Category Archives: General Items

Just a category to put things which are not specific to a topic.

Writing to Get Things Done

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Writing AgainOver the past couple of weeks I have been writing more than ever. Not so much on this blog but I have had to write quite a lot of documentation on a job I am working on right now.

Now, I am no stranger to writing, having authored several technical books so I am pretty well versed in the art of writing. Well, most of my writing to now has been using Microsoft Word. The majority of my books were written before I got my first Mac and well before the advent of Web 2.0. Now, I am using a Mac and also services such as Twitter, iChat, Adium, Skype etc.. In fact, I am pretty easy to get a hold of, and people know this. I have gathered quite a few online contacts and my Twitterific application tweets at me quite a lot. All very good, but all very much against the concept of Getting Things Done!

We must now live and work in the “era of distraction”. This can be a killer when you have multiple documents to write. I guess that some software developers have also agreed with this idea with the release of several applications aimed at removing you to focus solely on the task at hand.

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Zig Ziglar – Inspire Motivational Podcast

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Zig ZiglarI have been a great fan of Zig Ziglar since I was intrigued by hearing his name in 1999. I cannot believe that it is 8 years ago now! In that 8 years I must have heard nearly everything that Zig has produced, including reading quite a few of his books and his auto-biography.

SUBSCRIBE TO MY BLOGIf you are not already, now is a great time to subscribe to this blog in your favorite RSS reader so you can keep up to date with all the posts.

Anyway, for those of you who do not know who Zig Ziglar is, or what he does, well, Zig Ziglar is a US speaker that talks on subjects such as goal setting, sales skills, motivation, and relationships. Zig is what I would consider very traditional in his ways and he tries to instill good old fashioned values via his speaking with his famous personal saying being:

You can have everything in life you want, if you would just help enough other people get what they want!

I aim to blog a lot more about Zig Ziglar and other speakers that I also listen to as I have gained a lot from listening and studying the methods and values these people speak about.

Anyway, the reason for this blog entry is that Zig has just embraced the Web 2.0 community and he is now doing a weekly Podcast. This Podcast is made up of audio and some video Podcasts. Some of this is new material and some is snippets from existing records from Zig. If you like Steve Pavlina, you will love Zig Ziglar.

Be sure to check the Podcast out. You can also subscribe directly in iTunes and copy it to your iPod etc.. Let me know what you think and I will also write more about Zig.

125 Code Snippets for Web Designers

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I know this is not GTD related but I found a blog that had linked to DidIGetThingsDone.com and they had a cool blog entry that has 125 cool code snippets for web designers.

Now I know a lot of my readers are fellow bloggers and these types of code snippets will work fine within WordPress so I thought I would share the tips here as well as saving to delicious etc..

I hope you enjoy this find.

OmniFocus – Alpha Introduction and Feature Demo

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OmniFocus GTDThere has been quite a lot of buzz around the GTD community about the long awaited OmniFocus from the Omni Group.

Anyway, there is an Alpha Introduction and Feature Demo video posted on the Omni Blog.

The video is around 26 minutes long and provides a great overview of the features within OmniFocus.

Be sure to check out the video. Well worth the time investment!

Increase Your Productivity – Buy a Large Monitor!

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GTD with a large MonitorWell, it is known amongst my friends that I am waiting for Apple to release the rumored update to the 30″ Apple Cinema Display so that I can buy one.

I converted to the Mac around 18 months ago, starting with a 12″ iBook that I used to use as well as my Dell laptop running Windows XP. It was not long before the Dell Laptop went to somebody else at the company I then was a Director of and I purchased the upgrade to a shiny 17″ MacBook Pro. You could say that I have never looked back and I have converted quite a few others to the Mac way of life. Without boring you all here, if you need and/or rely on a computer for your income, try, and the you will buy a Mac. Sure, they do not play the latest games, so buy a PS3 as well! I was a total Microsoft addict, having being a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) since 1995 and having made a considerable amount of money out of Microsoft consulting so I thought I would never buy a Mac, that is until I actually used one. I ate humble pie and it was the sweetest pie I have ever tasted!

