Bought Gina Trapini’s “Upgrade Your Life: The Life Hacker Guide” on Kindle and have been reading it and trying out the various tools and utilities she talks about in her book. It’s a geek’s handbook on how to make the most out of your computer. My kind of book. There are so many tricks and tips and free software mentioned, it’s going to be hard for me to even remember all of them. So there should be a weekly review on the GTD to go through her hacks and remember to check the backup or learn to use the software I’ve downloaded while reading her book and put them to conscious and good use. It’s a wonderful book, I would recommend it to anyone who is a tip and trick addict like me.
For weeks I have been thinking about redoing my office. After months of neglect, the yarns are spilling over the bins, the VCRs scattering the floor, and one look around the room, I lose the motivation to even try to straightening things up. It’s way too clutered with inadequate storage and unwanted furniture strewn the otherwise perfect space. But no matter what I do, I can’t come up with a plan to reorg the space. I talked to L and he made a great suggestion. Move the dresser in the guest room that is empty and not used in for storage. It looks good and it has lots of drawers in different sizes for a perfect storage unit. Then we’ll get a Pottery Barn L shaped computer desk with file cabinets to host my computer and the soon to be organized files. I’m excited and motivated all over.
Right away, L helped me moved the dresser that weighs a ton into the office. I cleared out the plastic bins and the falling apart computer stand and I’m ready to go. I reorganized my yarns and seperate the left overs from the fresh new ones. Even the notions and little tools have a drawer to live in by themselves. I used one side for video tapes and DVDs so I can view them and make clips from them. The other side I have my PC supplies and in the middle my yarn stash. A TV sits on top of the dresser. But then it occurred to me that I can use the old PC as a media center and its 22″ monitor the TV. After several hours of mucking with the WMC and one great post that solved the IR receiver setup and the channel changing problem, it’s now ready to record any TV shows and if I want to, burn them onto DVDs. Yea!!!!
Next, I am working on the new Windows 7 PC to use the USB to video dungle so I can convert my VCR dance tapes into clips that I can put on my iphone to learn. And to order the PC desk to complete the makeover.
One thing lead to another, I started working in the basement storage area too. Bought several more plastic bins with drawers and organized all the audio, video, PC cables and gadgets and stuff. May need more to continue the organization of the basement. We have not started on that project since we moved in almost 3 years ago. It’s time!
Feeling much better already and the office is already getting in shape. I’m very pleased!!
Got up early today after a sleepy Sunday yesterday. It seemed like I never fully woke up the whole day. L was even concerned and ask if I was ok. This morning though I woke quite early and couldn’t go back to sleep so I got up and got a cup of coffee and started reading ‘Making it all work’ by David Allen.
I have been reading about gtd for a long time. And tried several times to implement it into my daily life with little success. I know the system works if only I could find an implementation that is natural to me. I liked the paper organizer a long time ago and it worked for me for a while. But the technology grabbed my attention and I found it much easier to enter stuff into a computer than writing it down on paper. However, I don’t always have Access to a computer at my fingertips. Even now typing this on my iPhone is a pain with my long fingernail. Ugggg. So I got out of the practice of capturing thoughts as they come up and things get out of whack pretty quickly. And I’m off the gtd wagon.
There has to be a way to easily capture inputs on the go into a central place to be processed regularly. And there needs to be a way to combine the papers and the electronic input in a related manner so I can cross reference them easily.
Being organized is the goal. And I’m still trying to figure out a way to get there.
The keyboard shortcut apps: AutoHotKey for pc and Quicksilver for Mac
List keeping software: Google Docs, Todo.txt using keyboard shortcuts to add, iPhone Shopshop.
Current preference: shopshop
Efficient ways to reduce trips up and down the stairs betwen Office and Living area: setup hot water area and snacks, basket for carrying stuff
Changed the URL to dancingchimes. It’s what I use for gmail and everything else. I think it’s about time to switch and consolidate.
