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.

 

7 Wonders of Joyful Jubilant Learning

It's now 07/07/07, and that can only mean that the "7 Wonders of Joyful Jubilant Learning" goes live today (by the way, this very post went live at 07:07:07 on 07/07/07 Hawaii time, since that's the local time zone of JJL's primary author).  Leading up to this special day, the floodgates at the Joyful, Jubilant Learning (JJL) community blog were opened for contributors to offer 7 links that embraced learning. There are now literally hundreds of links there, so head on over and collect your prize!

I chose to offer three sets of 7 - here they are to get you started (by the way, the categories are those used on the JJL site):

First, one 7:

  1. Joy of the Journey:   My Beautiful Chaos - April reminds us of the excellence of parenting like a mere mortal.
  2. Inspired Learning, Good Questions and Great Dialogue:   On Genius - Dick Richards (Unlocker of Genius) on faith and work.
  3. Language, Words, and Vocabulary:   The Happiness Project - Gretchen on finding your "service heart."
  4. Writing and Composition:   Mind Unbound - EM about turning the tables on rejection letters.
  5. Graphics and Photography:   Post Secret - It's amazing what people can share through a simple, anonymous postcard.
  6. Information and Knowledge:   Presentation Zen - Garr Reynolds shares "One secret to a healthy life (and a great presentation)."
  7. Best Practices:   The Daily Saint - Mike's secret to productivity on vacation.

Then, another 7:

  1. Visual Learning:   Beyond Mind Mapping - Nick teaches us about developing a visual vocabulary.
  2. Discipline, Habit and Self-Motivation:   Neat & Simple Living - Ariane's mythbusting about whether you can develop a habit in 21 days.
  3. Good Questions and Great Dialogue:   Make It Great! - Phil shares 20 awesome questions for anyone to make their life better.
  4. For the Love of Lists:   Big Wes's Corner of the Web - Wes shares how he copes with GTD and its lists.
  5. Talent, Skills, and Capacity:   Beyond Code - Raj provides insight to keep you from sabotaging yourself with lame excuses.
  6. BHAGs and Bigger Dreams:   Lisa Haneberg - Lisa dreams big then Makes the dream a reality - she truly inspires me.
  7. Auditory Learning:   MBA On The Run - Some of John's favorite audiobooks to get a veritable MBA using your iPod.

Now, let's make it "triple 7" for the jackpot:

  1. Principles and Values:   Why I Failed - Steve Grossman discusses why "People would actually rather work with someone who is incompetent and likeable than competent and unlikable."
  2. Good Questions and Great Dialogue:   The Remote Control CEO - Greg's insights on great questions we can use to learn from our failures.
  3. Collaborative Learning:   Thinking Faster - How not to shut down the conversation before it even starts.
  4. Connecting and Relationships:   Slacker Manager - Our favorite Slacker enlarged something by 167% in 48 hours - find out more!
  5. Inspired Learning:   Virtualosophy - Stacy learns some cools off and learns cool stuff in an unexpected place.
  6. Inspired Learning:   Ramblings From a Glass Half Full - If a picture paints 1,000 words, how many words does a funny picture paint? Terry tells us the answer.
  7. Storytelling, Yarns and Tall Tales:   QAQNA - A fine (and funny) lesson on why you should be ready to deal with your customers - no matter what they're bringing.

I hope you'll find lots of new learning in these 21 links, and I'm sure you'll pick up some new favorites for your blogroll.

Now, continue your learning with the wondrous resources on the Joyful, Jubilant Learning site!

 

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Fake it ‘til you Mac it

Ok, so I'm a PC kind of guy (and probably will be, for the foreseeable future - for a variety of reasons).

However, I do love the look, feel, etc. of a Mac. (OK, some times I even envy Mac users.) If you are in the same camp, why not make your Windows system look and act like a Mac -- for free?

If you're curious, check out the free utility that makes your Windows system look like a Mac running OSX. Want to see what it looks like first? There are plenty of screenshots to wow you.

