task to your Task Program. Second, in creating a GTD system within your mail client, you can 'check' them off from within your mail. Some may argue that this is a duplication. It is. However, for people like myself who have difficulty in the small follow up stuff, it is a lifesaver. I can confidently ensure that I won't miss anything.

So... in light of this epiphany, I will use a Moleskin notebook to process all of my Next Actions and Projects. Unfortunately, despite the great idea to go entirely paperless, I can't with email. However, despite the extra steps involved, all Tasks derived from my Mail will be filtered into my notebook. Who knows, perhaps I will like this better than any other system. Time will tell. But I agree with the premise. Start with the "old-fashioned" way first. Similar to an artists learning from the Old Masters, or a kid in algebra class forced to compute by hand, you must learn the foundations before you can develop on your own and automate things.

I will continue to blog about GTD. I am starting to "get it." This, after over two years! I have always said, some people are just born organized. Whereas others it is a skill to be learned like any other. My 'success' in my earlier stages of life (i.e. undergrad, law school and my first 8 years working) were because of my very good short to mid-term memory. I can hold a lot of information at once and process it quickly. However, law is an exponential increase in information and task management. You can quickly see your task list go into the hundreds. Unfortunately, I crash under its weight. Coming from my own business where we were reliant on a complex project management software (even now this would still be needed if I were running an office of 17 due to the collaborative nature of an office) which only amplified my search for a perfect (yet complex) system. Alas, all along it was right under my nose- it was a legal pad!

Technorati Tags: David Allen, GTD, Mac, Mac Mail , MacBook Pro, Moleskin, Technology

Introductory Thoughts on iGTD and GTD Programs

KINKLESS ENTOURAGE

Everyone knows that I like testing out GTD programs. Perhaps it is the search for the Holy Grail of office efficiency, but I think it is more a way for me to really learn what works for me. It is known that I currently use the "Kinkless Entourage" system that borrows from the philosophy of kGTD but uses Entourage as its foundation. It works, but there are some issues I am having with it. First, despite the fact that the Kinkless Entourage script writer has done an excellent job customizing it, there are handicaps. First, there is no way to complete a project, at least I have not seen one. I suppose you could delete it, but I would not mind an archived project list for reference purposes. Second, Entourage does not do IMAP well. I was almost freaking out this afternoon looking for an email from a client about a month ago. It was not there. Then I loaded up Mail.App and *presto* it was there. The search method within Entourage mail sucks royally. Yes, I can use Spotlight but this seems cumbersome. It is why Apple chose to have a search window within Mail as well as Spotlight. The lack of ability to have sub-projects annoys me. The author argues that you either have a project or you have a task. I disagree. It greatly assists the workflow for long-term projects that are interrelated by having a hierarchical structure to see. That's the whole point of an outline. I do not think that this, in any way, takes away from David Allen's philosophy. To me, you are trading a million "to-dos" into a million projects. The point of GTD is to determine your next action. When you have parallel sub-projects it assists me to view them from the perspective (not context as that word is a term of art in GTD nomenclature) of the whole project so that if a client calls me I can quickly give them an update without having to switch between different project lists. The Projects in Entourage SEEM good, but they are far from optimal. I wish Mac developers would look at some of Time Matters strengths like Projects/Cases and the ability to link email automatically. The problem that Time Matters suffers is the same as Entourage, it is time consuming to enter Next Actions. Very time consuming. If they built an iGTD-type front-end it would be brilliant. But they wont. Time Matters is a micromanager's wet dream, but in my opinion, thwarts brainstorming and is very slow to enter tasks.

iGTD

So, now I am testing out a new product called iGTD. I have only used it briefly, but it seems surprisingly streamlined. Like I have stated previously, I liked the quickness and the facilitating nature of kGTD, I just did not like the cost ($70ish for OmniOutliner Pro) and there were some stability and sync issues. Outlines encourage brainstorming, period. It seems that iGTD syncs perfectly.

