NorthWest Miscellanea

Most of the articles I see about productivity list a lot of mundane type of tips, such as de-clutter your working space, or make a list the night before (which still can be helpful)

Game Producer’s blog entry includes excellent tips that really appeal to your emotional faculties, which to me is the deciding factor behind what you choose to do, among all of the possible things that you face.

Favorite one might be: #6 - Remind yourself about the feeling that motivated you

In short, it’s about recalling the last time you successfully completed or accomplished something, and recalling the full force of that feeling in the NOW moment which will drive your motivation without having to use willpower to do that thing.

.. because it can make you laugh your rear off  pretty much, and so you got that whole mind-body connection going…

.. you know, the research on how your immune system is boosted when you laugh.
My favorite types of clips to look up on YouTube, which I’d recommend to anyone:
Crank Yankers (it looks lame at first.. cuz all you see are puppets, however this show (cancelled a while back) was my favorite on the comedy channel.. it’s basically short clips of real crank calls, really crazy funny ones.

Conan O’Brien (since I’m not up when his show is on at night, it’s perfect to be able to see some of his show on youtube, he’s beyond hilarious)

Animals - There’s some good ones.. especially one that I saw, where this cat was defending his food and swiping at this dog which wasn’t much bigger.. funny as heck

SouthPark - I saw an 30 min episode on YouTube. (I’m sure by now, it was yanked off). It was where the southpark kids were playing a role playing avatar type game. It was absolutely hysterical. In this episode, this loser kind of slob of a grown up man was completely killing everyone with his avatar character. And the kids decided that they didn’t have the life points to have the kind of arsenal, to stop him.

So they all decided to stay away, for the time being, from this killer character, until they gathered enough points to have advanced shielding, weaponry, etc.. and to do that, they all stayed at their computers, through dinner and overnight, to do repetitive tasks that got them just one or two points, but had low-risk. (such as kill wolves with their weapons) .  Never thought I’d spend 30 min on South Park. I probably will never do that again, but I just couldn’t click Stop after 5 minutes of this particular episode.

Your favorite comedian, see if he’s on YouTube! I recommend: Mitch Hedburg, Kathleen Madigan, Craig Shoemaker, Brent Leek, Carlos Mencia(sp)
There’s more I can’t think up now, but you get the point.

(I’m glad Google bought them, because it gives me confidence that they will stick around, and won’t run out of disk space)

http://www.youtube.com

Finally got my space pen from the store that is selling them from Amazon.com. This beauty “had me at Hello.” I really like being able to write in a notebook pad, while laying back in bed, and the pen is almost upside down.

There are writing tasks that I procrastinate on, such as doing my Getting Things Done Weekly Review.

Read the rest of this entry »

Marketing expert Michael Fortin has a blog entry concerning the importance and benefits of keeping a journal, including the benefits to business success:

Blog Entry here

One of the benefits of GTD is, not so much providing a “Do or Die” System, but instead a smart method of getting stuff off your mind ( such as TO-DO’s, or long term I-might-do-this-moneymaking-project, but I might not) onto paper.

Here’s one example of implementing GTD. (It’s a very exciting one, about ink cartridges):

You know you need a new Ink Cartridge, but there might be several different subtasks needed, and you Do all of these tasks in different places.

1. In your office, you read the printer manual for the exact type of cartridge needed.
You might also make sure that you have the directions and hours of the office supply store. If not, At your Computer, you check the web site for that and write it down.
2. A Communication To-Do, might be required: You might have to ask
your spouse if he/she had already bought it.
3. In Your Car, you drive there to get it.

With a Palm or Pocket PC, it’s easier (than paper planners) to have categories for each context such as Computer, Home, Phone, Run Errand In Car. You select one of the above categories, and then you create all of these sub-To-Do’s, and it makes getting the ink cartridge very fluid and smooth. When you’re in a traffic jam and you have your cell phone, you could both check with your spouse about the cartridge, and you could check with the office supply store, ( even though that was a “computer” task originally ).

When I used to just create a To-Do for buying the cartridge, I thought I’d remember to check with the model of the printer when in the office, or double-check the hours, and then get the printer cartridge. Never happened. I’d always end up standing there at Office Depot, trying to guess or look for my model on the back of the package. I’d give up and then out of frustration buy something else I didn’t need.

Unconsciously I know about all of these other things though, and it’s such an energy-draining, distraction on the psyche when you don’t know if you should be doing something useufl when you’re at the phone with free time, or you’re on the Internet at work, with “spare” research time.

I found out about David Allens’ Getting Things Done book and System, from a post on an unrelated Yahoo Group (which was based on a Windows-based program called InfoSelect, which I used for about a year before realizing it was completely blockading my freedom to organize in my own way, and it was because of its proprietary nature.)

The title, Getting Things Done, left a slightly negative impression on me at first, like it was going to be too left-brain and too structured. I don’t know why. Those words are benign enough.

I had already attempted the Franklin method of putting the A’s, B’s, C’s next to your tasks.
And the Covey approach of designing roles and then creating tasks out of those
didn’t stick with me. (Not that those are bad ideas).
I bought the GTD book, and immediately knew that this was going to fit my style.

It fits naturally with the way the human brain works. When he mentioned the phrase:
“Mind Like Water”, and how GTD allows this state of mind, it was a no-brainer
to keep reading.

I found out that managing small details and putting everything on Paper or PC, and out of your head, is the only way to allow you to remain in the current Moment and thus be able to prevent missing a detail or an opportunity in that All-Important NOW moment. And while not quite being in the Personal Productivity genre, reading this book: Present Moment Awareness, really convinced me that ANY
Action-Organizational book/system that integrated the concept being in the Moment, and “Mind Like Water” and other Buddhist-like ideas, was going to be my Thing.

My big Wake-Up call from the Getting Things Done system, was that merely creating a new task on your Palm or Planner, to do something as seemingly concrete and specific as getting a new ink cartridge for your printer isn’t the best way of “managing this action”, as much as you would think. There needs to be a solid Next Action. More on that later.