Archive for February, 2005
Ah, ’tis a wonderful accessory for your planner that allows you to read the great literary classics in two pages or less. Save yet more time in your busy schedule. FranklinCovey: Compact Classics Book Summaries:
Compact Classics’ 130 book summaries — with works ranging from To Kill a Mockingbird to The Road Less Traveled — are just right for leisure reading. These summaries, coupled with an additional 90 research overviews, make for great reading — wherever you love to read.
The English teacher trapped inside me is very sad….
February 8th, 2005
It comes as no surprise to anyone following the whole 43folders-style quest for life tweaks that there seems to be a resurgence in paper-based organisational products. See Merlin’s canonical Introducing the Hipster PDA (follow-up), my own DIY Planner, Scott “Jerry” Lawrence’s Hipster designs, Moleskine notebooks (link & link), and now Mark Berstein’s Tinderbox Cards (he would be the so-intelligent- he-must-be- an-alien-lifeform creator of Eastgate’s wonderful Tinderbox information management tool).
I have to wonder about what might be the reasons for the current infatuation with paper, especially those pieces of paper with semi-structured forms for inputting your information.
Is it portability? If you look at my Palm Tungsten E and at my DayRunner, you’ll know which is more portable. Even a pack of Hipster PDA index cards can’t compete with the size of a Palm.
Is it fear of technology? No, not for most. True, there are some people who have never jumped atop the digital bandwagon, but this new millenium is seeing most of them either dying out or reluctantly edging into modern technology. However, a majority of people who have recently taken up paper-based planning with a vengeance are those people for whom computers are a way of life.
Is it ease of sharing or storing information? Nope. You can’t “sync” paper, although you can always photocopy pages at your local library or office supply store. And have you ever had to “search” a full filing cabinet for that little stray snippet of text you need?
Is it a failure of technology to keep abreast of personal information? That would be far-fetched. There are a million-and-one ways to organise your data. PDAs, TabletPCs, Outlook, Evolution, iCal, groupware, wikis, Tinderbox, DevonThink, OneNote, or even Emacs can all categorise and structure almost any sort of data you can produce. If anything, there are too many options (hence the inherent and endless “tweakability” of solutions).
Is it cost? I don’t think so. A lot of people seem to have switched from PDAs and computers to paper, and frankly, you can get them dirt-cheap anyways. (I saw a base-level Palm at a local Wal-Mart the other day for about $55 USD.) DayRunners and Day Timers can be expensive, and buying paper, ink cartridges and other supplies can get a little pricey in the long run. Plus, people seem to be fascinated with purchasing $20-80 pens for their systems.
So what is it?
Pure and simple, I think the keyword is intimacy.
Try and curl up with a TabletPC, laptop or PDA for a few hours. Your eyes hurt, the hard shape is awkward, you’re constantly checking for remaining battery time (or juggling a cord), and –despite this day and age– it’s not easy to build any sort of bond or connection to a machine, especially ones so transitory and mass-produced.
However, pick up a nice little leather-bound journal, grab a smoothly-writing pen, and all of a sudden, things become sensual. There is no hunk of metal, plastic and wires acting as an intermediary, nor is there any intimation of data being temporary. What you write on paper is immediately there, forever, and the flow of thought and creativity knows no middle-man: the connection is personal, free-flowing, spontaneous, and free of modern-day digital “interpretation”. You write, sketch, doodle, draw lines and circles, add stars, and otherwise feel the flow of ink laid smooth upon the grain of the paper. It’s a throw-back to another time, and we might just as well be our great-grandparents writing by nib pen and inkwell alongside the dim glow of a candle. For once, we can abandon our reliance on modern technology, and experience a connection with our innermost spirit, letting it roam free upon a page. All of this, and much more, heightens our sense of intimacy with the paper before us.
I realise that this seems a little strange to most people recently immersed into the realm of computers, PDAs and PIMs. After all, aren’t we just doing things the old-fashioned, inefficient way? And then there are those folks for whom the digital domain is all-consuming, leaving no fuel nor inclination to pursue anything as backward as paper.
But –I think– there are many of us who have been forging technology to our sundry needs for years, and now realise that something is indeed missing. For a few of us, this something is as fundamentally simple as scribing our schedules, our ideas, our idle thoughts, our lists, our daily dramas and even our dreams upon pieces of paper. In the same we can feel more for a photograph than for an image on a screen, these intimate, well-worn and sometimes messy little scraps will be cherished long after the phosphor of our screens has faded.
