I’ve started reading GTD by David Allen and I must say I’m fairly impressed, but in a ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ way. In my push to get things done more effectively this quarter, I lost steam about halfway through. There were a number of reasons for this, but I think the biggest one is that I had no system in place to keep myself organized.

Personal Digital Assistant

In the past I had a Palm Pilot - one of the originals - that I used to keep contact information. I tried using its Todo list feature and calendaring system, but I found that I never looked at the stuff again until the relevant tasks/events were long gone. Such a system actually hurts you, because you’re spending time inputting the data but getting nothing out of it. A few years after giving that up, in the midst of my pro-Microsoft phase, I bought a PocketPC under the assumption that it was the Palm Pilot that wasn’t being effective, and that a newer, higher tech PDA would be. I just assumed that it was better than a paper solution because the paper solution couldn’t sync with my computer. It turns out that the MS software was so ineffective that syncing probably took longer doing it “automatically” than by hand. I couldn’t shake - or even see - the assumption that digital was better than paper, so I stopped using the PocketPC and replaced it with… nothing.

Enter Apple

About the same time I realized that Microsoft wasn’t all that great I started noticing the Mac. It was sleek and slender (the PowerBooks), sexy (the Dock, Aqua in general), powerful (Terminal.app and everything underpinning it), and altogether elegant. But it’s a Mac. It’s not Windows. Could I really switch to something that wasn’t Windows? I was so invested, I thought, that I probably couldn’t. Most of the programming I knew how to do was for Windows, all my software was for Windows, all my friends used Windows… But the curiosity remained. After talking to a professor or two with a PowerBook and reading about it, I decided to take the plunge. At first it was confusing. It was new, which was exciting, but sometimes frustrating. I couldn’t perform the simplest of tasks without expending significant mental energy. I wish I could say that now that I’m used to it that everything is problem-free, but that’s not true. I have had problems and things do not operate exactly as I’d like. But the difference between things not behaving as they should on the Mac vs. on Windows is in the community. The Mac community listens, responds, and engages you. Many of the apps I use were written by groups of 1-4, and are very approachable (online, of course).

You may be wondering what this has to do with productivity. For a time my PowerBook was my PDA. Though not well suited to the purpose, it performed better than either of my previous machines. I noticed a few trends emerging:

  1. I actually like using it, and I gather my information and use the PowerBook to process it
  2. I began to really customize and tweak my setup because I wasn’t living under the constant looming shadow of the monthly reformat my Windows machine required - this broke down much of the subconscious barrier to use it
  3. While I could use it effectively to perform certain tasks, it sucked if I had to draw something or take a quick note - such things just got discarded

43folders.com and the Hipster PDA

The site that introduced me to GTD, 43folders.com, is one man’s response to the Windows-centric view of that book (and the productivity world, more generally). I’m not sure who first coined the term Hipster PDA, but it is just a bunch of 3×5 index cards held together by a binder clip. This is my new PDA, and so far it works nicely. I can carry it with me easily, I can use my own pencil as a stylus, I don’t have to worry about dropping it or spilling water on it, it syncs with my computer just about as fast as my old PocketPC, and it never runs out of batteries. I’m still in the honeymoon phase of using it, so we’ll see what happens a few months down the road. In general I’m pleased.

Procrastination

This being finals week, my brain is particularly sensitive to anything that might offer a distraction… like… um… this post. But I’ve allotted time for it! The bane of my existence right now is StarCraft. For Pete’s sake Blizzard! Why’d you have to produce such a good game?! I’m going to eject it from my PowerBook, and go put it in a safe place… there we go. I’ve now raised the barrier to playing it to a level that hopefully will keep me from doing so. While it is my choice to play it, it is hard not to. This is not an excuse, it’s a reason. Now all I have to do is lower the barrier to getting work done to a sufficiently low level so I’ll actually do it. Here’s to getting over my fear of management and “stuff”.