Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with GTD

Help me, I'm a late adopter.

Zarkonnen — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:26:43 -0800

How do I learn new programming languages and start using modern web apps without getting frustrated and angry? So I'm in my mid-twenties and work in IT. I've been watching the last couple of years of exploding creativity on the net - literally millions of blogs, new programming languages, new ideas like twitter, citizen journalism, etcetera.

But lately I've realised that despite being able to see the potential benefits and really actually exciting possibilities of all this new stuff, I grumpily dismiss it and stick to how I've been doing things for the past couple of years. I use email, Java and PHP, and HTML 4.0.1 Transitional. I occasionally write some stuff in my site's news section, but I doubt my completely random ramblings make anyone come back. I'd like to think that I might have some interesting things to say on some topics, but I can't find the time to write about it, and it feels odd to intersperse "here's some photos I took" with "here's a detailed analysis of this political situation". I don't use Ruby Twitter XML Python LISP Quicksilver GTD Podcasts RSS Lifehacks. I don't contribute to wikis, or talk on forums (with the pretty much sole exception of MeFi).

At the same time I'm getting very frustrated with the limits of the tools I do know how to use - Java's verbosity and lack of support for first-class functions is a pain, and I don't like the fact that I'm always the last to hear about everything interesting that happens on the net. I have no coherent systems for making notes or keeping track of appointments or tasks, despite the plethora of Mac programs available for doing just that.

Why is this a problem? Well, I'm not even thirty yet, but I can already feel myself falling behind the times. I don't want to end up as the kind of programmer / person in general who toils away on some legacy project in a little corner, insisting "we've always done it this way" until one day I get fired for being completely superfluous. I want to want to learn new things. I want to be more organised.

So is there a question in all of this? Yes! I want you to tell me how to break out of my rut. Tell me how I can learn about, and start to use, new stuff, despite the two big obstacles I'm about to describe.

Obstacle number one: Why do I dislike new things? To a large part, to be honest, because the people who do use these things and try to promote them really grate on my nerves. Take programming languages: many advocates of new languages (Ruby, I'm looking at you) start off their pitch by pointing out how useless language X (also known as "Java") is, and how using their language allows you to become a massively more enlightened individual. Along the way, there is a strong implication that anyone who still uses language X in 2008 is a hopeless dinosaur. Way to insult your audience.

Number two: I find learning new things really unpleasant. Faced with needing to code a small website, another programmer would say "Cool, a chance to try out this new Python framework, and this AJAX front-end library - no one's ever tried using them together before, but I have a really clever plan involving metaclasses". I say "Well, I don't really want to take too much time on it, so let's code it up in imperative-style PHP 4. It's clunky, it's incredibly verbose, the code is hideous, and errors are hard to track down, but I know how it works and can liberally reuse code from previous projects." Of course, this is a caricature, but the point remains that that other programmer will end up being more productive and motivated than me, perhaps not on this project, but on the next, where I'm still using PHP 4, but the other guy would be using said Python framework (but not the AJAX library, because it turned out to be too buggy).

So why don't I go off and do like the other programmer? Because the framework and the library will have terrible, hard-to-find inconsistent documentatio, bugs that cause the default configuration to fail silently, and creators who have the attitude described in obstacle #1. And here's the crux of the matter: where the other programmer would think "Cool, a challenge! Let's try to get this working." I fly into an impotent rage, cursing the code, its creator, and myself. I will yell at the computer when yet another promising documentation link 404s on me, I will make strangling motions at the screen when it turns out that I installed some package whose name has no vowels on the wrong path, and I will mentally tally every single problem I've had getting the whole thing working. Both the other programmer and I will take about five hours to get the framework up and running, but while that's five hours of joyful problem-solving time for the other guy/gal, it's five hours of fuming at the computer for me, and I'll have a headache at the end. And somewhere along the way I will probably give up and code the thing in PHP 4 or Java, feeling guilty for being a dinosaur.

Much the same happens when the Thing in question isn't a programming language but a website or some organizer/productivity program.

So to the end of not having to look at new things anymore, I now come up with automatic put-downs for every new thing that crosses my path: Ruby's syntax is horrible, Twitter is shallow, XML is verbose, Python is white-space-sensitive, LISP is unreadable, Quicksilver is unstable and obtuse, GTD is for obsessive-compulsives, podcasts are narcissistic, RSS is inefficent and ill-defined and life hacks are impractical. Contributing to wikis is pointless, and all forums are full of 13 year olds.

