My Stuff for Getting Things Done

My Weekly Review

2009-04-12T19:59:00.001-05:00

For 2+ years now, I have religiously performed a weekly review. As with anything GTD, my processes have ebbed and flowed between simple and complex. In searching through my blog, I recently realized that my weekly review has not really changed much since I wrote about it in early 2008. I was pretty surprised. Other than a few small tweaks, the basics of the weekly review process have continued to work well over time. For me, that includes;

Achieving Inbox Zero
Following up on Projects
Following up on Agendas
Following up on People
Deleting stuff I really don't need
Checking and updating my Moleskine Notebook

...and at the end of the week (I have moved my weekly review to the end of my week rather than the beginning), I can achieve a mind like water!

To read the full article on my weekly review, Click Here.

Xobni is out of Beta!

2009-03-26T20:18:00.001-05:00

Today, the folks at Xobni announced that version 1.7 of their Outlook add-in, known as xobni, is their first full fledged non-Beta release! As with the earlier beta versions, xobni is still free!

What is xobni? Xobni (inbox spelled backwards) is a Microsoft Outlook add-in that indexes your e-mail, maintains your contacts (like nothing else you have ever seen!), maintains a library of attachments and let you manage your e-mails by threaded conversations.

I wrote about xobni a while back. I have been using xobni for over a year now. I cannot imagine Microsoft Outlook without it. If you are a heavy Microsoft Outlook user, I would highly recommend giving it a try.

In other xobni news released today, the company had this to say;

Cisco & Blackberry Invest $10M In Xobni

Today we are announcing the completion of our Series B with an investment from Blackberry Partners Fund. This completes our previously announced financing led by Cisco. This investment will allow us to strengthen our service and extend Xobni to new platforms. We will launch our first premium service this summer.

Quite impressive!

Dual Monitor Config Gets Reset

2009-03-25T21:19:00.001-05:00

A while back I wrote about how to change the placement of your Dual-Monitor configuration in Windows.

Windows defaults to you having a 2nd monitor on the right side of your primary display. If you use the feature to extend your desktop to the new monitor, this can be a drag if your monitor is on the left side of your primary monitor.

To fix this, simply check your display properties... <Click to Read More>

A friend of mine recently noted that this works, but every time he undocks his laptop, then redocks his laptop, the configuration reverts back to the original setting. I had also run into this. The solution for me was to download and install an updated version of my laptop video drivers.

If you find that your dual monitor config is changing mysteriously on you, try to find an updated version of your video drivers. At a minimum, it should not make the problem any worse. At best, your problem is solved!

Do you Woot?

2009-03-24T17:30:00.001-05:00

Have you checked out Woot.com? Woot is an online store that sells items, one per day. That's right, they only sell one, really cool item per day. They typically offer an item with a techie twist. The item descriptions come with consistently unusual and sometimes snarky descriptions, along with actual items spec's if you so desire.

Check out the "what is woot" page for more details. I have ordered from woot many times without a single problem. In fact, it was a pleasure. Once you clearly understand the woot policies (read the FAQ), you will be delighted with the great prices, inexpensive shipping (typically $5) and fast order-to-door service.

The experience is one of a kind. I would highly recommend it.

My Experience with Free Online Storage

2009-03-23T19:05:00.001-05:00

This past week I tried two of the more popular free online storage sites.

ADrive, a smaller company, in business since 2007, that offers a generous 50gb of free disk space.
Microsoft, whose SkyDrive service offers 25gb of free space to users of its free Live service.

I was disappointed in both of them.

The ADrive service made it easy enough to sign up. After answering a few questions, I received a confirmation e-mail in my inbox. One click later, I was able to sign in to ADrive. The user interface was pretty basic, but that's what I was looking for. I did not need any fancy bells and whistles. I simply wanted safe, off-site storage of my picture files.

Using ADrive was not quite as easy as signing up. Through the "basic" interface, it allowed me to specify and copy only one file at a time. I have thousands of pictures. One file at a time won't work. There is a more advanced interface, written in Java, that is supposed to allow you to drag and drop multiple files. Using my Google Chrome browser, the Java errored out and the drag and drop interface would not work. Still optimistic, I try using Internet Explorer to access the drag-and-drop Java functionality. No luck.

