Principle 2: Manage Your Cognitive Life Mindfully

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Manage Your Projects

Cognitive projects typically involve some of the following types of information:

1. planning information: the project’s rationale, objectives, and constraints; decisions; action items; and knowledge gaps; and
2. communications: e-mail.

If the project involves creating a public document, presentation, screencast, or other knowledge resource, then the project typically requires at least some of the following:

1. a content specification: its title, thesis, argument, a summary, its key concepts, topics, examples, and references;
2. ancillary materials: figures, tables, etc.;
3. links and/or aliases to related resources;
4. resources;
5. an outline;
6. notes;
7. the current draft;
8. previous drafts;
9. comments from reviewers, which may be in separate files, or inline annotations of previous drafts; and
10. the resource in output format (e.g. pdf or html).

Experts develop and reliably use high quality schemas, templates and habits. Applying this principle to cognitive productivity with macOS, it is a good idea to

1. create a project folder template in Finder that contains the types of files you typically use to manage a project; and
2. use personal project management software like OmniFocus or Things.

Then, whenever you start a significant project, you

1. replicate the project folder in Finder; and
2. create a new project in your personal project management app.

The next set of screencasts explains these tips.

Using Project Folder Templates in Finder

When creating a substantial knowledge resource (such as a presentation or document), it is often helpful to create a folder in the Finder for ancillary files and folders. Rather than create only the files that you need, from scratch, each time you start a project, you might find it helpful to have a template folder with all the files that will be the basis of any new project. When starting a new project, you would create a new folder for that project, and replicate all the files from a template folder into your new project folder.

As the next screencast demonstrates, my project folder template includes the following files and folders.

• a folder of aliases to this project folder. In this folder I store aliases to key files in the project folder. Some of the aliases are named to be easily found by my launcher (LaunchBar);
• a folder of Communications, correspondence. Here is where I store some of the information I receive from others about the project;
• a folder of Figures and Tables. If I create a drawing or a spreadsheet for my document, I would normally store them here. This folder also contains an OmniGraffle template for the figure, since I tend to draw in OmniGraffle. Using this consistent naming strategy allows me quickly to access the Figures folder when I am in the project’s Finder folder;
• an “elements” file which contains rhetorical elements (I use OmniOutliner so the default filename is ELEMENTS-ELEMENTS.ooutline);
• a md.txt, this is a markdown file where I will do most of my writing for the project. For many reasons, I recommend writing in Markdown. If you need convincing, check out Brett Terpstra’s “Why Markdown? A two-minute explanation”. Another big reason is that I love being able to write inline comments using XML syntax. Most Leanpub books, including this one, are written in Markdown;
• an OUTLINE-OUTLINE.ooutline which is an outline for the project;
• a PLAN-PLAN.ooutline which would include some of my planning for the project (the rest of my planning typically goes in OmniFocus, also discussed in this book);
• a folder for Previous information (e.g., to keep previous drafts),
• a Resources and Research folder for PDFs and .webloc files related to this project (or aliases to them),
• a folder for Reviews and comments about this project received from others;
• rtf-.rtf, which serves the same purpose as the md.txt file above, for the rare times that I write in RTF;
• a spad-.ooutline, this is a scratch pad file for unstructured, “random” thoughts about the project;
• a tidbits-.txt, this is typically for snips of text that I have moved out of the main main md.txt or RTF.rtf file. I also use this for text that is in progress but too messy to clutter up the main document;
• a TITLE-.txt, this is for the current title of the document.

Afterwards, you would batch rename all these files (using the “Rename” command that is available in the Finder’s File menu). For instance, if the project is for part2 of this book, I might use the Finder to substitute every occurrence of “-“ with “-bkGTL-part2-“.

You’re probably wondering why the duplicated content in filenames, e.g., “*PLAN-PLAN*”. This makes it very quick and easy to access files in this folder using the keyboard in the Finder. (Again, avoiding the mouse when you can is usually saves time.) Since the word “PLAN* also following the name means I can easily find the document using a launcher by typing the name first. E.g., I can type “bkGTLp2plan” in a launcher. A similar effect could be used by defining aliases, which you would store in the alias folder mentioned above.

The following screencast shows you how to do all this.

Using Outliners to Create: OmniOutliner

Several tips presented in this book, including the ones in this principle, involve using OmniOutliner, the Mac’s most versatile, flexible outliner, which is also available for iOS. Most knowledge products people create —documents, presentations, videos, screencasts, seminars, workshops, etc. — have a hierarchical structure, made of sections and subsections. Outliners are designed to help you think in a hierarchical way.

One of the most powerful writing strategies is to create an outline before you actually begin writing. A good outliner, like OmniOutliner, is useful for far more than creating outlines of end-documents. As you can see in this section, outlining is useful for all kinds of thinking. For example, it is useful for planning, creating specifications, and gathering ideas. As we will see in the Principle “Delve”, outlines are excellent tools for creating “meta-docs”, notes about what you process.

Rather than re-invent the wheel by giving you my own screencast overview of OmniOutliner, I recommend if you are unfamiliar with OmniOutliner that you check out this video about OmniOutliner made by its developer, OmniGroup.