Still, I want to learn and use new things, because I find them fascinating and recognise their potential. So what techniques, states of mind, resources would you suggest that I could use to approach learning new languages, starting to use new websites, new modes of communication, etcetera, without just coming away pissed off and exhausted?

(And if you've read all of this, congratulations. You get a voucher for small prize, redeemable anywhere on the moon only.)

How should I track my internet usage?

schroedinger — Sun, 11 May 2008 20:41:53 -0800

I'm looking for an application that tracks my software and website usage that is not RescueTime. I'm extremely uncomfortable with the data being transmitted to a website and want something that stores it on my computer, not anywhere else. I've also used MeeTimer, and found it too buggy. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Buying a nicely-made desktop tickler file system

TheManChild2000 — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:18:26 -0800

I am looking for a desktop tickler/pass-forward file system that's really *classy* and well-made from quality materials, not the typical wire-basket-with-manila-folders that most places sell.

Computerized "Job Jar"?

penciltopper — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:35:11 -0800

I would like randomly selected items from a To-Do list to "float to the top" on a regular basis. Ideas? Ok, so growing up, we had chores to do and things that needed doing around the house. Trying to assign them or claim them permanently never worked out very well, so we wrote anything that needed doing on slips of paper, put them in a jar. Every Sunday you took one item out of the jar and were stuck doing whatever was on the paper. Sometimes it was quick and easy, sometimes it was a real pain. But the luck of the draw made it easier to tolerate.

I have a Tasks list in Outlook that when printed out is several pages long, full of 4-hour or 8-hour projects. Guh. Obviously, it's too big to help me get it all done, and there's always some other needs-doing item I'd prefer to do that can push a more unpleasant task out of the way. I'd like to cut everything but this week's absolutely necessary "next action" items from my Tasks list, and have the rest somewhere else.

What I would like to do is block out a day or half-day each week for the "Job Jar". By some sort of magic, that big list of items would have one or two projects percolate to the top somehow, and notify me. They'd go in that week's block of time as Must-Dos, rather than languishing away on a Someday list as they do now.

I've seen a lot of productivity hacks go by on MeFi - does anyone have ideas?

I doubt Outlook would be able to do this for me, so any other tool that would do this is worth it. Gimme whatever you got.

I'm not interested in the obvious choice of assigning due dates beforehand to these projects and getting notified that way. If I am allowed to make choices about what's due when, then the whole element of random assignment I'm looking for is lost. I'm lousy at making deals with myself (I practice active procrastination), but can keep a Job-Jar-like pact; so I'm looking for something that can randomize listed items and deliver one or two a week.

Super double special rainbow pony bonus points for something that's smart enough to give me one item listed as All-Day or two listed as Half-Day.

Greasemonkey Script Request

chrisalbon — Sun, 04 May 2008 09:44:08 -0800

Greasemonkey Script Request: A script which displays "Get Back To Work" in big letters when I visit procrastination websites (like ask.metafilter). There are a ton of greasemonkey scripts blocking non-productive websites. However, blocking the sites entirely goes too far for me.

I am looking for a script that reminds me to get back to work but still lets me visit time-wasting websites. Something like this.

Any idea where I can find such a thing?

Bonus:

Scanning Legal Sized Docs?

cmh0150 — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:06:56 -0800

I want to scan all my important papers, including documents which are on legal sized (long) paper. I have a Canon MP830 scanner and while the glass for scanning is the size or regular notebook paper, I thought I would be able to scan in the legal sized document from the automatic document feeder. So far, no go - all my PDF copies are only notebook sized copies. Any suggestions?

Help me take my work on the road

jbickers — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:45:34 -0800

PortableApps? Portable Outlook? What's the best way to access a robust set of data from multiple PCs? I've got a fairly chock-full Outlook, with tons of folders and sub-folders, carefully designed for my homebrew time management system. Now, though, I'm finding the need to be away from my desktop PC a couple of days a week, and still need to Get Things Done.

I can access my POP mail from the road if I quit out of Outlook before I leave ... but that doesn't help me much, because so much of my work is stored in the Outlook folders.

I've looked at PortableApps, but frankly, I'm more than a little bit apprehensive to have my entire livelihood stored on a thumbdrive. I lose sunglasses within a day or two of buying them, so the idea of my entire digital life being on one little device is horrifying.