After about a half hour of playing around, trying different combinations, I lost interest.

ADrive does offer something they call the ADrive desktop client which sounds like it has a nice Windows based interface to upload and download files. Unfortunately, the desktop client is not included with the Basic (free) plan. At a minimum, the ADrive desktop client will run you $6.95 per month. Here is a snapshot of what you get with the ADrive free and pay plans.

Next up, Microsoft SkyDrive

The Microsoft SkyDrive offering is part of the Windows Live initiative. Windows Live is Mircrosofts answer to the myriad of online services that Google and Yahoo offer. Signing up for SkyDrive requires you to have a Windows Live (or Hotmail) account. I had one already, so signing up was a snap. Actually, signing up was not necessary. I simple signed into live.com and SkyDrive popped up as one of my available options.

Time to upload some files! I simply select a folder, click upload and... WTF! ...I am faced with a screen with 5 lines for names of files and 5 upload buttons. Yes, sports-fans, that's right, only 5 files can be uploaded at a time! There has to be a better way.

...and there was, sort of. After a lot of digging through online help, I uncovered a reference to an Active X component that I could download to drag-and-drop files into my SkyDrive. Cool!

Well, almost cool. First, I found that the Active X control was not available to me when I was running Google Chrome, so I had to fire up Internet Explorer. Second, once I installed the Active X control, I could not drag-and-drop a directory (folder). Only file-by-file. Bummer. I have hundreds of directories. I assumed drag-and-drop meant directories as well as files. Oh well.

All in all, I was quite disappointed in both services. For now, I will resort to the old standbys; external disk backup, DVD backup, or at a minimum, saving my most important pictures on Picassa.

I have heard rumors that Google will be offering a service called GDrive sometime in 2009. As has been the case with search, e-mail (gmail), or RSS Readers (Google Reader), Google will get it right where others have not. I think I'll wait out the rumors and hope for a GDrive solution.

Berkun on Innovation

2009-03-21T19:12:00.000-05:00

Last week, Scott Berkun, author of Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management (previosly published as The Art of Project Management) and The Myths of Innovation, gave a one hour Webcast called "How progress happens: the down and dirty truths and secrets that make innovation possible". I thought is was great. Scott did not delve into the "how" of being being innovative. Scott's contention is that people, humans, by nature are innovative. It was not about tools, methodologies or technologies. Scott's talk focused on the challenges innovative people face and gave tips for driving innovation in your life, company or organization.

You can watch the recording on the O'Reilly webcast page or view it in higher resolution on the O'Reilly YouTube channel.

The Economic Crisis Explained

2009-03-07T22:00:00.001-06:00

Do you want to know what or who or how the recent economic crisis has come about in simple, easy to understand terms? Then I would recommend you check out a recent episode of This American Life titled Bad Bank. This is perhaps the best, simple, easy to understand, and scary at the same time, explanation of the global financial crisis that we are experiencing.

<CLICK HERE> to listen to this captivating and informative 1 hour radio show.

Synopsis:

The collapse of the banking system explained, in just 59 minutes. Our crack economics team—the guys who explained the mortgage crisis, Alex Blumberg and NPR’s Adam Davidson—are back to help all of us understand the news. For instance, when we talk about an insolvent bank, what does it actually mean, and why are we giving hundreds of billions of dollars to rich bankers who screwed up their own businesses? Also, two guys go to New Jersey to look at a toxic asset.

Search and Replace for Multiple Text Files

2009-02-05T21:13:00.001-06:00

Today I needed to search through a series of text files, find a word (in this case a username), and change it to something else. I could have easily (albeit time consuming) opened each file in notepad and run a search and replace, but I had hundreds of files to interrogate and change.

I came across a freeware program called grepWin to help me. grepWin allows you to quickly and easily search for and replace text strings in multiple text files. ...and for the advanced users, grepWin allows you to search and replace text using regular expressions. How cool is that?!?!?!?!

grepWin is a must have utility for anyone that has to deal with text files on a regular basis.

