a million monkeys typing

D*I*Y Planner Hipster PDA Edition v3 Released

Whew. That was a tough one. Life can get to normal now.

1 comment May 6th, 2006

DIYPlanner.com

Houston, we are go for launch.

4 comments September 3rd, 2005

The Lost Art

Note: This is probably the one and only cross-posting I’ll ever do with a million monkeys typing and DIYPlanner.com. It might help to clear up a little bit of confusion as to the focus of the new site, which is due to launch on Saturday morning.

About two months ago, I was sitting in a Tim Horton’s (as many Canadians are wont to do), sipping on an extra-large double-double and pouring through my Day Runner. I was processing my Inbox, correlating my notes, jotting down ideas for this site, making little sketches for layout, and generally chilling out to the rhythm of the air conditioner above my head mingled with some half-remembered tune. Three tables away, a 20-something was tapping away at his Sony Vaio, and every now and then, he would stop and stare ruefully at the laptop’s screen, as if he were pondering where next to nudge the direction of world affairs. During one of these pauses, he stopped and looked in my direction. The sight of my old-fashioned planner seemed to evoke something akin to haughtiness in his cocked eyebrow, and he resumed his imperial air whilst he turned yet again to the grave matter before him.

One hour, another coffee, and a cranberry muffin later, I had a plan for this site. I now knew what I wanted it to be, I knew how I was going to approach it, I knew what sort of team I wanted, and I even had rough sketches for its design. My mind was still reeling with all manner of ideas, many coming so fast I couldn’t write them all down fast enough. The accomplishment spread through me like a warm glow, much like the day when you finally conquer your greatest fear and nothing seems impossible. I jotted down some last-minute ideas, tucked away my pen and pencil, zipped up the planner, and got up to leave.

As I walked past the Vaio user, I couldn’t help but to take a quick look over the lad’s shoulder at the screen, wondering what manner of work could so engage a person. Well, he was directing a civilisation or two, it seems. The game was Age of Empires II, if I don’t miss my guess.

Now, I’m not belittling the need to relax by playing games; I can jump into a good strategy game with the best of them. Nor do I have anything against using computers; I am not a Luddite, and I have been an IT professional for approximately half my life. But it was the look. It was the type of condescending stare that transmits a million base thoughts: he’s afraid of technology; he’s using the same antiquated things my grandfather used; he’s living in the dark ages, never to be brought into modern times.

Okay, perhaps I’m paranoid.

But the look figured into the creation of this site, you see. It helped me see that the use of paper was fast becoming a lost art.

Now, I hear you say: “But billions of people all over the world are still using paper… how can you claim it’s a lost art?”

I became “all-digital” in the late 80’s. From there on in, I attempted to use the computer for everything, including writing, time management, graphic design, communications, photography and teaching. There was nothing I did that didn’t have a digital component, it seems. Nowadays, I look around to see that my friends and family have finally been swept into this modern paradigm. Outlook is often the productivity tool of choice, and nothing is sent from one place to another unless it’s a steady stream of bits and bytes. Even to a casual observer, the implications are obvious: computerisation brings civilisation into its fold, and the more the world adopts PCs, cell phones and PDAs, the more it blots out all traditional and organic means of living and working. The use of paper is slowly being replaced by digital media, and –at first glance– it appears that those people still finding paper useful are adopting a dying art.

Or so it would seem. And so the look in the coffee shop told me. It was then I decided to expand the range of the new site. I had originally been thinking of it simply as a place to offer D*I*Y Planner kits and advice, to leave my poor little blog with something else to discuss, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that there seems to be a renaissance in the air. People are suddenly awakening to the fact that we can be just as productive with paper, if not more so. It also brings a sort of intimacy back to living, where we can hold a tangible pen, see the spread of ink, feel the texture of real paper, be linked to an art and method that go back millennia. We know the inked quill of John Dunne, the charcoal of Da Vinci, the sumi brushwork of the Japanese, and the fragile gall-iron and ochre marks upon ancient parchment. There is tradition, there is heritage at work. Yea, verily, even unto checking a Next Actions box!

That’s the rub, I thought: bring back that fading connection with paper. The site should take into account much more than just time management, although that is still important: we need to live our lives as effectively as possible in a fast-paced world. But there is no reason why we can’t think of keeping journals again, to note the quirks and happenstance of our days. Why can’t we track our dreams, collect photos and fallen leaves, expand our ideas in multi-faceted webs, create art or just doodle, flesh out our little creations with something that actually feels like life and living?

This isn’t for everyone, of course, and for those people looking for useful templates to organise their month, yes, you will continue to find such things here. But to the many of us who are looking to unleash the more creative and intimate aspects of ourselves, there is room here too. And to those who love creating forms and sharing wisdom and questions, there is a place, and also for those who come in a state of confusion to seek a dash of inspiration mixed with a draught of practical advice. The voices are many, the quality of the many volunteer writers superb, the viewpoints diverse. This is a community site, one that is built to focus upon once more regaining a lost art.

This is a long way of saying, “Welcome to DIYPlanner.com.” But now you know why we’re here.

10 comments August 30th, 2005

D*I*Y Planner Widget Kit 0.3

Update : This set, and many more, are now available free at www.DIYPlanner.com.

