Welcome to my Online Home!

This is fun!

So I was tired of some weird blogger errors with mysterious characters, logging in took too long ("took too" looks weird, huh? anyway), and I like to do things I do a LOT in a few character strokes. I love autohotkey: http://www.autohotkey.com/ (warning, not for n00bs! lol). I use it every single day, all the time. So that creating a new categorized task (GTD "Next Action"), a waiting for with a reminder date, whatever is a single key stroke.

For blogging, I'm using this:

;============BLOG EMAIL==================
#b::
Run C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe -compose
Sleep 600 ;cuz Thunderbird doesn't always catch keystrokes on start-up
Send !rmm{Tab}{Tab} ;specific to the number of accounts I have, obviously (heh, obviously if you read autohotkey script! lol)
Send aspiringbodhisattva.secretword@blogger.com
Send {Tab}{Tab}{PgUp}{enter}{#}end{PgUp}
;Send ^a
Send !s
return

To give me my correct sending smtp account, my secret sending account (not "secretword", but you get it), the termination set so it doesn't pick up my signature, and set me back on the subject. I like it, though you'd have to modify it obviously.

I also added blogger.com to my "text only" domains, cuz I was tired of the weird formatting. Not great for links, but I'll just post 'em in like I did with the autohotkey link.

And if you DO use blogger and you've got weird stuff in your text, try this: http://www.stevemiller.net/puretext/ . I love it.

Labels: GTD

Sometimes I have to prove to myself I'm doing too much. :-) Here's a good way for me to do that.

I was motivated by this question, in a few forms: what would it take (how much time) to do a SOLID job with all my commitments, per week? So, if a project is due in two months and will take 8 hours, that's about 30 min/wk... etc. If I totaled all those per week, is that possible? What HAVE I committed to?

I started with this estimate:

I wake up around 6 or 7 sleeping in at this point (but have gone through VERY late morning times...), and go to bed around 10 or 11. That's 16 hours about per day, or 112 hrs/wk (hereafter h/w).

Now I'm totaling my project categories, which are roughly my areas of responsibility. Here's that layout.
(nice that it's SO easy to do, since I have an up to date - well, at about 95% - project list!)

[project list as of Feb 12]

That gives me about this:

_	4
_Aiki-Doing	9
_Aiki-Doing Radar	1
_Basic Personal Stuff	16
_Body Training	26
_Community Engagement	4
_Community Radar	1
_Education	14
_Family	2
_Friends	4
_Home	2
_Homework	3
_Magic	5
_SAS	16
_Zen	7
	114

114 hours per week to do my commitments well. That would mean I'd have to work on SOMETHING or "be productive" from 6am to 10pm with no breathers and then find two more hours. I shouldn't be surprised that sometimes I feel behind in an area! lol. Time to cut back. And some of these things are going to INCREASE, not decrease - when the Beyond Belief magic show starts up in earnest, practice times plus show times are going to be around 20 hours per week. I'll be cutting out some aikido...

Oh, and here's how I did my calculations, which I consider important. Whatever it takes to do the project is included. So, for instance, body training includes my aikido classes and teaching, as well as my yoga cross training twice a week and my tai chi practice. It ALSO includes transportation and getting ready time - the REAL numbers.

And it turns out I'm doing too much. lol. Time to make some adjustments!

Do you have an updated full project list? Could you group them by areas of responsibility and tell if you're having to shortchange things because of your commitments? This isn't the only way to do it, of course (a lil' thing called intuition would do, too!), but sometimes having numbers helps job the mind with what you are and aren't spending wherever. That sentence made a WHOLE lotta sense, I'm sure! :-)

Labels: GTD

Continuing with the GTD theme, here's how I organize. Though I think I covered "organize" somewhat in the previous process post, here's a recap: I've got a buncha lists. :-) Besides lists, I've the requisite files (one sheet of paper = one file), online and offline... but once it's all procesed into the system I use an organized way of seeing what I've able to do. Here's where my views come in.

Outlook: Customized Views

I love how easy it is to customize outlook's views (or I wouldn't be using it anymore. Well, there's syncin', too). Calendar-wise, I like to have a quick view of whether I'm gettting a balance in my areas of responsibility, so I color code them based on category. Some quick hotkeys get them set up, so it's pretty painless. Here's what I use for my calendar:



And here's what I use for my tasks:



This nabs me some really nice views when I'm at my computer, which is where I do my processing thanks to some rockin' autohotkey help. Basically, I don't want to have to touch my mouse for processing... MAYBE if I'm scheduling a meeting, but even then, as little as possible.

