Archive for June, 2005
Back in the bronze age –my high school and university years, to be more specific– I spent a lot of time writing fiction. Just like every other struggling writer (and perhaps those with far more experience), the development of plot and subplot elements within story lines proved to be one of the most intimidating and frustrating parts of the writing process. And, like so many others during that epoch, I turned to index cards. I’d jot down a title like “Man peers down into sewage drain” and then use the rest of the card for details. Afterwards I’d lay out the cards on a large table and shuffle them about till I was satisfied with the progression. Nowadays, I often use outliners for that purpose, but they never felt, well… authentic to me, at least as a writer.
Enter the Writer’s Café, a woefully under-publicised application from a UK husband-and-wife team that seeks to deliver an authentic writing experience in ways other software falls flat. The duo is an interesting couple: Dr. Julian Smart is a fairly well-known software developer, the man behind the cross-platform wxWidgets project, and Harriet Smart is a novelist with several books to her credit. For this product, they combined their respective disciplines to create an application that might prove invaluable –if not essential– to many writers.
Writer’s Café is essentially a suite of writer’s tools. The emphasis is not on word processing –there are too many of those out there already, including the free OpenOffice.org Writer– but rather on the development of ideas and the organisation of material. StoryLines is their equivalent of the index-card-shuffle, and you can create several streams, one for each plot line. You can create detailed content for each card and even add annotations and an image, then export the whole lot to an external file as a report suitable as the basis of a first draft (it even supports OpenOffice.org format). Another application serves as a hub for:
- Keeping a journal
- A “notebook” for writing down your loose ideas and developing them
- Displaying random inspirational quotes the developers have selected (they call them cookies)
- Timing your writing, with optional prompts to kickstart your brain
- Creating simple brainstorming diagrams or collages, with ovals, rectangles, pictures and text interconnected with lines and arrows
- The scrapbook: this is essentially an outliner in which you can organise text, web links, images, collages and shortcuts to files on your hard drive
There are a few other applications, such as WordTiles (like a fridge-magnet poetry tool) and Forty Thieves, a card game to help de-stress. Also included is a 60-page ebook called Fiction: The Facts, which should prove handy to beginning writers, and a catchy theme song by Jay Goldmark called Untie Your Tongue. (Hey, why not?)
So is this for you? Well, it depends. There are a few things I really like about it. First, it’s cross-platform, running on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (which is probably a bigger deal for me than it is for you). Second, it does a great job of creating a nice little self-contained system for writers to develop, research and arrange ideas, plots, locations and characters, even if one’s computer skills are fairly basic. Most things work by dragging and dropping or by simple menu commands. An effort has been made to keep it flexible but user-friendly. Third, I like that it caters to writers and the writer’s mindset… everything is ordered and implemented in such a way to make a writer feel at home, using standard time-honoured nomenclature and techniques. Even the title is meant to evoke this. Fourth, the StoryLines program is definitely a best-of-breed, and I can’t say I’ve seen many comparable pieces of software, at least in terms of helping writers to re-arrange and annotate their plots. (I’m not about to mention the oft-hellish Dramatica here.) Last but not least, the program contains functions that are normally only found in higher-end and more technical applications, albeit here they are far more basic and intuitive (read: less intimidating). Programs like DEVONthink Pro and Visio would scare the pants off many creative writers I know, but Writer’s Café should hit the sweet spot in terms of balancing technical know-how with the need to be productive as a writer.
Downsides? Well, there are a few. Depending on what applications you already use, the Scrapbook and Collage tools can seem rather primitive and a little clunky. Unless you’ve invested time, money and effort into learning other applications, though, you’ll still do fine by these tools. The text tools are another matter, however. I understand that the emphasis is placed upon developing your ideas, and not to recreate a fully-functional word processor, but the lack of certain functions like search/replace are a little frustrating if –for example– you decide to change a character’s name or a location. That being said, you can do a search within the application and replace text manually, or simply export the “report” to your word processor and just change the words there when you begin work on your first draft. The good news is that (according to a post in the forums) improving the text tools is high on the developer’s to-do list.
My only other qualm, and it’s a fairly minor one, is that of aethetics. The cross-platform widgets set seems a little out of place on Mac OS X, and things lack a little of the Aqua “elegance” that many expect from most native applications. Likewise, the application icons seem rather primitive, not at all lickable or even anti-aliased. That being said, Writer’s Café looks quite natural on Windows, and only slightly awkward under Linux. These issues mean little when contrasted against the value of the software, though.
While I probably won’t be giving up my cherished DEVONthink Pro or other professional tools very soon, I can certainly recommend Writer’s Cafe for those writers stuck in the mire of a story going nowhere, or for those trying to get along with only a regular word processor. Many professional writer’s tools –several of which are of inferior quality or hopelessly complex– cost several hundred dollars, so at $45 USD, Writer’s Café is a great deal. StoryLines itself is worth the cost of admission.
If you’re interested, the UK’s Practical PC site has a review of Writer’s Café with screenshots, and of course the Writer’s Cafe website has plenty of information as well as a downloadable demo.
June 30th, 2005
My wife Jennifer Pohl, a well-known artist, has launched her own blog, entitled the space above the couch (very tongue in cheek, no doubt). She’ll be exploring artistic, creative and inspirational matters, and will be posting another of her paintings each week. An online gallery of her work is also on its way. There are many truly beautiful pieces in her body of work, and I hope that others might find them as inspiring as I do.
