What's the next action

The adventures of Action Item

26 09 05 - 19:22 - Permanent link - No comments yet

Work in progress on this site

I would like to tell you all very briefly some of the plans I have on this site. Since it’s almost a year old and I haven’t paid much attention to it visually, I have some plans to redesign the whole blog. But wait! There’s more!

Redesign
One thing I would like to do is to let it look less like a blog and more as an information hub on GTD and personal productivity. One thing I rarely do is talk about other articles I read and blogs I visit. That is going to change. For starters, I have added a little linkbox to my del.icio.us GTD-list of articles, sites, hacks and tips. Maybe not everything there is (Well, definitely not all there is) but it gives you some sense on my take on GTD, what interests me.

Old blog
There is more on this server than just this weblog. I started in 2000 a personal dutch weblog. Basically a linkdump. I stopped this summer with it but the archives remain. I would like to make that archive better searchable and perhaps do something with these 5 years of blogposts. Some sort of random post of the day kind of thing…

Thesis in a wiki
Furthermore, I am working on putting my thesis online. I wrote it back in 1995 and it’s topic is scenemarketing. Much of it’s theory is still applied today and blogs, webfeeds and consumer generated media fit perfectly in this theory. The thesis is all dutch. I have the plan to put it in a (semi-)controlled Wiki so everyone can benefit from it.

Resume
Than, last but not least, I get more questions to write articles and hold presentations on blogging and the new web. I will collect and publish these also on my server. So you see, this blog is just a part of my online world. I have the ambition to have it all done by the end of the year.

And now some GTD-relation: It was on my Someday-list for a long time. Now, whenever I have some spare time, I just fiddle and tweak with some designs, try out different feels of the site, try new stylesheets. There is no grand plan, just some progress notes and next actions on a little note near my monitor. There is actually nothing holding me back than to just crawl behind my monitor and start working. So the really next physical action is: Work! Do it!
But, as always, I do have a question which doesn’t stall me, but I am just curious: Does anyone know of a good reference site to alter some stylesheets in MediaWiki? I am looking for a more slender, centered design for my wiki if possible. I already found out the basic HTML of MediaWiki isn’t that portable, but if anyone has some pointers, please let me know! I know of the skin-directory, but I haven’t found anything usefull there

25 09 05 - 22:42 - Permanent link - three comments

MyTicklerFile.com...What's the use?

MyTicklerfile.com is a new webbased tool for creating appointments and recurring tasks. As they say for themselves it can be used to implement Getting Things Done in your own way. But I have my doubts. First off, thanks to the buzzword-friendly Web 2.0 features of Ajax and tags it has some real desktop-like, rich experience to it. This really enhances the way to work with it. But what bothers me is the underlying principle. This is just for ticklers, reminders. You can use your emailclient to send reminders to your Myticklerfile-account and you can get ticklers through email. But I think to myself: Why have an online application for it? And it’s just one piece of the puzzle. What about your Next Actions? What about filing your information? It really brings back memories of my Nine Inboxes problem, where all the information was scattered over mailprograms, websites, offline folders and desktop apps. When you use MTF, I get the feeling you have *another* website you have to keep track off, manage, update etc. I keep coming back to using some sort of dashboard-mechanism where I can get an horizontal overview of my daily to-do’s, appointments, tasks etc. MS Outlook so far can give me that overview. In combination with the GTD Outlook Addin I feel I am really getting things done already. Still not there yet (black belt? Forget it… ) but at least I am taking little steps instead of standing still.
Conclusion: If you just need some tool to keep track of your reminders and appointments, Myticklerfile.com can be the webtool for you. But if you are serious about your GTD, I feel it is too light.

24 09 05 - 22:11 - Permanent link - one comment

The "new gadget" itch starts again...

Oh man….just when I was trying to get comfortable with all the software I have, a new version of Omea Pro drops in my Inbox. I once tried Omea Pro in beta and was very impressed by its features. It is simply described as a dashboard for your information from Outlook, browser, filesystem and webfeeds. All integrated in one environment with lots of features to aggregate, organize and find the information.

“Omea Pro helps you to efficiently handle different types of incoming information, whether you decide to:

• Respond & act right away,
• Delegate a task to someone else, or
• Defer & track items for attention later.”

Ooooh…..makes me want to download the program and start fiddling away with it….But I will not! Yet….
Anyone has some more information on Omea Pro and perhaps has a little review of it? I would be glad to read it.

20 09 05 - 22:01 - Permanent link - four comments