I read Getting Things Done last March during an incredibly stressful period. It resonated with me deeply. I read it, memorized the flowchart, listened to it in audio book format, then listened to the podcasts, several of them upwards of 5–6 times. They are so helpful. Since then I have listened to the GTD CD’s, and read most of David’s other two books.

My wife and I operate on a whole new level of stress-free productivity. Since this spring we have been free of nondescript paper piles in our kitchen, and we are able to manage the “business of life” far more efficiently, so that when we are together we are able to focus on each other and our family. It is an incredible feeling! I think I’ve “sold” almost thirty copies of Getting Things Done to family and friends so far. I probably quote David a little too often—as my family, friends, and staff would tell you.

My wife and I have five children, I own a business (a dental practice), teach in the music department at a local university on Fridays, and play with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir weekly. So it’s a busy life with many areas of focus.

Next step: a live seminar. Maybe 2012. With all of this said, the GTD journey is only beginning for my wife and me. We are anxious to continue learning David’s methodology (on the habitual level), which just takes time. We are discovering that GTD is a way of thinking, and that it gives a way to teach our kids a level of self-management that we never knew. I think it is going to take at least another 18 months to really get to where we are doing that effectively.

Hope you don’t mind the biographical details. I am so genuinely thrilled to have found David’s work. Perhaps I can thank him personally at some point. Best wishes for future success with the David Allen company.

- Barry Hillam

Related articles

• GTD Times: GTD and Goal Setting (gtdtimes.com)
• Tactics on Thursday; Getting Things Done [GTD] and content marketing (e1evation.com)
• GTD Times: What makes a good business book? (gtdtimes.com)

Please share your thoughts and/or responses to this topic by leaving a comment.

While I really like MindMapping and use it in the office very often using iMindMap software, I want to concentrate only on one ascpet today: Pen and Paper.

As follower of my blog you know I am using Moleskine notebooks for several topics, so it’s obvious that I want to share this aspect with you.

Let’s get started then.

Pen and Paper

To keep students from surfing around during class and force them to actually pay attention, some professors are starting to ban the use of laptops during their classes. If you find yourself in one of these classes, you’ll need to use the note-taking tools your dad and grandpa used: good old fashioned pen and paper.

Even if your professor doesn’t ban laptops, there are some classes where it’s actually better to take notes by hand. Classes that are heavy on numbers, equations, and formulas–calculus, chemistry, physics, economics, symbolic logic, etc.–are best suited for handwritten notes. It’s just too hard to type out that sort of stuff with a keyboard. I also found that pen and paper works best for language classes. Oftentimes you’ll be copying down conjugation tables from the blackboard, and handwriting these are easier than typing them.

Notebook for each class. Have a separate notebook for each class. It keeps things organized. Plus, if you keep all of your classes’ notes in the same notebook and you lose that notebook, you’re pretty much SOL.

Write clearly. If you’re going to handwrite your notes, make sure you can read them later. PenMANship. It’s got the word “man” in it, so it’s manly.

Before the Lecture: Prepare for Effective Note-Taking

Do the assigned reading. The best way to prepare for class is simply doing the assigned reading. Being familiar with the material will better enable you to understand the professor’s lecture and separate out the important points. As you read, take notes of what you think are the main ideas. Highlight, underline, and write in the book’s margins. Write down questions that come up as you’re reading.

Arrive 10 minutes before class and review the assigned reading and notes from the previous class. Try to get to class a few minutes early. Grab a seat near the front of the class and get everything ready. Scan through your reading assignment and the notes you made. Write down any questions you had during the reading that you’re hoping to have answered during the professor’s lecture.

Turn off wi-fi card or block the internet. Surfing Reddit during class will not help you pay attention. Turn off your computer’s wifi card or use one of the internet blocking tools that we covered in this previous post.

 

During the Lecture: What to Write Down

Only write down the main points of the lecture. Don’t write everything down! Your goal isn’t to transcribe your professor’s lecture word for word, rather it’s to extract and record the main points of it. The trick to successful note-taking is learning how to separate the wheat from the chaff. Your professor will likely go off on tangents during the lecture and spout off stuff that won’t be on the exam. You don’t want to waste your time writing down and studying info that you won’t even be tested on.

