Murphy's Law

Update: Stuart Bruce reminded me that OneNote is now available free of charge across all your devices.

Following the previous post about using OneNote to manage your digital life, I had a number of people ask how I actually structure OneNote, so here’s a quick overview that hopefully provides some food for thought.

One of the great things about OneNote is that it’s completely adaptable to how you want to work. There isn’t one single structure or approach, rather you can fine tune it so that it best suits how you work or what you want to do. This flexibility came home to me recently when I was reviewing my OneNote archives going back to 2007 and it’s been interesting to see how the structure of my notebooks have changed over that period.

So for what it’s worth here’s how I use OneNote.

Start before you open OneNote

One of the great things about OneNote is that you can just dive in and start adding notes and thoughts, archiving emails, clipping web pages etc. However, I always advise people to invest some time thinking through how they want to use it, what are your work and personal priorities and responsibilities, what information will you put in OneNote etc.

One useful way to do this is what David Allen calls a mind sweep. This is a process of sitting down and pulling together everything you have going on in your work and personal life so that you have a good left to right view of your world from an urgent project to cleaning the yard.

The next step is outlining the priorities you have and using those priorities to drive the structure of your OneNote.

At this point you should also think about where you want to keep your OneNote notebooks stored. You can save them locally to your hard drive or you can use built in support for OneDrive and for work related content you can also use OneDrive for business.  For me using OneDrive is essential, it keeps all my notebooks synchronized across all my devices. So no matter where I am, I have the latest content.

Structuring OneNote

My OneNote notebooks have evolved over time, however the main structure has been consistent and works for me.

There are three active notebooks I use:

• Personal (Web) – this is the default notebook that’s opened when you install OneNote – I’ll explain why it’s easiest to use this notebook later
• 2014 Work notebook – my work notebook for the current financial year
• Reference notebook – a general notebook

Personal (Web) Notebook

This is the notebook where I spend most of my working day. I’ve structured it based on my personal and professional priorities. It includes the following sections:

• Quick Notes
• Journal
• Agendas
• Projects Work
• Personal Projects
• Someday Work
• Someday Personal

Quick Notes – this is the standard OneNote tab in the standard OneNote notebook when you install the app. I use it because it’s where OneNote stores any quick notes you create, and if you’re using the new OneNote services like web clippings or posting to OneNote via email (using me@onenote.com) this is where those notes go.

Quick Notes is my OneNote Inbox. It’s the default place I send information from emails, to meeting notes, ideas, articles, documents etc.

I also have a shortcut to Quick Notes on the home screen of my Windows Phone so if I think of something I can quickly write or record the thought directly into OneNote.

(Note for Windows Phone 8.1 users: The other benefit of using this notebook, is that if you use Cortana this is the folder where any notes you dictate to her are sent).

The key here is that you capture everything in the Quick Notes section, then you process every item in there and file it as required. For example, review meeting notes for any actions or reminders. After reviewing them then I move them out of Quick Notes and into the relevant notebook or section. The aim is to empty out the Quick Notes section regularly. 

There are a number of other tabs in this folder:

Journal – I have over the past few years kept a journal. Though calling it a journal may be overstating it a little. I don’t necessarily write it up every day, but I do jot things down and capture any thoughts, ideas, or lessons I’ve learned. I’ve found it incredibly valuable in terms of keeping a record of what’s been going on. Because OneNote can handle any information I can pop photos, text, documents, links, screen captures etc in there, and it’s accessible from my PC, any web browser, tablet, phone etc.

Agendas – In here I have a page for everybody that I’m working with. I create the Agenda page for each person by sending their Outlook contact card to OneNote. Then on each contact’s page I jot down things I need to talk to them about next time I see them, I also link to the notes from previous 1:1 meetings so I can review those notes ahead of our next meeting if required.

Projects – I have a page for each active project I’m working on. How you set this up is down to personal preference. I have a page for each project that is set it up similarly to this mock-up:

The fantastic thing about OneNote is you can then attach files, handwritten notes, links to resources on the web – and even better, links to other OneNote pages. This means that this one project page can aggregate all the information and references for a project. It’s an incredible time saver.

Personal Projects – Same as above but for Personal interests.

