The Right Stuff

I’m eternally searching for just the right tool for the task(s). Lately, definitely PLURAL.

“Right” means it helps me work the way I think, carrying me with the least possible intrusion by the tool toward completion of the job or jobs at hand.

And when it comes to sorting out the “action items” on my plate, it helps me to see the whole plate. For that, I’ve often tried, then abandoned software utilities called “mind mappers.”

But here’s one such web-based, free and sophisticated program I just might stay with. It’s called Mindomo. Just click the LAUNCH button. My PROJECTS map has 16 MAIN TOPICS so far, some of them running three levels deep. I can SEE all the things that are “out there”, in various states of need or progress, and decide what “to do” to move each along. Then I set alarms and calendar events accordingly. And I can see the same map from work or home, laptop or desktop.

Works for me. Another similar program is bubbl.us but I think I like Mindomo better. I wish it didn’t take so many clicks to start a particular saved map on startup. It’s still in beta but I’m finding it fully functional. Your mileage may vary.

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fred
fred

Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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