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March 31, 2006

A disturbing report.

A Reuters story picked up by Wired last month documents something very disturbing: as our lives have grown more connected, more technologically advanced, we are getting less done.

According to the study quoted, in 1994 we got about 3/4s of our work done in a workday. Last year, that was down to 2/3s and heading south rapidly. Meanwhile, we are spending more and more hours at work in front of our computers. Ten plus years ago, 82 percent of the people polled felt that they at least got half their daily planned work done; that’s now down to 51 percent.

What’s going on here?

I’d submit there’s actually a couple of different things going on:

  • First, the more connected you are, the more interrupted and interrupt-driven you become. It gets harder and harder to focus and concentrate on getting one thing done at a time.
  • Second, the balance point between consuming information and producing it has shifted so far over to the consuming side we have hardly any “processing cycles” left to work with. Consuming information is not the same as thinking, and the distinction is getting lost in the tsunami of info we are trying to cope with.
  • Third, we keep trying to put out the fire with gasoline. We add more and more connections, information, technology – from Skype to RSS feeds to iPods, in an attempt to somehow catch up.

Now don’t get me wrong: I’m a programmer and writer by trade, a totally connected, technology driven kind of guy. Nobody is gone to take away my iPod! But there has to be an alternative to living like a rat in a high tech cage other than living in a cave.

I think part of that answer needs to be new kinds of software/web site/hardware that confronts this problem head on. But I also think we need more and better mental tools for dealing with an info-environment that is changing faster than we can adapt to.

The question is, besides Getting Things Done, where are those mental tools? No answers here and now, but I hope to broaden this blog a bit in the coming weeks and months to delve into this. And I welcome any and all suggestions you have!

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Oh Joy! International telemarketing calls!

Just got my third telemarketer call today - all three have been from India. Earnest young voices talking from the bottom of a well, imploring me to meet with their company's CEO who just so happens to be on his way to California right now!

Oh Joy - VOIP telemarketers. Just what I need after beating down the homegrown time wasters, we have a huge new pack of time biters to fend off.

By the way, I'm in no way discriminating against Indians or India or Indian IT companies: I hate any company stupid enough to think I would ever do business with them after they waste my time, regardless of where they are based.

Now I'm wondering, today it was 3 calls. What if tomorrow it's 5? or 25? or 125?

Groan.

Posted at 12:59 PM in GTD, Micro-ISV | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Your Task Catalog

One of my very first MasterList Professional supporters, Beau Turner, sent me an email today:

Bob,

Is the task catalog available yet?  I see a reference to it at the following location:

http://safarisoftware.com/mlpbestpractices.htm

5. Save time and typing with the Task Catalog. Any task you do - or should be doing - on a regular basis is a good candidate for the Task Catalog.

Beau Turner

I was flabbergasted! The Task Catalog has been in MLP since early beta days...

TaskcatThen I thought about it: how many other MLP customers don't know about this feature?

Then I thought about it some more: A task catalog in whatever form you want - paper, MLP, another program - is an excellent way to improve your Getting Things Done process, as a template collection for things you repeat.

I think the base requirements for Task Catalog items are three:

  • Just enough of a description to be clear a day, a week or month from now.
  • The time needed for the item.
  • Just how hard it is - or how on your game you need to be - to complete this item.

That's the base - I'd add space for notes, some form of checklist (MLP has both, by the way, with the checklist slated to turn into a real checkable checklist instead just a large notes field). MLP also tracks what you entered as Time Spent as you create and complete Task Catalog tasks, and offers you these times as Time Needed choices forward, but that's a nice to have.

So what Tasks should be in your Task Catalog?

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March 22, 2006

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Q & A re MasterList Professional

Yesterday, I got an email from John with questions so good about MasterList Professional, I thought it worthwhile to share them here.
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Hi Bob,

I have been evaluating ML Pro for about a week.  I like what you have done
here - it looks very good.

I am new to GTD, but have a background with Covey's methods and Tony Robbins programs.  I have just started to read David Allen's book. 

