Speed of Living

Life can be lived at different speeds and many find living at a slower speed much more beneficial for physical and mental health than living at a faster speed. Speed to me is not “living life in the fast lane” and while it is related to the rapidity of task completion, it’s best measurement is how out of control or stressed one feels about what is going on and needs done. It’s a relative feeling of speed. When you’re driving at night with the lights off you seem to be going a lot faster than with the lights on. Knowing where you are going and what you have passed without having to keep it all in RAM (on the top of your mind) can greatly decrease the feeling of speed whilst increasing the feeling of accomplishment. This is part of why I see organization as so important. The rest is simply that it saves time, also increasing the rate at which tasks are completed without increasing the feeling of speed. We’re talking stress here, and how to give your body and mind a break by living life at a slower speed.

I have already mentioned one way to do this – by organizing so you quickly know where you are, what is next, and what you have done. The third and key factor for this post is lowering the relative feeling of speed by doing things when you feel like doing them. Forcing yourself to do something you do not feel like doing will generally result in higher stress levels and lower quality work. I am not talking about being lazy. Repeat: doing something when you feel like doing it is not automatically lazy. Not realizing the benefit of doing something or mistaking the benefit as more important than the cost will cause laziness and other issues, but if something is beneficial and you know it at some point you’ll feel like doing it.

Dishes, for example. I don’t particularly ever want to do dishes, but there are definite benefits and the rewards are well worth the cost of not doing them. At some point every few days I glance at my to-do list and see “do a load of dishes” has appeared on it and doing dishes doesn’t seem all that bad, so I get up and do them. Sometimes dishes are the last thing on my list I want to do. So I don’t. Making it a choice rather than simple procrastination causes it to be empowering. I know the dishes will get done, albeit not this minute, and I choose instead to accomplish another task on my list I actually feel like doing. I’m still accomplishing things, I’m not neglecting something to the detriment of myself or others: it’s okay. Repeat after me: it’s okay to do this task later, this task will get accomplished in due time, don’t stress, don’t even think about it. It’s on my list. It will get done.

I commented recently upon a dislike of due dates – I do place due dates on tasks which must be done by/on a specific date, and repeating tasks in Remember the Milk (RTM) automatically have due dates, but my RTM list in Gmail shows upcoming tasks and because I’m constantly watching and weighing what I feel like doing I often complete things before the due date (this blog is “due” tomorrow but I saw it on my list and felt like writing now) and schedule them to be posted/sent/etc on the correct date or simply ignore them – they will still be on my list tomorrow. Due dates are generally flexible in my world, applying about a week before and after the actual date. It’s pretty given that somewhere in that two-week span I’ll feel like doing any given task. I also have a list in RTM for “stale” tasks I refer to that shows me the things I actually am procrastinating on – the search to save goes something like this:

not(addedWithin:”two weeks”) AND NOT list:*Someday AND NOT tag:waiting AND NOT (dueBefore:”two weeks”) AND NOT (dueAfter:”two months”)

The not dueAfter two months keeps tasks I have repeating on a yearly basis (birthday emails, etc) from showing up…and anything I’ve procrastinated on for two months I certainly know about and should have deleted or moved to the *Someday list.

Another key beyond knowing the benefits of a task is knowing your limits. Never accept/put on your list more than you can accomplish without negative stress, and ensure you leave time for yourself. Everyone needs down time, be it watching TV, taking an extra long shower, playing a video game, or reading a book: whatever relaxes you and your brain. If you can relax while still accomplishing something (reading->learning or gaming->socalizing) all the better. This is why I’m not a fan of TV – I rarely benefit from it, and the cost of subscribing to dubiously educational channels is far more than the content is worth to me. I have never and probably will never own a TV. I rarely even watch video online, usually reserved for when I’m completely brainless (probably sick and enduring cold medicine). My lifespan seems so short sometimes and there is so much I’d like to do with it. I think everyone should feel this way – wring everything enjoyable you can from your self and your life!

In closing I would like to say that not all stress and due dates are negative – I use milestones in my work because I enjoy the pressure of trying to get everything done before that milestone due date. Working within a tight budget of any kind can make people very creative, and the visual progress and impending feeling of accomplishment mitigates the negative aspects of stress. I also don’t stress much because I understand (to the nth degree) that software development always has unexpected things that come up which are often necessary and/or beneficial but will throw schedules off. Having a milestone list for tasks might well be useful, just keep an eye on the speedometer and don’t wait for your body to start writing you tickets you can’t pay for.

