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.
On the road with David Allen
This week, I was a part of David Allen's seminar "GTD | The RoadMap" in San Jose, California. In this session, there were over 140 people - all fellow travelers on the path to higher productivity with less stress.
After my last post, I got an email a couple from my friend Phil Gerbyshak of "Make It Great!" asking what I thought of it, and what I came away with in terms of the value of the seminar. I sent him a reply, but thought some of it was worth sharing here.
As you may know, the Getting Things Done books cover specific activities you can engage in to get your life in order, improve productivity, and "get things done." As an adopter of the methodology, one of the challenges I've faced is making enough of the habits stick to realize ongoing benefits from the GTD process.
"One of the biggest inhibitors to maintaining GTD is your addiction to stress. Once the stress is gone, your subconscious sometimes does things to bring it back." |
The focus of this seminar is to ground (or re-ground) you in the basics of GTD, and it builds on this foundation to provide lots of additional color to help you personalize, adapt, and embed the methdology into your own work style.
Prior to the seminar, I was doing a lot of the right things with GTD and have been using it for about 18 months. Although I have been realizing lots of benefits from this methodology, I felt like there was something missing.
The seminar helped me realize where some of my gaps are and identify some actions to bring my productivity, focus, and clarity to the next level. There is also the benefit of meeting others at the seminar that can act as a sort of support group to keep each other's activities 'on the rails' - and maintain a forum to share tips and tricks.
OK, so you've read the books - is the seminar worth attending? Short answer: Yes.
I think it's a lot like golf - the only way to get better is to keep playing and work on your technique. If you want to get *way* better, sometimes you need to buy a few sessions with a pro, who can help you fine-tune your game and smooth out the rough spots in your technique. This seminar is just that - a session with a pro.
David also provides some guidance at the end of the day for making this stick once you get back to the hectic world of work. No magic bullets, but there are some tricks to help you re-learn habits that are more effective and return to your 'zone' when you fall off the wagon. This includes some voodoo using a paperclip that shows the power of belief and the impact of negative self-talk.
Over the next few days I'll share some other things I learned during this seminar. You can also find some interesting perspective on this from Buzz Bruggeman who was in the row ahead of me taking notes on his PC.
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Score two for Microsoft
see and hear lots of Microsoft bashing in my line of work (IT and software). Like any successful company, some people will always love them and some people will always hate them. That’s just the way it is.
I’ve had my share of frustrating experiences with Microsoft products, but I want to take a moment to share a couple of recent product experiences that are scoring points with me.
Microsoft Anti-Spyware Beta
I’m running Microsoft’s Anti-Spyware Beta, and have been doing so for about two months now. After trying out a number of other anti-spyware products, I find that Microsoft’s product provides better detection and cleaning capabilities, operates in a less obtrusive manner, and generally offers me a better user experience. I've tried running others after scanning my system with Microsoft's product and haven't found any nasties that've been missed by this Beta.
Microsoft also provides a number of useful accessories for cleaning up cookies, browser caches, and erasing browsing history.
This product came from Microsoft’s acquisition of a solid company called (ironically) Giant Software Company, and I’m very impressed with the direction they’re taking. This one’s a keeper – and it’s free. [Note - I hope Microsoft is incorporating Giant's anti-spam technology into upcoming Outlook releases - Giant was very good when they were standalone.]
Microsoft Internet Explorer version 7 Beta
Judging from my hosting company's stats on which browsers hit this blog, if you're reading this you’re probably not using Internet Explorer (the vast majority of the browser hits to my site show up as Firefox or Mozilla).
I have been using Firefox and Maxthon as my browsers of choice (I regularly use several sites that are a pain in the butt to use on Firefox).
As part of my subscription to the Microsoft’s Developer Network, I decided to try their beta of Internet Explorer v7, and I’m pleasantly surprised. They’ve added some good security features (on top of those already layered in with Windows XP Service Pack 2), and a number of other useful features.
The ones of most interest to me are:
- Tabbed browsing
- RSS support
- Anti-phishing features that help expose bogus sites trying to scam me
OK, so Firefox has had tabbed browsing and RSS support for a while – please don’t kick me about that, as I have been a Firefox user for a while. But I think Microsoft’s done a great job of implementing both of these features in version 7, and I’m starting to use their browser more and more often - even after my brief exposure to this new Beta version.