That brings me to my PDA, a used Dell Axim x30 gotten through the wonders of eBay. I've assigned the message key to Agenda Fusion (SUCH a great program)'s task view... one of the few views I really benefit from in that program since it's a touch slower than the native handling of tasks.



And home is also tricked out a touch using TasksPlus. Free and worth every penny.



Think that's about it! This system's great for me, since I'm a happy tech user, but fast enough that it gets the heck out of the way when I want to get things done.

Labels: GTD

A quickie post while I get my next GTD post together...

For the bulk of my mom's bday present in Dec, my brother and I installed a new closet organizer in the very messy laundry room. While I was cleaning it out, I took stock of what was in there. That's because I follow a pretty straightforward cleaning scheme. See, I like to clean once, and know I won't really have to do it again. To get that feeling of satisfaction, my process uses a few motivating questions to create lists of things and spaces.

First: what does the space look like right now? what is being put where and why?
This means taking stock of, for instance, the flat spaces and what's being put there. What's on the floor? Here you'd create the initial lists of things that are currently being put in the space and the various subspaces. In this laundry room's case, I've got the list at the end.

Next: Take everything out of the spaces and put similar things together.
This gets me to a principle I believe is very important. I don't think people make bad decisions about stuff or other things; I think people (including myself) make the best decisions they can given their perspective. So if you see a few shoes here and there, not knowing you have 30 or 40 pairs of shoes in various spots, you won't make a decision about buying another pair of shoes with the real deep truth of the experience of owning another pair. And that goes for seeing deeply into what you see: seeing the origin of the object, its maintenance costs, and its disposal costs - for you and for others. Seeing the full lifespan costs (physically, emotionally, etc.) of the thing is essential for good decision making.

Last: match spaces and collections by creating intelligent systems that would keep the previous mess from occurring because the system would be easier than not doing it.
It's like the 1 minute filing rule (30 seconds, to me) in GTD. It should be easier to file the thing than not. With very little forward thinking, by comparing the small, systematized/ritualized action to the haphazard tossing of something you should come up with the system each time.

Really, Really Last: See it from all altitudes.
This isn't really about cleaning a space, per se, but more about an attitude to bring to than and other things. Let's say you're making decisions about systems for your shoes... or rubber bands or something. At some point, your OCD warning flag should go off if you're spending too much of your life energy trying to maintain something of little importance. Perhaps it's better to simplify. That doesn't mean, to me, shirk responsibility for the things you have (everything from paper clips to family and friends, seriously); it means acknowledging the cost of the thing and asking deeply whether it's worth it. Hopefully, everything you are willing to touch should be worth it. But no body wants the poetic "life measured in coffee spoons." Donate the coffee spoons, my god. I DO have a place for rubber bands, for instance. But I just toss them in particular corner of my office supply drawer - precisely, but not too precisely. I'm not going to realistically unroll some ziplock bag and put them in. If I get too many of them for my system, I should evaluate why the hell I'm having to deal with this many things. There's a balance between caring too little and not taking responsibility and caring too much and being tunnel visioned. If you were maintaining a zen garden, you might rake your stone walk carefully and lovingly...but you'd probably not get down on your hands and knees and place pebbles with your hands. You've got trees to trim, leaves to rake, food to prepare! Get a life! But not much of a life that you don't care for the thing. The way you care for anything, to me, is the way you care for everything. This would apply to thinking deeply about the green origins of your owned things, your social justice commitments, whether you buy locally or not... the whole system and your place in it. As manifested by your laundry room.

Rambling aside, without further ado, the list. Here's what I found seemed "unsystemed" in the laundry room. For you, some questions: how do you know when you have too many of these things? Can you tell, visually, when that happens? Do you know what to do with the excess when it happens... and do you know how to adjust your system so that, gradually, the excess (which you have to then deal with) doesn't even happen in the first place? Ultimately, how can you take responsibility for what you have, your relationships, and your boundaries so that your life takes a balanced amount of maintenance energy allowing you to actually LIVE?

coats
shoes
vacuums
tools
appliances
dog toys, leashes, etc.
small kitchen appliances
clothes (clean/dirty)
detergent products
hangers (extra, in use)
coupons
extra bulk food
gloves
hats

So? How'd you do on your mental walk through? If it wasn't 100%, it'll happen again in your head. Is it worth tasting the trust in a system for these things so that there's no excess, no lack, and the balance sits strongly? How might that taste? Not perfection, but dynamic, relaxed balance.