I love you, darling, and wish you the best of luck with it.
June 29th, 2005
Methods for brainstorming about projects are often hard to implement. Some of them are so needlessly complex that it’s difficult to be creative and free-form with your thinking. Mind-maps (and mind-mapping software like NovaMind and Inspiration) can be useful, but they take some getting used to, and often work best when several people are involved. Others, like the D*I*Y Planner Brainstorming template (basically, an empty grid for note-taking and doodling) are too free-form, and the lack of structure and prompts may do little to help bust your creative blocks.
I’ve decided to take a leaf from Roger van Oech’s book Whack on the Side of the Head, a great book for sparking many types of creativity — I’ve cherished mine for nearly 20 years. He wrote:
Much of our educational system has taught us to look for the one right answer. This approach is fine for some situations, but many of us have a tendancy to stop looking for alternative right answers after the first one has been found. This is unfortunate because often it’s the second, or third, or tenth right answer which is what we need to solve a problem in an innovative way.
He goes on to say that creative genius tends to lurk in the least obvious places, and it’s a shame that we always stop at the first thing that comes to mind, since that only serves to stiffle our imaginations. So what can I do, I pondered, that would force me to think of alternatives? I have a few ideas in development, but I’d like to start by introducing a draft for a new form, which I’m calling (at least temporarily) Crossroads (sorry, 5.5×8.5 only for now). Click on the form at right to download the 2-page PDF file.
So how do you use it?
- First, consider the issue at hand, and summarise this for the Title. The shorter the better. For example, “Publicise technology workshops for volunteers,” “Start club for learning Japanese,” “Fund-raising for Dialysis Machine,” “Start a fitness consultancy,” or “Write department proposal for Q3.”
- The Destination is the objective to keep in mind, and should take into account what would make this a succesful venture. Be succinct.
- In each of the boxes, from 1 to 4, write down a possible path to take. Force yourself to think of four completely different approaches. If you have a lot of ideas, don’t stop there: use another form or a piece of note paper. (Don’t worry about the checkbox items for now.) For example, ideas for publicising a technology workshop might be:
- Newspaper/radio/TV ads
- Fax posters/flyers to volunteer clubs
- Ask service clubs to mention in meetings
- Get churches involved
- In each box, think of a few Checkbox items — essentially actions that would help further develop that path. For example, under “Get churches involved”, you might put:
- Short description of workshop for minister
- Ask for mention after sermon
- Check out clubs, find leaders
- Elderly “wanna-learns”- how?
- Modified curriculum/approach
- Parish newsletters
- Grandparent-teen teams
- etc.
- Look down through your paths. What makes more sense, and what might provide best results per effort required? Decide upon which actions you want to pursue, move them to your Next Actions or Weekly Planning lists. You can either check off the ones you’ve moved, or check off the ones completed (depending on what makes most sense to your system). By the way, nothing is saying that you have to stick to just one box: mix and match. this is for brainstorming, not restricting you.
- When the destination has been achieved (or not, or side-tracked), conduct a mini-review (the Looking Back). I’d suggest –at least when getting started– that you note four things you could have done more effectively, or the four things that worked best. Attach regular note paper if you need the space. A personal review, however short, is not only a good way to keep things in perspective and learn about oneself, but it also helps push creative solutions to the next level.
As I said, this is an early draft of the form, and I would really love to get some feedback. Any takers, please leave a comment below or send me an email (address is at the bottom of the menu at right).
June 28th, 2005
Often we must come full circle –to return to the very beginning– in the efforts to renew ourselves. To do this, the years of rubbish accumulating in our minds need to be emptied periodically, lest we find ourselves with little room to move and breathe.
This is a little post about Zen. I’m not talking about the clichéd trend of recent years to denote every little amusing bit of human nature as Zen, nor the smug satisfaction of thinking one’s excellence in a particular area is Zen, nor am I referring to the misconception tied to the existential angst of nothingness and futility as Zen. These are ridiculous, and only demonstrate one’s ignorance of the philosophy. While I don’t wish to define Zen here (and it defies verbal description anyway), I want to mention an important way it can help folks whose minds are cluttered by years of intellectual analysis. (Well, it helped me.) I’m talking here about the beginner’s mind.
In response to my Simpleton and the Grail post, I’ve gotten a few email like the following, asking exactly how I went about “reducing” my system from one of inherent complexity to one that worked in its simplicity:
You mentioned you’d write about your system later on — but I’m more curious as to how you approached the process of it figuring out. I’ve been productivity tweaking since Jan ‘04 (my first read of GTD ), and have tried all sorts of things. Frustrated, I occasionally engage in the exercise you describe, but always end up more frustrated and muddled than if I’d stuck to my 17-step, 4-system, daily-review process.
What was your mindset? How much time did you devote? How did you pare down to the essentials?
Many people, myself included, get caught up in over-analysing everything. If you’re creating a top-notch piece of software, or a bridge, or a space shuttle, this isn’t a liability, and is often preferable. After all, you want to account for every usage, process and contingency when so much is on the line, when so many people are involved in the equation. To many, the mental challenge is exhilarating, and to see one’s well-ordered and well-thought-out plan being implemented is a far greater reward than simple financial gain. And so, many of us attack every issue in our lives with the same sort of intellectual gusto, thinking that there’s nothing wrong with applying complex flow charts, cutting-edge technologies and detailed quality assurance methods to every proposed solution.