Why on Earth, you may ask, would I use this vilified company’s vilified browser? Aside from the fact that I don't have some emotionally charged vendetta against them:
- Some of the sites I need to use don't work right in Firefox (don't blame me - I didn't build them, but I need to use them). It’s easier for me to use one browser for everything than it is to remember which sites work with Firefox and which ones don’t;
- My reasons for not using IE are going away (I used Maxthon and Firefox because they supported tabbed browsing and RSS);
- IE feels faster and “snappier” than Firefox based on some informal tests I’ve done
And this is just Beta 1 - I will continue to use this to see what's in store as they move to a final release.
Summary
These two Microsoft products are doing me right these days – especially when used together (the Anti-Spyware product guards against browser hijacking, and can roll back IE settings if they are tampered with for example).
When it comes to technology, I’m not looking for a religious battle – I just want something that works well, helps me get things done, and does it at a reasonable cost. These tools hit the mark for me (and they’re free).
Oh, and just so you know, I am not – and never have never been – employed by Microsoft.
Read MoreProduct Warnings for Physicists - Part 2
Back for another round, here are the remainder of the product warnings for physicists, shared here for your viewing pleasure.
NOTE: The most fundamental particles in this product are held together by a "gluing" force about which little is currently known and whose adhesive power can therefore not be permanently guaranteed.
ATTENTION: Despite any other listing of product contents found hereon, the consumer is advised that, in actuality, this product consists of 99.9999999999% empty space.
NEW GRAND UNIFIED THEORY DISCLAIMER: The manufacturer may technically be entitled to claim that this product is ten-dimensional. However, the consumer is reminded that this confers no legal rights above and beyond those applicable to three-dimensional objects, since the seven new dimensions are "rolled up" into such a small "area" that they cannot be detected.
PLEASE NOTE: Some quantum physics theories suggest that when the consumer is not directly observing this product, it may cease to exist or will only exist in a vague and undetermined state.
COMPONENT EQUIVALENCY NOTICE: The subatomic particles (electrons, protons, etc.) comprising this product are exactly the same in every measurable respect as those used in the products of other manufacturers, and no claim to the contrary may legitimately be expressed or implied.
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO PURCHASERS The entire physical universe, including this product, may one day collapse back into an infinitesimally small space. Should another universe subsequently re-emerge, the existence or functionality of this product in that universe cannot be guaranteed.
Read MoreProduct Warnings for Physicists - Part 1
I stumbled across an old file on my hard drive today that brought back a chuckle. It was kind of like finding quarters between the cushions of the couch. Back in the day, I used to print these out on adhesive labels and apply them to various pieces of office equipment, devices, and things like that.
I have no idea where they came from (I didn’t write them, but I wish I did). For now, I’ll just share a few of them here:
WARNING: This product attracts every other piece of matter in the universe, including the products of other manufacturers, with a force proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the distance between them.
HANDLE WITH EXTREME CARE: The mass of this product contains the energy equivalent of 85 million tons of TNT per net ounce of weight.
CAUTION: This product contains minute, electrically charged particles moving at velocities in excess of five hundred million miles per hour.
CONSUMER NOTICE: Because of Heisenberg's "Uncertainty Principle," it is impossible for the consumer to find out at the same time both precisely where this product is and how fast it is moving.
ADVISORY: There is an extremely small but nonzero chance that, through a process known as "tunneling," this product may spontaneously disappear from its present location and reappear at any random place in the universe, including your neighbor's domicile. The manufacturer will not be responsible for any damages or inconvenience that may result.
READ THIS BEFORE OPENING PACKAGE: According to certain suggested versions of the Grand Unified Theory, the primary particles constituting this product may decay to nothingness within the next four hundred million years.
THIS IS A 100% MATTER PRODUCT: In the unlikely event that this merchandise should contact Antimatter in any form, a catastrophic explosion will result.
PUBLIC NOTICE AS REQUIRED BY LAW: Any use of this product, in any manner whatsoever, will increase the amount of disorder in the universe. Although no liability is implied herein, the consumer is warned that this process will ultimately lead to the heat death of the universe.
HEALTH WARNING: Care should be taken when lifting this product, since its mass (and thus its weight) is dependent on its velocity relative to the user.
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