Archive - Oct 2005

I use Bloglines for my feed reading for the usual server-based reasons (multi-platform, no need to sync, etc.) and for a lark I thought I'd check out Ideamatt subscribers. One aspect of the results that was interesting was that some people include their weather in their subscriptions. (Bloglines provides this as a special feed.) Here are those that had a Bloglines weather subscription, and the place:

• Cambridge, England
• Pasco, WA
• Milton Keynes, England
• Eindhoven, Netherlands
• London, England

Over at Notes from a messy desk, Graeme Mathieson brings up some good issues with dependent next actions in David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology. He says

... I can't really show dependencies effectively. ... So obviously it makes sense to write down all the tasks you can think of associated with a particular project. And to me, it makes sense to write them out on a todo list.

Here are a few of my thoughts about this:

• List your action plan in the project's folder, if necessary. Allen says many projects need only basic "napkin" planning, but some (like a wedding) need more detailed thinking to be successful.

Earlier this month I attended David Allen's GTD | RoadMap seminar (in Boston) and I wanted to pass on a minor observation that was surprisingly pleasing. As Allen was talking about filing, he waved around some of his own folders, and I have to say I got a small thrill when I noticed that mine look just like his. Same generic manila folders, a few somewhat worn (I was sitting in the front), and the same black-on-white labeler-produced labels. I don't know, but I guess I had thought he was using something like gold-embossed labels on custom silk folders. In addition, it looked like he uses colored ones for "special" (non-project) folders, such as Read/Review. (I had identified a similar need, but was highlighting the labels to identify them.)

As a follow-up to my article Top 10 things people are Getting, in addition to "Things Done", I present for your (somewhat bawdry) entertainment: 12 wild things people are visualizing, in addition to success (according to google):

1. type and mutant hemoglobin proteins
2. success (OK, I included anyway, despite the title)
3. shapes
4. Saracenic tribes adorned in flowing colored togas
5. bastards
6. sexual fantasies
7. gesticulations
8. geometry of invariant sets
9. urban adventure
10. rush of kayaking off a 100-foot waterfall
11. beaver
12. sensations of the rainforest

In the article Tools versus Process, Geekle talks about "the myth that tools [themselves] can make you more productive." I agree - to truly change and become more productive, adopters of any new organization system (including the one that I practice, from David Allen's book Getting Things Done) must change their thinking and habits, rather than simply buying something. As Allen says of his system in particular, it's simple (i.e., it's understandable and uses skills everyone has), but not easy (i.e., requires instituting the aforementioned changes).

I had a couple of surprising ups and downs today while retrieving from my filing system. (I use the simple alphabetical scheme described in David Allen's book Getting Things Done.) First, a housemate needed to connect her G4 Mac to our wireless router. I located the folder in my first try, under the heading (wait for it...) "Wireless" in about 10 seconds. Thankfully, my notes included the Mac-specific detail of using a dollar sign before the WEP password - hard-earned knowledge that made getting set up a snap. Sweet!

Today I met with my (very smart) boss, the person who introduced me to David Allen's book Getting Things Done (AKA GTD). Because I have a lot of autonomy, we tend to meet only once a week or two, which means our time together tends to produce lots of action items. (See my entry Dealing with Meeting Notes - GTD to the Rescue! for more on processing these.) Two things struck me during today's meeting - First, I got to witness and enjoy the "dance" that happens between individuals practicing GTD. For example, we both came prepared with agendas for each other, which made the meeting smooth, efficient, and gave us time to enjoy ourselves while we worked.

For interested readers, Doug Johnston has just posted a new article of mine at www.diyplanner.com called Four Planner Hacks for Paper-Based Productivity. It details a few small tricks that I've discovered for users of paper planners.

I'll be travelling to the Midwest visiting family (central Illinois, Chicago, and the Indianapolis area) for the next week or two, so the posts will be somewhat spotty.

This formula is one I picked up from The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, by Jack Canfield. (Disclaimer: I didn't read the entire book, or even scan it very thoroughly; it has its problems, but I did get "E + R = O" out of it.) The basic idea (something David Allen talks about) is that events are just things that happen, and it's our response to them that determines the resulting outcome. I tend to respond from a position of fear/dread, expecting negatives.