WHOAS UNCUT MOLESKINE
MY MIND IS LIKE THAT OF PRINCE
HENCE THE FUNNY
― Abbott, Thursday, 30 August 2007 21:58 (sixteen years ago) link
Hmm...looking at this system, it looks like it's way overdoing it. They haven't put in little instructions to stare at the wall at eight-minute intervals, either, which I require to make progress.
― Abbott, Thursday, 30 August 2007 21:59 (sixteen years ago) link
To clarify, I haven't read the book and agree that the "full" GTD as per the wiki article is overkill for my needs. The skine system is significantly less complicated and does what I need it to do.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:04 (sixteen years ago) link
GAH even that looks too complicated. It's like learning the rules & methods of some new pen & paper RPG that ends up being just like Candyland.
― Abbott, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:07 (sixteen years ago) link
oh yeah i've listened to a talk this guy did - mostly it made me realize that i am judgemental abt dumb people - am working on it
yeah ok but really i write everything down anyway and have done things systematically like this since childhood. the system it is in my head. all sticky notes and margin-making and wahtever just disrupt the flow (and are insanely boring!)
i know people who are into this though and people who need and would wecome it
lol 'hacking'
― rrrobyn, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:07 (sixteen years ago) link
A lot of times just writing something down makes me 214% more likely to remember it, and I have a sharp memory anyway. So I write things down in a normal day planner. I have a separate lil' pad for grocery list/tallying costs at the grocery. But fudge, I hate anything where you have to draw some extra structure. One of my high school teachers graded us on if we took our notes in two columns per sheet in perfect outline form. I got a C in the class bcz I did not want to take 3x the needed time to write chapter summaries.
― Abbott, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:12 (sixteen years ago) link
i have the gtd book.. it made some good points for the specific situation i'm stuck in right now which is IT world juggling a bunch of projects at once w/constant interruptions.
the blog devotees of gtd/lifehacking are absurd though. there is something to be said for not getting things done, or not knowing how to get them done, trying, fucking it up, trying again, and maybe getting it done, maybe not, or maybe getting it done in a totally new, weird, interesting way.. or realizing that you're philosophically opposed to the notion of "done".. or at the very least not aspiring to be a unimpeachably correct productivity robot at all hours!
all these humorless kubrick mac geeks with web 2.0 hair.. fight this generation
― daria-g, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:27 (sixteen years ago) link
I AM I FITE WATCH OUT SOME DEMOGRAPHIC I'LL TALK TO YOU ABOUT MISS MANNERS, HUH?
― Abbott, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:33 (sixteen years ago) link
hehe
i do have a lot of "stuff" though... but okay one thing i did learn from listening to a friend talk about gtd is that if you make a list the best thing to do is, y'know, do the things on it! it feels good, checking stuff off lists, and is motivating.
every time my schedule/things i do comes up in conversation, people are all 'whoa you do a lot of stuff' and i'm like i guess but i don't really think so, i mean, i could prob do a whole lot more. you know how much i like tv shows, ilx. i bet if i GTD-ed myself i'd be a freakin machine. but yuppie geek tendencies are not a strong force in my life, as much as i like tech and organizing. maybe i am in denial and subconciously crave multicoloured sticky tabs? hm nah
oh okay maybe the more people/groups you have to deal with on a daily basis, the more serious your organizational system needs to be? i guess that makes sense, esp if you are juggling these people/groups throughout the day
― rrrobyn, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:34 (sixteen years ago) link
xpost daria-g otm!
― rrrobyn, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:35 (sixteen years ago) link
if you make a list the best thing to do is, y'know, do the things on it! it feels good, checking stuff off lists, and is motivating.
^ that realness
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:35 (sixteen years ago) link
i think also though that when you are doing something on the list you should not always be thinking about the other things on the list (this is prob in gtd? i do not know) - dividing energy like this - "multitasking" - is far more anxiety-creating than just going through the day/week/month addressing each thing one at a time and with full attention
― rrrobyn, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:39 (sixteen years ago) link
http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:CsLggSo8THePCM:http://billslater.com/tcb_ptch.gif
― B.L.A.M., Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:40 (sixteen years ago) link
For me it's less about the system but more about forming good habits. Even with the simplest system in place, it helps you develop a routine that helps you not procrastinate and put off things that can be done in like 5 minutes.
― Jeff, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:40 (sixteen years ago) link
doing yoga helps to keep this in perspective, for me maybe yoga is my gtd
hahaha hippie geek
― rrrobyn, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:41 (sixteen years ago) link
Keep your body and schedule flexible.
― Abbott, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:44 (sixteen years ago) link
ohman i could market this scene
― rrrobyn, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:46 (sixteen years ago) link
except that i wld just make it a community project instead and sell it on a sliding scale and we know how those work
― rrrobyn, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:49 (sixteen years ago) link
i'm trying to be more of a hippie geek :) it's much better to do things with full attention (sort of zen yes?) than crazy multitask. regrettably the only way I can have this be the case @ my work is to work from home, and I do work when I'm at home, otherwise it's constant do this, do that, join this meeting, blah blah blah.