Someday – In this tab I have a general page that has future work related thoughts, ideas etc. Then I have an individual page for larger items or projects which I will need to do in the future but aren’t actionable right now. I review this tab every week and then migrate projects or ideas into the project tab when they are ready to go.

Someday Personal – Same as above but this is for personal projects. I also use this for capturing notes and lists such as books I want to read, movies or TV programs I want to see etc.

 

Work Notebook

This is for all the reference information you need
as part of work life. Each year I’ll have a specific Work notebook, and when the year ends I retire it to my archives and create a new one. This keeps all the reference material, notes, emails, files, etc. for that year together and in context. I’ve over 10 gigabytes of OneNote notebooks that contain a lot of information and resources going back over the years.

So how do you structure it? Well there are probably a number of core focus areas or responsibilities for your job. For example things like Administration, Management, Planning, then specific clients, services or products – this will obviously be specific to your work life. I have a tab for each of these areas in my work notebook.

Then when I have a relevant email, article, or meeting note I file it in the related area (and cross link them to my project pages) which creates an incredibly rich database of relevant work information.

Finally, I also have an archive tab. When a project is complete I put it in the archive folder which gives me a full inventory of projects completed through the year.

Note: Given it’s work-related information I host this notebook on OneDrive for Business – which comes with Office 365 and ensures sensitive company information is separate from your personal OneDrive.

 

Reference Notebook

Finally I have a reference notebook. Whereas the first two notebooks hold mostly date-specific information, this is a big old notebook that I use as a repository for evergreen information I may want to review or read again. How you structure this really depends on your interests, for me it has career related content, PR content, old manuals, interesting articles, quotes, resources, etc.

 

End of year

At the end of the calendar and work year, I archive the year specific content that I have in my Personal (Web) and Work notebooks into new notebooks for that particular year – one for personal and one for work. I keep any information that remains relevant for the new year.

 

Some additional OneNote Tips:

• Hyperlinking: The best power tip is hyperlinking in OneNote. Not only can you link to web pages, but you can link to other notes. So for example in the Agendas section. I can link to previous meeting notes so I have a complete record of past conversations I can quickly review. From your project page you can add files and links to related notes.
• Tags: OneNote has useful tagging capabilities which make it faster and easier to find information later. One absolutely killer feature is tag search. You can not only search all your notes and notebooks for tags but you can pull together tags onto a ‘summary page’ – this is a great feature.
• Outlook Integration: When I build out my projects, I’ll have a list of next actions. Using ‘Ctrl-Shift-K’ I can create an Outlook task from that action and the two items are linked, this is a great focus tool. Also, when the Outlook task is completed the item is marked complete in your notebook automatically.
• Using two OneNote windows: When you start using OneNote a lot, there may be times you want to have two OneNote windows open rather can clicking back and forth between pages (or using Alt-left or right arrow). Instead just hold down Control-M and a new OneNote window opens.
• Office Lens: One of the best things about OneNote is that you can add practically any type of digital content from anywhere. This includes making non-digital information digital. Think about that printed brochure, that receipt, napkin, whiteboard or moleskin page. Office Lens is a fantastic little app that simplifies capturing that content with your phone and transfers it automatically into OneNote. It’s also smart, optimizing capture with different modes from Whiteboard to documents and photos. It’s currently available for Windows Phone.
• Onetastic: Microsoft developer Omer Atay has created a set of great little tools and add-ins for OneNote including OneCalendar where you can view all your notes on a Calendar. It’s a free download and I recommend it.

 

The beauty of OneNote is it’s flexibility. You should play around and find a structure that works for you.

I’d love to hear how you’re using OneNote and if you’ve any tips or questions leave a comment or feel free to get in touch.

Additional notes:

• OneNote is now available on Windows (both traditional desktop and as a modern app – which is really nice and worth a look if you haven’t already). Windows Phone, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android and on the web.
• There’s also a host of new complimentary apps and services for OneNote from doxie to Feedly and IFTTT.

Related posts:

• 2014: One(Note) productivity tool to rule them all
• 2013: Get your life balanced and productive
• 2008: PR in 2010: Coping with the Cacophony
• 2008: How do you stay organized?
• 2007: New PR – another failed resolution?

Disclaimer: This is Tom Murphy’s personal weblog.  In an ideal world the opinions I express on this blog and the associated web pages would represent my own personal views and not those of my current, prior or future employers. Of course we know the world is never that simple and I’ll write on this blog with that in mind :).