So how do you know what the professor’s main points are? Pay attention to cues your professor gives off either consciously or subconsciously. Here are a few cues your professor may give during the lecture. Whenever you see them, it probably means he’s saying something important, so write it down.

• Anytime the professor says, “You need to know this,” or “This will be on the test.” Duh.
• Anytime the professor repeats himself.
• Anything the professor writes on the board or includes in a Powerpoint slide.
• Anything the professor repeats very slowly so that it can be taken down word for word.
• If your professor starts talking more quickly, or loudly, or with more emphasis.
• Watch for language that shows relationships between ideas. These sorts of points are often where professors get their exam questions from:
  • first, second, third
  • especially, most significant, most important
  • however, on the other hand
  • because, so, therefore, consequently

Write the professor’s summary at the end of class and his review at the beginning of the next class. At the end of the class, your professor will often summarize the main takeaway points. Write this down. Your professor is basically telling you the main points she wants you to know. At the beginning of the next class, your professor may give a quick review of the previous class and then provide a preview of how those points are related to the day’s lecture. Write that down.

Write down any examples or hypotheticals the professor gives during class. This is especially important for math and science classes. Also, if you’re in law school, write down any hypothetical issues your professor may present. You’ll probably see a similar hypothetical on your final exam.

If you didn’t get a point, make a note of it, and wait until after class to ask.  Don’t be this guy. No one likes him. If you missed a point, make a note to remind yourself to ask the professor about it after class. Show some respect to the professor and the rest of your classmates.

 

After the Lecture: Review, Clarify, and Synthesize

Review and clarify notes right after class. Organize your schedule so that you have some time right after each of your classes to review your notes. During this time, go through your notes and make sure you actually understand what you took down. I don’t know how many times I wrote a note in class that later left me scratching my head and wondering, “What the heck did I mean by that?” If you don’t understand a note, clarify it by reviewing the reading material or by asking a fellow classmate or the professor. Reviewing your notes after class also aides in memory retention.

Synthesize notes into a master outline. In the comments on the study tips post, someone asked me what I meant by “synthesizing your notes.” It simply means combining your lecture and reading notes into a coherent whole.  This is a lot more difficult than it sounds. It requires you to look at different bits of information, figure out the main ideas and how they relate, and organize them in a way that makes sense.

One of the best ways to synthesize your notes is to create a master outline. The very act of creating an outline forces you to combine all your notes into a congruent whole. For more advice on creating an outline, see our article on study tips.

 

Note-Taking Styles

Over the years, professors and learning experts have suggested various note-taking styles to help students organize their notes. I’ve tried them all, but I always end up using my usual method. Below is a quick summary of the various note-taking strategies floating out there. Experiment with them and use what works for you.

Rough Outline Method

My typical note-taking style is to simply create a rough outline of the lecture using bullet points. If there’s a sub-point, I’ll just hit “tab” and create a nested list. I’ll bold or underline important points. It’s not the most sophisticated note-taking method, but it works for me. This format makes organizing your notes later into a final outline much easier.

Cornell Style Notes

This system of note-taking was developed in the 1950s by Cornell University professor Walter Pauk. It’s a way to organize your notes to make reviewing easier and more effective. Here’s how you do it.

Divide your page into two columns. Label the left-hand column “Keywords” and the right-hand column “Notes.” Beneath those two columns, mark off a section and label it “Summary.” It should look something like this:

Keywords	Notes
Summary

During the lecture, write your notes in the “Notes” column. Write notes as you normally would. Again, the goal is to capture meaningful facts and the main points of the lecture.

After the lecture, write keywords in the “Keywords” column. Immediately after the lecture, review your notes in the “Notes” column. Try to reduce each line or segment of notes into one keyword. Write down that keyword in the left-hand “Keyword” column. For example, if you had an entire paragraph of notes in the “Note” column about the 1961 Civil Rights Act, next to the section and in the left-hand “Keyword” column, you would write “1961 Civil Rights Act.”

Test your recall using only the “Keyword” column.  Cover the “Notes” column with a sheet of paper, but leave the “Keyword” column visible. Looking at your keywords, try to recall as much of your class notes as possible. Talk out loud if you want or just write down what you remember. When you’re done, uncover your notes section to verify what you said or wrote down. This is to help with remembering the information.