It can't print. I suppose it really doesn't matter because you could print via iCal. It also does not seem to have the ability to make appointments. Perhaps it is my obsession of finding a one trick pony that gets in the way here. I guess the thought of using 4 different programs (mail, iGTD, iCal and Address Book) seems a bit convoluted to me. However, there are some interesting things that perhaps could make iGTD the starting point of any project. Use iCal when I have an actual appointment and use Mail (which has a plug-in to push "to-dos" into iGTD (which of course will later push into iCal). Address book will be used on an as needed basis. I like all the iLife programs individually. They're great. Again, I really wish there was some ability to integrate them. However, one of the downsides to my current setup using Entourage is that I don't brainstorm well because of the way Entourage operates. Even with my scripts, it does not flow. I guess for me, an outline-type setting promotes thought and I can capture all of my Next Actions. I really like iGTD's ability to have projects and sub-projects (or Super Projects in GTD parlance)- it helps me view things in their proper perspective. All in all, perhaps this IS the proper method. Like many people, you have a lot more tasks than you do appointments. So it really is not a big deal to use iCal. Using some filtering and smart folders in Mail.app can organize my mail similar to Entourage's projects would do the trick. One really neat feature of iGTD is the ability to add a prefix or suffix of the project. Beautiful (this comes right from Time Matters, not that they knew that). This is fantastic because if you are on your PDA you can quickly see the context AND the project. In other systems I found myself having multiple entries Research Case Law not being able to determine what case.

CONTACTIZER (AGAIN)

I wish the folks at Contactizer would get off their high horse and realize that they have something pretty special. How difficult would it be to just mirror iGTD in their product. There are two central complaints about Contactizer. First, its synching is primitive at best. It brings in all of your to-dos and appointments under the iCal called "Contactizer." This negates the ability to sort through contexts on a PDA or phone. The whole point of having such a product is to provide reminders of appointments to you SANS computer. Based on Contactizer's philosophy, I would have to sift through tons of "Next Actions" trying to figure out what the context is. Rather than streamlining it by having the proper categories embedded. How I use this is that if I am in the car and I have to make a call as a to-do I can quickly see my scheduled phone calls and chip away at them based on my ability to make the calls. Also, I have already blogged about Contactizer's absolutely sickening customer service. Go look at Version Tracker under Contactizer and you will, once again, see deplorable customer service bordering on the paranoid. One reviewer said some nice things but pointed out some deficiencies. The developer shot back accusing the person of being a competitor. Absolutely a deal breaker for me. No matter if they created a flawless product next go-around, unless they did some MAJOR damage control (such as firing the PR person) I wont buy it.

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: Contactizer, GTD, iLife, Mac, Kinkless Entourage, iGTD

Prosecutorial Misconduct

It is expected that the North Carolina Attorney General's office will dismiss all charges against the Duke Lacrosse team which have been looming large over their heads and their entire community for over thirteen months. This is a fine example of what I like to call the "prosecutor mindset." The Prosecutor Mindset is not partisan, it is one of self-rightousness, dichotomous and unyielding. Due to the intense political pressure these positions are under, prosecutors now yield to public opinion and collect notches in their belt rather than seek out justice.

A prosecutor is not an individual who prosecutes crime. That is not his or her function. Rather, it is to seek out justice in the name of the state. All these yahoos who say that this is a Judea-Christian country are, of course, correct. The long-standing notion of American jurisprudence was justice tempered by mercy. Both prosecutors and judges were given wide latitude to determine what someone should be charged with and what their punishment should be. Unfortunately, this concept came into question due to the backlash of the civil libertarian movement of the 1960's. Somewhere along the way, the politicians decided that the prosecutors and judges were also part of the problem. So now we are left with a set of prosecutors who are absolute auto-pilot. They hear that a crime occurred and that is enough to proceed. If this were in the corporate world, you'd be disbarred by lack of basic concepts of due diligence. This is precisely what happened in Durham, North Carolina. Prosecutor Nifong heard that there was a crime and was so quick to rush to judgment that he embroiled an entire community into a frenzy. He exacerbated tensions that had already existed only to serve his own selfish and political agenda. If his goal was to make a name for himself, he certainly succeeded. However, in so doing, he violated the very foundation of American justice. He failed to give defense attorneys exculpatory evidence of the suspect's case. He was on a mission and was damn sure that he was going to nail these rich Duke kids. Did the Duke kids do something wrong? Who knows. A lot of things happen in such settings. The greater question is "can you prove it?"

Americans like to go to extremes. Our law is like a huge pendulum. Thirty years ago this would be a non-issue. However, women's rights groups petitioned the courts saying that the alleged victim's character should not be attacked as this would be a second attack. Moreover, it was argued, such character was irrelevant. This is known as the rape-shield law. While I understand its motives it is not without its own fault. Why? The rape-shield law stands in the way of a basic constitutional right to stand before your accuser. The way I see it is that it has only been by legal slights of hand that such a law even exists. I think that the character of the victim MAY be relevant. However, it is the judge's job to police the line of inquiry. Allow such questions, but put them on a tight leash. Closing off this line of questioning is an abomination. What if, like in this case, the 'victim' had repeated history of such behavior? Our evidentiary rules would typically allow this (despite what they teach us in law school), but not for rape.

