Patrick Rhone: Metrics and GTD? It’s Baked Right In

I also loved his writing. As a freelancer, he wrote for a number of the Macintosh related web sites that I followed. I loved his confrontational style. He really enjoyed pushing peoples buttons. Not because he wanted to piss people off but because he knew if caused them to think. Perhaps, for even a second, they would be introduced to something they had thought themselves but never had the balls to say. I mean, this is the guy who had the balls to write an article called “Macintosh Is the ‘Nigger’ of the Computer Industry”. He took a lot of flack for simply using “The ‘N’ word” and he ate it up. I loved the passion that he poured into every word, thought and action. This was a guy who really wanted to suck the marrow from the bones of life and did so with a big impish smile on his face.

He also had problems, heck who doesn’t. He had long suffered from manic depression. I had as well. Yet another thing we had in common to make us such fast friends. We often shared our struggles with staying on medication. Medication that, in an effort to keep you from “feeling down” or “feeling crazy” mostly makes you not able to feel anything very deeply at all. Psychiatry in this area is a “true science” in that there are no right answers or perfect drug combinations. Everyone is different and even then things can change. It is all a matter of constant playing with dosage levels and trial and error until a person is lucky enough to stumble upon the right mix for them. The trip to not being crazy is a rollercoaster ride of emotions so severe and intense for so long that one feels… Crazy. He and I commiserated on these subjects often – usually while having some brew and seeing some girls at the local gentleman establishments. He seemed to be managing the ride as well as can be expected.

This time, when he called to hang out, I was too busy. Between trying to manage being a full time single dad, my consulting business, and way too many other seemingly important things, I had to decline. “Give me a call in a couple of weeks,” I said, “I’ll even buy.” Looking back, I still feel like that was the worst decision of my life.

Rodney O. Lain passed away a few days later on June 16th, 2002 – six years ago yesterday. He took his own life with a gun to the head sometime in the late night/early morning of the 15th and lived for one day more (I imagine just as a final “Fuck you” to the gun – He was that type of guy). There is rarely a day or two that goes by that I do not think of Rodney. He was my friend. I miss him. I miss being able to share my life as it is today with him. My beautiful wife, the strong lovely young men my sons are becoming, my beautiful baby girl… I often think about how much fun he would be having right now with Apple enjoying such great success (I can imagine him writing “The iPhone is the Whitey of the mobile phone industry”). Not to mention the strong possibility of having a “Brotha” in the White House. What kind of writing about it all we are missing. Words that might make us laugh, or piss us off or bother to think.

Those words are hard to find now. Six years on the internet is a long time. Some of the sites he wrote for are now gone and his writing along with them. I even tried to do my part by reviving his old site a few years back but many behind the scenes complications kept it from staying live. Do a search on Google for him and you will find a number of loving tributes and obituaries and even still find an article or two written by him…

As for me, I still grieve. There is a hole in the world now that will never be filled. A friend that will never be replaced.

Update - Many of Rodney’s articles can be found archived at Low End Mac.

Well, that blog and it’s author (that would be me, The Butler) were featured in the June 15th edition of The Saint Paul Pioneer Press newspaper. They did a feature on Dad’s who blog and The Duchess and I were included. Check it out:

TwinCities.com: Daddy bloggers have stories to tell

Well, in the spirit of that fine example, I challenge you to answer a similar question. It does not have to be comprehensive, just a sampling and there are no right or wrong answers.Are you ready? Good. I’ll start…

“What’s in your notebook?”

The Notebook: Field Notes Brand Pocket Notebook

Contents

• Notes from Edward Tufte, Presenting Data and Information conference.
• Recommended allocations for my 401K.
• Design idea for a new website.
• Early Childbirth Class notes.
• Stroller research.
• Weekend project list.
• Layout and amperages of my circuit box.
• Notes from first meeting with our Doula.
• Dimensions of the nursery closet.
• Phone number of a friend that I had not see in years that I ran into.
• Addresses/numbers/info of possible daycare providers.
• Notes from Minnebar 2008.
• Details and math on the offer on the house we have for sale.

There you have it. Like I said, it is just a sampling but it should give you a good peek into the sorts of things that have been ruling my life for the past few months. OK, now it’s your turn.

What’s in your notebook?

Leave the details in the comments…

Here are just some of the examples of the times I have fallen:

• Black n’ Red Ruled A4 – Years ago I worked for a company that had an office in Brussels. These were the office standard issue notebook there. It was love at first sight so on a visit I grabbed two and I still have both. These are big euro letter sized bound books with 192 pages of bright white paper. One was used as a Journal, during a particularly miserable time in my life, for about a dozen pages. The other remained unused. Looking back, I figure that the misery did not stop but my will and desire to chronicle it did.

