All Narfed Up photography and words by Bryan Villarin

At the end of March, our band (Phantom Scream) will perform some songs for my cousin’s Debut. The hotel, where it’s being held, is asking how much power we’re going to be using. How do we crunch the numbers from the back of our amps to give them a proper number?

A coworker I know keeps a spiral notebook of their task lists, and it contains one page per day. If an item doesn’t get done that day, it gets moved to the next day.

Is this good or bad? It’s good because you’re writing everything down. It’s bad because you’re wasting time rewriting down items if they get bumped.

In “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity,” David says:

Three things go on your calendar:

• time-specific actions;
• day-specific actions; and
• day-specific information.

Those three things are what go on the calendar, and nothing else! I know this is heresy to traditional time-management training, which has almost universally taught that the “daily to-do list” is key. But such lists don’t work, for two reasons.

First, constantly new input and shifting tactical priorities reconfigure daily work so consistently that it’s virtually impossible to nail down to-do items ahead of time. Having a working game plan as a reference point is always useful, but it must be able to be renegotiated at any moment. Trying to keep a list in writing on the calendar, which must then be rewritten on another day if items don’t get done, is demoralizing and a waste of time. The “Next Actions” lists I advocate will hold all of those action reminders, even the most time-sensitive ones. And they won’t have to be rewritten daily.

Second, if there’s something on a daily to-do list that doesn’t absolutely have to get done that day, it will dilute the emphasis on the things that truly do. If I have to call Mioko on Friday because that’s the only day I can reach her, but then I add five other, less important or less time-sensitive calls to my to-do list, when the day gets crazy I may never call Mioko. My brain will have to take back the reminder that that’s the one phone call I won’t get another chance at. That’s not utilizing the system appropriately. The way I look at it, the calendar should be sacred territory. If you write something there, it must get done that day or not at all. The only rewriting should be for changed appointments. (David Allen, 40-41)

When something comes up, figure out if it has a deadline before writing it down. Does this have a due date?

• If so, write it in the calendar!
• If not, write it in your Next Actions list. It’s just something you need to get done as soon as you can.
• If you have one or more physical items (i.e. letters to reply to, bills), and it’s day-specific, it should go into a tickler file as long as you check it everyday.

I love digital over analog because the moment something in my Next Actions list gets day-specific, it’s simple to convert that item. However, if you like having things on paper, you can always print it out at the start of the day, make changes in pen, then make the updates at the end of the day within whatever program you use. (e.g. Palm Desktop, Outlook)

Bottom line: Daily to-do lists stink. Time and day-specific actions or information goes on the calendar, and everything else goes into Next Actions. If you have a lot of Next Actions and want to take it a step further, use contexts. (See “One task at a time“)

Note: Projects are a monster topic I’m aware wasn’t included here. They do consist of multiple Next Actions, but I track those in a different way. That’ll be in a future post.

Our band, Phantom Scream, is still active. Whether I realize it or not, Doc and Bill are constantly working on new material. Last Friday was special because we all got together at Unchained Studios in San Dimas for band practice. We haven’t been there since our first show last April. We needed to hear ourselves in a room with better acoustics.

This is my favorite picture of all the ones taken. That smile is priceless:

View the rest of the set

As far as I’m concerned, the lyrics are even more abstract, and the sound is more progressive rock than ever before. I love it.

My mom left her cell phone at home this morning. Her brother called, so I answered to tell him that.

Uncle: Bryan, where’s your mom?

Me: She’s at work. She left her phone here.

Uncle: Ok, bye.

Hilarious, and always reminiscent of “Napoleon Dynamite“.

I’m not sure how my ankle got sprained, but it is. Really, I don’t know. Maybe I slept on it weird. My mom’s freaked out, too, because I don’t have health insurance at the moment. I’m stumped.

Background: I broke my right ankle in high school (1998, I think). I ended up needing surgery to set some pins to help the bone heal. Since then, I have one in there still, but that’s because the doctor said it’s fine if it stays. (I didn’t want to go into surgery again if I didn’t need to.)

So yeah, I don’t feel like going out. It’s an inconvenience using my crutches…the ones I thought I wouldn’t have to use for a long time. Grr.

Update 2/11/2007 @ 12:30pm: Since Thursday, my ankle condition has gotten worse. Dull, throbbing pain in certain positions. However, I didn’t start icing it until yesterday afternoon. (I know, terrible.) Just in case, my mom is going to take me to Olive View Medical Center (in Sylmar) because it’s the closest county hospital that hopefully isn’t as busy as the one near Cal State L.A. Plus, her friend recommended it. I think we just want to make sure it isn’t broken or fractured.

