Monthly Archives: May 2010

GTD: I get stress from Actions that aren’t Actions, but should be projects (or several Actions)

  By Patrick Sledz | %A %B %e%q, %Y - %I:%M %p | GTD
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This is  just a very short Blog Post but I thought it was important enough to post.

Since a few days I have a feeling of anxiety and stress. Even though I am following the rules of GTD and am doing weekly reviews. At least, I thought I was doing GTD. But then I took a small break to have a view from a distance and thought at what causes my fear. After a few minutes I think I found the reason. At least, I think that now, but we’ll see in a few days or weeks.

I had Actions that actually should be Projects, or should be split into several Actions. So now I am converting these actions to Projects or I make smaller chunks so i don’t have an action that can take 8 hours. This looks banal, but if you ask me, that’s what GTD is all about. Little banal tricks to make you more productive and Get Things Done.
These little thing make big things happen for me.

SharePoint 2010 VHD files : download them now!

  By Patrick Sledz | %A %B %e%q, %Y - %I:%M %p | Office 2010, SharePoint 2010
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Last week, exactly one week ago SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 got launched. More information on http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010launch 

Since May 8th the Information worker VHD files are ready to be downloaded. You can find them at the Microsoft download center

You can also download them with the Akamai download manager
(links updated at September 17th 2010)

The download is about 18 GB big.

This is the content of the VHDs:

Virtual machine “A” contains the following pre-configured software:

  1. Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Evaluation Edition x64, running as an Active Directory Domain Controller for the “CONTOSO.COM” domain with DNS and WINS
  2. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition with Analysis, Notification, and Reporting Services
  3. Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 R2
  4. Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
  5. Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Edition
  6. Microsoft Office Web Applications
  7. Microsoft FAST Search for SharePoint 2010
  8. Microsoft Project Server 2010
  9. Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010
  10. Microsoft Visio 2010
  11. Microsoft Project 2010
  12. Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2

Virtual machine “B” contains the following pre-configured software:

  1. Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Evaluation Edition x64, joined to the “CONTOSO.COM” domain
  2. Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

Active directory has been preconfigured over 200 “demo” users with metadata in an organizational structure. All of these user profiles have been imported and indexed for search within SharePoint Server 2010.
SharePoint Server 2010 has been configured in a “Complete” farm using the default SQL Server 2008 R2 instance. A default site has been created using the Team Site template at http://intranet.contoso.com/ and a FAST Search Center at http://intranet.contoso.com/search/.
As shipped virtual machine “A” requires image “B” for email. Running image “B” is optional.

SharePoint Workflow Status: how to use the workflow status in a workflow (or a view)?

  By Patrick Sledz | %A %B %e%q, %Y - %I:%M %p | SharePoint
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Recently I had to configure a SharePoint workflow where an item had to be copied to another list when the Approval Workflow status is approved. It was ok to start the workflow manually. The workflow had to be created in SharePoint Designer 2007, since no other specialized workflow software is/was available.

The problem I had was that when I assigned a condition that would check if the Approval Status equals Approved. But this doesn’t work when you use this condition, it will be skipped, because internally SharePoint uses a number for the workflow status.

Also, if you Edit in Datasheet (your list or Library) you can see the numbers is stead of the text.

Here is an overview:

Status

Value

Not Started

0

Failed on Start

1

In Progress

2

Error Occurred

3

Canceled

4

Completed

5

Failed on Start(Retrying)

6

Error Occurred (Retrying)

7

Canceled

15

Approved

16

Rejected

17

So, I need to modify my workflow like : If Approval Status Equals 16, ….

The same policy applies when you would like to have a view where you display items based on their Approval Workflow Status.

This list is partially copied from David Wise blog

The New Nozbe 2.0 iPhone App: Review and What I think about it!

  By Patrick Sledz | %A %B %e%q, %Y - %I:%M %p | GTD, Nozbe
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On May 11th, 10 days after my ‘The near future of Nozbe (on iPhone) looks promising.’ post, Nozbe 2.0 for iPhone was released in the AppStore. As I was waiting for this version, I downloaded the moment I could. In this post I’ll try to explain the (new) features, what it means to you and me and what I think about it.

