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GTD Masters: Interview with Jason from BlackBeltProductivity.net
This post is part of a series I’ve dubbed the GTD Master Series - a collection of short interviews with well-known GTD bloggers who many consider to be masters of their craft. Enjoy!
Today on GTD Masters, we’ll be chatting with Jason Echols, the second half of the productivity duo over at Black Belt Productivity. While I must confess that I haven’t spoken to Jason as much as I have to his partner-in-crime, he comes off as a very cool customer. Michael suggested him as a candidate for my little interview here, and he was nice enough to oblige. So sit back, relax and drink in the wisdom of another productivity ninja!
GTD Masters: An Interview with Michael from BlackBeltProductivity.net
This post is part of a series I’ve dubbed the GTD Master Series - a collection of short interviews with well-known GTD bloggers who many consider to be masters of their craft. Enjoy!
I first started shooting the breeze with Michael, half of the two-man productivity assault team at BlackBeltProductivity.net, after posting something about del.icio.us here at the CW blog. We’d chat here and there about different productivity tools, GTD webapps and the like, quickly realizing we have a bit in common. I consider Michael to be a friend - and now I’m proud to feature him on this installment of GTD Masters!
We’re Back! Quick Site Update
As some of you might’ve noticed, the site was offline for about 12-14 hours, through this afternoon. My hosting company had a scheduled power outage last night that went horribly haywire, but all appears to be well now.
Apologies for any inconvenience!
Weekend Homework: Questions for Merlin Mann
Ever since I came up with the idea for the GTD Masters Series, I’d secretly hoped to get the chance to interview the great Merlin Mann of 43Folders.com. And as I was pretty certain he wouldn’t just volunteer his time, I thought I’d ask him - so I emailed him a couple days ago to pitch him the idea. Guess what happened next? He responded!
While he didn’t flat-out agree to do the interview, he did say he was willing to discuss it and that he wanted to see a list of the questions/topics I wanted to cover. He also asked that I try not to cover anything that he’s already discussed at length on 43f (like how he got started with GTD), which I completely understand. So, instead of giving him the “canned” list of questions I’ve been sending to the rest of my would-be GTD Masters participants, I’ve decided to ask you, my loyal readers, to help me come up with some questions to ask him.
Rethinking Analog GTD and Why Stikkit is Making Me Drool
So after spending a few months with this new-fangled GTD thing using only paper-based tools, I can’t help but notice all the super-cool web apps that keep cropping up all over the place. I’ve played with a couple of them (SimpleGTD, Vitalist and Nozbe - the last only briefly), and while some of them are very cool indeed, I was always able to think of several reasons why the wouldn’t work for me. Since, ultimately, they’re all designed to solve the same problem, they all also share the same shortcomings (as far as my needs are concerned). Mostly, it came down to a single issue: portability.
As I’ve described in the past, my primary reason for choosing to use a wholly analog GTD system was the notion that I would be able to manage that system from anywhere I had my notebooks, index cards and a pen. Capture would benefit most directly here, as that’s the one task I do frequently when not near a computer. It’s worth mentioning that I spend very little time more than 30 feet from a computer on a given day - my drive to/from work and any socializing I do outside of my home (which is very little considering I have a toddler son and a baby daughter due this June). Heck, even my in-laws have a computer with Internet access that I could use should the need arise. So, given these circumstances, it seems like I’ve just made a pretty strong case for using a digital system (or at least a hybrid). Why then don’t I pull the trigger and switch?
How to Talk to a Programmer
Just about anybody that works in medium-to-large size company has probably experienced the dreaded IT/Help Desk guy. You know the one I mean - the poorly-dressed, over-confident, slightly smelly guy who knows how to get your deleted email back or maybe get rid of those annoying pop-up windows. Well, if you think that guy is bad, you’ve clearly never had to deal with a programmer…
Before we begin, let me make something clear: this post will be full of stereotypes and generalizations. Not every programmer you encounter will be this way or require the sort of interaction I’m going to describe - but many, many of them will. So I don’t want to get a huge backlash from the “normal” programmers out there, because they know that I’m at least somewhat right about this. Mmkay? Mmkay. Now, a hypothetical situation for you:
How to Make Your Weekly Review More Fun and Fulfilling
One of my most difficult hurdles in implementing GTD has been a consistent weekly review. My schedule is somewhat erratic at times, and while I normally have ample time on Friday nights to do the review, I often have a hard time mustering the energy to delve into a 2+ hour endeavor. You know, after a long week of work and whatnot, it’s a good deal easier to crack a cold one and read through my RSS feeds or maybe catch a Tivo’d Law & Order. As I said, it’s something I need to work on.
But when I do manage to wrestle my lazy keister over to my desk and spread out my various notebooks and file folders, there are a few things I do to help make my review more pleasant and fulfilling. If you ask me, there’s something to be said for creating the right environment for something like this. Making the area comfortable and inviting goes a long way toward getting me to actually sit down and start hammering away (which is half the battle). So, here are a few of the things I do to help ensure weekly review success:
GTD Masters: An Interview with Frank from WhatsTheNextAction.com
This post is part of a series I’ve dubbed the GTD Master Series - a collection of short interviews with well-known GTD bloggers who many consider to be masters of their craft. Enjoy!
Author of WhatsTheNextAction.com, one of the most popular GTD-related blogs on the web (and recently featured in an article on cnn.com about David Allen and GTD), Frank Meeuwsen recently hit the 2-year mark with GTD and his productivity chops are sharp as ever. His blog is one of the few I know of where the author shows the human side of GTD - his failures as well as his successes. I’ve had random email conversations with Frank off and on for the past few months, and he agreed to do this little interview for me:
GTD Masters: An Interview with Glen of LifeDev.net
This post is part of a series I’ve dubbed the GTD Master Series - a collection of short interviews with well-known GTD bloggers who many consider to be masters of their craft. Enjoy!
In this installment of the GTD Master Series, we’ll be hearing from Glen from LifeDev.net. I’m sure most of you are no stranger to his work (and have probably subscribed to his feed since you started with GTD). I’ve recently been chatting with Glen about this and that and he’s a super cool guy. And he’s been gracious enough to answer some of my questions, so without further ado…
Hacking Life: Intelligently Managing Your ‘Spare Buttons’
How many times have you gone out and bought a new article of clothing, gotten it home and found little paper envelope containing a couple extra buttons for your new threads? Thankfully, my wife buys most of my clothes (really, it’s wonderful), so I rarely encounter this. But this past weekend, in preparation for a little cocktail/birthday party a friend was throwing, I picked up a nice new jacket. Got it home, cut off all the tags and whatnot and threw that badboy on for another look. Then, I discovered the buttons.
Now, whenever this has happened to me in the past, I’ve always had 2 conflicting thoughts (and I imagine some of you will recognize these):