Write a brief summary. When you’re done doing the recall exercise, write a brief summary of the day’s notes in the “Summary” section.

If you take notes using a computer, you can download templates for Cornell Style Notes. Just Google “Cornell Notes template” and pick one that you like. Here’s a pretty good one for MS Word.

You might be interested in reading the full blog post, then follow this link. Thank you.

I wish you a wonderful day!

Related articles

• Taking note: Notability, Evernote, Dropbox and Remember the Milk on iPad #pgce (drbadgr.wordpress.com)
• What to Write Down During a Class Lecture [Note Taking] (lifehacker.com)
• Recycled Notes = No More Guilt! (thgsheadsup.wordpress.com)

Please share your thoughts and/or responses to this topic by leaving a comment.

1. Add a Photo.

This is something I am actually going to do. I am looking for a photo of my loved one and will then use mounting corners to add it to my ®Moleskine right to inside of the front cover. Using the mounting corners will give me the option to re-use the same photo in the next notebook.

2. Expense Log.

Use a lined or grid-paper notebook works best when you want to track expenses throughout the day or month. Use the back pocket to store your receipts and “sync” with your accounting software on a regular basis.

3. Numbering the pages.

Well, this is something that I highly recommend when using a notebook for journalling. I use headings for all my entries and at the end of the notebook, I put together an Index in Excel ( I am sure you can do something in Word as well); then I print it and add it to my completed ®Moleskine.

4. Using templates

Here is an idea utilizing the  Moleskine MSK Wizard to create reference pages full of useful information. Print them and paste them into your ®Moleskine.
With the wizard site you can create formatted contact lists, schedules, or free-form pages with all sorts of texts and images of your own.

5. Family Journal.

®Moleskine has brought out lots of different themed journals over the last 2 years (I use the Movie Journal for example and have given the Baby Journal as a gift).
What I have not seen is a Family Passion Journalfor important information such as birthdays, anniversaries, medical information; addresses of doctors, dentists, and other service providers, favorite colors, foods — especially for family member you are not in frequent contact with, this might be interesting. You can also let them have a page or two to draw or write something when you meet them the next time.
You can also add numbers of your favorite restaurants; school information for your children; bank account, insurance, etc etc.

6. Decorate the outside.

I had the idea to emboss my initials on the front cover of my ®Moleskine and have not yet found a way for me to do at home. What I intend to use is to print my initials on labeled paper and stick those on.
If you need any inspriation, check out this Flickr Group.

So, now it’s your turn … What notebook are you using and what goes in? Leave a comment below!

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• GTD Moleskine Hack Alternative: Semikolon (wall-notes.com)

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Please share your thoughts and/or responses to this topic by leaving a comment.

Kaizen For The New Year

What is Kaizen: “Japanese for continuous and incremental improvement, a business philosophy about working practices and efficiency.” You may ask yourself – what does this have to do with self improvement and new years resolutions?

First came the “continuous improvement” theories of efficiency expert W. Edwards Deming in the 30s and 40s. After the war his ideas were picked up by the Japanese who developed it into “Kaizen,” a method for efficiently creating quality products through small and continuous changes. Guess what? This is perfect for accomplishing your personal goals, too.

Kaizen is part of Lean Six Sigma (LSS), something that I have successfully used in my professional career in the past.

Here is an example: Want to quit smoking? The Kaizen way might be to stop smoking in your car, as the first small step. Then you could switch to a brand with less nicotine, stop smoking in the house, and so on.

How does Kaizen works:
Kaizen uses “small questions.” In factories this meant no more questions like “What are you going to do to improve the company profits this year?” That normally creates more fear than creative ideas. A better question is, “What small change could we make in your department to reduce expenses or improve quality?” In thousands of occasions this approach was found to be far more productive.

For purposes of improving your life, this means asking small suggestive questions, like, “What could I do to free up five minutes for my meditation practice?” or “What small change could I make if I wanted to improve my relationships today?” Small questions drive out the fear, pressure, and procrastination that come with facing the issue head-on.

Small questions, small comfortable changes, and continual progress – that’s kaizen.
Imagine where you’d be if you had consciously made one small change in your life each week for the last few years. Better yet and more importantly, imagine where you will be next year, if you start this process today.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” – Lao Tzu

Forget The Affirmations

Here is a little exercise for you: Stand in front of that mirror if you want, repeating to yourself “Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.”

