murtworld

Choosing a GTD Reference App

2007-08-30T23:53:00.000-04:00

While much effort and discussion is put into selecting software to manage GTD action and project lists, it seems less attention is given to managing digital reference material. Reference material is essentially anything that you want to have readily available but that does not directly require action. Obvious enough, perhaps, but one thing to consider is that completed actions and project materials can also become useful reference material. And a reference item can also become active in some cases. So it may make sense to have one application that can serve both needs: manage project and action lists as needed but also be able to move these items out of active views when done while keeping them around to refer back to later. Here are a few things to consider when setting up your digital reference system.

Continuity

It's important to have continuity with a digital reference system. I've tried many different approaches throughout the years, and the result is that I have a ton of possibly valuable data tucked away in various files, created by various applications, on various machines and backup media. This really limits the utility of keeping reference data in the first place. It has to be easily accessible and whole to come in handy. One of my slowly moving after-hours projects is to consolidate this old data by going through a vast sea of old stuff and converting it to plain text files, which can serve as-is or be imported into whatever information manager is striking my fancy at present. I'm also getting into the habit of saving out current material to plain text, RTF, HTML and other ubiquitous formats since I never know when I might switch programs again. Ideally, I would stop switching altogether. Any basic system used consistently beats a feature-rich system used haphazardly.

Old or New School

Another consideration is whether you want to go with an online or offline application. There are several web-based apps that have sprung up for keeping online notes, and I don't have anything against them. There is the blatant advantage with online apps that your information can be available anywhere you can get a net connection. My main objection to this approach is not even security, although that can be an issue depending on the sensitivity of your information. The one thing that makes me still prefer desktop applications for digital reference material is speed. I don't want to wait for a page to load (or even an AJAX edit box to appear); I want to start typing or pasting or importing as fast as my fingers will let me. You have to remove every possible barrier to getting information in and out of the system. I do believe that eventually the lines between desktop application and web-based application will blur to the point where we'll get the benefit of both at the same time, but for now I'm going to use the processing power I have on my desktop for reference material (and possibly reveal that, yes, I'm over thirty-five).

Scope

Scope is another factor. Do you want to save only ideas you personally generate, or do you want to download the web? I believe you have to strike a balance between these extremes. It is obviously silly to clip or save everything remotely interesting you come across on the web, because 95% of the time, that same information will always be out there to find again. On the other hand, clipping something from the web into your local store can provide benefits:

you now have it in case it disappears from the web
you eliminate the time it takes to search for the item again, especially if it was difficult to locate in the first place
information in your local store has a higher implicit relevancy

Since disk storage is practically free, if you can quickly get something you think you may need or want again into your reference system without interrupting your workflow (any method that takes longer than 1-5 seconds will probably end up being a barrier), I say go for it if it makes you feel better (it does that to me). Caveat: you will probably be a happier person if you never even consider the problem of the best way to clip material from the web.

Complexity/Features

Determine what you most often do with reference material. Do you just quickly look things up? Do you need nice output options with formatting? There are countless apps for storing snippets of information and features do vary widely. Try to select one that has the feature set that is most likely to help you with the way you live and work and don't be wowed by features that you may never use.

A reference system can be built from everything from a single text file to a vast array of customized databases. The key here, as with many things in life, is to go as simple as possible but no simpler (yes, Einstein). I struggle with this, tending to attempt to make complicated systems to mirror life, which is complex. Simpler systems will reduce stress and you will also remove the inefficient time spent maintaining an elaborate system (granted, you may also become bored once your fiddling has been taken away). You may think that adding 29 custom fields to each entry or devising an intricate ontology to represent your knowledge model is a good use of your time (I've thought this before, too), but I doubt that it really is. The essence of a reference system is to enter information easily and retrieve information easily.

The more/less list

2007-05-06T19:22:00.000-04:00

One of the most powerful (and deceptively simple) principles of productivity is having lists that are reviewed periodically. A system like GTD offers a bare-bones framework for core lists, but lately I've been slowly adding to the number of lists I create and review -- especially for tracking things that are more vague or abstract than projects and actions. One of these is the "more/less" list.

Basically, the idea is to keep track of things of which you want more and things of which you want less. These can be anything, but I find it especially useful when applied to analyzing input. At a certain point, you will feel like you are capturing, processing and acting on all the moving parts in your life. You will have a comprehensive inventory and will be moving through things with a nice sense of control. But you may still not be getting the particular results you want, and I think a lot of this comes down to controlling input in a certain way. If you are committed to dealing with everything that comes in and are in fact doing so, you eventually need to adjust some different sorts of knobs to modify input so that it matches your higher level objectives. If certain incoming items cause a strong reaction, whether positive or negative, I find these are good candidates for the more/less list (Ask yourself - "Do I want more stuff like this, or less?").