Nozbe for iPhone v2.0

The first thing that has changed is the logo. The logo is refreshed and I like it. Nothing more to say about that, it is just a nice logo. The home screen of the Nozbe 2.0 for iPhone has changed slightly. There was a great demand for an Inbox, and since it was implemented in a previous release of Nozbe on-line, it is also implemented in the iPhone App. For the rest, the menu remains the same except the Inbox is added (Inbox, Next Actions, Projects, Contexts, Calendar), but the layout has changed, and there are new icons.  The icons at the bottom of the page have the same functionality as the previous version, but for them who haven’t used Nozbe for iPhone before, there are 5 icons as you can see in the screenshots

image

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Using Email and Nozbe : One page to master it all

  By Patrick Sledz | %A %B %e%q, %Y - %I:%M %p | GTD, Nozbe
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I was recently searching on the exact syntax to add Actions and/or to email them so they’ll arrive , with or without notes in the Inbox or in a Project in Nozbe.

On the Nozbe blog there were several posts that refer to each other and my purpose is to create this one page overview with everything you need to know when sending email to Nozbe. Since GTD is also about having an ubiquitous capturing tool, this is the ubiquitous Email to Nozbe page.

So, here is my overview of everything you need to know when sending emails to Nozbe.

First of all, it’s important to understand the “Nozbe language”

Syntax

The syntax for a (Next)action is simple

Example:
Write a blog post about Email and Nozbe #blog @computer @home on today %30 min !

You just have to follow this syntax :

  • #projectname : Add a # sign before the name of the project
  • @context : Add a @sign before the context. Multiple contexts can be used.
  • dates : write the date in the action like ‘On today’ , ‘ on tomorrow’, ‘next week’, ‘on June 18”. Nozbe understands these all. If you use a date, you also need to use “on” or “at” before the date. If you use next week or  next month,  you don’t need to use the prefix.

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Nozbe translations. My engagement to help the translations to Dutch

  By Patrick Sledz | %A %B %e%q, %Y - %I:%M %p | GTD, Nozbe
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A few weeks ago I started (re)using Nozbe after my "Remember The Milk" pro- account was expired. This forced me to use Nozbe more intensive and I also engaged myself to the community to translate from English to Dutch.
I started actively and translated some chapters and received an E-mail from Delfina asking if I would like to be a moderator for my language. This would basically mean, I’d not only translate, but also "take care" of the translation in my language together with the Nozbe team. Hereunder I have posted an overview of the topics I’ve translated. Please note, that I started a few weeks ago, and I didn’t logged the topics I have translated in April. Now I started a project in Nozbe, shared it with Michael and we now keep track of (my) translation work. I must say, it is not always easy to translate, because sometime you see just a bunch of words, and you can’t always place it in the correct context. On the other hand, I would like to encourage more translators to translate! It I a huge job, and the sooner we get this done, the sooner we’ll see out beloved Nozbe in our own language.

Topic

Translation date
Aff(iliates)

April 2010
Atimer

April 2010
Duef

April 2010
Size

April 2010
Format

April 2010
Login

May 1, 2010
SEO

May 1, 2010
Forum3

May 1, 2010
Extras

May 1, 2010
Message

May 1, 2010
Biz

May 1, 2010
Feed

May 1, 2010
Task

May 1, 2010
Context 

May 2 , 2010
Newindex

May 3, 2010

Gobiz

May 3,2010
Print 

May 3,2010
Newtour 

May 3, 2010
   
 
Update : Since a few days the Dutch translations are finished. They are ready for production and I hope Michael will release them soon.

Update : Since a few days the Dutch translations are finished. They are ready for production and I hope Michael will release them soon.

The near future of Nozbe (on iPhone) looks promising.

  By Patrick Sledz | %A %B %e%q, %Y - %I:%M %p | GTD, Nozbe
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Today Michael Sliwinski  posted a new blog post on Nozbe.

For me the interesting part (at this moment) is the paragraph about the new iPhone. Nozbe has set up a partnership with Macoscope, a Polish software house that is specialized in development for the Apple platform.

The last modifications were done and the new Nozbe iPhone application is submitted to the Appstore. I can’t wait to start using it. It will be a paying App, and I hope it will not cost too much, but it will definitely add value to the Nozbe application. I’m currently using the version 1.0.2 which is a quite simple application that lacks lots of functionality. (more…)