Labels: GTD, social justice, zen

Happy new year, everyone!

It's 7:30 and I've had a wonderful morning so far - an exciting way to start the new year for me. I woke up from a dream/nightmare about worries I have with MLK day events at NCSSM I'm helping to plan - wonderful! Very exciting to me to start my year off with worries about diversity education being done well. Then I did some zazen and did one of the morning chants I really enjoy:
Sentient beings are numberless; I vow to awaken with them.
Delusions are inexhaustible; I vow to end them.
Dharma gates are boundless; I vow to enter them.
Buddha's Way is unsurpassable; I vow to become it.

Did a bit of brainstorming on MLK to get those worries out of my head into actionables... something I might not have been able to as clearly do last year. I've made progress in being "cleaner" with my GTD implementation, which is really progress toward, to me, directly facing myself and my worries, interests, capabilities, etc. Also, got up to get my two hakamas and Sarah's hakama out of the washer for hanging. We wash them about once a year (kinda like belts - I was told not to wash mine because of damage to certain parts), and they must be hung dry - so got to hanging them in my room with the space heater on high.

Social justice, GTD, Aikido, Zen all on my mind before 7:30 in the new year. Who knows what this year will bring, but a very pleasant start!

Also - Crapzola, my comments settings were all askew! Til now, only folks with blogger accounts could comment. LAME. Fixed that yesterday, so folks can comment away on my ramblings. :-)

peace & justice in the new year! Ring it in with all you've got!

mike

Labels: aikido, dreams, GTD, social justice, zen

...and here's those six stain similes for proper listening, also from The Nectar of Manjurshri's Speech.  Don't do these. :-)

It is said in the Vyakhyayukti:
To be puffed up with pride, to have no faith,
To have no yearning interest,
Outwardly distracted, inwardly withdrawn,
To listen with despondency: These are all impurities.

The commentary also says:

This refers respective to the pride of thinking oneself superior to the teacher and to one's spiritual companions.  It refers to a lack of confidence in the Dharma, the teacher, and one's fellow disciples.  It refers also to an absence of keen interest and endeavor in the Dharma, and indicates distraction when the mind runs after the outer objects of the senses and is not concentrated, or when it sinks into a state of dullness and torpor.  It refers too to the dismay one might feel at the length of the teaching session, or at the discomforts of hunger or thirst, or of heat or cold, on account of which one does not want to listen or else listens with displeasure.  [...] one must control one's behavior, have an attitude of utmost respect, and listen to the teachings in the proper manner.

Good "ideas" like these, to me, are only useful when they can be appropriately applied.  Even outside of Buddhism, specifically in Aikido or GTD or even social justice motivation, it seems these could be used as checklists for one's perspective.  So, in GTD, one might ask:

• Is my thinking I'm awesome at GTD keeping me from learning?
• Am I unwilling to trust that GTD has any merit whatsoever? (recognizing that some faith can only be realized by familiarity, meaning you've gotta do SOMETHING to get the flavor of it)
  
• Do I think that being organized isn't that important? (i.e. not recognizing the strain on other important parts of life, however subtle yet insidious)
• Am I tooling around with the GTD implementation specifics, like fancy handhelds or other external manifestations of a system, and not really practicing?
• Am I navel-gazing, thinking about the perfect GTD system and how I'll implement it...someday?
• Am I wallowing in how hard implementation will be, how long it'll take, how much money/time/resources, without applying GTD to This Right Here?  Am I stuck on the overwhelmingness of the big picture than I can't see managable chunks of projects and completable next actions?

Seems these stains have lots of applications!  Can you see the aikido or community change making parallels?

Labels: aikido, GTD, listening, social justice

Onward and upward! Or something.

For those that know GTD, you know what process means: take something, put it where it belongs, and leave an intelligently (and quickly!) filed reminder in a list system that I trust. Folks use lotsa things for lists... but for me, this seems to work really well. First, the lists.

