TPAssist Dashboard, Practical Tips for Taking Control of your workplace responsibilities - Create sub-templates of activities you repeat all the time.

MindManager is great for facilitating routine activities and repeated work processes. In maximising the use of your time, you don't want to 're-invent the wheel' every time you have a set of activities to complete. You will want to make use of your past experience to make you more effective and efficient in every task. Further more, if you have some important process that you repeat often, you don't want to miss the odd step in the process and find yourself with further work to do correcting the mistake.

This short piece looks at how you can make use of topic tree templates to make you more effective at completing routine activities and repeated work processes.

You can also see a video presentation of this material via our video gallery.

We promote the use of proven process. Trying to build templates for sets of activities that you haven't complete at least once isn't the best use of your time. We'd recommend only building topic tree templates for activities that you've repeat at least one, and possibly a few more times if you'd not convinced you did it perfectly the first time around.

Once you have found a repeating set of activities, the process to create a topic tree template is very straight-forward.

Firstly, find a place to store your template (in video illustration, I created a template place holder with-in the focus area); You could also filter out any unwanted topics.

Secondly, you copy the topic structure to the clipboard. Now paste the topics as "text only", thereby removing any notes and other tracking details specific to the source tree.

We now convert the topic list to a task tree. At this point you could also add date automation, a vast topic that we explore in other presentations.

To conclude, make the template placeholder a "Research" topic to keep is clean and ensure that none of the TPAssist's tree roll-up automation is performed on this template.

Once we have a topic tree template, using it is even more straight-forward. All we do is copy the topic tree into the focus area we mean to use it and set the details on the first activity.

In Summary, we recommend using templates to make you more effective at completing routine activities and repeated work processes, the steps in that process are:

• Use proven process as the basis of your template.


• And create templates in-place with-in your maps to make them easy to find.

TPAssist Dashboard, Practical Tips for Taking Control of your workplace responsibilities - Quick Bird's Eye View - Daily Activity Reviews

Staying ultimately productive and enjoying your work at the same time is difficult enough without the added interruption of "task reminders".

Instead of having to "react" to reminders, we would recommend a proactive approach. Staying on-top of your commitments without reminders is easier said than done, because if your outstanding tasks don't come looking for you, you need to go looking for them!

This short piece looks at how you'd move from being a task reminder slave to a proactive commander of your own time.

You can also see a video presentation of this material via our video gallery.

One approach to being proactive in your activity management is the use of visual cues. We promote the use of three existing MindManager icon markers: flags, priorities and percent complete. These icon markers make great visual cues on individual topics.

An even more powerful extension is rolling up these Flags, priorities and percent complete icons to parent topics and maps. You can then quickly zoom in on items that need attention. This automation is provided by TPAssist 2007.

Another approach to proactively managing and finding your next action is the use of TPAssist's Task Summary view on a daily basis.

The Task Summary provides a view of all outstanding and approaching actions found with-in your Dashboard. When executed regularly, you'll find the 7 day horizon view an excellent alternative to the dozen task reminder appearing in your face every 5 minutes. Instead, you can go looking for your next action when you are ready, holding comfort in the fact that if you get drawn away from a task for a period, you'll easily find it again later via the Task Summary.

Using the Task Summary and/or visual clues in your Dashboard assumes you are using your map to plan your actions. Therefore at a minimum you need to ensure your map includes everything you need to do. If you forget to include some action you may find yourself not trusting the Task Summary or visual clues.

In Summary, our recommended approach to becoming a proactive commander of your own time is as follows:

• Use flags, priorities and percent complete as visual cues.


• Use the Task Summary daily to set your priorities for the day and see where you are going.


• And at a minimum capture everything you need to do in your map.

TPAssist Dashboard, Practical Tips for Taking Control of your workplace responsibilities -Sensible Approach to Task Tracking

The objective of task tracking is to recall what you have said, done, promised or been promised.

However it just isn't practical to track everything, so we must focus on aspects of our day that deliver the greatest benefit whilst minimising our exposure to overwhelm.

In other words we don't want to be overburdened with the management of loads of low priority tasks and reminders.

This piece illustrates a sensible approach to task tracking.

You can also see a video presentation of this material via our video gallery.

When you find something that impacts your job responsibilities directly, use your task trees to visually track progress.

Don't be afraid of having too many topics in your map, you can always create linked sub- maps if a mini- project becomes a big- project.

