Greywolf's Journal

Offline is good

2009-06-22T21:59:00.001+01:00

Don't want to pay for extra data plan.
Don't need to be always connected.
Don't want to spend 16h a day in front of computer with browser always open.
Don't want worry about privacy and data protection.
Don't want to be depended on availability of services or internet connection.
Don't want to be distracted by pings and beeps from online services.
I like to have my stuff on the desktop.
My stuff is always there whenever I need to use my computer.
I try to divide life between computer and non computer activities.
I try to limit my focus to a single thing.
Nothing beats the “screen resolution” of paper.

Success is not a one way street.

2009-06-12T20:09:00.001+01:00

Just watched great presentation by Richard St. John about a success as a continuous journey.

Check it out yourself here

Areas of Responsibility as development tool

2009-06-01T20:53:00.001+01:00

Recently I've been thinking about creating new opportunities looking at new things to explore and learn. At the same time I was moving some parts of my GTD implementation to Freemind. This was highly influenced by the interview with Michael Deutch who's a chief evangelist for Mindjet's Mind Manager. I'm using Freemind only because it's free although I'm amazed by the functionality of the Mind Manager is just too high program.
One of the element I've been looking at was the Areas of Responsibility.
In the original approach these are used as trigger list, reminder of things that are important in your life but are not projects or actions. They are ongoing activities that don't have end or completion status. Typically they include stuff like personal finance, family, friends, home, work and many more. A regular use of Areas of Responsibility can help you establish where you are, what are the areas that were neglected and need some action.

This approach serves as tool to maintain status quo, to keep your self on the ball with various facets of your life. Recently I've realised that this can be used as tool to establish yourself in the new areas and develop new behaviours, learn new skills and perhaps reshape your life.

The idea is very simple. Add new areas of responsibility to your list and follow the process of regular review of it. New element may not be concrete enough yet and still may require clarification but by placing it in your system you give yourself a right to look at it regular basis and generate some projects and actions which will lead you toward full incorporation of the new role.
To maintain proper balance there is a need to eliminate one or more roles that are no longer valid. Although it may not be possible to drop them completely at once it’s important to remember that it’s not possible to add new roles with out impacting (damaging?) others.

Here is little example of how I see the areas of responsibility can work.
Let say you want to become a podcaster. You add this to your list of roles. From that point this will work as described in the GTD book.

You can generate images of how it's to be a podcaster. Envision what are the traits of podcasters, how they work, what they do, etc. It's purely visioning exercise that you can do in your head or on paper. This way there is an image(s) which will show up every time you look at your list.

Then you can start with generating projects that will help you become who you want. In the case of a podcaster this can include recording some trial podcasts, learning voice editing, etc.

Then you can dig deeper and create action for your projects.

As you can see this is not a great departure from the getting things done methodology in terms of the process. But instead of on focusing what is here and now you can move to looking at your future. By adding roles/areas that aren't there yet you can initiate the necessary shift and begin process of change.

New Live of the old Pocket PC

2009-05-25T21:16:00.001+01:00

Couple years ago I got the Dell Axim X3 PDA. I've used it for couple months in hope to expand my productivity and get organized. Since nothing remarkable happened it landed in the back of the drawer for a long time.

I've thought about putting it on e-bay but that never happened. I guess it doesn't make sense now as I've seen some auctions selling it for €20-30, roughly 10% of the original cost.

Recently I got really hooked up by the iPod Touch, well really it was the iPhone but decided it's too expensive so I focused on the Touch. I've been looking at different online shops and wasn't happy either, it's cheaper than the iPhone but still costs a good €200.

After looking at all the features of the Touch I realised that my old Dell Axim has almost the same. I may not look as cool as Apple’s product but it's good enough.

Both devices have WiFi so it's possible to use internet on the go.

There is touch screen with similar size although the image quality isn’t as good.

The Touch has a bigger memory but that's not a major issue as the Axim has SD card slot.

Battery life may cause some problems as the device is three years old but I think I’ll be fine.

The real power of Axim lies in it's ability to be expanded through free software. In fairness iPod Touch can also be expanded this way but you are limited to offer of Apple Store. After couple hours of search I come up with a list of apps that turn my old Axim into a solid device.