I am a feminist. I think that women should be treated fairly and equitably. However, we must be rational. When I was going through undergrad the concept of date-rape was just starting to be discussed. I recall women protesting on campus carrying signs saying "no means no." I agree. However, there was a women who was raped near some remote train tracks. She was found wearing provocative clothing. I recall an editorial by one of the leaders of these women's groups that indicated that a women should be able to be naked and no harm should befoul her. I read that over and over and over. This is plain lunacy. It was, and remains, utterly irresponsible. It was not arguing in the abstract, this editorial was almost encouraging women to wear provocative clothing. This logic is flawed on so many levels. Ultimately, it assumes that the world lives in a vacuum. I had a criminal law professor who said what I believe quite succinctly. He through out the following hypothetical: "you rush home to go and watch American Idol and in so doing you leave your keys on the top of your car. The next morning the car is stolen. You report this to the police. They ask where the keys were. You quickly realize where you left them. The cop shrugs his shoulders in bewilderment. So, the question is, did a crime occur?" ABSOLUTELY! There is no doubt a crime occurred. However, the police office would most likely say that you were a complete idiot. Is a women who wears provocative outfit in the middle of nowhere deserving to be raped? NO! However, she is a fool and putting herself into harm's way unnecessarily. Life does not exist in a vacuum. What should be is not reality. There are dangerous people out there and they don't give a rats ass about your women's rights protest.

So, back to the thesis of this entry. We, as a society, demand everything to be neat, tidy and simple. This mentality has infested all forms of government to the point where we follow this mantra when prosecuting crime. Prosecutor Nifong advanced this case like a political pundit (like the rush-to-judgment Nancy Grace) rather than an officer of the court. Today, prosecutors are like game hunters. They will stalk their prey and not pursue any other avenues. The fervor and zeal they possess impugns their integrity and makes many, like myself, become distrustful of the prosecutorial system. If I was stopped by the police, even for the most petty crime imaginable, even if I had the strongest alibi in the planet, I would exercise my right to remain silent all the way. Why? Because prosecutors are not interested in what happened. They are not interested in justice, they are only concerned about their own selfish political self interest.

Technorati Tags: Duke University, Law, Nifong, puppy

A momentary lull/Negotiation

I finished a few projects that had been ongoing for a while on Thursday and Friday, so capped a brutal 8 days (H rush through last night). I like being busy, but it has some prices. First, my office transforsm from neat and tidy to near hurricane like levels. You know I do not understand how some people can perform the near-nijitsu feat of doing a bunch of projects yet keeping their office uncluttered. I have only met a few in my life actually. My old co-worker at "the firm" was one of the best I have ever met. I guess we all deal with stress differently. I do tend to clean when I am stressed, but when the proverbial shit hits the fan, I abandon such niceties to get it done.

I have a love-hate relationship with deadlines. Like anyone being rushed is no fun. However, inexplicably, my brain tends to function better under this enormous pressure. I've always been like that. In undergrad I would turn in really amazing papers (I recently read them and was surprised how good they were) that were done during all night sessions. Thus, these deadlines spur my creativity and my writing. But these deadlines are fast, meaning that something will happen if they are not done. Arbitrary deadlines are more difficult for me to digest because they are, well, arbitrary. I guess the person who likes to have a system for organization dislikes having a project usurp something else just to placate someone's comfort level. I know that this is just politics and part of the world, but it does not mean I have to love it.

