heathervescent

GTDing Your Gmail Inbox, part 1.

As you may or not know, I am a big fan and active user of GTD, an organizational methodology by David Allen. I've written blog posts and created five videos on how I use GTD - and how you can use it too. 

The most important criteria for GTD is to use what works for you. If a recommendation doesn't work for you - you don't have to do it! 

I've been on the GTD train since December 5, 2005. So I've had a lot of time to internalize the system and customize it based on my own trainwreck of left and right brain organization. I even stole/modified a note-taking idea from Tim Ferris before his superstardom and use 1 notebook to take notes on ALL my projects, creating an ad-hoc Table of Contents as the notebook gets filled up with notes.

But today, I want to tell you about how I was just able to GTD my inboxes of > 500 email messages (from the weekend) in 20 minutes and be left with just 4 messages in my inbox.

There are three steps

1. Set up your system
2. Use your system
3. Care and feeding of your system

I'll just mention item 1 today. First, you've got to (start to) set up your system. 

@, in_, L:, P:, z

The first thing I did was create GTD specific folders in my gmail.

• @: The "@" / "at" folder. e.g. @ActionItem, @Email, @waiting
  Your "@" 's are where you put emails into general buckets for "actions." Like it an email needs an action items (to be responded to, to be read, to do something and then respond, any kind of action). My @ActionItem folder is like my Todo list in my email inbox. My @waiting is where I file emails I am waiting for a response from (that I want to track). I use @ActionItem and @waiting the most in this category. 
• in_ : I have many email addresses and I filter them all into my gmail account. I filter several addresses directly into their own folders. For those acconts, I preface them with in_nameofemail. I process these folders when I process my "inboxes."
• L: I am on a lot of lists, and some of them I filter directly into their own folders. I often don't go into these folders, but filter them because they automatically get tagged if they also go into my inboxes. For lists that are of similar topic, I just filter them all into the same folder. E.g. All my tech email lists get filtered into L: TechLists.
• P: or the Project "Folders" aka google labels. I was a power Outlook user before I switched to gmail, so I love folders and preface project folders with P:. This makes it easy for me to see my active projects at a glance. (I hide or archive any labels that are not active.)
• z or Archive. When I'm done with a label or folder, I will either roll those contents into another general folder (e.g. zArchivedClients) remove any organizational prefixes and replace with a "z" prefix. I started doing this before they offered the "hide" function. Sometimes now I will just hide the label instead of zArchiving it.

Check out the screenshots below.

  

OK, give this a little food for thought and think about what folders of the above might be appropriate for your own style. Next post, we'll talk about using your system.

2010 Themes

Oh, it's going to be a year of burning. Burning Desire that is. I'm sitting here in my office, (which I hope I will not be sitting in next year) looking at my mindmap of goals for 2010. I've tried different techniques in the years I've blogged, chucking out the old for the fresh and new. This year, I'm returning to some tried and true, and mixing and mashing up my techniques.

You probably know by now, that I'm very goal focused. But sometimes goals are not what is needed. Being goal orientated can sometimes be too rigid. To not allow for the magic and spontaneity to express itself. To lose an opportunity because you ignore it. Goals fixate you. (And this is a double-edged sword.)

This year, I've got several mindsets I'm remembering, some very specific goals, some vague goals and stretch goals. I'll share one from each bucket.

Mental Mindsets: Yes, and...

Several years ago, I started a start-up company with an actor. He had interesting ways of thinking about things, and one thing I learned from him was this concept of "yes, and." I remembered learning it in an improv class. You see, when you're improving with someone, for it to be good, to flow, you have to accept what they have given you, and then take it from there. You can't deny what has been given to you, even if it's something utterly ridiculous. You say yes, and take it where you want to take it from there.

The Specifics: Throw a party at my desert property

On New Years Day, I visited my property in the desert. It's been through it's fair share of drama in the short time I owned it, so I have kept it fallow. This year, my simple goal, is to invite a select group of friends out to my land and break it in. It might be next month, it might be July, it might be October, but Heather is going to throw a raging desert party on land I own in 2010.

The Vague: Cultivate Relationships that Fulfill Me

I've done an inconsistent job of picking friends, colleagues and collaborators over the years. I've made a lot of great friends. I've done a lot of cool things. And I've got a past filled with long-term friends and collaborators, and those who did not make the cut. I want to cultivate more of those long-term friends. Friends who stick with you through the disagreements and bumps. Friends who put their own perspective aside. Friends who align with my vision, values, morals; and those that strategically oppose mine. Friends that challenge and engage. Friends I can grow and nurture.

The Stretch: Essays on the Future

Do I dare to expose a dear stretch goal on this open blog? Oh, why not. One of my stretch goals is to write an essay each quarter on some topic that vaguely has to do with the future. I do not see these essays as predictions, but rather topics that have been knocking around in my mind. There is a high probability that one or several of these essays may include wildcards and black swans.

And that, my readers, is a taste of what I'm shooting for 2010. Unlike other years, I am not publishing my full list. I have a few projects on it that shall remain secret until it is time for their unrevealing.

