I’ve browsed/read through the entire book and system of Getting Things Done and realize there is a crucial first step I really need to make. David Allen, the author, suggests that you set aside two full days to do this step, and though I’ve planned on using a full weekend, I don’t think it’s going to happen (especially not at work).
The 1st step to really being able to fully implement the system is getting to Ready. Allen suggests taking literally everything on or in your desk and putting it in your inbox (exceptions are: supplies, reference material, decorations and equipment). Then, you take everything out of your head and place it in your inbox by simple writing down each item and putting it in your inbox. He’s even got a four page list of trigger words that might help you think of other incomplete items to write down.
After placing everything in your inbox, you must then process it, one item at a time, through your new system, into an appropriate place (you’ll have to read the book more, or watch for future post to learn more of the system) where you’ll be able to Get Things Done. And the stickler is that you must go through your entire inbox until it’s empty (He said a lot of people have stacks and stacks of stuff).
If you can manage getting through those two steps, putting it all in and then processing all of it, then you’ve gotten to Ready. For those, like me with less time to do this all in one sitting, I’d suggest putting in and processing as you go, but make it your top priority to do it until you’ve gone through everything.
All posts by ariah
Google Notebook: you clip the web
Google has been rolling out new ideas like crazy at their labs. The one I’m mosted interested and excited about is Google Notebook. When all the social bookmarking sites started coming out I wanted one that allowed me to clip only the section of sites I wanted and be able to lay those out in an easy format. Clipmarks was the first one I found, but for some reason it conflicted with the other extensions I used on firefox and so I wasn’t able to use it very much. And now Google Notebook.
Basically the Notebook simply allows you to highlight some text on a page and copy it to your notebook to keep track of. This is GREAT for research projects (like planning a summer schedule for work) because you can grab just the text that’s important to you and still easily have the link to get more info if necessary. It also allows me to print it all off in an easy to view format without a lot of copying and pasting.
Here’s an example page of clips from Trying to Follow.
Sign up for Google Notebook
If your cool you’ll check out slickrun.exe
I’ll blog about all the neat ways I use slickrun at a later date, I’m still just training myself to use it. Mainly it’s a simple way to keep you from switching from keyboard to mouse constantly. If I’m writing a paper and then I think I want to email zach and ask him something about it I can just type: “ctrl + space” and that starts slickrun where I type “compose” which launches an email window and then I just type my email using tab to navigate through. My fingers never leave the keyboard to open my email program and then click new email. Hopefully that makes sense. It’s only a few seconds of time, but that all adds up when you think about it.
slickrun has a number of other cool features I’ll tell you about later. For now, you early adopters can download it below.
Download Slickrun.exe
Why go to college when you can blog instead?
Let me start by saying that I did go to college and now I blog and after trying both I’m not completely convinced that one is better then the other.
College has all it’s pros like room and board, smart people all around you, and other stuff. But, it also has it’s cons like that big fat bill after graduation, grades, and smart people all around you.
Blogging on the other hand has very little cons that I can see. I like to read, listen, or watch stuff. I also like researching topics I’m interested in. When I was in college a teacher told me what to read, listen, watch or research, now I choose it on my own. In college I had deadlines, MLA, grades and smart people to worry about. When I blog about these things I just have the motivation that a good handful of people are interested in what I have to say, and if anything they’ll provide me with postive and constructive feedback on what I wrote. I work at my own pace (which is maybe to slow at times) and I get to choose my own style, which I can always go back and tweak later.
In both situations I’m learning and growing. I’d certainly opt for blogging if I could just convince them to give me one of those fancy pieces of paper at the end of four years.
What’s happened to “Women’s Rights”?
One of my favorite blogs to keep up on current issues is this one, from this magazine. Today they posted
an intriguing post about women’s issues.
At the Seattle Times, Alicia Mundy ponders a disappearing phrase in politics: “women’s rights.” Explaining why the phrase has only cropped up in a handful of public talks given by female senators and congresspeople, Mundy notes:
“…the battle to control the dictionary and define the paradigm is crucial to the partisan power struggle in D.C. Espousing women’s rights can get even the most mainstream female lawmaker marginalized as a radical feminist or even labeled a “feminazi” by radio talk-show hosts.”