The most requested item on my D*I*Y Planner to-do list, even more so than the Hipster PDA Edition, has been a source file so that people can create their own templates. I’m not about to release my mass of Adobe Illustrator and InDesign files (indeed, they are guaranteed to frighten small children and reduce husky men to tears), but I’ve been hinting for a while at an OpenOffice.org template that mere mortals might use without fear of drowning in thousands of vector layers. The time has come for a preview release.

Below you’ll find an early release of my OpenOffice.org Draw template kit for creating your very own forms, called –ahem– the D*I*Y Planner Widget Kit 0.3. It requires at least 1.1.3 of OpenOffice.org (free at OpenOffice.org), a touch of patience, and a little bit of knowledge of Draw (or at least a willingness to learn it). It should work fine in OOo 1.9.x, but my Linux box is down for the count, so I can’t test it at the moment. (This kit was created with NeoOffice/J on a Mac, a Java-driven version of 1.1.x.) In the package, you’ll find the Draw SXD file, a sample PDF exported from it, and the very necessary Blue Highway fonts. Please make sure you install these first!

When you open up this file, you’ll see a page with a layout that approximates a standard 5.5×8.5 D*I*Y Planner form, and there are a number of graphical elements that you can copy and paste into your own creation. That’s all there is, really: no elite programming or technical skills required, just OOo and enough time to do what you need. My only tip for you: create a new “slide” (i.e., page), copy the whole widget slide into it, delete what you don’t want, and move around the rest, duplicating as necessary. Be sure to plan out your template first (I do mine on paper), and then start experimenting with the kit. The more you use the elements and the application, the more you’ll figure out what’s going on. Sorry, but I’m offering no support for this kit at the moment, nor am I giving any advice on using OOo — that’s what its help is for, and there are tutorials floating around the Net. So use this package at your peril.

Now, here’s the clincher. The new DIYPlanner.com site is going to launch on this Saturday, but we’d like to let a few template designers into the hidden development site a bit early so that they can upload their templates into our directory for sharing. So if you already have templates that you’d like to share, or if you create one using this kit, please email me (the address is at the bottom of the menu at right) and I’ll let you in. Just don’t mind the wet paint and sawdust, and be sure to keep the address top secret! (There are certain things the public shouldn’t see, not yet….)

Download: D*I*Y Planner Widget Kit 0.3

This package is released under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial- ShareAlike License.

5 comments August 28th, 2005

When Reality Knocks - How to be organised

My good friend Steve Sharam, who writes a blog alongside his father called “When Reality Knocks” (that being the name of his blog, and not his father), chimes in with a hilarious piece about How to be organised. Think Dave Allen meets Dave Barry, and you get the idea:

2) Keep a pad by the phone for taking down messages, but no pen. Having a pen would allow people to take down messages, which means you would have to return calls, which just slows down your life. The pad is only for show, as other people think it makes you more organized. Almost everyone who phones you either wants to call your attention to Colonoscopy Appreciation Month or is wondering where their stinking check is. Not worth bothering about.

3) Many people have a ridiculously organized personal planner, which is fine, but you can go too far. I like to keep things fast and loose, to leave myself open to inspirational possibilities. Using this approach, you might well end up checking your bag 15 times before you leave the house to see if you have everything and then walk out the door without any pants. This is part of the reason I have so many adventures.

Apparently there’s a Part 2 coming tomorrow, and I can’t wait to read it.

Disclaimer : I’ve asked Steve to be a weekly contributor to DIYPlanner.com, and he’s agreed. I’m very lucky to have this fellow.

Update : Part II is now up, I see.

Add comment August 22nd, 2005

The Last AMMT Template: Kit ID

DIYPlanner.com is coming along extremely well, and most of the productivity stuff is falling into place there. The tentative date for launch is Saturday, September 3. More on that later.

In the meantime, I thought I’d release one last template here at a million monkeys typing. If you’re like me, you tote lots of highly personal or valuable information on you, or expensive electronics, or both. I’m always afraid of dropping my kit unnoticed, or misplacing it in a Tim Horton’s (our national coffee chain), or otherwise losing it, so I decided to spend a few minutes to whip up a “kit ID” that contains my name, address, phone number, email address and website. I put one into each planner, bag and case that I use, in the hope that some kind soul will find the lost item and return it to me.

This business-card-sized template is in OpenOffice 1.x Draw format (sxd), which will allow you to customise it to your heart’s content, to make multiples per page, to export as PDF and so on. If you don’t already have it, I highly suggest downloading and installing the free Blue Highway fonts first, which are the main ones I use on all D*I*Y Planner templates. If you don’t have them, the file will substitute another font and the layout will probably look strange. The OpenOffice.org suite, of course, is a free download.

One more tip: if you laminate the cards, they will last a lot longer and stand up to moisture (and coffee stains).

Download: property_of.zip (12 KB)

3 comments August 21st, 2005

DIYPlanner.com Progress

Well, I’m pleased to say that Drupal is living up to my expectations so far for creating a community site. It’s a difficult learning curve, but lightbulbs are going on daily. Coming up with the taxonomy (in layman’s terms, the categorisation) is probably the most challenging bit, since Drupal’s inherent power in this area tends to push administrators to do a lot more initial legwork than most other systems. My ultimate goal is to make DIYPlanner.com as simple as possible for end-users –you shouldn’t have to be a techie to use and like the system.