• Murphy’s Law is my blog about Public Relations and technology.
• PR Opinions, is an archive of all my PR posts from March 2002 to August 2006.

Tom Murphy

I live and work in Washington state in the United States where I work as director of commercial communications for Microsoft Office including Office 365 and Yammer.  A big part of my job is digging into how social technologies are finally changing how people work and enabling them to focus on getting the most important things done.  It’s a really exciting and fast moving area.  Before joining the Office team I was leading momentum communications for Windows, leading a team of smart, creative people focused on communications and storytelling for consumers, businesses and application developers.  Prior to joining the Windows team I spent four years working on Corporate Citizenship communications at Microsoft Corporation. I moved to the United States in March 2009. Prior to that I spent four years running Microsoft’s local Citizenship and Public Relations programs in Ireland.

I started working in public relations in 1992 and I’ve had the great fortune to work in a range of great in-house and agency roles working with many of the world’s greatest technology brands such as Corel, Gateway, Intel and Microsoft, as well as a range of successful (and unsuccessful) independent start-ups.  I’ve had fantastic opportunities to work around Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia, North America and Latin America – and along the way worked on strategy, crisis communications, product marketing, initial public offerings and investor relations, analyst relations, and I’ve been working with social media since 2002.  From a technology perspective I’ve worked with companies in practically every area of the technology business from launching microprocessors, to tape (gulp) storage, consulting services, desktop apps, cloud services, operating systems, enterprise applications, developer tools, mice, keyboards, PCs, laptops – you name it I’ve probably done it.

A word of warning, although I may offer it you should never take any career advice from me.  When I left college in 1991 I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I didn’t want anything to do with:

1. computers
2. communications or PR

I’ve spent over 20 years doing both, so be forewarned.

I started blogging about public relations and other things in 2002.  I am a passionate advocate of the importance of great communications and the positive impact of social media.  However, I am a pragmatist and I eschew the hyperbole you often find about social media.  I believe that great PR starts with your business objectives and your strategy.  Social media is no different.  Understand your business and your audience – avoid the hype!

If I blog about a Microsoft product or service it will be tagged with He would say that  – that’s my formal disclosure tag.

I’m married to the long-suffering Sorcha and we have the world’s best son, Cillian and the world’s best daughter, Anna.

If you want to get in contact:

E-mail: tpemurphy -AT- hotmail.com

Mobile: +1-425-614-614-6

MSN IM: tpemurphy -AT- hotmail.com

Twitter: @tpemurphy

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tpemurphy

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tpemurphy

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Comment policy: Comments on any of these blogs are moderated. Any comments I deem inappropriate for this blog will be not be posted.  Where those comments are not spam, I will flag that decision with the person who submitted the post. Comments on the PR Opinions blog are closed.

Last week a friend passed along a post from a PR firm’s blog that had me rolling my eyes so hard and fast that I strained them.

You see, in the rush to publish a critique in a timely manner, the author didn’t allow ignorance or even the most rudimentary research get in the way of their opinion. It was like they had a pre-canned post and they were looking for an example they could use.  It resulted in a piece that was was not just inaccurate, it was ill conceived and simply untrue.

After reading this critique I did something that the author clearly had not done, namely a little bit of research.  The blog is from a firm that claims to provide ‘strategic counsel’ -  though in fairness the website didn’t specify what they provide strategic counsel on.  Reading the blog post, I’ll wager it isn’t strategic counsel on public relations.

There’s been a rise in this quick reflex PR ‘analysis’ – and in fairness it’s not something unique to PR -  you see it everywhere. People don’t stop to let facts get in the way of their published opinion.

But they should.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with reasoned criticism or opinion. But that’s not what this was.  This was a post in search of a meme. It’s a kind of professional trolling and while it’s not new it is on the increase. When I see a crisis unfolding I feel empathy for the PR team involved.

Having been on the inside of many issues, I know that the communications team will be working through tough decisions and there’s not always an easy or simple resolution.  In fact, the growth of social media has meant that issues today have far more phases, twists and turns than ever before.

Regrettably these days communicators are often not only dealing with the issue in question, but they’re dealing with the hurlers on the ditch who often pass judgment without any insight (or interest) into many of the complexities involved.