What's the best way to take my data mobile? My company does not use an Exchange server (they use Squirrelmail for web-based email access). I've looked at Gmail but hate the whole lack of a folder structure. I need some kind of cloud-based system for checking my mail, dragging and dropping things into folders, creating new folders, etc. And I need it to play nice with the days when I am at the home PC.

For the record, I only use 2 computers - my desktop and my laptop. It's not like I'm doing work at a public library or anything - I just need a way to access all of that structure while on the road, on my laptop.

Totally demanding and ridiculously convoluted, I know, but I've gotta believe there's an answer. Should I be looking harder at the thumb drive solution, but with some kind of integrated backup plan?

Suppress checkboxes in CSS?

middleclasstool — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:05:42 -0800

Is it possible to make checkboxes invisible using CSS? I've been using a TiddlyWiki for keeping my life in order (GTD), recently fell off the wagon, and am now getting back on using a newer-generation TW.

I've thrown together a stylesheet for printing on 3x5 index cards that seems to work fine, but all the "next action" items have checkboxes next to them that you check when you've completed that action, and these take up tons of real estate on the cards when they print. I've got the text resized smaller for cards, so what I'd like to do is come up with a CSS statement that will either do the equivalent of "display:none" on the boxes themselves, or failing that, resize them down a bit.

I know very little CSS, but Googling fails me so far, so I'm guessing the answer is "no." Do any of you web gurus have the ability to pleasantly surprise me?

Creating quick tasks from e-mails in Outlook!

dyerfr — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:59:49 -0800

Looking for a relatively simple outlook add in that will, at a minimum, let me 'one-click' a button (or Alt-something keyboard shortcut) and create a task from the currently highlighted e-mail on the screen. Ideally, the task that is generated would further allow me to categorize it from a list of projects that I have ongoing - thinking a drop down list for one of the task fields (somehow need to be able to change what appears in the drop down from time to time...). This would be nice, but is not required.

I have used some add-ins in the past (NetCentrics GTD and ClearContext), and like them (they have this 'create task' capability, BTW), but they place an unacceptable amount of overhead on my system or connectivity, slowing it down far too much.

So... looking for a slimmed-down version that will have the core functionality I described above.

Thanks hive!

Frank

How do I organize and archive my digital photography?

chrisbucks — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:08:34 -0800

What is the best work-flow process for handling digital photos from capture, processing to archive? I've been knocking off a few paying assignments lately and have had some work published in newspapers and and quickly finding myself engulfed in both film and digital clutter. Particularly for some of my modeling contracts I find myself ending up with over a gigabyte of photos per shoot. I need to find a way to deal with this. Also I do some medium format and 35mm photography which I scan into the computer.

Currently I'm working as so:
-Capture in RAW
-Edit in photoshop, retain the original CR2 file and also save a jpeg copy, then create a low-res jpeg for the web.
-Once a week back up my directory of photos to an external drive
-I send clients 2 copies of a CD of their shoot, and I burn myself a copy which I file in a accordion folder.

A lot of the photos are sorted by either subject matter or date of capture, really I have no idea what I'm doing and there seems to be several different systems going on at once.

What formats should I be saving the files in? Taking into account the best preservation of quality and of space.

I'm a bit of a digital junk collector, and I'm sure there are photos going back years which are sitting moldering away in my stacks of CDs and on drives. In terms of clients photos is there much point at all in keeping them after handing over the goods and receiving payment?

Getting a ToDo List Manager is on my ToDo List

willmize — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:05:50 -0800

There seems to be a million different online and software based To Do List and Project Management applications, and my brain is tired of trying to figure out the difference between them. It's the bells and whistles that get to me. Help me find the one that fits! Here's a description of my perfect application:
1) I have Project A, B, C, D, E through infinity. There should be no limit to the number of projects I can have.
2) I have Tasks assigned to each Project that need to be done in a certain order to complete that project.
3) The ability to look at one Project in detail, see all Tasks and be able to makes notes on each task.
4) When I log in or fire up the app, I want to see a list of all projects, along with *just the current task waiting to be accomplished.* I get overwhelmed easily when I see a list of 20 to 30 tasks for just one project. I just want to see the one task I need to focus on now. For example, I could have Project A - Task 4, Project B - Task 2, Project C - Task 8, etc.
5) When I check off that task (let's say Project A - Task 4), the next one comes up - the next time I log in, instead of showing Project A - Task 4, it would show Task 5.
6) I would LOVE for this to be an online application and therefore independent of operating system. Bonus points for the ability to be able to drag and drop to reorder Tasks and prioritize Projects. Also bonus points for the ability to group Projects according to similarity (writing, home improvement, fitness and diet, vacation planning, car maintenance, etc)
7) If it's software based, it needs to fit on a thumb drive and be cross-platform, as I have a PC at work and a mac at home.