When something comes your way which may cause you concern at some later point, make a note of it and give it plenty of time to resolve.

This best guess time-frame approach to items at the perimeter of your responsibility, ensure, whilst on your radar, the item will hopefully stay out of the way of your primary activities.

Use "General" topics to track activities for items outside your direct line of responsibility, but indirectly linked to your ability to work productively.

An example might be receiving notice of an update to the company Holiday's policy. You may want to record a note of the change for next time you are planning some time away.

In Summary, our recommended approach to task tracking is as follows:

• Use new topics generously for aspects that directly impact your responsibilities.


• Use best guess time-frames for aspects at the perimeter of your responsibilities.


• Use topics with a Priority of 5 to capture peripheral activities.

TPAssist Dashboard, Practical Tips for Taking Control of your workplace responsibilities - Free your mind - "Set and Forget"

An important part of working productively is dealing with interruptions, whether they be external, like a phone call or e-mail, or be they of your own creation, like a new great idea.

This short piece looks at how your Dashboard can be used to effectively manage interruptions.

You can also see a video presentation of this material via our video gallery.

When an idea or requests land at your feet, spend a small amount of time assessing the steps or activities required to complete the request.

Put that list into the context to which it belongs. Then turn these steps or activities into mini- projects with automatic dates.

Before you move onto something else, always put a date on the next activity. This date is typically either when you you'll have time to address the request or when you next need to assess the status.

Every item in the Dashboard can be picked up by the Task Summary, so now that you have dates on your actions, you can put them out of your mind and get back to being productive.

So to summarise, our approach to Freeing your mind is follows:

• List actions and creating mini-plans


• Put a date on the next action or "check- point"And use the Task Summary to drive your productivity

NEWSLETTER - TPAssist Dashboard Launched

Launch of TPAssist Dashboard online resources for workplace mind mapping.

TPAssist has launched a FREE online resource for workplace mind mapping. The "TPAssist Dashboard" web site includes FREE instructional videos, template maps and template role based Dashboards. We also have do-it-yourself instructional guide on building your own role based Dashboard.http://www.tpassist.com/Dashboard

What is a role based Dashboard?

The TPAssist Dashboard, not unlike the control panel in your car, contains the instruments and controls necessary to manage and enjoy your day.
Central to the Dashboard is the concept of "context" and the need to see the actions you take driving you towards your ultimate goal. Find out more via online resource.


TPAssist 2007 1.4 Released

TPAssist 2007 version 1.4 is now available for download. This update is part 2 of our usability initiative, which started with version 1.3 where we updated features based on knowledge gained from case studies and feedback from our growing communicate of subscribers.This update includes improvements to the Publish Tab and Tree Update Tab. find out more...
Download TPAssist 2007 Now.


Mindjet® Connect

We are actively enhancing TPAssist 2007 to take advantage of the online collaboration potential of Mindjet Connect. If you are looking at MindManager® Service Pack 2 or Mindjet Connect please read our latest update.

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TPAssist User's Group - TPAssist is now on Ning.com. We've established an end-user community on Ning. This community is an open forum and isn't moderated, so please join and share your experiences. Join Now

TPAssist Users Group

Join the TPAssist Users Group on NING and share your experiences with other TPAssist users.

http://tpassist.ning.com/

Mindjet Connect and Support for MindManager 7 Service Pack 2

Mindjet® MindManager® 7, Service Pack 2 (7.2.374), released for general availability on 17th of June has been developed specifically to facilitate Mindjet Connect.


TPAssist 2007 has been extensively tested for use with SP2 and also with maps located in Mindjet® Connect.

UPDATE (15/Sep/08) - 1.5 is now released, please see our download page.

Our most recent updated, TPAssist 2007 1.4, whilst successfully tested with Mindjet Connect (MJC), has one issued with regards to in-effective Hyperlinks in the "Task Summary" feature when operated on MJC maps. TPAssist is working with Mindjet to find a solution.


TPAssist 2007 1.4 has been built for MindManager 6.2.399 and 7.1.394. One of these exact versions must be installed in order to make use of the optional Outlook Add-in.


TPAssist users who move to MindManager 7 Service Pack 2 (SP2) can make use of TPAssist 1.4 if they do not which to use the Outlook Add-in. However, if the Outlook Add-in is required, the beta of TPAssist 1.5 must be installed. The beta of TPAssist 1.5 can be downloaded here.