Thumb typing – I found a Happy Tapping Keyboard. This allows me to type with my thumb fingers and not use the stylus.
E-book reading – I downloaded free Mobipocket Reader and uBook. Both programs have similar functionality but the Mobipocket Reader has a nicer user interface.
Audio & video - I generally use the standard Windows Media Player. It's sufficient for my needs and I can easily sync podcasts or video with my laptop.
Writing - I have Stowaway portable keyboard so after installing drivers this makes perfect "on the go" writing companion.
Internet – the standard Pocket Explorer is enough but it can always be replaced with something more powerful if needed (I look forward to release of the Fennec if it will work on Windows Mobile 2003).
Calendar & tasks – this is supported natively and with use of Outlook all your appointments are with you. Although it's nice feature I don;t use it as the primary purpose of this device is media and text consumption.
RSS - the potable version of the FeedDeamon – this way you can keep up with your favourite blogs and news.

Overall result is that I have small device that I can use for reading and writing whenever I want with out a need of spending money for latest and greatest gadgets.

For some more inspiration on how to put life into your old laptop see post on The Simple Dollar.

Personal ID Card

2009-05-18T21:12:00.001+01:00

Do you carry any identification document when running or cycling?

Is it easy for others to help you in case something happens?

As runner and cyclists I have a limited amount of space where we can carry important bits and pieces. Usually mp3 player, keys, water/food are on the top of the list. In the summer when you are running in shorts and a t-shirt there is even less space.

Recently I realised that there is one element which I find important but often over looked. Therefore not always with me. It's ID card.
Why ID card is important?

First of all if you train alone there is no one to identify you or call family in case of any emergency. Even if you have a phone there is a great chance that you need a pin to unlock it. If someone needs to find out who you are and call your wife or mother it will not be possible.

Secondly you can provide some information about yourself that will help identify you. The standard government issued ID will be helpful but it's will give only basic details.That's why you I suggest to create your own ID card.

Advantages

There are two advantages of such card over the official ID

You can put much more relevant information on such card:
- The usual name and address (the later not really necessary)
- Details of a person to contact in case of emergency.
- Some medical information. I wear contact lenses on daily basis so I would like to have them removed properly. Others are allergic or use some special medicines.

You don't have to carry your official ID and limit chances of loosing it. (Unfortunately in some countries you do need to have ID on you by law)
- This may not be that obvious but for me this actually important. If I loose my ID or driving licence I will cost me some money and couple visits to embassy to get the replacement.

Creation

There are many formats you could use but I suggest to stick with standard credit card size. This way it can be easly attached to the back of your phone or put into your shoe or sock.
I've used an old medical insurance card where I scrapped all data. Then I attached index cards on both sides (any paper will do fine) and trimmed the excess.
This way each side has around 5 lines of text that you can fill.
Last element is is to protect it from the element - which means mostly from sweat.

The card is easy and simple to do but hopefully it will never have to be used.

Joining Twitter

2009-05-15T20:38:00.001+01:00

Just signed up to twitter my profile is here : http://twitter.com/rmgtdblog

Why time management?

2009-04-07T20:31:00.003+01:00

Recently I've been talking with my wife about a person that she finds disorganised. As we were discussing some of the behaviours of that person and potential solutions I began to wonder that causes people to look into the time management area. What makes them realise that they need (should?) to put a stop somewhere and introduce a change. The most popular and common reasons in my view would be.

they have too much to do,
they are overcommitted,
they lack of clarity and focus,
they procrastinate,
they are told to get organised,
they want to achieve more and move toward their goals/objectives,
they want freedom, to be able to set own direction,
they want to be in control,

Obviously every individual person will have a different set of reasons that pushed in that direction. Yet for this will essentially go down to one or more items from above list. Unfortunately the somehow limited number of reasons does not warrant equally limited no of solutions that will work for everyone.

Your data on the “cloud”

2009-03-24T20:08:00.001Z

James Kendrick wrote a post wondering if we know where your data is on the cloud. This is a valid question especially in the context of growing numbers of various services.
As he points out there are many possible risks of your data being given/sold to some unknown company. And your direct control in this area is rather limited.
I've been thinking how you can limit the security and privacy risks of such event. As far as I can tell such risks are unavoidable considering the overall trend of moving to the "cloud". There are some simple steps that can help you minimize these risks.

First thing is to find a reliable provider.
This means that before signing up you should be able to assess who is running the website, how big are they etc. Unfortunately this puts small start-ups in considerable disadvantage.

