Apr 21, 2011 MYN Newsletter:
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I am very pleased to announce that that the new Android app Pocket Informant now supports MYN tasks. It’s a great app and it fills an important place in the MYN-compatible mobile app list. If you are using MYN with ToodleDo and you use an Android device, you should consider it. This takes the place of Got To Do on my MYN-approved App list (Got To Do is no longer available). To read more about Pocket Informant and how to configure it for MYN, follow this link:

Read more about Pocket Informant for Android

Here is a contrarian view that actually helps you be more successful with your to-do list, whether paper or automated. The primary purpose of a to-do list isn’t to get everything done. Rather, the primary purpose of a to-do list is to set your mind at ease that you know what your main responsibilities for the day or week are. The difference is subtle, but important; keeping it in mind will lower your frustration with to-do lists, and make them more powerful for you.

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Research shows that even small work interruptions can greatly impact workday efficiency. As I discussed in a previous blog entry, those little blue e-mail notification boxes that Outlook puts up for all incoming mail are a big source of interruptions. When these things pop up every 3 to 5 minutes or so—guess what—your productivity is getting hosed. And the efficiency drop can happen even if you do not stop to open the mail item—they are super distracting.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could limit their appearance to only mail from the most important people (say your boss) and so cut down on their disruption? Well you can; you can adjust Outlook so the blue notification boxes only appear for certain people. But it’s a little tricky—and making that adjustment takes a fair number of steps the first time. Easier is to just turn them off completely. I show how to do both in this article.

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Here’s an excerpt from my new Outlook book (the 3rd edition of Total Workday Control) that just came out. In the excerpt linked below I describe how Exchange users on Outlook for Mac 2011 can store mail locally, thus clearing space on their Exchange Server account. This roughly duplicates the Personal Folders feature on Windows Outlook.

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As you know, the MYN system can be used on any tablet. But in fact, my very favorite mobile MYN-compatible software (TouchDown) only runs on Android, not on the iPad.

Android tablets have been slow to catch up with the iPad. But now that is changing

The Motorola Xoom is the first to really be practical. One reason the new Motorola Xoom tablet is so important is that it is the first to use the new Android 3.0 operating system (code named Honeycomb); until this new 3.0 version, Android on a tablet was a bit rough.

In Android 3.0 browsers work better, there is a new ebook reader, and more. Here is an article that summarizes the improvements in Android 3.0 over previous versions of Android.

http://blog.laptopmag.com/android-3-0-10-things-you-need-to-know

If you want to see news like what's in the articles above sooner, check out my blog at www.michaellinenberger.com/blog. With weekly and sometimes daily postings, it includes many things that never make it to the newsletter. So go there often or subscribe to the RSS.