David Allen: The master of getting thing done - July 1, 2007

Terrific article on David Allen and his company. Although the perspective is heavy on the business and money (well: after all, it is Business 2.0), there's lots of interesting history and insight in here as well.

David Allen sits in his small office in a cottage behind his house in Ojai, Calif., talking business with a visitor. Suddenly he stops. "That reminds me," he says. He scribbles the words "bird feed" on a piece of blank notebook paper and tosses it into his inbox.

It's an ordinary moment in an ordinary day. But for Allen and his legion of followers, it holds the key to salvation. He has emptied his mind of a nagging task, placed it into a trusted system for processing, and casually returned to his conversation.

I hung with David when we were doing our podcast together (download the mp3), and I'll tell you what: that is exactly how the man works, and it's inspiring to watch.

Via: kedrhodes' bookmarks on del.icio.us

by Michael Buffington

This is the second entry in a multipart series about my recent obsessive love affair with GTD, the iGTD application and Quicksilver.

In the last entry I put the emphasis on getting my tasks written down quickly and out of my focus into a system I could trust. I could choose to spend some time later to review my tasks and do what I like to call "iGTD gardening", where I check up on all my projects and do a bit of weeding of duplicate or irrelevant tasks, and fortify those tasks with whatever information comes to mind as I'm looking at them.

Since I'm now in the habit of pushing new tasks to iGTD and immediately forgetting about them I have the refreshing ability to work on a task without ever thinking about anything else. iGTD then becomes my set of instructions to follow when I need guidance, and if I've tended my task garden well, it's a rich set of instructions with a lot of tedious thinking already finished.

This system works out alarmingly well until you're possessed by SSD (severe stupidity disorder) and delete your iGTD database without even a whiff of lingering vapors. Immediately you'll be consumed by a profound and unshakable dread as you realize your tether has been severed from the mother ship and you begin to drift into outer space, your Tang to be divided up amongst your colleagues (even the ones you loathe).

Luckily for most of us, iGTD makes database backups upon starting up the iGTD app and for a couple of other events, and luckier still, most of us don't suffer from SSD very often.

But I often do, and don't leave anything to chance.

A lot of my friends have been reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, and, to varying degrees, several of them have started trying on some of his more audacious ideas, such as checking email once a week, finding an "income muse," going on an extreme information diet -- a few people I know are considering outsourcing pieces of their personal and professional lives.

For reasons I can't fully explain -- and will, for now, just write down to Tim's engaging style -- I also found this outsourcing idea weirdly fascinating. You identify the tedious tasks in your life that don't represent the best use of your time, and assign them to an overseas worker who can complete them for a few bucks an hour. This apparently can be virtually any kind of mundane task, from booking a dinner reservation to doing research on a company to -- heck, why not? -- answering your email.

So, while I know lots of people share my theoretical interest in this, I wonder how many of you have tried it, and how many of you are using outsourced help on a regular basis. What's your experience been? Does this work? What sorts of task are most amenable to long-distance assignment?

Peter Walsh answers questions for Unclutterer.com

Thanks to my self-imposed media tunnel vision (and the bulging TiVo that enables it), I've apparently managed to miss a show on TLC called Clean Sweep that sounds like it's potentially up my alley. I guess the idea is that they parachute in to crazy-messy houses and help the harried occupants affect a makeover.

The wonderful Unclutterer.com recently interviewed the show's host, Peter Walsh, and he had a couple interesting things to say about origins of clutter that get to the root cause:

Clutter comes in many forms and the reasons why people hold onto it is similarly complex. There are two main types of clutter: Memory Clutter – which reminds one of an important person, or achievement or event from the past – and I-Might-Need-It-One-Day Clutter – this is the stuff held onto in preparation for all possible futures that one might encounter. Keeping things from the past or sensible planning for the future are great things – it’s when the objects take over that there’s a problem. With many of the people I encounter, their primary relationship is with their stuff. Instead of owning their stuff, their stuff owns them. This clearly is not only unhealthy but also a real stumbling block to happiness and a fulfilling life.