I've looked at Remember The Milk, Vitalist and TaDaList but don't think they fit the bill for the above.

I hope I've been specific enough and hope this question might also help others whose brain works similarly to mine.

Thanks so much for your help.

Getting many projects done

markovich — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:21:44 -0800

How do you keep track of multiple projects at the same time, and get good work done on all of them? I typically have several projects going on at the same time on different unrelated topics. They all require a good amount of time? How best does one manage time so that all projects constantly move forward at a steady pace? How does one make decisions on prioritizing, as well as deal with the interest drop-off that comes when particular projects get stuck in difficulties? It is always tempting to focus on the project that is working best, leaving other stagnant.

What is the best strategy for time management when one has several projects running at the same time?

I don't think I'm as anal as I should be

4ster — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:18:59 -0800

So if I'm going to use the GTD method, what am I going to use? After trying to make GTD work for me for almost three years, and then yesterday reading how a number of people at Lifehacker have given up on it, I'm wondering what plan B could be.

The fact that I've read practically every article and website on GTD, as well as tried out almost every calendar and task list program online, for the PC, and now that I've switched, for the Mac This leads me to believe that, for me at least, GTD has some limitations. Namely:

1. It's much more fun trying out new ways to implement GTD than to actually get things done (hence my serial monogamy with iGTD, tracks.tra.in, Rememember the Milk, Backback, Hiveminder, Toodledo, tadalist, Nozbe, Todoist, Vitalist, the GTD plugin for Outlook, and Clear Context, and of course, index cards and the Hipster PDA.

2. The whole get it out of your head and into a "bucket" make a lot of sense, but I'm just not naturally anal, organized, or whatever. I'm naturally a bit of a slob and a scatterbrain, to this has always been problematic for me. I've just never really had the self-discipline to take the time to do GTD properly, and I'm starting to think it may be a great system for people wired differently than me.

3. Devising my own system from the ground up sounds problematic to me, because I'm so prone to tinkering and trying out new stuff.

4. I couldn't get the Franklin-Covey system to work for me. I just don't have it in me to write a personal mission statement, and transferring tasks to the next day's list again and again is kind of demoralizing.

So here is my real question:

Can you suggest a personal productivity system to me that works within the following parameters:

1. I can do it on a Mac synced to a Centro.
2. It works using iCal and Mail.app/MailTags.
3. It's heavily digital. I don't do well with paper.
4. I can read about it in a book or on a website. I'm fine making some adaptations to an existing system, but having a place to start would be best.
5. Of course, I'd throw 1-3 out the window for the right system, but I'm not sure the right system could be the right system sans 1-3.

My doctor told me yesterday that it's possible that I may have a touch of ADHD, so I guess I should tell you that as well.

As always, a thousand thanks for your help, Mefites.

How to effectively use DEVONthink?

Señor Pantalones — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:08:27 -0800

DEVONthink: how can i learn to love it? I've been using DEVONthink Pro for two months. I had the one month trial and thought it seemed interesting, so I bought it. Two months into it it's feeling like a bit of a chore. I can't really explain it but I feel like I'm time-warping back to some less effective mode of organization where cavemen bookmark things locally and store files in one place right after they take down a mammoth.

The developers have told me they're implementing tags and UI changes into the next version, so I know I don't need to bother with Yojimbo.

But what's the big deal overall? How do you use it?

I'm in a directorial role in a user experience & development team. I've primarily been a programmer + designer (read: at the production end of things) all my life and picked up DTPro as a hopeful solution to tracking the materials, urls, and conversations around 8-10 simultaneous projects. I'm not sure it's really fulfilling any sort of magic bullet role but I keep hearing people swear by it. So...can you tell me why?

Thanks!