Reviewing the more/less list is essentially a trigger for brainstorming, and I review mine during my weekly review. For each item, I think of ways I can modify processes and communications to alter what sort of input I am getting. There are usually no instant results with these sorts of changes, and some could be very slow to change (taking months or even years), but I find this additional list offers a simple but effective way to exert a little more control on some very subtle factors.

note to self

2007-04-22T20:54:00.000-04:00

I'm getting to the point where I am rarely excited about the latest web-based service. Many are only marginally useful and tend to just eat up time. Jott, however, may be an exception. This service lets you call a number and dictate short notes and messages for yourself or others that are then emailed to you. They are also stored on the website, which seems less useful (soon a knowledge worker's day will be characterized by spending 90% of their time logging in to various sites).

So far, I've only goofed around with Jott by calling the number and saying stupid stuff that I send to myself. I call this "testing the transcription accuracy." The accuracy is fairly decent, although a few times it has missed words. It's hard to say if this is something that I will really end up using or just playing with a few times. It's still quicker to jot something down on an index card.

Gall's Law

2007-02-09T13:58:00.000-05:00

Here's a nice rule of thumb I found:

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.

Gall's Law - Wikipedia

Pedestrian processes

2007-02-08T23:04:00.000-05:00

My last post may have made it sound like I am just going to throw process out the window altogether and just get along based solely on a handful of heuristics. That's close, but not quite it.

The problem with process is that it can tend to become overly complicated. Complexity that you don't really need just saps your productivity. On the other hand, if something is totally freeform, with no process at all, you will miss out on the opportunity for leveraging efficiency.

So, my goal is to have processes that are as unobtrusive and pedestrian as possible.

I find things like simple lists and checklists are often enough to do the job. And if they are applied consistently and methodically, they let you work through things without much thought - and you might even be able to think about something else while mindlessly working your way down the list.

simplify in 2007

2007-01-21T22:09:00.000-05:00

I've come to believe that the less I am thinking about productivity, the more productive I am probably being.

In 2007, I hope to eschew complex strategies for productivity in favor of keeping simple concepts in mind as I go about my work. My key concepts:

80/20 thinking
focus
leverage

That's it.

Review - Total Workday Control

2006-09-23T12:34:00.000-04:00

I recently finished reading Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook: The Eight Best Practices of Task and E-Mail Management by Michael Linenberger. I am not naturally a big fan of Outlook, as its features seem rather pedestrian in comparison to other information management software I've used. But it does have a few advantages: it integrates seamlessly with my Treo Pocket PC phone, email can be searched with my current desktop search engine (Copernic Desktop Search 2), and Outlook's features are so boring that I find I am less distracted with trying to do cool things and end up just getting my work done.

Michael's system gives big nods to Getting Things Done in many places, and if you are already following GTD there are still some good tips here. TWC also serves as a standalone system, so you may benefit the most if you don't already have a personal workflow system in place - this is a very specific, hands-on explanation that would be an ideal starting point if you are feeling overwhelmed, haven't evaluated any system at all, and use Outlook by choice or necessity. The main differences from GTD are no mention of contexts and the grouping of tasks into two main sets based on whether they are dated or undated.

The best idea for me was the strategy to create a dated subset of all next actions. This seems to work much better for me than having to look at a list of 300 @computer items. Essentially the TaskPad view in Outlook becomes a task tickler file where the tasks you MUST complete today, along with the ones you plan to complete today, are in front of you in a short, manageable list. This requires a few minutes of daily planning first thing in the morning just to make sure that short list is both challenging and feasible, but the payoff is certainly worth it to me. Reviewing ten or fifteen items at a time is simply more efficient than scanning a huge list.

There are some useful tricks in the book, and although people already obsessed with productivity who read all the blogs, etc., may not find enough new material to be satisfied, I always enjoy evaluating a complete system that is explained thoroughly. It's also a system that's flexible enough to be integrated into what you are already doing with GTD and your own personal hacks.

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Firewall for ideas?

2006-07-30T13:53:00.000-04:00

I am beginning to think I need some sort of conceptual firewall to separate ideas from the mass of other digital information I collect. I have lots of ideas, some clear and many more vague and fuzzy, and I dutifully record them as they come to me. However, I don't seem to have a review mechanism that puts these ideas back in front of me at appropriate times. I do come across some of them while searching for other information I need in the course of work, but I inevitably tend to ignore them at that time because I am not in "idea review" mode; I'm just trying to get work done.

