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January 27, 2006

Ashes and snow

A few days ago our creative director, Jim Rider, told us "you have to see the exhibit at the pier!" (Santa Monica) Jim's not usually that effusive about anything, so Kathryn managed to get there, and when we were in Santa Monica for meetings yesterday, she got me to go with her again. Truly stunning stuff. It's worth a trip to see Gregory Colbert's work, plus the movable building it's housed in, by Shigero Ban. It'll be at the Santa Monica Pier until May 14. Here's a taste.

Posted by David at 10:34 AM | Comments (6)

January 25, 2006

How we all should be... at least a little bit

After taking our lab, Molly, for a late-evening walk tonight, I was just noticing and affirming how healthy it is when a dog - and a human - have at least ten minutes a day when the tail can't help being straight up.

Posted by David at 09:28 PM | Comments (7)

January 23, 2006

New member of the team

Meet June Bug - newest (rescued) member of at least our extended family (might be ours, might be Anne's - but you can bet she's not going back to the shelter!) Obviously I can't let Kathryn out by herself any more...

The pet recue folks she ran across are terrific, by the way, so if you're in southern California and you can afford a heartstring seriously plucked, check 'em out.

June Bug surveys her new and comfy digs

Posted by David at 11:56 AM | Comments (4)

January 20, 2006

A contributed addendum to newsletter essay

Nice contribution from Bruce Morehouse in Maine, re: my recent newsletter essay about GTD and karate similarities:

David's comment about karate resonated particularly well with me. I'm 47, and have been pooping along in karate for six years. His analogies are all spot on, but there's one big one that I think he missed: Thinking about it doesn't count! I don't progress when I decide to work at it, I only progress when I DO work at it. If I think about practicing my katas, IT ACTUALLY CREATES OPEN LOOPS. If I practice my katas, my flow and moves get better and it closes the loops ("I really need to practice, no I really need to practice, if only I were more disciplined, etc.) If I think about getting on the rowing machine, I get the double negative of NOT getting in shape and of creating MORE self recrimination about getting in shape (multiple open loops!). Get on the machine, get in shape, feel better, loops closed.

Indeed, as someone said, knowledge can be gained from being around smart people; but wisdom is not attained by simply being around the wise.

Posted by David at 06:08 PM

An additional message-leaving tip

After my "tip" in my latest newsletter about leaving and repeating clear call-back info on voicemails, a couple of people wrote me an additional tip, which I hadn't considered, but which makes tons of sense: Leave your call-back number first thing in the message, so in case they need to replay it to get the number (after they've gotten a pen) they don't have to listen to the whole message again. Live and learn.

Posted by David at 09:21 AM | Comments (5)

January 18, 2006

Great article on GTD in current American Way mag

Includes some nice comments from some of our clients out there. If you don't fly AA, there's an online version. Chris Tucker, the author, spent quite a bit of time interviewing folks, took RoadMap seminar...did his homework.

Posted by David at 04:21 PM | Comments (1)

January 15, 2006

GTDing in the far reaches

My friends from my presentation at the Air Force college sent me this pic taken in Afghanistan - as they do what they can to ingrain self-sufficiency and security in the local population (and hopefully get our folks back home asap). Maybe GTD is at least making a small dent...

Posted by David at 07:20 PM | Comments (5)

January 12, 2006

GTD through the Salesforce.com app et al

Ismael Ghalimi, the CEO of Intalio, just posted an informative blog about his application of GTD within a Web 2.0 application environment. He's much more knowledgeable than I am about the various tools and components he's using to customize his system, so I can't comment yet with much experience about how he's doing it, but it seems he's put the various pieces together nicely.

Posted by David at 11:10 AM

Interview in IEEE rag

This interview (just regular GTD stuff) emerged from a fun evening at dinner with physicist-turned-journalist Stephen Cass at IEEE's Spectrum magazine in New York. I got to play like I was a seriously real geek, peeking into that world with him. The photo shoot was fun, too, maybe because I had laryngitis and felt awful... you know, one of those times when you just give it up and get a little crazy...

Posted by David at 12:42 AM | Comments (3)

January 11, 2006

Making stuff manageable - really just kid stuff?