Update 2/12/2007 @ 2:25am: We were at the hospital from 2pm to 12:30am. Wow, I know, huh? There was a big LCD TV, and it was tuned to channel 5. We saw “Happy Gilmore,” “Throw Momma from the Train,” and some miscellaneous sitcoms. Had an x-ray, and found out that nothing is broken. Doctor examined my ankle and thinks there’s inflammation around the tendon or something. I have an appointment at the same hospital with a podiatrist on Friday afternoon. He also gave me a prescription of vicodine if the OTC medicine doesn’t cut it (e.g. Tylenol, Motrin). It was a long 10 hours, so I need to sleep. Thanks for the well wishes!

Just a few minutes ago, I started getting text messages from someone fairly local. I had no idea who they were. I’ve edited the grammar and structure to make it easier to read — you know how some people type their text messages.

Stranger: (I have no service.) Next week, I’m pretty free. Let’s get together. Oh yeah, do you think you can bring that $80 I let you borrow for the wicked ticket to work tomorrow?

Me: What? Who’s this?

Stranger: I will call you later. If not, I will see you tomorrow. Have a good one. Love you.

Stranger: This is ********

Me: This is Bryan - you got the wrong person.

Stranger: Oh, sorry.

I’m just trying to figure out how s/he was text messaging if s/he had no service. Maybe s/he was at a computer. Oh well, I thought it was pretty funny.

I was trying to test the “Subscribe to Comments 2.1” plugin I just installed — because K2 has built-in support for it — and I’m getting a lame error that shouldn’t be happening.

So, I’m logged out. I make a quick comment, using my non-blog email address, then subscribe to comments. Then, after waiting a minute, I change the comment user to a bogus email address, then try again.

“Sorry, you can only post a new comment once every 15 seconds. Slow down cowboy.”

This thread at WordPress Support doesn’t seem to have been addressed by any developers. Any suggestions?

So I can get a good start to my day, I’m trying to wake up earlier. My wake up call? Citrus Alarm Clock. (It hasn’t been updated in awhile, but it still works well — as long as you set Windows Media Player to the default player for MP3s and playlist files. It’s not compatible with VLC Media Player.) The sweet and funky sounds of The Mars Volta wake me up at the moment. Trippy.

My mom was getting ready to leave for work and saw me wake up.

“Is that your alarm?”

“Yeah.”

“Talaga?”

Hilarious.

I got home after school yesterday to find my mom shredding a bunch of paper and stuff. Apparently, she was an accomplice to a crime and was destroying evidence. (Just kidding.)

We got to talking about organization, then she brought up that one of her coworkers only carries around her driver’s license. My mom ranted that in her purse, she has checks, bills to pay, loose papers, and a whole bunch of other stuff I don’t remember. On top of that, if she brings lunch, that’s another bag to carry. I could see self-realization rearing its head. Once again, I told her about setting up and using a tickler file. (I print labels and make the 43 folders for her later.) This time, I think she’ll give it a shot.

I wrote about streamlining my backpack (part 1, part 2) awhile ago. I’m happy to say that I’m still good. I don’t have to bring any cables anymore. I’m going to buy a messenger bag soon because when I go to work, I basically just have my handful of gadgets, a couple pens, and some index cards.

As for my wallet, I barely have anything. Cash, driver’s license, debit card, student ID, auto insurance card, proximity card for work, and a few stickies for my debit card in occasions where I’m at a restaurant with a group of friends. I do have a Blockbuster card, library cards, a Borders Rewards card, AMC rewards card, Ralph’s Club card, etc. — they’re just in a small inexpensive Five Star Xpanz Zipper Pouch that I keep in the door compartment in my car. I also have more index cards and a spare pen.

Lastly, I have a portable inbox for random scraps of paper/stuff I might come across during the day.

All in all, my mom notices that I don’t that many papers lying around. Shredding/discarding stuff regularly is only a small part of my system. I figured I’d explain myself here — you can take and tweak the system to suit your needs.

What’s in your bag? Can you see where you can change? And finally, read “Zen Pockets” — he explains more stuff.

Friday: Had work all day, then a [belated] birthday dinner for Ume at the Wood Ranch in the Santa Anita Mall that evening. After that, we played poker for awhile at his house, tournament-style. It ended up with me and Ume — I lost with my pair of Kings (top pair on the flop) losing to him hitting a flush on the river. Blast.

Saturday: Slept in, relaxed, didn’t work on my essay. Went to Javy’s house that evening to watch UFC 67.

Sunday: Church, Super Bowl, saw Five Mile Town play at the Chain Reaction. On the way back, Bill briefly showed me around Whittier College because it was on the way back.