What's the next action

Firefox tabs as startpage

Just another little “hack” I completely forgot to use.
Problem: I am a statistic junkie. I have stats for all sorts of things (MyBloglog, Feedburner, Nedstat). But since these sites don’t offer me a webfeed to see what’s happening (insert salespitch here) I am forced to go to their website. I hate that. Because I forget to do it. And at the end of the day, when I am offline, reading my mail and webfeeds, I think to myself: “Why did I forget it this time?”
Solution: Firefox tabbed browsing. In Firefox, I made a folder with bookmarks to the different statisticspages. Go to Tools > Options > General and in the box Homepage select “Use bookmark”. I select the folder I just made and bada-bing, done!
Result: Every time I start Firefox (read: in the morning, with a fresh cup of tea) I see the stats coming up before me as a dashboard. I am a happy man.

Sigh…if all could be that simple…

30 03 05 - 00:52 - Permanent link - three comments

Great news from the Evernote camp

I got a message from the Evernote VP of productmanagement through their forum about the next version of Evernote for your very nice review of EverNote. The only things I would add are a mention of the SmartSearch (for finding notes by keyword literally as fast as you can type); the fact that you can create your own Auto Categories including Keyword Search categories; and assurance that EverNote will be integrating with Google Desktop Search in the coming months.”

So here it goes. Three nice features. Two of them I indeed forgot to mention (SmartSearch and Autocategories) but the GDS-integration is quite interesting! Since I use GDS a lot these days, this can be a nice add-on!

Next week I will have the time to really evaluate OnFolio for the showdown.

29 03 05 - 00:12 - Permanent link - two comments

First thing tomorrow in the office: uncheck Outlook options

1. Open Outlook
2. Tools->Options
3. Click E-mail Options…
4. Click Advanced E-mail Options…
5. Uncheck:

1. Play a Sound
2. Briefly change the mouse cursor
3. Show an envelope in the notification area
4. Display a New Mail Desktop Alert (default Inbox only)

It has been on my mind for a while now and I already unchecked all of them except number 3. Still needed something to hang on to. But enough is enough. I’m gonna do email on my time.

Thanks to Omar for reminding me

28 03 05 - 23:03 - Permanent link - four comments

Showdown 1: Using Evernote

Well, it’s been quite a week here…The big fight between Evernote and OnFolio has been a quit one. I actually did use Evernote the last week so it’s not that wasn’t anything happening! So how’s my experience with Evernote? Overall: pretty good! It has been fun using the program and it has quite some potential to use as a “bin” for you material. I will review Evernote using the 5 steps from GTD and tell you how you can use it and how I use it for each step. Where possible I have included some nice demovideo’s of the program

23 03 05 - 12:30 - Permanent link - three comments

Evernote vs. OnFolio

I wrote about my use of Evernote a couple of times. But recently, I found OnFolio. A browser-integrated RSS reader and clippingscollector. So now I have both products. Great move huh! For a guy who wants to eliminate his inboxes. Yeah well, it’s just that both products have a lot of neat features that I can and would use. And now I read that Evernote has added Firefox-support in its webclipping functionality, which makes it even harder for me to make a solid decision! So here’s what I’m gonna do: I am gonna test both products for one week each. The coming week, I will test Evernote and the next week I will test OnFolio. I will use both products in a normal, day-to-day business manner and will report my findings here on this weblog.
So by April 1st I should make a decision on which product to use. If there is no other product that enters the market and makes my life even more difficult.
The coming weeks, it will be Evernote vs. OnFolio!!!

13 03 05 - 18:37 - Permanent link - one comment

Braindump on tasks

So here’s another thing I noticed. First off, I must say, this whole GTD-thing really gives you a sense of self-exploration and self-evaluation. This piece is written while commuting in the train. I do have to say that this is a time during the day where I can think about GTD instead of Do-ing it.
Here’s an issue I found out about myself and I am wondering if my readers also experience this. Whenever something pops up in my head, depending on context, I put it somewhere. When I’m behind a PC (80% of the time I’m awake) I put it in my Tasklist immediately with the proper context and project. When not in digital mode I put it in my notebook and process it later. Oh by the way, I bought a Moleskine. More on that in a later post! See my Flickr slideshow for pictures. Can’t believe I made a picture of a notebook…
Now, when the notes are processed it’s in my (almost) trusted system. Here’s where the nagging problem enters.
Say, I remind myself I have to make an appointment with the dentist within a month. So I put it in my agenda about 3 weeks from now to “Call dentist on number xxx-xxxxxxx regarding new appt.” It’s out of my head, into my system. Excellent!
A week later, I am sitting on the couch and thinking to myself “Hmmm….I have to make an appointment with the dentist.” I put another task in my agenda on the day I want to make an appointment.
Catch my drift? Why is this? Is it because it is out of my head, it can come in (again) easy? Is it because I have the brain of a goldfish? Is it because my system is not trusted yet? Expanding on the last one, let’s say my system is trusted. If you have the same thought again, would you think to yourself “Wait a minute, I already processed that. No need to do that again.” Because if you do that, isn’t the system also in your head? You know it’s in your system, so it’s in your head. Why need an external system then? That’s a bit harsh, but it is an issue I am facing. I had the same task pop up three times, just because I entered it three times in a week’s time.
Maybe one of the solutions is my Weekly Review. I know I am not the only one who has trouble with this part of GTD, and yes I have been procrastinating this review way too much. I should try to have this Weekly Review really once a week in an allocated time slot instead of sometimes just quick browsing through my tasks and projects.