Tim Noyce, a senior ING consultant, just shared this with us:

Just a fun thing. You can do a simple sort of GTD really early in life... I made tidying up bedroom floors a lot less stressfull by teaching my two oldest sons (5 and 7) to put EVERYTHING they could not immediately put away (i.e. Lego goes straight in the lego-box) in a crate. When the floor is clear, it is much, much easier to take things out of the crate one by one and put them away. It makes it much less daunting for them as they often got overwhelmed by the mess that a couple of hours of play creates.

Indeed, defining work makes it a lot easier to get it done.

Posted by David at 12:11 AM | Comments (7)

January 10, 2006

Personal media and learning/training...

Read a couple of entries in Elliott Masie's newsletter (which is a great resource for tapping into current thinking/gear/techniques in the e-learning space, especially if you lean to the latest gizmo side in your interests).

First was his comment about Verizon's new VCast - being able to get broadcast quality video feeds on your phone. (Verizon Wireless is a new client of ours - I'll be keynoting for them in a couple of weeks.) Where will this take us?

Second, just his musing about how much potential there is for people's personal digital cameras to be used for quick capture and distribution of information for training, updating, and educational purposes in their organizations. Good question to ask: what short events or conversations would have usefulness to others, if captured and distributed via easy, small, at-hand digital tools?

Interesting over the years to watch how much technology which seemed to have great usefulness never caught on (videophones?), and which ones finally did, but many years after they "should" have (like answering machines and teleconferencing). Is it just the malaise of people's interest in being more productive? or a mismatch of the form factor with the subteties of what really does add value?

Posted by David at 01:32 AM | Comments (4)

January 09, 2006

Fast filtering stuff

Simon Brown from Australia sent me this link to a good essay by Douglas Johnston on focus, appropriate to GTDish perspectives (and my previous post about Jason's example of prioritizing on the fly...)

Posted by David at 08:34 AM | Comments (5)

January 08, 2006

Priorities moment to moment...

Our seminar leaders met last week to do some editing and fine-tuning of the GTD support materials, and Jason shared an anecdote that was one of those spur-of-the-moment great responses to a perennial seminar question: But how do I structure priorities in the system? His answer reflects a great example of why our lives are so complex with so many variables, any structured system that you felt you'd have to abide by, moment to moment, would be insufficient and create undue constraints. Here's the gist:

If your cellphone rings while you're doing something else, and you notice who the caller is, how many things are you likely to consider in your decision to answer it or not. If you decide not to answer, and in a minute they call again, how many other things go through your mind about whether to answer it then?

Simple situation, but not really...

Posted by David at 02:11 PM | Comments (4)

January 06, 2006

Speaking of good quotes, God, and GTD...

My buddy Andrew Whaley passed this one on, that I hadn't read before:

The enemy often tries to make us attempt and start many projects so that we will be overwhelmed with too many tasks, and therefore achieve nothing and leave everything unfinished. Sometimes he even suggests the wish to undertake some excellent work that he foresees we will never accomplish. This is to distract us from the prosecution of some less excellent work that we would have easily completed. He does not care how many plans and beginnings we make, provided nothing is finished. - St. Francis de Sales

Posted by David at 12:00 AM | Comments (7)

January 05, 2006

Great quote for the new year...

Rob Ryder, in my network, just emailed me a reminder me of this great quote, very appropriate to new beginnings for ourselves...

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so other people won't feel insecure around you. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we un-consciously give other people permission to do the same. As we feel liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

--Nelson Mandela, 1994 Inaugural Speech, written by Marianne Williamson.

Posted by David at 11:25 AM | Comments (6)

January 04, 2006

This is funny...blue-collar Palm

Sorry, couldn' help passing this on.... check it out the blue-collar Palm.

Posted by David at 08:09 PM | Comments (24)

January 03, 2006

Newsday press...

Another pop culture news feature on dealing with stuff... I'm quoted, along with a few others, on dealing with technology clutter. Probably why GTD paperback has been in the top 60's rank on amazon for the last couple of days.

Posted by David at 10:04 PM

January 01, 2006

Great essay on procrastination

Jack Holt e-mailed me a link to Paul Graham's essay on procrastination. It's great, couldn't agree more. Thanks, Jack, and Paul.

Posted by David at 12:47 AM | Comments (7)