Anyway, back onto the Cinema Displays. The Apple Cinema Displays are very nice. The 30″ will be fantastic for me as I spend most of my working days, and nights staring at my screen. Now the screen on my 17″ MacBook Pro is great, but the 30″ Cinema display is in a league of its own. Sure it is expensive, and people say the Dell 30″ is better value for money but my mind is made up that I want one, and I have saved the money to buy one. It is rumored that Apple are to release a new Cinema Display range, hopefully with built in iSights and also a HDMI input (handy for my newly acquired GTD distracting PS3).

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Five Processing Tips for Getting Things Done

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Getting Things DoneWell, I survived the collection and processing stages of implementing the GTD Methodology and along the way I made a note of five top tips that I would like to share with you on the Processing section of the GTD Methodology.

I am presuming you have read my post on Processing, Getting In to Empty, where I explain that processing is where you take the stuff you have collected and implement the GTD Methodology based upon the GTD Workflow flowchart. If you haven’t read it, go ahead and read that post now.

Right, so you should be up to speed with where I am with this. I have now five little snippets that I consider useful enough to share in this blog.

  1. REALLY clear your diary!
  2. Ensure You Have LOTS of Space
  3. Don’t Collect Items You Need
  4. Print Out the GTD Flowchart
  5. Grow Your Fingernails!

OK, the first item on my list is to REALLY clear your diary. The GTD book states this is important and I cannot re-iterate just how important this is. I cleared two days in my diary for the collection and processing phase and I am happy I did. Once I had started collection, my office and working space looked like a bomb site. This seemed to add quite a bit of pressure to my process and stressed me out somewhat. I guess this made the processing section a great deal easier and I felt a great relief when it was all done.

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GTD with Gmail and Gcal

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There is a great post over at Lifehack.org about using Gmail and Gcal to take charge of your daily tasks and to do lists.

There are a million tools out there to keep track of your tasks, your appointments, your emails and reminders. But let’s face it — each of them have their drawbacks, and finding the right combination can be an ongoing quest.

Many people also love Gmail and Gcal as two of their online tools of choice – they’re simple tools that get the job done fast, wherever and whenever you need them. If you count yourself among this group, here’s a guide for using the Gmail/Gcal combination as your online information center.

Follow THIS LINK in order to check out the article. Well worth a read, especially if you use, or are thinking to use the Google applications as your chosen method to implement a GTD system.

How to Make a GTD System for Around £10

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GTD for a tennerAfter reading the great blog entry titled “How to Make a GTD System for Around $20” over at Cranking Widgets, I decided to add a UK spin to this theme as I am based in the UK and I have quite a few UK based readers.

The Cranking Widgets blog entry takes you through building a complete GTD system for a super cheap $20. The core component is obviously the GTD Book from David Allen but after that they take you through other essential items and provide online links of where to get them.

This is great if you are in the US, but how about our UK readers? Well, with the conversion rate between the UKP and USD so strong, in the UKP favor, I am trying to do the same as Cranking Widgets, but for a measly £10. This works out at around $19 for a GTD system.

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Processing – Getting In to Empty – Chapter 6

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GTD methodologyWell, I thought it was about time to write the next installment in my journey to stress free productivity utilizing the GTD system.

Hopefully, you will already have read my previous posts on Getting Started, and also my “stuff” Collection Day. Well, as stated in the collection day post, I collected rather a lot of stuff. I had two storage crates full of stuff that needed to be processed.

As I had allocated the time in my busy schedule to perform this task, I had no excuse so I got my waste paper bin ready, got a few black rubbish sacks and made a start.

I must admit that the task at hand was slightly overwhelming. My nice and neat place of work had turned into a bomb site. The emails kept coming in, the work was mounting up, and my usually tidy place of work was turned upside down. I must admit, my office is not the largest and having this amount of chaos within it did a good job of increasing my stress levels! It was time to focus and also this was more of a reason to get the processing done, so my office would be back to normal.

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