• Grey Sketchbook – This was a birthday gift sent to me by my friend Adeline in the U.K. I am not sure of the manufacturer, as there are no markings to indicate it. The book has a grey suede slipcover, blank pages with the following quote from Gandhi stamped into the cover ” You must be the change you wish in the world.” At my most recent day job, I gave it to one of my student workers who is a wonderful cartoonist and had him draw something on the first page. What he returned to me is a true work of whimsical art. That is what is linked to above since I can’t find the manufacturer of the notebook.

• Xonex Ru – Bought this in the Walker Art Museum Gift Shop after seeing a friend with one. I have the charcoal grey model. There was just something about it that I was compelled by. Perhaps it was the European sizing – A bit more flat and geometrically shaped than a Moleskine. It has a number of the same features though, an elastic closure and a pocket in the back. Also, here’s the thing, I generally don’t use notebooks without ruled lines or grids. My writing is far too messy and my art skills are like those of a two year old.

• Muji – I actually have two different Muji Notebooks, neither of which can be found in the US. They were brought back for me by a co-worker from Japan. The first is about the same dimensions as the Xonex Ru, has a beige craft cover and decent blank paper (did I mention I usually don’t use blank notebooks). The other is very much like a Large Lined Moleskine but with a bookcloth cover and without a pocket in the back. It does have the elastic closure though.

• Moleskines – Since they keep popping up, I will discuss the several Moleskines I have. I have a Pocket Lined (this was my daily capture for a long while). I have a Large Lined (use this as a personal journal). I have a Pocket Squared (unused). I have a Reporter Squared (A few mind and process maps but otherwise unused). I have a Barcelona City Book (The maps were indispensable. Wish I had written more in it and hope to return soon to fix that).

As I said, these are just a few examples. I have intentionally left out quite a few. Many of which I have written about recently here. The two Levenger Circa Notebooks. The several Field Notes Brand notebooks I have waiting on deck for me to complete the one I am using. The list could go on.

OK, I guess I may need an intervention.

It seems that every Twitter addict has his or her own tools for posting and following their friends. Here are the ones I use:

• Twitterrific - I don’t think I could even use Twitter as much as I do without this wonderful tool. It is basically a desktop Twitter client that not only allows me to post and follow others easily, it also makes the ability reply to tweets and direct message others so much easier. There are many other clients like it out there, even for other platforms. Using a client, IMHO is the best way to interface with Twitter.

• A URL Shortening Service -Because you only have 140 characters, there is rarely enough room to paste a long web site URL. there are many web based services out there that take a long URL and make you a shorter one to post in these sorts of circumstances. I have been trying several of these – Tinyurl, Snipurl – my current favorite is URLTea. It does not matter though, the point is that if you are going to post a URL to Twitter, you will eventually need to use one of these.

• TwitterLocal - Find recent tweets from people in your area. up to a 20 mile radius. Great for not only finding people you know in real life that you did not know were on Twitter. Also good for seeing what is going on around you. I love to lurk here.

That is all folks. As you can see, I am no Twitter ninja. That being said, I tweet often and engage in intelligent conversation and that is the point. If you are on Twitter, please follow me. If not, you should be and when you are, follow me.

• Joe Ely posted about how he uses it for A Simple Index Card GTD System over at GTD Times. A nice little HPDA system he has set up for himself.

• David MacKay uses dash/plus with a Filofax and Moleskine. Another fine example of a paper based GTD system.

• Jon Crosby, developer of Actiontastic, mentioned that he used dash/plus for capture.

• Of course, my good friend Jason Echols of Black Belt Productivity uses dash/plus markup in his notetaking.

To save you the jump, the dash/plus system works a little like this…

In all, it really makes me feel all proud and puffed up to know that I started something that has proven so useful to many. If this blog were to get hit by a bus tomorrow, I would be satisfied with this accomplishment alone.

Are you using dash/plus? Do you have a blog? Have you posted about how you are putting it to use in your system? I encourage you to link it up in the comments.

All is well, I promise, and new posts will be coming soon.

For the design of the Machine Methods site, the idea was “one page, many purposes” . The majority of the information is on a single page – who we are, what we do, and how to contact us. Not only would this design function as a web page, when printed it would become a one sheet (8.5 x 11 single side) brochure that could be part of a promo packet. Then, when folded three way letter style and slipped into an envelope, when removed, the top of the page (as seen below) will be the first thing people see…

…Then, when unfolded, the page would be there in front of them appearing in the real world almost exactly as it does online. One page, many purposes.