Last summer, I realised I had to do something about my time management problems. I had stretched my days to the limit, I was losing track of bills, I constantly forgot tasks from one hour to the next, and found my stress levels approaching critical. No problem, I thought. I’m an IT professional, and like most of the breed, I’m wont to fantasize about ways of increasing my efficiency using a powerful and systematic series of tools. Having recently finished Getting Things Done, I was inspired to leap into the fray and somehow come up with a technical system that could revolutionalise the time management arena (which –I believe– many of us geeks see as a completely feasible undertaking).
Uh-oh. You see the problem coming, don’t you?
Well, to make a long story short, I got caught in the “must track everything” mindset. I got trapped in a never-ending circle of figuring out the ultimate methodology for containing the ebb and flow of each and every little bit of information, and I involved every tiny byte of technology I could wield, cajole or duct-tape together. Not only was the sheer complexity of the system overwhelming –and thus not likely to be used– but my constant rejigging (including weekly replacements of core applications) meant that nothing was stable or long-lasting enough to be useful. The downward spiral of productivity tweaking wasted my precious time, drained my energy, decimated my efficiency, consistently distracted me, and consequently drove my stress levels to soaring heights.
Fifteen years ago at university, I did a whole lot of soul searching. While things like existentialism, behaviorism and various shamanistic concepts soon staled the neurons and trickled out of my brain, I did find Zen Buddhism interesting enough to pursue. One day this past fall, I was rummaging through my boxes of books and stumbled across a book on the subject (Zen for Beginners, to be exact — an excellent and easy-to-digest introduction). I flipped through it in an amused sort of way, remembering the years of study and meditation, and then it hit me: I needed to leave behind the complexities of my thinking and return to the “beginner’s mind.”
The beginner’s mind is one of clarity unencumbered by the years of ego, rules, social experience, worldly knowledge, bad habits and other baggage that accumulates and weighs us down. It is the original face, the one we each had before we were born. It is primordial, and free of imposition. It heeds no resistance, and is aware only of the natural flow of things.
I released that my biggest problem was trying to contain all the information, constantly trying to shape an unnatural flow as one might attempt to contain or change the course of a river with only one’s bare hands. Time after time, this caused my tension and frustration to build to the point of needing to abandon my fledgeling systems. You see, my cherished systems were the result of my accumulated knowledge and many years’ experience in IT work; they had become a series of intellectual challenges, and not a natural way of looking at or managing my life. I had to leave this mind-clutter and baggage behind, at least temporarily, and forget about my unholy communions of wikis, web-based project management tools, PDAs, server-synced calendars, sitebars, databases and 20-step flowcharts.
But how does one return to the beginning, and forget about technology? Simple: I took out a piece of paper and wrote at the top, “Things I actually need to track and use to be effective”. How very primitive, right? Well, that was the intention.
I started listing only those things I thought I absolutely needed.
“Email”. After all, about 90% of my communication is email. Right-o, not a problem. Gmail has labels and archiving, and I can set up @Action, @WaitingFor, @ProjectName, @Review, and so on. That was easy.
Here, I stopped, though: I decided to make a conscious effort not to think yet about how to manage the information, but just discern what information was needed in the first place. Beginner’s mind, no process yet. Okay, move on.
“Next Actions,” of course. Have to keep on track, keep going forward. “Waiting For,” because I don’t want delegated tasks to stall.
“Calendar Appointments and Deadlines,” since I have to remember to do certain things on certain days. Likewise “Birthdays” and “Anniversaries.”
“Daily news.” I wanted to tote news so I could read it during my lunch hour or in line-ups.
“Contact Info.” “Logins/passwords.” “Car Loan Information.” And so on.
It took about an hour. When I was finished, I was amazed how much information I was trying to track and use that was –in the grand scheme– utterly useless to my productivity. Many of the things I had been trying to contain didn’t even make the first cut. Then I started crossing out everything I didn’t need, and minimising everything I had deployed in multiple formats. For example, why did I need to keep track of daily finances when almost everything appears in my bank statement and online banking? I only needed to track when payments were due. (Onto the calendar they go, then.) Why did I need to have several versions of a contact list, in three different forms? One is enough. Did I really need two ways of tracking projects, and did I really need a web interface for them? Why did I need four different calendar-based ways of keeping time? Did I need to make all my project files text-searchable? Was it necessary to have my IM lists tied into my contact lists?
I put each item in its proper context, attempting to simplify matters as much as possible: I needed the bare essentials only. I went through the list. Cross that out. Nix that. Forget about that. Strike that. Uh-uh, nope. Drop that. No, that isn’t needed. And so on….
I was left with about a dozen things I needed to track and/or use daily. Another Zen precept is based upon the notion of intuitive understanding. I’ve seen enough of my successes and pitfalls to implicitly understand how my flow best works (at least, with a minimum of variables). And so, based upon my list, I could see fairly clearly how to manage my time and information.
The tools were then matched to these necessities. Eventually, it came down to a Palm (for contacts, daily news, MP3s, alarms, encrypted docs, and pictures of the family), my up-and-coming D*I*Y Planner (still in the inaugral stages, but suitable for the calendar, actions, short reference lists, brainstorming and project tracking), and a computer note-taking/reference application (DEVONthink Pro is perfect for containing all my digital dribs and drabs at the moment, though I’m told Zoot is great for Windows users). To that, I’ve now added a Hipster PDA set, mainly for “on the go” errands and the like. The new system was fairly streamlined, and worked well. No resistence anywhere, just a natural flow and an obvious place for everything.
