Kaeru's Online Journal
Online journal entries sorted by date
Paper Collection
I follow some aspects of Getting Things Done (GTD) and one of the most important concepts for me is having a reliable mechanism for collecting new things that need some sort of action, and then filing into appropriate systems to manage and review. I only have two review systems, Trac and Datebk on my Palm phone.
If a task is not added to one of these systems, its unlikely to be reviewed, and likely to be forgotten.
I'm generally ok with getting a tasked filed for digital collections (email/Skype etc.). Palm on a phone has greatly helped in quickly dealing with filing phone related tasks such as text messages and calls. My paper collection mechanism sadly such as mail, has been woeful. It's been one two many times, in which I've missed due dates because it's hidden in a pile of stuff (stack of papers) and not reviewed.
Being sick for most of last week, creating a system and sorting out paper was a good mindless yet productive exercise.
Inbox Tray
I organized it into three simple trays:
- Top
- Stuff that has not been reviewed and filed into my review systems.
- Middle
- Stuff that has been reviewed and filed as a task. This means that this stack of paper isn't a mindless pile of stuff. When I do my review and management of tasks I'll get to one of these in right order of priority and urgency.
- Bottom
- Filing and archiving. There is a low priority file or archive task attached to them, just needs to be filed to relevant folder.
Transparent folders
In the middle tray, pieces of paper often need to be grouped together. I refer to these as current project folders. Invoices with checks and receipts, contracts with amendments and so on. Transparent plastic folders are perfect for this task, as it's very easy to quickly put them in, and also see at glance what's in it (saves time on labeling). I use sticky notes within these folders for additional reference information.
When you're done with them, some like the one shown here, even have binding holes to easily file them into a proper binded folder.
Finally these plastic folders are a lot easier to deal with then binded folders when you need to pull them out and reference it quickly to take some action. You can easily pull them out of the tray, or have some sort of container within easy reach. The most important point here is that what is contained in these plastic folders and trays is not "stuff". Except for the top box, they're already organized in my trusted and often reviewed systems.
The Greek Hero
Thus the hero of the Odyssey is a great fighter, a wily schemer, a ready speaker, a man of stout heart and broad wisdom who knows that he must endure without too much complaining what the gods send; and he can both build and sail a boat, drive a furrow as straight as anyone, beat a young braggart at throwing the discus, challenge the Pheacian youth at boxing, wrestling or running; flay, skin, cut up and cook an ox, and be moved to tears by a song. He is in fact an excellent all-rounder; he has surpassing aretê.
—Kitto
The best people will have these qualities, whether it's leading an expedition, building a web site or an architectural marvel. You will find that they communicate and write well, have artistic and musical skills, sociable and we haven't yet touched their skills in their areas of expertise. Most importantly you will notice that these folks can get things done.
Innovation requires a consummately well-articulated vision of what you are trying to achieve -- one that all parties, from engineers to the eventual consumer can believe in. Innovation requires at least one person who fully understands all the ramifications of that vision and is armed with the authority and means to make it happen.
—Dick Powell, Seymourpowell
Of course unlike the Greek hero, you can't really do everything, but you need to have an understanding to understand all the parts of a complex system. If you're a CEO of a company, you need to have an understanding of all the operations that make your company tick. If you cut costs in one area of operations, how is it going to affect another, and the company as a whole? If you're building an application, you'll have to understand how all the different parts, the server, the network, the application, the choice of development language and framework all could affect the success of the project.
You may not have the details, but you know what you need to ask. Else you end up with this:
Avoiding the Greek Tragedy or Don't Be Martyr
You may want your name remembered in eternity, but you probably don't want to die doing it.
If you're building yourself up to be one of these all rounders, while you will be well sought after and increase your professional value; be careful of the trap of being the martyr. This tip is from the Time Management for System Administrators. This is a common pitfall for young talented professionals. The folks without vision and skills, the middle managers, will keep assigning you more and more work out of your job scope, until you burn out. Same, pay, no promotion, and no credit.. "It was a team effort", they will say. Conversely there is no team when things go wrong. Sometimes young folks who want to do their best, unknowingly make themselves martyrs by taking on than they can handle.
The way to avoid this, is to pick up another skill, which is time and project management skills. So now not only, can you flay an ox, build a ship, you can run a successful project too.
Get Stuff Done in the Morning
Managed to pull in a 60hr week during Ramadhan last week. One of the things that made it possible was waking up for sahur.
Do the stuff, that you need to do in the morning and be done with it. These include all the stuff, that you don't have to do later in the day. So if you do your run, workout, urgent things and some chores in the morning, you're done with it already before normal working hours. What's interesting is that, even if I didn't wake up in the morning, I'm tired anyway at the end of the day, except I haven't done an extra 3 hours worth of stuff.
I plan to keep this routine. It's extremely satisfying feeling when you crash into bed exhausted at the end of the day, knowing that you've done all you could, and lived your life fully.