Desktop Icon Hack Revisited

2009-02-01T12:47:00.001-06:00

I recently wrote about a cool way to position the icons on your Windows desktop with a little freeware program called IconLayout. This neat little app allows you to;

Shrink your desktop icons
Align the icon text to the right of the icon graphic
Save and restore how your icons are laid out on your desktop

IconLayout did a fine job with #1 and #2, but I found that it did not do a very good job with #3. After a reboot, after a screen resolution change, or an inadvertent scramble of my desktop, and most of the time, IconLayout would not restore the icon layout to the way I wanted it. Quite frustrating.

This lead me on a search for a new program that does the same, albeit more reliably. After a few hours of searching, I found a neat little program that fits the bill. The program is called D-Color XP. The D-Color XP author pitches the apps ability to change the appearance of the desktop icon text foreground and background colors. Nice to do, but not exactly what I wanted it for. In addition to changing the color of icon text, D-Color XP can;

Shrink your desktop icons
Align the icon text to the right of the icon graphic
Save and restore how your icons are laid out on your desktop

...all for the right price: free. I have been using D-Color XP for a few days now and it's been working flawlessly. If you are looking for the same functionality in a small, reliable, freeware program, I'd highly recommend giving D-Color XP a try.

You can configure D-Color XP to load when Windows starts. When it runs, it arranges your desktop icons and docks itself in the Windows system tray. Following is a quick screen shot of D-Color XP in action.

Can't View Images in Outlook Email Messages

2009-01-19T18:25:00.001-06:00

A few days ago, a colleague of mine mentioned that he could not see any images sent to him in Outlook e-mail messages. His e-mails simply displayed a red-X where the image should have been. I did a quick Google search and found hundreds of possibilities that could have caused this. Luckily, one search result stood out to me as a possible solution. The accurate solution to my colleagues woes was posted on itqueries.com. This fixed the problem of images not being displayed in Outlook e-mail messages.

Here is the solution;

Close Outlook
Load Regedit. Start | Run | Regedit
Navigate to the following registry key;
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\
Security\OutlookSecureTempFolder
Delete the path specified in the OutlookSecureTempFolder key
Restart Outlook

Upon the restart of Outlook, the registry key entry was automatically recreated, and my colleague was able to view images in e-emails.

My theory is that the previous OutlookSecureTempFolder was corrupt or invalid. By deleting the path to this directory, Outlook recreated a new temp directory and all was well.

If you ever experience the same type of problem, I hope this same tip works for you!

Adding Recent Comments List to your Blogger Blog

2009-01-18T20:00:00.001-06:00

I recently added a new section to the right side of this blog called "Recent Reader Comments". As the name implies, it is a list of the 10 most recent comments people have left on mygtdstuff.com.

I did not find a standard Google Blogger widget to do this. I did find quite a few 3rd party Blogger widgets (or "gadgets" as they are now called). Unfortunately, all of the 3rd party widgets I found require that you run some script on a mystery server. You have no idea what this script is doing. You do not get to see the code. Odds are, these 3rd party scripts are at a minimum adding cookies to your users browser. Worse yet, these 3rd party scripts could be doing (or adding) something evil to your readers computer. I'm not willing to take that risk.

Finally, I found a very cool way to add a recent comment list from a site called Hackosphere. The nice thing about this method is that it works with standard Google Blogger functionality. The folks from Hackosphere show you the program code that you will need to make it work. Full disclosure. No mystery scripts!

Here is how it works;

Sign in to Blogger to Edit your Blog. Select the Layout tab, the click Edit HTML.
Click the Download Full Template link to save a backup of your Blog Template.
Find the </head> tag in the HTML of your Blog Template
Add the code from this page directly after the </head> tag
Save your Template
Next, click Page Elements then Add a Gadget
Select the HTML/JavaScript Gadget
Add this code to the HTML/JavaScript Gadget:
<br/><script language="javascript">
var numcomments = 10;
var numchars = 100;
</script>
<script src="http://yourblog.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default?
alt=json-in-script&callback=commentDisplay"></script>
Customize this code as needed:
- Change the numcomments variable to the number of comments to display
- Change the numchars variable to the number of characters from each comment to display
- Change the "yourblog" text to the name of your blogger blog
Click Save.

