Menu bar

So whats in your menu bar??

Strange thing - yesterday Mark & I had a long chat about the menu bar and how we'd seen things in Merlin's menu bar that we liked the idea of. The full date time was one and I hunted down this instruction set to perform that - which I really like, a quick glance up to the top right to check the date.

And behold this mornings feed shows a 43Folders article on whats in Merlin's menu. I've heard about skitch and was keen to give it a try, but its still in private beta - hope to get that when its released to the masses.

[What's in my menubar? at 43Folders]

Paper based or Electronic?

Its a question that everyone that looked at GTD will have asked. Do I use paper and pen of do I store things electronically?

Fear not the answer is here!! Why not hack a moleskine to be a hard-drive case!

[Building a moleskine hard-drive cover via 43Folders]

Change of Plan - Journalling

Following my previous post on journalling, I have (in a quite typical fashion) completely changed my mind!! I don't think this is a bad thing though and I think that systems and tools should be constantly reviewed to see if they are still the best option. Granted, this is a pretty quick change, even by my faddy standards!!

I was trying out iGTD at the same time as Scrivener and it was proving to be quite a useful tool, the interface was good and I invested some time in getting all of my inbox transferred into it. Something happened though and it appeared to reverted to a set of data that was a few days older and I had lost a considerable amount of tasks and thoughts.

I turned then to the trusty Merlin Mann at 43Folders and looked for a similar product and decided to try kinkless GTD (I like the look of OmniFocus but that isn't available yet). From what I can see OmniFocus and kinkless GTD are similar and the developers appear to be friendly by reading the blog posts. I'm guessing that as kinkless uses OmniOutliner as its engine, that there may be a path of upgrade.

The long and the short of it is that I figured I could also use OmniOutliner to record my weekly journal, so I've held back on the purchase of Scrivener for that reason. It is a good tool, but it didn't quite feel right in the end.

As an extention to this post I also took the GTD book back off the shelf and have started reading it again, just to polish the edges on technique!

Stationary

The behance action book, looks like a great bit of stationary p0rn! As ever Merlin spotted this and talked about it in a round up post. The double page spread seems to have a lot of the features that I use on printable CEO forms made by David Seah.

After a short browse on google, it appears that they are not available in the UK though, which means that postage will probably be prohibitive

[Remaindered Links from 43Folders]

My Building Blocks

I read "Getting Things Done" over a year ago now and since then have read other books and posts on GTD and other productivity matters ("The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (/Families), 43 Folders etc). I have developed my own set of tools which I use regularly to help me stay on top of things. This system is not fixed and I make regular tweaks and test new products all the time - some get adopted, sometimes I revert to my original method.

Inbox
I have several email accounts (personal, my company, current assignment etc) and I clear all of them down daily. By clear down I mean deal with, so I use the 2 minute mantra, that if it can be done in 2 minutes, why wait?... do it now. This mainly involves just reading them and filing them. I also have a paper inbox for post - I don't get as much of that, so this is easily managed. Mainly its bills that need paying or invoices to be filed.

Capture
I have 2 moleskines. A pocket moleskine that I carry with me at all times in my bag (more later) and an A5 moleskine which I use in meetings etc to jot down notes. I use a Fisher Space Pen to take notes (also kept in my bag).

Day Book
I used to fill in a day book (journal) at work - which has proved to be very useful when recalling information in the past. I have recently switched over to using Microsoft OneNote as a test replacement for a paper day book. I like the idea of having it electronically, searchable etc. Is there a similar product that could be used on the mac though? Any suggestions?

Calendar
I use GCal as my calendar application - the only disadvantage being that an internet connection is required. For assignment related dated items I use Lotus Notes, which links all employees calendars together and allows meetings to be scheduled etc. I've used Lotus Notes for about 6 months now and I really don't like it very much. It just seems really old fashioned. When I get the mac I shall be using iCal.

Contact Management
As I've mentioned in past posts, my contact management is a mess. I'm looking forward to getting the mac (for many reasons), but one is that it will be a catalyst to shake things up and get realigned - particularly with contacts. I have so many places that store information at the moment that its really not managable.

ToDo
Lists are critical areas of GTD, so its important that I have this right. Unfortunately, this is the area that I tweak most, which suggests that I'm not completely happy with the solution, maybe the mac will provide me that? At the moment I use Remember the Milk as my task manager - which is good. I'm obviously not completely happy with it though as I have a nagging doubt all the time. Again is based online (which can sometimes be a disadvantage). Merlin & Co have given many tips for applications for the mac, so I'm bound to find something that I like.

Tickler File
I have a 43 folders tickler file as per the GTD groupings of days and months. I use this to store documents that need action on certain dates, bills, holiday itineries etc This has permanent residence in the home office and gets reviewed weekly.

