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We've lived here for two years, and *finally* in one weekend, I found a way to set up the craft room so that I want to work in it.
(Yay! Come craft with me!)
I AM Organized, Well, Almost (Done!) ! - IMRAN ™
With half a dozen passions, dozens of interests, a plethora of things to take care of, a flood of new ideas, hundreds of things in progress, and a 1000-items To Do list, I juggle it all. Where you’d say “This place is a mess,” I would respond that “This mess is a place” where there is method to the madness.
The seeming piles cluttering all my work surfaces are organized chaos. The worst thing someone could do would be to come “clean up and organize” my stuff, because then I wouldn’t know where anything is. The latent workflow and priorities of each item inherently built into everything’s place in the various piles would be destroyed.
The only “organized” thing in my life is the list of all these cluttered things to “organize”.... They are all intended to go into one pile.... called Done!
In the end that is what matters. Much more than an organized unfinished life of interests ignored, passions paused, dreams destroyed.
What do you think?
© 2021 IMRAN™
#IMRAN #philosophy #success #living #happiness #GettingThingsDone #organization #results
Todo board for the slip method
A magnet board made from an old picture frame and some weathered galvanised steel. The action slips are arranged in context groups, e.g. 'dry weather', 'daytime', 'neutral' etc. with symbol and code magnets giving further information, and identifying the actions on the time graph to the right.
The advantage of writing a todo list on individual slips is the flexibility of being able to rearrange them, and move the slips to wherever they may be needed at any given time, e.g. from conception on the move to a project file, to the tickler, to the todo board, and maybe to a portable mini folder/wallet as a reminder when on the go, and perhaps back into the tickler for rescheduling. When the job is done, the slip is removed and the integrety of the list retained. The slip can also have additional, possibly dynamic information added to it, like context or symbols for importance, effort , concentration or time required, or any other criteria.
See the blog post, "Emptying my head to reboot my Project List at Juggling Frogs for the explanation.
My computer desk is made from an old wardrobe, the front panels and door removed, and shelves and a pull-out keyboard shelf added. I added some drawers to a couple of little nesting tables for all the little bits and bobs. Because I live and work in a very small place (a 100 sq ft cabin), there is an overlap between the different spaces and storage areas. As I have to live with my work space, I like it to blend in with the rest of the 'house'.
There is more on organization tools on my website www.judyofthewoods.net
More info about my photography can be found at my blog
See the updated version here
Thought I would add a picture of my office to the Life Hacker pool. Its not too minimalistic but it works well for me, hope you enjoy. If you have any questions feel free to ask!
I got the desk from Costco about 2 years ago. It was originally a U-desk so it has been modified quite a bit to make it work better in the room. Pretty much everything else in the room is from Ikea.
A lot easier to see.
Other Side of Office:www.flickr.com/photos/anthonygrimes/3415964295/
Close up of Desk: www.flickr.com/photos/anthonygrimes/3416766762/
Explore #43
Don't miss the original size picture
From Return to Flight.
NASA's modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft with the Space Shuttle Discovery on top lifts off from Edwards Air Force Base to begin its ferry flight back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The cross-country journey will take two days, with stops at several intermediate points for refueling. (NASA photo by Carla Thomas)
Cindy brought me dinner from Lito's, which included a fortune cookie that wanted to give me grief. But what can I say, the cookie is right.
My Filofax wallet, my Samsung Mobile, my Filofax planner, my pen case, my sun glasses, 3 books, 4 highlight pens, hand creme, cords for the mobile, my medicines, my hairbrush and a lipstick.
The cosy corner and manual office with filing box on one side, and office essentials I want at my fingertip on the other. I have a few lap desk for several projects on the go, which can be stacked on the filing box.
There is more on organization tools on my website www.judyofthewoods.net
I am writing and serializing a book on the slip method, explaining how it works and how it can be integrated with a system.
A productivity scheme so cunning you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel!
If you use Post-its to write down things to do or other notes, try this color coding.
See LifeClever for more: moourl.com/colorpostits
She decided to take a nap in my new Filofax when I was in the middle of studying the GTD system. "Getting things done" isn't easy to do when a fat cat is laying ontop of the notes :)
The tickler is how I remind myself of things in the future.
Writeup is at askwebb.blogspot.com/2006/09/getting-things-done-part-4-t...