A few updates:

• There are now four writers/editors involved in the project (and counting), all of whom I respect very highly, and who bring completely different things to the table and possess quite varied writing styles. I’ll announce them all at a later date.
• There will be a daily blog, complete with feeds, so you can tune in daily for your paper productivity fix. (There will also be feeds for the forums, so you can follow along without manually jumping into each one.)
• The Handbooks for the various D*I*Y Planner kits are being merged into one online handbook that can be easily kept up-to-date. Comments will be allowed for registered users, so you can make suggestions on the content.
• You can access all content and leave comments anonymously, but registered users can chat in the discussion forums, submit various items, send private messages, and see other perks.
• Not only will there be the official D*I*Y Planner kits and add-ons, but hopefully there will be a number of other community-submitted templates, as well as links to external sites.
• Also planned are sections that help newbies create their own templates, along with examples, sample forms and instructions.
• There’s a nice little image gallery where you can download and share images for use on your planner covers. (A la the OOo template that comes with the classic Planner 2.0 kit.)
• I’m shooting for a nice organic, comfortable look, far removed from the noisy techno stylings of many other community sites. It will be a constant evolution, I suspect, but we want something welcoming to begin with.
• The info on the site will be rather sparse at first, but I suspect it will increase very rapidly. There’s a lot of dedicated and/or creative people out there with a lot to share.
• I’m currently soliciting guest posts to cover many topics and perspectives. In particular, at the moment I’m looking for people who have used the D*I*Y Planner kits or other paper solutions to successfully cope with the difficulties of ADD and other similar issues. If this is you, please drop me an email (my address is at bottom right): I’d love to hear from you. If you have doubt in your writing skills, no matter: we can edit and help you along the way.
• I’m also looking for a contributor who is long-time journal keeper, and can offer advice on things like journalling, diaries, dream logs, scrapbooking and other personal “life-logging”.
• If you’re knowledgable about paper-planning issues or templates, and you’d like to write a post or two, please drop me a line. Similarly, if you have a template you’d like to share with other users, we’d be happy to give you a place to host it (or a link to your site).

Stay tuned….

4 comments August 15th, 2005

D*I*Y Planner Re-Birthing

I’ve spent the past few days away from computers. While normally such a lapse in my lifestyle would leave me quaking like a twinkie junkie facing sugar withdrawal, I was more than occupied by all the family gatherings, ceremony and stress surrounding the baptism of my 13-month-old son, Conor. Somewhere in the course of events, I also came to a decision: I need to create an identity for “my other baby” too, one that will allow it to grow more freely.

The D*I*Y Planner, when I first released it, was fairly small, rather amateurish, and had no discernible future. It was simply a small pile of forms I believed I might never use again, and so I was releasing it into the wilderness to find its own way. I never would have believed that it and the subsequent –and hopefully more professional– packages would be downloaded well over 300,000 times (about 400,000, if you count the various loose forms and diagrams intended as add-ons), and that the blog would jump from two readers daily to a number that I still find intimidating. Like the proverbial tiger kitten raised in a New York apartment, it’s a beast that has now outgrown its master.

Let me explain….

Each week, I get over a hundred comments or emails about the ‘Planner and the various kits. Many are notes of thanks (which are very much appreciated, and keep me forging onwards), a few are questions that have probably been answered in the packages’ FAQs, some are general productivity-related questions, a half-dozen are clearly intended as flames or provocation (often of the “paper is for luzers” variety), a handful are wonderful suggestions (of which I cannot do without), and at least four or five include templates created by people who are eager for my feedback. While I try to answer all these emails, I’m also trying to find time to work on the version 3.0, Creativity and Education packages, juggle family commitments, and seek a permanent and stable job (not very easy in my neck of the woods). Now, this isn’t a complaint by any stretch of the imagination: I love the D*I*Y Planner work I’ve been doing, I enjoy hearing from so many imaginative and devoted users of the kits, and I see only a bright future for the project. The question I’ve been mulling these past few days, though, is this: “What’s next?”

In a way, I feel like I’ve been hoarding this project to myself for far too long. Not only has this turned a million monkeys typing into an almost obsessive productivity blog (which is far from my original intention), but it seems as though I’ve been suppressing the voices of people who should be free to share their wonderful thoughts, suggestions and templates, but yet have no real –and public– outlet to do so. I’m only one man (backed by a large, albeit fictitious, troup of monkeys) and my perspective and time are thus quite limited, but there’s an opportunity for a community, however small, to grow. And so it is with some degree of trepidation that I’m preparing to cut loose my creation once more.

Here is the current plan:

• A new domain has been registered for D*I*Y Planner, productivity and paper-based planning issues. This will launch soon, depending upon how fast I can get up to speed on the CMS, Drupal (thanks, Eric!). The site is not intended to compete with the hundreds of other productivity sites out there: its focus will be on using mainly paper, while many other sites delve heavily into the digital domain. This will result in a niche audience, to be sure, but one that seems to be frequently overlooked.
• Said domain will be the permanent home of the D*I*Y Planner kits, release notes, handbooks, and so forth. No more redirecting to blog links or specific dates — this should cut down on some confusion and permit bookmarks that don’t change.
• a million monkeys typing will once more become my “own personal blog,” dealing with creative matters, educational issues, and other random musings of a primate — I hope it doesn’t get too lonely around here. Many of the better productivity-related posts of the past will find their way into the new domain.
• Although I’ll continue to write posts fairly frequently on the new site, I’ll also be asking people to write short articles and submit templates for inclusion. There are a lot of creative people out there brimming with great advice, and a few have even designed some really amazing templates that supplement or even replace my own. (Yes, the creation and release of a template DIY kit is still on my to-do list for the near future.)
• The new site will also contain forums covering such matters as template design, printing issues, ideal setups, “crossing the paper/digital divide”, productivity advice surrounding paper-based GTD/Covey/other methods, and so on. A wiki is also on the drawing board. Everything is feed-ready so you can easily follow along in your BlogLines, feed readers or new-fangled browsers, if you’re into that sort of thing.
• The development of D*I*Y Planner packages will continue as normal, and will always be free for download and individual use. (The speed of said development will depend upon what I’m currently doing for a living.)

Will this work? I don’t know, exactly, but I’m willing to give it a shot. If I can direct even a quarter of the ideas and enthusiam that reaches me privately into the more public forum, it’ll be an exciting ride.

In the meantime, if you’d like to share your templates or a proposal for an article, don’t be shy: please get in touch with me (my email address is at the bottom of the menu at right). There’s no money involved, just fame, glory, a link to your site, and the warm glow you get from helping others. Oh, and the undying adoration of thousands of paper-based-planning groupies….

7 comments August 10th, 2005

Your D*I*Y Planner 3.0 Wishlist?

Consider this an invitation to leave comments regarding what templates you’d like to see created for the new edition of the classic/A5 D*I*Y Planner. (That can also include ideas for the Education and Creativity packs, since the work is proceeding more or less simultaneously.)

Among the tentative improvements for version 3.0 that I’m already working on:

• More consistency in template designs, including a slightly different way of handling dividers and columns — the majority of templates have undergone some changes, mostly minor and cosmetic
• Undated Monthly templates now have an option for weeks starting on Monday
• Dated monthly calendar pages (yes, with actual numbers and stuff)
• Contact pages (heck, why not?)
• Yearly calendars
• Finalised Crossroads template
• Job Tracker template (much like the hPDA version)
• “Actions Bookmark”
• Some new project management forms
• Undated Day Keeper template, for those with “non-standard” hours
• A simple “widget kit” built in an Open Source product for creating your own templates (stay tuned for further thoughts on the subject)
• Less ink needed — lighter tones will be used in many cell backgrounds, pending testing on a variety of printers
• Several reference cards, including the new GTD and Covey diagrams
• New cover options
• A dozen or so new (*ahem*) undisclosed templates
• Launch of the DiYwiki, where you can share advice and home-grown templates (email me if you’d like to help with this)

As you can see, most of these changes are evolutionary, not revolutionary, which is why I’m soliciting as many ideas as possible to add a few more options and a bit more spice into the package. Let me know your wishlist, and I promise I’ll examine all your suggestions.

Last week, we hit 300,000 combined downloads so far of versions 1.0, 2.0 and the Hipster PDA Edition, but I’m not kidding myself: it’s only because of your help, because of community feedback, that the ‘Planner kits have been so well received and seem to be meeting the needs of so many people. I’d like that to continue, so please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas. What additions to this package would help you better manage your life, your time, your information? What would you like to see?

(Egad… I sound like a PBS pledge drive, just without the tote bag. Then again…. )

If you’d prefer not to leave a comment, you can always email me instead — my address is at the bottom of the menu at the right.

Update : I’m impressed by the enthusiasm of you folks: several dozen emails and comments in just a few hours! Keep it up! Just one little thing, though: please check to see if your suggestion isn’t already in the list above or in version 2.0 of the D*I*Y Planner, or if it can’t be easily handled by a generic template such as Checklist — I’ve gotten a number of suggestions for things that already exist. Not that I mind such requests, but you may find that your need is already fulfilled.

24 comments August 1st, 2005

The Paper Planner Inbox

Part of the problem with working with any productivity or organisational system is in figuring out how to shape the dozens (if not hundreds) of bits of information barraging you daily into something more manageable. This, of course, leads to fundamental precepts of the Getting Things Done system: keep your inbox empty, your data slotted into the best places to act upon, and your level of trust in the system high enough to defeat the twin stresses of uncertainty and information overload.

Whether you’re working with Outlook/Entourage, a PDA, a web-based system, or another digital tool, or using one of the numerous paper-based planning kits (like the D*I*Y Planner), the primary challenge is often in the streamlined capture and movement of your task-related materials. Whatever you use, the most important things to remember are:

• Keep your data capture system handy for whenever you need it. Either carry your entire system –for example, your planner or your PDA– or have a “satellite” capture tool, like a Hipster PDA.
• Make sure you can enter your data fast. If you can’t type or write quickly enough, you’ll never capture the requisite information. (It took me months to write fast enough with Palm Graffiti for decent memos, but I also needed some practice with real handwriting again before I could write quickly with a pen.)
• Don’t let your captured data stagnate or build up. Channel it at least once a day.