Review
Again I'm always tweaking my review, I used to think Fridays was a good time, but now do it on Monday mornings. I look at the week ahead on my calendars, check through my projects and next actions lists, clear out inboxes and perform weekly admin tasks (raising invoices etc)

Other Tools
I've recently starting using quite a few of David Seah's Printable CEO forms - they suit my current assignment quite well. Its also got me thinking about what I would like in my own form if I made one. Some more online tools I use on a daily basis to help organise things are del.icio.us and Google Reader, which I use to tag articles to read and store for future reference. I use Microsoft excel and Money to record my finances.

Hardware
At present I'm exclusively PC. I have a reasonably meaty desktop towers at the home office, which is home to all the business software and files (and gets regularly backed up). I have an old laptop which I use just to write these posts and record my day and a work laptop (which I think might be even older) supplied to me by my client, which has the necessary access to Lotus Notes etc. I'd like my mac to have VMWare installed so that I can switch to other images if required (I have already got an archive of several images)

Bags
I like bags! I usually always have a bag of some sort with me. I have a small bag which goes most places for essential gear, notebook, wallet, phone, TomTom etc. I also highly recommend a TimBuk2, which I use when I need to take more stuff around.

So, I hope that my new mac is going to bring together all my loose ends and make me more productive. On that note I've decided to get the mac in March no-matter what. If I have to upgrade to Leopard later so be it - I can't wait!

Good news, Bad news week

This blog experiment (which I'm just picking up again after a fantastic break away with the family) has always been based on the idea that as I finished by planned build up posts, Apple would release Leopard and I'd go and get my first mac. My posts would them continue with the trials I have getting into the mac groove.

I heard a rumour that end of March would be the date of release, but listening to my podcasts this week, it appears that it might be as late as June.

On the flip side, GTD guru Merlin Mann of 43Folders is releasing a new video podcast from Monday. Looking forward to watching him some more.

So why mac?

I've always used PCs. At college we had PCs (and Amigas at home), and every since I joined the 9-5 gang its been PCs, its just what is used in the industry that I work in. In my last post I established that I've not got the dream uber job working in creative media with macs - so why choose a mac then? I work in a type of engineering, where the "make do" PC applications are king and aesthetics are an unknown. I try hard to inject a little creativity but my hands are mostly tied.

The mac journey all started with my iPod. I had a 40GB G4 click wheel iPod and I loved it. Unfortunately it took some knocks and was prononced dead last year, but even when its poor corpse was still warm, I'd turned my affection to another - my 4GB black nano.

Just prior to to the iPod switch over I had been getting into podcasts - my first (and I still subscribe) was Tips from the top floor, a very good digital photography show. As I picked up tips on GTD, I inevitably was introduced to 43Folders. You can't read Merlin Mann's website for long without coming accross Leo Laporte or the TWiT network, so I embraced them all!! Before I knew it I'd subscribed to a whole host of material from TWiT, iLifeZone, VFX, TWiM etc etc.

The final nail in the coffin was when I watched the Apple keynote for 2007 and the introduction of the iPhone. It was the first Steve Jobs keynote that I'd witnessed and was wowed by the relaxed presentation style (with my productivity head on) as described in a much better way here. This lowered my defenses and allowed Mr Jobs to infiltrate my brain - I need an iPhone.

So after some major life choices in 2006, I decided to embark on the path to the ubermaclife in 2007. I'm not sure where the path will take me, but I've got a few ideas for build up posts and then I hope to start writting (from a new macbook) about the purchase and setting up of a mac for a PC to mac converter.

Let me know if you've been through similar trials.

Connected Links
Steve Jobs at MacWorld - We come from different worlds [via Presentation Zen]

Birth

So what is this project all about? Well over the last 18 months I've been exposed to a great deal of change, creativity and inspiration. Along with my good friend Mark we embarked on the GTD journey, which to a degree I've embraced and use on a daily basis. As soon as you start digging into this area, the host of information, tips, hacks and other systems is overwhelming though. Within Google Reader I was exposed to a huge amount of people & inspiration. At the forefront of this was Merlin Mann and his 43Folders site. I started subscribing to more feeds and listening to more podcasts and soon came to realise that the whole GTD thing is completely adaptable, depending on what you need from it, what tools and time you have available and the type of things that you process.

The big change for me came 6 months ago when the company that I worked for closed our division. I jumped before I was pushed and went freelance - I was lucky to find work immediately. In the time since then I have started my own company and tried to come to grips with all the finances that come attached to that.

It was at this point that I realised that my system, personal finance & everyday tools I use was just a mess, so this year, 2007, is my year of change. I'm going to arrive at my GTD system, I'm going to settle into running my company, I'm going to make the switch from PC to mac and I'm going to be more creative.

I'm starting a few creative projects this year, and documenting my strive for the uber mac life will be one of them.