With apologies for using the blog as a job board, my four-month contract in Beijing has just ended and I'm looking for work again. There are three things I can do fairly well:

I'm legal to work in the United States, United Kingdom, Poland and (for unfathomable reasons) Sweden. I can work full-time starting in mid-November, and I'm available for freelance jobs starting now. My full resume is here and any email inquiries are welcome.

I've put up Chapter 7 of the Golden Calf translation, 'The Sweet Yoke Of Fame', in which the protagonists buy some sharp new clothes, meet a pair of Chicago gangsters, and enjoy the best night of their lives while plundering their way south through the Soviet countryside.

Last week, I made the switch from Office 2003 to Office 2007 Beta 2.  Prior to the upgrade I was organizing my “stuff to do” using David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology and using the NetCentrics GTD Add In for Outlook.  Unfortunately, as I discovered after the upgrade was complete, the NetCentrics GTD Add In is not yet compatible with Outlook 2007.  They have plans to release an upgrade, but closer to RTM. 

My Requirements

Not wanting to revert back to Outlook 2003, yet still wanting to implement GTD style functions in Outlook, I wanted to see whether I could implement a system that takes advantage of some of the new features in Outlook 2007 (such as the improved categorization for items) without requiring any custom Add-Ins for Outlook.

To start, I drew up a list of ten requirements I needed for implementing GTD using Outlook:

1.       File Email.  I want to set a project (e.g. TechEd) for an Email and then file it to a searchable folder.

2.       Create Task from Email.  I want to set a project and action for an Email (e.g. TechEd, @Office) and then convert the Email to a task item.

3.       Filter Filed Email and Tasks.  I want to filter my filed emails and tasks, both on project and action as applicable.

4.       Create Waiting For Tasks.  I want to create a “Waiting For” task when I send or reply to an Email that delegates an action to someone else.

5.       Create Tasks from Any Machine.  I want a quick way of assigning new tasks from any machine, and ideally any Email account.  (For example, sending myself a task from my Pocket PC Phone when I’m on the road)

6.       Sync with PDA.  I want all my tasks to synchronize with my Pocket PC – and with the ability to filter on both project and action.

7.       Works with the Command Line.  I want to implement a system that also supports my command line add-in from an earlier post.

8.       Supports Keyboard Shortcuts.  I want to use keyboard shortcuts for everything above.  I need a rapid fire way of going through my Email box without using the mouse.

9.       Leverages New Features in Outlook 2007.  I’d like to leverage the new features of Outlook 2007 (e.g. the ToDo bar) if possible.

10.   No Add Ins.  I want to avoid a COM Add In, although rules and VBA macros are OK.

Phew! 

I spent a few days after the upgrade thinking about the above list and looking at the best ways of implementing this using Office 2007.  I checked out other add-ins (Omar turned me on to ClearContext – I actually really like this add-in, although the current version doesn’t have great support for exposing topics (projects) through tasks.  They use their own topic category system which was incompatible with #6 and #7.  I’m looking forward to the next version, which is supposed to fix this).

The Approach

Here’s my approach:

1.       First, I store tasks in Outlook 2007 as “tasks”.  I did contemplate keeping a folder of “tasks” using mail messages only – after all, 99% of my tasks seem to come from Email – but decided against it as I wanted the tasks to appear in the new Todo list in Outlook (Requirement #9), and creating a new mail and saving it to a folder is hard. 

2.       I use a single task folder.  I did consider separate task list folders for each action (@Home, @Office etc.), but this proved difficult to synchronize with my PDA.  (Requirement #6)

3.       I use categories in Outlook to define both the action and the project (e.g. @Office, Blog). 

All my tasks have two categories - both an action and a project.  All my filed Emails just have a project assigned to them.

4.       To turn an incoming Email into a task (something I have to do), I assign it two categories (action and project) and move it to my tasks folder.  Using Keyboard shortcuts, I discovered this can be done as follows (to create a task from the currently selected item, set the project category to TechEd and the action to @Office):

ALT-A, I, A, @ O F F I C E, [SPACE], @ T E C H E D, [SPACE], [ENTER]  (to categorize)

CTRL-SHIFT-V, T, ENTER (to move)

To file an item from my inbox – I select and:

ALT-A, I, A, @ T E C H E D, [SPACE], [ENTER]  (to categorize)

CTRL-SHIFT-V, F, ENTER (to move)    (this sends it to my “file” folder, which is the only one beginning with “f”)