Can you help me decide between (used) PDA's, Smartphones, Pocket PCs and the year 2008?

thewhynotgirl — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:47:00 -0800

Can you help me decide between PDA's, Smartphones, Pocket PCs and the year 2008? I am looking most specifically for info on the Sony Clie PEG NX70V ... IPAQ 4350 ... and IPAQ 2215. But advice on any of this would be immensely helpful! I did search AskMeFi, but found only info for new equipment or old posts. I'm talking used equipment instead, older but able to keep up with current software stuff. (More inside) I'm interviewing for work as a personal assistant, something I did for years, but haven't done in years. A couple of interviewers suggested (strongly) that I might find a PDA useful, so I responded to a few online community for sale ads; I was most impressed by the IPAQ's 4350 and 2215, that were $175 and $90 used. On the phone, on the way home, I found out that my husband has a pda in the house, older and barely used. It's a Sony Clie PEG NX70V.

Now here's my questions, as I did not know that we already had one. I need to compare it to those. I've pulled it out and it's working fine. The question is, is it outdated? Or is it fully sufficient for my needs? If any of you know anything about them both, better than what I've been able to figure out online, that would be cool.

This Clie has a swivel tablet top, which is useful and cool, and I haven't been able to figure out whether the IPAQ's do. I liked the IPAQ because it seemed to offer more of what a small PC would ... but now I see that there is tons of freeware available for the palm, and that the clie is a palm; plus, in the reviews raving about the IPAQ's, it was said that their keyboards were "almost as good as" the Clie's. Hmmm.

The IPAQ uses a standard SD card -- I can't tell the max size, but this is the year 2008, where apps and media eat up memory ...and this Clie accepts only a memory stick, and only up to 128mb. Are they even available anymore? Is that enough for my needs?

My needs are a todo list and appointment calendar, as close to GTD style as I can make them; MSword or equivalent, and a way of viewing docs and pdfs and, hopefully, web pages. I don't mind syncing them from my laptop and transferring them, but I can't figure out how well either the IPAQ or the CLIE do these things.

With a laptop and car inverter, I've never even bothered to use the browser on my cell phone, I've just opened my laptop whereever I am and found a connection that way. But now, for these jobs, it is apparently better for me to use something handheld, like a PDA ... so I'm not really sure of what the action is for getting webstuff, nor of the cost of doing so ... my wireless laptop doesn't cost me anything to do this ... will the PDA or the Pocket PC cost me to use the WIFI cards?

The Clie comes with a video/still camera and mp3 player ... am I silly for thinking, well I already have portable hardware for those things ... I figure I can save on the PDA battery and memory by NOT using it for those, but that means that I'd be carrying three items with me instead of one.

For that matter, am I silly for not going ahead and buying a smartphone? As I understand it, that would mean carrying one thing instead of four things -- but again, I am HUNTING for a job, and since I already own a laptop, LG CU500 cell phone, 1GB mp3 player, SmallWonder video camera (which records 5 hours at a stretch!) and, now, this Clie PDA ...well even though the IPAQ pda's are "only" $90 and $175 respectively, and a smartphone would likely be around $250 ... I could save all of that money by using what I've got and not buying anything till AFTER I've had the paying job for a while. These items are all old execpt for the Small wonder, but that was only $100 -- $120 with the 2GB SD card, and let's face it, that's an amazing price for a 3x5 inch video camera that lets you record 5 hours at a a stretch -- I'm an amateur journalist in my off-time, so I felt that was a great investment.

Well! While I digressed there, I guess I answered my own question as to whether I should get one now ... common sense tells me "no" unless there is something glaringly wrong with the Sony Clie PEG NX70v or it's 128gb memory stick is something to laugh about ... but if any of you could compare IPAQ's pocket pc's to it, or know of other specifics, or could even point me to some good software for it -- productivity apps, logic type games (backgammon or word game or puzzle game stuff) and writer's apps ... that would be cool. And nice of you. Thank you for reading through all of this as I ramble. I've been up hours in those interviews and now in a quick search for comparison info and these billion questions are the ones that are still dancing round my brain.

Thanks for any insight.

-TWNG

Brilliant recurring calendar events?

electric_counterpoint — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 08:44:40 -0800

What brilliant recurring events have you set up on your calendar app? So I was thinking, as my reminder went off a few days ago signaling that it was time to recalibrate my Macbook's battery, that there are probably a lot of little "life maintenance" things I should be remembering to do on a regular schedule. Immediately, I set to compiling a list of important things that I wouldn't normally think/remember to do, but that would Enrich My Life in some way.

