Biting Off More Than I Can Chew

Productivity, To-dos, and habits, oh my

2010-02-05T20:17:00.001-08:00

I've been spending a lot of time trying to find the right productivity system for me. I've learned 7 Habits, I've mastered GTD, I've meditated on Zen to Done(my favorite of the 3, BTW), and I'm still no closer to finding something that actually works for me. I took a look at "The Middle Way Method" from Diyplanner.com, and if you're looking for something halfway between 7 Habits and GTD, I'd say that's it. But none of these methods really work for me. Why? Because I spend too much time tinkering. I want to make the system perfect. So I end up spending more time making the system more efficient than I do on actionable items. This is, of course, a well known flaw of the GTD system (and one many GTD experts warn against, including Merlin Mann).

There's only one solution, of course: I have to take the best concepts from them, and create a system for me that works, and then leave it alone. I'm going to allow myself 2 days a year to tinker with it. Other than that, I just keep trudging along. I'm going to spend as little time as necessary developing this system.

I've got some ideas. GTD's emphasis on context lists is very useful. Big Rocks from 7 Habits and Zen to Done is great. A place for everything and everything in its place is essential. An inbox that I can process regularly is a must. Having buckets to dump info is great.

I've got another problem, though, and that's to-do list programs. I don't like them, mainly because the ones I like don't sync with my Android phone (they all sync with iPhone, of course). The best list management technique I've seen was created by Gina Trapani, and it basically just uses a text file (todo.txt) and a bash script to process your todos. I'm going to modify that. Since I hate bash, it'll be a python script (one exists already, but it's a little overly simple). I'll probably replace todo.txt with todo.xml (simply because it makes more sense), and when I get the whole system working on my desktop, I'll figure out how to write an Android app in Java to sync with it. Shouldn't be too hard. (Hah, I just jinxed myself!)

I'm one of those people who lives by the following statement: If it is not stored electronically, it doesn't exist. If I can't access it from my phone and/or my laptop, then it might as well be on Mars. I don't use paper, because it is too easy to lose (I do have some paper backups of phone numbers and such in case of an emergency. I'm not an idiot. I just don't use paper on a daily basis anymore.)

I'm smart enough to realize that this is procrastination. My monkey mind has find yet another way to prevent me from accomplishing my goals. The difference is, I have it under control. I won't spend more than an hour a day working on the todo list thing. Until then, I'll use Anxiety as my todo list program because it's dead stupid simple. The main focus of my day will be to work on the RSS reader (which I'll write more about in the next few days). Another large portion of my day will be made up of work on my backup scripts for twitter, facebook, etc.

I do know I am suffering from massive filter failure. There is too much getting in. I'll be changing the way I deal with that too. My email program will only run at specific times. Same with my RSS reader. I'll allow myself access to email and Google Reader as a reward for completing tasks (yes, a reward. I'll explain that some day, though some people already get it.) I have to leave a way for my partner to get me instantly, so my phone will be up, but I'll be screening calls (thank you Google Voice!).

All in all, I've got to create an environment conducive to accomplishing tasks because by nature, I am easily distracted by things like Facebook, Twitter, email, news, etc, etc. I'm consuming way too much information (and most of it is the information equivalent of junk food), and not creating enough of my own. I've got to rebalance the equation.

Oh, and my calendar is all screwed up. That's a post for another day, though. I just had to make it all color coded. *sigh* I'm starting to realize that simple and clear is always better than complicated and murky.

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UPDATE: Found out how to make a fluid app out of Google tasks and found an android app that syncs with google tasks. Crisis of to-do averted. Blog post with instructions is at http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/10/fullscreen-google-tasks.html

Kermit the Frog singing Nine Inch Nail's Hurt - LOL (Warning: NSFW)

2010-02-04T20:41:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

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Whoa! The Anti-Monitor Returns! w00t!

2010-02-03T12:31:00.001-08:00

via dcu.blog.dccomics.com

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Haha! This made my day (Via theWAREHOUSE web comic)

2010-02-03T08:28:00.001-08:00

via warehousecomic.com

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We Need a Turkey Bacon Filter

2010-02-01T13:16:00.001-08:00

We all get them in our inboxes:

Send this message to 5 more people or you will have bad luck!
If you don't send this message on, you are unamerican!
Send this to all your truest friends, even the person who sent it to you!

I often call this type of emaill "Turkey Bacon", building, of course, on the idea of Spam. (Bacon, then, would be the mail you want to receive, what I call "Actionable email.") Turkey Bacon is basically mail that isn't Spam because it comes from people you want to hear from, but it's not what you want to see from them. Sure, I want to hear from my friends, but by now they all know that I don't forward those emails. I almost always immediately delete them. If it contains an Urban Legend, I send the Snopes link back to the sender to let them know they are spreading misinformation.