I can’t understand why time flies so fast. It’s 3:30 again and I feel like I have just got started. Spent a lot of time trying to get the booksmarks to sync between my Vaio and the Macbook Air. They won’t. I don’t know why. It’s frustrating. They kind of do but the newest link I added to GTD just won’t show up on my PC. I even deleted everything in the bookmarks and let mobileme replace it. Still that one doesn’t show up but it did put a lot in. So I don’t know what the deal is.
Oh, and I tried to connect the camcorder to the macbook air, it won’t recognize it. But I was able to upload the clip using Vaio. So that wasn’t total lost of time there. I stayed up till almost 2:30 last night learning and using the smartlist in Itunes. I’m quite happy about the outcome. I can organize my video clips and music a lot better now on the iphone. It’ll be easier at the studio when we work on the wcs routine in the future.
Then I tried to use monkeyGTD online version. Took me a while to remember that I have to use firefox. So lots of wasted time there. But hey, this is what I like to do so I am not complaining too much here.
Connie called to get my thoughts on whether to buy a PC or a Mac. I kind of leaning towards a PC for her since she is familiar with all the software on it. She was in the car going to Ganley Toyota to look at a car. I guess Tim’s car is still not working. She complained how cold it is here. We sort of had a laugh about that.
Still need to go over the rumba routine a bit so I am more familiar with it. Yesterday was a bit rough, I can’t spin at all.
After a few days of brooding or brewing, I finally decided to give my office a long over-due makeover this afternoon. Moved all the boxes and things that are just laying around to the storage area in the basement. It’s already looking a lot better. As David Allen said, getting some clean edge in your physical space helps with your psychic. It really does. Then by moving the furniture around a bit and getting rid of clutters, I am loving this space again. Haven’t really getting my file system back in shape yet. There are papers to be filed for almost a year I think. But now that I have the space setup, I can move ahead with that part of the makeover.
The reason I haven’t been using this office downstairs is first, it has never been finished since we moved in. I have boxes still laying around, an open loop that says work whenever I come down here. A mental burden I guess. And second, it’s cold down here. Maybe it’ll be better in the summer, then again maybe not, with the AC all coming down here and staying down here. Right now, I have the space heater going, and that helps a lot.
I won’t be able to use this office for a few weeks after the surgery but after that, I should be able to fully utilize it when Leo retires and stays home then. We should have separate spaces to move in and not be in each other’s way. It’s a good thing. And yeah, I’ll be going back to work and that should help too.
Now on to the paper mess…
I’ve been freeflowing since I stayed at home. That is, most days, I have not schedule and no agendas. I just do whatever pops into my nind that day and appeals most to me. I like the stress free freedom and have been enjoying it. But the other side of me has been wondering if I’ve been wasting my time away if I don’t have a schedule or an agenda for the day. Am I missing something I should have done? Am I being a slob? So when I stumbled back onto David Allen’s GTD on youtube, I’m happy to reinvestigate his method and see if I can employ it in my jobless phase.
Actually, I can. Even though there is no external pressure now to accomplish certain job related tasks, there are tasks in everyday life, there are goals we should set for ourselves to live a meaningful life. It gives you purpose and feeling of accomplishments. Both are positive influence in our lives.
So I did a brain dump yesterday. Even doing so, I found myself repeating the same items cause i don’t remember if I put it down or not. It’s embarrassing. But at least they have been recorded. If the purpose for the brain dump is to relieve your brain from trying to remember everything you have to do, not sure if I have put them down is certainly a detriment to the system. But I’ll just have to see how it works for me now that my forgetfullness seems to be getting worse and worse.
Now I’m looking for the system to use to keep the engine rolling. I know I have to choose something that is easy to do or my laziness will prevent me from doing it. The fact that I have maybe a monthful of mail to open can attest to that. I hate paperwork. So it needs to be an application and one that I can get to easily anywhere. A web app is probably the best. And one that is free is also essential. Or one that I can install on my website. Hmmm. Something to look into,. One more thing for the brain dump. Heck, at this rate, I may have more brain dump than I can put them into a system to keep track of. he he.
But there are always paper trails that need to be kept somewhere. So I still need a file system and a place to put the reference materails for a future task. I’m still not very clear how to implement the system and looking for something that suits my way of doing things. This is a process that is not finished yet.