Michael Linenberger's Blog

Jan 3, 2011

Here’s a great way to start the New Year. If you’ve been meaning to start the Outlook MYN system, but are daunted by the size of the Outlook book, here is a 10-minute video that will get you started right now.

This video teaches you a subset of the complete MYN Outlook system; just enough so that you’ll be using the core of the Outlook MYN system in only a few minutes. You’ll have a system to get your long list of tasks for the new year organized, and then a way to stay ahead of too-many e-mails and too many to-do’s.

Even if you’ve never read any of my books, this video will help you get your workday under control.

This video is also a great way to share the system with others. So if you are using the full system and want to get your colleagues started—pass this on to them.

And if you are a reader of my Master Your Workday Now! book and have tried the paper system and now want instructions on how to configure it in Outlook—this video is the same basic system. Use this video to transition.

So try out this Quick Start video today.

Again, this is only for Outlook 2007 & 2010. I will follow a little later with a video for Outlook 2003 users.

Dec 30, 2010

If you have hundreds of tasks in your task list, and you don’t know why, here’s an explanation—and a new way to fix it.

Adding a flag to a mail item in Outlook 2007/10 or 2011 creates a task-like entry called a flagged-mail task in your task list. A somewhat unfortunate side effect of this is that if you have used flags on mail in the past, and then more recently decided to start using the task system, your task system will appear overloaded with these. These accumulate even if the mail is stored away in older folders, even from years ago.

Clearly this is not something you want, given how old these items are, and if you have a lot of them it can make the task list almost unusable. So you will want to clean this up by clearing those flags.

You can clear these one at a time just by clicking each flag. Or you can SHIFT-select a number of the messages in the task list at once, right-click the flag, and choose Clear Flag (in Windows if you select more than one, the right-click choice will be Clear Flag/Delete Task—it leads to the same outcome). This operation Continue reading →

Dec 24, 2010

I mentioned in my earlier post and video about using ToodleDo to manage your tasks (see this post) that one great thing about ToodleDo is how it runs in a browser on any device, even Android smartphones. Well, I just noticed that’s not completely true. Among my collections of smartphones is a Verizon Droid X. I love the large screen on this phone, great for using a browser, especially in landscape mode. However, the stock browser on it for some reason won’t let me tap-click many of the button controls on the ToodleDo—nothing happens when I do. It occurred to me this may be browser dependent, so I downloaded the Dolphin HD browser, and all the buttons in ToodleDo work great in that browser; problem solved.

Similarly, I was playing with a Samsung Galaxy Tab (the 7-inch Android tablet for sale everywhere right now) in the AT&T Wireless store the other day. In its stock browser,  many of the ToodleDo buttons Continue reading →

December 21, 2010

If you use Outlook with Exchange, and you’ve been wanting to access your Outlook tasks on the iPhone or iPad, note this. I’ve just had more discussions with the creator of the iPhone/iPad app called TaskTask, and he is making a change for us to make it compatible with the MYN task system—it will be in version 3 of  TaskTask which should be out soon (release date pending).

Once that change arrives, I’ll post instructions on how to configure this app for MYN, and then you will be on your way.

TaskTask is one of the few iPhone/iPad apps that can communicate with your Outlook’s Exchange server for tasks. It’s a nice app—it even syncs flagged mail tasks.

By the way, the only other app that can talk to Exchange is iMExchange 2—but this app also needs changes to  work with MYN, and they did not respond to my invite to do that.  So for now keep your eye on TaskTask.

Michael

Dec 15, 2010

I received a ton of great notes from people about the ToodleDo software article. Here are some of the questions and my answers:

• Q) Did I know about the Outlook synchronization software for ToodleDo by Chromatic Dragon?
• Yes, Chromatic Dragon, I’m very familiar with it. I tested it and had a conversation with the author programmer. It worked for me but the problem is the author has decided not to support it or update it anymore. So if Microsoft makes code changes in Outlook/Exchange that break it, the software will be defunct (some people are already having issues). So I cannot recommend it. Also, it requires Continue reading →

Dec 14, 2010

After a long wait (and some technical difficulties that have now been resolved), the eBook versions of Master Your Workday Now! are finally here. Here’s the link for the Kindle version: Click Here

And here is the link for the BN Nook version: Click Here

Check your other favorite e-book sources as well; the e-book is being widely distributed.

Dec 14, 2010

[UPDATE: Jul 7, 2014, the article below is for an older version of TouchDown. Please go to this link to see the newer version of this article.]

Outlook users who are using my Master Your (Workday) Now task management system (MYN)—if you have an Android phone or tablet, or are considering getting one, you are going to love this software called TouchDown.

TouchDown is an Android App that serves as a client of Microsoft Exchange Server. It takes your Exchange-based Outlook data (tasks, contacts, e-mail, calendar), and makes them all accessible in your Android phone or tablet.

And most importantly, TouchDown can easily be configured to show the MYN list format—the same format highlighted in my Outlook book Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook, and in my new book Master Your Workday Now!

Continue reading →

Dec 2, 2010

ClearContext Corp. just released Version 5.2 of its Outlook add-in software, and it includes some important new features for MYN. I’ll do a more thorough run through of this release in a later newsletter, but for now just note this. The Dashboard and Organizer panes in ClearContext now support MYN. For example they can now display tasks in the MYN To-Do list format, and controls that were due date oriented before now work with start dates. That, combined with all the other MYN features in the MYN ClearContext Special Edition, make this software an excellent addition for MYN Outlook users.

Look for more about this release in a future newsletter.

Dec 2, 2010

A PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Android Solution for MYN Task Management that can Replace Outlook for Tasks

Up to now, the primary way to automate the Master Your Now (MYN) task principles has been using Microsoft Outlook. It is powerful, highly configurable, and well integrated.

However, many people do not use Outlook; they are using other mail systems like Gmail, Mac Mail, Entourage, or others. Many of these people would still like a fully computerized approach to implementing the MYN system to get their workdays under control, especially one that converts e-mails to tasks. And many people are looking for an iPhone, iPad, or Android platform to run the MYN system on—or some other mobile system.

Unfortunately Outlook tasks do not sync natively with iPhones or iPads (though a product called TaskTask does; see this post). In fact, amazingly, Outlook tasks do not even sync with the new Windows Phone 7! So, for many of you, a non-Outlook solution may be the best way to go for cross-platform and mobile task management capabilities. Many solutions are out there, but until recently, none adequately supported the MYN principles. One now does—ToodleDo.

Continue reading →

Oct 20, 2010

Microsoft is releasing Microsoft Outlook 2011 for Mac next week (October 26, 2010) and a lot of us are excited about this! This product replaces Entourage, Microsoft’s previous e-mail system on the Mac, and it ends a long dry spell for Mac users seeking a serious, Outlook-compatible, business e-mail application for the Mac.

This new software also gives Mac users an effective way to implement the powerful Workday Mastery To-Do list on a Mac, which means the popular task management principles in my Outlook for Windows Book: Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook, 2nd. Ed., (and the recent book Master Your Workday Now!), can now be applied on a Mac.

[April 2011 update: the new 3rd Edition of my Outlook book is now out and it includes complete instructions on using Outlook for Mac 2011].

Continue reading →