I found this worked well, but after a couple of mishit keys, I couldn’t help thinking there was a more efficient way of doing this.  I blew the dust of an old VBA book and wrote a couple of Macros.  This one does exactly the same as above, excepts opens the categorize dialog  and moves the item automatically:

Sub Task()

    Dim item As MailItem

    Set item = Outlook.Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection.item(1)

    item.ShowCategoriesDialog

    Dim myolApp As Outlook.Application

    Dim myNamespace As Outlook.NameSpace

    Dim myTasks As Outlook.folder

    Dim myFolder As Outlook.folder

    Set myolApp = CreateObject('Outlook.Application')

    Set myNamespace = myolApp.GetNamespace('MAPI')

    Set myTasks = myNamespace.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderTasks)

    item.Move myTasks

End Sub

Now all I need to do is assign this macro to a button on the tool bar (called GTD Ta&sks) and it’s:

ALT-S, @ O F F I C E, [SPACE], @ T E C H E D, [SPACE], [ENTER]

Same with filing an item to the task folder (a little trickier this time as we need to search for the folder):

Sub File()

    Dim item As MailItem

    Dim myolApp As Outlook.Application

    Dim myNamespace As Outlook.NameSpace

    Dim myInbox As Outlook.folder

    Dim rootFolder As Outlook.folder

    Dim subFolders As Outlook.Folders

    Dim subFolder As Outlook.folder

    Dim fileFolder As Outlook.folder

    Dim fileEntryID As String

    Dim fileFolderName As String

    'Set the folder name - must be at the same level as the inbox

    fileFolderName = 'File'

    ' Pick the category

    Set item = Outlook.Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection.item(1)

    item.ShowCategoriesDialog

    ' Move the the file folder

    Set myolApp = CreateObject('Outlook.Application')

    Set myNamespace = myolApp.GetNamespace('MAPI')

    Set myInbox = myNamespace.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)

    Set rootFolder = myInbox.Parent

    Set subFolders = rootFolder.Folders

    Set subFolder = subFolders.GetFirst

    Do While Not subFolder Is Nothing

        If subFolder.Name = fileFolderName Then

            fileEntryID = subFolder.EntryID

            Set fileFolder = myNamespace.GetFolderFromID(fileEntryID)

            item.Move fileFolder

            Exit Do

        End If

        Set subFolder = subFolders.GetNext

    Loop

End Sub

With a 2^nd button called GTD F&ile I can do:

ALT-I, @ T E C H E D, [SPACE], [ENTER]

Much easier!

5.       After getting the categories and shortcuts out of the way, I started thinking about requirement #5 – to quickly create new tasks on the fly.  With the NetCentrics Add In, I was creating a new task (CTRL-K) and then assigning the project and action.  This is still possible, but in Beta 2 I couldn’t find any keyboard shortcut to bring up the categories – and I really wanted to create something that could work from my PDA also.

I wanted a system that would allow me to send an Email to myself with the associated project and action in the body of the Email. 

I then wanted Outlook 2007 to categorize accordingly and move it to the task folder.  To do this, I started creating rules in Outlook that would fire everything an incoming Email came in and I was the sender and on the TO line (i.e. I had sent it to myself).  I had one rule for each category – e.g. a rule that set the category to @office if the body of the Email contained Office etc.

One thing I quickly found however (unfortunately, after having entered about 50 rules), is that the total size of all rules cannot exceed 32k.  This is because Outlook sends all rules to the server using a single RPC call (the maximum size of the data in an RPC call is – you’ve guessed it – 32k).  Even though these were considered client side rules I found Outlook bombing out after I created over 30. 

To overcome this, I wrote a script in VBA that does the categorization for me.  This is really nice as it’s easy to add and remove categories.

Sub SetCategories(MyMail As MailItem)

    Dim body As String

    body = MyMail.body

    Dim action As String

    Dim project As String

    Dim categories As String

    'Actions

    If InStr(LCase(body), '@blog') > 0 Then

        action = '@Blog'

    End If

    ‘ etc…

    'Categories

    If InStr(LCase(body), 'projectx') > 0 Then

        project = 'ProjectX'

    End If

    ‘ etc…

    categories = action & ', ' & project

    ' Save

    MyMail.categories = categories

    MyMail.Save

End Sub

As you can see, the VBA function looks at the body of the incoming Email, checks whether it has any matching categories and sets the categories accordingly.