Thats it. 10 quick and easy steps to a recent comments widget/gadget. Big thanks for Hackosphere for the code to make this work!

Jott to Cancel its Free Service

2009-01-14T20:45:00.002-06:00

Starting February 2, 2009 Jott.com will eliminate it's free service. Albeit limited, I was a big fan of Jott's free service. Jott Express worked great on my PC, Jott for the iPhone worked "good enough" on my iPod Touch. According to John Pollard, Jott CEO and Co-founder;

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably heard that we’re ending Jott’s free services (Jott Basic and Jott Notepad for the iPhone). Unfortunately, it’s true, beginning on February 2nd. Plans for current paying customers are not changing.

I know you’ll have questions, so I wanted to get out in front and tell you why we’re doing this. If you already know you want to upgrade, scroll down for instructions (and a nice discount), but either way I hope you’ll read further.

Our #1 priority is to keep Jott a company that innovates on behalf of customers. It’s why Shree and I started the company in early 2006, and it’s a passion shared by everyone who works here.

Whether you are a paid or a free customer, we thank you for all of the support you’ve given us over the past couple of years, and the support you’ll hopefully give us in the future.

More details can be found on the official Jott blog. Is Jott worth the 4 bucks a month for their standard package? I'm not sure. I would love to get the Jott for Outlook functionality. I'm just not sure it's worth the $4 per month.

Got an opinion? Know of an alternative Jott? Got a few good reasons why someone should pay for Jott? Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!

Windows Startup Hack

2009-01-10T09:59:00.001-06:00

We end this week's series on desktop hacks with a discussion about a tool that will get you to your Windows desktop faster. This tool is a program called Startup Delayer. Startup Delayer is a cool freeware utility that allows you to pace the start time of the applications that run when your PC boots-up.

Normally, when your PC starts, Windows fires up a boat-load of applications all at the same time. Each application fights for time on your processor, each application fights with your disk controller to access supporting files on your hard drive. While all this happens, your PC is unusable. Usually a slow stroll to the coffee machine and back will be enough time for your PC to load all these programs and allow you to access the applications that you wanted when you turned your PC on in the first place.

The truth is, Windows does not necessarily need to have all of these "startup" programs loaded and running before your PC is usable. In fact, many of the programs that load when your PC boots-up are "nice to have" applications. Applications that you can live without, or at a minimum, live without for a period of time.

Which brings us to Startup Delayer. Startup Delayer looks at all the applications that load at boot-up and allows you to set how fast or slow these programs start up. For example, I have a logitech mouse. My mouse comes with a program that allows me to set the function of the mouse buttons. This program is called SetPoint. Do I need it immediately after my PC starts up? No. Do I need it periodically when using my PC? Maybe. With Startup Delayer I can get to my Windows Desktop faster by telling Windows to load SetPoint 3 minutes after my PC starts up.

With this set, I can get to my Windows Desktop quicker. Start surfing the net, editing a document, updating a spreadsheet... Then 3 minutes later, Startup Delayer will fire up SetPoint for me. This works with just about any application that Startup Delayer identifies as a Windows Startup Program.

In addition to delaying the startup of certain applications, Startup Delayer allows you to not start certain applications at all. This is as simple as unchecking a box next to the name of the application. Quick, easy, effective!

I have been using Startup Delayer for 6 month's now without any problems. The trick to using Startup Delayer is knowing which applications are needed and which applications can be delayed. Trial and error is one method, but it takes time and patience. There are a number of good web site directories with descriptions of Windows startup programs. My favorite is ProcessLibrary.com. At ProcessLibrary.com you can enter the name of a startup program and you can find out what it is, what it does and if you really need it. Quite handy.

If you are tired of waiting for your Windows PC to boot up, Startup Delayer is definitely for you!

Outlook E-mail Hack - xobni

2009-01-08T21:03:00.001-06:00

OK, technically not an Outlook "hack", but in keeping with this weeks' theme, I needed to use the word "hack". This post is about a relatively new Outlook add-in called xobni (inbox spelled backwards). xobni is a neat little (currently) freeware application that helps you manage your Outlook e-mail, attachments, contacts and it even reaches out to your favorite social networks.