It is interesting to note that I feel the most "at home" doing corporate transactional work: drafting contracts, negotiation, research, etc. along with estate planning. I think that both of these areas have some common traits. Both are complex which stimulates me mentally. The underlying law is rock-solid, unlike the pornographic arbitrariness of immigration. Both contracts and estate planning are based on extremely old laws and those 'new' laws that exist are incredibly well done (i.e. the UCC is a true work of art). You can usually find ANSWERS unlike with immigration where you must qualify (well, this is true, assuming that the USCIS accepts the DOS's Foreign Affairs Manual policy). Because of this, I tend to get this work done at record pace unlike immigration where I think I am a very good practitioner, but I honestly have come to the conclusion that I hate. I love transactional work also because it appeals to the strong entrepreneurial/business spirit in me. I love negotiation, I get a rush out of it unlike any area of law. I am good at it because my approach is quite different than many who simply think that who ever has the "stronger hand" wins. Not so. Negotiation is about subtlety. It is a complex poker game with many unwritten goals. I approach negotiation with two pieces of advise that I received. First, my grandfather told m "never be an emotional thinker." Now while I cannot say that I exercise this maxim in most of my life (I tend to be emotional on many levels), when it comes to negotiation, I am therapeutically detached. The second piece of advice was not so much advice but a definition of the role of attorneys in negotiation. I was negotiation with a billion dollar health care system about a million dollar deal. I was negotiating as an executive, not an attorney. Well because this was a state institution, all deals over a certain amount had to be approved by the attorney generals office. Well to a relatively new grad from law school, this was rather nerve-wracking. But, I learned that if you know your product, your client and the goals, that you can be an effective advocate. I did our pitch and the administrators were ready to move on but they were, of course, saddled by their attorneys. So we were in a holding pattern. This incident so close to me because we made our pitch before the Board and before the AG's office on September 10, 2001. On September 11, 2001 when we got news of what happened my partner and I were on the tarmac at Detroit Metro Airport on our way to Asia to start implementing a recently closed contract. Of course our flight was grounded. We were able to get on a flight on Friday and we were off. No one much cared about the status of the contract at that point. But, after a week in Asia I got an email from the VP of Operations that asked me to call him. I did. He said "these motherfucking attorneys are not going to kill this deal, they do not know the gravity of this situation and they are putting roadblocks... attorneys always hinder deals, not realizing that its us that has to live with the decisions." Amen! Thus, I then though about it. He was right. An attorney's job during negotiation is to assess the risks. To give a neutral advocacy, and then step back. It is for the business executives to determine their risk tolerance. Attorneys are just that attorneys. They should not be the final word on what is a good deal or bad deal. Sometimes what is legally permissible or what is legally precarious are just worst case scenarios. It is how we are trained to think. However, in the real world it doesn't work this way. Growth comes with risk. As long as you are armed with the knowledge of where your strengths and weaknesses are, you can confidently blaze forward.

I had a client once who had to a Iraq vet come back to the company and wanted their job back. There is a rule that says that a company has to hire a vet that was on active duty. In this situation the ex-employee was an intern. Thus the question turned on whether this was an "employee" under the statute or not. After a lot of digging, I concluded that it was not an employee as defined in the statute. Thus the company was well within its rights to not take the employee back. I wrote this. BUT... at the end of my memo I said that the law exists in a vacuum, society does not. Imagine the image that this could have one the company? I went into advocacy mode as a former business owner more than an attorney (I suppose you could say Counselor) and suggested that something like this could have a detrimental impact on the overall image of the company. IN a time where there is so much polarization politically, it is not wise to attract so much attention over such a small issue, in the grand scheme of things. If this were a tiny company, perhaps I can understand, but they had thousands so he could be quickly absorbed and if he just didn't work out, he could be terminated later on on independent grounds.

Technorati Tags: Choices, Law, Negotiation, Prioritization, Productivity, Attorneys, 9/11, Simplicity

H-1B follies

Things have been a bit bumpy this week. First I found out that the work I did last week for the H-1Bs may not even be worth it as there are only 65,000 visas and 133,000 were submitted; that gives us about a 50/50 chance of getting a visa. There was nothing anyone could have done. I was anticipating about 80,000 and was very surprised it was so high. By the second day (which will not even been considered as they were a day too late) had over 33,000. This is utter insanity. A while back someone indicated that the backing in the US behind the H is waning. Unfortunately, that person just takes a pure populist view. When politicians vote, they must deal with not only the populist sentiment of the time, but also economic realities. I would argue that Microsoft, Cisco et al are far more influential than Lou Dobbs at the end of the day. Sure, immigration needs to be fixed, but there must be a sane system. As I have proposed in the past, I would recommend that they overhaul the H system to make it more clear-cut and streamlined. It would weed out the marginal cases and cases that stir controversy. That can be done with some minor tweaking. I also think that we need to go to a better attestation system like we did with the old H-1A when you had to go through a formal process to be eligible to petition. I would also implement quotas on countries, which we already do with immigrant visas. This gives more opportunity for under-represented countries to come to the US. I would also rapidly alter the ability of staffing companies to just assembly line the system. I think that this circumvents the whole process to a degree.

So, besides this I had another major case along with the fact that I have clients that still have yet to pay drives me up the wall.