Idea may also be too specific a term: essentially I'm talking about any non-action oriented thinking that I do. This is probably the most valuable type of thinking, but it gets lost amid the fray of details that make up the majority of working life.

It would be nice to have a process to make sure that when I am doing more abstract thinking, I can get a list of related thoughts I've already had on a topic. Of course, any information management program with search can help in this regard, but what I'm getting at is that I think it needs to be unbundled from all the other information: a dedicated "thoughts" database.

I'm a data aggregator by nature and I want to shovel diverse types of information into one master data store. In part this is because I believe unforeseen connections can emerge this way. But I wonder if some high level segmentation wouldn't be more beneficial.

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The productivity ceiling

2006-07-29T16:18:00.000-04:00

If you spend a lot of time reading about productivity and efficiency methods, tips, and hacks, you may start to get the feeling that your productivity is an infinitely expandable thing. While it's true you can always shave off a few seconds here and there, the fact is that you do have a productivity ceiling, and once you start bumping up against this ceiling, saving seconds becomes counterproductive. You need some kind of leverage to either raise the ceiling or get back to where you have some room above your head.

How do you raise the ceiling? In an organization, the answer is easy - you add more people. Think about it. Each additional person in your organization adds around forty hours per week to your overall productivity. Now that's some hack!

I suppose the same could apply to personal life as well: hire a maid, a gardener, etc. Outsource whatever you can. Even then, there is a point where the projects you undertake will have you hitting your upper limit of productivity. All you can do at that point is renegotiate time frames and even eliminate some of your projects and responsibilities.

I hope this doesn't put a damper on anyone's spirit. I just think it's worth keeping in mind that even the most formidable arsenal of productivity tricks can't save you from hitting natural limits.

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productivity

Balancing with modes

2006-07-28T16:51:00.000-04:00

A balanced life is one of the recurring themes in personal development and productivity. Usually this centers around balancing work and personal life. In Covey's material, the idea is to balance various roles that a person plays. In David Allen's, the idea is not really directly addressed other than an implicit promise that if you are managing all the details, you will intuitively be able to balance at higher levels.

I've never had much success at forcing myself to take action in various areas or roles; I tend to do very well in a few areas at the expense of others. Of course, that's the very problem the personal development gurus are trying to address, but I've recently been thinking about the problem a different way. Instead of trying to balance out different areas, I simply "give in" to what I call my "modes." I've identified certain recurring sets of mood, desire, energy levels, etc. that I sort of naturally cycle through, and each one is ideal for a certain type of action, thought or focus. It's usually pretty obvious which one I'm in, and I'm now trying to play to the strengths of each mode while I'm in it. It's very similar to the rather obvious advice of "eat when you are hungry and sleep when you are tired."

My modes:

pragmatic

This is the mode where work (programming), administration, and other reality-based items get done. Luckily for me, I'm pretty much in this mode from at least nine to five throughout the work week. You may not think that sounds lucky, but business is essentially pragmatic and to do well means not straying too far off into more flighty realms.

intellectual

This is when I want to read, write, and think. While business has intellectual aspects, for me this is more about things like philosophy, history, culture, and fiction. This is solitary activity for me so it also serves as a type of mental recreation.

organic/spiritual/creative

In some ways, this is kind of a "spaced out" mode that is the opposite of pragmatism. I do a lot of standing or sitting around while in this mode, interspersed with bursts of unrelated and unplanned action. In this mode I am totally open to intuition and do not refer to any lists, plans, or even the computer. I like nature a lot in this mode. I tend to only get into this mode on the weekends.

social

An obvious one: this is when I want to hang out with other people.

oblivious

This could be sleeping, watching TV, reading popular fiction, etc. It's a sort of complete disconnect from real life.

mischievous

This is (now) a somewhat rare mode for me, but it's also one of the most fun! I write most of my songs while in this mode, a song being a sort of trick or joke where I can say anything and wrap it up in sugar-pill capsule form.

physical

The mood to be in this mode strikes me very rarely, which brings up the next obvious question - how do you naturally increase the occurrence of a particular mode?

Of course, most of these are personal and everyone will have their own set.

I'm not above forcing personal development on myself, but I've been trying to capitalize on natural cycles and impulses to reduce my own rigidity and make the most of natural, fluid approaches. This is mainly because I realized that micro-managing everything on a computer is only helpful for certain areas and is actually detrimental to others.