I have a few questions that I have not seen addressed. 

1.  I see from your forums that you originally planned on an update in Jan 06 but it appears that this has been delayed quite a bit.  What are your intentions and commitment to upgrading and maintaining the product?  I am certainly interested in using it but I don't want to go through the effort of integrating it into my workflow if it won't stay current.

Fair Question! My plans to update did get put on hold just after the first of the year due to a major illness in the family. That situation has resolved now. My new plan is to start doing small updates instead about every 10 days.

First update will be later today – this will be a tiny update, with only one new feature – MasterList Professional no longer has pictures of African animals here and there. They left because I finally realized that as a micro-ISV developer, my tastes should not be foisted on my customers.

So what happened to the major update features I’ve been promising for so long? Like true checklists, faster data entry, a more understandable Outlook integration? I will be adding all of these features, but one by one, sticking to a every 10 days or so update plan.

While it’s a pain as a customer to keep having to update an application, I think that given how MasterList Professional auto-updates work it will be a very small pain, well worth the steady stream of improvements in the product.

2.  I see how it integrates with Outlook - nice.  How do I use the two effectively together?  Should I perform all of my task and scheduling from MLP or split it up some how?

Tough question. If you are not using Outlook to manage tasks now, I think you will get more value out of doing it all in MasterList Professional. If on the other hand, you have many tasks you currently manage in Outlook, I would integrate them.

Finally, if you have many tasks in Outlook that are unmanaged, I would import them into MasterList Professional, manage them there, and only integrate Current tasks back to Outlook where they might be more convenient to complete.

3.  If I have a large task, say architect a new application with many sub-tasks, how should this be managed in MLP?  As a project (architect app) with tasks (architect app sub-tasks)?

Currently, I would do this as a project, with tasks. Further, you can use Keywords to group tasks by context, person responsible, essential vs. non-essential, etc. Persistable checklists of subtasks for a task is high on the list to be addressed, so expect this to change in the coming weeks.

4. I am having a little difficulty in understanding the gestalt of your application.  I believe I understand the parts but it is not obvious to me how to put it all together in a coherent system. Will learning GTD make your application's organizational system clear?

I’d like to think so! Managing tasks is one of the hardest things people have to do. Here’s the “Big Idea” behind MasterList Professional and it owes a lot to the Getting Things Done philosophy:

-You need one place where you can store, assess, track and marshal for execution all the professional and personal tasks in your life. I hope to make MasterList Professional that place for you.

-Externalizing all the “to do”s in your head clears your mind of them so you can better think, plan, create and execute.

-Every task has a cost in at least time, a level of importance and a degree of difficulty. If you don’t know what something costs, how do you know if you can afford it? Or if it’s a bargain?

-The more value you get from your time, the more successful you will be in life, however you define “success”.

Regards,
John

 

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Update 1.14 to MasterList Professional is out.

The next time you start your copy of MasterList Professional, you should see there's an update available. Version 1.14 fixes a slew of bugs that made MLP less stable and usable than it should be.

While I had planned since the first of the year to do a major update to MLP, those plans changed as did many plans in my extended family at the beginning of this year, due to a serious illness in the family. That situation has come to a sad conclusion, and it's time to get MasterList Professional back on track with incremental updates about every 10 days.

Please keep those suggestions and bug reports coming in to http://safarihelp.com.

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GTD 2006.49: Desiring the Desired Outcome

It's a simple chant: "Do the Next Action - get the Desired Outcome". But what happens when you don't really want the Desired Outcome? Procrastination, avoidance, delay and distraction. All those nasty things that gum up the process. How many times is the root of poor execution an unacknowledged judgment that the game is not worth the prize?

So, as you amass things to do through Getting Things Done, doublecheck your gut feelings about the other side of each item:

  1. Do I really want this Desired Outcome?
  2. Do I get at least a little excited about achieving this Desired Outcome?
  3. Does this Desired Outcome have enough attraction to me to make the effort worthwhile?