No process is perfect right out of the gate, of course. Thankfully, mine was only incremental from there: small changes –kaizen as the Japanese call it– to continually enhance the flow. For example, I’m integrating a bit more Covey for the top-down thinking, but it still fits with my basic GTD setup.
Step one, simplify to the bare essentials. Step two, seek out the flow of least resistance and effort. Step three, choose the best tools. Step four, simplify some more, and steamline.
For me, I’ve learned that the whole key to my success is in staying away from technology unless it’s absolutely necessary. Ironic, coming from an IT professional, but it saves me from from trying to systematically incorporate everything, attempting to contain too much, giving into the temptation of shiny toys, and subsequently hitting the downward spiral.
There’s something to be said for stripping off the world, facing the mirror as a newborn babe, clear of mind and thought — if only for a moment, before we face worldly matters once more.
June 27th, 2005
After five years of development, NeoOffice/J is finally released. From the announcement (found in a NeoWiki cache):
The goal of NeoOffice/J is to provide an entirely free and complete Mac OS X office suite based on the international OpenOffice.org project — only with the look-and-feel you’d expect from any Macintosh application.
The OpenOffice.org project is a large open-source effort to create the ultimate office “suite” including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing software, and much more. With OpenOffice.org, you can easily import, edit, and exchange files with users of other office programs, such as Microsoft Office or WordPerfect.
I’ve been using OpenOffice(.org) for years on Linux and Windows, and have found it to be perfect for my needs — in fact, it’s my preferred office suite. It’s great to finally have a Mac-native version with full support for all the OS X trimmings. Only downside? This is based on the older –but stable– OOo 1.1.4, while OpenOffice.org is nearing its 2.0 release (due this summer). I hear that the NeoOffice/J team has donated code back to the project to enhance the Mac compatibility, so hopefully this is a sign of good things to come. I do have a feeling that the Mac native version will still lag behind the Linux and Windows versions after 2.0 is released, though.
(BTW, don’t let the Java-based interface scare you. After start-up, it runs at a decent clip even on my G3 400MHz Powerbook.)
June 22nd, 2005
In the past few months, ever since the D*I*Y Planner 2.0 was released, I’ve heard from some very interesting (and often very strange) people who are sharing some ideas about what they want to track in their planners. In all, I have fielded maybe a hundred or so requests for certain types of templates. Some I have provided in one form or another, such as the Contact form for the Hipster PDA Edition, which you’ll probably see in the 3.0 release of the classic kit. Some are so niche that I can’t justify spending much time on them — the Night Watchman log and the Tropical Fish Breeding requests come to mind. And then there are those concerning subjects I know so little about that I cannot create effective templates — the Make-Up Accessoriser, the Carb-Counter, the Ovulation Indexer and certain types of fitness forms are good examples. (My wife will attest to my lack of knowledge –and interest– in make-up, hair products, fashion accessories and anything else that sends my testosterone into a tizzy. And ovulation…! I get confused by our garbage collection schedule!)
Just because I’m not producing templates for these things doesn’t mean that you have to do without your precious diet logs and breeding trackers, though. About 90% of requests that come from the users of the D*I*Y Planner system can probably do just fine with one particular form, the Matrix. (And please, no blue pill / red pill jokes: I’ve heard them all.)
In the classic 5.5×8.5 and A5 ‘Planner kits, the Matrix comes in two versions, portrait and landscape. (There is also a Hipster PDA version.) It is essentially meant for keeping track of tabular data. Herewith, some examples:
- Grade Tracker : Students, why use another agenda when you have a perfectly good planner? Teachers, why do you need to carry around that big heavy red book?
- Book/Tape/CD/etc. Borrowing : What did you borrow, and from whom? To whom did you loan your Greatest Hits of the New Kids on the Block CD? Add a date column for library books, and you’ll always know when you have to return things at a glance.
- Time Sheet : Yes, some of us are accountable for our time, as those boss types keep reminding us. Workdays across the top, times down the left, and job numbers or dockets in the grid. (Or any other way that makes sense for you.)
- Brewer’s Log : Track your batch name, number, start date, starting specific gravity, rack/bottling dates, and ending SG. (I think I’ll create a dedicated version of this later, since I’m back into wine making.)
- Diet Log : Day/date, breakfast calories, lunch calories, and so on, with a totals column at the end.
- Weight Training : Date, types, reps, times, and so on.
- Hobby Logs : What do you do, and how do you track it? If it can be put into a table, mayhaps the Matrix will work for you. Suggestions: Ham Radio Logs; Photographic Info (shot, time, place, f-stop, shutter, etc.); Comic Collection; Old Time Radio episodes; Fish Breeding; Hitchcock DVDs; O(prah) Magazine Collection; The Ultimate Sandwich.
- Cleaning Logs : Which employee or roommate has to clean the toilet next, and when?
- Inventory List : Keep a basic inventory control list for your business or hobby.
- Lottery “System” : Not a joke. I know people that do this: put in the winning numbers to the 6-49 Lottery every week, to see if they can find a pattern. For the pathologically numeric.
