Tag Archives: gtd

Bits about being or feeling finished

May 25th, 2012

I think everyone who is addicted to their work runs into this problem of constantly feeling like there is more to do. And let’s face it, all of us that have been working with computers since about the time we learned to ride a bike are addicted to our work. We love it. However, by simply coming to grips with that feeling of never being truly finished, and being choosey about what to take on, we can lower our own anxiety about it.

Here are a few bits about being or feeling finished that have been circulating around the blogs recently. First, Shawn Blanc on The Mental Office and creating a text file at the end of the day to jot down your ideas. A brain dump, if you will.

It can be hard to call it quits for the day when there are still things whichcould be done. And so my text file is my way of admitting that yes the day is done and yes there is still work to do, but there is always tomorrow.

Then, the always quotable Seth Godin on Dancing on the Edge of Finished:

Now, of course, there’s always one more tweet to make, post to write, words with friends move to complete. There’s one more bit of email, one more lens you can construct, one more comment you can respond to. If you want to, you can be never finished.

To which Cameron Moll followed with:

Balance is a process, not a final resting state. I’m constantly juggling, shuffling, and re-prioritizing life’s demands. And I’m learning to be okay with that.

Back to Shawn Blanc on what finished means to him:

One thing I have done in my dance to find that balance is to set a new standard of what finished looks like for me. And that standard no longer means my inbox is empty, but rather it’s about budgeting my time and attention.

I’ve struggled with this feeling for as long as I can remember. I never feel done. I’m always thinking of what to do next. However, it takes a long time to come to grips with that. To step away from the office and think – it is OK that I’m not done – and go on living.

This is why it is so important to choose wisely what you spend your time on. The more you take on the more this feeling will build up. Believe it or not by doing less you’ll get more done.

 

Six ways to tackle boring tasks

September 12th, 2011

Earlier this year I wrote a rather blabbering post about how you should reward yourself while you’re doing tasks that you don’t like doing. I gave the example of treating yourself to your favorite drink for filing your quarterly taxes.

Well, it turns out I’m not alone in thinking that this is a good idea. Timo Kiander has come up with 6 ways to tackle boring tasks and one of them is to praise yourself.

“Remember, as soon as you get started with your tedious task, you have already done something that most people are not willing to do.”

When Alan Henry of Lifehacker linked to Kiander’s post he added:

“When you’ve finished all of the work you normally have to do and are left with only the toughest, most undesirable tasks left, consider rewarding yourself for mustering the effort to get started-it’ll go a long way towards making sure you’re content enough to finish the task at hand.”

We’re all saying the same thing; set yourself up for success. Kiander thinks you should praise yourself, Henry says reward yourself, I say combine the two and add a bit more.

Give yourself a great environment to do the task, make the task as easy as possible, and reward yourself for completing it and the most mundane tasks of our lives may just turn into the most fun ones.

Introducing Shh: An AppleScript and Alfred Extension to close all those noisy streams

August 10th, 2011

As the work day progresses I find myself with more and more “streams” open. Not long after I log onto my computer in the morning Twitter, Skype, iChat, Mail and other streams are open and active and at multiple points throughout the day they steal my attention.

However, there are times when I just want to focus on what I’m doing. Mac OS X Lion’s new fullscreen feature is designed to help me focus on a single application at a time. However, when Skype, iChat, Mail, or Twitter are open they will notify me (audibly or with bouncing icons) when they’d like my attention. They will inevitably pull me away from what I’m doing to see what is going on.

Skype, for me, is the biggest culprit because our team at Viddler uses Skype as the primary way to communicate. So even though Skype is notifying me that there is something new in Skype sometimes it is just some of the team members chatting about what’s for lunch and really isn’t meant for me and isn’t high-priority.

So there are times that I do not want to be distracted or even notified that something is going on in Skype. I want to be left completely alone and work on whatever it is I’m focused on. Enter Shh, an AppleScript and/or Alfred Extension (I love Alfred) that will quickly close these four applications. It is a dead simple script that closes all of these applications at once (rather than closing them individually).

I’m guessing that I will extend this script to include other applications over time and even enhance it in some way (perhaps by forcing the foremost application into fullscreen mode on OS X Lion or turning off Growl notifications) so if you’re interested in such things be sure to watch this project on Github or contribute to it yourself.

Want to get more done? Make things easy on yourself.

March 25th, 2011

“I could never be disciplined enough to do that everyday.”

