Personal Blog of Björn Zinkler

How bad do you want it?

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Sometimes I start my day with an idea on my mind, which makes me very excited. Then I get strong momentum, time is passing by when I work on this and even if obstacles emerge, I keep going in order to make my tiny dream come true. It's fantastic to be so energetic and when you watch the result, there is pride in your heart.

But what's up with bigger dreams? Do they also let you wake up early each morning and ignite your passion? In other words: Will you stay motivated over a long period of time and get what you want or is it a question of discipline?

I think it's both. Intrinsic motivation is the reason, why you want to make your dream come true. But we are all human and occasionally we loose motivation, tend to give up or stand before tasks which aren't fun. Then discipline comes into play and let us continue, even if we think about all the nice pleasures, which we could enjoy. But I must comment, that discipline only works temporarily. If this phase goes too long and we don't fall back into motivation mode, things can become worse and we might loose ourselves.

Another problem is the world we live in. There are too many distractions, possibilities and non goal related commitments out there, which want to attract our focus, time and engery. We are also trained to prefer short feedback invervals with tiny rewards. Although time can pass very fast, it seems to be out of our imagination, what we can achieve in any kind of field if we constantly work on this.

So, which app will solve this problem? ... There is no app for that!

The tool is called your brain and what makes sense to me, is to fall in love every day again. Don't ask yourself, how bad do you want it. Once you've commited yourself, repeat: I want it so badly!

Don't think about your dream, live it! Focus on the essentials and rock the stage of life!

My favorite software tools for working under Microsoft Windows

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Utilities

Everthing – find files extremely fast on your computer
Launchy - forget the windows task menu
Desktops – work on virtual desktops
Putty – SSH client
WinSCP – best FTP/SFTP/SCP client
TeamViewer – free remote access client
KeePass – password manager
7-zip – file archiver
foxit Reader – lightweight PDF reader alternative to Adobe Acrobat
FreePDF – virtual PDF printer
PDFsam – split and merge PDF documents
TrueCrypt – disk encryption software
WireShark – package logger

Entertainment

VLC – OpenSource multimedia player
last.fm Scrobbler – individual radio client

Multimedia editing

FreeMake – video converter
avidemux – video editor
Audacity – audio editor

Google Chrome and some extensions

AdBlock – removes Ads
BookmarkMenu – quick access to bookmarks
Chromodoro – Pomodoro timer
Evernote Clearly – removes distractions
Clicky Monitor – get live visitor statistics of your website
Flash Block – doesn’t allow the execution of embedded flash atomatically
Klout – reputation status for Twitter
Todoist – quick access to task list

Knowledge management, going paperless and filing

MindManager & FreeMind - MindMapping tools
Evernote - store and find digital information
Dropbox - store and sync the files on your computer

Personal productivity

Todoist & Todoist Quick Tasks - task management app

Todoist Quick Tasks

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100

After using Nozbe for a long time I temporary switched to a Personal Kanban system and now I have combined this with GTD principles and went to Todoist.

I like the Zen-like interface, useful keyboard shortcuts and the possibility to indent projects and tasks to different levels. You can also redirect mails to Todoist if you have a premium account. Yes, I’m practicing Inbox Zero.

Todoist Quick Tasks is a tool which integrates well into into your workflow if you are using Microsoft Windows and want to add new tasks to Todoist from anywhere. There’s no need to leave your browser opened or switch the window during the work. Simply press CTRL+ALT+t and add one or more tasks. After that it minimizes to the system tray. So Todoist Quick Tasks improves your focus and you have more time for the things you need to get done.

Initially I developed this tool for Nozbe. In the first version of Todoist Quick Tasks I added some features which were requested by users of the old version. So please give me feedback if you have found a bug, nice ideas for the future or other improvements.

Download Todoist Quick Tasks 1.5 now for free!

To connect the tool to your Todoist account save your Todoist API key under “File – Settings”.

Requirements:

Windows XP or higher
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 (Client)
2 MB free disk space

Get a demonstration on how Todoist Quick Tasks works:

In the following I want to share my roadmap for future development with you.

Releases

1.5 – first public release, 07.12.2011

create new contexts (labels) from Todoist Quick Tasks in Todoist
select your default mode for quick task entry
add multiple contexts to a task
add multiple tasks with the same options (project & contexts)
hides the tooltip after adding the first ten tasks
works great with umlauts or special characters

Nozbe Quick Tasks

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0200

Like many people who want to be productive I really like Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen. After testing some paper based and a lot of web based solutions I must say that Nozbe fits best for my needs. Not only that it has an iPhone app but it also works perfectly with Dropbox and Evernote so that I only need one login to have access to all my work related information and tasks.

Maybe I will write a blog post later about my productivity setup.

To improve the GTD with Nozbe under Microsoft Windows I developed a tool which integrates well into my workflow so that I only need to press “Ctrl+Alt+T” if I want to add one or more tasks to Nozbe. I call it “Nozbe Quick Tasks” because its performance is great. The interface looks sleek and is designed for power users. For example after entering a task you only need to press enter again so that the application will submit your tasks to Nozbe and minimize to the system tray after that.

Download Nozbe Quick Tasks 1.0 now!

To connect the tool to your Nozbe account save your Nozbe API key under “File – Settings”.

Requirements:

Windows XP or higher
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 (Client)
2 MB free disk space

Get a demonstration on how Nozbe Quick Tasks works:

In the following I want to share my roadmap for future development with you.

Releases

0.9 – first public release, 29.08.2011

one input field for task details (task name, project, context)
stores tasks in a table layout
batch saving

1.0 – “focus release”, 21.09.2011

removed table layout
main input fields “task, project, context”
task can be saved after pressing enter in each field
minimizing the application will clear the user input

Roadmap – next features

Small field for estimated time and checkbox for next action
It should be possible to add more than one context to a task (still waiting for a response of Michael Sliwinski regarding the API support)
Installer should automatically deinstall the previous version
Bugfix: Special characters need to be escaped

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) with Microsoft Project 2007

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0200

I just created a project schedule (gantt chart) in Microsoft Project 2007 and didn’t find a built in function for exporting it into a work breakdown structure.

After some searching on the web I found a great tool which was released by Microsoft and integrates with Visio 2007.

Then you can select the WBS template on startup and import your project from Microsoft Project using the “WBS Modeler” in the main menu of Visio.

You will find the installer and manual here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=14320

FreeMind to Textile converter

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0200

During my exam preparations I often create outlines about the lecture and save them on Backpack or Writeboard of 37signals.

The only way to create nested lists there is taking use of the textile formatting language. It’ is not very complicated because you need to write a star at the beginning of each line for every level.

But the bad side of this is that the more levels you have the more stars you need to type in.

So I started to use the OpenSource mind mapping software FreeMind to create the lecture overviews. That works very fast and with a high usability. On the other hand the created mind maps are not helpful if you want to study on the go on your iPhone. Lists have the advantage that you can cover the following points with a blank sheet of paper so that you can try to recall them on your mind.

Because there was no built in feature to export FreeMind mind maps to textile I developed a simple converter in C# as a preparation for my C# exam at the university which I could use for the other lectures, too .

The Freemind2Textile converter is also helpful if you do brainstormings, create meeting protocols or other documents on FreeMind which you need in Basecamp or Backpack later. I think that there are a lot of practical use cases.

Download Freemind2Textile converter now!

Requirements:

Windows XP or higher
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0
1 MB free disk space