All well and good, and David Allen and numerous other productivity gurus usually advocate these same common-sense productivity tips. But every organisational system has inherently different ways to capture your information and move it into the right place. This is key to distinguishing those systems that work from those that are painful to implement, and your personal situation will very much amplify each one’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, for the first time in nearly 20 years, a goodly portion of my time is actually spent away from a computer (mainly by choice), and thus fantastic and free web-based systems like GTDTiddlyWiki and Next Action are not suitable for my daily tasks. (Yes, I could print items onto paper for on-the-go, but that’s a complication I don’t actually need, as much as my inner geek is tempted.)

I’ve seen a number of people writing about how to use digital inboxes of various types, and of course Allen describes a tray-based inbox with each item on a separate piece of paper. (Recycling ahoy!) My post today, however, concerns a few simple GTD-centric tips for using a paper planner -based inbox, such as what you’d use in a Day Runner, Day-Timer, Filofax, or a homebrew kit using the classic size D*I*Y Planner. As usual, I’m speaking from personal experience; your situation and tools may require a modified approach.

1. I’d advise setting up a planner section as a “special place” designated with its own tab called @Inbox. This should be easily accessible, not half-hidden or located between hard-to-reach tabs. I’d also advise putting this near the centre of the planner, not far from an @Actions tab (where you can keep your Next Actions, Waiting For and Agenda items). Why the centre? Well, the @Inbox and the @Actions sections are going to have a lot of paper both inserted and taken away; it’s far easier to do this when the opening of the rings is close by. I also put a red dot on the tab for these two sections to stress the immediacy of the material. (In my system, green is for projects, yellow for incubating someday/maybe thoughts, and blue for reference materials.)
2. Fill this @Inbox with regular old note or blank paper. No fancy forms, no expensive linen grade, no parchment, nothing special. This should be filled with cheap, recyclable paper. How many pages? That depends on your daily deluge. Start off with 10-15 pages, and then up that number if you find you’re constantly running out. Remember, try to avoid bulk, or you won’t be inclined to carry your planner.
3. Now for the practical part. Let’s say the phone rings, or you bump into your project manager in the hallway, or your boss walks into your office and wants to discuss something. Open immediately to your @Inbox and flip to a page with adequate writing space (which should be near the beginning, if you’re following the advice below).
4. If it’s obvious that the information to be captured should go directly into another section (e.g., your co-worker says, “Here’s that guy’s contact info,” or your boss says, “The project deadline is August 14th”), then fine: jump to that tab in your planner and write the details there.
5. If it isn’t clear what information you’re about to receive –and this will be the case most of the time– simply start writing in your @Inbox. Start by writing the date and time, and the person (or team) involved. Don’t be concerned with spelling, margins, grammar, or anything else: these are rough notes, and you have nothing to worry about except collecting important details. Make everything a bullet point, but be sure to capture all pertinent data. Names, dates, objectives, specifications, opinions, and so forth should all be written down in as succinct a way as possible.
6. When your conversation is finished, quickly review your notes. Now that the call or meeting is over, you have some perspective on the value of the information and its correct place. Move addresses into your Contacts tab, project notes into the relevant project tab, deadlines and appointments into your calendar, call summaries into a project Contact Log, and so forth. (If you’re following GTD, most of this should be fairly evident: use the D*I*Y Planner GTD reference diagram –or the chart in the book, of course– if you need to jog your memory.) Some of your notes will no doubt need to be rewritten for clarity, and some items can be entered directly into the appropriate forms, such as the Next Actions, Waiting For, Someday/Maybe, Project Details or Agenda ones. If you don’t have time to immediately transfer the notes, at least ensure that they are clear and that you haven’t forgotten anything.
7. Use your @Inbox for anything else coming at you quickly, such as a brainstorming session, the minutes of an ongoing committee meeting, or some interesting tidbits on a television or radio programme. Obviously, you may not need to use it for email, business memos and reports –these can be read, noted and filed appropriately and directly in the relevant sections of your planner or file cabinet– but for those items leaving you no time to digest contents or muse upon a course of action, jump straight into your @Inbox, whip out your pen, and start writing.
8. If you’re the type of person who receives important papers and scraps all day long, you need a place to keep these safe and ready to process. Many better planners have an inside pocket of some type (my Day Runner has an accordian pocket) that you can consider part of your @Inbox. If you don’t have one, you can purchase a set of durable cardboard pockets that clip into the rings of your planner from any larger office supply store for about $7. Don’t forget to review this pocket along with your @Inbox tab.
9. Don’t let your @Inbox grow. This is a cardinal sin. Whenever you have a breather, at an absolute minimum of once per day, review this section and transfer all your information into the appropriate tabs and forms. If this occasion doen’t present itself, make it happen: take your planner to a quiet place, or close the door and turn off the phones, or bring your planner to a solo lunch, or put aside a little time after (or before) work. When you’ve emptied the @Inbox, grab a little reward (a coffee, perhaps, or an apple) and then get on with your day.