Technorati Tags: H-1B, Immigration

Done...almost!

I am done with my H, EXCEPT:

a. Signatures on forms;
b. Final copy prior to filing;
c. Filing;

So about 1 hour's worth of work (it would be about 30 minutes if I had a faster copier or scanner).

Anyways, no rest for the weary, I have to take care of straggling cases today and so hopefully by Friday, all critical stuff will be off my plate. THEN, of course, there will be a temporary respite and then it will get hectic once more. Such is the life of a solo. Punctuated chaos I say. Personally, I would rather have a more even keel, despite the fact that overall it would be more stressful. The predictibility adds volumes of anxiety and makes "Getting Things Done" a daily challenge. I know some people are just hard wired differently than I am and therefore none of this causes them any commotion. It is nice that there are those out there that can inspire us with their cool and collective attitude over the long haul. I am quite good during tremendous chaos. I manage to think clearly during a maelstrom; however it must be focused on one major task. Beyond that it becomes problematic. It is always the little things that kill me!

Technorati Tags: Attorneys, GTD, Immigration, Prioritization, Productivity, Review, Simplicity

H-1B Stress

I have one H that I have to get done and filed by tomorrow at 2:30pm (last time for FedEx to deliver on Monday). I was supposed to go to a Detroit Pistons game tonight at the Palace with my dad. As anyone who reads this blog knows, I am not the biggest pro basketball fan, but I was looking forward to going and blowing off some steam. I am about 75% done with the petition, just a few simple things on the forms and some polishing of the support letter. But that is not the issue. The number one time sucking event for immigration petitions is the organization. This takes TIME. So, while I am 99% sure that I could have everything ready by 2:30, that 1% would make me not sleep and thus the ultimate decision not to go was a no-brainer. It seems my dad is not pissed. He's going with friends of his so at least he can BS with them. It sucks even more because I am doing a lot of work and not much to show for it. C'est la vie I guess. As someone I know would say "story of my life." But in keeping with the Getting Things Done concept... my mantra is deal with it now!

Technorati Tags: GTD, H-1B, Immigration, Detroit Pistons, Prioritization, puppy

Abandoning Daylite

About 10 days into my review of Daylite, I decided that its limitations were far too much for me to deal with. The lack of integration with iSync (or at the very least synching with my PDA) was a deal-breaker for me. I suspect that it will be for many others. Yes, they sync with the Palm, but as my friend and colleague accurately pointed out "Palm's time has come and gone." It is true, the Palm's OS has not been updated in years now. To actually say the word "years" with computing gives you some sense of how bad it is. I will be the first to say that the Palm OS remains, in many ways, a superior OS than Windows Mobile 5 (WM5) from the simplicity standpoint. I have had a T-Mo MDA and currently have a Dell Axim x51v, both of which run on WM5. WM5 is a robust system, but like many Windows OS's and programs is dauntingly bloated. Palm's great strength was its simplicity. But, WM5's strength is that it can be customized to perform similar to the Palm; albeit with much effort. I shall explain my setup in due time as it remains a work in process.

Daylite has much of what any professional needs. The interface is a bit anachronistic and looks like Mac circa '03. Not horrible, but certainly in need of an update. The navigation is not entirely clear at times. There are some strange omissions from the program, like synchronization. It should have some type of message system for telephone messages. Considering what it aims to do, I would expect that. If it really wants to be the main CRM/Case Management system this should be a given. There is also lacking any semblance of auto-naming for a file management component. I guess I am having Time Matters withdrawals. Time Matters, for better or for worse, is the gold standard. It is also a very complete program. I just think that I have spent too many hours tweaking it and their arrogance is troubling.

So here is my current solution: Entourage. I have long said that Microsoft did a great job on Entourage. It is very close to being the perfect system. Yes, MS never intended for it to be used for professional case management, but with some hacks and some clever Apple scripts, it is quite good. This, in conjunction with E2Sync and Missing Sync allow me to push all the data onto my PDA. But I still feel that there are things lacking. I have explored nearly everything that is available for the Mac for efficiency. One really clever idea is called kGTD (or Kinkless GTD). This uses David Allen's Getting Things Done concept coupled with Omni Outliner Pro. I used it for about a week and one of the things I noticed is that out of everything I have ever used, it really promotes "emptying your brain." This is because of the outline format. It is very very quick to map out a project. My issue with that is that while it integrated with iSync, the iSuite is not unified. Thus it is difficult for me to see a synopsis of a case in one viewing. I wish Apple would fix this.