I have no problem with fair, reasoned criticism but the rush to jump on the bandwagon without any insight or rudimentary research isn’t something that should be encouraged.

My colleague Steve Clayton shared this video from McLaren F1 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the team being founded.

In my opinion it’s a wonderful production.

It’s atmospheric and it’s epic and all in under four minutes.

There are a number of things I love about this video. 

It is very smart, well shot, and it’s surprising, entertaining, and memorable.

The other thing is that it’s a really compelling and creative way to demonstrate a pretty mundane (to me) product feature. 

You may argue on the ROI of this video, but then neither of us have any idea of the objectives or the measures of success.

So instead, let’s just enjoy it. 

I first saw this on Thursday and it had 40,000 views, in less than a day that jumped to 8.7 million (and growing).

It’s so good, I even forgive them using Enya for the soundtrack.

My takeaway?

The steering on those Volvo trucks is – thankfully -  magnificent.

Thank goodness for that.

I have always been a big believer in the important role that professional bodies play in the world of Public Relations.  Promoting a common set of standards across this reputation-challenged profession is a good thing. 

However, with no common enforced regulations, perhaps the quality of our work can by judged by the standards we set for ourselves?

There was recently a great guest post by Jean Valin and Daniel Tischon on the PR Conversations blog discussing the Melbourne Mandate (and this week For Immediate Release posted an interview with Jean and Daniel on the Mandate), which aims to define a set of roles, responsibilities and principles for PR practitioners.

From the website:

Today, unprecedented public access to communication presents new challenges and opportunities for organisations – and for global society. This presents a new mandate for public relations and communication management: a set of roles, responsibilities and principles hereby endorsed by delegates to the 2012 World Public Relations Forum in Melbourne, Australia.

The new mandate

Public relations and communication professionals have a mandate to:

• define and maintain an organisation’s character and values;
• build a culture of listening and engagement; and
• instill responsible behaviours by individuals and organisations.

 

I’d strongly recommend you to take some time to review the Melbourne Mandate and see how it applies to the work you’re doing.

The Global Alliance for PR and Communication Management is behind the Melbourne Mandate. It’s an organization that represents many of the world’s largest PR professional bodies and is also involved in the Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles, a set of proposed standards for measuring Public Relations.

Given the changes taking place in the world of communications this is a good thing.  As I’ve said before, as long as PR agencies are using proprietary measurement as a competitive differentiator we’re in trouble.

Bonus: Read Andy West of Hotwire PR on the importance of supporting the measurement debate

I should preface this post by pointing out that I spent many of my childhood weekends surrounded by racing cars.  When I wasn’t watching my father trackside, I was watching the sport on TV.  While my brother has continued the family tradition, these days, besides the annual trip to Le Mans, my motorsport habit is mostly sustained through traditional and social media.

Maurice Hamilton is a veteran journalist who has been covering Formula 1 since the mid-seventies.  In the video below he talks about how he got started in journalism in the 1970s and how that world has radically changed over the intervening decades.

For anyone with an interest in motorsport it’s recommended, for others, well your mileage may vary .

I recently had the opportunity to review a ‘report’ by a social media guru analyzing the ‘social strategies’ of a number of household brands. The report had some lovely visuals, some interesting examples of tactical executions, but overall it was a great example of what is too often missing from discussions on social media and often PR.

The report had many opinions but was light – read non-existent – on how these programs were tied to clear business objectives and more importantly how well the campaigns actually performed against those objectives.

In other words, in the real world, where a marketing or communications professional is building programs to drive against business objectives, it was value-less.

This is often where I find the industry of social media punditry fails.

Of course, social media is important, but before you get to the interesting, execution, you have to stop, understand your business, your industry, your  objectives, your competitive challenges, your internal challenges, your audience, your resources, and when you have a clear understanding of those elements, then you start planning.

If this is obvious to you, that’s great. If you’re not taking this approach, then there’s a real opportunity for you to significantly increase the impact of your work.

Let’s extend Mr. Ogilivy’s thesis – 50% of advertising is useless but you never know which 50%- to the world of social media and Public Relations. If we’re looking for what’s useless, I’d be willing to start with programs that aren’t tied into a set of defined business objectives.