I’d go bananas if life was without bananas
From
New Scientist Breaking News – A future with no bananas?
Go bananas while you still can. The world’s most popular fruit and the fourth most important food crop of any sort is in deep trouble. Its genetic base, the wild bananas and traditional varieties cultivated in India, has collapsed.
Who knows if there is any truth to this at all, but even the thought has me a little worried.
When I was younger I loved bananas so much that I had to have one everyday. One day my parents ran out of bananas and I cried until I got one. bananas, cryin
File folders and Paper vs. My granola soul
I’m continuing to read David Allen’s Get Things Done system and I’ve come to a difficult decision point. David makes a few interesting suggestions that make a whole lot of sense. First, he suggestions,especially when starting out, to write one task per individual sheet of paper to put in your inbox. All I’m thinking is “What about all the trees?” I like the idea of writing one idea per notecard too, but then I’d go through a lot of notecards, and even though I have a closet full of them, it just seems like a waste of paper.Along the same paper lines, he suggest using a LOT of manila file folders. Basically being willing to put one sheet of paper in a folder and labeling it and filing it. His reasoning and startegy makes a whole lot of sense, but I keep on worrying about the redwoods. I think I’m writing all of this to just to say that I am going to follow through on his system and just trust the power of recycling over my period of paper consumption.
P.S. This is speaking mainly about work. As for at home I refuse to fully by into the system because it’s going to require too much space. So I’ll be tweaking it a little.
Free Phone Calls from your Computer to a landline
I’m updating this post because Skype (which this used to be about) is no longer free to make outgoing calls (except 800 numbers). The paid version of Skype is actually really well priced, but if you need a free option, follow the instructions below.
- Download and install Gizmo Project
- Join Grandcentral (It’s in Private beta right now)
- Add your Gizmo SIP number to Grandcentral
- Add Contact number your trying to call
- Use the call button on your contact list to call your Gizmo project and connect the call for FREE!
P.S. If you comment below, I’ll send you a private invitation to join Grandcentral.
Question: What is with “Grills”?
I know the folks who read this blog are probably the completely wrong people to answer this question. But I don’t understand Grills. I’m not talking about the ones you cook on, I’m talking about sticking expensive stuff on your teeth. To be fair, I don’t really get why sticking fatty diamonds on your fingers, ears or neck is cool either. 
The grill thing bothers me cause kids who are dropping out of school on their way to a life of poverty are getting “grills.” for their teeth.
Definition at Urban Dictionary (number 2 on the list)
What do you think?
The Constant Gardener: there’s truth in it.
I watched The Constant Gardener after a number of friends raved about it when it first came out. I enjoyed it and put on my list of things to do: Find out the facts behind the Constant Gardener.
Well I finally got around to it and read up on the sad but true story that the movie is based on. I fear too often we watch something like that and it just becomes another piece of Hollywood for us, rather then affecting our lives and encouraging us to take action against the atrocities we see in the film.
From
‘The Constant Gardener’: What the Movie Missed
The plot couldn’t be more timely. According to a May 16 report in USA Today, giant drug outfits are outsourcing increasing numbers of drug trials outside the United States and Europe. Merck is now conducting 50 percent of its trials outside the United States. By 2006, 70 percent of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals trials are expected to occur offshore. Across Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, the sick are abundant, desperate and doc-trusting, and so recruitment into clinical trials is rapid. As one executive from an outfit specializing in running drug trials in Asia put it, patients in developing countries are “more willing to be guinea pigs.”
And from
As Drug Testing Spreads, Profits and Lives Hang in Balance (washingtonpost.com)
A Washington Post investigation into corporate drug experiments in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America reveals a booming, poorly regulated testing system that is dominated by private interests and that far too often betrays its promises to patients and consumers.
Experiments involving risky drugs proceed with little independent oversight. Impoverished, poorly educated patients are sometimes tested without understanding that they are guinea pigs. And pledges of quality medical care sometimes prove fatally hollow, The Post found.