Why can't this be automated? We can detect spam. Why can't we detect turkey bacon and deal with it automatically? How would that be done? Well, we can use content filtering, of course, like we do with Spam. But a better solution might be to set up some type of universal database that every email program can check. A message could then be flagged and the user can then decide how the email program reacts. (For example, auto delete, or send an auto response, or whatever.)

I've just had enough of the Turkey Bacon. It's worse than app spam on Facebook. Turkey bacon can be a huge time sink if you let it. I'd really like it if I didn't have to deal with it anymore.

Oh, and besides Spam, Turkey Bacon, and Bacon, I have another type of email: Turkey Pastrami. Turkey Pastrami is that stuff you sign up for (sale notifications, social network notifications, software update information, newsletters, etc), but don't necessarily have to deal with right away. That stuff is very easily filtered based on source, so there's no issue there, and I hardly ever see those types of emails unless I have free time to check out the gmail label that Turkey Pastrami gets filtered into.

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How to Tell Someone That They Are Wrong

2010-01-31T17:08:00.001-08:00

via basicinstructions.squarespace.com

The new Star Trek rocks and if you don't agree, you are wrong. ;-)

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Why I Don’t Check Voicemail Anymore (via Doghouse)

2010-01-30T09:41:00.001-08:00

via thedoghousediaries.com

Which is why Google Voice is so awesome. Voicemail to email, and I never have to deal with this nonsense.

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Cyanide & Happiness - Pigeon

2010-01-27T22:10:00.001-08:00

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Best Feature of Google Chrome

2010-01-26T12:20:00.001-08:00

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Applications I need to Test

2010-01-25T16:33:00.001-08:00

Apps I either:

1) Downloaded to test before buying (Code Snippet Managers)

2) Got as part of a Bundle and own, but haven't used yet

3) downloaded because it served a purpose I was researching, and it was free to download.

Guess I'll try testing this stuff tomorrow

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SMBC Theater - Robin vs. Bomb

2010-01-25T09:36:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

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Mindmap of Web Data I Consume

2010-01-24T16:18:00.001-08:00

And after taking a look at this, I think I need to reevaluate my relationship to data.

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WHOA! Black Lantern Superboy is going to be AWESOME!

2010-01-21T16:01:00.001-08:00

via dcu.blog.dccomics.com

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Tonight's dinner (Chicken Paillards with Clementine Salsa, Pear Sauce and Beet Salad) made a very colorful plate.

2010-01-20T14:41:00.001-08:00

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A Brief Review of Webnote Happy for the Mac

2010-01-16T20:27:00.001-08:00

I love bookmarks, but I hate organizing them. I like Firefox's bookmark manager, but wish I had some of its features across multiple browsers More importantly, I wish I had an easy way to share bookmarks between multiple browsers on my Mac. Now I have a way. I use Webnote Happy. It's a great program that does one thing and does it well: It manages bookmarks. The first thing I did was import all of my bookmarks from Firefox and from Delicious into Webnote Happy. It's made my life a lot easier. I can now see all of my bookmarks organized nicely with screenshots and favicons. I can sort them by various criteria, and most importantly to me, I can set up smart folders for specific tags, dates, etc. You can open bookmarks in various browsers (if you have multiple browsers installed) by selecting the appropriate browser in the right click menu. You can add bookmarks to it through a bookmarklet that seems to work in every browser (at least the ones I've tested, which are Opera, Camino, Firefox, Safari and Chrome). I haven't fully explored this great program, but I thought I'd do a quick review in case someone else was looking for something similar. This program is Mac only.

Oh, and one thing: If you use Google Chrome on the Mac, webnote happy does not yet support it (though if Chrome is your default browser, you can double click bookmarks in webnote happy and they will open in Chrome. It just doesn't appear in the right click menu).

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In the Event of a Water Landing

2010-01-16T16:31:00.001-08:00

via asset.soup.io

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My favorite sign ever (the one with the dinosaur!)

2010-01-15T22:59:00.001-08:00

via passiveaggressivenotes.com

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Facebook’s Farmville Ad Parody (found via geeksaresexy.net)

2010-01-15T12:54:00.001-08:00

via geeksaresexy.net

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Amazon's Missed Opportunity

2010-01-15T09:34:00.001-08:00

I love my Kindle. It's a great device, and it makes my life easier (which is the true test of the usefulness of a gadget.) Amazon's Kindle is doing fairly well, and they are selling a lot of Kindle books. I think they could sell more. A lot more.

