Fighting Monsters

A friend of mine was taken by my enthusiasm in the ETT by David Seah (it should be pointed out i know that ett url by heart now) , and got tired of me talking about a 3×5 version of it, so he created one!
(hopefully David doesn’t mind, for good measure, here’s another link)

I’m pretty impressed, i like having hours at the top of each column, and there’s no reason 8a.m. through 7 p.m. couldn’t be there, but nonetheless.. not bothered with the additional sheets either, but for the sake (sp?) of completeness I can see it..

He’s got these printed out on index cards with lined backs for notes which i like..

Heres an image of it, click to get the pdf

So I’ve had my circa 3×5 notebook for a couple weeks now, it’s great.

I’m really enjoying making custom forms for it, i’ve got a workout guide for the gym (always a hassle remembering what i did, and what weight it was at) as well as a partially designed time tracker sheet for it.. In general very happy.

I also got the Pilot G-2 mini pen, fits in the side like a champ, highly recomended. Funnily enough, my search for the G2 turned up a moleskin related site, guess i’m not the only one who thinks they’re handy.

My only regret here is that i didn’t get a set of blank index card refills, so i’ve bought blank cards , and can punch them (i got the protable version of the hole punch, much cheaper than the standard) but it’s not as nice as the cards allready punched and ready to go.

More to come.

I wrote previously about David Seahs emergent task tracker, in short its pretty great.

I have taken the next step, and am actually using it! I’m pretty happy, i think i would modify the form a bit to include client codes, and different colours for different types of tasks, or perhaps days…

I’m putting more than one day on a sheet, so that introduces some issues, and i’m working on a 3×5 version for my fancy new circa binder.

I wont re-write what David has to say , so go here and read about it. In short you write your task on the left, and colour in the little 15 minute interval bubbles, makes time tracking much less onerous to capture, then you just have to worry about it come report time.

Mostly now i just write about David Seah…

I’ve created some forms and such for tracking exercise at the gym, I’ll post those up shortly. They are 3×5 and go into my circa binder.

It’s the new year, time to move our ‘current files’ into the archive.

It’s a good change to re-organize your files and documents, find all those errant bills/receipts/tax forms.

Lots of envelopes later, we have a clear ‘current’ filing cabinet, i got a bunch of new highlighters and sharpies, and we can file this stuff away confident that we’ll find it when necessary.

For months I’ve fretted over all the paperwork that is no use, but has lots of my personal info on it, not the least of which is the ‘credit card cheques’ they keep sending. I don’t want it, but it is essentially a direct line to my credit card. So I bought a cross cut shredder today, it’s great and I’ve been happily shredding for 30 minutes now.

And I bought an inbox.

So I don’t have a full blown Hipster PDA, but I’m a supporter of the concept.

I’ve been wanting to get my finances under control, and I know the first step towards that is tracking, but how.. Type it in the blackberry, get a palm again, all too ‘labour intensive’, creates psychic blocks to something I’m already a little afraid to do.

So looking through the DIY planner site , and noticed the budget templates. These were all well and good, so I downloaded this one which was pretty good, but had a ‘total’ column which doesn’t match what i need, was only 1 up, etc…

So here is my adaptation, 4 up in ODG and PDF, i’ve added a categories column, and category legend (so you only use 1 letter to specify the category) with a couple lines (maybe too small) for entering your own category.

Next I intend to make one that folds inside my wallet, like the previously linked mini calendar..

So David Seah does great things , I first noticed his ‘printable ceo’ which is probably the best time entry interface i’ve ever seen, by far.

He also does little forms that are just helpful, namely the compact calendar , simply a little excel sheet with a calendar, wallet size, that’s great.

I modified mine to include my contacts (an abbreviated version) which fits great on the flip side of the calendar.

A little cutting and folding, and it fits into my wallet like a charm

–edit–
David posted this on his blog (thanks!) and made me feel bad for using a random , not very good image of a cigarette case. So here’s pictures of my actual setup.

the calendar nicely tucked into the case, i can re-fold to expose the current month.

When the blackberry dies, i can open out the calendar and there’s my contacts on the flip side, handy.

If you do this, the page margins need to be changed to match the calendar, namely .6 header, and 1.3 margins, with a 0 footer.

Enjoy.

I follow 43 folders regularly , and am a big fan of what they do.

After reading the coverage of the quicksilver tool , which essentially allows you to easily append some text to a file, or in GTD terms add an action item to a list. This seemed very handy, and I wasn’t able to find an easy to use tool on windows to do the same, so I’ve written one, and it’s called “Monsters GTD”.

Monsters GTD allows for quick hotkey based text appending to a text file, below find a quickstart guide.

1. download the zipped exe

2. extract the zip file to a location of your choice (perhaps the desktop, or c:\gtd)
3. run MonstersGTD.exe (from the location you just extracted it to)

4. on launch it will ask you to specify where you would like to keep your lists, (c:\gtdlists for example)

5. The app will launch, with no lists, select ’settings -> add a list’

6. enter your list name and press ‘Create List’ (or hit enter)

7. Your list will be created, and the focus will be in the enter note box, type your note and press ‘Append’

8. that’s it, press close. Check your list with notepad to be sure everything worked.

I recomend you setup a hotkey to launch the app, simply create a shortcut for the app on the desktop, get the properties for that shortcut and set the hotkey in the properties dialog. With this done, the key strokes can be

hotkey (ctrl-m for example)

arrow key up/down to select list

tab to notes dialog, enter note

tab to append button, space bar to append

tab to close button, space bar to close

4 key strokes seems pretty good to me.

Enjoy

Just found this great product TiddlyWiki , basically a self contained, single file wiki totally implemented in javascript, with advanced edit and display effects.

Not sure what the deal is at the end of the day, but it seems to rewrite itself with your changes as you go.
This is incredibly usefull for any ‘very small’ projets that need collaboration, or in fact if you just want to start writing about things.. say document your trip to europe or something.

I found it in relation to using GTD with it over at lifehacker.com

So the blackberry is going very well.

The keyboard/suretype works great, I’ve written a speach on it, and use it for task tracking regularly.

I’m using the google calendar / outlook synchronizer and that works well, except for being dead slow.

I’m trying to implement the context lists, as recomended by GTD, and here’s a shot of my task categories as it stands.

You can ‘filter’ your tasks by a single category, which is a limitation, being able to filter by ‘next actions’ and ‘waiting on’ and ‘office’ would be good… the gmail plugin does that better. I’m considering getting a gmail account JUST for GTD tracking.

Got a blackberry 7100t, $100 at tiger direct, hoping to use it to organise GTD lists.
It’s not super duper (bluetooth very limited, cant use data services on fido despite massive internet rumours to the contrary) but i really just want the pim functionality.
I didn’t realise the OS wasn’t open, so there’s not as much software as for a palm, i need dope wars.