― daria-g, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:49 (sixteen years ago) link
last couple of years I have discovered the revolutionary technique of making lists on notepad paper and checking things off as I finish them
no lie, this has solved about 90% of productivity problems for me
― J0hn D., Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:51 (sixteen years ago) link
i think also though that when you are doing something on the list you should not always be thinking about the other things on the list [...] "multitasking" - is far more anxiety-creating than just going through the day/week/month addressing each thing one at a time and with full attention
I agree completely. When I come to each item on my list I'm not doing or (ideally) thinking anything else. The sys lets me process my stuff with a high degree of focus on each item, and everything gets equal attention.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:52 (sixteen years ago) link
in other words
(sort of zen yes?)
ya rly
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 30 August 2007 22:53 (sixteen years ago) link
hey there, is that j0hn d of lastplane to j4karta? funny that i am listening to one of yr records at this very moment!
― daria-g, Thursday, 30 August 2007 23:09 (sixteen years ago) link
Wait, is LANDMARK the same as VISTAR?
― John Justen, Thursday, 30 August 2007 23:12 (sixteen years ago) link
u know what? my most favourite people in the world frequently *just can't get their shit together*. after years of being subjected to all manner of self-help ball-hoox at various places by various people i swear i'm going to start a cult/self-non-help course or whatever and call it Don't Get Your Shit Together.
― pisces, Thursday, 30 August 2007 23:28 (sixteen years ago) link
i think that is a good idea though sometimes not have certain parts of your shit together is kind of anxiety-producing and may lead to homelessness everyone is different as is their shit but yeah we are not fucking productivity robots and we change and the path is not set there is all kinds of space for creative life etc!
― rrrobyn, Thursday, 30 August 2007 23:36 (sixteen years ago) link
^
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 30 August 2007 23:38 (sixteen years ago) link
all this life hack is pretty inane.
once tho i did read this list of ways to trick yr co-workers/bosses into thinking you were keener that i thought was pretty brilliant.
― jhøshea, Thursday, 30 August 2007 23:39 (sixteen years ago) link
I like to trick them into thinking I am dull so as to avoid being the one who does everything. This is at shit jobs, tho.
― Abbott, Thursday, 30 August 2007 23:42 (sixteen years ago) link
one was to schedule some important emails to send at like 630 in the morning so people will think you were working then.
another was to all in sick, then come in that afternoon saying that you just had to get some stuff done. then people will think you care a lot and you get to take the morning off w/o waisting a sick day.
i cant remember the rest. they were sweet. none of them really applied to my job tho.
― jhøshea, Thursday, 30 August 2007 23:48 (sixteen years ago) link
call in sick, then come in that afternoon saying that you just had to get some stuff done. then people will think you care a lot and you get to take the morning off w/o waisting a sick day.
i have done this.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 31 August 2007 00:10 (sixteen years ago) link
6:30 am email is great.
I have a moleskine which is invaluable to me. It's just like my brain, full of important information scribbled down in no organized manner interspersed with hastily scribbled purse patterns. I often don't look at things once I write them down in there.
I need to be doing my homework. (check)
― Ms Misery, Friday, 31 August 2007 00:16 (sixteen years ago) link
GUYS JUST LEARN HOW TO PLAY STARCRAFT RLY WELL AND U WILL DO OK. MULTITASKING DOGS
― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Friday, 31 August 2007 00:23 (sixteen years ago) link
sonned by j0n in a starcraft hack
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 31 August 2007 00:25 (sixteen years ago) link
i think i have anxiety dreams abt losing my planner/datebook
― rrrobyn, Friday, 31 August 2007 00:28 (sixteen years ago) link
All management and productivity plans/cults/styles are evil. As are team-building exercises and personality tests that you then discuss (a friend was bitching to me about some 'DISC' test his company made him take, then had other people try to guess which letter he was when he wasn't in the room?).
Evil evil evil.
― milo z, Friday, 31 August 2007 00:28 (sixteen years ago) link
i have never been able to keep an agenda or a planner or even enter shit into ical besides the one time a year (TIFF) i need to plan my life minute-to-minute. it's all in my head/email program.
kinda scary actually!!
― s1ocki, Friday, 31 August 2007 00:40 (sixteen years ago) link
haha for a minute i thought you were referring to like tax season with the ical and tiff talk and then i realized what those words/acronyms meant and then i laughed. but i think that is kind of awesome.
― rrrobyn, Friday, 31 August 2007 00:43 (sixteen years ago) link
though i have no idea how you manage to live your life
― rrrobyn, Friday, 31 August 2007 00:44 (sixteen years ago) link
how to work (almost) completely online = awesome.
contents of my google account + my moleskine = like my entire life.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 31 August 2007 00:57 (sixteen years ago) link
The Zen Habits guy drives me a little crazy.