If something in your Getting Things Done process can't pass this three-point muster, maybe it's time to revisit why you are doing it before it becomes a problem.

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March 21, 2006

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Major positive reviews for the Book!

In case you're interested, there's been three recent major reviews of Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality I'd like to point out:

Slashdot gave it 8 out of 10 last Friday, with the reviewer, Alex Moskalyuk saying in part, "...for the use case when you think you can write a usable and popular Windows application and also sell it online to hundreds, thousands and (hopefully) millions of users, this book will be indispensable." Read the Slashdot Review here.

Gordon Graham, Editor of SoftwareCEO said in part today, "...I'll say it again: If you're a developer dreaming of starting your own software  firm, you need this book." Read the SoftwareCEO Review here.

And recently, Mike Gunderloy, well-known IT author and the driving force behind Larkware said in part, "...why on earth would you spend the  hundreds of hours to do all that research yourself, when you could just spend  the thirty bucks to take advantage of Bob's hard-earned experience?" Read the Larkware Review here.

All I can say to one and all is thank you!

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GTD: 2006.48: Plug your attention leaks

Our productivity daily suffers the Death by a Thousand Cuts, or maybe I should say the Death by a Thousand Web Sites (including this one!). We slice and dice our attention between dozens, sometimes hundreds of online distractions: my personalized Google Home Page, Digg, an online forum and tech.memeorandum are my major Memory Leaks: What's your's?

If you don't know where a leak is, you can't plug it.

Here's my 3 point plan for recognizing and plugging your Internet-induced Attention Leaks, and therefore becoming more productive:

- Recognize you have a problem: When's the last time you sat down to work on something and didn't flip over to some unrelated web site at least once?
- Decide for yourself where your attention will go, hour by hour. For example, right now, I'm writing this post. I'm not checking email until I'm done. I'm not checking any online attention grabber. I'm not even looking at my Google Home Page to see what the latest news is. I've decided where my attention is going, and that's that. You can too.
- Decide in advance when you plan to turn on the Information Firehose. In other words, if a big part of your life is at various web sites, schedule time for them. For example, Digg has gotten my attention and at 4:30 pm today, I'm going to spend < 20 minutes scanning whatever juicy items Digg has bubbled to the top.

Deciding when and where and for how long you're going to pay attention to something online, and sticking to that, converts attention leaks into Next Actions with a Desired Outcome, and that's a good Getting Things Done thing.

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March 20, 2006

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GTD: 2006.47: Acknowledge end points

It’s easy in this wonderful world of online, interconnected, networked, meshed, mashed and just plain too many things to breeze by the moments when you can say you have finished something, large or small. Don’t. You’re cheating yourself. Here’s why and what to do about it.

End points – whether you just finished coding a class, going to a class or making a pass – are when you need to gauge expectations with results, acknowledge what you’ve done right and wrong and mine the lessons learned so you improve how you live. If you skip taking stock, you’re missing out.

So here’s a mnemonic to make it easier to remember what to do when you finish something:

C – Compare: How did your results compare to your desired outcome for this task?
L – Lessons: What lessons – large or small – you should learn from this experience?
A – Acknowledge: You did it, good, bad or indifferent. Now get ready to move on.
P – Plan: What, if any, follow up needs to be added to your Getting Things Done In Box?
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March 17, 2006

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Getting out from under

While blogging is great, there's no substitute for a reporter going out and actually digging up a story and writing it well. That's what Ellen McGirt of FORTUNE magazine has done in a piece called, "Getting Out from under".

There's lots of good stuff in this article for GTD-minded people, but there's one paragraph that superbly sums up the whole quandary:

So how are modern knowledge workers to weave their way through the minefield of interruptions and conflicting priorities? The simple answer is this: By figuring out what is actually worth paying attention to, and when. Which turns out to be really hard to do.

Take a few minutes out and read this one folks.


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GTD 2006.46: Paying your Computer Tax

You may not realize it, but there's another tax payment coming due soon other than the one you send off to the Internal Revenue Service. That's your Computer Tax payment. No, don't stick a $100 bill in an envelope and send it off to Bill Gates or Steve Jobs; they have enough of your money.

