What gets better with age?

Some things improve with age (wine is a common example). What else has that characteristic (or the opposite) in time management, or in life? Phrased positively,

• Foods: Cheese, wine, for example. And a continuation of the previous, bread mold, though not all are created equal.



• You: I know you, and you work to make yourself more mature, more resilient, and more knowledgeable. And I deeply respect that. As I get older, my goal is to continue the practice so that, on my last breath, I will still be asking questions. (Like __?) The risk: Getting comfortable and stuck. Tip: If you're used to being the smartest person in the room (a variation on worst musician in the band), you need a new room!



• A project: You know those efforts that flow (yes, you should actually read the book) and gather momentum as they progress? I love them! My goal as a writer and consultant is to help clients have more of those. The risk: Things getting out of control, resources dropping out, and unexpected/unpredictable events. To protect yourself: Evaluate as you move it along, and be willing to change direction. (Hmm. TTL, anyone?)



• A task: Hmm. I'm having trouble thinking of a task that improves the older it gets. If it's paused waiting on something else, then it's not executable and goes on your workflow Waiting For list. If you don't want to do it right now, but don't want to drop it yet, it goes on your Someday/Maybe list. Risk: If it sits around too long, you'll get discouraged or start skipping over it, and be less happier. Tip: Try dating your tasks (not just your Waiting For items). Getting stale? Make taking care of it itself an action.



• Science! You gotta' love an approach to understanding the world that's self-correcting.



• Memories: Fond ones that give you pleasure are a gift; relish them.Risk: Not pruning the negative thoughts that intrude on your mental realm. I struggle with this in particular. (In my case there's a biological component, but I'm always on the lookout for behaviorial tools. Suggestions welcome.)

I'm curious: What else is better old, new, or changes between them over time?

Introducing: The Nothing Store!

(I'm having some post-birthday blues, so allow myself to lighten myself.)

Due to disappointing response to Buy Nothing Day, we're opening a new store - The Nothing Store! For people who want to give a gift, but want to feel like they did and gut the guilt, this is the place for you! In our store you'll find every kind of nothing you might want - all colors, shapes and sizes await you. International too - we support all universal cognition-based models of nothing! Just browse everything we have to offer, add your desired nothings to your cart, and check out. It's that easy! The recipient will receive nothing in the mail within one hour. It's that fast!

Because we're new, we have some kinks to work out, but we'll have answers to your questions soon, we promise!

• How do I access your items that are on sale?



• How does does my gift receiver know when it's arrived?



• When will you have product photos?



• Your cart's quantity feature is confusing. It says to remove nothing, simply change its quantity to zero and click Update Cart, but how is zero nothings different from some nothings?



• My person didn't receive her nothing. How do I re-send it?



• How do I get a refund, and how should I package the nothing for return?

For questions and inquiries contact Customer Support. Rest assured, we always have no one standing by. Unfortunately, they're usually up to nothing.

Beware Binary Success Measures, or, Why "All or Nothing" Stinks

Help me out with something: In considering the outcome of a project, we usually have a pretty firm idea of what success means. The question is integrated directly into GTD, in fact, and it makes sense. After all, why are you doing it, and how will you know you're done.

But there's a trap. If your metric is binary, then you've set yourself up for suffering during the entire thing. You'll be forced to ask yourself at each step, "Will I be successful?". If it doesn't look to be so, you'll be unhappy. But the point is that continual questioning along the way spoils the fun a little bit. (This is what I was getting at in in Coffee, Booze, And Sex: Is It The Journey Or The Destination? - life is in the process.)

What about if things are looking good? Well, you're still attached to the outcome, so the satisfaction of being on target is short-lived. Unless you're certain, you'll keep coming back and questioning. As I understand it, this is built into Buddhism (details, anyone?) See, for example, The origin of suffering is attachment, which identifies craving and clinging in particular.

So here's my question: How do we balance a clear craving (wanting a project to work out in a certain way) with desire to enjoy the life of the thing (being in the moment)? Let's be honest, if I'm putting together a proposal, I want it to succeed, and I'll be disappointed if it doesn't. Is it weakening our effort to even consider not reaching the goal? how do we handle this case? One thing I've been experimenting with is spinning it at the end. "It didn't work out the way I wanted/envisioned, but what I learned/enjoyed/experienced was..."

I'm curious: What do you think? How do you enjoy the ride while simultaneously managing your binary desire?

Stories from Edison: Lucid Dreaming, Dropping Twitter, Sleep, and Personal Medical Experiments

(Surprises, insights, and stories from Edison, the Think, Try, Learn experimenter's workbook.)

• Productivity: In No RSS for a week, we hear about "Cascade of Changes" - be prepared for the unanticipated consequences of our actions. Example: Someone went into therapy in order to stop smoking, and ended up divorcing her husband!



• Twitter: Stop Twittering has a comment about the best use of Twitter (at least for my content) and mentions % of valuable hits in an information stream. Is 10:1 good - I think so. Who rates that high? Ben Casnocha (Twitter, Delicious). Commenter suggests I use delicious rather than Twitter (if sharing references to others).



• Health: In Try melatonin to see impact on sleep we hear about DHEA and an MD's observation "You realize you're conducting a medical experiment on your body, don't you?" Yep! Also, no report of lucid dreaming. Another sleep experiment: Improve Sleep Hygeine.



• Productivity: Have you considered turning off Gmail's inbox unread count? The setting is in Hide Unread Counts. Also, check out the new "Got the wrong Bob?" and "Don't forget Bob" feature. It's working great for me.



• Writing: Starting with The Definitive Guide To Superhero Novels I'm experimenting to write shorter, simpler, and more frequent blog posts, seven so far. A conversation arose around the experiment about why a tool change supports this. Related: I came across this book, which made the connection of tool = place: The Power of Place: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions.



• Reading: Someone experimented to Improve reading speed using Tim Ferris' techniques, based on Scientific Speed Reading: How to Read 300% Faster in 20 Minutes 235 Comments. Overall: Thumbs up, but his baseline was pretty high. (Related: How about Reading Books The GTD Way?)



• Tech: A reverse switcher, Attempt to switch back from Mac to Linux is going well, with an email efficiency bonus.



• Business: In Try an Affiliate Network Revenue Model for BringIt, the experimenter is trying an affiliate network for advertising their Bring It signup sheet program.

Finally, v1.0 of Edison is coming (a experiment, of course :-) in the next month or two. I had a lot of fun designing it with Liza (she's talented - check out explorethomascole.org), and we think it'll rock. A sample screen's to the right. Major rollout efforts when it's released!

Training My Wife to Use My Inbox - And It's Working!

Frequently - at least once a day - my lovely wife will bring something up while I'm working, usually an important thing that needs action and tracking. For example, an appointment with our elementary-age daughter's teacher, a decision to make (attend a town meeting), a phone message to return, or a problem on her mind. What drives me nuts is that she interrupts me at the moment she thinks of it. Why? Standard GTD: It interrupts my flow, and I immediately feel the stress of taking on the responsibility of taking care of it. Ouch!

Of course the solution is for her to use my stacking inbox shelves. She's now consistently doing so, and it feels sooooo good. I still need to (gently) reminder her when she starts telling me something actionable, but she gets it

Related: These Are The Inboxes Of Our Lives, in which we tally all the places things collect in our lives, along with some surprises. Also, to the right is a link to my previous office's setup (the current one is similar), with annotations!

I'm curious: Have you set up inboxes at work and home? How have you trained your colleagues and family to use them? Are you guilty of interrupting them when something occurs to you? Finally, in the category of Behavior modification, what have you found that works well? I had Don't Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching and Training recommended to me, though I've not read it...