ResultsManager's Jurassic Evangelist

Mindjet's Hobie Swan recently called me an "evangelist for ResultsManager and MindManager."

And I gotta tell you, that took me aback. I grew up in the heartland of America and I've been (dragged) to the old-fashioned tent revivals where sweaty, bible-thumping men screamed "Devils get out!" into the faces of the locals while they danced in electric chair spasms under his(allegedly) healing hand.

But my past life associations aside, Hobie meant it as a compliment and I took it as such, especially since he was referencing Guy Kawasaki's title of "Raging Inexorable Thunder-Lizard Evangelist" from his early days at Apple.

High praise, indeed coming from such a keen intellect and one of the top voices in the visual knowledge management field.

But it's really not such a big surprise when you think about it. ResultsManager and MindManager are two of my three favorite/most valued apps (the third being Microsoft's OneNote). Frankly, I don't see how you realistically use MindManager w/o ResultsManager (and I made my case for that here).

You need MindManager to get a visual survey of the 'domain' of the project -- a map of the territory, if you will. But right on the heels of that, you also need ResultsManager (or something like it) to make sure that the right things get done at the right time.

And if I build on McFarlin's metaphor, ResultsManager functions as the bureaucrat in the Roman Empire of your life to make sure everything gets done -- i.e., "making sure the trains run on time."

And when need be, ResultsManager also functions as the virtual centurion to make sure nothing goes overdue or gets lost and when it inevitably does -- he makes sure the bureaucrat doesn't go home until he's accounted for everything.

On second thought, you could also consider ResultsManager to functions as a shepherd, even a border collie, corralling all the project elements on the verge of straying and making sure they're accounted for each evening.

And if I further the point by saying the various moving parts of multiple projects is like herding cats, then that would be one metaphor too many and they'll snatch my union card from me. Again.

Together, MindManager, ResultsManager and OneNote form the tripos of the core functionality of my companies. I couldn't do what I do, if I didn't have the correct tools to get the jobs done in the most efficient way possible.

I need MindManager to visually map what needs to be done and where my project resources are.

I need ResultsManager to put deadlines on those project elements and give them context and keep each in my face until they got done.

And I need OneNote for creating and storing my content and ideas and having a searchable database to find everything I've written in flash.

Btw, just why in the world are ResultsManager and MindManager separate products? They dovetail so naturally together that using one without the other is like eating a sandwich without the bread.

Sure, you can eat the components separately -- but it tastes so much better eat them together.

Guess we can all file that little puzzler under "Things That Make You Go Hmmm ..."