In many of my blog posts so far, I've mentioned how crushed I feel for time... there are simply too many things I want to do, and never enough time to do them - my eyes are bigger than my pocketwatch, so to speak.
Perhaps this failure is exemplified best by the fact that I didn't even have it together to get proper Xmas presents for my family this year. I used to come up with all sorts of random creative themes, or wrapping, or treasure hunts for presents, and this year I've done almost nothing. (Key word 'almost'... If I hadn't done anything at all I wouldn't still be up at 4am. ;)
So I've decided that this needs to end. It's not worth spending the rest of my life being stressed about time. To that end, I've been exploring various to-do list and time management tools.
Getting Things Done
I've been listening to an audiobook seminar series thing by David Allen, the "Getting Things Done" guy. I must say, he's a fantastic speaker. Very skilled with language and imagery. As for his message, I think I agree with it for the most part. One of his key ideas is to make lists and dump absolutely all of your unresolved issues and open mental loops out onto paper, in the form of action items.
His point is that if you can trust that the list contains EVERYTHING you need to worry about, you can then relax and simply execute the items on the list. I haven't finished the book, but ostensibly he has a system of lists that guarantees that, with appropriate processing, everything will get done.
I find it interesting that this is similar to the way a computer's architecture is structured, with data storage happening in a very different piece of hardware from where processing takes place.
Anyway, inspired by his words, I've begun dumping information out of my head and generating to-do lists. I've experimented with various media... I had a paper planner for a while, until I lost it(!) This is very unlike me... I don't usually lose things, so it's just ironic beyond words that the first important thing that I lose is the very thing that was supposed to guarantee my "together"ness. :P
However, I spend roughly 12 hours a day sitting in front of a computer, so I feel like an electronic medium would suit me better. Preferably web-based and accessible anywhere.
Tools for Organization
I've looked at a number of applications and services. Of these, the one I'm most excited about is stikkit.com, not because of its functionality (their beta is still pretty buggy, and they don't support multi-level to-do lists (which are absolutely essential, as far as I'm concerned)), but because I love their interface. You just type stickies in natural language, and it automagically generates to-do lists where necessary. Then you click on the items after you complete them, and they gray out and get crossed out! I'm really just all excited about that one feature, truth be told, because it's so nice to see my accomplishments crossed off! Other apps just erase them from your list or move them to the bottom or something...
I found one other app that I'd like to try out. It's called MyLifeOrganized, or MLO, and it's a lightweight app that you can put on a thumb drive and carry with you. A little more effort than automatically loading in one of my permanent tabs on Firefox, which I also have automatically load when I log in... but it seems like it's pretty powerful and simple to use. Maybe I'll try throwing my lists into that as well as stikkit, and I'll see which one survives longer.
There are a LOT of other tools out there too, but many of them are uber-configurable like ShadowPlan, the multitude of buttons and extensive color palette of which scared me into immediately uninstalling it... too many controls, and no obvious way to get started. Good reviews from users, but I suspect their sense of UI aesthetics differs from mine.
Also, this "LifeBalance" program seems interesting... apparently they use fuzzy logic or something to dynamically adjust your priorities on your action list and make your life better based on your values. I wonder how well it works... I've seen some good reviews of this too.
Of course, it's discouraging to be spending so much of my valuable time finding and setting up "productivity" tools, but if I can get any of these to work for me, the payoff will be more than worth the investment.
Anyway, I'll keep you guys updated on how the quest goes. Any recommendations on techniques and strategies for life management?
5 comments:
Haha, interesting you should mention that. I was told yesterday (by someone who claims to have fairly reliable psychic ability) that my destiny is to move to Vancouver and find the love of my life there.
Maybe I should spend half my time getting organized and half my time looking for job opportunities in Vancouver. :P
Thank you Dylan, I'm going to try these out and let you know how they work out for me. (If you don't hear anything back from me, the tools have obviously not worked :P)
But several independent sources have claimed to-do-lists are a good thing, so I'm convinced on those. Someone also mentioned they clear your head -- to stick with the computer analogy, paging your less important processes to disk, freeing up RAM. :)
Yeah It is a good thing a TODO list and a web calendar ... I personnaly use google calendar, but there is no TODO list yet ... So for the TODO I use a google document which is also we based but I guess it is not the most user firendly ...
stop planning. that way you don't feel like you're swamped for time and when you do accomplish random little things, you feel very proud of yourself. i find whether i plan or don't plan, i accomplish things basically the same way and on the same time scale...i just have lower blood pressure the second way.
As somebody who is virtually inseparable from my favourite digital devices this is going to sound strange, but after making a similar resolve to improve my time management and make "forward progress" on all my stalled goals, I eventually settled on... paper.
I have a cheap notepad in my desk at each of my schools, and I make an insane number of notes. Too many, sometimes, to be useful.
Still, I find it helpful. When I find myself buried in TODO lists, I start making a list for THAT day; browse through my heap of notes and pick out a few hot-button items that I can accomplish right away.
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