All Narfed Up photography and words by Bryan Villarin

I’m barely using my Tungsten E Palm PDA (organizer), so I’ve switched to Google Calendar and Remember The Milk. Fortunately, there wasn’t much to switch over — I’m not that swamped.

Or, my head isn’t cleared out and nothing has been written down for months. =/

Although I keep my email inbox at zero most of the time, I’ve been off the productivity wagon for awhile. I gotta get back to it. One foot after the other, right?

Chris Marsden tagged me with this meme. I barely participate in these, so I’ll humor him and you.

Rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more
2. Find page 123
3. Count down five sentences
4. Post the next three sentences
5. Tag five people

This is from Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. In chapter 6, titled “Processing: Getting ‘In’ To Empty”, this is under the section about one item at a time:

That item may be more attractive to your psyche because you know right away what to do with it — and you don’t feel like thinking about what’s in your hand. This is dangerous territory. What’s in your hand is likely to land on a “hmppphhh” stack on the side of your desk because you become distracted by something easier, more important, or more interesting below it.

I’m trying to think of friends who will actually participate, so I’m tagging: Jean Ma, Jason Stone, Jasmine, Brett Kelly, and Brian Auer.

A tickler file can help put bills in an organized place on the day they’re to be paid. (Or, a few days before they’re to be paid, if you mail them out.)

Someone I love just keeps them in a stack and sifts through them every few days, wasting precious time she could be spending reading her favorite books.

I had to mail one of her bills a few days ago via USPS Priority Mail so it wouldn’t be late. Why? She misplaced the envelope.

If she had this system, 1) she would’ve known where it was, and 2) it would’ve been sent it out on time. Well, as long as she checks it daily like she’s supposed to.

I know online payments would save her money on stamps, but she’s doesn’t want to change that habit.

The more stuff that’s in your inbox, the larger the mental block becomes.

Yesterday, I didn’t completely empty my inbox. So what? If you don’t process your inbox on a regular basis, you won’t know of ticking time bombs.

I did shred a lot of stuff and filed a few things, so that was good.

Tip: A lot of stuff can be filed, shredded or thrown away immediately. If it can skip your inbox, that’ll help immensely.

Tomorrow and Friday, I don’t have to go to the office. My supervisor will be going on vacation start next Tuesday for essentially two weeks. So, it’s imperative that I process everything in there so I know what I need to take care of before he leaves. Once he’s gone, I need to be at the office everyday until he returns. (I work part-time.)

I’m much better at work. With my supervisor’s help, we got rid of a lot of stuff from my office (e.g. old computers, broken monitors, broken printers). My work email account is in tip-top shape.

See that picture? I was there before…it’ll happen again tomorrow. Oh yes.

My cousin, Leslie, graduated from UC Davis last December and is now trying to get into medical school. (One of the most driven people I’ve ever known.) My graduation gift to her was a copy of “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.”

Yesterday, seven months later, I saw her and her family and we had lunch. Out of nowhere, she says, “Bryan, I love Getting Things Done!” She took out her paper-based calendar and showed me how less cluttered it was. (See “Hard and Soft Landscapes: Calendar vs. Reminders“) She also says she’s going to read it again for things she might’ve missed the first time around.

My uncle notices that I’m fairly laid back, probably because I keep things together. My mom jokingly suggested that I have stock in the company because I’ve bought it for so many people. I’ve bought it for a few high school graduate friends, a coworker, my other cousin in Glendale. Out of all of them, Leslie was the only one to say that she liked it.

This is fascinating hearing this after what Brett Kelly and Ricky Spears wrote a couple weeks ago. Now, I’d probably email someone a few links about the GTD methodology and suggest that they buy the book.

I lose focus. In the late afternoon, I find myself losing attention with the tasks at hand.

What’s a person to do? Go through your list of mosquito tasks! These are ordinary tasks that don’t take much thought or effort to do.

Why? Because when I’m wired and ready to take on anything, I don’t want to spend that energy on something like shredding paper. Save those for when your focus starts to wane.

Other ideas:

• Purge refrigerator
• Dust
• Purge file cabinet(s)
• Clean keyboards*
• Discard unused gadgets and/or cables (if you don’t wanna try to sell them)*
• Look for clothes you don’t wear anymore - throw ‘em into a box for donating later
• Test pens and throw away the ones that don’t work
• Sift through the folders on your hard drive and delete files that are worthless. I’m talking about the ones in My Documents.*
• Look for items around your home that you could try to sell, donate or throw away
• Throw away expired medicine

*I’m not at home at the time of writing this, so this is more work-related.

You should have a separate one for home and work.

Please add more mosquito tasks in the comments! (If there’s a wiki page somewhere I don’t know about, let me know.)

Inspired from 43 Folders’ “Ganging your mosquito tasks”

Photo taken by Wm Jas

Some surprises are good. However, the ones associated with school aren’t.

I wasn’t keeping track of my syllabus, so I found out that this Thursday, I have yet another huge exam for this philosophy class, “Great Religions of the World.”

How many of you look at your syllabus on a daily basis? How about your calendar? That’s what I thought. The syllabus is reference material. You won’t look at it until you need to, or when it’s too late.

Lesson: The moment you get your syllabus, enter the important dates onto your calendar. When you’re doing your weekly review, you’ll be able to see when that next important paper or exam is coming.

If you’ll excuse me, I need to figure out how to schedule my study times before Thursday. I need an 84 to get a “C” before the final exam. (I also need to make a mind map and checklist for stuff I need to do at the beginning of a school semester or quarter, but that can wait until after the exam.)

I love my iRiver iFP-899. I love how I can record lectures, take ‘em home, speed ‘em up in Audacity, then listen to them at a later date to review.

I can take this further by using it whenever I can’t write! You don’t even know the freedom you’ll feel when you’re allowed to ramble aimlessly. (To an extent, of course.) My mind wanders while I’m driving, and I love that I can just press “Record” and voice my thoughts. When I can write, I’ll listen to my recordings and get them down on paper.

If you don’t have a digital or analog (cassette tape) recorder, try Braincast. (via LifeHack.org) The only problem I see with this is that you’re using cell phone minutes — in my opinion, that’s a mental block.

Need ideas for your mind dump? Print out the trigger list taken from “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity“.

If you don’t want to look weird while you’re talking to yourself, use a Bluetooth ear piece or one of your two earbuds. Personally, I don’t mind. Well, maybe a little.

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.

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.