Calendar: Authorized Events Only

Posted Thursday, April 24th, 2008 8:48 am by Dave Moyer

You’ve got lots to do, and you want to get it done. So, you put it down on your calendar in a neat little schedule, so you can block out what you’ll get done, when, and you can sleep well knowing that everything will get done. Great! Well, if you’re like me, and many others like me, more often than not you don’t get everything done on the schedule, if you even try! While you work during the day, in the back of your mind you know that the schedule you’ve set for yourself is unnecessary. It doesn’t really have to get done now. We want to get it done on that day, but we don’t. We do these things when they make more sense to do during the day, often letting the things that we need to do slip away as well.

What’s the easy solution? Don’t put the things you want to do on the calendar. Keep the calendar for things that must be done on that day or at that time, or not at all. “Clean off credenza” most likely doesn’t absolutely have to get done on April 25, 2008 at 2:45pm, while “Print agendas for meeting” most likely will. Find another place to keep track of the time-insensitive tasks, and keep the calendar, in the words of David Allen, “sacred territory”. Not only is your calendar much cleaner, but you know in the back of your mind that you really need to get these things done, and you’re way more likely to.

photo credit: Dylanisneat

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The Work Timer

Posted Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 10:17 pm by Dave Moyer

I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who doesn’t have at least a slight problem with procrastinating, and I have a big one. I tend to do the fun things first, leaving the not-so-fun tasks to do last, or sometimes to not get done at all. There’s no denying that procrastination is a problem, and there’s really no magic bullet to fix it! However, I’ve discovered a few things that can help me get things done now. One of my best tricks is to set something I call a “Work Timer”. Set a timer for 15, 20, or 30 minutes, then close the door, sit down, and work until the timer stops. This often takes lots of discipline, but it works!

There are lots of different things to use as a timer. If you’ve got a simple egg-timer, that works fine! There are lots of websites that offer simple countdown timers with alarms, if that’s appropriate for you. One of my favorite methods is to use a little-known feature of the iPod, called the sleep timer. Tell the iPod how long to play music, and it’ll play until time runs out. It will then turn off! This was designed to save battery life when users are going to sleep, but it works just as well for our purposes. To access this, go to Extras>>Alarms, then go to Sleep Timer. Select the desired time amount, and get to work!

photo credit: fleißiges Faultier

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Think of the actions, not the projects

Posted Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 10:07 pm by Dave Moyer

Not THIS kind of action. Yes, I admit it. I’m a Getting Things Done (GTD) maniac. Many people told me about the book by David Allen, I picked it up, and became addicted after a few chapters. I’ve got my next actions lists, a tickler file, the works. However, this tip doesn’t only apply to people with a full GTD system. It’s just a good idea to help you get more done in the time you have!

When you’re organizing your life, deciding what to do next, rather than thinking of the full project as a whole, such as “hire new assistant” or “install new sink”, think of the individual actions associated with them. Nobody can truly say, “After lunch, I’m going to hire a new assistant.” There’s no way it’s humanly possible to do that in the time you have, and even if you DO have time, looking at the full job can be daunting, making it grind to a painful halt.

Breaking things down into the individual actions that you need to do make things much more manageable and easier to do. Keep a list of all the actions you need to do, such as “Post job listing on Craigslist” or “Buy piping at hardware store”. Simply keeping track of the actions involved allow you to keep lots of projects moving right along at once, rather than having to leave things on hold, or drop responsibilities you promised someone (this could be yourself) you’d take care of.

David Allen suggests that you keep a list of all the projects that you have running at once, and anywhere from one to fifty lists of “next actions” to be performed at different places, times, or dates. Examples of lists I keep are @Home, @Calls, @Email, @Homework, and @Errands. Then, David says, periodically check your Projects list to make sure that you’ve got an action on one of your lists to keep every project moving. You’re not required to do things like this, it’s just something that works for me and other users of David’s system.

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Where Starbucks went wrong

Posted Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 9:59 pm by Dave Moyer

Okay, the title may be a bit misleading. I’m not talking about the great history of the coffee giant and the flaws in their corporation. I’m talking about the miniscule things that matter to me, and very few other people I know. The logo. If you’re not a Starbucksian like me, I’ll clue you in: Starbucks recently released a new brew of coffee, called Pike Place Roast. Along with the release, they temporarily changed their logo on their cups and advertisements to a slightly modified version of their original brown logo.

Though I’m not a big fan of the new logo, that’s not really why I think it was a bad decision on their part. Think about it. The green and black logo is known worldwide as synonymous with “Starbucks”. If you notice a white and green cup across the street, even if you can’t identify the words or design, you assume it’s a Starbucks! Even from a distance, a green circle with some black squiggles in the middle is instantly recognized as the icon of Starbucks. They have an absolutely amazing brand identity, and self marketing that any other business owner in the world would die for! They lose all that every time they switch out the green with the brown.

What should they have done, if they really wanted to show their old identity was still there? Just put the new logo on the sample cups for Pike Place Roast. Put it on the bags of the new roast, or the advertisements touting the new variety. Don’t change everything and lose the incredible identity you have and the phenomenal advertising you get when people buy a cup of your coffee each and every day. Bad, decision, Starbucks. (But I love your green tea lemonade.)

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Top 50 Mahalo Pages

Posted Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 8:15 am by Dave Moyer

Jason Calacanis has released the list of the top 50 pages on Mahalo, and some of them may surprise you. (Mariah Carey lyrics are number 21? Seriously?) Here are the top 25 pages: