Merlin Mann and the 90 second GTD Primer

I don't usually just provide a link to a posting, but this one by Merlin Mann on GTD contexts was stellar for its brevity, wit and usefulness. It includes a 90 second GTD overview—very handy in and of itself, an exploration of why GTD contexts are so damn useful, and a quip that made me actually laugh out loud. If that isn't enough to warrant a link to another post, I don't know what would be. 

This is Your Elephant on GTD. Any Questions?

I was going to forgo posting this feature article I wrote for the GTDtimes, but I've been getting a good response to it over there so I thought it deserved a brief mention here. Though the piece is aimed at Getting Things Done, it actually is about essential knowledge for acquiring any complex skill. 

The article is about the way that our automatic and unconscious processes tend to wander off in a different direction than the goals we deliberately se, and that we may very much want to achieve. Our conscious desire to learn the skill is like the rider on an elephant. And the unconscious part that keeps us from going to the gym or from using a new parenting skill, even when we fully intend to follow through, is like an elephant the rider is perched upon. The only way this gigantic beast can be influenced is by training and repetition, as it very much has a "mind of its own". And getting angry with it or berating it is pointless.

Making Fun

I came across this parody site, Done Getting Things, the other day and enjoyed it thoroughly. It lampoons a range of productivity sites, mostly GTD themed ones, from the Zen varieties to de-cluttering oriented ones. One of the ones I enjoyed most was Annihilate Mr. Procrastination with your Zen Tank. Also worthy of mention is Declutterization 101A—5 Ways to Declutter Your Life. Just the unnecessarily convoluted redundant title was enough to make me smile.

I hope they keep posting more content here. Enjoy. 

GTD Flow Chart Made Outwardly Beautiful Too

This is from over at anabubula. I think I'll keep my Portland Japanese Gardens rock garden on my phone, but it makes a nice little jpg reference that I have tucked in a GTD reference folder on my desktop. It will certainly suit some folks tastes more than David Allen's more corporate blackline master. Enjoy, however you use it. Thanks to anabubula for creating it and making it available.

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An iPhone 2.0 Day of Ups & Downs for Me

Thursday

Up: New version of iTunes is here. Here we go.
Up: The app store is now open. Check all this out.

Up: Lots of free apps.

Down: No scrabble for iPhone.
Up: I just bought some apps. Esp the OmniFocus app I've been craving to sync with my iPhone. The desktop version is the all time greatest GTD app by a mile. Synchage could be amazing.
Down: No iPhone 2.0 yet.
Down: No midnight release.
Down: No 1 am release.

Friday Morning
Down: I am tired.
Way Up: Oh here it is, iPhone 2.0!
Up: Loading of 2.0 going fine.
Up: It's done! Here we go.
Down: Not activating. iTunes error -4. Try again later. How about now? Two seconds is later.
Down: More -4 errors
Repeat 146 times like a lab mouse tapping a bar for electrical brain stimulation, minus the pleasure quotient.
Go to the gym.
Get back from the gym.
Down: !@$#@, more of the -4.

Repeat 23 times.
Up: I read a blog entry on a sure fire way to get through. Hope running high.
Down: Doesn't work.
Down: Lots more reading. More -4 error. !@$#

Friday Mid Day
Up: Another suggestion on a blog.
Way up: It actuall worked, see previous post! iPhone 2.0 is up and running.
Up: Testing out apps.

Up: Email multiple delete! This is awesome. Didn't realize how nice this could be.
Up: SplashID password storage for iPhone.

Up: Free voice notes with Jott or Evernote.

Down: I can barely hear the recorded message. The iPhone (1st gen) speaker phone is an achilles heel, always has been.

Up: I'm keeping my 1st gen iPhone anyways. Steve Jobs doesn't get another influx of money from me yet.
Up: FileMagnet to read word docs, pdfs and more on iphone. Does it enable using iPhone as a disk?

Up: Cool desktop counterpart to the iPhone app to upload files. Syncs effortlessly.
Down: FileMagnet doesn’t have a landscape feature. Hard to read docs. Okay for looking for text you already know is in there. I suggest landscape to developer.
Up: Developer assures me it is in demand and is coming.
Up: PocketPedia. I can look up and store info on an pics of books.
Down: Doesn't sync.
Up: Multiple home screen function that was introduced a while back is very handy with all these new apps.
Up: OmniFocus very cool on the iPhone. Can't wait to get it synced to my Mac. Location aware contexts could be huge change for civilization, well maybe for GTDers.
Down: Can't get OmniFocus to Sync.
Down: Lots of reading about how to do it.
Down: More reading.
Down: Had to buy space on BingoDisk server that I wouldn't otherwise want.
Down: Lots of time setting up.
Down: More time setting up.