With this, all I need is one rule that runs the categorization script, and a second rule that moves the incoming mail to the task folder.  I call these GTD Categorize and GTD Move To Task.

One important point:  I was finding that my categorization script was failing for two reasons.  1.  The macro security has to be set accordingly and 2.  I had download headers and then full items enabled on my mailbox.  This was causing some synchronization errors (some of the time) and the categorization would fail (depending on whether the full item or the header was downloaded).  To resolve this, I set the option to download full items and everything worked perfectly.

6.       Creating a Waiting For task.  Now that I had the quick and dirty way of creating new tasks I wanted to enable creating a waiting for task on my delegated mail.  (Requirement #4)

To do this, I created a third rule called GTD Waiting For.  This rule checks Email as it arrives in my Email box to see if it was send from me and if I’m on the CC line.  If this is true, it sets the category of the Email to “@Waiting For” and moves the Email to my task folder.

Now, to set a waiting for action, all I need to do is to make sure I’m on the CC line of Email that I send (which I’ve seen a number of other GTDers do).

7.       Searching for stuff.  To search for stuff, I created a third macro that opens my “File” Folder (which is very similar to the “File” macro above – except it does a folder.Display instead of moving the item – I’ll spare you the VBA listing).

Once the folder is open I hit CTRL-E which moves my cursor to the top of the email list.  I think type and using Windows Desktop Search (WDS) 3.0 Beta, it provides a really quick way of searching my file folder.  This is probably my most favorite feature of Outlook 2007.

One note of caution however:  By installing WDS Beta, you’ll lose the UI of Windows Desktop Search (i.e. the search edit box on the task bar).  I was happily using this until the beta, so have moved to SlickRun until the UI re-appears.  (Actually, SlickRun provides me more options for shortcuts, so I may just keep it J).

Other GTD Habits with Outlook 2007

Well, that’s pretty much how I implemented GTD in Outlook 2007.  Other good habits I try to use:

1.       Decide when you are going to check your Email.  I check mine first thing in the morning, at lunchtime, and then do a “zero email” session in the evening (i.e. take my inbox down to no items). 

2.       If you do need to cursory glance at your inbox during the day (after all, things do come up that need your attention), I recommend creating an Outlook rule that sets the color of mail sent directly to you to a different color (e.g. blue) vs mail sent with you as a CC (e.g. green).  That way you can easily tell the important Emails and get back to your task list.

3.       Related to the other 2, I also recommend removing Mail from the Navigation pane.  This will prevent you “accidentally” clicking on your inbox to have a sneak check! 

To get to your inbox you can use CTRL-SHIFT-I, which will add enough cognitive friction that you’ll think twice before doing so.  I also recommend keeping TASKS as your top most pane, the default view as you open Outlook, and learning to love CTRL-4 (which takes you back to the tasks view at any time).

Conclusion

Well, I hope some of the above is useful – especially if you are looking to implement GTD using Outlook 2007.  I’m going to start work on creating a new version of my command line add-in to work with the new categories in this upgrade.  (I need to work out where the complete list of categories is being stored in Outlook 2007 – for previous versions it was in the registry, but this no longer seems to be the case).

In the meantime, I’d love to hear any more tips and tricks for implementing GTD functionality in Outlook!  Enjoy.

Microsoft’s Architecture Journal is a quarterly magazine, providing a world-class forum for the publication of unique articles on how good architecture can help create great implementations. Microsoft’s Architecture Journal is available as a printed subscription (you can order your own here) and also online here

Now that TechEd is out of the way, I'm looking for abstracts and ideas for Issue #9, the theme of which is Software Factories (think modeling, DSLs, development approaches etc.). Writing for the Architecture Journal gives you the opportunity to get your thoughts and ideas in the hands of enterprise, solution and infrastructure architects around the world – that’s a growing number of over 41,000 subscribers! In addition, your article will be localized into multiple languages and distributed at major events and conferences worldwide.

The cut off date for abstracts for the next issue is July 21st.  If you are interested in making a submission, here are the details:

How do I make a submission?

To submit an idea for a paper, you are asked to send the following:

-          A 2 – 4 paragraph abstract explaining how your paper fits the theme of the magazine

-          A 1 – 2 paragraph bio

-          A list of previously published articles

Submissions should be made via Email to editors@architecturejournal.net

Each issue of the Architecture Journal follows a theme (for example; integration, workflow, data).  80% of the issue is dedicated to this theme.  20% is reserved for articles that we wish to print, but do not follow the theme. 