Hmmmm….Nice outcome of another braindump!

Any thoughts on this issue? I would like to hear them from you!

11 03 05 - 09:05 - Permanent link - two comments

And again someone converts to GTD!

Remember I bought the GTD audiobook a couple of weeks ago? Well, I made a CD copy for a collegeau and guess what? He left the dark side and is a GTD-practicioner as well. This can really help since we both use the same tools and are on the same job. So during lunch, we can discuss (among other current events :-)) all things GTD. Welcome aboard Martijn!
One more hack I implemented and starting to pay off is the use of reminder-time in my Tasks. So right now, my current activities flow as follows:
1. What has to be done on a certain date goes to my calendar and that is the first thing I do in the morning.
2. For Next Action’s without a real due date but has to be done a.s.a.p I put a reminder so I get a list of “urgent” Next Actions. Currently, this list is about 20-30 items long. (which most of the time are “Waiting For”-actions)
3. When those are done, I go to my lists in the Tasklist and work on those NA’s.

Even though it’s not perfect, it get’s a big part of the job done for me.

Update on Evernote: Hmmm….haven’t really used it…again…I got drawn to a new product called OnFolio which has a lot of potential since it’s an RSS reader and clipboard in one. With Firefox support!

10 03 05 - 15:16 - Permanent link - one comment

Still digging Evernote?

Slacker Manager writes about Evernote and how he still digs it. I still have a beta version on my laptop but I rarely use it anymore. I just opened it to see what was still in there.
Most of the time I needed Evernote to drag and drop some article thoughts for this weblog (Well, that helped, considering the amount of updates over here…), our company weblog and some other sites I maintain. But, for some reason, I didn’t get the “click” to use Evernote again once I collected the snippets. Somehow, Evernote was just one more big Inbox for me I needed to process as well. Come to think of it, I do believe it is because I have so many inboxes. I made a little article about this. Please read on if you want to know more

03 03 05 - 09:27 - Permanent link - two comments

It's not trusted

Just a thought which I would like to think more on for a while. I think what the problem is with my system is it’s not trusted. I just don;t trust my opwn system enough yet to get my mid empty. Example: When I put something in my action-list, a couple of hours later I think about the item again and put it in the list again! No really! Do I have a short term memory problem? I don’t think so. I just don;t trust my own system yet. Ha! That’s a revelation!
Thank you for all your kind words and comments on my last post. And David, thanks for the productplug but the last thing I need right now is another product! But I’ll keep it in mind for later evaluation (so it’s on the @someday list!). And Dwayne, you can get some Stroopwafels here ;-)

02 03 05 - 10:04 - Permanent link - one comment

Deafening silence

What happened? Why is it so quiet here? I don’t know. I haven’t put anything on for the last 14 days. That’s not nice to my readers. But the truth is: I am looking for a format for this weblog. And at the same time I am struggling with GTD and the implementation. Yes, still…I don’t know what it is, but every time when I think to myself “This weekend is going to be THE weekend to REALLY get going”, something happens. Most of the time I find something else to do. Like rearranging books or changing the desktop on my PC. You know what I’m talking about right? Yeah, it’s procrastination-a-gogo over here. I’ve listened to the tapes, read the books but somehow, something is stopping me. I think it’s two issues:
1. Extreme situation at work. I am currently involved in some major projects (The Big One) and quite some other at work. This makes me feel really stressed and still not really able to get going. You know, the Inbox is empty, but the tasklist is full. And still I have the idea I am missing something. Result: stress! Extra result: procrastination.
I can so relate to Ricky’s stories about the GTD Fast CD’s. It feels like I’m reading my own stories…
2. A new house. Another pretty big change in my life. We are moving to another city in a new house. Lots of stuff to do, lists to make, things to arrange. Makes me a bit stressfull too. Especially since my girlfriend can’t really help that much because she is looking for a job most of the times.

So what to do? I don’t know right now. I really really appreciate all your support and comments. But I feel like I first need some calmness and ease in my life. It’s a whirlwind right now and trying to make big changes in how I deal with it at the same time just doesn’t cut it for me.
Ah hell, that’s how I feel right now. Maybe when I think about it, read some chapters, just get some “Zen” in here, things might look better for me.

sigh…

01 03 05 - 19:43 - Permanent link - three comments