- Accounting : Some accountants wrote to thank me for providing this form, although I couldn’t fathom their exact usage. Sounded impressive, though, as anyone managing large sums of money generally are.
- Neighbourhood Watch : What car was parked next door from 10:30 am to 3:00 am last night? Your neighbour’s business is your own. So says the yellow vest and fancy flashlight.
- Writer’s Submissions : What article was sent to whom, and when? Track rejection letters as they trickle in, celebrate publication by supporting your friendly monkey shop.
- Ummm… Ovulation?
Of course, much of this you can do in a spreadsheet or database, and perhaps more effectively. But would it really be as much fun?
Any other ideas?
June 21st, 2005
Update : This set, and many more, are now available free at www.DIYPlanner.com.
Users of the D*I*Y Planner Hipster PDA Edition will note that there are two new diagrams included that were not part of the original D*I*Y Planner kit. I promised I’d make them available for the classic and A5 versions of the kits, and here they are for your downloading pleasure.
The 8-page kit includes the following diagrams, both on odd pages (”fronts”) and even pages (”backs”), so you can choose how you want to print them:
- The original Getting Things Done diagram from the ubiquitous David Allen book (simply resized for your convenience from the original diagram available here), henceforth called GTD-DA
- The GTD advanced workflow diagram by Scott Moehring (scaled from the original available here), henceforth GTD-SM
- My new version of the GTD diagram, including prompts for mind sweeps and the weekly review, which I call GTD-DJ
- My version of a Covey Quick Reference, a summary of the methods from First Things First, which I call Covey-DJ
Two versions are available:
- 5.5″x8.5″ 1-Up - for the “classic” size D*I*Y Planner (half letter-size)
- A5 1-Up - for an A5 size D*I*Y Planner (half A4 size)
There is currently no 2-up version, since this would probably waste a fair amount of ink. If the demand is there, I can certainly provide them.
June 19th, 2005
Well, it’s been about a week since the release of the D*I*Y Planner Hipster PDA Edition, and the feedback has been excellent and very constructive. I’ve also had a few dozen people writing me about how they implemented the Hipster PDA in their own systems, and it’s been some interesting reading. However, there seems to be a disconcerting trend among a few users, and there is one person in particular whose email illustrates it well. Let’s call him Ringo (and I thank him for his permission to post about his situation).
Ringo wrote me a message asking for my opinion about how he might tweak his setup. Normally, my standard reply is “whatever works for you, my friend,” since everybody’s situation is so very different, and I advocate a process of discovery. But this email caught my attention, since it epitomised a number of problems I see emerging among some productivity tweakers.
His GTD-based system involved Outlook, Excel spreadsheets, a wiki, a web-based to-do application, a Palm synced with both Outlook and Palm Desktop, some Perl scripts to import and export CSV and tab-delimited data files to and from various applications, a D*I*Y Planner Day-Timer and a rather thick set of Hipster PDA cards using most of my templates. I won’t get into the details: suffice it to say that the system was detailed in 17 steps, was about three pages long, required carrying a large bag filled with his tools, and done daily. I must say, as I read his email, I could certainly admire his technical abilities and –in certain cases– his ingenuity. His Perl scripts used a number of CPAN libraries to retrieve and post information from his private wiki and prep it for his Palm, and his next stages were to involve Plucker in the mix using some Python scripts and then use pilot-link libraries to import to-do’s and memos into his Palm. Ringo is a part-time CGI programmer, and quite the smart cookie.
Too smart, I think. It seems like all the really smart people (and notably the ones with technical abilities) overcomplicate matters, and make the productivity process far too difficult and inefficient.
I’ve noticed some people are sharing their planning mantras. Here’s mine: simplify.
In the body of Arthurian legends, you’ll find various tales of the Sangraal, the Holy Grail, the sacred cup that once contained the blood of Christ and which possessed the abilities to heal the land and its people of infertility, disease, despair and –some would say– ignorance. The earliest legends had for their central character the knight called Perceval. (Other Arthurians, please forgive my mixing of versions in the effort to make a point here.)
Now, Perceval’s mother wanted to shield her baby from the nasty world outside, from its war-mongerers, its tempting damsels and its enticing evils. She retreated to the Welsh wilderness and raised him there in the wood for 15 years in complete isolation without the benefit of books, visitors or tutelage in outside matters. Then one day, Perceval experiences knights for the first time. He was amazed by the sight of the armored warriors, and in his naivété he couldn’t comprehend that their metal casings weren’t skin. Finally, in the face of a barrage of questions that forever broke open his self-contained little world, his mother gave in, and told Perceval of his noble birthright and knights and kings and chivalry. Perceval, the young fool, pitched some food into a sack and left for the cities, forever leaving behind his weeping mother and the tranquil life of the forest.
The Quest for the Holy Grail was the medieval epitome of the search for excellence. Many great knights, including the great Lancelot du Lac, tried to achieve the magical vessel and failed miserably, for they were flawed in their thoughts or deeds. Eventually, it was Perceval –the naive, the unlearned– who attained it. Despite the powers and techniques and worldly experience of the other knights, it was only Perceval that possessed the one thing that could lead to the Grail. The simpleton’s secret? Focus. While all the other knights spent most of their time jousting in tournaments, chasing damsels, conquering evil knights, sleeping with queens, and sundry other glamorous tasks, Perceval was single-minded upon reaching his objective.