As you can see in the picture above, xobni does not take up too much Outlook real-estate. It sits on the right side of Outlook and is composed of 6 sections.

Note: The text portions of these screen-shots have been blurred to protect the innocent :).

1. The top section is for searching your e-mail. xobni indexes all of your e-mail and makes for fast searching. I was quite impressed with how quick xobni performs a search. I was so impressed, I have opted to not use Microsoft Desktop Search while I evaluate xobni. So far, so good, I have not missed MS Desktop Search.

2. The second section displays contact information about the sender of the currently selected e-mail. Name, phone numbers, e-mail address, title, department, and even a picture. It takes what it finds in the Outlook directory. If a phone number cannot be found in the Outlook directory, xobni does a real nice job searching e-mails and extracting phone numbers. Other information can be manually added quickly and easily. xobni also includes a facility to link to Facebook, Linked-in, Skype or Yahoo Mail to display other information about this person.

3. Section 3 displays some analytics about the e-mail sender. A neat graph showing when you typically send/receive e-mails from this person, how many e-mails you have incoming and outgoing to this person, and a ranking based on how frequently you communicate with this person.

4. Show's the current senders network. That is; people that this person includes on the to: or cc: lines of their e-mails. Not sure I see value in this feature, but I will keep giving it some thought.

5. Conversations. I find this very useful. This shows the most recent e-mails between you and the selected sender. You can scroll through the list and open, reference, or respond to previous e-mail conversations. Very handy!

6. The last section is a list of the file attachments that have been included in the e-mail conversations between you and the currently selected sender. Simply click an attachment to open it.

I learned about xobni about a year ago from my buddy Daniel at HackYourDay. I finally got around to giving it a try and I am sure glad that I did. I have been using xobni for about 2 weeks now, and I am thinking this is a keeper Outlook hack (add-on).

If you have experience with xobni leave a comment with your thoughts about it. Thanks!

Desktop Icon Hack

2009-01-06T20:25:00.001-06:00

Windows Desktop Hacks - Part 2 - The Desktop Icon Hack. As an organization nut, I like things to be organized and in their place. This includes my Windows desktop icons. Unfortunately, Microsoft Windows does not always cooperate. It seems with every change in screen resolution, reboot, or inadvertent "arrange icons" command, my careful icon placement get's scrambled, never to return until I put them back where I wanted them. Until now...

You may not be able to see it in the screen shot above, but I am able to;

Arrange my icons along the right and left sides of my desktop (or anywhere I want them for that matter)
Put them in logical groups - Internet Shortcuts, Frequently Used Applications, Project Folders, Utilities, etc.
Use small icons rather than the normal large Windows icons.
...and most importantly, when they get moved around, restore them to their neatly organized state.

This is all accomplished with a utility called IconLayOut. IconLayOut is a tiny freeware utility. You can download the utility from a guy names Henrik on his webpage at blahblah.se.

The program works great, but the installation can be a little tricky. Follow these steps to get IconlayOut installed and running.

Download and unzip the file called IconLayOut.zip from the authors download page. Three files will be extracted...
The only file you need to worry about is IconLayOut.exe. Copy IconLayout.exe to your c:\ (root) directory.
Next, create 2 shortcut icons on your desktop. One to save your current icons settings. The other to restore your previously saved icons settings.
To create a shortcut, right click on your Windows Desktop and Select New > Shortcut.
The two shortcuts should have these properties;
1 - Location: c:\iconlayout.exe -s
1 - Name: Save Icon Layout
2 - Location: c:\iconlayout.exe -r
2 - Name: Restore Icon Layout
To save the layout of your Desktop icons, click the Save Icon Layout shortcut. To restore a previously saved icon layout, click the Restore Icon Layout shortcut.

I put the Save/Restore Icon Layout shortcuts on the bottom left corner of my desktop.

That's it!

Following are a few more tips and tricks to using IconLayout.