Here's Walsh's new book: It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff. Already ordered our household a copy.

Herewith: news bits, remainders, and low-threshold links for your dining and dancing pleasure.

• ChronoSync | Handy Tips for Using ChronoSync | Econ Technologies - I've mentioned before that I'm a fan of ChronoSync for automatically backing up or syncing folders between two Macs. This is a bunch of handy tips and recipes for setting CS up to do your bidding.
• Rule the Web - My pal and frequent co-conspirator, Mark Frauenfelder, sent me a copy of his swell new book, Rule The Web, which is an up-to-date edition that answers the years-old question: "So, what cool stuff can I actually do with the internet?" While many of Mark's tips and links will be familiar to most of you, this would make a fantastic gift for friends and relatives who are new to intermediate web surfers. Recommended, as is Mark's companion site for the book. (And thanks for the very kind words about 43f, Mark)
• The Universal Traveler - Speaking of books, I keep meaning to write a followup to the post about Ze Frank and "morphological synthesis" since it led me to a couple good books on creativity. I'm particularly enjoying The Universal Traveler (whose title I mangled horribly on The Heather Gold Show last Friday). It's a lo-fi, somewhat hippie-looking tome, but don't let the clip art and Courier 12 fool you -- this thing is chock full of great ideas for approaching any kind of creative challenge. I love that the authors understand that different people and different problems will require a wide-ranging set of tools and approaches. Good stuff.
• YouTube - Microsoft Surface Parody - I'm sure you've seen it already, but I just can't get enough of this Microsoft Surface sendup, courtesy of Sarcastic Gamer. I'm a long time fan and advocate of the adjective big-ass, so this cracked me up.
• MacBreak Minute: Sogudi (1080p) - Episodes of MacBreak's tiny little brother, MacBreak Minute, have started going out. I did a quickie on Sogudi (featured on 43f twice previously) that you can download in either iPod size (yikes, tiny!) or 1080p (yikes, ginormous!). Related: please remind me to shave next time I do one of these.
• Tonight in SF: Merlin's OmniFocus Demo - Finally, a friendly reminder that I'll be at the Stockton St. Apple Store tonight at 7pm to demo OmniFocus and talk about how I use it. OmniGroup's CEO (and lead fantasy-gamer) Ken Case will be in evidence too, and we'll be happy to answer any questions you have. It's free, open to the public, and I hope I'll see you there.

MacBreak Weekly 45: Talk Time

>

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann, Scott Bourne, and Alex Lindsay

>

iPhone gets a better battery and screen, MacGPS rumors, and Safari holes...

Here's a direct MP3 download of MBW 45.

Gotta tell you: I'm really excited about the imminent arrival of the iPhone for an unconventional reason: the possibility that we can eventualy stop talking about the iPhone. (sigh)

Anyway. Two things related to this episode:

1. If we can scare up a video jockey, I'll be at the Stockton St. store here in SF next Friday to shoot some stuff about that evening's iPhone release for MacBreak. Maybe interviewing people in line; who knows?
2. My tip of the week in this episode is a very cool Quicksilver trick called mouse dragged triggers. Explaining how it works is -- as you'll hear -- difficult, to say the least. So, herewith, I present my favorite tutorial on the topic, from the lovely and talented Dan Dickinson. He also has some great ideas for what to do with the trick:

Michael Buffington is a pal of mine who's a talented developer and all-around swell fellow. I got to work with him a bit on the Stikkit project and, in some of our offline talks on productivity stuff, I was intrigued to learn about some of his ninja geek skillz.

I asked Michael to write up a series on some of his favorite tricks to get his stuff done, and he kindly obliged. Here's part one.

--Merlin

How I use iGTD

by Michael Buffington

This is the first part in a multipart series about using iGTD with Quicksilver and how it's changed my life, allowed me to grow hair where I never thought it possible, and more importantly, spend more quality time with my children (who are, as you might know, super humans with indescribable special abilities).