February 7th, 2005
The Net is a cool place to hang out. In many ways, it’s like those times when you wish you could be a fly on the way, and listen to what others are saying about you and the things that matter to you. People speak more freely about so many things, not thinking for a second that the object of their discussion is actually listening to what they say.
And so it is with my little sojourn into some discussion forums and other blogs mentioning my DIY Planner. Some of the rather negative mail I received the other day piqued my curiosity, so while I was wolfing down some lunch, I started doing a little searching and browsing, and tripped across a few interesting posts concerning some pros and cons of the system. It seems well-received, overall, and most people’s beefs seem to be connected with the absence of different paper sizes. However, I did trip across two other issues that I’d like to address here.
The first concerns that fact that my planner system does not adhere to GTD in its strictest implementation. In other words, all the various little bits of Allen’s book do not have a direct counterpart in my templates, and there are even parts that veer away from GTD, such as the Covey Quadrant. The second issue is that a few people see my forms as too rigid, while others lament too much rigidity and wish for more structure. Both of these issues are a direct consequence of certain design decisions I made while creating the forms, and these were not made lightly: they are the products either of practical experience or long periods of thoughtful consideration. (Most of these forms were created and used over a period of two to three years before I decided to release them to the public.)
Here is my ultimate goal: to produce a set of templates that, while in essence based upon Getting Things Done, provide enough flexibility and customisable options to be of use for many different organisational methodologies and situations. This is not easy. If you pay attention to the discussions on 43 Folders (including the great Google Group), any of the other GTD-related discussion groups, the nice folks over at OfficeZealot’s GTD Zone, or any of the other numerous blogs devoted to this subject, you’ll find a million opinions about how to do things. And that’s only one organisational approach! (It’s almost like how numerous religions, denominations and sects interpret the information in the Bible, as far-fetched as that comparison initially sounds.) Many people who have fallen head-first into GTD are organisational geeks that love endless tweaking in the pursuit of productivity (a seeming paradox, to be sure 
). And who am I to restrict their opinions and metholodogies?
It’s a long and slippery tightrope to walk. The best I can do is to provide a wide array of templates that can be used (or not used, as the case may be) however the person sees fit. The fields in the forms are sometimes intentionally vague, and sometimes provide room for information that might not be pertinent to a given situation, but they are simply prompts, and nothing else. Use whatever makes sense for you, and ignore or rename the rest.
When things are based upon my strong experience in an area, such as project management and web development, I feel I can create more specific templates. When it’s a “soft” area with a great degree of subjectivity, like “Objectives” or “Someday/Maybe”, then the templates are –by necessity– less specific. When Allen is specific enough in the book that I can interpret the need for certain fields, I am always sure to include them. Likewise with other methodologies, such as Covey’s, where there is an obvious potential for building more options into the system for those people who want to avail themselves of them. (The recent addition of “Goal Planning” is a good example.) Finally, I do try, whenever possible, to take into account the feedback of others, and this too has proved invaluable in the fine-tuning of the system.
Just wanted to get some of that out in the open. I only spend about 15 minutes a day working on these templates, and another 15 minutes creating entries on this blog. (Both of these are self-imposed time limits to ensure that I get around to doing those things I’m actually paid to do.) Because of my current lack of time, I can’t always participate in the forums and discussion lists that I love, but I still wanted to address those people who have mentioned the above issues in their posts. As usual, I’m happy to take into consideration any suggestions, additions or modifications for the DIY Planner. After all, I only know what I use it for, and you probably have some very different needs that I might like to address in future versions.
February 5th, 2005
If you’re anything like me (and hopefully, you’re not), it’s often far more convenient to store receipts in your left-hand pants pocket, and once a month, you take out a handful of shredded and highly illegible paper scraps to stick in a drawer somewhere. I do have a nice little receipts envelope for my DayRunner, but I only have one, and I’m loathe to actually write on or otherwise use it, lest my pristine copy be sullied once and for all.
So, in my ongoing curiosity to see how far organisational geeks like myself can be pushed to do strange things in the name of do-it-yourselfness, I’d like to share with you the draft of my new receipts template.