To restore your icon layout after each reboot, copy the Restore Icon Layout shortcut to your Windows Startup folder.
When you save your icon layout, it is copied to a file called c:\user-name@machine-name@screen-resolution.txt. To be safe, make a backup copy of this file. A backup has saved me many times!
To play with different icon sizes, run c:\iconlayout.exe without any parameters. Be sure to make a backup of the previous .txt file I mentioned above.

I hope you find this little freeware utility as handy as I do.

Desktop Wallpaper Hack

2009-01-03T11:14:00.001-06:00

Windows Desktop Hacks - Part 1 - The Desktop Wallpaper Hack. This is by far one of the cooler tips. It starts with an free program called John's Background Switcher. What an awesome name! John's Background Switcher does exactly what the name implies. It switches the background of your Windows desktop.

My favorite features of John's Background Switcher are;

It changes the background on any schedule you wish. Once a day, once an hour, one a week. The time is up to you.
It will change the background to any one of a million pictures available on the web. Your pictures, pictures from photo-sharing sites like Flikr or Picasa, picture from your Facebook page. You can configure the heck out of where it finds images, or you can keep it simple (I opt for simple).
If you don't like the picture it chooses, John's Background Switcher is always sitting in your window system tray, awaiting your command. A simple double click on John's Background Switcher and a new picture will be randomly selected.

The installation is breeze. Simply download the installer from John's Blog.

You will never get bored of your Windows background wallpaper again!

Windows Desktop Hacks

2009-01-02T16:17:00.001-06:00

Recently, Lifehacker published an article titled Most Popular Desktops of 2008. Basically, it was all about Windows Desktop Hacks and Tweaks that folks have cobbled together to make their Windows desktops more efficient and aesthetically pleasing.

While I didn't find one set of packaged desktop customizations to my liking, I did find a number of cool tools and tweaks to trick-out a Windows desktop that works best for me. Over the next few days, I'll detail a number of the apps that I am using to hack my desktop.

First, here is my what my desktop currently looks like;

There are a few functional and aesthetic things that stand out for me -

The nice wallpaper. If you spend most of your day working on your computer, it might just as well be something you enjoy looking at. For me, I am using an applications called John's Background Switcher. The program will search a number of photo sharing sites (flickr, Picassa, etc) and randomly pick a new background for you on a periodic basis. I'll talk more about this program in a future post.
The small, organized icons. If you are like me, you hate clutter. A clean, organized and consistent desktop is a must for me. I say "consistent" in that Windows is notorious for moving your desktop icons around when you reboot, change screen resolutions or just about anytime you don't want it to. I hate that about Windows. I will show you how to overcome this Windows irritant with an application called IconLayout.

In addition, there are a number of "under the cover" changes that I will recommend to optimize your Windows startup and provide a new update to an old tweak. ...and by the way, all of these tips and tricks are done using freeware. You won't need to spend $ to optimize your Windows desktop! Stay tuned...

Free GTD Training - Extended Offer - Act Fast!

2008-12-26T22:30:00.001-06:00

Our friends at Priacta have extended their free training offer thru the end of the year. This is not a shill to make me money. I have no monetary interest in (or profit from) Priacta. Priacta is a solid company with a solid product that I have tried and believe in.

The TRO system is excellent. If you sign up now, the training is free. You can't go wrong!

Want proof? Back in May I posted an article titled GTD Software Comparison and asked for feedback from Priacta students. The feedback was phenomenal. 'nuff said. Check it out and I am pretty sure you will not be disappointed.

Either way, feel free to leave a comment about your experience with Priacta's twist on GTD.

Free GTD Training - Act Fast!

2008-12-24T21:45:00.001-06:00

You have just a few hours to take advantage of this opportunity, so act fast! My friend Kevin Crenshaw at Priacta is offering a free "gift to the world". That is; the TRO Online Training System for free! At least for the next 24 hours... This normally $99 value is available for free until the end-of-day December 25. For details, visit; http://www.priacta.com/Training/troonline.php.

A while back, I wrote about the Priacta Total Relaxed Organization training. It's well worth the $99. It's well worth the taking advantage of this one time FREE Premium Online Training. You will not be disappointed!