If it doesn’t do what you hope, though, here’s a new idea (okay, an old idea renewed): Evidence is more convincing than affirmation – what you look for, you find, and it changes your mind.

Prove this theory to yourself by watching out for nice people for a few days and then making a mental note each time you see one. It will change your experience of people in a positive way.
Then, to test the idea further, watch out for rude people for a few days, and you’ll see them all over.
Do this exercise, and you’ll quickly understand that you experience the world not only according to what is there, but even more according to what you pay attention to.

Use both option to motivate yourself towards positive change and find your successes. If your New Years resolution is to exercise more, notice when you remember to park farther away from the store so you have to walk. Write it down even. Point out your successes to yourself, and you’ll start to have more of them. If you want to lose weight, note every time you walk past the refrigerator without opening it. Focus on and remember any success. You can start doing this right now.

Rome was built in many small steps and so can your success!

First things first though. Resolve to change the habits in your mind. Isn’t that better than the typical new years resolutions?

Happy New Year!

Related articles

• Prepping for the New Year: Resolutions, Big Bang, Kaizen (txcowboydancer.wordpress.com)
• The Focus Of 2012 (stevengradidge.com)
• Do you practice ‘Kaizen’? [Dean 'Warrior Coach' Grimshawe] (ecademy.com)

May the New Year be as productive as you have planned for!

Every once in a while, I have some hard-copy printouts of web or other PDF-file articles in my “Read/Review” folder that have grown mold (not just old, but mold). Often I will simply recycle such things without a read—when I first saw it, nice idea to review it, when I get a chance; but, now that the world has moved on, no thanks…toss. But a (very) few linger. And every time I get around to looking at that folder of potentially still cool stuff to read—well, would be very interesting, but…better things to do, for now. And this may continue, for days or weeks on end. Every once in a while something takes up residence in there. Its title and topic are so wonderfully intriguing; I can’t just let it go. But its vast expanse of plain columnar text, with rigorous academic notations and references, overwhelm my circuits on otherwise optimistically anticipated air travel catch-ups.

Recently I re-experienced some of this hard-boiled stuff—printouts of a couple of scientific papers from psychology journals, in small-point type, many pages long, with all kinds of technical citations. Intimidating. That’s why they’d been in my Read/Review file for so long. I couldn’t remember who’d forwarded them to me (later discovery: they were from Alan Nelson [thanks!]). They’d simply curled up in my blue plastic Read/Review folder/home, glanced at but undisturbed by me on many a plane ride. Why did they remain? They had the intriguing titles of “A Theory of Unconscious Thought” and “On the Goal-Dependency of Unconscious Thought.” Serious potential fodder for a curious but lazy guy like myself, especially if they validated the relative effortlessness of ideal-outcome thinking, and intelligent decision-making done in my sleep, or while otherwise engaged.

In the last few years, with the task of leading our company into our next version of the great blue yonder, I can attest to the extraordinary number of tough decisions growing a business like ours (and perhaps any) entails; and how complex the potentially relevant data and variables can be. Roy Baumeister’s “decision fatigue” research indicates that you can turn to toast in a few hours acting on and shouldering that responsibility. Give yourself a few years of this, non-stop, and see how you feel! Isn’t there an easier way?!

Enough immature self-pity for the moment. (I only have a certain amount in that account, which I use judiciously and sparingly.) Back to the papers I just read. The good news from the research of two psychologists in Amsterdam (Dijksterhuis and Nordgren, 2006) is that decisions made after the unconscious has had time to process the inputs (based on unhooking conscious thinking from the problem or question) are almost always better—and increasingly so, the more complex the issue. And from the later paper (Bos, Dijksterhuis, van Baaren, 2007), the primary requisite for unconscious thinking and decision-making is a goal orientation.

The practical ramifications and aha’s for me:

1. Don’t force our team (or myself) to make decisions in the same meeting that presents all the data and perspectives. Purely conscious decision-making is quite constrained in its capacity to absorb and weigh complexities and more likely to employ limiting stereotypes and prejudices in its judgments.

