As an idea person, I’m always on the lookout for tools and software that helps me to do a better job of capturing ideas on the fly. Gyronix, the developer who brought us the ResultManager personal productivity tool for MindManager, has created a marvelous new desktop applet called GyroQ that helps you to capture ideas, fleeting thoughts and “to do” items quickly and easily, without having to open MindManager. Later on, with the click of a button, you can dump them into the map of your choice for further processing and refinement. GyroQ is a perfect complement to MindManager!
How does it work? GyroQ sits in your Windows system tray until it’s invoked with the Ctrl-Q command. A small horizontal window pops up containing an “action item” form field, plus 3 buttons. That’s it. It’s very simple. Simply type in your thought and click the Enter key or the “add” button on the GyroQ workspace. Your idea gets added to the queue. No matter what program you’re currently working in, you can quickly capture ideas and then get back to what you were doing before. GyroQ returns to the system tray (or it can continue floating on your desktop), awaiting your next idea.
Optionally, you can create up to five different idea “types,” which are used to categorize your ideas into top-level topics of the same names when they are dumped into your mind map – a nice time-saving feature! Clicking Ctrl-Q repeatedly causes the program to cycle through each “type” you have set up.
The more steps it takes to open a program and record an idea, the less likely you are to do it. By keeping the GyroQ interface as simple as possible, Nick Duffill and his development team make it more likely that you will capture your ideas, because you can do so with a minimum of fuss – without having MindManager open all day long!
When you’re ready to deal with your accumulated ideas, you simply click the “send” button in GyroQ, and the program dumps everything into the MindManager map that you have designated in its preferences.
If you want to see GyroQ in action, take a look at the video that Eric Mack has posted to his blog. As he points out, you can use it not only as a capture tool, but you can cycle through the idea types one at a time to prompt any ideas you may have lurking within the recesses of your creative brain.
GyroQ is currently in the final stages of beta testing. Gyronix hasn’t set an official launch date for this valuable productivity tool, but it should be very soon. Watch for more information on the Gyronix website (and of course, I will let you know as soon the program launches in this blog!)
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