Other thing you can do is to stick with as few services/providers as possible.
Look for companies that provide range of services that fit your needs. A good example would be Google or Microsoft both offer a wide range of different tools. And with recent announcements Google makes real progress here. Their offer is becoming "one stop shop" with everything you need from email, calendar, tasks to documents, spreadsheets, rss feeds and pictures.
Using single provider gives you greater control over your information.

You can easy check what’s there, delete unused information or cancel service.
There is one point of interaction, hence less worries with remembering logins and passwords.
There is also no need to monitor countless terms of service, and other agreements.

Control type of personal information on the cloud. Before you start using particular service decide what do you need it for. Figure out how much personal information will you store there and type of. It’s not difficult to see the difference between using del.icio.us and some online money tool like mint.

Although you still expose your data (even very personal) but you do that with Google. And this seems at least little more reassuring than giving it to totally unknown company.
As much as you can enjoy the freedom of web computing the trust and reliance should be limited. Google is big and may not collapse any time soon but it may go through difficulties and turn off some services. And leave you with out your data.

To avoid that....keep a local copy of your stuff!!! Just in case.

Installation error 1603

2009-03-18T21:47:00.001Z

Recently I tried to install Google Gears on my laptop. I wanted to try out some of the recent additions to Google labs. Especially the offline gmail that looks very promising.

As I began installation I got this error “Fatal error installation terminated code 1603” every time I tried.

Easiest thing to do was to search solution in the web but that was not very helpful. Although Microsoft website provides some hints. Nothing really resolved my problem. Then I tried to use some of the software that was heavily advertised on the Google search results. This didn’t work either. All you get is information about number of errors discovered by the application. In order to clean them you need to buy the full version of the program. No thanks.

Finally the simplest and most effective way occurred last. It was easy and quick resolution to my issue and Google Gears were installed in two minutes.

So here is what I did.

Note that below steps are risky and may impact performance of your computer or even require full reinstallation. Please be CAREFULL.

Start the application installer and let it run until error window comes up.
Go to Event Log and review entries. Here is a link how to find it. I my case an older version was still installed - that what Vista was thinking.
Then hit Windows key + R and type “regedit” to open Registry Editor, export your registry to a file … just in case something goes wrong.
Then search registry for a phrase that’s related to your problem - in my case i was “gears” - remove that entry.
Once you go through whole registry, try to install application again. Hope it worked for you.
The last thing to do is reboot computer and check if everything is ok.

Being able to fix such little yet nagging problem is really encouraging and shows that with little effort tinkering and courage(?) you can repair most of the minor issues on your computer.

Hope you found this helpful and you didn’t crash your computer.

Cloud computing and environment

2008-12-14T21:10:00.001Z

Cloud computing is new and growing area of technology that allows people use applications from within their web browsers. In most cases there is no installation required and application can fully integrate with your browser. This approach allows you to work, collaborate, exchange ideas, write, compile spreadsheets without any need to take hard drive space on your PC. Everything gets stored somewhere on the server.
There is a growing number of applications available from web based email (known for quite while) to text, spreadsheet and presentation editors like Google Docs or Zoho, to mind mapping and task organising applications like MindMeister or Remember the Milk. With cloud computing there is no need to have large hard drives and huge amounts of RAM as everything is stored on remote servers that allow you to access data from any computer.

This new trend some how collides with another that is being environmentally friendly and reducing your impact on the planet. I saw this being mentioned for first time on BBC program couple weeks ago. Unfortunately I started watching it somewhere in the middle of it. What I've seen concentrated on the increasing power consumption caused by the growing number of servers. Not sure if I remember this correctly but it's estimated that current energy needs of data centres are closing to needs of car making industry. This is huge amount of energy that's being consumed. In addition to energy needs there is also a growing problem of heat generated by these massive computers that also have negative impact on climate.
And as we continue to move toward the cloud computing this will increase the need of new serves and data centres and consecutively put more burden on the environment.
I've been wondering if the cloud computing is so beneficial that the trade off is worth it. There are many shortcomings of "cloud" and I'm no fan of it yet. All my applications are desktop based and all my files are on hard drive.
Try to find answer to following question. How the cloud computing is different form the current pc bound applications?

To use cloud applications you still need some sort of computer. You also need a good connectivity that will allow you to work and continuously update severs with your files. The feature set of these applications is still limited and there hardly any chance to recover anything if you Internet session crashes.

