However, dealing with crisis requires more effort, time and energy, often leading to increased stress and decreased productivity. There are three steps you can take to gain control over crisis situations.

1. Ask whether or not a problem is really a crisis or merely someone’s sense of urgency. If it’s not a crisis, stop dealing with it. Put it on a to-do list, with an appropriate priority and come back to it at the right time.
2. Plan. Get in the habit of asking, “What could go wrong here?” Take the answers and create contingency plans.
3. Buffer your schedule (#3). Don’t fill your calendar so full that you are unable to address a crisis. If something can go wrong, it will. Allow time to put it right.

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• Why You Should Learn a Productivity System (lifehack.org)
• A Guide for the Overwhelmed (thinksimplenow.com)

Recommended: Zen to Done Productivity eBook The Ultimate Simple Productivity System

5pm is an online project management application that works inside your
browser and can be accessed from anywhere. It comes with what they call a “smart customizable interface” and a wide range of features:

• Simple projects/tasks tree navigation
• Powerful dual panel layout
• Customizable interface
• Timeline view
• Project/Task priority, deadline, status
• Project groups
• Hidden projects
• Email notifications
• Client login
• Access rights
• My Stuff” flat tasks list view


• Sorting projects/tasks by different fields


• European/US date/time formats


• Time Zones


• Contextual menus


• File upload


• Advanced search


• Rollover hints


• “Mark as Done” – quick tasks closing


• Projects/Tasks viewing filters


• Various visual clues


• Time report


• RSS support

You can check it here: www.5pmweb.com

There is an online demo. Also you can register your own free trial
account to play with it. And, if all your projects are on time and under control, you can play the Office Space game.

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David Allen says our brain processes through five phases when accomplishing tasks. He goes on to suggest that these natural phases can be applied to project planning.

You can read the entire post here: Five Phases of Project Planning.

Recommended: Zen to Done Productivity eBook The Ultimate Simple Productivity System

Write it down

Unless you have very little to do or the tasks you have are highly repetitive, you cannot depend on your brain to recall everything that needs doing. The things that are most immediate are going to push away things in the background —often the most important. By writing things down you free up your brain to analyse the information and make productive decisions.

Here are three things I keep in mind with writing things down:

1. Keep the system simple –  the point of writing things down is to get it into a system that makes it easy to find. If your process is too complicated, you’re not going to trust the system and therefore are not likely to use it effectively.
2. Review it – the “brain dump” is not static. The point of writing things down is not to get them out of your mind and then forget about them. You have to review the list regularly.
3. Do it – zen habits addresses this one, How to Actually Execute Your To-Do List: or, Why Writing It Down Doesn’t Actually Get It Done

Recommended: Zen to Done Productivity eBook The Ultimate Simple Productivity System

Recommended: Zen to Done Productivity eBook The Ultimate Simple Productivity System

Here are the negative associated with people that arrive late:

* Latecomers are holding up others and hurting the productivity of everyone who has to wait
* Latecomers are demoralizing those who do bother to show up on time. This sometime starts a chain reaction where everyone starts showing up 5 then 10 then 15 minutes late to the detriment of all.
* Showing up late disrespects others’ time. It is interpreted as ‘The latecomer thinks he is more important or has better things to do than I do.’
* Other people extend lateness to meeting to expect tardiness in other arenas such as project deadlines. Thus, managers label late comers as high maintenance and dependant on others since the manager infers latecomers will be unreliable to be self-regulating. The manager has additional work to check on the work of the late contributor.
* Late people start a domino affect that can set entire groups, departments, and projects back. That hurts reputations as well as budgets and plans.
* Latecomers can get a reputation as ‘in need of attention’, ‘show boater’, ‘egomaniac’, and more.

She doesn’t leave it at the negatives, but talks about the positive attributes of those who know the importance of being on time.

There also has some tips to help those with tardiness issues. You can find some Maria Gracia tips at my post, 7 Tips to Get You Where You’re Going-On Time!

Are you late? – lifehack.org

Recommended: Zen to Done Productivity eBook The Ultimate Simple Productivity System

Some of the features:

• multiple users can collaborate simultaneously
• export/ import (Word, MindManager etc.)
• collapsing lists
• create slideshows from your maps
• ribbon interface like Office 2007
• recovery of deleted maps or map parts
• add hyperlinks inside a Comap
• task management to coordinate collaboration

There is one aspect that most mind mappers might find a little quirky; Comaps are organized left to right. This is billed as a feature, “providing much faster overview of your semantic structure.” While it might provide a more logical approach to scanning, it defeats the purpose of the free-form nature of mind mapping.

Otherwise, this looks like as full-featured an on-line mind-mapping service as is available. I imported a map I had created in MindManager, and it rendered it completely with no problems.

This is not a free service. The current cost is $11.99 for a half-year subscription. You can share maps for free viewing, but for others to collaborate, they will need to sign up for the six month subscription. There is a 30 day free trial and a free demo map for viewing.

comapping.com – Home

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• The Books
• Overviews
• Other resource lists
• The Blogs
• Online tools
• Offline software
• Analogue Tools
• Tools for Mobiles & PDAs
• Mailing Lists & Forums
• Charts, Diagrams, Checklists, etc.
• Best Zen Habits GTD Posts
• Zen To Done (ZTD)
• Other Great GTD Articles

Whether you’re a novice on an expert, you’ll find something(s) of benefit from this list.