I got one item — "Replace alarm clock battery every year" — down before I decided to just decided to ask MeFi instead.

So? The lifehack-ier the better!

How do you stick to your long-term goals?

schroedinger — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 07:14:55 -0800

How do you maintain sight of your long-term goals? I chronically sacrifice long-term success for short-term gains and it's not working out for me. You know the tale of the Grasshopper and the Ant? Yeah, I'm the grasshopper. As soon as I make a resolution to, say, do my homework, eat more healthfully, stick to a budget, etc, within five minutes I've broken it. I can make all kinds of beautiful plans but I fall woefully short at implementation. On a day-to-day basis I just don't make the visceral connection that all the little breaks I give myself now create a big pile of crap in the long-term--though when it comes around to bite me in the ass it is all too clear.

I've tried to-do lists. I've tried GTD. I have ADHD, and have tried medication and therapy. I put little post-it notes everywhere. I can get the system to work for a few days--even a few weeks--and then I slack off or something comes up that breaks my concentration and it's all over. I think the problem comes at making the transition from the "good" behavior going from a temporary fix to incorporating it into my life.

I'm living like I'm five and there are no consequences, though they hit me again and again. It's gotta stop. What tricks do you use to activate your willpower and implement long-term change so you can ultimately realize your goals?

What's the ultimate digital rolodex-life-contact-birthdate-organizer application?

jkl345 — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 14:10:35 -0800

This year I’ve been trying to organize and digitize my life, and most importantly -- get rid of old stuff. Next on my list is creating an ultimate name-phone-number-birth-date-email-organizer-web rolodex. I have a shoebox full of notes, business cards, phone books and napkins with about 400-500 social/business/family/friend/school contacts (as well as a bunch of social networking sites with tons of contact info I should incorporate into the rolodex).

Please help me find the ultimate web service to organize, digitize, archive and utilize my ‘virtual rolodex.’

Ideally, if it could be:
- Free
- Exportable, so I can save and take it to different applications if for instance a company goes belly up or starts charging for access (I don’t even know if this standard exists like OPML files for RSS… I guess a CSV would do?)
- A very easily searchable interface
- Web-based
- Come sort of utility built in to notify me of upcoming birthdays/anniversaries and such would be awesome!

Most important:
- I only want to type all these out once, so it must be stable.

I’m leaning towards just typing them all into a Google Docs spreadsheet, but want to explore other options before I type all this out. And if I haven't said it three times already, I really only want to do this once in my life!

Thanks for all your help!

Help a man persue education

verisimilitude — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:54:56 -0800

I need a very specific type of self help... I need suggestions for time management/motivational systems. I'm thinking along the lines of a bastard child of GTD and Seven Secrets...

-I'm looking for GTD tweaks for use as a political philosophy post grad.

-Time management systems, prefreable realistic but still with integration with MicroSoft Office (or convincing alternative software)

-Task management system, likewise.

-A general student note taking system. I'm familiar with mind mapping and curious to know whether it is feasible in a mature environment.

-It has been 5 years since I have sat in seminars and lectures, how has technology changed the way things are done? For example, I imagine I could use my PDA to record lectures -- mp3 recordings of lectures must have completely changed the way studying is done, how does this impact on successful studying?

-Most importantly, tips on keeping oneself motivated to achieve targets and goals. I've spent too long being cynical about the motivational writing that gets published to bother reading it. Surely by now there must be some genuinely interesting ideas that have filtered through the chaff. I have been impressed with GTD, but often find I just cant be arsed. September represents a new leaf hence quest for new a perspective.

Normally I'm wary of this sort of personal dogma, but for the next few months I'm prepared to strap myself in for one of them, so hive mind help me not waste the rest of the year! Thanks. Your attention is appreciated.

managing ideas

SirStan — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 11:41:20 -0800

How do I harness ideas into productive implementations? I have *a lot* of ideas, and tend to work out problems to the very end, and have very detailed thoughts regarding them.