There are many arguments that you could try to put here in favour and against cloud applications but form my perspective it just does not make that much of a difference. Sure you can access your work from anywhere but you still need to have computer and Internet connection. And still both are not available everywhere yet.

I think from environmental point of view use of cloud application causes double pressure on the planet. First you need energy to use you computer and then power is needed for big servers that store your information on the cloud. They need to run all the time to be able to serve you every time you connect to them. Your computer uses electricity only when it's on. There are though choices to make if you want to be environmentally friendly and still keep up with the latest developments on the web.

Determination a foundation of every goal

2008-12-08T19:43:00.003Z

There is no golden rule or sure fire way to archive every goal. As everybody is different, different things work for us better and some don't. I guess if there would be a magic way to reach any goal we all would know it by now. If you look at Google and search for phrase related to goal you will get over 3 million results. So clearly there is no single best way to archive goal.

When trying to archive a goal we usually go trough following pattern: hipped up beginning, slow down on the first obstacles, let go, re-examine and start all over again.

There last part the starting over is the key element. This is how the determination manifest itself and I think this is the most critical element in achieving any goal. A strong determination will allow to lock on the goal and keep trying until two things will happen. First you will archive your target thanks to your will power and focus or second you decide the pursue is no longer important and you abandoned it.

Determination can have a lot of faces it can be called will power, focus, drive but they all go down to single element of making sure you came back where your stopped and start again. Unfortunately the nature of life makes things difficult, let us experience failure and discouragement and that's part of every single endeavour. But if you stay determined there is no impossible things.

A good example is preparation to triathlon racing. There are months of training involved . There will be hours spend in the poll, on the track and bike. But not every day will have perfect conditions, it will be raining or snowing it will be cold or hot. There will be days when you will feel crap or even sick. Your plan will suffer. Eventually you will break and skip a session or two here and there but what will drive you further is the determination to take part in the race.

There are hundreds of different techniques, tips and they are all valid and useful but they will help you start this up. The thing that will allow to go further and further, fail and raise is the determination.

Know your software

2008-09-27T19:14:00.001+01:00

We rely more and more on software tat helps accomplish many of our tasks. Every area of work has many different programs available so the choice great. But that may cause a big problem for many as it’s difficult to find the perfect match for your needs.

After my switch to Tablet PC I've been thinking which software should I install what are the the essential applications for me in order to use this computer.

Currently subscribing to any major technology website will put you under constant barrage of new applications being released and updates, refreshed versions and so on. In effect your may find your self running around and constantly put a lot of time and effort in testing, getting a grip of the main features, just to move to something new in couple weeks/days.

In many cases this pattern can be easily overcome just by learning more about your software. Every time your will think that you need to buy this update, install that program make sure I know the current version in side out.

There are many sources of software information.

But before you will open your web browser try to figure what do you need it for, what are features you're looking. Once you know the purpose of it you can start checking internet and other sources.

Start with the main website and look for program guides, tutorials. These usually provide some generic information for novice users but you can also find some details information about less known features. In many cases it may occur that the feature you've found out in on the version 2.0 is already available in your current version 1.0. So there is no need to switch.
If you stumble up on some early problems don’t be discouraged try to look through FAQ, and other pages dedicated to provide answers to most common questions.
Blogs are very good source of detailed reviews also your can read on them some possible scenarios of usage. In many cases this can help you in defining your personal set up of the application and can help your find out what you can get out of it.
The most powerful source of information are user forums. These are real mines of extensive knowledge. Probably they are not the best place to start with easy problems but if you’re an advanced user it's highly possible that you will find the right answer. Good thing to do is to find a person of authority and follow it's comments as this usually is a power-users willing to share his/her knowledge.

Onenote resource list

2008-09-21T07:52:00.002+01:00

Since I'm a big fan of Microsoft Onenote I decided to put together a list of websites that were very helpful in getting around Onenote. By no means this is and exhaustive list. It's merely an tiny fragment of what's out there (google.com returns 7,050,000 results) yet the most useful (at least for me).

I hope this will help you find out more about Onenote's features and functions and make it work for you.