My current (July 2007) organizer layout. One Circa notebook with quad-ruled 5.5" x 8.5" paper for Capture. Second Circa notebook for Calendar, Errata, Notes, Next Actions, Waiting For, and blank Project Detail sheets for notes.
The Calendar pages are 2-pages per Week, and are a custom design.
Why NOT put the apps you use most on the first screen of your iPhone? Find out at www.kadavy.net/blog/archive/2008/03/declutter_your.php
Pocket Moleskine infobook (after).
GTD hack applied. Tabs now read (from top to bottom): next actions, waiting for, projects, someday/maybe, reference and the expandable inner pocket is now a mobile inbox.
A perfect, compact GTD tool!
For more info, please read this entry on my GTD blog.
For brainstorming tasks and other things, I use small sticky notes on acetate covered magnets. The notes are quick to attach and can be moved around countless times without loosing stickiness or curling up. Plain paper can be slipped into a clear pocket.
A note on goals: when working for a goal, the options sometimes expand, as the means are not necessarily as important as the end result. Goals don't have to be some lofty abstract thing, just a result you strive for. Before I found out about the benefits of goal planning, I would often get fixed on some project, and not see the alternatives. For example, I might decide that I would have to build a shed to store a load of stuff. The goal is not to build a shed, but to store the stuff I need. This could be potentially achieved by other means. I could make more space in existing buildings by decluttering, and getting rid of stuff I don't need, and by careful planning of storage space.
For more information on the slip method visit www.judyofthewoods.net
I love seeing these sorts of photos from other people, so when I realized I need to clean out my bag, I decided to do my own.
Generally, I also carry a knitting project (socks, often) and books for class.
More photos of my GTD System are here: flickr.com/photos/sparrowlight/sets/72157613079321706/
A cardboard easel with a wood strip glued to the lower front edge displays the goal/masterlist booklet with the goals on the front, the in-progress project booklet with the action slips on the front, and the scaled down to-do list. The easel can also display inspirational material which is bound with Rollabind-like disks at the top.
There is more on the slip method on my website.
Reorganizando meus arquivos no home-office depois de trazer a papelada do ex-consultório, agora em obras. Aplicando nova taxonomia com auxílio de cores e hierarquizando conforme planejei num baita mindmap.
(estou montando desde o início do ano, acho que essa semana concluo; posterei no blog um tutorial bacaninha)
This mini tickler is my 2 1/2 dimensional calendar and to-do list. Each slip is only a task 'docket' written on a small slip of paper. I may do away with the daytime/evening devision in the tickler, as the slips will go into context once the day arrieves. Instead, I may make the three pockets into A, B, and C priority, where A is absolutly date specific.
More details on how it works on my website www.judyofthewoods.net/organised.html
A major component of my GTD process is the daily checklist. I print one of these every day. It's a huge help.
See askwebb.blogspot.com/2006/09/getting-things-done-part-3-d... for the description.
The project organiser is made up of the booklet rack and an A3 tray rack. The desig or writing material of any current project is worked on a tray which can slide into the rack and allows me to leave work in progress to remain spread out, but tidied away when not worked on. This extends the desk space several times over, and prevents clutter, and also allows me to work on a project out in the garden by simply picking up the tray.
There is more on the slip method on my website.
For more on how the tickler works, see original tickler
There is more on the slip method on my website.
About every other month I clear it off enough to see the top. I need to somehow find the time to process my inbox(s) down to zero so maybe I can keep them that way...
Do you know what a Hipster PDA is? Paper based productivity.
Check into www.diyplanner.com www.43folders.com and probably a slew of others I don't recall.
Computer programs are just not keeping up, they don't do enough, and thus being irritated I end up slacking more. The Hipster for me is an effort to reclaim my thoughts via David Allens GTD methodologies in a fraction of space. I use standard index cards, color coded, and printed on an as needed basis. The end goal is to have all the things in my world end up on cards, then get sorted in a daily and weekly basis to help continue moving my life forward.
I am writing and serializing a book on the slip method, explaining how it works and how it can be integrated with a system.