Yes, it’s all common sense, but many people (myself included) find that keeping to this procedure is the most problematic part of staying organised. The trick is in dancing the capture and empty two-step. Having an easily-accessible and designated section within your planner, as well as following a daily purging ritual, will help limber up those joints and keep you moving forward.

For more information, the D*I*Y Planner Handbook (included with the download) has a number of other tips for setting up and using tabs and forms. And remember, whatever you do, keep your system as simple as possible: complexity is not your friend.

6 comments July 24th, 2005

New hPDA Job Tracker Cards

Update : This set, and many more, are now available free at www.DIYPlanner.com.

The latest member of the D*I*Y Planner Hipster PDA Edition family: a new job-tracking card with room for client info, times, rates, expenses and tasks, along with an optional back face sporting a grid for related information and diagrams. Hopefully, this should prove useful not only for freelancers and contract workers, but also those who move around a lot on different projects.

A big monkey-man salute goes to Neil Ford for his valuable ideas, suggestions and testing.

Download: hpda_jobtracker.zip

This package contains 1-up PDF, 4-up PDF and PNG graphics versions. I still consider this a first draft, so I’m especially open to any suggestions folks might have.

1 comment July 22nd, 2005

D*I*Y Planner Photo Release Kit

Well, all those tales of photographers being sued for images containing the barely-recognisable faces of sue-happy individuals have instilled within me an unhealthy sense of paranoia. Seeing that I’ve been delving far more into photography lately, I decided to round up a few D*I*Y Planner templates to serve as photographic releases.

In this kit (a part of the forthcoming Creativity package), you’ll find:

• Photographic Release (pocket form), in Hipster PDA 1-up, 4-up, and graphical versions
• Photographic Release: Adult, in PDF 5.5×8.5 format
• Photographic Release: Minor, in PDF 5.5×8.5 format
• The adult and minor releases in an OpenOffice.org Draw source file (1.1.4 and up)

The pocket releases are for both adults and minors, and suitable for printing onto index cards, à la my Hipster PDA Edition. The adult and minor versions are also provided in a source file so you can modify them to suit your needs; this will allow you to insert your name, change the size (say, to A5), jigger the margins, or change the wording per the advice of your lawyer. If you want to use the OpenOffice.org file, please download and install the free Blue Highway font first, which is used for the title. (There is no public source file for the Hipster PDA variants, but you should be able to use the included OOo file to create your own with a bit of elbow grease.)

These templates differ somewhat from the usual D*I*Y Planner gear, but mainly for the sake of readability — remember, you want your model to be able to read and sign the form without any legibility issues. Aesthetics is a secondary concern.

These forms are based upon releases provided to Popular Photography (see original text here) by the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP). These templates are provided here simply as a courtesy, and all applicable rights belong to the original creators and owners: any objection to their distribution in this form by said owners will result in the withdrawal of this offering. As always, check with your lawyer before using any legal forms: they may not be valid in your area or for your purposes. There is no guarantee, implied or otherwise, that accompanies these forms, either on my part, or the part of Popular Photography and Imaging Magazine, or the ASMP.

Whew. In other words, use at your peril, and please check with your legal representative first. Remember, I am not a lawyer, nor do I claim any legal knowledge.

Download: D*I*Y Planner Photographic Release Kit 1

Feedback, especially from those with real legal opinions and knowledge, are quite welcome.

9 comments July 16th, 2005

Too Much Coffee Man: To-Do List

Hmmm… three people have sent me this link so far. It’s a conspiracy, I think.

3 comments July 1st, 2005

New: The Crossroads Form

Methods for brainstorming about projects are often hard to implement. Some of them are so needlessly complex that it’s difficult to be creative and free-form with your thinking. Mind-maps (and mind-mapping software like NovaMind and Inspiration) can be useful, but they take some getting used to, and often work best when several people are involved. Others, like the D*I*Y Planner Brainstorming template (basically, an empty grid for note-taking and doodling) are too free-form, and the lack of structure and prompts may do little to help bust your creative blocks.

I’ve decided to take a leaf from Roger van Oech’s book Whack on the Side of the Head, a great book for sparking many types of creativity — I’ve cherished mine for nearly 20 years. He wrote:

Much of our educational system has taught us to look for the one right answer. This approach is fine for some situations, but many of us have a tendancy to stop looking for alternative right answers after the first one has been found. This is unfortunate because often it’s the second, or third, or tenth right answer which is what we need to solve a problem in an innovative way.

He goes on to say that creative genius tends to lurk in the least obvious places, and it’s a shame that we always stop at the first thing that comes to mind, since that only serves to stiffle our imaginations. So what can I do, I pondered, that would force me to think of alternatives? I have a few ideas in development, but I’d like to start by introducing a draft for a new form, which I’m calling (at least temporarily) Crossroads (sorry, 5.5×8.5 only for now). Click on the form at right to download the 2-page PDF file.

So how do you use it?