Use of flags
1. Getting organized using OneNote note flags
2. Customizing note flags to organize your projects
Usage scenarios
Onenote and GTD
1. DavidCo.com public forums links One ; two ; three; four
2. 7Breaths - GTD with Onenote
3. Daily Curmudgeonry
Other
1. Microsoft website -Onenote 2007 help
2. Google groups - huge resource but sometimes it's difficult to find the right thing.
3. Gottabemobile.com Onenote tag - great website if you are a mobile technology fan and they talk about Onenote a lot.
4. Onenote video via Officerocker - one of the best Onenote presentations on the internet
5. Google Books (Onenote 2003) - this is Oneote 2003 for beginners book
6. Onenote Powertoys - if you want to add some additional functionality to Onenote this is place to go to.
7. Firefox and Onenote - Firefox is your browser of choice? Here is a step by step on how install clip to Onenote extension.
8. Onenote Blog - Daniel Escapa - blog of Onenote developer.
9. How to Ink blog in Onenote - ink blog
10. Onenote as blogging tool - run a blog from Onenote.
11. If you are a tablet pc user there's a interesting discussion about pen applications including Onenote.

Cool Onenote video

2008-09-13T12:56:00.001+01:00

Since I got my tablet PC I'm constantly on the look out for any interesting videos and articles about tablets and tablet specific software.

Just recently I came across this very comprehensive and informative Onenote video by Clifford form Confessions of a Cafe Writer.

Please click link here Onenote video.

Thank you card

2008-05-29T06:32:00.002+01:00

I like the idea of sending a Thank you card. There are my reasons to do that and there are many benefits.

One of the main suggestions made is to send a hand written cards. This will show the recipient that it is important to you and you really appreciate dealing with him. Also you make effort to buy, fill and send the card which in general makes the whole thing more valuable. I wonder

How would you react to Thank you card send by email but still handwritten or even better handmade?

Would you still appreciate it the same way as "real" card or would just toss it into the electronic bin?

If you have tablet pc the options are endless, as long as you want to make an effort you can draw pictures, write poems or simply write thank you....

and all that done by hand.

Should you use technology this way or good all pen and paper can't be beaten....

Planning with Onenote and tablet pc

2008-05-12T22:26:00.001+01:00

Planing is first step of every project or goal.

One of the most natural ways to do it is to use pen and paper. But if you hone tablet pc you can do it digital way.

Grab your machine and start writing with all the features of Onenote you can easy convert ink to text and Save some time. More importantly you make sketches, mind maps etc. Tablet and Onenote are perfect match. Here's simple project plan:

Getting Tablet PC

2008-05-07T20:40:00.002+01:00

Just wanted to drop some entry thoughts after buying table pc.

I've been planing to buy, tablet pc for couple year now. I've heard a lot good things about them, their advantages, look and feel, how good they are in resembling paper, how effective tool they are. All this looked really great but Tablet PC's were always beyond my reach. Too expensive, too difficult to get - in Europe they are not very easy to find and even now there is less than handful of models available on the shelf of Irish computer stores.

But couple weeks ago I came a cross review of Toshiba M700 convertible tablet pc - something clicked and there I was spending hours researching various retailers, prices and models, reading trough all available review and scrap of comment. Fortunately there are online retailers that offered this model along with some other tablets. So after careful consideration and reference check I decided to place order with Elara.ie. Although I've paid slightly more, good reviews of service and reliability on local forums won me over. With 2GB of RAM, 120HDD, Vista Business pen and touch screen this is by far the most advanced computer I've ever owned.

I must admit tablet pc is a real change in approach to using computer. I can work in slate mode, as normal laptop, on the couch, at desk, sitting, standing ect. I've been using it for couple days know so I'm still learning but I can notice some nice changes like being able to ink notes whenever I want, scribble here and there. Using pen seems so much more natural and easy. You are just a single tap away from almost any feature and option. I will be able to say more about increases in productivity in couple weeks time as I spend more time on it and develop new working habits. But quick google seach can give as good number links that prove this point.

As you may recall I've switched to Evernote as my primary reference database. Getting a tablet changed the game again in favour of Onenote. Using Onenote with pen is so natural and easy that I'm planning to move back to this application. It just makes more sense. I like to use ink and I see my self using it more and more. Also all the features geared towards Tablet Pc users make Onenote a perfect application.