Instead, you need to pay up for all that wonderful productivity your pc delivers (not to mention endless hours of web surfing and playing games). Now, it's up to you whether you pay this tax, but believe me, this tax will get paid one way or another, with or without your interest.

So here's how you pay, at least if you are using Windows. First, make a Getting Things Done Project called My PC in MasterList Professional or whatever you use to manage your GTD projects and Tasks. Then, add the following Actions to that project, noting the desired Outcomes. Start with #1 and execute.

  1. Make a backup of your critical documents, IE and FireFox Favorites and Outlook .pst file.
    • Outcome: critical data is backed up.
  2. Make a System Restore point if your system is working as it should.
    • Outcome: 50/50 chance you can restore your PC if it's hosed.
  3. Create an emergency boot CD in case of total PC disaster. Label it "Insert if PC will not Start."
    • Outcome: about a 95% chance that while your PC can be salvaged in under an hour instead of descending into Reinstall OS Hell when (not if) your PC crashes.
  4. Uninstall all the programs you tried but don't actually use.
    • Outcome: minor improvement in OS speed; major reduction in Start Menu complexity.
  5. Take everything in your My Documents folder except other folders that start with "My " and put it in a new folder called, optimistically, "Review and cull".
    • Outcome: vast sense of release and relief - and closing hundreds of still-open loops.
  6. Take everything sitting on your Desktop and put it in a new folder called, optimistically, "Review and cull Desktop".
    • Outcome: considerable relief from being visually cued re a multitude of projects and tasks already handled every time you see your desktop.

While you're at it, add tasks for your quarterly payments as well, where you at least do the backup part of the above.

And remember, just like "real" taxes, the penalties for not paying your Computer Tax are usually severe.

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Microsoft's Live Clipboard - The end of the web/desktop divide.

Ray Ozzie has just blasted the web/desktop Berlin Wall to bits. Specifically, structured data bits that can be copied and pasted web-to-web application, or web-to-desktop application as easily as copy and paste.

This is a big thing, and it's also a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licensed thing.

I call this new concept Live Clipboard, because we view “live” efforts as those providing users with seamless end-to-end scenarios that “just work” by weaving together the best of software and the best of services.

Imagine being able to copy and paste data - whether it is in a desktop application or a web based application, as easily as copying text in Word or a TypePad blog editing window.

If other software companies - as well as Microsoft - adopt this way of handling data, it could Web 2.0 Web 2.0.

Posted at 12:56 PM in Micro-ISV | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Great post on making a Mashup

I just wanted to point out to ToDoOrElse readers a post at http://mymicroisv.com by Aaron Aycock (www.juststepsaway.com) on how he created the juststepsaway.com mashup.

If you're a micro-ISV programmer wondering about this whole web 2.0/mashup thing, this is a very, very good read.

Thanks  Aaron!

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GTD 2006.44: Ready for Change, part 2

This morning I got a reminder that besides the big, global, ever-increasing complexity type change, there's the "Where did you come from?"-type change.

Here's a shot of ???, who ran into our garage as Tina headed off to work, cold and wet from I guess a night of wandering the dark rainy and windy streets of our neighborhood.Surprise

Totally well-behaved, great interface (Sit, Lie Down and Shake Hands), likes cat food. Since ??? has a rabies tag from our vet, I'm sure when they open later today I can reunite her with her family.

But definitely not a Next Action or Project I expected to deal with today!

Therein is the lesson: keeping your nose to the GTD grindstone works, but Life may have other plans for you and you may need to change plans (or water dishes) in mid-step. Be ready.

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Postscript:

Libby has been reunited with her mom. Seems Libby gets very scared by thunder and lightning like we had yesterday afternoon and got out somehow.

All's well that end's in a tail!Happyending

And here's a GTD shortcut for you: do your cats and dogs have a collar with your vet's phone number on it?