We receive many submissions for each issue, so we encourage you to put time and thought into the submission.

After the call for papers has ended, everyone that submits an idea will be notified via Email as to whether their submission was successful or not. 

What happens if my submission is accepted?

If accepted, you’ll have between 4 and 6 weeks to submit two drafts and a final version of your paper.  These dates will be clearly communicated.  Your first draft will be reviewed by an editorial board to ensure it is on message for the magazine.   Your second draft and final version will be subject to both technical and content editing.  You’ll be asked to be available to work with our editors via Email during this process. 

The magazine is generally available in print and online 4 weeks after final drafts are submitted.

What are the guidelines for papers printed in the Architecture Journal?

We recommend that papers are between 3,500 and 4,500 words in length – although we have accepted shorter and longer papers in the past.  The article should be submitted using Microsoft Word.  Diagrams should be submitted in either Microsoft Visio or Microsoft PowerPoint.

Do I still own the work?

Yes.  We ask you to sign a release form that gives Microsoft permission to reprint the article, but ownership of the paper remains with you, the author.

Will I get paid for writing?

We do not currently pay authors for contributing to the Architecture Journal. 

Will I get copies of the magazine as an author?

After printing you’ll be sent 10 copies of the Journal for your own use.  Additional copies can be requested.

Update: Traffic Power has changed there name to '1P' or 'First Place'. They are using the domain 1p with a .com after it (please do not link to them). Please spread the word and help others avoid getting burned by them.

GoogleGuy recently broke his silence to confirm that Google has taken action against an SEO firm and it's clients for spammy techniques. The SEO company convinced some its clients to use javascript redirects and place hidden links to doorway pages created by the firm. GoogleGuy explains:

I believe that one SEO had convinced clients either to put spammy Javascript mouseover redirects, doorway pages that link to other sites, or both on their clients' sites. That can lead to clients' sites being flagged as spam in addition to the doorway domains that the SEO set up.

GoogleGuy later reassured webmasters that those who use javascript mousover to place text in the status bar do not need to worry about beeing banned.

While the SEO company was not named in the thread, discussions in other forums reveal that the company in question was Traffic Power. I think it is important to mention the company name, so that others can learn to stay away from them. There have been numerous reports of people losing their job for hiring this firm to do their SEO, and rumors are brewing about a lawsuit in the works.

Update:I have heard that one of the efforts at a class-action lawsuit has been discontinued, but others are pending. If you are a former Traffic Power customer, you can send an email to Dave over at Traffic Power Sucks to get involved.

Thanks to Jan Willamowius for pointing me to this thread. I have been quite busy lately, without much time to scan the discussion threads looking for GoogleGuy's comments, which have been few and far between, and mostly insignificant. If you notice any significant posts by Google, please send me an email at googleguysays@markcarey.com. Thanks

There's been a huge amount of noise in the Canadian blogosphere in the last 24 hours, reacting to the news that Conservative MP Garth Turner was just summarily dismissed from the federal caucus over comments he'd made in his blog, The Turner Report. A couple of friends have asked my opinion on this, so here it is, for what it's worth.

For the record, first of all: I'm no particular fan of Mr. Turner's political views, nor am I in any way a Conservative supporter. In truth, I don't really have a strong opinion on Garth as an individual, one way or the other. He's done well for himself, clearly, and seems like a smart bloke - but whatever thoughts I have to offer on this incident inevitably have to come from a different perspective.

Like Garth, I'm a blogger, and have been for close to six years. So my response to this comes solely from a blogger's perspective. As Voltaire put it: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it," to which I would add: especially when you say it on your blog.

Blogging is about openness, clarity, transparency, truth, and opinion. In this respect, Garth Turner is a good blogger - he speaks his mind fearlessly; is clear and candid about his opinions.  I may not like his opinions, but I respect him for his candour.

Perhaps, as a very public figure, he should have been more prudent in his remarks. "Blog smart" is a good maxim to follow, no matter what your day job is. From what I've gleaned, the reason for his dismissal was stated as "compromising caucus confidentiality". If that's true, he goofed - for sure.

The scuttlebutt, however, suggests a different story: that he was uninstalled primarily because his outspoken and sometimes controversial blog comments flew in the face of the official party line. If that is really the case, then the entire incident is much more worrying. Is Garth Turner being punished for having and expressing ideas?