I think Evernote is great for laptops as all the inputs come via keyboard. At this point I run the trial version of Evernote so I have access to more advanced features like text in image recognition and inking but after trial period I would have to buy licence. Although it's not much and current EUR-USD exchange rate make it more attractive I just don't see this expense as justified especially if all above and more are available in Onenote. So I'm giving Onenote another try. I've spend some time thinking and planning in Onenote how would I use it, what would I need in terms of notebooks, sections, pages. This little exercise showed me that Onenote is the best application for my needs. I write more thoughts after I use it for couple weeks. The most promising and exciting feature of vista is voice recognition. I've seen a very nice tour on voice recognition by Loug Zheng and it was impressive. Basically he was able to fully control his machine just by dictating the command. The last thing I'm excited about is Vista it self. Over last couple months you could hear a lot of complaining about this OS that is crashing, there aren't many compatible devices, drivers are all over the place, take stacks of disk space. From my point of view everything is ok and I'm pretty happy of what I've seen. Everything works good and it looks really nice. Using Vista is just a good experience.

For a number of months I've been considering purchasing MacBook. My friend bought one recently and I had a chance to play with it a bit and at that time this was my machine of choice. But after getting tablet pc there are no regrets although it's hard to explain why I've bought tablet and not a Mac while I was making the purchase. It's definitely a good choice and Mac even with all the great software available will not beat Tablet PC..... unless there will be MacTablet.....

GTD not for everyone

2008-04-29T08:02:00.001+01:00

There are so many resources that talk about GTD, how to apply it, what are the struggles, what systems to use (this is possibly the biggest one). Hundreds of blogs, including this one, spread the word, think, analyse different aspects of GTD.

A very common struggle is that people can't maintain GTD for longer periods of time. There is first, very optimistic phase where everything is neatly organized, sorted etc. We feel strong and ready for what ever shows up. But how long does this last? Couple days, weeks maybe a month...? Suddenly our system creeps out and dies under flood of incoming email, news, ideas, etc.... Once this happens people start to look for another system, productivity hack that rule them all. What really happens and this happened also to me is that we take the book as ready to make recipe that supposed to work everytimel. But it doesn't.

The tools and applications shown in the book are just examples if how things can work. What I found with myself is that I tried to mimic whatever is in the book. These ideas are really great and useful no doubt about it but... they just will not work for all of you.

I think that GTD straight out of the box book will suit only certain types of jobs or positions. Surely not all of us spend 60% of our time in meetings or travelling. Different people lead different lives and they need different tools and approaches.

Is labeller crucial GTD tool?
While reading the book you might get the impression that labeller is crucial for your implementation, or maybe an @phone list, or something else. This is not the case. You might not have that many paper that needs archiving. You might have all you need in one drawer or single box but left in order that if needed can be found in seconds. Yet I was tempted to buy labeller, just to make sure my implementation was completed. I'm glad I haven't done so yet because it's not necessary to me.

Same applies to any of the contexts suggested in the book. Why would you have @phone list if you have to make 5 calls per week. In effect you might over do the implementation by creating "zombie contexts" so the list with 3-7 actions that you can't even remember it exists. If you do thorough review it might pop on your radar but only if you do it.

What to do?
Instead of mirroring what ever is in the book. Try to focus on the principles. They will allow you fit GTD to any situation and job. As you need to build your own system, that meets your needs. Having it copied based on the book would leave you with implementation that belongs to different people.
Below are just the most basic principles you need to know and apply. It's simplified form but this is what you might need to get started.

5 stages of flow - collect, process, organize, review, do.
Power questions - what's the next action, outcome.
List - way of putting all above together.
Focus primarily on deciding what you really need and then scale appropriately.

GTD is very flexible and can be very easily adjusted to your changing needs but as a rule of thumb make it yours first.

The cost of interruptions.

2008-04-19T09:05:00.001+01:00

Recently I came across few articles on interruptions and this topic seems to get more and more attention. Many people fear them like a plague but is it all a bad thing?

Let's define it first. Interruption is an act/situation in which other act is stopped and the attention is diverted into another direction. Everything happens in certain time scale so every interruption has it's begging and end that (The Free Dictionary).

As with many things in life interruptions have two side. The Good, inspiring and uplifting and unproductive bad cluttering our attention and time. Since most of them happen in office environment I've decided to draw up a little formula that can be used to asses the impact of these. So what is the cost of interruption?

The bad

The bad interruptions don't bring any value to what we're doing. There are millions of examples that can be ring out here and the list still would not be complete. Primarily they just take our time and attention and in return we don't get anything.To quantify the just use below formula

Cost = Time spend on interruption * hourly wage.

The good

This is tricky as it's hard to establish objective measure. There are many factors that will impact the end result.