I'm a recent and somewhat enthusiastic convert to GTD. I have had the good fortune of starting to manage my digital life with GTD the same day Merlin first mentioned a great application for OS X called iGTD.

I have to admit though that I'm not a very hard core GTD follower yet. The most important parts of GTD for me are getting my tasks out of my head the moment they pop into existence, and putting them into some sort of system I can trust. iGTD allows me to do exactly that in a very intuitive way, but if I'm having a good day I only ever bring iGTD into focus when I'm not sure what's next on my list.

I always try to credit the source for stuff that I link to when I've learned about it from other sites. In addition to helping my readers connect with voices they may not have heard before, I believe it's just the classy thing to do. (I'm looking at you, "A Listers" -- a lot of you have started dropping vias for everyone but your highest-profile buddies: tacky, tacky).

Anyway, I admit that I'm not 100% either, but in the interest of trying to make good, here are a few of the sites that I find myself reading and linking to a lot. Thanks to their authors and contributors for sending me (and you) to so many interesting places.

Jason P. DeFillippo : 90 Days

My pal, Jason DeFillippo, has recently begun a project to clean up his act over the next ninety days. In preparation for hitting the big three-six, he's planning to tidy up, lose some weight, and start shedding the nonsense, clutter, and distractions in his life. Go, man, go.

Personally, I've had mixed to terrible results with things where I tried to invert too many habits at one time, but Jason is nothing if not a hardass and a man of firm resolve. I'm looking forward to watching his progress over the summer and learning what I can from him.

I'll tell you one thing we agree on; it's all about getting started:

I saw this over at Boris’s blog the other day and it really triggered something in me. I tend to think a lot about project and plans. I think about them so much I get paralyzed with option paralysis and stuff doesn’t get done. In an attempt to do something right the first time through it invariable almost never gets done at all. Thinking something through is an important part of the creative process but it means dick if you don’t ever start. And if you don’t start you don’t finish.

Good on 'ya, Jason. Rock it.

Here are Jason's "90 Days" posts so far:

TWiT 101: Moon over Google

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann, Wil Harris, Steve Gibson, and Denise Howell

Google Street View and privacy, Michael Moore and piracy, hackers and Safari...

• Leo has begun to use Facebook for only people he knows personally.
• Facebook has recently allowed for applications which enticed Leo.
• The People Aggregator will allow you to create a social network using your login from another social network.
• Create your own social network with Ning.
• Steve Jobs keynoted the WWDC conference announcing Safari for Windows, but no API.
• Apple has plugged several security flaws that were discovered in the Windows version of Safari.
• At WWDC, numerous new OSX Leopard features were unveiled.
• Steve Gillmor had a post called iPhonomics regarding the possibility of Google Gears coming to the iPhone.
• Linspire has made a deal with Microsoft to share numerous technologies.
• Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu, somewhat chastised Microsoft regarding software patents.
• Microsoft has also partnered will LG for their Linux-based devices.
• Owen Thomas, the Business 2.0 editor, has been to Valleywag.
• Sicko, Michael Moore's new controversial documentary, has been leaked onto Bittorrent.
• The Manchester Cathedral is complaining to Sony about their appearance in the game "Resistance: Fall of Man."
• Google has launched a "Street View" service that are fairly recent. Leo's buddy Patrick Norton was actually caught on it crossing the street. Check out the top 15 sightings on Google Street View.
• Keep track of Google Street View sightings at StreetViewr.
• Audio is a Facebook application that allows people to upload audio - giving way for piracy to happen on the site.
• eBay threated to take their ads off of Google.
• It is the 50th anniversary of the Frisbee.

Download MP3 file

TED | Talks | Stefan Sagmeister: Yes, design can make you happy (video)

I really enjoyed this 15-minute TED presentation by Stefan Sagmeister (watch out: flashy page with grabby browser javascript) on how specific instances of design have made him happy.