There are a million-and-one tips on how to get things done. Books, applications, methods, processes, workflows. Nearly a year ago I postulated that it could be much easier than that. The best way to get things done is really just by bucking up and doing them.

But, we live complex lives and not everything is as simple or as fun as we’d like them to be. So how can we get more accomplished throughout the day without driving ourselves insane with process? What about doing the things we least like to do? Well, I think you need to make things easy on yourself. If you know that you are going to repeat a task many times, especially tasks that you don’t like to do very much, it is best to figure out a way to make it as easy as possible to succeed at it. Rewards are also good.

Perhaps you’d like to begin exercising each day and you can’t seem to find the time or the motivation to do it. Why not purchase a Kinect or a Wii that let you use your body as the controller? Play a game and get a workout all at once. What about mundane tasks that you don’t want to deal with like filing your taxes quarterly? Perhaps you could spend one night getting your finances set up into a spiffy piece of software that will help you do it quicker then, every time you file, treat yourself to your favorite restaurant or drink. Maybe you want to do write on your blog everyday? Where is your favorite place and time to write? Do it there and with a rewarding glass of wine next to you. If you have a task that you have to do often and it takes you a long time to do it, always try to find a way to make it quicker to do. Cooking meals is a good example of this. Many people don’t cook for themselves anymore because it takes too long. Why not prepare a bunch of meals on Sunday night with a friend and some music? Freeze or bag up a meal for each night of the week. You’ll save money and time, lose weight, and have fun with a friend.

Stop thinking of all of the things you’d rather not do in a negative way. Start thinking of fun ways to make these tasks easier and more enjoyable to do. Who knows, maybe after a few times you’ll start wanting to do them instead of avoiding them!

What I did yesterday to focus.

December 8th, 2010

Yesterday’s post Slow Down. Focus. was a pretty big hit. At least that is what my analytics tell me today. So, I thought I’d share what I did to help me focus yesterday and that I have a plan to go even further with it today.

Single task app management was the key to my success yesterday. For years my computer’s desktop has been riddled with windows from every application that I have open. While I’m writing this blog post, as an example, I’d normally have my iTunes window on my right-hand screen while having my browser window, my iChat and Skype windows, and perhaps even more windows open on my left-hand screen. I’d gotten used to focusing my eyes on the window in which I’m working but every so often a new IM would come in or the album art would change in iTunes or Echofon’s icon would bounce in the Dock. Inevitably those types of things would pull me away from whatever I was doing to address them. Knocking my focus.

But not yesterday. For the most part I was able to keep only one application in view at a time while I was using it. Mac OS X’s “Hide Others” command came in very, very handy. I’d like to think this tactic worked pretty well too as I managed to get more done yesterday than I’m used to. Or, at least it felt like I did because I was able to finish things.

Today I’m going to take it one step further in an effort to finish more things instead of simply starting them. Today I’m going to continue this app-centric focus while adding to it a topical focus. I’m sure that makes no sense whatsoever. What I mean is that instead of switching from one topic to the next I’m going to strive to stay on one single topic until I’ve either completed it or I simply need to move on.

This blog post is a good example of what I’m going to do today. Normally it would take me three or four visits to my WordPress Dashboard to write this post. I’d scribble down some thoughts, go do something else, flesh out those thoughts, reply to an IM, plop in the needed links, work on some code for work, edit the post for grammar or spelling, see what is happening on Twitter, and then ultimately return to publish the post. Seem familiar to the way you’re doing things?

Well, today I’m going to simply stick to something until I am finished with it or have to move on until I have more information. As an example I have a coding project due for work that I seemingly always get pulled away from. I’m going to simply get it done without responding to any emails, IMs, Twitters, etc. Then, when that is done, I have a blog post that I need to finish for the Viddler blog. I’ve started it three times and have never published it. Today I will.

I don’t know how this will work out and I’m sure people that are trying to get in contact with me via IM or TXT might end up asking where I am – but hopefully I’ll return their message within a reasonable time frame and, in fact, be able to focus on whatever they need from me better than I would have otherwise.

I’ll let you know how it goes. Oh, and I finished this blog post without being distracted once. :)

How to really get things done.

May 7th, 2010

We humans like to obsess over things simply as a way to distract ourselves from what really needs to happen. There are many examples of this in life, such as a widow obsessing over the funeral details to distract herself from her own sorrow, but no one more apparent than the obsession with “Getting Things Done”.