Lists are of a few types in GTD. First, you've got your "next action" lists. This is stuff that you're able to actually do (meaning it's a single activity, physical, envisionable, etc.) when you're in the right context. These lists are kept by context (like "At Phone" is the list of the phone calls you could make), and (to me) ideally cross referenced by date IF something has to be done on that day from that list. Still, many of these to-dos might not have dates. The scenario this list is used? You've gotten everything done you "need" to do today by checking your calendar and dated next actions... and you feel like a-workin' ahead or on something that needs to be done, but doesn't have to be done today. So you whip out your context list.

Here's my context next action list and how I use it.

@ - My GTD next action reminders. This is a cheat - I put some fake tasks in here that remind me of how to DO stuff. Cuz, no joke, I sometimes forget. Here's those tasks, actually:

• GTD Workflow Mastery: Collect, Process, Organize, Review, Do
• GTD Choose Action: Context->Time->Energy->Priority
• GTD Daily Work: Do predefined, do as it shows up, defining it
• GTD Weekly Review (w/ notes so I can do my weekly review wherever - recurs Thu)
  
• GTD Monthly Review (same deal - recurs 1st sun of the month)
  
• GTD @: single, atomic, physical, seeable, context, committed, action verb

@Aiki-Doing - I have a part-time consulting company (you're on its webpage right now!) I know that the only time I'd do these next actions is if I'm at the computer AND online AND in "makin' extra $" mode.

@Brainstorming - Stuff I could do anywhere. And do! If I'm catching a quiet dinner by myself, I might pull out one of these. Then again, I might just have a quiet dinner.

@Email - Emails! It's all lumped together, my work and personal, since I'm doing it from the same place. I've had these split (the way phone is currently split) into work and personal... but I found that since my minutes are charged differently, I like to be intentional about separating my personal and work calls.

@Home - Stuff around the house. This might be "vacuum & mop the floors" on the weekend (which it is today, for example) or "take a look into the attic" referring to our house's attic project.

@Meeting - Agendas. Each agenda starts with the person's name, like "Cal: Talk about heterosexism and racism training day for PANC for ideas."

@OfflineCPU -Things to do when I'm, gasp, offline.

@OnlineCPU - Things I need a net connection for.

@Phone-Personal - Duh! I make most of these calls on weekends or after 9. Cha-Ching.

@Phone-Work - Usually make these during the day when I'm in the car. I know that's naughty... but I find I need less emotional energy when I'm talking work. Or I just do it when I park the car someplace I get early.

@Reading - Stuff I've actually committed to reading

@Running Errands - A great list. I get in my car, I check it. I go in a store, I check it. It might have "Durham: Thrift Shop: Get a crappy bag with a nice zipper" so I can put it on my yoga bag. So I'll be in Durham, getting in my car (or planning my day), and realize "oh, I've got a few Durham errands, lemme tack that on here and here...

@SAS - My UNC internship is at SAS, and I'm religious about not bringing work home. I'm only going to do these things at my desk there, whether emails, calls, research on eldercare, sorting, etc.

And two ESSENTIAL categories that relate..

Suspended - tasks with a date set for them to be active. They do NOT show up on my lists daily, but will pop up on the day I need them on either my outlook today or my nice PDA today screen.

Waiting For - again, dated. If I send an email to someone, while it's sending (2 seconds or so?) I use the hotkeys for a new waiting for task and put a date on it. Literally, takes about 2-3 seconds. But that way, in a week if they haven't gotten back to me, I know to check in.


My projects list is also in this system. I've worked literally for years to try to find out how to best watch projects, and came up with this. Each of the "areas of responsibility" for my life is a category with projects under it.

_ Same as above - GTD project reminders for how to work the system

• GTD Natural Planning: 1.Principles 2.Vision 3. Brainstorm 4. Organize 5. Next Action
• GTD Priorities / Reviews

_Aiki-Doing - Got a list of the clients I'm working with and the work I'm doing for them.

_Basic Personal Stuff - My eating

_Body Training - Specific Aikido, yoga, tai chi goals. Treating injuries, good eating, sleeping, this goes in here.

_Community Engagement - My active community projects. I don't know if it's good or bad that this is often my largest list.

_Community Radar - Community projects I'm not active on, but I want to keep on my mind.