1. First, consider the issue at hand, and summarise this for the Title. The shorter the better. For example, “Publicise technology workshops for volunteers,” “Start club for learning Japanese,” “Fund-raising for Dialysis Machine,” “Start a fitness consultancy,” or “Write department proposal for Q3.”
2. The Destination is the objective to keep in mind, and should take into account what would make this a succesful venture. Be succinct.
3. In each of the boxes, from 1 to 4, write down a possible path to take. Force yourself to think of four completely different approaches. If you have a lot of ideas, don’t stop there: use another form or a piece of note paper. (Don’t worry about the checkbox items for now.) For example, ideas for publicising a technology workshop might be:
   1. Newspaper/radio/TV ads
   2. Fax posters/flyers to volunteer clubs
   3. Ask service clubs to mention in meetings
   4. Get churches involved
4. In each box, think of a few Checkbox items — essentially actions that would help further develop that path. For example, under “Get churches involved”, you might put:
   1. Short description of workshop for minister
   2. Ask for mention after sermon
   3. Check out clubs, find leaders
   4. Elderly “wanna-learns”- how?
   5. Modified curriculum/approach
   6. Parish newsletters
   7. Grandparent-teen teams
   8. etc.
5. Look down through your paths. What makes more sense, and what might provide best results per effort required? Decide upon which actions you want to pursue, move them to your Next Actions or Weekly Planning lists. You can either check off the ones you’ve moved, or check off the ones completed (depending on what makes most sense to your system). By the way, nothing is saying that you have to stick to just one box: mix and match. this is for brainstorming, not restricting you.
6. When the destination has been achieved (or not, or side-tracked), conduct a mini-review (the Looking Back). I’d suggest –at least when getting started– that you note four things you could have done more effectively, or the four things that worked best. Attach regular note paper if you need the space. A personal review, however short, is not only a good way to keep things in perspective and learn about oneself, but it also helps push creative solutions to the next level.

As I said, this is an early draft of the form, and I would really love to get some feedback. Any takers, please leave a comment below or send me an email (address is at the bottom of the menu at right).

6 comments June 28th, 2005

The Beginner’s Mind

Often we must come full circle –to return to the very beginning– in the efforts to renew ourselves. To do this, the years of rubbish accumulating in our minds need to be emptied periodically, lest we find ourselves with little room to move and breathe.

This is a little post about Zen. I’m not talking about the clichéd trend of recent years to denote every little amusing bit of human nature as Zen, nor the smug satisfaction of thinking one’s excellence in a particular area is Zen, nor am I referring to the misconception tied to the existential angst of nothingness and futility as Zen. These are ridiculous, and only demonstrate one’s ignorance of the philosophy. While I don’t wish to define Zen here (and it defies verbal description anyway), I want to mention an important way it can help folks whose minds are cluttered by years of intellectual analysis. (Well, it helped me.) I’m talking here about the beginner’s mind.

In response to my Simpleton and the Grail post, I’ve gotten a few email like the following, asking exactly how I went about “reducing” my system from one of inherent complexity to one that worked in its simplicity:

You mentioned you’d write about your system later on — but I’m more curious as to how you approached the process of it figuring out. I’ve been productivity tweaking since Jan ‘04 (my first read of GTD ), and have tried all sorts of things. Frustrated, I occasionally engage in the exercise you describe, but always end up more frustrated and muddled than if I’d stuck to my 17-step, 4-system, daily-review process.

What was your mindset? How much time did you devote? How did you pare down to the essentials?

Many people, myself included, get caught up in over-analysing everything. If you’re creating a top-notch piece of software, or a bridge, or a space shuttle, this isn’t a liability, and is often preferable. After all, you want to account for every usage, process and contingency when so much is on the line, when so many people are involved in the equation. To many, the mental challenge is exhilarating, and to see one’s well-ordered and well-thought-out plan being implemented is a far greater reward than simple financial gain. And so, many of us attack every issue in our lives with the same sort of intellectual gusto, thinking that there’s nothing wrong with applying complex flow charts, cutting-edge technologies and detailed quality assurance methods to every proposed solution.

Last summer, I realised I had to do something about my time management problems. I had stretched my days to the limit, I was losing track of bills, I constantly forgot tasks from one hour to the next, and found my stress levels approaching critical. No problem, I thought. I’m an IT professional, and like most of the breed, I’m wont to fantasize about ways of increasing my efficiency using a powerful and systematic series of tools. Having recently finished Getting Things Done, I was inspired to leap into the fray and somehow come up with a technical system that could revolutionalise the time management arena (which –I believe– many of us geeks see as a completely feasible undertaking).

Uh-oh. You see the problem coming, don’t you?

Well, to make a long story short, I got caught in the “must track everything” mindset. I got trapped in a never-ending circle of figuring out the ultimate methodology for containing the ebb and flow of each and every little bit of information, and I involved every tiny byte of technology I could wield, cajole or duct-tape together. Not only was the sheer complexity of the system overwhelming –and thus not likely to be used– but my constant rejigging (including weekly replacements of core applications) meant that nothing was stable or long-lasting enough to be useful. The downward spiral of productivity tweaking wasted my precious time, drained my energy, decimated my efficiency, consistently distracted me, and consequently drove my stress levels to soaring heights.