Record Windows Keystrokes, Mouse Movements and Clicks

2008-12-13T20:11:00.001-06:00

Back in the old Windows 3.1 days, Microsoft had a free program called Windows Recorder to record and playback Windows keystrokes and mouse-click macros. It was not perfect, but it worked well enough for small tasks. Since Windows 95, Windows has been missing a keyboard and mouse recorder.

There are a number of pay-for-use Windows keyboard and mouse recorder products on the market. Recently, I stumbled across a free version of one of the better keyboard and mouse recorder programs. It is called Eventcorder Lite. This is a free version of the Eventcorder Suite of Windows applications that allows you to record and playback Windows keystrokes, mouse movements, and mouse clicks.

To download the free version Eventcorder, click this link: http://www.eventcorder.com/ec_downloads.htm

With the free version, I was able to quickly create several Windows point-click-keyboard macros. The program is smart enough to record what window you are manipulating and allows you to change the speed of the keystrokes and mouse movements.

Eventcorder is simple enough to use that the semi-skilled Windows users should be able to create simple macros in a few minutes after installing the program. For those familiar with more advanced concepts like Window Class Names and dependencies, you will be able to create some pretty advanced (and cool!) Windows macros after playing with the application for a while.

Eliminating Screw Covers on a Shelf

2008-12-13T19:06:00.001-06:00

Do you have a set of Sauder-like white shelves? We do. They come with little round white tabs that cover the screws holding the shelf together. What we have found is that the screw covers come off quite easily. So easily that they can get lost, or worse yet, consumed by a small child!

Today’s lifehack tip is to simply eliminate those white tabs and “paint” the screw tops with white-out/Liquid Paper. No muss, no fuss, no little round tabs getting lost, no little round tabs getting ingested by little round children.

For other colored shelving units - Just use a brown permanent maker to cover the screws on a brown shelf, or a black permanent maker if you have a black shelf… you get the idea!

Note Taking Tips

2008-11-01T22:32:00.001-05:00

A while back I came across a good tip on note taking. It included a number of neat tricks for marking up your notes for future reference. Below are a few of the markups that I use when taking notes during meetings.

-	Undone Action Item
+	Done Action Item
<	Delegated - with a note to whom and the date
>	Waiting for another action
^	Data Point.
O	A circle around any of the above means that it has been carried forward, moved to another list or otherwise changed status

I cannot recall where I got this tip from, so I apologize to the author if it is recognized.

I hope these quick and easy to remember markups help you as much as they have helped me. Got a similar tip? Share it by leaving a comment!

GTD Digest 2008-10-26

2008-10-26T20:34:00.001-05:00

Weekly recap of GTD highlights (news, views, tips and tricks) from around the web

[12 Entries]

How to Plan Your Week – 4 Steps to Productivity
By Myrko
It is basically my own mixture of systems from Anthony Robbins, Stephen Covey and David Allen with a little bit of today’s technology powered by Steve Jobs ;). "Wait a minute," you may think, "what does this quote from Steve Jobs have ...

An Implementation of GTD, or “Getting Things Done”
By Jonathan
While doing so I read about the “Getting Things Done” methodology, and took on board various opinions for and against it. In the end, I have settled into a very simplified version of “GTD”, and it goes as follows; ...

GTD one liners: under-promise and over-deliver
By dragos
Well, it’s been quite a while since I haven’t touched my GTD one liners folder. Yes, I do have a GTD one liners folder, which is in fact a part of a journal. As you already may know that, I use Mac Journal to blog and, sometimes, ...

Simple Key To Clearing Clutter
By laure(Apartment Therapy)
We live in a culture where we're supposed to be busy, working on this working on that, making progress, getting things done. But if this level of activity crosses over into a frenzy (always going out, never staying in, never having a ...

homeWork: Productivity
By trisha
In Getting Things Done, David Allen talks a lot about “Open Loops.” These are the items that go on a list somewhere that swirl in your brain and you lay in bed thinking, “I should do that tomorrow or next week, presents to buy, ...

Control Your Email Before It Controls You
Synapse - San Francisco,CA,USA
The basic principles of Mann’s email tips come from the Getting Things Done (GTD) book by David Allen. GTD is an “action management method” for being more ...