Filed under: Articles, health, organization, RTM, stress

Organization for [true] Success

There are often a thousand tiny ‘I need to do x’, ‘I want to y’ thoughts in our heads on any given day, each adding a tiny bit of stress for being undone, and a tiny draw on our energy and wellbeing whilst we struggle to remember and file and recall these thousand tiny thoughts on demand, often without any reference as to what is truly important for us to accomplish right now. We as humans are not very good about storing and recalling information when needed, so extraneous things keep interrupting our thoughts ‘Oh! Don’t forget to get toilet paper!’ and when we’re shopping we, of course, forget the toilet paper. Computers are terribly efficient at this sort of storage and recall, and could save us a lot of stress, brain-drain, and time if used properly. Beyond the store-file-recall comparison, having a written record of what you intend and what you have done adds immeasurable value.

Instead of being swept through the days pushed by all the little thoughts and tasks, we can take control and push those thoughts and tasks – beyond and even more important than that, we can push those thoughts and tasks which are most important for us to achieve our goals and have a written record showing each little task is moving us forward toward those goals. This sounds very high-minded, but there is much down-to-earth about having a plan and intentionally working through it step by step. There is also much to be said for a system that can show the progress you’re making toward your goals with each little step. A system must not only be useful, it must be used.

So I’ll just jump into how I do this – examples are worth much and my system can be altered to fit someone else’s needs. As with anything, there is no one right way. It’s the core concepts that are important. I picked Remember the Milk and Springpad or Evernote for tools because they do what needs done with a minimum of fuss and training. I include little by way of usage because there is fairly little to do. Put stuff in properly and the systems do the rest, as it should be. The features on these services are great and part of why I chose them, but features are not why I’m writing this, so we will instead focus on the basics of efficient and worthwhile input and output.

Step One
Create a list of projects or goals – e.g., ‘buy a house’, ‘plan trip to Seattle’ and make sure each goal is SMART – specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. ‘Buy a house’ becomes ‘Buy a 3br 2ba condo in upper Manhattan before Jan 1st’ – assuming that’s a realistic goal that actually is relevant to what you want in life. I personally find the time/due date is useless or even harmful – I have an issue with organization, not laziness.

Each of these goals will have a list in Remember the Milk and a notebook in Evernote or Springpad – tasks go into RTM and research/bookmarks/information/etc goes into Evernote or Springpad (Springpad does a great job of organizing and supplying additional features for what you put into it, Evernote is faster and more flexible). I use short project names and put the goals themselves onto the Evernote or Springpad project’s/notepad’s [white]board. You will need the Springpad addon or bookmarklet or the Evernote addon for bookmarking or clipping web content, and any RTM addons or Evernote addons you’ll use (gmail, twitter, smartphone, etc). Combine twitterbar (tweet from your browser’s location bar) with RTM’s twitter service and all one has to do to add an item is type “d rtm remember the milk #Personal” and viola – a new task on a “Personal” list or tagged with “Personal”. With the gmail addon you can get you todo list right next to your inbox, not to mention the ability to reference google contacts or calendar events with RTM. But enough about features.

Step Two
Dump stuff out of your brain. Sort through bookmarks and documents and whatnot that you’ve accumulated for your projects and put it all into the appropriate notebook. Take an hour or three and get it all out…and into Springpad or Evernote and RTM – everything that’s been rattling around in your head taking up space and CPU cycles. This should be the mental equivalent of the emotional release one can get from “a good cry”.

The key part to this is making each task in RTM an action, GTD style. Much as making goals concrete is vital, making tasks concrete is also vital. Break vague todo items up into discrete actions – “buy a house” becomes “research neighbourhoods on neighborhoodscout.com”, “call bank about a home loan”, “call Jane Realtor about 3br 2ba homes in Y neighbourhood”, etc. Only add due dates for things which require them – once everything is available at a glance I find having fixed due dates a depressing bother. Life does not structure itself around my calendar, I choose instead to structure my life around my life and my goals.

Rinse and Repeat Steps
As it Happens
Whenever something necessary pops into your head or onto your screen put it into RTM or Springpad/Evernote. No excuses, no procrastination, just do it now and sort it later. It becomes easier as time goes on and there is less rattling loose. I often text myself todo items when I am away from my computer – look under account settings in RTM to get the address. I had to set up a tarpipe to alter the messages my cell sends out to work with RTM as my cell provider used to hijack the subject line.