Fifteen years ago at university, I did a whole lot of soul searching. While things like existentialism, behaviorism and various shamanistic concepts soon staled the neurons and trickled out of my brain, I did find Zen Buddhism interesting enough to pursue. One day this past fall, I was rummaging through my boxes of books and stumbled across a book on the subject (Zen for Beginners, to be exact — an excellent and easy-to-digest introduction). I flipped through it in an amused sort of way, remembering the years of study and meditation, and then it hit me: I needed to leave behind the complexities of my thinking and return to the “beginner’s mind.”

The beginner’s mind is one of clarity unencumbered by the years of ego, rules, social experience, worldly knowledge, bad habits and other baggage that accumulates and weighs us down. It is the original face, the one we each had before we were born. It is primordial, and free of imposition. It heeds no resistance, and is aware only of the natural flow of things.

I released that my biggest problem was trying to contain all the information, constantly trying to shape an unnatural flow as one might attempt to contain or change the course of a river with only one’s bare hands. Time after time, this caused my tension and frustration to build to the point of needing to abandon my fledgeling systems. You see, my cherished systems were the result of my accumulated knowledge and many years’ experience in IT work; they had become a series of intellectual challenges, and not a natural way of looking at or managing my life. I had to leave this mind-clutter and baggage behind, at least temporarily, and forget about my unholy communions of wikis, web-based project management tools, PDAs, server-synced calendars, sitebars, databases and 20-step flowcharts.

But how does one return to the beginning, and forget about technology? Simple: I took out a piece of paper and wrote at the top, “Things I actually need to track and use to be effective”. How very primitive, right? Well, that was the intention.

I started listing only those things I thought I absolutely needed.

“Email”. After all, about 90% of my communication is email. Right-o, not a problem. Gmail has labels and archiving, and I can set up @Action, @WaitingFor, @ProjectName, @Review, and so on. That was easy.

Here, I stopped, though: I decided to make a conscious effort not to think yet about how to manage the information, but just discern what information was needed in the first place. Beginner’s mind, no process yet. Okay, move on.

“Next Actions,” of course. Have to keep on track, keep going forward. “Waiting For,” because I don’t want delegated tasks to stall.

“Calendar Appointments and Deadlines,” since I have to remember to do certain things on certain days. Likewise “Birthdays” and “Anniversaries.”

“Daily news.” I wanted to tote news so I could read it during my lunch hour or in line-ups.

“Contact Info.” “Logins/passwords.” “Car Loan Information.” And so on.

It took about an hour. When I was finished, I was amazed how much information I was trying to track and use that was –in the grand scheme– utterly useless to my productivity. Many of the things I had been trying to contain didn’t even make the first cut. Then I started crossing out everything I didn’t need, and minimising everything I had deployed in multiple formats. For example, why did I need to keep track of daily finances when almost everything appears in my bank statement and online banking? I only needed to track when payments were due. (Onto the calendar they go, then.) Why did I need to have several versions of a contact list, in three different forms? One is enough. Did I really need two ways of tracking projects, and did I really need a web interface for them? Why did I need four different calendar-based ways of keeping time? Did I need to make all my project files text-searchable? Was it necessary to have my IM lists tied into my contact lists?

I put each item in its proper context, attempting to simplify matters as much as possible: I needed the bare essentials only. I went through the list. Cross that out. Nix that. Forget about that. Strike that. Uh-uh, nope. Drop that. No, that isn’t needed. And so on….

I was left with about a dozen things I needed to track and/or use daily. Another Zen precept is based upon the notion of intuitive understanding. I’ve seen enough of my successes and pitfalls to implicitly understand how my flow best works (at least, with a minimum of variables). And so, based upon my list, I could see fairly clearly how to manage my time and information.

The tools were then matched to these necessities. Eventually, it came down to a Palm (for contacts, daily news, MP3s, alarms, encrypted docs, and pictures of the family), my up-and-coming D*I*Y Planner (still in the inaugral stages, but suitable for the calendar, actions, short reference lists, brainstorming and project tracking), and a computer note-taking/reference application (DEVONthink Pro is perfect for containing all my digital dribs and drabs at the moment, though I’m told Zoot is great for Windows users). To that, I’ve now added a Hipster PDA set, mainly for “on the go” errands and the like. The new system was fairly streamlined, and worked well. No resistence anywhere, just a natural flow and an obvious place for everything.

No process is perfect right out of the gate, of course. Thankfully, mine was only incremental from there: small changes –kaizen as the Japanese call it– to continually enhance the flow. For example, I’m integrating a bit more Covey for the top-down thinking, but it still fits with my basic GTD setup.

Step one, simplify to the bare essentials. Step two, seek out the flow of least resistance and effort. Step three, choose the best tools. Step four, simplify some more, and steamline.

For me, I’ve learned that the whole key to my success is in staying away from technology unless it’s absolutely necessary. Ironic, coming from an IT professional, but it saves me from from trying to systematically incorporate everything, attempting to contain too much, giving into the temptation of shiny toys, and subsequently hitting the downward spiral.

There’s something to be said for stripping off the world, facing the mirror as a newborn babe, clear of mind and thought — if only for a moment, before we face worldly matters once more.

16 comments June 27th, 2005