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Ultra Recall discount

2006-07-12T19:27:00.000-04:00

You can get a discount (today only) on Ultra Recall over at Bits du Jour.

I've been using Ultra Recall for almost two years now, and while my initial review was good, my opinion has only gotten better with time. This is just a great program for info packrats.

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ultra-recall

Windows utilities roundup

2006-06-28T19:52:00.000-04:00

Here are a few essential utilities I've found for Windows:

KatMouse

This makes the mouse scroll wheel actually scroll in most software. The part I like the best is the ability to scroll any window the mouse pointer is over, even if that window doesn't have focus.

File-Ex

It's hard to remember how much I hated the default Windows file open dialog, because File-Ex replaces that dialog with something so much better. It reopens the dialog to the last folder you were in, provides quick access to your most-used directories, and adds a few other file utilities right in the dialog.

HandyFind

If you love Firefox's "find as you type" feature, and miss it when you have to use Internet Explorer and other apps, you'll like HandyFind.

Aid4Mail

If you've ever had to switch between mail clients on Windows, you know this can be a nightmare (especially if Outlook is part of the equation). Aid4Mail provides easy conversions from a number of popular mail formats and also gives the ability to create standard zipped mbox archives for long-term storage. Operations can be performed on files located on CD/DVD, and there is a filtering/extraction mechanism which can be useful for retrieving select messages off of backup media.

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Ultra Recall 2.0 released

2006-05-23T10:42:00.000-04:00

Ultra Recall 2.0 has just been released, with several new features. The program has also been split into Standard and Professional versions (current licensed users of 1.0 can upgrade for free to 2.0 Professional).

The best new feature, in my opinion, is the ability to open multiple tabs within the database. Each tab can be used to view a web page or any other item from the database. This really addresses one of the few weaknesses of the first generation program, which was the need to jump back and forth between items a lot (and spend too much time navigating the tree hierarchy). Now you can just open the ones you need in multiple tabs and the tree position is synched to each tab's item. It's sort of like Firefox for your information database.

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ultra-recall

Google Notebook

2006-05-16T14:17:00.000-04:00

http://www.google.com/notebook/

People who like clipping stuff from the web will want to check this out. There is a Firefox extension that gives you access to the notebook from within Firefox. In addition to clipping, you can also just add notes that you type in. I think the potentially cool thing about this is you have access to all the stuff you've clipped from anywhere you can get to a browser and log in to your Google account.

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Are next actions necessary?

2006-05-05T02:09:00.000-04:00

I've come to believe that next actions are unnecessary, except when a project is stuck.

This obviously cuts out a big piece of the GTD methodology, but I think it's right for my type of work: web development projects.

Next actions in themselves hold little information about their relative value, unless you start trying to prioritize them, which is not only futile but is also just too time consuming. So, in theory, you rely on your "intuition" to select a next action based on context, time available, etc. Unfortunately, I don't think intuition can be reliably trusted when you have 20-30 development projects in play. When I have a couple hundred next actions in front of me, I simply can't be trusted to pick the right ones. I found that I would consistently gravitate toward certain projects while avoiding others.

If all of my projects were personal projects, this might not be such a big deal. But when dealing with client expectations, contracts, etc., this sort of randomness and thinly veiled psychological preference isn't very logical.

The other thing is that programming/technical work doesn't really lend itself to doing tiny pieces here and there. I am about 1000% more effective when I can really immerse myself in a project and complete as many pieces in one sitting as possible. When going down a list of next actions, I'd find that right as I settled in and focused on a project and completed some tiny action, well, now it's time to switch projects.

I've found a pretty simple solution: a rotating project list, where I work on the project with the oldest "last activity" timestamp. And instead of just doing one thing for the project, I complete as many elements as I can in one sitting - and I push myself to reach a point where I can give the client something new to see or at least get the ball into someone else's court.

This has several advantages. For one, I can't leave a project unattended for too long because it's going to rotate around to the top of the stack again. This has really helped me make progress on projects - especially "easy" ones - that before I would have kept deferring until later. This also helps improve client perception because I'm actually getting to points where they get an update more often. It's easier to determine what to do next, because I may have ten open actions for a project, but they are often related and several can be knocked out at once; and a list of ten is a lot less daunting than a list of 200. And finally I avoid some of the loss of efficiency that comes with switching projects.