Massive GTD Resource List | zen habits

Recommended: Zen to Done Productivity eBook The Ultimate Simple Productivity System

• Ace Project – AceProject is a toolbox that can help organizations to manage multiple projects within one single account. Each project can be structured in a unique way; this allows multiple types of projects to be managed differently, in a central place. Besides, projects can be copied or transformed into templates to be reused later.
• Goal Maker – Understand how to formulate a detailed Action Plan that leads you to successfully achieve all your goals.
• GoalPro – a software-based goal-setting system.
• Life Plan Writer – Life Plan Writer is the only life-goal setting software that incorporates a personality test and personality type-based advice for every part of your life. It’s software that learns you.
• ManagePro – is the award-winning software system for managing objectives, projects, people, time and meetings. It delivers an unparallelled level of visibility and organization across a display of your goals, action plans and results
• Plan Plus – Our PlanPlus™ software line is the heart of our digital solutions. These powerful applications feature the full planning methodologies that FranklinCovey is known for, including prioritized tasks, goal setting, and effective information capture and organization. All PlanPlus software can be synchronized with virtually any PDA. Additionally, we offer a wide variety of accessories, such as binders that hold note pages plus a PDA, that help you build a personalized planning system.
  Single-Step –  single-step software can help you learn to motivate yourself.

Recommended: Zen to Done Productivity eBook The Ultimate Simple Productivity System

I’ve had a pre-release version for a couple or so weeks and have been able to poke around and try some of the new features. This is not a point-something upgrade with a few feature changes. This is a significant enhancement to version 6.x. One of things that has really caught my attention is the ease of use. Rather than adding further complexity with a bunch of new features, the new features serve to make MindManager 7 easier to use.

New Features and Enhancements:

• Ribbon UI – MM7 UI will have the same “look & feel” as Office 2007
• Saved Queries – Allows saving queries in Power Filter/Select/Bookmark dialogs and re-using these queries later.
• Saved Views – Saves current view (filtered topics, collapsed topics, zoom factors) and allows reusing these views later.
• Central Topic – The Parent Topics are hidden and the new central topic becomes the (Central Topic) and the hierarchy starts from what
  was formerly the Subtopic.
• Topic Styles – Allows creation of named topic styles and using these styles across current map regardless of the level at which topics are
  located.
• Split topic – Create new topic based on text sub-selected in topic editor
• Highlight Multiple Topics – Shift + Mouse click selects multiple topics
• Integrate MM7 within Microsoft Applications – Link to topics from external applications.  (i.e.  Launch maps from Word docs.)
• Option to turn off smooth/animated scrolling – Tools -> Options ->Enable animated scrolling
• Multiple Markers within Topics – Option to add more than one marker
• Added Shortcuts:
• Ctrl-Alt-Up/Down – Move current topic above/below the previous/next sibling topic
• Ctrl-Alt-Home/End – Move current topic to the top/bottom of the
  topics list
• Add Multiple Attachment to Map – Use multi select in file browse dialog to add multiple attachments to a topic
• Power Filter: Topic Alerts Support – Makes it possible to find all topics with topic alerts
• Dragging Central Topic Drags/Pans Map
• Replace Sub-Selected Image Using Paste or Paste Inside – Enable Paste Inside when image is sub-selected
• Advanced Sorting  - Implemented sort options for icon marker groups and colour marker groups. Allow reverse sorting of text marker groups. Available via markers group context menu, but not available for priority and task complete groups.
• Add/Flip Relationship Arrows – This command flips ends of relationship arrows within the map and between topics.

Mindjet also announced MindManager 7 Lite, streamlined entry-level software to introduce MindManager to students and home users. MindManager 7 Lite provides these users the ability to visually capture, organize and prioritize ideas. There will also be a version for Macintosh users, MindManager 7 Mac.

The English and German language versions of all of the MindManager 7 applications will be available on May 30th. Pricing is as follows: MindManager Pro 7 US$349, upgrade US$119; MindManager 7 Mac US$129, upgrade US$69; MindManager Lite 7 US$99. In the month of May, anyone who purchases MindManager 6 will receive a free upgrade to MindManager 7 when it becomes available. For more detailed information about features, pricing, and more international versions, please visit MindManager 7

In response to overwhelming demand from our customers and available for the first time is Mindjet Project Management Jet Pack™ created specifically for project teams to kick start project planning and management. The pack includes a whitepaper and 15 related maps, an example project process with 19 additional map examples and templates, and information about our technology partners that support project management solutions. The Jet Pack, in English or German, is available now and free with the purchase of MindManager for a limited time. Please visit www.mindjet.com for more information.

Additionally, Mindjet Technology Partners will have MindManager 7 compatible solutions available for purchase on May 30. Offerings include solutions from aha!Web, BENEfit, BOSSDev, Gyronix, HBB, I and A Research, In4Tools, Mindsystems, MindBusiness, Ontaris, ProjectWizards, Realize AB and TeamDirection. Trials, demonstrations, pricing information and more partner solutions can be found at www.mindjetsolutions.com

Recommended: Zen to Done Productivity eBook The Ultimate Simple Productivity System