As you can see, this site may be minimal and, therefore, may look easy to throw together, the idea I am going for and the execution of that idea are often complex. Because I often design for myself with a fairly limited and rigid constraint (i.e. only using text), a lot of thought and planning goes into how to make it look good and work well. It should not just be text thrown onto a page. And while the design may be minimal, the functions this design can serve are quite a lot. For instance, I could easily see a slightly modified version of the image above working as a quarter page advertisement in a newsletter or magazine.

So there it is, a little peek into my strange design brain. Take a look and, if you need some technical consulting, give me a jingle.

Take out your lists. This may be one single big list of to do items like Princess Bethany likes to keep. If you are a Getting Things Done practitioner, you probably have several lists – all broken neatly into contexts, a someday/maybe, etc. For you, the someday/maybe might be a good place to start… But, I am getting ahead of myself. Go ahead, take them all out. Get them all spread out where you can see each and every task/project/hope/dream/etc.

OK, do you have them all out? Good. Now, take a long look at that pile. Really soak it all in. Got it? Great. Here is what I want you to do next. Go through each and every task and ask the following question:

“Am I really going to do this?”

Seriously. Be honest… Get real.

If there is even a question in your mind about it. If it is something that would be better done (and actually done) by someone else get it to them like the hot potato it should be. If it is something that sounds good in theory but you know, deep down, will never happen, then kill it. Kill it dead.

Your to-do list should be a sacred place. It should be filled only with the things you really plan on doing, are consistently evaluating and are taking active steps move items forward and to get those things done.

Now I know what you GTD folks are thinking…

“But that is why I have a someday/maybe list. It is for things I maybe, kind of, would like to do someday.”

Um… Well, yes, maybe that is what you think it is for. You would be wrong.

Here is the deal, if you are not including that Someday/Maybe list as part of a regular review (weekly or otherwise) and going through each item regularly, evaluating it, tying to figure out how and when to move it forward, put it into an active project state, or otherwise getting it done – it should be gone. If you are indefinitely deferring things there and are always saying “maybe”, “not now”, “someday” to those items – they are your weakest link. Are you really going to learn Chinese? Learn how to ski? Buy that big fishing boat? What are you doing to make those things happen? Is it possible to Call to enroll in a Chinese language class at the local community college? When? Today? Then do it. Don’t dream it. Don’t defer it. Don’t try to “hope” it into reality. Do it. Pick up that phone and make that call.

All I am trying to say here is be really honest with yourself about your intentions. If you have an item (or several) on that list that you always glance over, perhaps it should not be there in the first place. Don’t set yourself up for failure. If there is something you really want to do or need to do, then don’t half commit to it by parking the idea somewhere and never really looking at it again. Define what it will take to get that item to the next level and try to commit time to do just that.

So I eliminate the mountain: when I go away for an email fast (usually coinciding with a holiday), I set up an auto-responder advising correspondents that I’m away and that I “won’t be reading their email” when I get back, asking that they re-send anything urgent after my return (I make sure a few key people, like my business-partners, parents, and agent know how to reach me by phone). When I sit down at my desk again after the break, I download all my mail while I have a little walk or tidy up my desk. Once it’s all downloaded, I select every last message and delete them. No email apnea.

Cory does not delete the e-mails because he does not care about the people who sent them, he does so because he cares too much to not be able to respond due to the sheer volume.

You see, I love communicating too much to be interrupted. Whether I’m writing an essay or a novel, composing an email, or chattering with someone by voice, the last thing I want is to be given a jolt of useless adrenaline every time something new lands in my queue. Indeed, the oppressive weight of the knowledge that the queue is lengthening is enough to stress me out — any time I go away for a day or a week, all I can think of is that mountain of mail accumulating on my server.

One of the many things I love about this is that it is yet another wonderful example of managing others expectations, through simple and compassionate communication, in order to achieve your own freedom. Compassionate? Well, you see, if you let people know what to expect from you - that you only check your e-mail twice a day and at particular times, for instance - then they will not be disappointed that you did not respond to their e-mail as soon as they sent it.

For those of us old enough to remember, there was once a time when this kind of access and availability did not exist. Leaving a phone message is a good example. Once upon a time if you called someone, and they were either not home or on the phone, your only option was to call them back later. The responsibility was placed upon you to remember to take action at a later time, not upon the person you were trying to reach.

Now, all of this has changed around. Now, because there are so many ways for people to place the responsibility of follow-up upon us, even while we are “not available”, it adds up to increased workload and stress placed upon us. I think one of the many dangers of our growing “always connected” society is the idea that license is given to others to always have a way to interrupt others at anytime. The expectation has already been set by the sheer existence of tools that provide ever increasing ways to get our attention. People naturally assume that everyone treats these tools as they do. If they prefer (or are conditioned to) jumping on their email, mobile phone, “crackberry” every time it buzzes or blinks, then they, somewhat naturally, assume the same of you. The onus is therefore upon each us to manage those expectations to fit our needs.