Amazon is missing a stellar opportunity: Book clubs. People who read a lot are often members of book clubs and/or book discussion groups. Tying such a service to the Kindle would make a lot of sense. When I say "book club", I'm really talking about two different animals. The first, and currently the most popular as far as I can tell, are book discussion groups. These are groups of people who all read the same book, and then discuss that book. Amazon could easily set up such a service, or better yet, make it easy for Kindle owners to set up such services themselves (or even better yet, do both. The official Amazon Kindle Book Club and affiliate book clubs). Amazon could give small discounts on book club books. They could make it easier to grab the notes you make on the book available on your computer (using whispernet, of course). They could really do something powerful with the idea of Book Discussion groups.

The second type of book club is the "book of the month club" type, where you automatically get a book every month (unless you opt-out). I always found the opt-out thing annoying, but it was useful in that I often ended up with stuff I wouldn't ordinarily read. Amazon could easily set up multiple Book of the Month clubs (Sci-Fi, Mystery, Romance, etc), and could even make it Opt-in (you just get an email describing the Book of the Month, and the discount on that book.)

Really Amazon, you could build a community of buyers around your Kindle device. (And by the way, Barnes and Noble, this is equally true of the nook). And these communities would cost you very little, and you'd make a heck of an ROI. Think it over, Mr. Bezos, and get back to me. :-) (Seriously, though: Amazon, please steal this idea!)

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Shame on You Boston PD

2010-01-14T07:27:00.001-08:00

The Boston PD has decided that citizens who record police while they are making an arrest (even if that arrest is abusive) are engaging in illegal wiretapping. (You can find some more detail at BoingBoing.)

Seriously? Boston PD, this is really unacceptable. Have you forgotten that is the people of Boston who pay your salary? They have every right to record you in action if it prevents you from engaging in abuse. They especially have the right to record you if are engaging in abusive behavior so there is evidence to hold you accountable.

Why the Massachusetts courts haven't struck this down yet is beyond me. I'm not usually one to call for sweeping legislation, but in this case, it is warranted. Congress, make it a law: recording the police or any other public servant while they are on duty is not only legal, it is good citizenship.

Adding Search Engines to Firefox

2010-01-13T07:52:00.001-08:00

If you'd like a larger selection of search engines to add to Firefox then the ones available at Mozilla addons, there's a great repository of search engines at mozedev.org

For example, searching for recipes is something I do very often. Rather than going to epicurious or allrecipes to search, I save myself a step by having them available right in Firefox's search field.

You can find search engines for Firefox at http://mycroft.mozdev.org

The Sayings That Guide My Life

2010-01-12T10:34:00.001-08:00

We all hear short little phrases that somehow stick with us our entire life. For me, there are a few that guide how I live my life. In no particular order, here they are:

Be Mindful - This just reminds me to be aware of the present moment. With how often people are obsessed with the past or the future, it is easy to forget to be here right now. This is my reminder.

Be Efficient - Google's "Don't Be Evil" is nice, but I detect a significant amount of the "Be Efficient" mindset whenever I listen to Google employees. Efficiency is important, and they know it. So do I.

What other people think of you is none of your business - Really, it's not. I just don't care what other people think of me. It's just not important.

You don't have to accept unacceptable behavior - and I never, ever do.

If you're bored, then you're boring - I don't even really know what boredom is anymore. I can always find something interesting to focus on.

More structure = less innovation - I just added this. It appeared, in a slightly different form, in the book Googled. It just sang to me when I read it, so it's been added to my master list. :-)

Googly Goodness

2010-01-11T11:52:00.001-08:00

I got some Googly goodness in the mail today. 2 Android Hats, 1 google mouse pad, and a bunch of Google stickers.

Pic below:

My Favorite Picture from Wildwood, NJ

2010-01-10T11:32:00.001-08:00

I went to Wildwood, NJ for a short vacation last summer, and I just got done processing the pics about a week ago. Here's my favorite picture from the whole trip.

How to Get Twitter Spam Under Control

2010-01-09T13:56:00.001-08:00

I'm convinced that Twitter is going about Spam Control the wrong way. They are depending on people to notify them about spam accounts and then checking on them. This seems horribly inefficient though. There are plenty of people who add spammers to a special spammer list on twitter, so they can share that information with their friends.

Twitter, here's what you do: Change that report for spam button to add to spammer list button. The more spammer lists they are on, the more likely they are spam.

Simply, effective, and it doesn't require any more resources. It also allows newbies to see spammers as what they are (since you can publish the number of times a particular user shows up in spam lists).