New Year’s Resolutions
I’ve never gotten very into new year’s resolutions, but since I’m working on a few things and it happens to be December 31st, I’ll take my inspiration from Josh and call them “resolutions.”
- Keep my home office organized
- Adopt a new system for personal time management
- Blog more frequently
This one is tough for me… Ever since college I’ve used the “pile” method of filing, and can typically find anything I’m looking for within a few seconds (of course, the occasional item requires a search party). I’ve made the shift at work, and my desk at the office has been uncharacteristically tidy for a year now. Today, I managed to get the home office close - a little more time tomorrow and it will be in good shape. Keeping it that way, of course, is the resolution.
I haven’t even read the book yet (its been on my shelf for a couple of years… how sad is that?), but at this point I need a better todo list tool, let alone time management tool, so it seems to be a good time to try out the GTD approach. I’m leaning toward OmniFocus, a new app from the company behind OmniOutliner and OmniGraffle. I’ve downloaded the pre-release version and will post my thoughts once I’ve used it for a while.
This one is obvious - I posted frequently for the first half of 2007, and then all but disappeared. I want to blog more, and my final resolution is to do so.
Happy New Year!
Josh Kopelman wrote:
Hi David -
Before you change your home organization and time management systems, you should read “A Perfect Mess.” I read it during the holidays, and found it to be a (somewhat) compelling read.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FPerfect-Mess-Disorder-How-Cluttered-Fly%2Fdp%2F0316114758%3Ftag%3Dslaant-20&ei=BCt6R-C8J5zSeamKmFg&usg=AFQjCNFjzqCCUByAQ_eMH7G1jgBqXIqExQ&sig2=2Yy3nK3CMXxrjAPrAQpCHw
Josh
Posted 01 Jan 2008 at 8:16 am ¶
Brandie Kajino wrote:
A couple things:
1. I completely disagree with the book review. The author of “A Perfect Mess” made a lot of assumptions about organizers and those who want to get organized as a whole that just aren’t true. He overgeneralizes which is always a danger. The one thing I agreed with in the book was that you don’t have to be perfectly organized, or anything else, to be happy. Know yourself and do what works for you - that’s the way to lasting change.
2. Along that line, if you are a “piler”, check out Pendaflex’s Pilesmart line. You can still pile, but well, do it smarter.
Happy New Year!
Posted 01 Jan 2008 at 6:43 pm ¶
Douglas Muth wrote:
I don’t feel so bad for not finishing my copy of Getting Things Done now.
The link to Omnifocus looks interesting. So far I’ve been using a combination of Google Calendar and some hand written(!) “todo” lists at home to manage my personal tasks. Maybe Omnifocus can do the job a little better.
– Doug
Posted 02 Jan 2008 at 11:36 am ¶
Joe Cotellese wrote:
Dave,
I don’t know if you’ve read “the book” yet but I’d like to give you some (unsolicited) GTD pointers.
1) Don’t get wrapped around the axle on what tool to use to implement your system. Paper is fine and a great way to start.
2) Make sure that you do the weekly review. When you read the book, you’ll know what I mean. This is probably the hardest part of GTD because it forces you to block out about an hour a week specifically to think about your projects. However, you can not achieve GTD Zen unless you do this.
Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 9:12 am ¶