― Jeff, Friday, 31 August 2007 01:10 (sixteen years ago) link
when the oil runs out where will all yr precious internet-stored files be? it is something i worry abt sometimes xpost
there is a zen habits guy??
― rrrobyn, Friday, 31 August 2007 01:13 (sixteen years ago) link
"zen habits" is the blog that the "how to work online" story was posted on.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 31 August 2007 01:21 (sixteen years ago) link
ohohoh i'm gonna go see if he drives me crazy
― rrrobyn, Friday, 31 August 2007 01:24 (sixteen years ago) link
wow it seems I already follow all 50 Cheapskate steps by necessity.
― wanko ergo sum, Friday, 31 August 2007 01:33 (sixteen years ago) link
except I make up for not drinking frugally by not owning Only One Car.
― wanko ergo sum, Friday, 31 August 2007 01:35 (sixteen years ago) link
tried to get into this book about a year ago... couldn't finish.
i agree with daria-g a good bit. but hey, if you can take a couple good points of advice (and i think the book has a few) and make it work, gouge away!
i would say it's both cult (bad) and possibly awesome.
― msp, Friday, 31 August 2007 01:45 (sixteen years ago) link
The way GTD enthusiasts have extrapolated these ideas into a complex of fussily micromanaged systems seems counterintuitive -- this is supposed to make me more productive and less stressed out how? And the GTD wiki-cult out there just seems like a seething monument to a billion tiny daily freakouts enacted by OCD people across the internet. ^^ This.
GTD seems like a really good way to fill up all the time I could be using for getting interesting shit done with filing bills and boring stuff into its system. Then printing a wee label. Meh, that stuff gets done anyway, and the interesting things don't really break down into "next actions".
― stet, Friday, 31 August 2007 01:45 (sixteen years ago) link
I haven't read the book or even finished the wikipedia page on it. Overwhelming, too much for my needs. GTD via moleskine is fine for me, but then I'm not mid-management. I don't fuck with "next actions" or "43 folders" or anything.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 31 August 2007 01:53 (sixteen years ago) link
So what part of GTD are you doing, then? Writing stuff down in a black notepad?
― stet, Friday, 31 August 2007 01:57 (sixteen years ago) link
I used to use Things, maybe five or so years back, and then went through several different apps until I landed on OmniFocus for a long stretch. Ultimately, I gave up on OF because its organization method was just too overthought for everything. I'm 100% running on Apple, work from home, and everything in my work life is client/project driven. Billable hour/time tracking is done with Timelime, exports out to Calendar, Reminders (stuff like "add a reminder 30 days from now to see if the bastards paid"), and scripts an export out to whatever the appropriate billing option is and into my local FileMaker database of work done.
Project management stuff is a mixture of pen & paper (the black Rhodia N°16 dot pads are my total fucking jam) and iA Writer markdown files. Mostly Rhodia pads. macOS Reminders is also where I put my repeating household "clean kitchen floor," "scrub toilet" stuff. The Streaks app has been really good at nagging - things like spend 45 mins M-F on this or that.
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 27 January 2023 03:33 (one year ago) link
I forget when Reminders on macOS/iPhoneOS was recently overhauled, but it works great for my purposes now.
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 27 January 2023 03:36 (one year ago) link
yeah i used omnifocus for awhile but it was just too damn much. maybe if i had 2-3 projects going on with 5-7 action items for each i’d look at omnifocus again
― the late great, Friday, 27 January 2023 04:47 (one year ago) link
damn i had such an overdeveloped evernote system back when. It worked but was laborious. I wonder of they even exist anymore
― normal AI yankovic (Hunt3r), Friday, 27 January 2023 05:14 (one year ago) link
Evernote was sold off last November - searching "evernote downfall end of era" will bring up the post morteums. Current status unknown. I used to work with a dev who was all-in with an incrediblely complicated Evernote system that he used for everything in his work and life - whether it was his wedding or PDF processing job workflow code.
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 27 January 2023 06:52 (one year ago) link
I use Todoist for everything: ie across work, home, hobbies, holidays etc. Looking at Reminders, it seems that it could replicate almost everything Todoist does - except that Todoist has a somewhat cheesy productivity levels flattery reward system that I quite like.
― Luna Schlosser, Friday, 27 January 2023 09:37 (one year ago) link
How many things do you typically have to do in a day that require a list?
Work could anything from 6 to 12. Just looking at today's other 'things' though, there's: shopping, tasks that need doing around the home, finance/bills, renew prescriptions, book tomorrow's visit to textile show, start to research holiday and get dates in calendars, start getting a passport renewed etc.
― Luna Schlosser, Friday, 27 January 2023 09:44 (one year ago) link