Now here is something different: an actual book (that is not a manual) about an outliner! And not just any outliner, but WorkFlowy!

Frank was kind enough to send me a review copy, so I'm happy to say more about it if anyone is interested (I'll probably write more about it on my blog, when I get a bit more time), but let me just say that I'm very impressed!

OK, I'm an outliner nerd and a WorkFlowy fan, so I'm susceptible, but considering that I use WF every day as my main project management tool, to-do list manager, note-taker, and outliner (in conjunction with some other tools), I thought I had it more or less figured out, after all it's one of the most minimalist, simple-to-use outliners out there.

Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. Frank's knowledge and use (method? philosophy?) of WorkFlowy is really something else... I jokingly said to him that the WorkFlowy folks should be giving him an honorary degree in WorkFlowy Craft because this is some black-belt stuff.

Check out the table of contents over here:
http://www.productivitymashup.com/about-workflowy-book

Thanks, Dr. Andus. for the tip. I bought a copy. I didn't know one could combine Markdown into Workflowy, or that one could have links to another part of the document. Perhaps I should have known, but I didn't. Those two features alone have more than justified the purchase. In summary, highly recommended.

I bought Frank's book. It's very good.

I used to be a workflowy "expert" ... until I read this book. Now I'm just a power user I suppose. Heh. Anyway, I'm getting a lot of great ideas from his book. And I appreciate Frank's writing style. Enthusiastic but not vacuous.

To get the maximum gain from the book I think you have to actually *do* the suggestions - just reading about them doesn't give you the full effect. Kind of like workflowy itself, come to think of it.

Dr Anddus, I'd be interested in hearing more about the Workflowy book, and also on your own setup for academic work. I have returned to university after a 40 year absence, and am wondering how best to use Workflowy for managing deadlines, exam dates, and notes. My subjects are anthroppology, native studies and sociology.

I also want to begin a knowledge base reflecting my recent and growing interest in genocide. It is because of this interest I have reurned to university so that I can acquire the social sciences background to enable me to read and work with genocide related literature in a meaningful way.

Concurrently, I am moving ahead (finally) with a book based on my experiences as a chaplain and therapist. Again, I am wondering how best to use Workflowy.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions you may offer me.

Daly

"Enthusiastic but not vacuous" was exactly what I was hoping to achieve. Thanks for the compliments here guys. Let me know if there's anything I can expand on from the book. Pun intended. And thanks Dr. Andus for being a wild fan. You know how to make a guy feel special :-)

yosemite wrote:

I used to be a workflowy "expert" ... until I read this book. Now I'm
just a power user I suppose.

You got off lightly ;-) After Frank's book I feel more like a basic/lower intermediate user...

frank.dg wrote:

Let me know if there's anything I
can expand on from the book.

Frank, welcome to the forum!

Daly de Gagne wrote:

I'd be interested in hearing more ... on your own setup for academic work. >and am wondering how best to use
Workflowy for managing deadlines, exam dates, and notes.

Hi Daly, concerning the time-sensitive task management aspect, I would recommend reading the PRIORITIZE YOUR BRAIN - TASK MANAGEMENT chapter in Frank's book. I'm still digesting the implications of his book, so whatever I've been doing on WorkFlowy is very likely to change now.

What I do can't really be called a 'setup' or a 'system,' while Frank offers some pretty sophisticated solutions, such as Kanban calendar and the like.

As WorkFlowy doesn't have reminders, I still use Google Calendar for deadlines and exam dates and such.

I've been using WorkFlowy in an extremely basic way: I manually push the most urgent and important tasks to the very top of the list, so the top of my WorkFlowy would be a short list of tasks or projects ordered according to due date and importance.

I still add a date tag to time-sensitive tasks or notes that need a date stamp like this: @24_Oct_2015 but I haven't really integrated them into my workflow as Frank does.

Daly de Gagne wrote:

I also want to begin a knowledge base reflecting my recent and growing
interest in genocide.

This is an interesting issue. As you may know, I use ConnectedText for my knowledge base, more or less implementing a Zettelkasten system. But recently it occurred to me that WorkFlowy could also be used as a Zettelkasten (though without some of the extra functionality that CT offers).

Christian Tietze came up with a list of criteria for what features a Zettelkasten software needs (http://zettelkasten.de/posts/baseline-zettelkasten-software-reviews/ and looking at those criteria, WorkFlowy meets most if not all of them.

Check Christian's use of NValt for his Zettelkasten: this could be emulated in WorkFlowy fairly well:

http://zettelkasten.de/posts/nvalt-zettelkasten-implementation/

Concurrently, I am moving ahead (finally) with a book based on my
experiences as a chaplain and therapist. Again, I am wondering how
best to use Workflowy.

Again, check Frank's chapter PUBLISH YOUR BRAIN (2) - A BOOK-WRITING WORKFLOW. He wrote his book in WorkFlowy, and illustrates the process throughout.