Friday Close to Midnight
Up: I have achieved synchage. Woohoo. My primary purpose fulfilled.
Up: Playing around with possibilities.
Down: Uh Oh. Entries (next actions) missing from OmniFocus (OF) on Mac.
Up: Looks like I've got it corrected.
Down: Nope. More entries missing. 
Up, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down
Big down: No synching that works for me. I'm not a techie. Even the friendly helpful folks at Omni haven't gotten me through it.
Up: Beginning to accept that synching aint gonna happen until their Mac software is no longer in apha. Sigh. This hasn't exactly been an example of getting things done, has it?

Big downs: Way too much time fiddling around with software, on forums asking questions, getting my hopes up for a yet another new solution, only to find it wouldn't work, trying out options that lead to dead ends. This drives me nuts about computers and technology. Computers are fantastic when they are working smoothly. Incredible. But too damn often they aren't. At their best they save time, enhance creativity and planning, and generally make things beautiful. Other days they are a giant time suck, doing exactly the opposite of what we've created them to do. And then there are days like iPhone 2.0 day. Up and down. Too much down. I'm tired now. I should convert back to paper and pen. Where is my Moleskine notebook?

Pretty big ups: Multiple email delete! Separate calendars in iCal. Search in Contacts. Separate contacts app so you don't have to open the phone and go to contacts. Finally possible ways to synch notes, though I haven't found the one I like yet. OF-iPhone is pretty cool, potential to be off-the-charts cool when it syncs, and within a few weeks I think it may work for non techies like me. App store is up and running, very promising. Apps update easily through iTunes, so initial kinks could be worked out pretty quickly. It will be interesting to see how the prices, which are now all over the map, shake out.

If you can't afford OmniFocus for your mac, do get the iPhone version. At $20, if it is your primary version of OF, it is a deal. When it syncs properly it will be a steal and will be an unbeatable productivity combo. I look forward to it.

If you enjoyed this article please vote for it on Digg, above, or Netscape or one of the other options below. You can also bookmark the site to the right. I appreciate your support.

A Catterpillar, a Butterfly and Swarms of Contractors

With the help of a couple of new inhalers, I've finally broken through to the other side. With the weather turning and being able to breath more freely—not having a fever is always nice too—I feel a bit like a butterfly crawling out of my cocoon.

And speaking of insects, just outside my cocoon is the remainder of the swarm of contractors that have been doing everything from replacing old galvanized plumbing that looks like the arteries of someone who really loved bacon and mayonnaise, to replacing a dangerously outdated electrical panel, to pruning some giant walnut trees that were shedding more branches than leaves throughout the year. The latest swarm just wrapped up putting in some countertops. They let us know just as they began the installation that we would have to wait 24 hours before the plumbers to come and hook things back up (the plumbers we already had scheduled a week out to come and hook our sink fixtures and disposal back up that afternoon). I always enjoy hearing that sort of thing at the last minute. Luckily my plumbers are good guys and aren't going to charge us for leaving them hanging for the 1 o'clock that we'd blocked out early in the week.

One unfortunate side effect of my bout with the flu is that my meeting with my web designer got pushed out 3 weeks, which puts it in the last week of May. It is driving me nuts to see my site falling further and further out of date. But I am grateful to have this blog. And at least I can keep those of you who check in here up to date til the site in humming along again.

I continue to be very excited about the effect that the effect that the Getting Things Done approach is having on my stress level. This is by far the most organized, and comfortably so, that I've been in my lifetime. I'm finding the approach helpful enough that when I'm able to update the site again, I am going to be describing some coaching focused on dealing with the email and "To Do" flood, and the treadmill that so many people feel like they are on that is going just a few notches faster than they can comfortably keep up with.

What I'm finding in my practice is that as skilled as people are in their interpersonal relationships, and no matter how dedicated they are to them, it is hard to enjoy them when the taking care of business aspects of life continually feel out of control. The idea is that in conjunction with parent coaching or individual counseling, many clients would enjoy having the option of learning some practical, proven methods of dealing with the pile of information they have to mine for the nuggets that can be found throughout.

