15 years ago
Friday, March 20, 2009
Robb of the Day - Mar 20 "back to cheap effects"
So as all of you know, I'm now back from my road trip.
Being the moron that I am, I started a travel blog to talk about it.
So, check it out.
http://robbtrip.wordpress.com
There's one more day of travel to blog, and some more pics to upload. The map is more or less filled with all the more integral spots.
That's it, peace out.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
How to get things done..sorta..sometimes
From time to time I decide that I’m in need of some type of organizational system to inspire me to do stuff. Crappy stuff like clean out my car, pay late bills, write something for this blog, etc. I’ve looked at plenty of systems and none of them struck me as something that would work for me. GTD (getting things done) had contexts that I couldn’t live with, Franklin Coveys system was far too goal driven for someone that has no goals beyond the next day off, ToDo Matrix was too complex…you get the idea.
Then I stumbled across this guy. Mark Forster is the author of three books about time management and personal organization. It always strikes me as odd when an organizational guru has to have more than one book and this guy is working on a fourth. But, undaunted by this, I chose to take a gander at “autofocus” his new (fourth?) system.
On the surface it seemed simple enough and not that much different from what I’ve done in the past, albeit, with varied results. I’ll post the short version from his website below but, basically, it involves making a long list of things and working on them. Here’s where I came to the conclusion that this may be the system that will keep me organized, timely, productive and, in general, less stressed by the day to day tasks.
The system consists of one long list of everything that you have to do, written in a ruled notebook (25-35 lines to a page ideal). As you think of new items, add them to the end of the list. You work through the list one page at a time in the following manner:
1. Read quickly through all the items on the page without taking action on any of them.
2. Go through the page more slowly looking at the items in order until one stands out for you.
3. Work on that item for as long as you feel like doing so
4. Cross the item off the list, and re-enter it at the end of the list if you haven’t finished it
5. Continue going round the same page in the same way. Don’t move onto the next page until you complete a pass of the page without any item standing out
6. Move onto the next page and repeat the process
7. If you go to a page and no item stands out for you on your first pass through it, then all the outstanding items on that page are dismissed without re-entering them. (N.B. This does not apply to the final page, on which you are still writing items). Use a highlighter to mark dismissed items.
8. Once you’ve finished with the final page, re-start at the first page that is still active.
See…not bad at all, right? A solid way to capture tasks, a regimented review plan, easily actionable and really fucking simple, what more could someone ask for? Then I watched the video… Please keep in mind that he is using his actual autofocus list. Oh and sorry, but I couldn’t get a version with subtitles.
Okay, now I’m totally torn. This guy, author of three time management and personal organization books, just threw my brain into a frenzy of emotion:
1. Around 2:03 he begins discussing how he goes through the decision process regarding how to tackle tasks. (Pause for you to watch) Did you hear this guy? Scan your page with no intention of doing any of it. Then go back over the list to see if you feel like doing any of it. If you don’t just move on to the next page. Fuck me! I’m not sure if I should sue him for stealing my ideas but I’ve been doing this for years, looking at a list and deciding I don’t want to do any of it. But certainly he’ll offer some thoughts on how to rectify this dilemma him and I both seem to share.
2. Around 4:45 he covers the process to go back and catch the things you didn’t do. This organizational douche bag flips back roughly 10 pages to get to the point where there are things he didn’t feel like doing through numerous reviews of his task list. Again, this is nothing new to me at all…
3. After the 5 minute mark he lost me for a bit. Something about crosses and circles and circled crosses. Not really sure any of that makes sense but it could be that I was stunned at how fucking disorganized this asshole was.
4. At 5:32 he refers back to a couple of items from 10 pages ago and looks at them again “without any intention of doing them”
5. And finally we get to the part where we look really hard at the items from 10 pages ago…I’m going to quote how to handle these items directly from the video (minus the douche bag accent): “They were basically three items which, for one reason or another, I don’t actually feel I really want to do. I put them down because I thought I ought to do them but, in each of those cases, I (inexplicable look of confusion and wave of the hand) it’s a feeling that I ought to do them rather than I wanted to do them. So…they’re out.” Is it just me or is that the most asinine approach to an organizational and task management system you’ve ever heard.
6. He goes on somewhere after the 7 and a half minute mark to explain the name “Autofocus System”. According to the author, the system forces you to focus on a very narrow part of what you have to do. By this point I was pretty speechless and thought, being that it was pretty late in the evening that I’d missed something. So, I watched it again and actually giggled (yes, I fucking giggled) out loud in a few spots.
Now, most of this was composed in my tired little brain late last night. I had a lot of time to consider what I’d heard throughout the course of my workday and I’m even more torn now. Should I be pissed that this guy is a published author who likely makes his money from books containing ideas like this one and from coaching people and probably corporations in time management? Or should I be grateful that I now have a published and credible source to backup my own system of writing shit down and then deciding I don’t want to do it?
Should I consider giving the “autofocus system” a legitimate try I will put together my own video to demonstrate how it works.