All of what Dr. Andus said... plus... tinker with WorkFlowy and get comfortable moving around. Use their keyboard shortcuts until it's second nature... then you'll even develop workflows of your own and share with others :-)

hansolo wrote:

I didn't know one could
combine Markdown into Workflowy, or that one could have links to another
part of the document.

What I didn't know was that you can have colour in WorkFlowy. The last few days I've been going crazy colour-coding my main projects and tasks and then organising them into groups by colour.

Now I'm trying to decide if I've overdone it and if I should only colour in my tags, which is yet another option. But it's easy enough to switch on and off styles and extensions in Chrome.

Dr Andus wrote:

But it's easy enough to switch
on and off styles and extensions in Chrome.

Yep... no matter how much you change things up, there's always the off switch :-)... or if you happen to switch to mobile device it's back to the way things were before. I say there's nothing to lose.

Dr Andus, thank you kindly for your response. I apologize for taking so long to acknowledge it.

I bought Frank's book, and found it helpful, especially the info re Stylish. I like a simple layout, but am also partial to colour, and a darker type for notes.

Zettlekasten has a lovely logic to it. I am not finding the programs dedicated to it quite to my liking. However, utilizing it in Workflowy seems like a natural solution. Now that I am part of the university I can access electronically and without charge all the journals I desire, both for my actual courses and my personal interests. I often prefer to take notes longhand while reading, and then enter them on the computer. It aids retention for my ageing brain through utilizing different neurological pathways and repetition.

Again, thank you for your help!

Daly


Dr Andus wrote:

Daly de Gagne wrote:
>I'd be interested in hearing more ... on your own setup for academic
work. >and am wondering how best to use
>Workflowy for managing deadlines, exam dates, and notes.

Hi Daly, concerning the time-sensitive task management aspect, I would
recommend reading the PRIORITIZE YOUR BRAIN - TASK MANAGEMENT chapter in
Frank's book. I'm still digesting the implications of his book, so
whatever I've been doing on WorkFlowy is very likely to change now.

What I do can't really be called a 'setup' or a 'system,' while Frank
offers some pretty sophisticated solutions, such as Kanban calendar and
the like.

As WorkFlowy doesn't have reminders, I still use Google Calendar for
deadlines and exam dates and such.

I've been using WorkFlowy in an extremely basic way: I manually push the
most urgent and important tasks to the very top of the list, so the top
of my WorkFlowy would be a short list of tasks or projects ordered
according to due date and importance.

I still add a date tag to time-sensitive tasks or notes that need a date
stamp like this: @24_Oct_2015 but I haven't really integrated them into
my workflow as Frank does.

Daly de Gagne wrote:
>I also want to begin a knowledge base reflecting my recent and growing
>interest in genocide.

This is an interesting issue. As you may know, I use ConnectedText for
my knowledge base, more or less implementing a Zettelkasten system. But
recently it occurred to me that WorkFlowy could also be used as a
Zettelkasten (though without some of the extra functionality that CT
offers).

Christian Tietze came up with a list of criteria for what features a
Zettelkasten software needs
(http://zettelkasten.de/posts/baseline-zettelkasten-software-reviews/
and looking at those criteria, WorkFlowy meets most if not all of them.

Check Christian's use of NValt for his Zettelkasten: this could be
emulated in WorkFlowy fairly well:

http://zettelkasten.de/posts/nvalt-zettelkasten-implementation/

>Concurrently, I am moving ahead (finally) with a book based on my
>experiences as a chaplain and therapist. Again, I am wondering how
>best to use Workflowy.

Again, check Frank's chapter PUBLISH YOUR BRAIN (2) - A BOOK-WRITING
WORKFLOW. He wrote his book in WorkFlowy, and illustrates the process
throughout.

Dr Andus wrote:

What I didn't know was that you can have colour in WorkFlowy. The last
few days I've been going crazy colour-coding my main projects and tasks
and then organising them into groups by colour.

Here is a cool new style for WorkFlowy (using Stylish browser add-on):

Zen Colour Labels

https://userstyles.org/styles/120974/workflowy-zen-colour-labels

Yet another way to go crazy with colours in WorkFlowy...

hansolo wrote:

I didn't know one could
combine Markdown into Workflowy

Here is an interesting post from Frank on how to preview Markdown in WorkFlowy:

http://blog.workflowy.com/2015/12/17/markdown-preview/

Frank is giving away his chapter on how to use the Stylish extension with WorkFlowy for free, if anyone is interested:

http://blog.workflowy.com/2016/01/14/lifelogging-tag-count/

The blog post is interesting for other reasons as well, such as how to use WorkFlowy for date and time logging visually (using colours and graphs), such as for the "Don't Break the Chain" method.

I have to admit this is far beyond my own WorkFlowy skills or patience levels to even try to implement such a system in WorkFlowy, but it looks impressive nonetheless.

One key benefit of WorkFlowy being a web-based service is the ability for users to develop browser extensions and styles and add functionality to it that maybe its inventors themselves had never imagined.