Well only a couple more weeks until my meeting with the web designer. So check the blog in the meantime and watch for site improvements and new coaching offerings toward the beginning of June.

Merlin Mann and the 43 Folders

I can't believe that I'm writing more on Merlin. I am fascinated with his site 43 Folders. I am growing to really love this guy's nerdy, offbeat and tenacious approach to getting organized. I've posted before about finding the ideas that David Allen outlines in his book Getting Things Done very useful. But there is a formality about it that seems to be aimed at business folks that just isn't nearly as fun as Merlin Mann's quirky take on productivity.

What's to Love

• He talks about all the struggles and foibles of chasing after the latest "hacks" (shortcuts or approaches). He is a quirky guy who uses catchy slang and has a predilection for wearing gas station coats and hip glasses.
• Merlin has a young daughter, which makes his quest for a reasonably organized life all the more realistic for all of us who are parents.
  
• His goal is not productivity for productivity's sake or aimed at the common theme in the productivity literature on getting wealthy or becoming powerful. He does talk about how to make more money more easily and how to become more influential, but it is not because money is the priority. Any focus on money is in service of living a full, meaningful, enjoyable life where you can focus on the things that matter most to you.
  
• It is productivity in service of living a meaningful, enjoyable life.
  
• Humor is sprinkled liberally throughout the site. For some, this could be a downside if your sense of humor is not a match with his. But I think for most folks, it makes his site approachable. You learn about how to be more productive, but it feels like you're playing when you're learning about it.
  
• There are tons of very practical recommendations on everything from filing accouterments to the best pens to easy to use software that fits in with his approach. We even bought a little flip video camera based on his recommendation.
• There are multiple ways to enjoy the content. Throughout the site you can find links to other useful sites, to books that look at things more in depth, to The Merlin Show, where Merlin interviews different folks about their approaches to creativity and productivity. There are also videos of full blown presentation. Some of those I wish showed a little more of him, and a bit less of his presentation slides, but they are still good.
  
• He has All Time Most Popular Posts and Classics links right at the top of the home page, so that new visitors can immediately dive in to the most powerful concepts (or the funniest stuff).
  

What's Not to Love

About my only gripe really isn't much of a gripe. I just wish there were even more content being added since I'm getting so much out of it. This seems a bit like criticizing a delicious meal because it makes you want to eat more.

PS I hate the way this Blogger software messes up the spacing after you make a bulleted or numbered list. Not sure if this is a Mac only problem. I am on Fire Fox. Anyone else run into this problem? I'll have to check on our PC to see if it looks the same there. Anyway, I am hoping that this is one of the things that gets taken care of with my site refresh, getting a blog hosted on my own domain. Don't worry I'll make sure there are links from the current site so you can keep in touch.

Useful Site / Email Ninja Skills

Time for a next installment on Getting Things Done (GTD). It is becoming increasingly clear that one of the top challenges of our age is sifting through information to mine out what we need. How do you sort through all the junk and marginally useful info to get to the handful of gold? How do you face all piles of paper, or the heap in your inbox to end up with practical, useful information that you can find at the moment it is required?

There are many sites that discuss the GTD principles and share tips and tricks for making life's stuff * easier to handle. But the one I've come across that is the most fun and that is most useful for me so far is 43folders.com. What I like in addition to keen advice by Merlin Mann, a productivity expert in his own right, is that the site takes a community approach where people chime in and share their personal takes on how to implement the principles. The great thing is that though people are able to post, the site still is nice to look at, unlike a lot of bulletin board themed sites. It also appears that there must be some sort of editing process, because I've not yet run into anything that seems off topic or distracting. There is a lot of humor used to keep things light and playful, but be warned, at times it can be a bit crass, if funny. Nothing beyond what you'd see at a PG movie though.

Email is one topic that gets a lot of play on 43folders since it has become a primary means of communication, and a source of a huge amount of our information. So how do you become an email Ninja who can effectively take care of business, and not end up with a very organized maze of folders where your need info gets placed, never to be seen again? This article Five Fast Email Productivity Tips is a good place to begin. My guess is that many of you will end up following links until you've bumped into the areas you most want to go more smoothly. Don't forget to come back and visit Awareness * Connection. In fact, go ahead and put that on your "Soon" next action list.

* David Allen defines "stuff" in GTD as anything that you have allowed into your physical or psychological world that you haven't yet figured out how and when to take action on, or with.