This can easily be implemented with a stack of index cards, where you just write each project on a card, start working on the top card's project, and move it to the back of the deck when you're done. And of course, any digital list that lets you stamp an item with the date and time and sort in ascending order by the timestamp works as well.

Of course, the concept of determining the very next physical action is a great one to apply in cases where something is just not moving forward. And I think it's also useful as a type of bookmark to help you remember what was going on if you get interrupted or can't complete something in one sitting. But for the bulk of the type of work I do, adhering to the methodology was actually becoming counterproductive.

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OutlinerSoftware.com launched

2006-05-01T17:06:00.000-04:00

I've just launched a new site, OutlinerSoftware.com, for discussion of outlining, PIM, knowledge/information management and productivity software. Eventually I hope to add a thorough database of the different software out there, but for now the site centers around a discussion forum.

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Smart reading assistant for RSS feeds

2006-03-12T11:44:00.000-05:00

Since I am now having RSS feeds routed to my email, I thought I'd run an experiment to set up a smart reading assistant.

The idea is to use POPFile, a Bayesian mail filter, to classify my feed messages into three categories: high interest, medium interest, and boring. High interest messages are ones I'd probably like to read as they come in; medium interest messages are those I'd like to read when I have time; boring messages are ones I won't miss reading at all.

POPFile learns very fast when dealing with just two buckets, inbox and spam. You can start getting decent results within just a couple of days. Of course, the distinction between good messages and spam is usually pretty clear.

Any time you add new buckets to POPFile, accuracy is going to go down at first as it adjusts to the new scheme. It also seems that my distinction between highly interesting and mildly interesting messages is going to to take longer to train. It's pretty much got the "boring" category working after about a week of training.

I'm not sure yet if this will work for the long term, but it seems like a worthwhile experiment to see if my reading list can be automatically prioritized.

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My top 10 GTD tips

2006-01-17T02:45:00.000-05:00

So, after being a GTD acolyte for several years now, I thought I'd share some tips about what has worked best for me, along with some of the quagmires I've learned to avoid.

1. Start anywhere
Anything you can do to make yourself more productive and more effective is worth doing. If you can't process everything in your life in one sitting when starting out, don't sweat it. Start from scratch and then make a tiny dent in your backlog each day.

2. Find the real next action and name it well
Make sure the next action for your project is a real next action - that is, a physical act that you can do in one sitting. Tweak your language so the notation for the action appeals to your desire to check off small accomplishments in rapid succession.

3. Process your inboxes frequently
You should process your inboxes every day. If you miss a day or two, you should feel bad and do it as soon as possible.

4. Keep a real projects list
Don't confuse your list of projects with your project reference material. If you rely on your reference material to tell you about what projects you have, you will inevitably miss some that don't have reference material yet.

5. Simplify
Your tools and processes should be as simple as possible. It has to be easy to work your system.

6. Don't obsess
Are you getting things done or are you obsessing about the subtle nuances of your system? If subtle nuance intrigues you, try obsessing about it by writing a novel, not caressing your action lists.

7. Observe and extend (feedback loops)
Consider the efficacy of your approaches at pre-determined intervals. Make sure your thoughts aren't wasted: come up with heuristics and procedures to make everything you do easier. The weekly review is a great time to do this.

8. Be forgiving
Not everyone in the world is a manic detail tracker like you. Don't be too upset when others don't fall right in line with your GTD regimen. Let them do it their way, but if you are waiting on something from them, be sure to track it diligently on your @waiting list. ;-)

9. Install once
If you follow GTD discussions too closely or too frequently on the web or on mailing lists, you will end up installing your system multiple times. Why waste time reformatting your life? Install once and run.

10. Escape GTD
I find it very relaxing and productive to completely escape GTD thinking on a regular basis (like on the weekend). This doesn't mean I'll completely shirk my duties for entire days, but I'll go into "organic" mode for several hours at a time, where I am not thinking at all about doing anything. Oddly enough, this is a good way to generate lots of ideas about how to do things better.

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RSS feeds to email - it's easy!

2006-01-17T00:15:00.000-05:00

If you would like to have RSS feeds delivered to you as email messages, check out rssfwd.com. You simply enter the feed's URL, then your email address, and you're all set.

I set up a separate email address just for feeds so they are easier to filter.

You may shudder at the prospect of shoving even *more* stuff into your mailbox - but I kind of like the idea of reducing the number of places I have to go to manage information. Since I automatically file all feeds into an @read folder, they don't clutter up my inbox and I can scan through them at my leisure.

Note: you can't really manage your subscriptions by default from the site; you have to use the links at the bottom of the messages you get to access these functions.