Oh yeah, almost forgot…it’s only right to post a link to the sight I got all my info from http://www.markforster.net/autofocus-system/
Then I stumbled across this guy. Mark Forster is the author of three books about time management and personal organization. It always strikes me as odd when an organizational guru has to have more than one book and this guy is working on a fourth. But, undaunted by this, I chose to take a gander at “autofocus” his new (fourth?) system.
On the surface it seemed simple enough and not that much different from what I’ve done in the past, albeit, with varied results. I’ll post the short version from his website below but, basically, it involves making a long list of things and working on them. Here’s where I came to the conclusion that this may be the system that will keep me organized, timely, productive and, in general, less stressed by the day to day tasks.
The system consists of one long list of everything that you have to do, written in a ruled notebook (25-35 lines to a page ideal). As you think of new items, add them to the end of the list. You work through the list one page at a time in the following manner:
1. Read quickly through all the items on the page without taking action on any of them.
2. Go through the page more slowly looking at the items in order until one stands out for you.
3. Work on that item for as long as you feel like doing so
4. Cross the item off the list, and re-enter it at the end of the list if you haven’t finished it
5. Continue going round the same page in the same way. Don’t move onto the next page until you complete a pass of the page without any item standing out
6. Move onto the next page and repeat the process
7. If you go to a page and no item stands out for you on your first pass through it, then all the outstanding items on that page are dismissed without re-entering them. (N.B. This does not apply to the final page, on which you are still writing items). Use a highlighter to mark dismissed items.
8. Once you’ve finished with the final page, re-start at the first page that is still active.
See…not bad at all, right? A solid way to capture tasks, a regimented review plan, easily actionable and really fucking simple, what more could someone ask for? Then I watched the video… Please keep in mind that he is using his actual autofocus list. Oh and sorry, but I couldn’t get a version with subtitles.
Okay, now I’m totally torn. This guy, author of three time management and personal organization books, just threw my brain into a frenzy of emotion:
1. Around 2:03 he begins discussing how he goes through the decision process regarding how to tackle tasks. (Pause for you to watch) Did you hear this guy? Scan your page with no intention of doing any of it. Then go back over the list to see if you feel like doing any of it. If you don’t just move on to the next page. Fuck me! I’m not sure if I should sue him for stealing my ideas but I’ve been doing this for years, looking at a list and deciding I don’t want to do any of it. But certainly he’ll offer some thoughts on how to rectify this dilemma him and I both seem to share.
2. Around 4:45 he covers the process to go back and catch the things you didn’t do. This organizational douche bag flips back roughly 10 pages to get to the point where there are things he didn’t feel like doing through numerous reviews of his task list. Again, this is nothing new to me at all…
3. After the 5 minute mark he lost me for a bit. Something about crosses and circles and circled crosses. Not really sure any of that makes sense but it could be that I was stunned at how fucking disorganized this asshole was.
4. At 5:32 he refers back to a couple of items from 10 pages ago and looks at them again “without any intention of doing them”
5. And finally we get to the part where we look really hard at the items from 10 pages ago…I’m going to quote how to handle these items directly from the video (minus the douche bag accent): “They were basically three items which, for one reason or another, I don’t actually feel I really want to do. I put them down because I thought I ought to do them but, in each of those cases, I (inexplicable look of confusion and wave of the hand) it’s a feeling that I ought to do them rather than I wanted to do them. So…they’re out.” Is it just me or is that the most asinine approach to an organizational and task management system you’ve ever heard.
6. He goes on somewhere after the 7 and a half minute mark to explain the name “Autofocus System”. According to the author, the system forces you to focus on a very narrow part of what you have to do. By this point I was pretty speechless and thought, being that it was pretty late in the evening that I’d missed something. So, I watched it again and actually giggled (yes, I fucking giggled) out loud in a few spots.
Now, most of this was composed in my tired little brain late last night. I had a lot of time to consider what I’d heard throughout the course of my workday and I’m even more torn now. Should I be pissed that this guy is a published author who likely makes his money from books containing ideas like this one and from coaching people and probably corporations in time management? Or should I be grateful that I now have a published and credible source to backup my own system of writing shit down and then deciding I don’t want to do it?
Should I consider giving the “autofocus system” a legitimate try I will put together my own video to demonstrate how it works.
Oh yeah, almost forgot…it’s only right to post a link to the sight I got all my info from http://www.markforster.net/autofocus-system/
Robb of the Day - Mar 17th "Bad Manners?"
It had occurred to me that if I were to take a picture of his grave without me in it, I would be like every other Bukowski fan that made the pilgrimage to see his final resting place.
Well what the hell was I going to do? So I decided that I may as well just lay down next to the guy and have someone snap the shot.
I'm not sure if that's considered to be in poor taste or not, but the elderly couple down the way were certainly looking suspiciously in my direction.
Glad I got to find him. It took some multimedia networking work and some CSI style detective work to find the marker, but we eventually did... and took like 50 pictures.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Dew the danimal
"Without struggle, there is no progress."
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