For example when I need to do a task, like dishes, I more or less map out what order will be most effective (limit wasted space, washing time, cleaning water time, stacking order in the strainer to some extent, etc). This tendancy works GREAT for small tasks (think consultant: install Symantec Antivirus the most efficient way on 500 workstations). However I have been given larger and larger management roles, as well as problems I want to tackle myself that this is really killing my productivity, and finally my project entirely.

An example would be some thin clients I setup (running ThinStation, a Linux based workstation image). I found that I can VNC to them remotely, but I don't know each machine's name. So I think, lets make an excel spreadsheet of each machine/mac/ip (and feed this into microsoft's DHCP server).

This progresses into, maybe I should do it in Access, or MSSql with an Access frontend. Maybe a web front end. I might as well do PHP/MySQL, and write all the scripts to manage the DHCP allocations automatically.

But then I might as well build on inventory management, so I know where each piece of hardware is logically. Then since I am doing that, and I need monitoring anyways, I could feed this information into Nagios (or some other software) to intelligently monitor all these systems. Since I have multiple sites, and multiple DHCP servers I need to figure out how to manage the creation of DHCP allocations. I should just write my own DHCP server (I've started one before for personal projects) that can work better together.

It just goes on and on from there. I can't limit my scope to the immediate challenge, and move from there, so I will get overwhelmed where to start. It doesn't make sense to have a static inventory in Excel if I am ever going to use it to create DHCP inserts (I currently do this for our IP phones, and it doesn't work well when I start shuffling them around).

So how do I take this grandiose idea, and productively work towards it? It is more managable in situations like this, where *I* know all the goals, but what about when its a company wide project that I don't know all the factors?

I feel like I have hundreds of great idea's a day, but they blow up, and quickly become impossible. Working with groups I have a hard time sticking to my small contribution, and find myself trying to manage the entire group, find the perfect way to do everything... it frustrates me to no end when I see things going astray.

(examples that might kill my ambition....)
How do I build an operating system without building a perfect Kernel/Hypervisor?

How do I build a small web-app and pick the right development tools (do I use CakePHP? do I use modules from Pear?)

Where can I buy the world's most amazing index cards?

mdonley — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 01:06:16 -0800

Index card quest! I'm looking for a very particular kind I've seen in the past: a small (smaller than standard 3"-by-5", like 2"-by-1"!), possibly pastel-colored set of cards that come on a single, small binder ring (not spiral-bound!) and are enclosed in a plastic cover (not a fabric one!), almost certainly with a snap. I lived with someone in college who used them to practice foreign vocabulary and they were fantastic because they were interchangeable, cheap, easily portable, and readily available at our campus (UC Santa Cruz) bookstore in 2004, which I can't reach this weekend as they're closed. Now I'm moving to Latvia at the end of the month (whoo!) and I'd like to be able to keep key words on the same kind of cards so I can practice my sveikas and paldieses on the go, or when I've got a down moment, or anytime when carrying a big stack of cards is otherwise less-than-good. Ideally the ring would be on my keychain all the time, so it'd be really quite small, and I'd cycle new cards in and out.

I've been to a Staples, an OfficeMax, and a Target, and I've looked all over the place online, and I CANNOT find them. It's not a hipster PDA, and it's not part of the Real Simple organizational stuff sold at Target. It is also not the Mead RingDex, which is too large for what I want to use it for, lacks a cover, and has an extra ring.

I have a hunch that if these exist anywhere, they'll be at a university bookstore, but not having access to one is hampering my search.

If you need an image, this is really close though they're too large, but imagine that the cards are held tightly closed with a snap of some kind. The size I'm looking for is about the size of a keychain-sized supermarket loyalty card.

Finally, I would really, really prefer to just buy them instead of making my own, because I'm super-busy this month getting ready for my move. Thanks for your help!

My white whale of GTD apps for Mac?

synecdoche — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 12:07:02 -0800

GTD-filter: I'm trying to organize my (academic) work life using GTD. I've read through the book, and it sounds like it can help me a lot. I am thinking of using my Macbook as my folder system, but I can't seem to find an app that works the way I want. I've tried a whole bunch, now-- kGTD, Midnight-Inbox, Journler, and maybe a couple others, but they nothing seems to work the way I am hoping them to. I may be searching for some sort of non-existent "dream app" here but I thought I'd ask around and make sure I'm not missing out on something.

