Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

Email font too tiny? Don't like to type?

I've been traveling with a number of folks recently whose eyes have begun to age, and they get aggravated when they can't read the tiny fonts on their mobile devices, but still want to check email. I recently found out about a service that could help them.

The service could also help you if you want to provide an email for someone without a computer, as well. In fact, it may be a perfect way to get an email account for a grandparent who has neither a computer nor good close-up vision).

The service is called "IfByPhone" and it looks very capable and fairly priced (there are consumer and business pricing & feature plans available).

There are a number of services available, including VoMail for voice mail, VoPlace for chat rooms, VoMe for scheduling and reminders, and some games. Not only can you listen to your email, you can also dictate new messages and replies using your voice. Another interesting feature is some built-in alerting where you can have it alert you when you receive an email from a specific person or containing specific keywords.

I haven't tried the service, but it looks cool. Let me know if you or someone you know uses it - I'd love to hear how you like it.

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Gene's empty inbox epiphany

A few weeks ago, I shared my GTD Odyssey in an effort to share some of the things I've learned whilst I've tried to tackle Getting Things Done. Based on some of the public and private responses I've received, it seems that I've struck a nerve (in a good way) with some of the things I've shared.

Today, I'd like to share a guest post from a friend of mine, Gene Kim, regarding his "epiphany" following that series, along with some live prodding/coaching from me. Gene and I work together and share an office, so we get to compare notes on GTD on the rare occasions when we are both in the office at the same time. By the way, it was Gene that first told me about Getting Things Done about 4 years ago.

Anyway, here is Gene's story:

I read Dwayne's article about having sustained a state of an empty inbox for weeks with some disbelief and awe, as well as some small bit of inspiration. Why? Having worked with Dwayne for over six years, I have some long buried memories of getting together once every couple of weeks, trying to figure out how to get David Allen's GTD to actually work for us.

A history of trying in earnest

How serious have I been trying to achieve the state that Dwayne mentioned? I actually have screenshots of the 11 times I've actually achieved the nirvana of an actually empty inbox in the past six years that I've been trying.

Incidentally, those rare dates were:

  • 2003
    • Jan 4
  • 2004
    • Jun 6
    • Oct 1, 5, 18, 20
    • Nov 14
  • 2005
    • Jan 12
    • Jun 17
  • 2006
    • Oct 31
    • Nov 1

The epiphany begins

But two weeks ago, after reading Dwayne's article, watching him work, and then getting five minutes of having him watch me work, I finally have an empty inbox. And I have one again today. Two days in a row was a first for me. And, maybe more importantly, I've been able to get my inbox to empty every day for the last two weeks. (This morning is my one exception, due to being sick. But, I know with complete confidence that I'll be there by noon today.)

What makes is remarkable is that I've tried before, but have always quickly fallen off the wagon, and it's been over 17 months since I've had an empty inbox.

Is it that I haven't gotten help before? No. I've tried David Allen seminars, many of David Allen's telecoaching sessions, countless attempts to find software programs to help track TODOs, etc.

What's different?

But, here's what's different: I'm confident that I can keep my inbox empty and stay focused on the things I need to do. I don't have any anxiety of piling things into my TODO folder, feeling like I'm just burying the tasks where I can't see them, and therefore am "cheating" to get my inbox to empty.

Instead, I've found that using the "start bugging me" dates and the clear daily tasks view helps me two things:

  • Quickly generate a small list of tasks that I can stay focused on and confidently and quickly complete
  • Easily defer and snooze tasks to the future, knowing that they will come back, but until then, stay completely invisible

I'm a little surprised at how easy and elegant these key principles of the TWC practice are. But, let me tell you, I suspect that months from now, I'll not only have an empty inbox, but I'll be able to look back to yesterday and see a clear before and after of how I did work.

It can be done, and it's far less work than I ever thought it would be. Are there some other things I'm doing differently? A couple. For me, the most difficult part of "getting to empty" is when I'm down to a handful of messages, and I can't figure out how to get them "unstuck." I've found that in most cases, it's because I need help pulling together the next step, or that I don't have all the information. The remedy is often to pull together a 15 minute meeting to make the decision, or to ask someone else to pull all the relevant information together.

And lastly, let me proudly show off my empty inbox.

Thanks for sharing, Gene. It's been a fun journey.

Semi-private hotel rooms?

I usually stay at one or more hotels a week in the course of my work (I was in three last week, for example - one in Vancouver, BC; one in Columbus, Ohio; and another in St. Louis, Missouri).

In these hotels, I've experienced a wide range of comfort, hospitality, amenities, etc...but I've never had a haunted hotel room.

Here is a link to a spooky one, which I found on one of my favorite hotel sites, HotelChatter.com. They posted a great snippet on the Stanley Hotel in Colorado, which is supposed to have been the inspiration for Stephen King's "The Shining."

If you saw the movie and liked it, you've gotta check out this video from the Sci-Fi Channel's investigation of the hotel. There is more about the Stanley Hotel, along with a ton of really useful stuff about hotels on HotelChatter. Enjoy (and RedRum!) Read More

In plain sight

You may have noticed that I've switched to a basic, traditional blog format/layout this week. After a few comments about my type being too small, my sidebars being a bit busy, etc. I decided I'd use a standard Typepad layout with just a few minor tweaks. Most notably, I'm still using my custom banner featuring little snippets of interesting things I've seen in my travels (the current one is from a snapshot of the Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol, UK - it is beautiful - click the tiny photo for a larger view of the photo I pulled it from).

If you've been challenged by my historically small fonts, I hope this helps. By the way, you can adjust the text on your browser to make the font larger or smaller if you'd like. Of course, that is a global change - not a site-by-site adjustment.

So - the new layout: Love it? Hate it? Couldn't care less? If you have strong feelings about it, let me know. I may not act on your opinion, but I surely won't act on it if you keep it to your self.

By the way - thanks for dropping by and sharing your thoughts. It means a lot to me (even though my posting schedule is about as predictable as the weather).

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Nice

Here's a friend of mine who used to live up here in Beaverton, Oregon and moved back down to Louisiana last year.  They're just outside of Baton Rouge, and have "refugees" from Katrina staying in their house.  Interesting commentary, and you can see from his posts that there is a lot of false rumors and hype floating around along with the real stories.

Check it out:  http://prairiekatrina.blogspot.com/

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