It's kind of like a fake Rolex, a "kit car," or something like that - you get some of the experience without the investment, commitment, or switching costs. And you can still use everything in Windows' vastly greater universe of software.

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Share the learning — here’s your chance!

Blogger or not, you've got things to share -- so head on over to Joyful Jubilant Learning and share your favorite learning links.

For the uniquely lucky 07/07/07, JJL is seeking to gather 777 learning links that reflect the "7 Wonders of Joyful Jubilant Learning," Listen, Laugh, Learn, Link, Love, Live, and Leap to Wonder.

Now you, too, can be a Joyful Jubilant Learning Contributor, even if you don't have a blog! And spread the word to any other learners you know.

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Me on GTD Update: -Capturing

Update: I've received some great suggestions and links to other resources in the comments to this post - check them out and feel free to add your own tips and experiences.

You should also check out a great riff on this topic by John at Success Begins Today [link]

-- Dwayne

As a long-time Getting Things Done (GTD) follower, I love it and I hate it. I love it because it's simple, powerful, and flexible. I hate it because it's too flexible. I've had a hard time getting a specific workflow down and sticking to it. GTD doesn't have rigid "props" for me to use as mental queues like many other systems (with the Franklin-Covey systems, you can "ground yourself" to the daily task list - with GTD, there are a number of lists).

Reminder Part of my new year reset is to try to streamline my use of GTD and establish better rituals to help me keep up a consistent approach to evaluating my choices, scheduling, etc. (if you've visited here in the past, you'll know that this sort of thing is a recurring theme for me - I'm a bit of a GTD binge user).

If you have experiences or resources that have helped you create a set of daily habits for GTD, please let me know.

Please note that I'm not after yet another copy of David Allen's GTD Workflow chart - I know that one very well. What I am looking for is something that provides periodic nudges to condition me to automatically look to the lists, etc. as I find myself in between scheduled tasks. Something about the way I'm wired causes me to drift away from my lists, and I think I need some cues to bring me back to them.

This might be easier if I had the same routine every day, but I travel a lot and end up doing a lot of opportunistic things based on the work that I do. Rituals that will work regardless of location, time, etc. would be best. Other considerations are that I work with Outlook as my calendaring program (synced to my Treo 650 via Goodlink), and am using KeyNotes and KeyTasks to sync my notes and tasks with Outlook (Goodlink doesn't handle categories - that's a fatal flaw).

As I dusted off the old search engine, I've found some great articles from other practitioners that I think are worth sharing.

The interesting thing I've noticed is how many of my blogging pals have already commented on the articles I've found - I don't feel so alone in this after all

Got others? Please share.

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Spiritual clutter

Continuing on my recent clutter theme, I want to relate an "a-ha" brought on by some comments from a visiting missionary at church this morning. This is a little philosophical, so bear with me.

Our visiting missionary was talking about how we are called to leave behind things that make it more difficult for us to live the life we want to live. The "things" we need to leave behind are sometimes physical, but he asked us to broaden our perspective to include relationships, grudges, and so forth. Of these, he said something like, "If you don't get past those blockers, you'll never have a better life." He also emphasized that getting clearer on what that "better life" is for you can make it easier to choose what to leave behind.

What he said reminds me of some of the core principles of Getting Things Done, and I think the impact is very similar. In GTD, David Allen talks about how you need to get everything out of your head and into a trusted system so you can free up "psychic RAM" and focus on more productive uses of your time and energy.

Likewise, if you hang on to grudges, frustrations, problem relationships, etc. those things will grab a piece of your psyche and prevent you from using your gifts in the most productive, fulfilling ways.

Definitely got me thinking about how I can clean up some of the spiritual / emotional clutter. For example:

  • Who can I forgive (or ask for forgiveness) and get past a grudge?
  • Who can I apologize to and make amends?
  • Do I have any relationships where it's time to move on and stop trying to "make it better?"
  • Are there areas where I'm struggling because I don't have a clear idea what my "best life" looks like?
  • and so on...

Great food for thought.

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