Measurement can be a thorny subject – though at least there’s beginning to be some consensus – but executing campaigns not tied to business outcomes is at best madness and at worst negligent. Communications requires a balanced scorecard that encompasses a range of measurements from the basic inputs, outputs and results, to qualitative measures over time. And this work all starts with the business objectives.

These processes don’t mean you can’t experiment or move quickly – or indulge in ‘real-time marketing’.  Actually it’s the complete opposite.  If you know your business, are clear on what you need to achieve and are actively measuring outcomes then you’re in a better position to experiment and in a better position to learn and evolve your execution.

We may live in a troll producing always-on, always-connected world, but engaging with people, building relationships and trust takes time.  There isn’t a shortcut. In fact, as people become more sophisticated in how they use media and struggle to manage the ever increasing volume of information they come across every day, the process takes longer and is indeed more difficult.

There isn’t a silver bullet, but there are some tried and tested things that help us frame communications campaigns and put us in the best possible position to not only have impact, but to demonstrate that impact.

On a related topic, I strongly recommend you read Alastair Campbell’s speech at the Center for Corporate Public Affairs Annual Oration in Melbourne. In my opinion he does a great job explaining why objectives, strategies, and a commitment to long term thinking are so essential in the changing world of communications:

But you do it (communication) within a clear strategic framework, you engage the public in a much more sustained way, and you run co-ordination systems that work, so that over time your messages get through, over time your changes are understood and they deliver, and over time people become much more reasonable in their analysis. What you do is more important than what you say, but how you say what you do will help you if you are doing the right thing. Every time you say or you do, you land a dot.

While social media may appear immediate and tactical.  Successful social media, like the rest of communications, requires planning, insight, strategy, measurement and commitment.

That’s the starting point for great communications.

I’ve always been a big advocate of the productivity benefits of RSS.  It’s a simple technology – though not always understood – that is an incredible aid for anyone who needs to keep on top of vast swathes of content whether it’s breaking news, updates or online opinions. 

The death of Google Reader has many of us RSS users trolling around for an alternative way to keep our RSS feed consumption synchronized across our various devices.  (Personally I’m still in mourning for the untimely demise of FeedDemon by far my favorite RSS reader.  The good news is that you can still use it – and I will – but the lack of support for updating feeds across my PCs, phone, tablet etc. reduces it’s utility somewhat.)

So in preparation for this change I’ve been reviewing my RSS feeds and specifically the PR blogs I’ve been tracking and reading over the past 10 years.  I’ve built up a list of about 120 PR-related blogs. 

It’s interesting to note how many of those PR blogs, like this one, are dormant or dead. (For the record this one isn’t dead but definitely could be mistaken for dormant).

So that begs the question, what am I missing? What active and useful PR blogs are you reading? What should I by adding to the list?

I’m in beautiful sunny Charlotte today to speak at the third annual conference of the Center for Global Public Relations at the University of North Carolina, which this year is focused on the Millennium Generation.

I gave an overview of Microsoft YouthSpark – our initiative to create opportunities in education, employment and entrepreneurship for 300 million young people around the world over the next three years.

Henry Doss, Brook DeWalt, John Paluszek and Dr. Alma Kadragic discussing the global challenges facing youth at the conference today.

There are a great collection of people here today and some fantastic hallway discussions.

This is a nice and indeed natural end to my time working on the Citizenship team at Microsoft.  From getting formally involved in our Citizenship efforts when I joined Microsoft in Ireland in 2005, to moving to the United States in 2009 to take on a global communications role for Citizenship, I’ve had a fantastic opportunity to learn, work on amazing projects, with amazing partners and of course an amazing Citizenship team at Microsoft.  And there’s been a lot of fun on the way.

All good things must come to an end, so in the past month I’ve taken on a new role joining our Windows team, where I’m working on PR and storytelling for consumers, commercial customers and application builders.  Today’s event is a great way to bring this fantastic phase of my working life to a close.

If you were attending the session earlier today here are some useful links and resources I referenced:

• Microsoft Citizenship Report
• Microsoft YouthSpark Site
• IYF Opportunity for Action Report
• National Talent Strategy
• Microsoft YouthSpark Hub
• Microsoft Citizenship blog

And don’t forget for all the latest news you can follow Microsoft Citizenship on Twitter: @msftcitizenship.

PS:

I’m also looking forward to attending the UNCC PRSSA Region 7 conference on Saturday.