The creators at Omni and Kinkless are working on a new product called OmniFocus. I am really excited in seeing what this is like. If they could somehow fix the integration, I would probably consider moving it. As for now, used a hacked out version of Entourage to give me some of the same functionality of kGTD.

Technorati Tags: e2sync, Entourage

Why can't there be a unified PIM

You know one of the biggest hurdles I have had has been the ability to synchronize all of my contacts, tasks and calendars. Currently I have a bunch of duct-taped solutions that will work, but are less than ideal. The only solution I am aware of that does what I am looking for is Microsoft Exchange. The problem with that solution is that it is targeted at corporations; hence it is both expensive to purchase and has a formidable IT support requirement that most small businesses do not have the resources for. Yes, I am aware of hosted Exchange services (hell, there is even a free one!) but most do not offer the storage capacity that is needed in this day and age. Most small businesses will need between 10-25 GB depending upon their profession. As I try to be as PaperLESS as possible, it does add up in terms of data. Currently I am at about 2 GB, but it is growing exponentially. Thus there should be a cost-benefit analysis done on any hosted Exchange to determine if that is the solution. With that said, Exchange is less than perfect. It does not support the .ics (i.e. iCal) standard, which is ubiquotous on the web now thanks to Google Calendar ("gCal).

As I have mentioned previously, Google has the potential to dominate this field, but they are lacking two major functions. First, it is imperative to have IMAP. For those who do not understand this, IMAP, unlike POP allows you to make changes locally (i.e. on your own computer through your mail program) which then get sync to the server side. This means that ever computer that connects to the IMAP server is in unison. With gMail, I must delete the mail at the gMail level or else I will have to redundantly delete my email. Some will suggest why don't I just use the online version. Simple, there are actually situations and locations where you cannot get a signal (i.e. a plane) thus, you'll want a local copy. Second, subscriptions to gCal should be two-way through applications such as iCal or Outlook (or Entourage if on a Mac). Currently you can subscribe to a gCal and there is two way if online, but again, if one wants a unified approach it should be able to work within the confines of an existing program. Further, the omission of tasks is just criminal. How the can add a word processor, calendar, email, a spreadsheet and not put a proper task/to-do is simply beyond me. Yes, there are third parties that will hack together a work around; but of course, like most such solutions it is less than ideal. Lastly, Google, learn from Yahoo! and provide sync services. License Chapura on the PC and sync with Sync Services on the Mac. At that point, you have a killer suite that is robust enough for corporate use. While we are at it. For $50/year, why not offer 30GB of WebDAV space (encrypted) so that one no longer has to worry about having a local server, but rather only needs to be worried about basic backup. I think I can speak for many small business owners and say that such a service would certainly be worth a lot. If they had such an offering, I would be willing to pay a significant premium for it.

So... back to my 'solution.' I abandoned Daylite because it does not sync with Sync Services. I could forgive this if it synced with Pocket PC, but, alas, it does not. So, digging around I found that there are some hacks and Apple Script add-ons to Entourage that allows a fairly simple solution to track cases and information. It is based on the concept first put forward by kGTD (Kinkless GTD (Getting Things Done). kGTD is an incredible set of scripts that work with OmniOutliner Pro. It is incredible efficient and brilliantly executed. But there are some things lacking. First is a unified depository. With kGTD, I have to switch between multiple programs (i.e. address book, iCal, Mail.app). There is no way to link a mail to a contact and there is no way to realistically link a task to a project that is very effective. They use a stop-gap measure, but you must be very careful to notate the case name in the name otherwise you'll end up with 5 tasks called "research" with no context as to what project it is associated with. With Entourage and the aforementioned scripts, such is possible. It is not pretty, but it works and it works well. The only part that was lacking was gCal synch as that is where I put my kid's schedule so that all interested parties can see it and add and subtract from it. So the 'solution' was to use a program called e2sych which syncs Entourage with iSync. Entourage has built-in sync, but does not properly sync categories, so it pretty useless in my opinion. The final measure was to use the Missing Sync to push the data to my PDA. I have it set to only pull data off Entourage as there is an assumption that iCal/gCal will already be pushed into Entourage so that I only have one conduit. There are some noticeable anomalies from time-to-time, but in general it works.

Now, I must tweak my PDA a bit better. I am using Pocket Informant. I am attracted to its robust set of features, but am slowing coming to believe that it is a bit too bloated and thus does not force you to pay attention to the key requirements.

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