The cost of entry is equal to the bad but the critical element is the gain from that interruption. In many cases the gain cannot be established quickly and easily translated into monetary terms at least up front. Although it would be perfect to do that. Think of how much you would gain or save money, time etc.

The good interruption are primarily the opportunities the pass by and it's up to us to assess if we want to reach them. This is were we need to exercise our judgement and make decision. Stop doing one thing and focus on this new interruption/opportunity. They can come in any form and type. The essence lays in ability to figure out what you can get out of it.

I think this needs to happen very early as other wise you are at risk of letting the interruptions take over your time and attention. There are only to choices here:

You allow the interruption to continue. Sort of go with the flow, engage in it and expect the result will bring you something

stop it, take out your capture tool and write it down and come back later.

This is were your productivity system comes handy again. Being organized and having all your commitments laid out gives you a great perspective of your situation and can become a great aid in making the decision.

Reference and additional read:

KM World "High cost of interruptions"

43 Folders Interruptions

Lifehack.org "How to avoid lengthy interruptions..."

Technology improves relationships

2008-04-07T22:32:00.002+01:00

Just a very quick note on how technology can help you leverage friendships and other relationships.

My friend has birthday tomorrow, normally I would take me a lot of effort to remember this to put on calendar, call maybe send a card, sometimes I would be so "busy" that I would simply forget.

Well, now I have it in my calendar but it's Outlook/PDA. Since I look at it many times a day my brain remembers information.

So today while chatting with him over the Skype I send him best wishes. He was surprised and genuinely touched. It would be great to go out for a drink though but we live too far apart.

Anyway this does not sound as super, sonic mind blowing hack but I believe thing like that small perhaps invisible make a real change in our lives.

Think maybe someone has his birthday, names day, anniversary, or won in local competition just send him or her a little note I will make their day.

I would be grateful for any comments or insights. If you like my writing please subscribe to my RSS Feed.

GTD extension of your body?

2008-04-07T21:30:00.001+01:00

I've recently read a big amount of ideas posted by Matt Cornell. The one that resonated the most with my was William Morris and Art and Craft movement

When you read about this movement there is a lot similarities between it and the GTD. Just as excerpt from Wikipedia

"Considering the machine to be the root cause of all repetitive and mundane evils, some of the protagonists of this movement turned entirely away from the use of machines and towards handcraft, which tended to concentrate their productions in the hands of sensitive but well-heeled patrons.

Yet, while the Arts and Crafts movement was in large part a reaction to industrialization, if looked at on the whole, it was neither anti-industrial nor anti-modern. Some of the European factions believed that machines were in fact necessary, but they should only be used to relieve the tedium of mundane, repetitive tasks. At the same time, some Arts and Crafts leaders felt that objects should also be affordable. The conflict between quality production and 'demo' design, and the attempt to reconcile the two, dominated design debate at the turn of the twentieth century.

Those who sought compromise between the efficiency of the machine and the skill of the craftsman thought it a useful endeavour to seek the means through which a true craftsman could master a machine to do his bidding, in opposition to what many believed to be the reality during the Industrial Age, i.e., that humans had become slaves to the industrial machine.

link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_movement

The basic idea of the GTD system is to be an external trigger of the required actions. Instead of keeping all the information in our brain we should use something else that primarily will free up our space and allow more thinking.

As you go through the implementation process you may be tempted to experiment with various systems. As much as this will be a valuable exercise the element of experimentation should have it's end. Otherwise you will constantly switch and lose a lot of time and energy. Also you may start to perceive changes as failures of methodology or your own which in effect may put you off from the whole idea

David Allen himself refers to GTD as the art of stress free productivity. As it really is. You have to master the moves and steps, you have to follow the flow of the thought.

What you want to achieve is the truly seamless interaction with the process: write things down, process, organize, review and do.

The key achieving that is the system that will become an extension of your body. Just like it happens with the best skilled craftsman. Their tools become embedded/imprinted in their hand. This system will be always at hand but never slow you down. It's not that hard imagine that in near future we will be able to use implants that will replace our filofaxes, moleskine notebooks, palm PDAs etc. But that's future for now we have to use what's available. For many notebook, pocket PC will look like ugly artificial limb but once you master it, it will serve you well.

So what can we learn from the Art and Craft movement?

