Well, I've fallen off the wagon again with my Getting Things Done routine. My inbox is up to around 400 messages, I feel a bit "stuck" on a few projects, and that's not good.
Rituals
I love David's GTD methods and philosophy, but I have a recurring issue with drifting away from my good habits. A few months back, I went to one of David's GTD|The Roadmap seminars, and he talked about how we needed to develop new habits for GTD so they'd become automatic, like brushing your teeth. His story went something like this:
When you're born, you don't know anything about brushing your teeth - you didn't even have teeth. Then, when you had teeth, your parents made you go brush them every day. You may have complained, but they reminded you and you did it every day. Then one day, without realizing it, you did it without being told or asked. You'd developed a new habit!
How often do you need to be reminded to brush your teeth? Probably not very often. As an adult, if you go too long without brushing your teeth, the "scuzz factor" kicks in and the sense of urgency to go brush your teeth increases. And then you brush your teeth and the scuzz factor is gone.
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Do you look rumply and crumply when you travel? You don't have to any more. I am happy to say I was invited to be a guest author on Lifehack.org this week, writing about wrinkle-free packing.
As I mention in the article, I've tried every cool method for packing that I could find, but I've finally found one that works. So go over there and read it and, when you are ready to pick up the supplies, here is your shopping list:
- Eagle Creek Pack-It Folders (I recommend 15" or 18" size for men's clothing - check the recommendations on the product page)
- Eagle Creek Pack-It Cubes (I use these for Zone Bars, socks, underwear - which I roll and put in a Pack-It Cube, etc.)
- Lands' End Wrinkle-Free clothing for men or women
- If you're still worried about wrinkles (for example, suit coats that stay in any folded configuration for a long time can develop creases, or you may make mistakes in folding) I recommend my trusty friend - Wrinkle Free Spray. Simply spray it on, smooth out the wrinkles and it's dry and ready to wear in a couple of minutes. Also works to remove "hanger shoulders" from knit shirts.
I swear by these things, and get comments all the time from my fellow travelers on how unrumpled I look. In fact, this week at the meet-up in London, both Adrian Trenholm and the (blogless) Christopher Morgan commented about how tidy my shirt looked for having traveled from the US the day before (and that was in the evening after a full day).
Why not give it a shot? I started with one, and now I have two for longer trips.
Oh - and wouldn't they make a great gift for that traveler in your life this holiday season?
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In case you haven't found it yet, why not drop by and check out the Never Work Alone blog? As I mentioned before, this is a joint project started by me, Bren, and Skip. However, we're just renting the hall - it you that makes it a party worth coming to.
The short story is that we've got a discussion group on Google where you can post about management and work-related issues that are bugging you. Periodically, we summarize the group's discussions on the Never Work Alone blog. The latest summary just hit the blog, dealing with how IT people and non-IT people can get along better.
You'll then find that there is a very smart, caring group of people ready and willing to help out and, of course, we'd love to have you hang around and help other people with their issues.
Grab a name tag, hang your coat over there in the hall, and come on in!
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