Archive - May 2006

This week I was reminded of something a former boss shared with me regarding appreciating wonderful things in life. At the time (mid-80s) my wife and I were living in the Cocoa Beach area, and had been introduced to a tiny restaurant called George's. It was run by an elderly French chef and his Australian wife, and while the decor was average, the food was amazing, his prices were low, and he cooked and served meals with his wife's help, which provided a wonderful experience. After taking us there, my boss told me: "When you find something special like this, take advantage of it as much as possible because it will not last." He made a point to eat there rather frequently, and at the time I didn't quite get it, even when the restaurant eventually closed.

Just a quick note that the nice folks at Black Belt Productivity have published my guest article GTD: Space + awareness = *major* action, part of their Black Belts Series. I was pleased to be asked to contribute (though I've got a ways to go before I'm a black belt), and I hope you enjoy it.

As I'm learning how to present personal productivity concepts [1] effectively to individuals and groups, I've come across some people and areas of study that have given an idea I want to share: Personal Productivity Playing Cards. In the interests of open sharing, and in the hopes that you'll have some ideas, I'd like to provide my initial thoughts on how they might work and what games could be played. I'm a total novice at this, so your feedback is especially welcome - and I'm quite interested in seeing something like them come into fruition.

Purpose & inspiration

First, for the next week or so I'll be in the Denver area with my family to visit some dear friends who recently moved there, so I'll be skipping a post.

Interestingly, Denver has some big-name productivity consultants, including Sally McGhee (an expert in a neat system with a lot of GTD similarities - see her book) and Laura Stack (a well-known writer and speaker). I haven't yet been introduced to either of them, but I admire them both and would very much welcome any connections you might offer.

I once had a drum teacher (Afro-Cuban style, using drums like the djembe and ashiko) who, along with being a great player and drum builder, prided himself on his memory. I remember a time when he criticized people for writing down things like phone numbers, with the implication being people were lazy if they didn't work to memorize things like that. I felt bad about it for a while (I wasn't practicing GTD at the time, but I did have an address book), then forgot it.