Countless tools, applications, notebooks, widgets, stickies and other ways of organizing our tasks to help us accomplish them are at our disposal. The Productivity category in Apple’s App Store, as an example, is filled to the gills. However, really, we’re just ignoring the easiest way to help get things accomplished. Doing.

The other day I came home from the office when Eliza regaled me with an exhaustive list of all of the things she accomplished in my absence. I then proceeded to ask one of the stupidest questions I’ve ever asked her: “How did you get all of that done?”. She didn’t skip a beat at my foolish question and simply said “I just did them.”

And therein lies the secret. The real way to get more done is not about obsessing over how to schedule your days tasks, prioritize them, group them, put them into buckets, check them off, have them with you on every device … these are simply better ways to remember.

Want to get more done? Just do.

How I’m using Spaces on Mac OS X

June 16th, 2008

When Apple released the latest update for Mac OS X Leopard, with the version number of 10.5.3, they updated the way that Spaces worked.  As John Gruber pointed out, Spaces now can better focus on “task separation” rather than “application separation”.

Here is a quick overview and history for you.  Spaces is a virtual desktop application that, for the lack of a better way of putting it, allows you to create as many desktops as you’d like.  Right now your computer probably has one desktop or one “viewable area to put windows”.  With Spaces, you can create more than one, and then use each of them for different purposes.

Prior to Mac OS X 10.5.3 Spaces was used more for separating applications onto different Spaces rather than setting up Spaces for tasks.  An example would be keeping your email on one Space, while having your browser in another, to keep the two applications separate for use. For people that are more productive based on focus, this made it nice to focus on your email Inbox instead of having many windows open.

However, I called this version of Spaces a glorified “Hide Others”.  In Mac OS X you can hide any application, or, hide every other application except the one you are currently viewing.  The first iteration of Spaces was like a different way to use this feature.

In the latest version of the operating system you can separate your Spaces into tasks rather than only by application.  An application, like Safari, can have windows present in every single space if you’d like.  This way you can have a Space set aside for writing, one for email, and another for working on a logo.  Sound confusing?  Consider how I’m currently using Spaces – and it might help clear things up for you.

Space 1: Writing / Reading: I use my first Space to read just about everything I need to read.  Google Reader in a Safari window, tabs open for other articles and links people give to me, etc – are all on this space.  Since my reading and my writing usually go together, I use this Space for writing as well.  This means that while I’m writing this entry, I’m on Space 1 with tabs and windows open that are related to this entry.  Nothing else is distracting me from this task of writing this entry.  All of the information I need to complete this task is on this Space and nothing else.

Space 2: iTunes and other long-duration tasks: Have you ever needed to encode something in iMovie or, perhaps you’re downloading something that will take a long time, or transferring files from one location to another, backing up your computer, etc.  I use this second space for those tasks.  iTunes is always open in Space 2, though I can control it through my Apple Keyboard, so I don’t need to switch to that Space to play, pause, skip to the next song, etc.

The reason I separate the long-duration tasks over onto their own space is because I feel they can be a distraction.  I find myself checking applications that are “doing something” every now and then.  Now I don’t check them usually until they are completely finished with their task.  I find it is far less distracting.

Space 3: Email, IM, and Twhirl: I also call this my “communication station”.  The entire Viddler team keeps tabs via a Skype chat.  I also use iChat on a daily basis.  My email Inbox is in a constant state of flux.  And Twhirl, the application I use to keep up-to-date with Twitter and FriendFeed, is also getting updated every 15 minutes or so.  In order to keep my distractions down on all other Spaces I keep these tasks dedicated to this one Space.  I’m free to check up on them when I want.

Space 4: Projects: Typically, on a given day or at a specific time, I’m working on one project.  This space is where I do that project.  For instance, if I’m programming something I’ll have Coda, Transmit, any browser windows with documentation and reference material, and perhaps a browser window with a preview of what I’m working on – in this Space.  This space is completely project centric, with nothing else to distract me from that project.  It is very seldom that I need to work on 2 projects at once ((That don’t fit into the other Spaces I already have set up.)) so I’m able to focus on the project until it is done.

I’ve found Spaces to be very enjoyable since the 10.5.3 upgrade to Mac OS X and while I think my usage of it will mature over time, the last few weeks have been liberating in many ways.  Just the other day, while at a meeting at ViddlerHQ, I used my project Space to keep notes for the meeting.  There was no other distraction available for me during that meeting so I was able to both take notes with my laptop open and be a constructive part of the meeting.