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redesign

2006-01-15T22:44:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Rebecca for the lovely redesign. I think the content is more legible now.

I've also dropped the "high octane moron" title. That was the title of my never-realized third music zine, and I just wanted to use it somewhere, but it never really matched the content of this site.

yubnub - command line for the web

2006-01-08T00:08:00.000-05:00

Let me just say that I'm the last person to swoon over every Rails app just because it's a Rails app. Something is either useful or it's not, and the language is less important than the functionality.

That said, yubnub.org is the coolest web gadget I've run across in quite a while. Billed as a social command line for the web, the site is a collection of all sorts of useful commands for interacting with the web. Since anyone can add new commands, kids with less workload than you have already added most of the ones you will want to use.

The simplicity and power of the idea is pretty wonderful. And the best part is that it actually can shave a few milliseconds of time off your most common web tasks, which of course adds up. It's definitely geared toward geeks and those who think in terms of text as opposed to heavy mouse users, but for those who can easily remember shortcut commands, this is fab.

Within a few minutes of discovery, I'd already installed this as my default Firefox search engine.

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outliners.com

2006-01-05T00:52:00.000-05:00

Fans of outliner, PIM, mindmap, knowledge management, etc. software should check out this web-based forum. The forum software used sucks, and the site goes down quite a bit, but it's nevertheless a good place to hear about new software and get usage ideas from others.

Household task pictures

2006-01-01T14:31:00.000-05:00

Domestic administration is not my strong suit, particularly when it comes to home repairs or maintenance. I don't have any zeal for do-it-yourself home improvement. And shopping at Lowe's or Home Depot is not my idea of amusement.

Still, there are things that have to be done, especially when your house was built in 1926.

I often forget to write down or capture all the things that have to be done around/to the house. So, my idea is to use my PDA's crappy internal camera to just walk through and around the house and take snapshots of everything that is amiss, broken or needs to be improved. I can then drag these into my database software and track them like any other project or action. It's quick, easy, and perhaps the visual reminders will help inspire me to remember why I should do anything about it at all.

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productivity

The Reinvention Date

2006-01-01T14:30:00.000-05:00

On Friday night, my wife and I went on a "reinvention date," which is an idea I thought of earlier in the day. It's really no different than coming up with mutual goals or resolutions, but "invention" sounds more fun.

I believe your life circumstances are your own invention. Barring accident and disease and other acts of nature that you have no control over, the kind of life you have is basically a result of the mental image you have of the life you want (or think you deserve) and the resultant choices you make.

For instance, when I first graduated from college, the overwhelming image of my life that I had was one where I was self-employed. Within two years, I was self-employed, although my first attempts did not make any money and I couldn't live off them. A few years later, I had figured it out and have now been bossless for almost ten years.

At the time, my self-invention only involved not having a "real" job. I didn't consider many implications beyond that. So now, I find that I indeed got what I wished for, but it wasn't exactly accurate in terms of an ideal life. A lot of things I enjoy, like music and writing, got dropped by the wayside and work consumes too much of my time and attention. It's also hardly bossless - each client is actually like a boss, so I have multiple bosses. That's okay, though; being bossless is no longer my primary desire; it's been replaced with the desire to grow a company and to make time for what I lump together as "personal stuff."

So, it was time to reinvent myself, and of course the new year is the time when the mood for this is right (although it's pretty arbitrary).

When you are married, have business partners, etc., your self-invention can no longer be just a self-invention but must be a group invention. My wife is also my business partner, so that simplifies matters a bit for me.

The idea of the reinvention date was simply to take some time and talk about our ideal lives and how they are different than the ones we have today. From there, we came up with an interim ideal that is reasonably achievable within one year. Based on this imagination of an ideal one year in the future, we came up with some goals and action steps.

Granted, we veered off track a bit. There wasn't much of an agenda and the key to a good meeting is a well-defined agenda. Anyway, I think the idea has merit and I hope it's something we can repeat annually. I'm becoming enamored with processes that repeat on a regular schedule, especially ones that address levels above tasks or next actions. With an endless supply of ground-level actions in your face every day, I think you have to forcibly schedule review at higher levels if you want to modify your circumstances.

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Ultra Recall 1.4 beta available

2005-12-17T12:13:00.000-05:00

A beta version of Ultra Recall 1.4 is now available. The new functionality I'm most excited about is the ability to add reminders to any item in the database.

Ultra Recall was already great, and it's only getting better.

Check this forum thread for details and download.

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