2. Another validation of the power of the GTD Weekly Review. We have to make a lot of choices on the run, in the helter-skelter of our daily existence. You don’t have time to think and ponder and consider all the factors. On the spot you have to agree or not to have your partner’s partner over for dinner tonight. You have to decide whether you will talk to the unhappy customer yourself or not. You have to…well, ad infinitum. Putting all the potentially relevant data into your psyche every seven days (doing a thorough Weekly Review of your commitments, areas of focus, someday maybe’s, time-based commitments, etc.) hard-wires your intuitive intelligence, which allows you trust (vs. hope) in your quick judgment calls. I’ve known this experientially for years. Now we have good psychological research data to back it up.

3. Positive outcome focus as a way to create what you want is not just a hope-it-works belief—it’s verifiable as a tool to put your unconscious thinking to work. For years I’ve proven to myself the data about how the reticular activating system in the brain—the part of our neurology that gets programmed to recognize patterns, based upon our focus and identifications with images and outcomes—gets us to see and think things otherwise inaccessible. Now we have good data to prove that this not only impacts our conscious perceptions, but also (and perhaps more importantly) our unconscious integrative processes. At significant times in our lives, my wife Kathryn and I have created very detailed “ideal scenes” of what we want to be having and experiencing; and the success rate is truly in the upper-90% range. (Some results sooner and some later than expected; but nonetheless manifest.)

It could very well be, now that I’ve cleaned out my Read/Review folder, that the reason I didn’t feel like reading these articles sooner was because of a much bigger picture dancing in my head, which used my unconscious processes to decide that I needed more time for my unconscious processes to get ready to integrate the contents, given where I’m going. There’s something profoundly relaxing about that.

Related articles

• How Should We Make Hard Decisions? (wired.com)
• Collective Decision Making (ombrenelcielo.wordpress.com)
• Thinking, Fast and Slow (medrants.com)

I was intruiged by the fact that it’s a “see-through” pen or demonstrator pen as they are also called. I checked it out on several resources and I finally bought in on Ebay in April. There are lots of reviews for this pen (here, here and here; and there are probably more ….) and I decided not to write another one. All reviews speak very highly of this fountain pen and I totally agree with what is said and written.

I have a two Waterman, one Pelikan and a very expensive Cross fountain pen and I have to say the TWSBI is not standing behind any of those. Based ony my great experience I am looking foward to the release of their new “VAC 700″!
I used the fountain in the office and also as my travel companion, so I got good use out of it very quickly … until November that is.

In November the transparent cap broke off the mental ring with the thread that goes on the pen itself. I was devastated!

Then I thought, I might actually contact the manufacturer: I checked their website www.twsbi.com for contact details and send a request through their contact form. Within a day I had a reply from them, asking for more details which exact pen I have as they wanted to send me a replacement cap. What can I say … I replied with the details and a hort while I received the information that a replacement cap was sent out. I even got a tracking number so I could follow the shipment.
Actually, there was no need to follow up as the little parcel arrived exactly one week later

The only thing that was now left for me to do, was to assemble the cap. I had thought I would receive the complete cap but it was only the cap that arrived and I needed to unscrew the clip from the old cap and fix on the new one.

There is a little video here that shows how this is done and although it’s not difficult one need the right screwdriver to do it. Nothing major and very quickly my fountain pen is now complete again (http://www.bbs.twsbi.com/viewthread.php?tid=1375&extra=page%3D1 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToYjDttVR3A&feature=related)

THANK YOU guys and girls from TWSBI for sending me a replacement cap.
Great customer service! Everyone should have a TWSBI!

Here are a few pictures I took of the cap when dissembled:

TWSBI 530 dissembled cap

Little plastic cap goes into the big cap

Loosening the screw inside the cap

Related articles

• Cursive, mindfully.. (mindinglife.wordpress.com)
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The Paper Caper was created by NeuBig, graphic studio specializing in paper toys.

Creative Studio: NeueBig
Concept: Daniela Berto/Diego Soprana
Designer/Illustrator: Diego Soprana
Designer/Photographer: Cecilia Melli
Writer: Cosimo Bizzarri

The Paper Caper is made starting from a single sheet of paper, folding the different sections without removing any pieces. It is based on the Asian art of origami, the art of paper folding. The finished product is a three-dimensional shape with a hexagonal base.

See the full post here on the Moleskine site!

Merry Christmas!