How are you using Spaces?  Have you given it a try since the update?

Update: Switching Spaces and preference oddities

After rereading this entry, and being asked questions via Skype by Kyle Slattery, I might have omitted a few details that I should probably include in this entry.

First, is that I recommend deselecting the “When switching to an application, switch to a space with the open windows for the application” box.  This will allow you to switch applications without switching Spaces.

Second, is that in order for Spaces preferences to take effect – you have to restart your Dock sometimes.  I am not sure why, but this doesn’t happen to everyone.  Here is the way John Gruber explained it in his aforelinked entry:

“Lastly, I should mention that I had problems getting this new feature to work at all. After upgrading to 10.5.3 and seeing the Spaces-related changes in the release notes, I tried it out. Toggling the new checkbox made no difference for me, however — I got the same old “jump to another space when switching apps” behavior either way. I solved the problem by trashing my com.apple.dock.plist preferences file (which, since Spaces is controlled by the Dock, is where most Spaces-related prefs seem to be stored). After logging out and logging back in, the new checkbox worked perfectly.”

And last, that I use the Cntrl+arrow keys to navigate around to different Spaces the majority of the time.  But, when I’m at home on my desk using my Might Mouse, I’ve set up the third-button ((Which is the equivalent of pushing down the scroll wheel.)) to also show my Spaces.  This makes it really easy to switch whether my hand is on the keyboard or the mouse at the time I need to switch. 

Increase your productivity with Basecamp, Highrise, and Backpack

June 6th, 2008

37Signals, a software development company out of Chicago, Illinois, recently launched an affiliate program.  I thought this a perfect time for me to let you know about three of their flagship products.  Oh, and I’m not telling you about these just because of their affiliate program, I’ve mentioned 37Signals before.

  • Basecamp – Project management made incredibly simple and easy.  I’ve used Basecamp for many projects over the years.  Whether you are working on a project with a team of 30, or you just want to jot down everything you need to get done in order to move into a new apartment, Basecamp seems to fit very well.
  • Backpack – Small companies, or even a group of people or family, can sometimes find it hard to keep track of each other, share files or ideas in an easy way, or just collaborate on something.  If Basecamp is a bit too much for your needs, or you just want to have a company calendar, Backpack strikes the right balance.
  • Highrise – Contact management is made easy in Highrise.  What’s more, though, is that Highrise can track communications with these contacts simply by fitting into your existing workflow.  It adds zero time to your contact management, but eases the pain.
I’ve used each of these applications for both personal use, doing projects with clients over the years, and even in my most recent employment at Viddler we’ve used Highrise for tracking our Business Partnerships and correspondance.
I recommend, at the very least, you give them a look.

The Ta-da List widget is back!

May 14th, 2008

Over 1 year in the making!  Well, not really, but it has been over a year since version 1.2 of the widget was released.  Now, with version 1.3, the Ta-da List widget is back in action and has been updated to accomodate the changes that 37Signals made to Ta-da List in a recent update.

The latest version of the Ta-da List widget.

Keegan Jones, the developer of the widget and a heckuva photographer, was nice enough to give me a copy of the working widget shortly after I complained about it not working.  I was able to get back up and running quickly and let him know that it was working.  Customer service++.

This makes my GTD circle complete.  I use Ta-da List on my iPhone while I’m on the go (mostly to add things to my list so I don’t forget them) and I use the widget when I’m on my computer to check things off as I get them done.

Head on over to Ta-da List, get an account, and download Keegan’s excellent widget.  It will help you, as it has me, Get Things Done for sure.

Leopard wish list – Part two: Mail

November 13th, 2006

I’m not as much of a power-user of Mail as I probably could be. There are features of Mail that I simply do not use, and therefore my request for Mail are rather light. However, I do feel that some of my requests make sense, so hopefully they will be included in Leopard.

Fixes

Here are some things that I believe should be fixed in Mail.

Smart Mailbox rules are seemingly complete – though I find one oddity among them. When you select the “Message is in Mailbox” filter, you are presented with every Mailbox you’ve setup – even the Smart Mailboxes that you’ve already created. However, if you select the “Message is not in Mailbox” filter, you are not given the Smart Mailboxes as options. I’ve thought about this for awhile, and I still can’t figure out the reason.

The search box should allow for multiple filters such as you find in the current Finder. Searching for a subject, then being able to click + to drill down until you find what you are looking for. I have about 12,500 pieces of email, and finding the 1 that I am looking for can sometimes prove difficult with a single search filter.