And why is this so strange, you might ask? Well, grab your scissors and favourite adhesive (chewing gum does not count), because this template actually requires you to do cutting, folding and gluing. It’s rather like the projects I remember doing in kindergarten and elementary school. Once you get over the initial embarrassment of not being able to cut exactly on the lines, it’s actually quite fun. See the little diagram below for how it should be cut (the red areas should be cut away). Fold along the obvious dotted lines, and you’re all set.
A few quick notes:
- You should use a slightly heavier stock for the envelope. Standard inkjet/laser paper is too flimsy, and card stock is way too heavy: find something in between, if you can.
- I’ d recommend a waxy-style stick glue. Liquid glue is fairly messy, and will probably warp your paper.
- If you flip over the envelope, you’ll see a little crosshairs. This is where your centre hole should be punched, vertically. (In other words, feed the envelope in so that the middle punch lines up with the crosshairs.) The envelope won’t take up a full page in height or width, but it should still fit nicely in most 5.5″x8.5″ planners.
- The template requires very precise cutting. Err on the side of cutting slightly inside the lines, and it should still work fine.
This is only a draft. As usual, any feedback is welcome. (Yes, I will be getting around to releasing A5 versions of this too.)
February 4th, 2005
Once upon a time, like many dutiful Mac users, I subscribed to Apple’s .Mac service. It gave me an webmail-enabled email address, a place to host a webpage with the option of Apple-designed templates, a feeling of belonging to the Mac community, a free virus checker, the occasional freebie app or game, a way to synchronise iCal calendars and Safari bookmarks among multiple computers, and a tediously slow, buggy and so-small-it’s-useless backup solution.
Although I’m sure this is still a great service for many people, I no longer need it. I have Gmail for my mail, a webserver completely under my control (with PHP, Perl, MySQL and tonnes of other goodies), my own templates and webpages (Apple’s were pretty limiting, IMHO), no Mac viruses that I’ve ever seen or even heard of, and a much better back-up solution involving both server syncs and physical backup to CDs.
Now, the sharp-eyed will notice a few holes still remaining. Freebie apps and games aren’t really an issue for me, as I have all the software I need, chiefly from the Open Source community. The “sense of belonging” is also no longer a big deal, as I’ve gotten over my Mac fetish (although I still use my Macs for most of my work). The SpyMac community is great, if you’re into that sort of thing. They also provide 1 Gb of webmail (with POP3 access for regular email clients), homepage hosting, blogs, forum tools, an “iDisk” (WebDAV storage), a gallery, an online calendar/todo system, and more. Great stuff, even if it’s a little slow and graphics-intensive sometimes. (By the way, there’s nothing saying these tools are designed only for Macs: they work just as well on Windows or Linux.)
It’s the bookmark and calendar synchronisation that’s often the killer for people with multiple machines.
The calendar issue is easily solved. Many clients allow sharing calendar info through FTP or WebDAV on a server somewhere (such as on SpyMac, if you don’t have access to another server). Mozilla Calendar –and its up-and-coming standalone application, Sunbird– is perfect for this sort of thing. The extension will install in Mozilla, Firefox or Thunderbird, and you can tell it to “publish”, i.e., synchronise, with the server by setting your URL, login and password in its preferences. You can do this over multiple machines and operating systems, and never be out of sync with your calendar.
The bookmarks problem is another issue entirely, however. There have been a number of kludges. For example, you can use del.icio.us and Foxylicious to share bookmarks, but the whole tag-as-folder thing is rather messy. SiteBar with the Firefox extension is not bad, but it requires a web-based sidebar, and it’s not easy to easily re-arrange or manage your marks. And there are a few other similar projects, but none of them are as easy as simply setting your native bookmarks to share among multiple computers, locations and OSes. I hear tell that roaming bookmarks, as it’s sometimes called, is something slated for Mozilla & Co. again (it has been included in past versions, albeit incomplete and buggy), but now there’s finally an easy-to-use Firefox extension that “just works”.
Bookmarks Synchronizer, by Torisugari, will sync with an XML file it creates on a server. Go into your preferences, fill in your server info, set your options (such as automatically syncing upon starting and exiting your browser), and you’re good to go.
Now, if only I’d get off my behind and implement a way of sharing contacts among my Thunderbird clients, I’ll be all set. Hmm… and then there’s the Palm Pilot synchronisation thing with Mozilla I’ve yet to try. And then there’s groupware to set up. And the wiki for….