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Please share your thoughts and/or responses to this topic by leaving a comment.

Get the turkey; check the Black Friday ads; make the Christmas card list; start shopping; put up the decorations; bake cookies; make fudge; make party goody bags for your kids; get some gifts; write the cards; send pick out the tree; out the cards; replace the bulbs; hang the outside lights; go to the office party; more shopping; assemble presents; wrap presents ….

I could go on …..

Busy parents far and wide will tell you it’s all the same year after year. And every year you decide that next year won’t be as hectic – yet somehow it always is. This year vow to find some time for yourself during the busy and stressful holiday season.

We’ve all heard it before: if you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you will keep getting what you have been getting. You can look to find that time all month long. However you will not find some time for yourself unless you make some time for yourself.

Make is an action verb meaning to cause to happen to or be experienced by someone. If you are just going about the necessities of the holiday season aimlessly hoping for a few spare moments of solitude, you will not find that time.

Right now, before the week closes in on the blessed event, turn a new leaf. You have to consciously decide upon and then commit to following your action plan. Start with your calendar. Decide now if you want 15 minutes daily of nothing or one whole afternoon weekly of nothing.
It is not a new idea to schedule some time for yourself. What might be new is that you are actually going to write – in pen – the word “Nothing” each week (or day) on your calendar. You must agree to treat that time as if it was an orthodontist appointment. You will not schedule anything else in that time frame.

Mom’s taxi service generally puts on a few miles. Make the commitment to turn off your cell phone while you are travelling in the car. If you don’t feel comfortable doing that, in case the children need to reach you then make the commitment not to answer it. And that means do not make phone calls either.

“But… but… I’m so busy. I have to make those calls!”

Did you know …? Studies have been conducted by zoologists regarding animals and downtime? If the animals are left out in the public eye for more than six days they become agitated. Each week, zookeepers pull the animals inside for a day of rest and relaxation.

If all the animals need some downtime without stimulation, doesn’t it stand to reason that Homo sapiens do too? Do you find yourself getting a little agitated if you are left out in the public eye too long to deal with all the demands placed on a busy mom or dad of office worker or ….. you name it?

Your body was created to need downtime. Still not convinced? Consider the workplace production studies. Some employees are pushing for four 10-hour days instead of five eight hour days. However the studies show that productivity declines significantly after eight hours of working. They may be present for ten hours but only fully productive for eight. All your madness isn’t really giving you productivity.

Perhaps you’re wondering how to find more time for yourself. You want someone to tell you that if you follow steps 1, 2 and 3 this holiday season will be so much more relaxed than you were last year. Is there a magical trick?

All you really need is step one – make a conscious effort that you will make time and that you will not allow any influences to interfere with your very much needed time for yourself.

You are only as busy as you allow yourself to be. It is within your span of control to enjoy the busy weeks of the holiday season.

Dr. Paul Pearsall has said it best in his book “Toxic Success: How to Stop Striving and Start Thriving”: “The work will wait while you watch the rainbow. The rainbow won’t wait while you work.”

Enjoy the festive season!

Marcus

Related articles

• How to Deal With Loneliness During Holiday Season (lifehack.org)
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Please share your thoughts and/or responses to this topic by leaving a comment.

April Perry is the mother of four children and Co-Director of The Power of Moms.

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Sometimes Christmas feels like an all-consuming project that sends us racing through malls, jumping from party to party, and being busy-busy-busy as we fill our time with lots of Christmas fluff.

I want something more than that, though.

I don’t want to have to “recover” from Christmas. I don’t want to start the new year eight pounds heavier. I don’t want my children focused only on the electronic gadgets they hope Santa brings. But everything I don’t want will probably become my reality–unless I take the initiative to implement what I do want. David Allen’s Natural Planning Model seriously saves my sanity on everything from birthday party planning to creating new programs for my website, so this year, I decided to use the five steps of the Natural Planning Model to create a Christmas experience that is both magical and meaningful.

…

The article covers the following steps:

Step One: Defining Purpose and Principles

Step Two: Outcome Visioning

Step Three: Brainstorming

Step Four: Organizing

Step Five: Identifying Next Actions

Please follow this link here to read the full article.

Thank you and have a nice pre-Christmas time.

Marcus

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Please share your thoughts and/or responses to this topic by leaving a comment.