Here is an idea, how about sending an e-mail to your coworkers that goes something like this?

Dear Comrades,

Because I value my communication with you and would like to make sure that I respond to your needs with the appropriate level of action, I have set up some basic criteria for handling my e-mail and mobile phone.

I check and respond to e-mail twice a day. Once in the morning at 9am and again in the afternoon at 4pm. I do this in order to give my responses complete attention at those times. Because of this, I would prefer all non-urgent communication to be e-mailed to me and it will be acted upon at those times.

If there is something that requires my immediate attention, please call me on my mobile phone at 555.555.5555. I assume that anything coming to me via phone is urgent and requires my immediate attention. Therefore, as a courtesy to those that truly require urgency, please do not call my mobile for non-urgent items.

To recap:

Urgent = Phone

Non-Urgent = E-mail

Thank you for your cooperation in helping me provide you with the service you desire.

Sincerely,

Patrick

As I have said before, Be Pavlov, not the dog…

There are some new and updated GTD Apps that may be of interest to you.

First off, if you live in GMail and have yet to give GTDInbox a try, now may be a good time. This Firefox extension converts GMail into a “productivity and personal management powerhouse”. It has recently been updated to version 2 and contains a bunch of new features.

If GMail is not your thing, maybe you want to give GTDAgenda a try. It is a new GTD based web application that is aiming to be the solution to all of your GTD needs. It contains it has all the tools required for getting your Org-fu on, like goals, projects and tasks, contexts, next actions, checklists, schedules and calendar.

Then again, maybe you have a Mac running Leopard (Mac OS 10.5). Well then, Dennis Best says that you really don’t need a specific GTD application – you have all of the tools you need right there in Leopard. He makes a pretty convincing argument for using iCal, Mail.app, smart folders in the Finder, and many other default tools to string together a pretty workable system.

Recently, Clay laid down the gauntlet, by making this “Alternative Productivity” the main focus of the site - “Anti-Hacks” if you will. I love some of the ideas he is trying to express here:

Albert Einstein correctly started that “problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.” Anti-hacks attempt to solve problems by approaching them at a higher level of thinking. For example, while David Allen says that peace of mind (i.e. mind like water) comes from creating exhaustive todo lists and getting everything out of your head, an anti-hack might involve meditation, because all the list-making in the world will not bring you to a meditative, mind-like-water state. An anti-hack might also involve quitting your job or taking the inefficient but nevertheless effective high road.

I think there is really something to this and am excited to see a different angle taken on the productivity/lifehack meme that I consider myself a member of. I recently posted about the trend I have noticed of productivity/lifehack bloggers becoming increasingly interested in Zen, Buddhist and Mindfulness practices. Some might argue that these ideas are in fact the opposite of what we in the western world have come to accept as “productivity”.

Then, there is the idea of asking the question - To what end are we desiring greater productivity? I often wonder if there would be less need for productivity and lifehacks if we did not feel the need to do so much. If such demands were not put upon us (expected of us) by the society we live in, the companies we work for, and the people we are accountable to. Some more food for thought - How is it that Americans work more, take less vacation, shorter breaks, yet still do not best many countries (Japan, Europe) in “productivity”. Is it because, perhaps, by doing more we are actually so stressed that we get less done?

What if, as the metaphor of “Atlas Shrugged” suggests, we simply give up on the weight of our worlds on our shoulders? What if we commit to going the other direction? This means doing less, not more. Doing it all slower, with greater attention and mindfulness, and, perhaps, actually getting things done.

Link: On Alternative Productivity and Anti-Hacks for Living | The Growing Life

Instead of an index card, I use one of my Cornell Ruled Circa pages. Title and date go at the top, then I divide it thusly:

• Action - These are the same three items as on the index card before. Three things I would like to try to accomplish that day.

• Agenda - I write down any and all calendar items that I may have going on that day. Even though they are on the calendar, I use a web based calendar and that tab is not always front and center in my browser. Writing them here helps to keep them front and center so I am mindful of them.

• Notes - This are is for anything I need to jot down for the day. It ends up being both scratchpad and short form journal of the day.

So far, this is working out very well. Some of the advantages are that, due to the left hand whitespace, I have an area for metadata. Also, by collecting everything together on one page, at the end of the day I have a pretty good top level view of the course of my day and how the time was spent. While not as small and portable as an index card, I have my Circa on my desk anyway so why not use it and ditch the card?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this, if you have tried anything similar, and how it has worked for you. Special thanks once again to Damon for spurring the idea.