Print to 3 x 5 cards in ThinkingRock

Problem

About 2 months ago I had a near GTD meltdown. I was using Outlook pretty effectively but I lost the meaning in my lists. Every item on every list looked exactly the same. Part of the problem: I am always near a phone and a computer, so those contexts became meaningless. Plus, it was just too easy to process all my thoughts into their neat little e-cubbies and not have to look at them again. I became awesome at processing my inbox and terrible at getting anything done. I needed something new.

I figured I needed better lists and a good way to manage those lists. And, I needed to keep those lists in my face. So, I decided to use paper lists each day. With that in mind I went in search of an app that would help me manage my lists so I could print out exactly what I needed, when I needed it.

One other thing: I hate redundancy. I wanted something that was flexible enough to move a thought between projects or contexts without having to type it out again.

Solution

I found a great solution in ThinkingRock. It’s simple, straight forward, and built with GTD principles in mind. I can run it from a USB drive which means I can effectively us it at home and at work. And I love that I can run a variety of reports and then print out the info I need to keep at hand.

Although…

But, I own an HPDA and ThinkingRock’s reports don’t have a 3″ x 5″ format. I’m sure they’ll get around to it someday. In the meantime, I did some looking around myself. It appears the reports are some flavor of XML and so I was able to tweak my favorite report to print nicely on a 3×5 card. I’m not a programmer, so this won’t be a perfect solution. But it is a suitable work-around. Here are some of the details.

I like the “Actions by Context” report. I found the XML file for that report in the C:\ThinkingRock\extract\report directory. I just opened up “actions-by-context.fo” in WordPad and tinkered with some of the arguments used to format the report. Of course, I saved the original report in case I really messed something up. Then, I just made sure my new .fo file had the name of the original so the app would see it. Now, when I run my report, I specify all the same parameters as before and it prints to a 3×5 card.

Ah ha!

I believe just about anyone can do what I did. But if you don’t think you can, or you don’t want to, I’ll email you the report I’m using with more detailed instructions for deploying it. Just shoot me a note here or leave your contact info in a comment.

Update 7/23/07

I forgot to mention earlier, I’m using v1.2.3.  I don’t have a solution for v2.0.

Simplify with del.icio.us

I hate clutter. Although you’d never believe it if you saw my house. I especially despise clutter on my computer. The worst offender is the Bookmarks Toolbar in Firefox. This applies to most browsers but I don’t care to dignify any others with a mention.

However, I came up with a clever hack to create a dynamic bookmark for all the pages I want nearby while I’m browsing. This trick requires a few basic tools:

1. Firefox web browser
2. A del.icio.us account
3. Working knowledge of live bookmarks/RSS

Step one: use Firefox for all of your web browsing pleasure. This sounds like common sense to me. But, I’ve learned that there really is no such thing as common sense. Trust me; download, install and run Firefox.

Step two: learn how to tag pages using del.icio.us. Even if you don’t want the social aspect of this service, del.icio.us provides a great way to access bookmarks from any web-enabled computer. There are several ways to tag pages. Find the one that works best for you.

Step three: navigate to a web page you visit often. For me, that’s Newshutch. If you are an RSS whiz and you’d like a great web-based reader, then Newshutch is for you. It is simple yet powerful. And, best of all, it’s free!

Now, here’s the tricky part.

Step four: tag this page with a memorable tag. I use “toolbar” because I have trouble thinking outside the box. You could use any tag you want; I really don’t think it matters. Just don’t forget what it is. Actually, feel free to forget. Del.icio.us is such a great site you’ll be able to find it in no time.

Step five: find the page that has your newly created tag. Let’s say your new tag is “hoopla.” You’ll find it by going to del.icio.us/yourname/hoopla where “yourname” is your del.icio.us user name.

Final step: subscribe to this page as a live bookmark. This is the key to making the hack work. If you don’t know how to do this, I’m sorry. #3 above, under required tools, is very clear on this point.

You now have a bookmark called “hoopla” on your bookmarks toolbar. When you click it a menu drops down and lists the first page you tagged with “hoopla.” Now, every page you tag “hoopla” will show up in the drop down menu. All that’s left now, is to tag all those pages that are lingering in that dang toolbar and free up the space they’re wasting.

Caution: these tagged pages are public. Anyone can find your account and see what pages you’ve tagged. That is the social nature of del.icio.us. You do have the ability to privately tag pages, but they won’t show up in your live bookmark that way.