Amazing Task Manager—-GTD Free
By webtech
GTD-Free is structured around five tabs (Overview, Collect, Process, Organize/Review, and Execute), which both represents GTD very well but also in my opinion is a very practical structure from a user’s point of view. ...

The cult of Getting Things Done: an introduction to GTD
By Neil Williams
Having discovered David Allen’s Getting Things Done (ironically enough, I was introduced to GTD through my blog network so this blog may yet pay its way in terms of impact on my productivity), I have found ways to fine tune my ...

Best & Worst Practices of Collect
By Kelly
In GTD terms, it's the point of entry where all of your "stuff" lands in your trusted Inboxes, to be processed. As with all of the five phases of GTD: Mastering Workflow (Collect>Process>Organize>Review>Do), Collect has best practices ...

GTD Free Puts Getting Things Done on the Desktop [Featured Download]
By admin
Windows/Mac/Linux (all platforms with Java): GTD Free, a Java-based desktop app, is one of the most straight-forward implementations of the Getting Things Done organizational system you’ll see, but it also serves as a great introduction ...

Things - Getting Things Done iPhone App
By Michael D Jensen
I was recently turned on to “Getting Things Done” or GTD, by David Allen. As I learned about the methods and principles of GTD, I started looking for an application to run on my Mac to organize myself better, especially being someone ...

Non-politics: David Allen's 'GTD Times'
It was only four years ago that I wrote in the Atlantic about David Allen, the "productivity expert" and inventor of the influential Getting Things Done (GTD) approach to life. I say "only" four years because it feels as if Allen and ...

Empty that e-mail Inbox!

2008-10-02T21:14:00.001-05:00

I am a big proponent of keeping an empty e-mail inbox. I simply cannot fathom how someone can manage an inbox filled with hundreds of e-mails. I have to keep my inbox clean to feel organized. I have developed a number of ways to help me stay organized and keep my e-mail inbox empty. Over time, I’ve written about a few. Following are some of my favorite inbox management tips;

Dealing with Responses to Outlook Meeting Notices
Dealing with Out-of-Office Messages
Keeping your Newsletter Subscriptions out of your Inbox
Follow the 2 minute rule. If you cannot action the e-mail in 2 minutes, define the next action and defer it.
If you don’t want to deal with an e-mail message now, set aside time for it by moving it to your calendar.
Delete it! This is clearly my favorite!

Hope some of these tips help you as much as they have helped me.

GTD Digest 2008-09-21

2008-09-21T21:15:00.001-05:00

Weekly recap of GTD highlights (news, views, tips and tricks) from around the web

[6 Entries]

The Best GTD Post I’ve Read in Like…Forever.
By owstarr
He talks of discipline and priorities and tweaking your system and in my opinion does a truly incredible job of putting into perspective something that I think anyone that’s done GTD for any length of time probably realizes at some ...

Getting on the Ball with GTD and the iPhone
By baron
I’ve been experimenting with GTD (Getting Things Done) since buying an iPhone. We live in an age where there are just way too many things to rob us of our attention and keeping us from focusing on the things that matter the most. ...

GTD for Parents — Navigating Deadlines and Diapers
By Naomi Dunford
I came across a book/process called ‘Getting Things Done’ that has worked great for me. In a nutshell, you organize your tasks by project as well as by the place that they are to be done. For example, the ‘Car’ grouping might have ‘Go ...

The GTD trials and tribulations of a disorganized commuter student
By jawmaster
In searching, I found that a lot of people were practitioners of a system called Getting Things Done, or GTD for short. The system gets its name directly from a book which was written by David Allen, a leading consultant/motivational ...

GTD: Microsoft Office Outlook Connector 12.1 Beta 2
By tonyso
Wouldn’t it be great if you could put up your personal/family/interest group (non-work) calendar next to your work Outlook calendar to plan your time? With Microsoft Office Outlook Connector , you can use Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 ...

43 Folders and Merlin Mann - “You’re stinking up the joint.”
By Troy Malone, Chief Evangelist
It makes a Getting Things Done (GTD) disciple sad! One element that I would like to see brought back into the fore front is the need for simplification. I think that this element has been missing from the mix for a long while. ...