Rearden Metal

I’ve been a great fan of Agendus on the palm for a few years now. I loved the enhancements to the built in datebook and contacts that it gave me. Being able to have icons for meetings meant that I could quickly glance at my diary and get an overall view.

But since updating to the version 10 product I’ve had to trade more eye candy and some potentially useful new tools for speed. And this is now getting in the way, and creating a definite psychic resistance.

The litmus test for me has been that a few times now I have deliberately looked at my diary with the built in palm app, as I can no longer stand the 2-5 second delay that Agendus is causing. It’s an irritation and it’s causing me to be less effective.

Apparently I’m not the only one with this complaint…

10.02 Slow Speed Still Exists - iambic Forums

One of the reasons I stick with palm is the instant on, instant go philosophy. I want the ‘turn on, click icon, check info, turn off, get back on with what I was doing’ system, and now Agendus isn’t cutting it.

So I’m on the lookout for a simple icon addition to the palm datebook, or else may even go back to vanilla.

The NY Times recently published an interesting and informative article on Life Hackers which I have been reading via the link on David Allen’s Blog.

It details the research that companies such as Microsoft and Apple are doing to try and find a way for our computers to work in a less distracting way.

One of the lessons I totally agree with was that by using a bigger monitor, and allowing the user to keep a good overall picture of what they’re working on, they are far less knocked back by interruptions.

Also, mention is made of the benefits of simplifying our todo lists and capture methods. So out with the Palm and in with the hipster PDA? There is certainly a convincing argument here, and I am looking at reducing the number of apps that I use to further complicate what should be an effortless system, but for now I want to work towards a single palm based solution.

David Allen: NY Times Mag article today on Life Hackers

I have to admit that up until now I’ve not used a newsgroup reader, instead choosing to read what I want when I wanted it. But Google have now release Google Reader and I can see the attraction.

You add the sites you regularly subscribe to, or if you don’t have the url you can use the ever present searchbox. The page then collects all of the RSS feed data for you.

Once you have a few sites, you can scroll through all of the stories to pick anything that looks interesting using a slider on the left.

Not all sites seem to work correctly yet. I found that one of my favourites moleskinerie does not display the whole post, but you can click to the original story as posted on the site to see everything.

Google Reader

Kathleen Nadeau, Ph.D has written this piece on using a Day Planner in order to plan your life. Although it’s focused towards sufferers of ADD, I’ve found it has some really good reminders for the rest of us.

How many times do you make todo lists in various places, rather than keep disciplined and just have one? I know for sure that I’m guilty of this.

And do you overplan, overcomplicate or over hack your lists, rather than actually get on with the work? Guilty again!!

Using a Day Planner as a Life Planner

This interesting article shows how even Bill Gates manages his email. Just because we can be contacted (interrupted) from our work at any time does not mean that we need to. The tools are supposed to work for us, to make our work more productive, not enslave us to the constant interruption in our planned work. Investing - Gates and Ozzie: How to Escape E-Mail Hell - FORTUNE - Page 3
Gates and Ozzie: How to Escape E-Mail Hell
Microsoft’s top geek and his newest tech guru explain why they love—and hate—e-mail, and how they plan to fix it.

This article by Nathan Womack gives a very brief GTD approach to organising your todo list based upon where you can actually do things. Although I currently use a PalmOne PDA the philosophy behind this method works on any system.

Pocket PC Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

I recently came across this excellent and free GTD application. Although I still prefer to use Lifebalance, for personal reasons, if you want an online ToDo list and Project Manager, tasktoy is certainly worth considering.

Toby Segaran has written a delightful application, with real usefulness and a completely clutter free interface. Very much worth a look at.

tasktoy

We all have bad habits, things we wished we didn’t do. I’m currently working to improve myself in some pretty big ways, and it was while I was thinking that “it is too hard to do this…“, “If I started tomorrow…“, “Just once more and then I’ll stop…“, that I finally got it :-

Firstly, if I keep doing the same thing, I will get the same results. And these results I do not want. If I eat too much and don’t exercise I WILL get fat. If I’m lazy and goof off, I WILL be far less successful. If I act like a jerk towards my sweetheart my relationship WILL suffer. If I do not live to my highest standards I WILL feel that I’m letting myself down.

Secondly, breaking a bad habit, a really ingrained one, is going to be REALLY hard for me. That’s it black and white. Not ‘”quite hard, but you’ll overcome”, not “OK, as you’ll find a short cut, a way to make it enjoyable” blah blah blah, no, IT WILL BE REALLY HARD!

In the short term it is going to cause me some kind of pain. It will not be easy. If it was easy to do, I would have done it a long time ago. I just can’t avoid that. I can’t expect to make great strides in my life without moving waaay out of my comfort zone. I must stop pussyfooting around and thinking for easy fixes, and just admit it, it will be hard - but only for a while.

Michael Jordan used to be in his high school gym even before the teacher. Marathon runners practice until it hurts, and then some more!!

What I need to do is accept the short term pain, face it smack bang head on, stand tall, look it in the eye and say “enough is enough. I stop. NOW.”

I recently created this sketch, to show a really simple, 3 step goal setting tool

Once, I was working in my home office and had to keep getting up to collect papers, folders and other items. I had a box in the passageway that I had to walk around, and every time I passed it, one of the flaps would catch me in the side. Time and time again, I’d get up, walk past the box, get caught by the flap, and get more and more annoyed.

Why do we do this? I know the answer was to simply move the box out of the way, but for a long time I was tolerating something in my space not being right, and this was draining my creative energy.

I have found that at times, I need to remind myself to become intolerant. To look at my desk, and the one single receipt that I have not bothered to file in my in tray. To throw away the pen that doesn’t work, that is still in the pot - you know, the won that we pick up, try to use, fail to get writing with, and then replace only to begin this silly cycle the next time we need to jot down a note.

Is your phone cable all twisted, so that each time you make a call a small part of you curses it?
Have you emptied your in-tray?
How many of your pens don’t actually work?
Is that mark on the window, the one that catches your gaze each time you dream, still there?

What are you tolerating that’s sapping your productivity?