I’ve always thought that the moral of the tale is to keep things as simple as possible and to focus entirely on the desired outcome. I used to be like Ringo, and had some pretty …uhm… “interesting” ideas on how to use technology to tie together my information and organisational methods into a coherent system. I was always questing, but taking my eye off the Grail. There were so many interesting and glamorous diversions in implementing the various tools that I rarely stuck with my procedures long enough to be efficient. Each new side-quest was alluring, filled with the promise of fulfilling the end goal while making my life easier.
It was only last fall that I realised I was in a never-ending spiral of productivity tweaking. I sat down with a blank piece of paper and wrote down the types of information that I needed to use to keep myself productive. The solution was actually far simpler than I would have imagined. Within a day, I had figured out what I had to do. Within a month, I got the bugs out of the system. Six months later, I only make small and incremental changes –which the Japanese call Kaizen– but only if they are simple, effective and focused. (I’ll write about my own productivity methods at a later date, for those who are interested.)
My most important lesson learned: unless it’s simple, I won’t do it, or won’t find it efficient. Simplify.
Update : I’ve written a post concerning how I simplified matters, entitled The Beginner’s Mind.
June 18th, 2005
The past few days, I’ve been waylaid with a bad back, and have had to seriously curtail my computer usage. This has left me rather stir-crazy. It’s difficult to be very productive when you’re lying down and barely able to move. I don’t tend to watch much TV, and my eyes were getting quite tired from too much reading. Thankfully, I had a great way to spend the time, and one that requires little or no money: Old Time Radio. Read on if you’re interested in trying something that puts most audio books to shame.
Back in the days B.C. (Before Cable), over 25 years ago, I had a little treasure. My father, who had grown up in the late 1930’s and the 40’s, had often waxed sentimental about the radio shows he had heard as a kid. The mere mention of the Lone Ranger, The Shadow, Jack Benny, Amos and Andy, and The Green Hornet would send him drifting back to his youth. In the late 1970’s, when I was still in elementary school, he came across a magazine ad from a company called Radio Reruns that produced cassette tapes with classic episodes of the old series. The selection seemed huge at the time: there were about 100 for sale. He ordered a dozen, and when they arrived, we sat down with my clunky Tandy tape recorder (you’ve seen the type gathering dust in pawn shops, each one the better part of a shoebox in size) and listened to each one in turn. It was one of the few times we had ever really bonded. I had never heard of the shows, but The Shadow, Inner Sanctum, Suspense, and the others captured my imagination like nothing else up to that time. In the following years, I heard them each a hundred times or more, and I knew every line by rote.
A few years ago, Dad asked me if I could jump on the Internet and find out the names of the actors that played The Shadow (I think a Jeopardy question got the gears of his mind churning). Sure enough, I found a list of the half-dozen actors, but I found much more besides: a whole community that pursues the hobby of OTR (Old Time Radio) in the efforts to preserve both the pleasures and the recordings of the almost-extinct medium. Within a few days, I was able to track down almost every existing Shadow broadcast in MP3 form. After listening to a few of them, the fever had started, and I branched out to collecting the great old horror/thrillers like Inner Sanctum, Quiet Please, Suspense and The Whistler. From there, I started collecting classic science fiction like Dimension X and X Minus One (many episodes of which were top-notch dramatisations of stories by Bradbury, Asimov, Pohl and Heinlein). Then there were the various versions of Sherlock Holmes and other mystery shows. And so on, and so on, and so on. In all, over a few years, I collected over 3000 shows of almost every type and quality. I sent many back to Dad, burnt onto CD’s, and hopefully it awakened a few pleasant memories before he passed away.
Nowadays I always keep a few radio shows on my Palm to listen to, as the mood strikes. When people ask me if I know any good audiobooks to toss on an MP3 player, I never hesitate to send along a few shows. True, the ownership of the copyrights is is rather murky, with few people in agreement, but this has never been an issue for me. Regardless, the shows are easy enough to find if you look hard enough.
It was only a matter of time before a group stepped forward to ready these shows for podcasts. Radio Memories offers several shows a week, covering a number of various genres. If streaming radio is your thing, Live365 has quite a number of OTR choices in their directory. If you want to sample a series, see the amazing list of shows at OTRCat: each one has a free episode for download. (The price of his MP3 CDs are hard to beat –as little as 5 cents a show– and it’s a heck of a lot easier than tracking down individual shows for download.)
As you might expect the sound quality of radio shows from the 30’s to 50’s is quite variable. The ones that have come down to us on E.T.’s (electronic transcriptions, like really big vinyl records) are generally excellent, while the ones recorded from radios onto reel-t0-reel tape are… um, less excellent. The volume drops and static are quite authentic, and –if you hear it in this light– can take you back in time. The quality of the shows’ content can be just as variable. Some are quite tepid compared to today’s radio offerings, and there are instances that are far from political correctness. It’s important to see the shows in the context of the time. This isn’t to say that there aren’t quite a number of great series available for your listening pleasure, no matter what your interests.
Probably the most famous broadcast is Orson Welles’ production of War of the Worlds, as first heard on the Mercury Theatre on the Air, October 30, 1938. This broadcast allegedly caused mass hysteria among the populace that tuned in, because many believed that the drama was actually a real news broadcast covering an invasion from Mars. If you haven’t yet heard this historic show, pop on over to OTRCat and download yourself a copy (look for the little radio mid-page). It’s a lot of fun, and a great introduction to OTR.