_Education - Projects for each of my UNC classes, upcoming seminars, etc.

_Family - Folks on my mind, so I can keep track of what's going on with them.

_Friends - same thing - notes on folks I'm close to. This isn't ALL my friends - just the folks I want to stay more regularly connected with.

_Home - Home projects, like "Clean Attic" or "Beautiful Walkway to large tree"

_Magic - my magic training projects. Stuff like "think about transitions between this routine and this one..." And Josh's upcoming Magic show at Man Bites Dog, that I'll be a part of again...

_SAS Project - Again, big picture SAS stuff.

_Zen - Basically says "meditate." lol.


Lastly, my maybe someday list. Here's where stuff goes that I might get around to someday... and maybe I wont.

~ - Misc. I don't care about sorting these as much...lol.

~Blog Ideas - I've amassed about 200 things in this category. I've written 5. That's ok. lol.

~Community - Neato community project idears

~DurhamCET -

~Education - seminars, etc. I might like to go to.

~Friends - stuff I might do for friends if I have the time down the road.

~Fun - fun ways to play I can pull from whenever

~Home - hare-brained idears for the dojo house.

~Magic - Routines I might like to add, but won't commit to right now.

~Net-Browsing - go look at this neat thing when you have time... or not!

~Organizing - stuff that might be perfectionism... so by putting it here I give myself permission NOT to do it.

~Personal - eh, I might gt some black pants that wick...but I think I have enough clothes as it is. I'll leave it there for later or never.

~Relationships - folks not quite friends at this point, but if I've got time I'll reach out and send somebody a CD or something.

~Tech - again, doodads I probably don't need. Just get it off my mind already!

~Work - Brainstorms to increase consulting advertising, etc.


That's WHERE I process. Here's HOW I process.

I'm a techie. Not quite at heart, but in training. I've got this neato thing called AutoHotKey (google it!) that let's me create Outlook tasks in a heartbeat. Let's say I'm sending an email and need to create a waiting for.

I'd type
(win-t)wfMandy re: lunch(tab)wed(alt-s)
while the email's sending, and that would

• (win-t) : open up a new task window for outlook (no matter what I'm using at the time).
• wf : deletes "wf" text, types the short-cuts for the categories list (alt-g) and selects waiting for, then gets me back to the subject
• Mandy email re: lunch : who I'm waiting on and for what
• (tab) wed : drops me to the due date and gives me the next wed.
• (alt-s) : saves and closes my new task. It'll then show up in my few task views, my PDA, and my today screens.
  

Processing, in practice, looks like emptying my inbox (which I usually do as I get things, it's just so fast), emptying my paper inbox at the end of the day, and emptying my PDA of voice recording notes. All of those things I quickly use some hotkeys for and turn into tasks. Processing into Outlook nabs me some pretty nice views, which is what all this processing is for, in a sense: to give me snapshots of what I need, when I need it, so I can make good decisions and not drop any balls.

And I'll do a view showin' soon!

Labels: GTD, pda

OK, time for the often-done "how I work GTD."

First, here's what I DO (which guides how I'm implementing my system):

• I'm active in around 10-20 community projects at a time, and "track" about another 10 that I'd like to stay on my radar
  
• I'm going to school for a masters in social work and two certificates (one from UNC and one from Duke) in nonprofit management
  
• I train a lot in Aikido and Tai Chi (and yoga cross training)
  
• I like hanging out with friends
  
• I teach a few martial arts classes at Duke in the PE department
  
• I have a part-time nonprofit/social justice technology consultant practice with about ten clients at a time.
  

And apart from what I do, here's some specifics of how I like to do it which impact my implementation:

• I'm tech savvy, very much so, but don't like living off my computer
  
• I live in a wonderful house with a housemate, and have a small "work area" that I don't want to be in my room.
  
• I like to be able to capture things both on paper and verbally.
• I've lost large amounts of data on paper or otherwise before - a stolen planner, etc. - so I wanted a system that backs itself up.
  
• If a tech system, I'm big on speed - I want spend my time BEING organized, not organizing.
• I want my stuff protected by duplication, but not have to do anything twice. I want as much at my fingertips as possible
• Some investment is ok, but I generally don't have good experiences with fancier tailored systems. I'll tailor it, thanks.
• I want to be able to see my tasks by due date AND by category, but have filing be Fast

So given those things, here's the big overall for my system. I'm going to measure it based on my favorite three GTD measurement tools: the Workflow Mastery assessment at Matt's Idea Blog, David Allen's belts, and GTD Mastery 100.