Credit for the idea of having week days in a row comes from RossMania's tickler
It is all very "Adrian Mole" keeping a diary, but it is something that I have tried to do for years and years. It only takes a couple of days of not being bothered and then you simply give up, and it is a shame as I find it not only interesting to read back to see what you did at a particular time, but also handy at times too. There then are two types of diary, one that records your thoughts and feelings, and one that records your activities; maybe you can combine the two. I find nothing more interesting than reading books of people's diaries, possibly someone who was a no-one and yet got their life diary published and so off you go and read about their everyday, possibly boring, life. Writing such a diary can be enjoyable too, sitting up last thing at night going through what you have done during the day, your feelings and possibly your thoughts on the future.
The whole problem is though is that you might find yourself spending more time writing about your life than actually living it! It would be great to find an hour each day to jot everything down and it would make such interesting reading afterwards too, but I don't have time to do that and, more importantly, I don't have the discipline and motivation to keep it up! However, I would still find it handy and interesting if I could someway record at least things I have done and include "memory triggers". Triggers that mean nothing to nobody apart from yourself. You might jot down "lunch at pub" which doesn't really say that much, but it might trigger your memory to go back to that moment and you remember how it was sunny, how you had a sausage roll and pint of Sussex. Possibly a bit boring again to anyone else, but for you that trigger has taken you back in your mind to that moment.
So the whole idea then is triggers for the emotional side of things, and simply recording what you have done for the practical side of things. I came across the idea of the "One Sentence Journal" (OSJ) from one or two websites and that seemed to fit everything that I was looking for. The idea with the OSJ is that you just sum up the whole day with one sentence, giving you 365 sentences per year and a whole load of memory triggers included. I kind of adapted that a bit to my own use and keep the one sentence idea but maybe have a "one sentence" a number of times during the day as I do different things. The whole day then is recorded as a number of single sentences which is more than enough to record the day, includes plenty of memory triggers, and is quick and simple to do (ie you will tend to keep doing it).
I started this then using a simple text file which did the job fine and being simple text meant that any computer system and application would be able to read it (completely future proof!). This however came against the problem I was having all the time which was I had to be on a computer in order to quickly add something to it. I kind of stopped adding things outside of work and slowly I couldn't be bothered to find the file and add things to it at work too.
What I needed I thought was something that would accept my input and then in the background do the rest, ie add it to a text file somewhere, date it and really leave me to get on with things while it did it all. For this then I wrote a number of Bash scripts on my Linux system to do everything I needed. It accepted text and then filed it in the correct place for me. Fantastic, but still fully digital and meant I had to log into a Linux shell to use it (unless at sometime I could have had got round to putting a web front end to it maybe).
I then came across Twitter which seemed to suit the idea of OSJ completely and infact I noticed some people did use it for that. Never wanting to trust any online service (what happens if/when Twitter goes down and losses its data?!) I wrote another Bash script to grab my Twitter entries using the Twitter API and then feeding that into the existing scripts I had written. So, everytime I added something on twitter, it soon arrived in the correct text file on my computer for me at anytime to look at.
Using twitter solved one problem as I no longer needed to be in front of a computer to add things as I could use the SMS feature of Twitter to submit things. However, never a great mobile phone fan, I soon tired of trying to type things out on a phone number pad! Also, I couldn't really record things fully as I knew my Twitter feed was available for everyone and also probably being picked up by Google. I couldn't mention names, companies, projects and really it seemed like I was having to write in code which possibly I would forget years in the future. I did set my Twitter account to be private, but I still thought that Twitter continues to store my data and maybe one day it could easily share it with the world if it liked, who knows?!
So..... I looked at my Moleskine and thought here is something I have with my all the time along with a pen. Why don't I simply jot things down in there seeing as that is what it is for. If I want to store it digitally one day then I can simply scan the pages in which would be no problem (with my new super duper scanner I had bought!).
My OSJ pages then contain a date for each day. Starting with the format of YYYYmmdd (just habbit as someone who scripts and programs bits and pieces!) it was hard to read, so then used a more human readable date, lining off the end of the each week so I can quickly see the weeks. I tend to fit one week of these per page so it becomes easy to read back. For each entry I have the time and then the OSJ bit.
It is quick and simple, you write and then forget. It makes interesting reading and is handy to remember what and when you did something. It is pretty boring for a third party to read, but for me it is fill with memory triggers.
One of the former systems I used for Getting Things Done.
Using A7-sized ruled index cards. Several next actions on each index card (not just one next action). List of projects and someday/maybe in the back. Loop for holding a pen.