It's very simple: you are the GTD craftsman and you have to use the tools you like. But also you have to remember that tool can't rule you. You need to use those tools in a way that allow you to accomplish great things. Machine must serve you not the opposite.

How to become skilled craftsman in my opinion primarily by experience and learning from your mistakes.
Get trained up on basic principles - there is no point in reinventing the wheel. Then start to experiment and define try and error period to discover our own paths and patterns. This will allow gain necessary insights into what works and what doesn't.

Thank Matt for bringing this idea.

I would be grateful for any comments or insights. If you like my writing please subscribe to my RSS Feed.

Evernote

2008-04-03T19:07:00.002+01:00

I'm working on few longer posts there fore I didn't have too much time to put anything here. This post is a quick memo on Evernote a great application that you should seriously consider using.

As you may have noticed I've switched my reference database from MS Onenote 2003 to Evernote 2.2.

I'm very happy with this decision.

Recently authors of Evernote released an online beta web application as Evernote 3. The basic idea is that you can access your database anywhere with Internet access regardless of operating system, type of computer etc. This seem to spark with the online community and you can see a lot of articles covering this new release.

Personally it doesn't really affects me as I work from one laptop so I pretty happy with what I have.

Since most people are focused on new version of Evernote I decided to put some links to good resources on how to start your adventure with Evernote.

to explore possibilities check here and here.
for best practices this thread is a must.
for advanced customisation and other tips visit GTD Wannebe blog.

If you are still looking for other tips and answers to some specific problems I strongly recommend looking through the User forums. You will find there great ideas and very helpful people.

Evernote and Onenote

2008-03-17T09:26:00.001Z

A while ago I’ve covered my GTD applications. One of my widely used was Microsoft Onenote. As much as liked to use this application I came to conclusion that it's not perfect reference application. At least for me.
I won't go into covering both as there are many thorough reviews on the web also I'm not willing to discuss changes made in ON 2007 vs. 2003. See the links below.What I want to share with you is what are the best features of both and how to make them work together.

As my new reference application I use Evernote. What makes it great is the flexible category tagging feature. I my opinion this is key as it's simple, easy to use and highly flexible. Instead of having information locked to one category/folder you can assign many tags to one piece of information based on your own criteria.

What I still like about Onenote are the text editing capabilities. Easy to use highlights, pens (highly useful for tablet PC owners), outlines, ability to manipulate text, image, layout of the page etc. Being tied to folder structure isn't very effective as the information has only one place and you have to relay on search capability. Depending on how much information you have in can be fast and easy or time consuming and daunting. The folder structure is like a brick wall for me. It take's time to raise, it needs to be well thought/planned, it's solid but hard to change and move.
Whereas the category assignment in Evernote is like cardboard wall, easy to raise, easy to adjust, move, light. May not be as solid but it does it's job.

The recent change I've employed to may system is to use both application to things their best at.

Evernote is my primary repository of reference material, web pages, clippings, writing, notes etc.
Onenote is used to edit, highlight, manipulate text that has been captured at first place to Evernote.

The flow of information looks as follows:

Links:

Evernote vs. Onenote 1

Onenote vs. Evernote 2

From the Evernote forum

Tags: GTD Tools Onenote Evernote

Links 08-03-08

2008-03-08T15:49:00.001Z

Here is couple interesting articles I have found recently while surfing web.

fDavid Pollard author of "How to save the world" writes about end of email where this type of media will be replaced by instant massaging tools. Read more here.

Gtdfrk posts on what constitutes good ubiquitous capture tool. Read more here .

If you are looking for a links to various mind mapping tools and applications there is a good bunch of them listed on Bootstraper. See more here

Rowan Manahan at "Fortify your oasis" shares short radio talk on: Is Tuesday the most productive day? Check out here.

Remember the Milk and Skype

2008-02-26T19:35:00.001Z

A quick thought for those using Remember The Milk as their main repository of to-do items.
As you know RTM offers different options for sending reminders. You can use Gmail, IM, text message, Skype and many more.
I must say I haven't tested this my self but I think you could create nice a integration of RTM, Skype, and mobile phone.

Here in Ireland, "Three" mobile network offers Skype enabled phones. Basically it allow you to use your Skype account wherever you are. It offers a free calls/messaging to other Skype users. I presume this means your are always online so if you use RTM your can receive your reminders via Skype. Since most people would have mobile phone with them this would allow you to have all your reminders delivered instantly.

Tags: Skype , RTM