I’ve created OmniOutliner templates that are illustrated in this book. They are available as part of the Leanpub book package and as an extra, stand-alone, Leanpub package.

Planning in OmniOutliner

Experts spend a greater proportion of their time planning relative to executing than non-experts. Upfront planning allows them to create more productively: better products in less time. The following screencast illustrates how to use OmniOutliner for planning.

Developing a Resource Specification in OmniOutliner

When creating a substantial knowledge resource, you typically need to consider a large collection of rhetorical “elements”, many of which are the same as what you look for when you process someone else’s document. Here are some examples

• the title;
• opening quotations;
• the thesis and argument;
• what is new in the document;
• the rationale, justification, importance and relevance of the document;
• a list of topics to discuss;
• principal and ancillary information (summary or abstract, principles, concepts, major claims, minor claims, examples, references); and
• supporting materials.

Whether you frequently or only occasionally create knowledge resources, having a template for this information can really help. The following screencast illustrates this. It uses OmniOutliner, but you might prefer Markdown or some other format.

Outlining in OmniOutliner

Finally, when writing substantial documents, for most people, it helps to create an outline of the target document. The following screencast illustrates how to do this with OmniOutliner.

Managing Personal Projects with OmniFocus

Many personal project management solutions are available for macOS, ranging from simple todo lists (like TaskPaper), to Things, to the most sophisticated and powerful personal project management app for Mac and iOS, OmniFocus Pro.

When choosing project management apps, consider the following requirements:

• scalability and efficiency: the app must allow you to efficiently create, edit, access, and search through hundreds, and even thousands, of projects;
• perspectives: you should be able to define as many perspectives on your projects as you like, and to have a dozen or more project windows open at any given time, being able to toggle between each one within two seconds;
• ontology: it should support arbitrarily nested folders, projects, and actions, all of which are easy to collapse, expand, filter and search;
• task properties: you need to be able to define a large collection of task properties, such as due dates and repetition intervals, flags and statuses. Tags are helpful but not strictly necessary;
• iOS syncing if you often need to consult your projects without your Mac, then obviously you need syncing, whether it is with iCloud or not; and
• secure server solution: whether through iCloud or a proprietary database, it is essential that task data be secure. (Imagine the consequences of your most sensitive task lists being displayed for all to read on the Internet.) This means only storing data with the most trustworthy service providers. It also means following best practices, such as enabling and using multi-factor authentication, promptly applying security updates, and keeping abreast of security.

There are, in addition, several desiderata, some of which, unfortunately, are not supported by any app that meets the hard requirements above. For example: automatic detection of activity type, time tracking, and integration with issue tracking systems —such as Bugzilla. I’ve discussed these criteria in relation to mySelfQuantifier on CogZest.com.

In this book, I illustrate OmniFocus Pro because it is the most sophisticated app that meets the hard requirements listed above. In 2016, its security improved considerably. OmniFocus Pro may be more than you need. But you should at least study, and, I suggest, try OmniFocus to know what you are missing.

OmniFocus is somewhat complicated. Therefore, you should only migrate to it when you have a couple of light weeks ahead of you during which you can learn the ropes.

If you are not conversant with OmniFocus, then check out the videos about OmniFocus made by its developer, OmniGroup.

What was lacking on the Internet before this book and its precursor, Cognitive Productivity: Using Knowledge to Become Profoundly Effective, was an exposition of how to use OmniFocus for knowledge-building projects.

Manage Shared Projects with Merlin Project

For projects that involve multiple people, dependencies, schedules, and shared resources, consider using dedicated project management software such as Merlin Project, developed by ProjectWizards.

Merlin Project is designed for planning, managing, and controlling projects ranging from relatively small collaborations to complex undertakings. It supports project structures, tasks and milestones, dependencies, resources, costs, and schedules, while providing multiple ways to view and navigate a project. It is used across fields including architecture and construction, media and agencies, research and development, and education. Merlin Project is available for Mac and iPad.

Whereas personal project management software such as OmniFocus helps you manage your own projects and actions, Merlin Project can help you represent and coordinate the larger structure of a project that is shared with other people. This distinction matters in knowledge-intensive work: your personal action system and the project’s shared representation serve different purposes, even when they concern the same project.

Merlin Project also integrates with Hookmark, allowing you to create links between items in a Merlin Project document and related information resources elsewhere on your Mac. See Using Hookmark with Merlin Project – Hookmark.

Manage Your Knowledge Sources

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Source-Management Problems and Questions

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Important Things to Keep in Mind about Archiving

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Naming and Tagging Files for Later Use

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Managing Web Content: Overview

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Archiving Your PDF Files

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EagleFiler

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Using Bibliography Managers Designed for macOS

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Using Information Management Databases

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Evernote

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DEVONthink

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Quickly Accessing Local Sources

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Accessing Files with Spotlight

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Accessing PDFs with Papers

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Accessing Resources with Launchers

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Accessing Linked Items with Hookmark

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Manage your Attention (Your Information-Processing Time)

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Timing App

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mySelfQuantifier

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Reviewing Time Spent in Deep Work

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Reviewing Time Spent on Each of Your Projects

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Reviewing Time Spent per Activity

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