When you listen to these, be sure to sit in a quiet room, turn up the volume, close your eyes, and fall deeply into the broadcast. Listen to a show like Quiet Please (and especially The Thing on the Fourble Board) in a dark room in the dead of night, and I guarantee you an experience like none other.
June 16th, 2005
If you can read this, please note that there may be some wonkiness with DNS (and therefore finding this site) over the next few days while my registration is being transferred.
Thanks for your patience.
June 16th, 2005
I love the DIY spirit. People have been taking the classic and Hipster PDA versions of the D*I*Y Planner sets and doing some amazing things with them. For example, I’ve heard of some people using the graphics versions of the card to produce pages for pocket size planners (among other sizes), some have been colour-coding their pages, some have added dates and pictures to their calendars, others have been translating the PDFs into other languages, and then there’s this: SVG Planner - D*I*Y Planner cards you can tweak yourself. It uses the ‘Planner look and feel, but the cards are redone in SVG format. SVG is an open graphics format that uses XML for “describing” the shapes and contents. Theoretically, that means that one can use a simple text editor (or a not-so-simple one: Chris uses Emacs) to edit the file, modify things, or add one’s own content. This is brilliant, in my opinion. If you have your actions or calendar events in an electronic format, they could (eventually) be imported into the cards for easy printing. It might make an ideal bridge over the paper and digital divide. Right now you have to be a techie to do much with them, but that will soon change, it seems.
Says Chris:
I’ve taken the step of reimplementing a few of the D*I*Y Planner cards in a 3×5 SVG format. This allows those with a little knowledge of SVG to be able to endlessly tweak the formatting of your printed index cards to your liking.
Future plans include more cards, and a web application to produce PNG cards from SVG automatically, allowing you to specify the exact dimensions, colours and proportions you want from a web form. Ultimately I want to include the ability to add a list of tasks and appointments to be included in the printout…
I should mention that his project is a “licensed derivative” under the Creative Commons license chosen for the D*I*Y Planner, and so has my continued support and enthusiasm. The SVG Planner has a lot of potential, and I wish Chris all the best in his efforts.
He redesigned some cards using only Emacs? Incredible!
June 15th, 2005
From a link left within the comments, I found a collection of Hipster PDA templates like none other. John Norris has produced a set that breaks all the rules, and he includes a music staff, a few games to get the mind in motion (or forestall your Next Actions), a morse code cheat sheet, a sundial (no doubt to help manage your time), and even a star chart. It’s probably not for everybody, since there’s some serious right-brain activity happening there, but I find it a lot of fun. Mine looks positively boring in comparison.
Regardless of how it may –or may not– boost your productivity, there’s something to be said for breaking past the borders of conventional thinking, and John has done this admirably. And you’ll never know when his semaphore chart will come in handy….
June 15th, 2005
First, I just wanted to thank Merlin Mann over at 43 Folders. It was an honour and a privilege to contribute an article to the mothership of productivity fans, geeks and gurus.
However, there’s something I wanted to mention here that really didn’t fit into the article, especially since I’ve received quite a number of thoughtful emails on the subject: how the new D*I*Y Planner Hipster PDA Edition contrasts with the original concept. As Merlin conceived it, the power of the Hipster PDA was in its elegant simplicity: it was simply a few cards, a clip and a pen. Jot down your actions, your appointments, and a few notes. Done. And, lo — it was a thing of beauty. The only problem is that beauty is still very much in the eye of the beholder, even when it concerns a matter as mundane as time management.
Going back through the 300+ requests for this kit, I see two important (and yet beautiful) themes emerging: structure and choice.
I’ve mentioned structure already in the 43 Folders article. Some people like to have prompts for thinking and exploration (e.g., on the Project form, there’s a space for “Objective,” which tends to slip our minds all too frequently). Some people like everything to be in its proper and pre-defined place — think about how you organise your dresser, and what clothes go in which drawer and how you fold them. Some people experience life as a puzzle with ill-fitting pieces of chaos, and need to impose order to see the bigger picture. Part of the eternal quest of any productivity tweaker is in implementing structure, and many wish that this was inherent in the tools themselves.
But I see choice as the guiding principle behind all the D*I*Y Planner kits and templates. It is impossible for every person on earth to effectively use the same time management system. A “classic” D*I*Y Planner may work for you, or GTD using a Palm, or a set of index card boxes, or Outlook running DavidCo/Covey add-ons, or a large spinning wheel with tasks and prizes. My day, my life, is different from yours: why should I dictate the best way to organise your time?
The way I see it, the more choices we have, the better the chances of discovering one’s perfect system. True, some folks –perhaps most– could no doubt use the original Hipster PDA to its best effect. But the new ‘Planner kit is there simply to provide a wider array of choices to augment the system wherever necessary. One does not need to use the whole kit, and frankly I would be shocked if you did. But you might want to set up a monthly calendar, or a Next Actions list you can check off, or an Agenda for certain people and meetings, or a yearly calendar, or even a reference card (either GTD or Covey) to trigger an effective planning/review process. Any tweaker will soon discover the gaps in his or her system, and if there are cards to help eliminate those gaps, that’s great. This kit is meant to give you a few more options, ones that can be modified as necessary to suit your specific situation. One card might be handy, as could twenty. Or none at all.