Daily
We now need a way to reference tasks quickly whilst we’re in productive mode – at least once a day I go through each project list in RTM and tag “next actions” with “na”. Each “na” or “next action” task must be something you could do now if you had the time. I have created a smart list on RTM to display these things, and I work from that (search for tag:na and save the resulting list for future use). Update: I’ve also started a “focus” list for things that I’d like to accomplish in the next few days and should have mentioned my “lowfruit” list for things tagged “focus” (or or “na” if you prefer) which would take less than 21 minutes to accomplish. Pick the low hanging fruit first.

I also add time estimates and contexts/locations to RTM items which don’t have them each day, but find this isn’t vital for me. Important and worth doing most times, but not vital – most of my activity is at my computer and it’s debatable that the effort of adding locations is less than ignoring tasks which are out of context. For me. I doubt this is the case for most, and I always tag errands to ensure I don’t forget something as I’m running out the door. I have smart lists to show tags without locations and time estimates so I can do this quickly (isLocated:false aaaaaaaaand not(timeEstimate:"> 0 min") AND NOT list:Someday AND NOT tag:someday, respectively). You may note that I have a Someday list and tag – this is again inspired by GTD. Not everything needs done now, but it all needs to get out of my head so I can focus on what is important.

In everything, as always: make use of hotkeys – vital if you don’t want to waste a lot of time clicking on things. Smartlists, web services, and hotkeys are the main reasons I don’t use Springpad for my tasks. Springpad is, quite simply, too slow and cumbersome. Update: Springpad added hotkeys! Not to the degree RTM has them, but useful indeed.

Weekly
Once each week I review my completed tasks and the goals I’m trying to reach, then brainstorm new tasks to achieve those goals. This includes a look at my Someday list, in case anything on there can be moved forward. Pretty simple, but vital – it gives a sense of accomplishment and progress that is priceless and keeps me going, in large part because I can see that I am going, and going where I want to go.

Update Dec 13, 2010: I switched back to Evernote from Springpad due to Springpad’s editor, lack of API, and general slowness. Springpad is awesome, but Evernote works better for me and with the API I can utilize it in my own creations, export data if I want to leave, etc. As I’ve previously written, I hate using things that don’t have an API or at least implement Google Gears sqlite storage.

Update Dec 26, 2010: …and I’m back to Springpad. I’ve been vaguely researching Springpad for weeks and like what I’m seeing (thanks for the hotkeys and del.icio.us import!). In a show of good faith for a good product I’m going to assume the promised API will materialize, the hotkeys will improve, and there will be a decent advanced search and saved searches implemented. For some reasons I’ve yet to cement I’ve never been able to get myself to use Evernote reliably.

Filed under: Articles, how-to, goals, organization, productivity, RTM, springpad

What is Web 2.0?

It’s a trendy buzzword.  It’s overused.  It’s a style including shiny buttons and striped headers.  It’s hot.  It’s many things, including annoying to read about, but there are important facets that shouldn’t be ignored.  In general, I see Web 2.0 as a move toward online applications, focusing on collaboration, interactive interfaces, group sourcing, and APIs – a more collaborative, reactive, and flexible web.  Yahoo! pipes is a great example – data from many sources coming together where users can manipulate it on an interactive, graphical, webpage.

Yes, it’s an annoying phrase, but let’s not ignore the relationships between the things that make up the idea of web 2.0 – these relationships are creating the future of the web.

Filed under: Articles, web 2.0

Duplicating Work in Web Apps

We have something special in this world of ‘web 2.0′ – collaboration, APIs, interactive interfaces, and crowd sourcing.  We’ve more, better made, tools and data at our disposal than ever before…and generally, we’re not using these resources wisely.  I see a lot of duplicate functionality from site to site and app to app, and it makes me cringe each time it happens with something I use.  The latest in this drama is Google’s new tasks app.

It’s easy to use, in the Google style, but really, it’s got nothing on remember the milk.  Much as I’d love tighter Google apps->tasks integration, I’ll live with remember the milk’s gmail plugin.  I find myself wondering how many people’s lives would be better if Google had focused on something else, or if they’d worked on integrating remember the milk instead.  I wonder this often when I’m visiting all-in-one sites that mimic the functionality of  the web 2.0 ‘do one thing and do it well’ sites.

I’d like to see an all-in-one site that utilized the best-of-the-best from the sites that got it right*.  Those sites that do that one thing, and do it better than anyone else.    I’d like to see more of a spirit of cooperation and collaboration, of helping one another to make the bucks rather than spending time trying to fake up something that offers the bare minimum in functionality and usability.

*as with most comments like this, I started something like this and never really finished, but unlike a number of other projects, this one is something I still think is worth doing.  The possibilities with machine learning…and similar users…

Filed under: Articles, duplicate functionality, web 2.0, web apps