Argh. Too many toys, not enough time. Well, at least that’s my bookmarks taken care of.
February 3rd, 2005
Just took a glance at my webserver statistics. My, how times change. Before I released the DIY Planner package, the operating system stats were roughly 60% MacOS, 30% Windows, and 10% Linux. Now, it’s roughly 83% Windows, 8% MacOS, 8% Linux, and a few BSD and OS/2 boxes for spare change. (Oh, dear… I wonder how long I can go without offending the majority of my readers. ) Meanwhile, the average daily hit has gone up from roughly 500 a day to just under 10,000.
One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is the whole “technology early adopter” audience for the site, if Firefox is any indication. The Mozilla family usage is three times that of Internet Explorer, and that’s not even counting all the spambots that generally disguise themselves as IE.
And to the lone wolf running command-line Lynx on the unfortunately-named “BoogerOS”, I salute you!
February 2nd, 2005
Hmm… I’m linked from Jeff Sandquist’s fledgeling GTD wiki, which I truly hope grows into a big community-driven effort. Heaven knows, a lot of people out there have enough information and opinions to contribute.
If this is your first time here, folks, I want to extend you a hearty welcome. If my server stats are any indication, you’re probably here mainly for the GTD-based Do-It-Yourself Planner. You’ll always find the link to the most current DIY Planner in the menu at right. In a nutshell, it’s a series of PDF templates (and instructions) for 5.5″x8.5″ paper planners like the DayRunner or Day Timer, based mainly on Getting Things Done methodologies, albeit with a bunch of extras thrown in for a wide degree of customisation. It’s released under a Creative Commons license, which means it’s free for you to download and use, so –as we say here in Newfoundland– go fill yer boots.
February 2nd, 2005
I’ve been squirrelling away a few minutes here and here to do a little work on the DIY Planner forms, mainly those ones for which I have an immediate need. Since I’ve received so much helpful feedback in the past, and since there are so many of you using the system (at least, so I hear), I figured that I’d give you a peek at some of the new forms in development.
In this 8-page PDF file, you’ll find some new project management forms (I’ve broken the old project form into “Details” and a more concise “Outline”), a Goal Planning form (a la Covey, but certainly compatible with GTD, IMHO), and … *ahem*… a Job Search form. (Anyone need an educational technologist? ) Please give them a whirl, and let me know if you have any suggestions before these get put into the DIY Planner 2.0 package.
Astute PDFophiles will note that this is actually a 5.5×8.5″ file. I’m making a little change to the methodology. Since many people have access to blank, punch-holed paper this size already (it’s found in most office supply stores, at least in North America), I thought I’d now produce the PDFs to this dimension. If you can’t find this paper size, then just use the guillotine to chop regular letter-size in half before putting them in your printer. Make sure you tell Acrobat not to resize, centre or rotate, and they should print fine (that is, assuming you have the paper lined up correctly). The new paper size has the added bonus of making it easier for me to slightly resize the templates and pump out v.2 forms as A5 for you dear folks in the rest of the world.
Okay, time for a little related rant. I have a Canon i350 printer, and I’ve been quite happy with this inexpensive little workhorse. But printing onto the aforementioned punch-holed paper is a major problem. If the paper descends into the roller at all, then it tears. The problem? Exactly where punch-holed paper has its holes (letter size or 5.5×8.5″), there is a little upwards-facing “hook” used to press the paper against the roller. The holes therefore catch onto this hook. Why, oh why, did Canon make such a sloppy mistake in the positioning of these stabilisers? A quarter inch to the left, and there would be no problem at all — I’m sure that the paper would be just as stable. Or, they could have changed the form or width of the hook to prevent catching. Instead, they’ve made this a major problem for anybody using paper with punch-holes. I’m sure I’m not the only one facing this problem. Anybody using the other Canon iXXX printers notice the same design flaw?
So, it turns out that I’m one of those people who have to chop paper in half using the guillotine just to print 5.5×8.5″, and then I have to hole-punch the printed forms afterwards. This, despite having a rather large pack of nicely pre-punched paper at just the right size. Oh well….
Any comments or suggestions regarding these new forms, please leave a comment or drop me an email. I’d love to hear what you folks think.
February 1st, 2005
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