To be honest, I began to create this new set simply because so many people asked me for it. In the end, though, I found that it provided me with more structure and choice for my own daily kit. Of course, I still carry around some blank cards and paper. That’s my choice, and a free-form (read: unstructured) option that works for me.
Your life will demand different structure, different choices. And that’s fine, too.
June 14th, 2005
Update : This set, and many more, are now available free at www.DIYPlanner.com. If you want the (much, much better) version 3 set, please jump directly to the D*I*Y Planner 3 Hipster PDA Edition.
The escape was carefully orchestrated. Congo made sure the coast was clear, Bonzo distracted me with his endearing rendition of Polonius’ farewell speech to Laertes, Pierre engaged my wife with the latest Daniel Smith artists’ catalogue, and Polly constructed the electromagnet that attracted the key to the cage from atop the bookshelf. They waited till after midnight, then opened the padlock and quietly crept to the Mac to get to work.
This morning I found the fruits of their labour, stacked neatly in a small pile atop the printer.
I’m hereby pleased to announce the release of the much-requested D*I*Y Planner 2 Hipster PDA Edition, a series of 34 organisational and planning templates designed for printing onto index cards (a.k.a., the Hipster PDA). These are a subset of the regular D*I*Y Planner forms, re-designed for the smaller size, and may be used either in conjunction with the full kit or as a stand-alone system. Although chiefly inspired by David Allen’s Getting Things Done, an emphasis has been placed upon tweakability and multiple methodologies. The package includes:
- A cover, including an “if lost, please return to” form
- A Getting Things Done Quick Reference Card, including a flow chart, a weekly review list, and a list of “Stuff” (TM, patent pending)
- A Covey Planning Quick Reference Card, including salient summaries from First Things First
- Yearly calendars for 2005 and 2006
- Three variations on the monthly calendar, both horizontal and vertical
- A weekly calendar
- Day Keeper, a daily time management form, with timed and untimed versions
- More Day Keeper forms, with areas for actions
- A “GTD All-In-One” with Next Actions, Waiting For and Notes areas
- Separate full-size Next Actions and Waiting For templates
- Agenda cards for people or meetings
- Someday/Maybe project and quick-list forms
- Single- and double-line ToDo forms
- Covey Roles and Covey Quadrant, for the top-down fans
- Basic Project and Checklist templates
- Shopping and Finances forms
- Notes templates in lined and grid versions
- Matrix, a form for writing or tracking tabular data (exercise/fitness logs, calorie counting, grades, borrowed library books, budget items, etc.)
- A basic Contacts template, four to a sheet
- Instructions for printing, cutting, modifying, troubleshooting, etc.
This edition is available in three different packages. Please read the descriptions to determine which one you need.
- 1-Up Version
- This PDF package is for printing directly onto index cards. You will need the correct size and weight paper, as well as a printer that can handle 1/8 inch margins. (Many printers only have 1/4 inch margins, and will clip the edges of the forms.)
- 4-Up Version
- This PDF package is for printing four adjacent cards onto regular letter-size (or A4) card stock, then cut using a guillotine or scissors. If you can’t print onto regular index cards without clipping, this is probably your best option. (This is the package I personally use, and it works perfectly with a decent guillotine.)
- Graphics Version
- This package contains all 34 templates as graphic files (8-bit PNGs, to be exact). Choose this version if you want to use your own layout program, if you want to modify the forms in any way (including changing colours, margins or text), if you want to use your own preforated forms, or if you experience problems using the above PDF files with your printer. The graphics may be edited in any standard graphics application, like Photoshop or The Gimp (which is free), and layout can be done in OpenOffice Draw (free), Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Publisher, CorelDRAW or any number of other publishing programs. (See the accompanying instruction file for tips and license details.)
I would ask that you read the accompanying documentation before sending along any questions or complaints: I’ve tried to address most formatting and printing-related issues therein.
Many thanks go out to all the D*I*Y Planner users who have provided valuable feedback over the past year, as well as to the uber-productivity mavens of the 43 Folders Google Group, whose advice has been beyond compare.
Feedback, as always, is much appreciated.
Update 1: Photo Release Kit add-on
Update 2: Job Tracker add-on
June 11th, 2005
One of the things I wanted for the hipsterPDA Edition of the D*I*Y Planner kit is a nice little GTD diagram that fits on a “Quick Reference” index card. Unfortunately, the original is almost completely unreadable when shrunk down to that size, unless you possess a very good printer and happen to be a gerbil.
Although there are quite a few Getting Thing Done flowcharts floating around, I decided to produce one of my own, since I can then control the sizing of all the elements –including the text– and I don’t have to worry about dealing with multiple layers of intellectual property (one is enough).
You can click on the thumbnail at right to see a larger version of the reference card I’m working on. It’s not finished yet, but it gives you an idea of where I’m going. I’m trying to get away from the whole “intricate flow chart” concept, and stay a little more with the spirit of the original –hence some of the comfortable but cheesy design elements. The one thing I did fix up was the flow around “What’s the next action?” since the book’s version has always been bothersome to me. (Those items should be or processes, not a series of then.)
Any GTD gurus out there care to send along any feedback, suggestions or complaints?
PS: Before anyone asks, this template will also be made available in other sizes, like 5.5×8.5 and A5.
Update : A polished version of this is available in the Hipster PDA Edition, and now contains a weekly review list and a prompts for emptying your brain. Which is nowhere as painful as it sounds.
June 8th, 2005
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