Notes on Productivity Home Page

David Allen's up in San Francisco at the Office 2.0 conference today. This morning, David delivered the opening keynote with Office 2.0 conference organizer Ismael Ghalimi.



I understand that Ismael asks David, "Why Lotus Notes?"  David shares his thoughts on Getting Things Done with Lotus and eProductivity. Cool!

I've not yet had an opportunity to watch the video but I see that Ed Brill's already blogged about it.

Update: Watch the Office 2.0 Opening Keynote with David Allen  Nice plug for Lotus Notes & GTD at 00:17:15 minutes

Ian White's blog post, "Does the world really hate Lotus Notes?" hit a nerve on a topic I was already passionate about, so I unloaded with a blog post sharing how I respond to people that tell me they hate Notes.

What I overlooked in Ian's original post was his proposal that we, the Notes Community, consider Tweeting 4 Notes.  I think Ian's idea of a 'tweet 4 notes' campaign might be an excellent way to help bridge the gap between IBM and those who use and love Notes and the knowledge workers that use notes.

Some of these people use Notes because they "get it" and they see the value both personally and professionally. Others may use Notes because it was forced upon them from above.

I think that anything that will promote conversation can't help but improve people's experiences using Notes. Often a simple productive tip or how-to can make the difference between a positive or negative experience. I'm thankful for the efforts that people like Ed and Alan put forth to share how people are using Notes and to explore tips and tricks with Notes. I hope to build on what they have done and see if I can help extend the reach of the message that Notes is Good by communicating across the chasm with the everyday knowledge workers that use Notes.

So, what do you think? Will you join Ian in tweeting for Notes?

I received this email from Scott in Atlanta. He correctly points out that most product comparisons have one or both products using an old version. Scott asks if there is a way to compare the current version of Outlook with the current version of Lotus Notes.

Seems like a reasonable request to me. Perhaps someone has already done this and would like to help Scott in his evalutaion?

Hi Eric-
I am making the decision to use either Notes or Outlook on my home computer without a network or shared users.

Your blog was fantastic but I fear many of the points raised as to the differences may not be relevent since many posters were using the older versions of both Outlook and Notes.

Is there a way to compare both products based on the latest versions of both only?

Continue Reading "Is there an honest comparison of of Notes & Outlook?" »

In today's ComputerWeekly column, Ian White, asks, "Does the world really hate Notes?"

No. I think the world loves to complain.

As far as Lotus Notes is concerned, I run into folks that say they hate Notes as often as I run into users that say that they hate (insert product name here).  (I even know Mac users that complain about their software. Shocking, I know.)

In my experience it often comes down to
   a) no understanding of "What's in it for me?", or
   b) lack of training - management simply said here's your new tool
   
How do we, the Notes community help fix this problem? I think we need to start by understanding the problem.

Many years ago, Zig Ziglar taught me that most people never ever change their mind. They simply make new decisions when presented with new information.

I've been able to show many a self-proclaimed Notes-hater new information -- a simple few things that they can do that will be personally beneficial to them -- and almost immediately they change their song about Lotus Notes.  

It's that easy.

Continue Reading "Does the world really hate Notes? I don't think so" »

I'm preparing for an upcoming workshop on Personal Knowledge Management. Both of my desktops, digital and physical, are covered with stacks of papers on various topics. I have digital versions of most of the printed papers, too. If I don't, I scan them in as searchable PDFs. All of these, I organize in a computer folder hierarchy according to an ever-evolving taxonomy.

Over the years, I have used and experimented with a variety of software applications to manage my stuff. I've explore applications from Adobe Acrobat to Zotero (a useful FireFox plug-in) and many in between, including two of my favorites: Lotus Notes and Personal Brain. I've also worked with a number of home-grown systems. Some of these I have scrapped, while others are still around. Every so often, usually when I am doing research or preparing to give a talk, I like to see what new or proven tools and methods are out there for self organization.

At the enterprise level, there are a multitude of content management systems competing for market share. At the personal level there are many tools that solve specific problems but few that appear to approach the problem of personal content management from a wholistic perspective of the knowledge worker. Perhaps one of the closest I've seen is The Brain.

I'm curious to know what tools or methods you use personally to organize your files, specifically, your documents on your computer so that you can organize and retrieve your information quickly.

Do you have a favorite information organization tool or system, or is your file system more organic?