Free Hipster PDA (hPDA) Templates

Good post at 43Folders.com showing some free hPDA templates.

Simply drag and drop them to your desktop, or right-click and â€œsave as.â€ Templates are formatted as .png graphics and can be printed as-is or inserted into a formatted document. They can be resized to fit everything from a 3Ã—5 card to a daily organizer to an 8.5Ã—11 sheet.

Kvet.ch features an excellent article on how to print D*I*Y Planner HPDA cards (see the end of this page) directly to 3Ã—5 cards for Mac users. The technique should also work nicely with the templates offered here.

The link to the free templates can be found HERE.

Getting Things Done (GTD) With Email

The Travelers Gift – Book Review

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Travelers Gift I have been away for the last week in The English Lake District, hence why there have been no updates to the site. Whilst I was away, as well as getting in a good few chapters of the Getting Things Done book, I also took the time to read a book that has been on my bookshelf for quite some time.

The book I read was The Travelers Gift, Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success, by Andy Andrews. The book is in the same vein as titles by the great Og Mandino, and if you like Mandino books you will love the Travelers Gift. These books tell a story, and the story has meaning. I personally find these a great read. Don’t get me wrong, I love the generic motivational books from authors such as Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, and Brian Tracy, but I also feel that books such as this help to capture your imagination by guiding you through a story with meaning. The lessons to be learned from the book are intricately woven into the story line, providing substance and example behind their interpretations. I guess you can tell that I liked the book.

Anyway, the book is about a guy called David Ponder. David is made redundant from a chemical factory where he has worked his whole life. He then faces various life challenges and his life takes a drastic turn. This turn leaves him facing a journey of a lifetime that will introduce him to several key figures from the past, each with a message, and related story to tell, that make up the seven decisions that determine personal success. We start by visiting president Harry Truman, and end up with the Angel Gabriel. The last two chapters bring the whole story together and it leaves an excellent and positive impression on your mind.

Donâ€™t just take my word for it but be sure to purchase this book and see for yourself. US readers can order the book from Amazon.com and UK visitors can order it from Amazon.co.uk by following the links.

I liked the seven decisions so much that I have created a mind map of them. The PDF of the Mind Map can be downloaded here. I am a real big fan of mind maps and tend to use them a lot. This is something that I have not yet blogged about here but I aim to mind map the whole Getting Things Done book once I have finished reading it as well as other topics related to personal success and motivation. I am very interested in your comments and feedback about the Seven Decisions Mind Map and if this were something you would like to see more of on this blog. Also, do you want these as PDFs or would you also like the mmap file as well for use with MindJet Mind Manager? Until next time.

Chapter 3 – Getting Projects Creatively Under Way

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I am now through with chapter 3 of the Getting Things Done book from David Allen. Chapter 3 is titled Getting Projects Creatively Under Way: The Five Phases of Project Planning. This chapter is the longest so far in the book and looks at the way we should, and probably already do identify and manage projects. This is the last chapter in part one of the book, The Art of Getting Things Done and acts as the supporting act to part two of the book which looks to be where the fun really starts.

Chapter 3 starts by explaining what David refers to as Horizontal and Vertical focus. The theory behind these is quite easy. We all have things to do in our lives. These can all be classed as projects. Some projects are small, such as remembering to buy a card for your wifes birthday or remembering to pay the milk bill, whilst others can be significant. Significant projects can include tasks such as planning a holiday, wedding, or other engagement through to launching a new product at your workplace.
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Want to get more done? Start earlier in the day

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Just read a great post over at Lifehacker. This is a link through to the Open Loops website and an article about getting more done in a working day, and going home on time. For me, I like to start early, plan, and get home on time to spend the quality time with my wife and four children. I know this is not the same for everybody so give the article a read and see what you think.

His premise is this: we can get into the habit of staying later at work…when we don’t really need to be there. Studies have shown that the more work you get out of the way in the early hours of the day, the more thoughtful and efficient you actually can be.

I can definitely attest to this in my own life – for the past month, I’ve been getting up Mon.-Fri. at 5 AM, and I’ve never accomplished more.

Lifehacker post is here and original post is here.

The Ultimate Getting Things Done Index

How to Use Your Smartphone, Pocket PC, or Palm to Manage Your Tasks

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i found a great article from DKeener.com which shows you some ways of using your smartphone, pocket PC or Palm to manage your tasks.

Prior to 2001, I used the Franklin Covey (FC) time management methods for years. I started with a paper-based implementation, but began blending in the use of a PDA in about 1999. I studied Covey’s books and went to a couple of his seminars, and was pleased with the life-management improvements I was able to make using his system. Then, in February 2001, I read David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) book and immediately began implementing GTD on my PDA. I liked it because it was a fresh approach and I had gotten a bit stale in my implementation of the FC approach.

The full article is HERE. Great link.

Introducing the Hipster Shuffle

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I found this link via 43Folders.com and it provides a little light entertainment. Some guys have taken the Hipster PDA concept from Merlin Mann and added the iPod Shuffle.

Book Review – Great Quotes from Zig Ziglar – Motivation and Success

WordPress Plugin – Admin Tiger

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I have just added the Admin Tiger plugin for WordPress 2.0 from orderedlist.com

This is a fantastic WordPress plugin that vastly improves the look and feel of the WordPress Administration pages.

The current default WordPress administration area is functional, but I felt it could be improved. For several reasons, I didnâ€™t want to touch the XHTML framework of the admin, but instead relied on the power of CSS2 to manipulate the presentation. The whole package has been wrapped up into a single plugin. Just install and activate. The new design will be immediately visible.

Be sure to check it out, you will not be disappointed.