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March 06, 2006

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GTD 2006.43: Ready for change

So you get everything organized in your GTD system, and then something happens and you put it aside, and then you have to get everything organized again in your GTD system and then...

Sound familiar? The good news: it is not just you. The bad news: you'd better get used to it.

One of the hardest things to get emotionally is not just that things change fast today, but they are changing faster and faster. Alvin Toffler called it Future Shock 30 years ago; I call it Welcome to my Life.

So here's a GTD tip from one person trying to cope with ever increasing amounts of change, to another: Build room into your GTD system for change, for the unexpected, by:

  • Do your Weekly update - even if it's not needed. (Who knows what next week brings.)
  • Keep all of your Projects on your personal radar screen, even if you think nothing is going to change.
  • Be ready to go mentally, be it to a new job, a new project or just a new task.

Because, whether you're ready or not, that jet you found out you need to be on, is leaving.

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March 02, 2006

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GTD 2006.42: Forget "Description", I want "Purpose"

One of my customers, Karen Tiede, pointed out in a post on the MasterList Professional wishlist forum that "Description" is a rather feeble way to describe a task, and I have to agree.

In fact the more I think about it, the more describing GTD Next Actions by their purpose instead of their outward form makes sense to me, and I think is a super-easy way to power-up your list of things to do.

By defining actions in terms of their purpose we do three very good things:

  • We make explicit why this action is needed. If we can't state the purpose of an action, why are we doing it?
  • We add back emotion to our actions. When doing GTD, it’s way too easy to get detached from what we are doing and why: including the reasons for actions reconnects us to it.
  • Instant Motivation! The purpose of the action is our reward for doing it - seeing it in black and white definitely motivates.
  • Clarity – stating the most important purpose of a given action as part of its description gives us one explicit target to be aiming for.

For example in martial arts, you would never describe a “Next Action” as “break boards”. That description has all of the appeal of limp noodle. You would think, “Break 4 boards with a 360 degree jump side kick to prove to myself I can do this.” – now, that’s a Next Action with some emotional whomp behind it!

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March 01, 2006

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GTD 2006.41: GTD when you have a cold, part 2.

Making Getting Things Done work for you is one part diligence, one part reading blogs like this one to find tips and tricks, and one part most GTD advocates forget: fitting GTD to you and not the reverse.

People change – from minute to minute, day to day and certainly over the years as they toil away. What worked for you last week – ambling from Next Action to Next Action, enjoying a feeling of laser-like work focus - may not be within your grasp this week when the wheels fall of two projects, you’re getting over a head cold and you’re just not in the mood for it all.

The really nice thing about GTD is it is adjustable and adaptable. Next time you're not at your best, try these techniques to fit GTD to you and stop expecting to be at the top of game every day:

  • Narrow your focus – when you’re plate has too much heaped on it, it’s time for a smaller plate. In other words, given where you are now – you’re impaired effectiveness level – narrow your focus to fewer things, deal with those and then move on.
  • Know when not to make a decision. People don’t make bad decisions intentionally; they make bad decisions when they can’t recognize that for whatever reason, they are not in good enough shape to make a good decision. Be it driving home drunk from a party, or trying to code a particularly hard module when you’re on your second box of Kleenex, knowing when to punt is a part of the GTD game.
  • Keep it short.  Meetings. Phone Calls. Emails. Give yourself time in between to recharge as best you can.
  • It's a good time for admin trivia. Fit the task to your current (miserable) state and deal with all the small, unimportant things you've been skipping. Like clearing out the debris from completed projects in your My Documents folder.

And keep the Kleenex handy.

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ToDoOrElse?

  • Who?
    Bob Walsh, (Author, managing partner of Safari Software, Inc. a micro-ISV)
    What?
    Exploring the intersection between Getting Things Done and building a micro-ISV.
    Where?
    Live from Sonoma, California USA.
    When?
    Once or so a workday.
    Why?
    Because there's a way to get everything done, I just know there is!
    Micro-ISV?
    Micro Internet Software Vendor, a self-funded startup company: See mymicroisv.com for information and resources.

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