Section "N" for next actions, section "W" for 'waiting for', section, section "P" for projects, "S" for someday/maybe and section "I" for inbox (not visible in the picture).
More info here.
The case is made of thick cardboard - mounting board off-cuts from a framing shop - glued and pinned with thumb-tacks to a wooden base. The deviders are pieces of thin card - confectionary boxes from a local chocolate shop. Each booklet has a card backing, a slash pocket for paper that cannot be punched), some blank paper, project support material (notes and sketches) and a pocket card at the front with action slips. The tabs sticking out are 'spine' markers with sketches of each project for visual reference. The booklets are bound with Rollabind-like discs.
There is more on the slip method on my website.
I have always liked the idea of a proper notebook, nonbranded and plain inside - use it for whatever I fancy. I was given a Moleskine as a Christmas present and for a couple of years I used it now and then to jot down the odd note and plan, but I never really 'used' it as such.
Years later I find myself using 'Getting Things Done' or GTD technique and had been quite happy using online systems such as 'Remember The Milk (RTM). However, it came to me that in order to get things done in my life when using an online tool I had to actually be online. If something came to me while I happened to be out or anywhere away from the computer then I had to either try to remember it (that kind of went a bit against the GTD idea) or jot it down somewhere. Infact, even if I was online, I would have to stop what I was doing, switch over to a web browser, load up RTM (a lot of the time this would be in a tab already loaded in Firefox though), go to the correct page and then write it down in there. After all that, I would find my concentration had broken and so off to get a cup of coffee before I carry on. What I was then really looking for was something that could be with me all the time, at hand, would not distract, and would be able to take both formal and quick informal scribbles. The idea of either my aging Psion Series5 or my Visor Handspring seemed good ideas.
The Psion I had used loads of times for similar things, back through the years from early Series 3 it had done very well. However, the screen and the keyboard was never really that easy to use. As much as I had fought it over the years, it was always a lot quicker to jot things down with a pen and paper. The Hanspring Palm I had switched to from the Psion and it was fantastic. But again, I found it quicker at times to use pen and paper to quickly jot things down, attempting to do the same on the Palm and its shorthand meant re-writing letters over and over again. My handwriting is never too good, so a computer had little chance!
I then picked up my Moleskine and started to use it to jot down those quick things and at the end of the day I would 'sync' it up with RTM, copy all the new thoughts and things from the Moleskine to RTM where they would then be handled.
This lasted a couple of weeks but all the time I seemed to be fighting the online way of doing things. At work it was all fine, in front of the computer all day everything was there for me. But at home I would have to turn the computer on, sit at a desk and look at RTM. It seemed all a bit over the top and long way round for doing things when all I wanted to do was to quickly look up a date or check something or tick off an item on one of my lists. With all that in mind, I then used the Moleskine a lot more as a kind of "offline" RTM where I would write down and tick things off a list and then 'sync' if up with the real RTM the next day at work. Pointless!
So I finally thought my "digital urge" and decided to go "retro" with PDAs! I decided to look up the numerous web pages on using Moleskines (or indeed any notebook) to "Get Things Done", including numerous groups on flickr too. From it all, I came up with how I could in theory do everything I needed to do in a notebook, taking a bit from everyone and even including some of my own bits.
Since then I have used an "offline" PDA for a year and it is still going strong. It is with me all the time, I am able to quickly edit/add things to it using a method that is usable in any light conditions (ok, maybe not pitch black!), with any input device I can find nearby, and it doesn't take batteries or get viruses or do anything nasty!
So I am now ready to go through what I decided upon and how it all works. More to come.....
One section of my notebook is set aside for general notes. This can be anything at all, just scribbling, doodling, remembering small bits and pieces, note taking during meetings and really.... well anything!
It does have a set format, each week I begin by lining across the page so that I can quickly see each week throughout my notes. I note down things on TV for a week (see a future post about that!), tasks that I would like to complete during the week. Everything else is completly free text and is really a "rough book" for the week. The photo here shows on the left page a map of London (in my own style) showing Victoria station to the Natural History Museum and back to Buckingham Palace. That week, we all went to a trip to London and here was my map with all I needed for trains, buses and underground for the day. I should make sure that at no time in the future do I ever apply for a job as a map maker!