Basically, I want a program that plays nicely with iCal and Mail.app. I don't want an all-out harvesting of everything that comes into my e-mail inbox, because a lot of that has nothing to do with me organizing things, or else they are little things that I can deal with in two minutes without having to file them. Furthermore, I use iCal to schedule my time, which often involves a block of time that is just "Reading" or "Office hours." Midnight Inbox, for instance, just harvests EVERYTHING from both of these apps and I'd rather not waste time going through each little thing that comes into my inbox twice (once to deal with it in Mail, and then again in Inbox).

I also want something that easily lets me create little notes of things that I can easily drop into my tickler file. In my case, I'll get an idea for a paper that I can't do anything about right now, but I might be able to work with, say, next year. So I might have a little note that says "Write paper on so and so." That'd be great for my tickler file, as I want to have a reference for it, but I don't want to have to go through any hoops to create what is essentially a sticky note that gets filed away.

Ideally, this app would also have folders for me to file other documents (ie Word docs, PDF files, and so on) into, and associate these on projects. So, if one of my projects is "write this paper," I can just drop in a PDF file into that folder be done with it.

Finally, it'd be nice to be able to rank actions. I schedule my time in chunks, as I mentioned, so I might have three hours in the morning where I read, and then three hours where I deal with some of the tasks in the folder. It'd be nice to have them prioritized for me.

Last requirement: free or cheap. I am a grad student, after all.

Honestly, if there's a way to get mail.app to do complex nested folders, let me know, as that might be the easiest thing. I am not sure. Simplifying the sheer number of applications I have running is appealing. But any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

One iCal to rule them all

Baud — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 12:58:34 -0800

Help me write to the same iCal file, using a PC, a macbook and a not-bought-yet Symbian smartphone. Here is the deal : I want to GTD my life using a single iCal file.

the machines are :

A - Plain vanilla XP computer
B - macbook
C - not bought yet smartphone. I'm eyeing the nokia E50 but if the hive has a similarly-priced better choice, I'm willing to listen

the software/web solutions are :

- Backpack paying customer with calendar enabled (solving the PC:Mac combination)

other tools on hand :

- phpicalendar on some web space I have access to
- sunbird (PC)
- iSync (Macbook)

Please help me find the software combination I need to be able to write new events in the same Ical file, using any of these three machines.

Is there a Symbian app (freeware prefered) out there that allows me to write to a web-based iCal file ?

Running separate calendars would be counter-productive. How can I read and write to the same file from these three machines ?

How do you work a file cabinet?

2or3whiskeysodas — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 09:21:38 -0800

Tell me about your personal filing system. How you organize your file cabinets, that is. Horrifying but true: in 32 years of living, I've never owned filing cabinets until now. I've been doing GTD for a while now but have resisted starting my "reference" files because I don't really know how. Silly, no? I'm also starting a small business and will need to keep plenty of paperwork for that, but again it will mostly be reference material--very little of it will require action.

So yeah, starting from scratch, how would you recommend I build a clean system for keeping track of all the random paper that drifts into my life? That laundry basket full of old mail and tax forms just ain't cutting it. Ask my girlfriend, she'll confirm.

Maybe this is all just glorified procrastination.

4ster — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:14:18 -0800

I use GTD, and I am getting a bit tired of Entourage for my Mac (mainly the interface), and I am considering a web-based solution like Remember The Milk, Backpack, or Vitalist, or even built-in stuff like iCal and Mail.app. The problem is that I want it all to work with a Treo 650, so there is I have used Palm devices since 1998, so I have a hard time imagining using other means of organization, and I suck at paper planning.

Outlook worked well for me, but I switched to the Mac, and I have been using Entourage, mainly because after two weeks of trying, it was the only thing that my Treo would sync with properly, even after trying Palm Desktop, iSync, and MissingSync.

I am kind of tired of Entourage, because it, well, is Entourage. It just never caught on with my like Outlook did (and no, I don't want to put Windows on my Mac).

I really like the ease of Remember the Milk, Backpack, Vitalist, and the Google apps. I like how easy adding tasks is, and being able to access stuff from any computer, but I still want to carry my stuff with me when I am away from the Mac.

Since this stuff is web-based, would Blazer work with it? I can't test it myself, because I don't currently have a data plan.

Or if you can get me straight with the Treo with the stock Mac apps, that would be great too.

Or if you are a Mac user and have an easy way to have your dates/contacts/lists when you are away from the Mac, let me know that as well.

As always, thanks for you time and insight.