Personal Brain! What do you guys think of it?

[Mike Lucey]

Hi Guys,

While I find computers really fantastic for getting all kinds
of work done I often find that I am sometimes overwhelmed with
information.

When researching a subject I make notes and try to organise
them the best I can using simple lists but I find that when
I come back to review or extract information this system falls
down badly. Its often quicker to search the Web a fresh rather
than dig into the notes.

I have been looking at various Outliners over the past year
and tried a few of them but as yet have not found one that
could be manipulated to the way (good or bad) I think and like
to organise my work.

While browsing the Apple App store I noticed a new application
called Personal Brain, http://www.thebrain.com/. The Mac app
is new but its been around for Win for a while.

I have looked at the Web Site and viewed the tutorials, not bad I
thought! However I rarely go further with an application without
reading a few independent reviews. I then found and read the
MacWorld review, http://www.macworld.com/article/134792/2008/08/personalbrain45.html
%(#400080)["Mirroring the way a human thinks is a tough job for software,
but Personal Brain 4.5, a powerful brainstorming and knowledge
management tool, falls just shy of artificial intelligence."]

After reading this positive review I decided to download and
give Personal Brain a tryout. I don't expect a miracle transformation
of my organisational procedures but I think they could be
improved with this application in time and with some work.

The first use of it will be a tryout of a Drawing Schedule. I
don't know about you guys but I often find while working on an
architectural / planning project, the list of drawings can get
quite untidy. In my case I like to keep all versions of the
initial project to hand as I progress to the final project.
With Personal Brain I think I may be able to do this with added
information, regs, briefs, budgets, restrictions, notes, products,
links etc. as attached notes.

If anyone else is having difficulty organising their work / thoughts
in a searchable database you might check out this app. As I said
its both Win and Mac and there is a Free, Core and Pro Editions.
Its not a low cost application but again its not very expensive
for what it does.

Looking forward to comments

Mike

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