Archive - Oct 30, 2005

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).