My essential tools:

• Microsoft Outlook, with some customizations
• Autohotkey for some select but very tactical hotkeys (I love you!)
• Thunderbird
• a tricked out used PDA (Dell Axim x30 - I've had eGenio for a while, but I love this axim)
• a black purse with pockets ("man bag?" C'mon, it's a purse.)
• a buncha notecards, two black pens and some colored pens for brainstorms, meeting notes or whatever.
• a big old 4 drawer file cabinet and manila folders (Hanging files is for the birds)

I'm going to go with the Workflow Mastery rubric (Collect, Process, Organize, Review, Do) to talk about my system, then do my tools one by one.

Collect
According to David Allen, there are three success factors in collecting. I like Matt's extended list though, so I'm going to go with that

?Stuff? enters my life via a small number of collecting points (physical in-basket, email, voice mail, etc.) ____ YUP
I regularly do a mind sweep to empty my head of nagging thoughts that have my attention. ____ YUP
I use my email in-box only for collecting; it does not mix collecting with action or reference. ____YUP
I empty my collecting points (including paper and email) every 24-48 hours. ____YUP
I have collecting points set up both at home and work. ____YUP
Fellow workers and family use my collecting points for notes, memos, etc, instead of leaving in unexpected locations. ____YUP
I always have a Ubiquitous Capture Tool (notebook, PDA, etc.) nearby to capture things that are on my mind. ____YUP

My three buckets are thunderbird email inbox, my physical inbox on my desk (for whatever, including my paper notes that I could take during meetings if I wanted to), my PDA voice capture list which syncs with outlook in the "notes" section as recordings. I can ubiquitously (?) capture by voice, paper, or just dropping a thing into a spot - and so far, I haven't been able to get to fewer than this since I LOVE the voice capture piece. :-)

Thunderbird Email
Nothing stays in my inbox long - and by long I mean a day at max, usually just a few seconds. Inbox represents something NOT processed - anything processed gets quickly taged as work or personal (by pressing a single key) and filed into a respective folder filing system, which I'll go over later. All in all, each email takes no more than a few seconds to process into a trusted reminder that'll show up in the few views I want it to by category and by date both on my computer and my PDA - a tiny bit of processing up front with a high pay off makes processing that collection bucket to zero easy.

My Physical Inbox
This is easy - whatever notes (if any) I've taken during the day I'll just stuff in my pocket. When I change at the end of the day I just dump them into my inbox at home - or have already processed them in the last 15 minutes of my day which I religiously reserve at work for processing my work tasks (note: turning your notes into next actions and project brainstorms is billable, folks). They go into the inbox, then they go out. If I took a picture with my camera that day, it gets tossed (nicely!) into my inbox. Articles I clipped? Inbox.

And that inbox stays EMPTY. To me, if my inbox is getting stuck, it's because my filing system doesn't rock (as in less than 30 seconds to get it to where it belongs) or my decision making on something is stuck. By working on fixing those systems over the last few years (though nobody's perfect) my inbox stays about 95% zero like my email - and if it doesn't get cleared in a day, it certainly will in another. My housemate drops stuff (mail, notes, etc.) into my inbox (or on my chair, which I put in my inbox) and I put stuff in hers.

PDA Voice Capture
I LOVE this. I like to ramble... or leave myself short messages. It's faster than calling my answering machine and then having it sent by email, as is now possible - I rummage in my bag one handed, even when driving (whoops! I mean, both hands on the wheel!), and by feel can get the sleek silver of the protective case on my PDA. I pull it out, and with my pinky squeeze the voice capture button. PDA turns on, a little beep, and then "add eggplant to the grocery list" or "brainstorm about writing a children's book someday about social justice and anti-racism stories...." - whatever. Those notes sync with my outlook and drop themselves into the collection bucket of "notes" where I speedily turn them into next actions, waiting-fors, project notes, suspended actions, calendar, whatever - with my outlook organization system, processing (as I'll go over) is a snap.

The Rest
I'll do Process, Organize, Review, Do later, yo. Just felt like starting these GTD postings right!