The address book panel seems very OS 9-ish. It works, but I’d like to see the design of this updated a bit.

Feature requests

I realize that Mail is getting “a significant upgrade” when Leopard is release, though the major feature additions looked atrocious in my opinion. Here are some things I’d like to see.

The iLife Media Browser would be an awesome addition to Mail’s default set of icons on the New Mail window. Attaching photos from your iPhoto Library is quick and easy – if you already have iPhoto open. I envision a time where we can click on the Media Browser (similar to what you find in Pages, iMove, etc) and find a photo or photos and attach them with ease.

Side note: The new version of Mail will have “stationary” – and from what I can tell from the screenshots released so far there is a new button called “Photo Browser” at the top. I hope that this is not a brand-new, non-standard media browser that does not use the same frameworks that are used throughout the system so far. And, I hope that this button is not only enabled when you choose a particular style of stationary that allows for photos. We need this feature to be available any time we want to send normal attachments.

An all new way to attach files would be nice. Utilizing a media browser to attached photos, audio, and perhaps even video – would be nice. But I can see definite improvements that could be made to attaching documents, spreadsheets, and compressed archives too.

Imagine you need to attach an Excel spreadsheet, a PDF document, and a .Zip file full of product images to an email. When you do this, I would like to see a preview of the document that I am going to attach. (This does currently work with PDFs and Images) I’d like to see previews for Excel spreadsheets, Text files, Rich-Text Files, Word Documents, .Pages documents, Keynote Presentations, and anything else that usually resides in the document window.

As per .Zip archive files, it’d be nice to select a zip file in the “attach file” panel and be able to see the file names of the files within the archive. This would ensure that I’ve selected the correct file to attach.

Automatic compression of multiple file attachments is something that was “introduced” by AOL back in the mid to late 90s. I have not used America Online since then, so I have no idea if this feature still exists.

If I had an email with multiple attachments, as described above, Mail could automatically compress those files on send. This way, the transmission of data would be slightly smaller. On the other end, Mail.app would uncompress those files into their original state prior to displaying the message to the recipient.

Side note: The biggest problem with this feature in AOL (circa version 2 or 3) was that when you sent email to anyone that was not an AOL user, they’d just get a .zip file. Back in those days .zip files were not yet the norm, and so you had to have people go to winzip.com or something to download a utility to uncompress those files. In other words, their email client did not have the “automatically uncompress files upon receipt” feature. Annoying to say the least.

The other problem with this is, Mail would have to have a slightly proprietary compression format so that when a .zip, .tar, .bz (etc) type of file would come in, it wouldn’t always uncompress those files. If I was sent 1,000 text files in a .zip archive, I wouldn’t want those files automatically uncompressed by Mail.

Final thoughts

I’m trying not to be too picky, otherwise this list would get quite long. Any application that is used as often as an email client always gets more than it’s share of scrutiny. I’m fairly happy with my email client to-date, and I hope that the trend continues.

Side note: Leopard Mail will include Stationary, Notes, To-Dos, and RSS feed reading ability. From what I’ve seen so far, I do not “like” any of them (even though what I did see would be considered BETA).

The Stationary seems a bit superfluous though I can see people having a ball using them. The Notes doesn’t make sense to me yet simply because I do not email myself notes. There are hundreds of ways to “take notes” on the Mac OS ranging from widgets to small menu bar applications to full-blown GTD applications. The “to-dos” in Mail seem like they’d be better kept and updated within iCal. I’m sure the integration between iCal and Mail will be might tighter this time around – so I’ll have to see that integration prior to passing judgement.

RSS within Mail is a completely new headache to me. RSS feeds within Safari is only made for those people who keep track of a few web sites. With constant attention to feed management you may even be able to get away with having 100 subscriptions in Safari without pulling your hair out. Unless the integration of RSS feeds (which should be called “Feeds” but we’ve already talked about that), rivals that of NetNewsWire, then I see no improvement than using Safari for your subscriptions. Too much synergy may not be a good thing in this case.

Note: Be sure to check out other parts of my Leopard wish list listed below:

  1. Part one: Safari
  2. Part two: Mail
  3. Part three: iChat
  4. Part three: Finder

[tags]apple, macintosh, mac os x, osx, mail.app, mail, iphoto, ilife, safari, leopard, mac os 10.5, wish list, ical, gtd, stationary, notes, to-dos, rss[/tags]
[slug]leopard-wishes-pt2-mail[/slug]