A government that is not open to a broad mix of ideas and opinions - especially within its own ranks - is a scary thing. Is bland, on-message homogeneity really what we want from the people we vote into positions of power? Again: I don't particularly like where he stands on a lot of issues, but I like the fact that he says what he thinks and causes me to think in return.

Brendan Hodgson also has some thoughts worth reading on this topic.

Tags: Garth Turner, Conservative, Blogging, Politics, 1984

Earlier tonight I was parked on my butt in the Gallery space at Toronto's Spoke Club, listening to the splendid Mathew Ingram, Globe & Mail columnist and blogger of note. This is not anything like a structured discussion of what was a well-attended and most enjoyable event, more a stream of some of the thoughts and notes that came to me during the evening...

Particularly interesting to hear Mathew chastise the Globe for its policy on shoving columns behind a paywall. His traffic per column dropped from 10,000 readers per column online to only 300 readers per column after they shoved him behind the cluewall. Ouch. OK - so those 300 are now "valuable paying subscribers" but, as Mathew points out, he was almost driven into the blogosphere by the actions of his employer - an author in search of a better audience.

I still can't fathom why the Globe and others continue to do things like this. Sure, I understand the economics of the newspaper game, but still. As I pointed out tonight - I've been a six-day subscriber to the dead tree version of the Globe for a long time now - yet if I wanted to actually go online to read some of the same stuff I've already paid for (including Mathew's columns, for example), I'd have to pay more to become an "Insider Edition" subscriber to the Globe's site. Bollocks.

Later... Joe Thornley asks Mathew to describe the relationship between the blogs he runs and the work he does for the Globe's print and online editions - and whether there's any overspill.  Mathew comments that he has on occasion found that the stuff he's blogging about starts to seed ideas for business columns. I asked him if the influence and overspill ever ran the other direction - has he ever written for the Globe and then blogged: "now, here's what I really think".  After a pause to reflect, Mathew responds "I don't think so". I can believe that, in his case. He's a columnist rather than a reporter, so (as he pointed out) he's paid to express his opinions anyway.

There was some interesting discussion about the GooTube deal - what's fueling these huge acquistions (with Skype cited as another, earlier example).  This discussion sparked Mathew to talk about the remarks he's had from one of his readers who confessed to being "addicted" to following the comments at Mathew's blog.

I had a half-formed thought here.  There's a line of connection between YouTube, MySpace, blogging in general - and the older social media forms of Usenet, IRC, CompuServe, and their ilk.  It's all part of David Weinberger's thread on "The Longing". Mathew's point in linking the GooTube deal to blog comment addiction (I think) was that it's just human nature to have this kind of vicarious interest in what other people are saying, thinking, doing - hence the success of YouTube (where we get to watch regular punters do stupid things) and blogging before it (where we get to read regular punters saying stupid things, and then add our own stupid thoughts into the lovely, mutually-assured-stupidity huggyfest of the whole thang). It's why we love flamewars; why trolls moved from Usenet to listservs to IRC and to blogging with ease and enthusiasm.

We all just love to talk, to debate, to read others' thoughts, to hear what people have to say, pick fights, pick nits, pick bones, etc. Now, of course,  the technology barriers of adoption have just come down low enough to make your medium of choice a whole lot more accessible, visible, and just much, much easier for the man on the Clapham omnibus (or the 501 streetcar, for that matter) to jump in. We can all be famous for 15 people.

In the conversation tonight, this thought also got tied into Second Life - with the point being that the idea of location is ceasing to matter. It's also true that the platform and the technology (while still mattering, to a point) is ceasing to matter, at least in the sense that it's becoming irrelevant and wrong to think of the technology as in any way a hindrance to discussion - it's all about removing boundaries. So the GooTube deal ends up being about conversation and audience as much as it is about disruption of the TV model. Or something like that...

Sorry - I think I did a good job of listening, but a poor job of taking notes. This is even more than usually waffly. Either way, if you're in Toronto, interested in where PR is headed, and you're not marking your calendar with these Third Tuesday events - you're missing some interesting and - yes - even important stuff. Kudos again to the teams at Thornley Fallis and Fleishman Hillard for pulling tonight's session together - and thanks to Mathew Ingram for much good thought fodder. (Oh, and apologies to Chris Clarke that you got saddled with the tab for the room).

Tags: Third Tuesday, Mathew Ingram, Thornley Fallis, Fleishman Hillard

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