Labels: GTD

In honor of my recently getting my hands on a copy of the ever elusive Getting Things Done...Fast! tapes, I've decided to do a few posts on my GTD implementation. These'll be coming around in the next week or two, and by the end, it'll be a complete "How I GTD" for my personal system. And mine's workin' pretty darn well, so I hope it'll be helpful and "food for thought" for those implementing GTD themselves.

An interesting note here I noticed. I'm quite happy to have gotten my hands on GTD...Fast! It was mentioned on Merlin's Blog some time ago, among other places, and its rarity was not far off. I called libraries all over the US, tried to interlibrary loan it through a few institutions... etc. In a funny catch-22, I attribute my having my hands on it to...can you guess? ... my existing GTD system. Having the reminders pop up in the right context regularly helped me keep concentrated on it (and other) tasks. Without a strong GTD system, I think there'd have been no chance of finding it. Of course, there are probably many folks with great GTD systems that didn't nab it and may have wanted to - I'm not saying it's purely earned here - but I am saying GTD has a strong impact on one's ability to get information, and good information, about GTD. Funny thing.

There's a line in Siddhartha (I'm thinking of the enjoyable movie here) that reminds me of what an effective GTD system can do for long-term projects.

"When you throw a rock into the water, it will speed on the fastest course to the bottom of the water. This is how it is when Siddhartha has a goal, a resolution. Siddhartha does nothing, he waits, he thinks, he fasts, but he passes through the things of the world like a rock through water, without doing anything, without stirring; he is drawn, he lets himself fall. His goal attracts him, because he doesn't let anything enter his soul which might oppose the goal. This is what Siddhartha has learned among the Samanas. This is what fools call magic and of which they think it would be effected by means of the daemons. Nothing is effected by daemons, there are no daemons. Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goals, if he is able to think, if he is able to wait, if he is able to fast."

I'll end with this, for now: a gem from the GTD ...Fast! series. When talking about actions, David Allen remarks that things are on your mind not because they are unfinished, but because...

1. The outcome is not clarified (Project vision of success unclear) and/or
2. That next action has not been definied (next action not identified and meeting solid next action criteria) and/or
3. The reminder of the project and/or the action item is not parked properly in system that you'll see at the right place (context) and time.

Therefore, there is no system better than your mind able to keep track of it, so it pops up.

This, to me, is one of the holy grail blips of GTD. WHY did I just think that? What is the real, basic measurement of a GTD system that keeps that open loop out of the mind? Well, it's a problem with the clarity of project's successful outcome/vision, the simplicity and atomicity (physicality, contextualizedness - not a word, the very next thing, etc.), or the reminder system.

Ding!

Labels: Buddhism, GTD

A bit of a hiatus, but it's Sunday and I'm doing my weekly review. As part of that review, I'm aiming to do a better job of quick updates to each project I'm working on using the GTD Natural Planning stages:

GTD Natural Planning from Ready for Anything by David Allen:

1. Purpose / Guiding Principles
* Why is this being done? What would "on purpose" really mean?
* What are key standards to hold in making decisions and acting on this project? What rules do we play by?
* The purpose and principles are the guiding criteria for making decisions on a project.

2. Mission/Vision/Goal/Successful Outcome
* What would it be like if it were totally successful? How would I know?
* What would that success look like or feel like for each of the parties with an interest?

3. Brainstorming
* What are all the things that occur to me about this? What is the current reality?
* What do I know? What do I not know? What out I consider? What haven't I considered? Etc.
* Be complete, open, and nonjudgemental, and resist critical analysis.
* View from all sides.

4. Organizing
* Identify components (subprojects), sequences, and/or prorities
* Create outlines, bulleted lists, or organizing charts as needed for review and control

5. Next Actions
* Determine next actions on current independent components. (What should be done next, and who will do it?)
* If more planning is required, determine the next action to accomplish that.

If needed, shift the level of focus on the project as follows:
- if your project needs more clarity, raise the level of your focus (e.g. move from actions back to plans, plans back to brainstorming, vision back to purpose)
- If your project needs more to be happening, lower the level of your focus (e.g. move from vision to brainstorming, from plans to actions)

How much planning is required?
- If the project is off your mind, your planning is sufficient. If it's still on your mind, keep applying the model until it's clear.

I'll post my community projects here as part of my review... so here we go.

Labels: GTD, Natural Planning