So, how about you, what are your mindsets, specific, vague and stretch goals for 2010?

File your papers the GTD Way

Welcome to the next episode in my Kicking Ass at GTD series - this topic is one we all love and procrastinate. Filing.

Kudos to remember

Yesterday I got one of the best compliments I think I have ever gotten, and from the one and only David Allen himself!

I was showing him my GTD methodology (which was strange and embarassing in itself, because what do you say when you are talking to the man who documented the method which changed your life?!) which includes my:

1. Calendar - a weekly moleskin calendar book
2. My GTD notebook - a modified large moleskin book
3. My notes book - a composition notebook
4. My 2008 Guidebook - meditations on my yearly topic (this year "the mainstream")

I also have my GTD methodology online on two sites

1. My GTDed gmail (which honestly gmail sucks for GTDing, but I'm migrated there and the pain, the PAIN to switch....
2. Basecamp Project list

Anyway, I was showing David Allen my GTD book and calendar and he responded with glee in his eyes "You're the biggest train wreck of left and right brains I've ever seen!" We all laughed and were having a good time.

In fact, yesterday was one awesome day. Everyone I met at DavidCo was great and I'm revitalized and ready to implement a better weekly review, Agenda and Project list. Oh, and I think I've finally seen the power of mindmaps.

I also found out that my YouTube videos on GTD had been sent to the entire company! Talk about a strange feeling of embarrassment and delight.

Thanks Dave Patrick, Rachelle and of course David Allen. 

Good Article on DoOcracy

Here's a great article/description of do-ocracy from the community wiki. I especially like that they included dangers: (quoted from the article)

• Burnout. People can get too attached to the do-ocratic system and volunteer for too many jobs, or too much work.
• Despotism. A person who’s doocrat’d themselves into control of a very necessary system (network, food pool, etc.) can get heady with power and demand rewards or tribute for their work.
• Frustration. Some people don’t have the time or means to do something, but they do have (real or imagined) expertise. In a doocracy, they will feel overrun and perceive the situation as slipping out of their hands. This can cause frustration. And remember: “Fear is the path to the dark side…”
• FairProcess. Doocracy is not always explicitly defined, so there are diverging perception dangers about “fairness”.
• Resentment. If only a minority of participants in the community do-ocratize themselves into the hard jobs, they can resent others who don’t take on responsibility.
• Complacency. If a minority of people take on jobs, the others can become complacent and ignore new tasks, since “someone else will do it.” (end)

I know I've gotten hit with the first one, and the second one has crept in a bit. (Does the fact that I know this make me less evil/egotistical?) Anyway, good stuff.

David Allen Talks about GTD at Google

Well here you have it. David Allen, one of my gurus talks about GTD at Google. It's an awesome video. Check it out if you can spare an hour.

Oh and I totally found this from Kelly's GTD Blog.

Back on the GTD Wagon

Here's the third episode in my "Falling off the GTD wagon" series. You can find the first and second ones here.

Loving the Materials

It's very important to like your materials if you want to kick ass. I talk about this in episode 2, on getting back on the wagon with GTD.

Falling off the GTD Wagon

A few months ago, I stopped using my GTD notebook. Life got hard. I felt like I didn't accomplish much. It's time to change that. I'm doing a short series this December about getting back on the GTD Wagon. Join me and get your ass kicking on! Here's the first episode.

Membership or not membership

Some things I've learned from Cacophony - stolen straight from Rev Al's mouth.

There is a curious, almost inverse relationship between attendance and paid subscriptions. Those who are generally out and about doing events seem almost less concerned with maintaining contact as "official members." Those who keep sending in money year after year tend to be in more outlying neighborhoods/cities, and seem to be content with vicarious "membership." It's almost as if the concept of membership were antithetical to the Cacophony ideal (or maybe that's just what I want to see).

And on do-ers vs wanna-bes

You can't really tell who's full of hot air online. This calls for a meeting. Face to face. We've found that actual monthly meetings in the real world help determine who's just an online know-it-all and who's ready to roll up their sleeves and do something. If they never make it to an actual meeting to discuss the ideas they've been going on about, it's clear that they won't make those ideas happen. Then we know to just politely ignore them when they beat their chest online. Meetings are fairly loose, but we do go down an agenda, basically reviewing past events one by one, discussing ideas for the coming month bandied about online, and then opening the floor to whatever new ideas there might be.

Which leads me back to my thoughts on community vs cliques... and are people who only socalize online, just lame-rs instead of do-ers? I should just write up my thoughts on the subject sooner than later.

BarcampLA4 Preso

Here's the preso I gave at BarcampLA 4. It spans online branding, blowing shit up, doing things and how to get your heart's desire. As in all things, be authentic, manage risks strategically and be safe KICK ASS.

xxx

-Heather

ps. I'm a kick-ass integrator.

 

| View | Upload your own

ps. photo credits in the preso go to Kmo and Jenna.

She's Geeky Session: On Do-ocracy

I lead a session on do-ocracy at She's Geeky last week. Denise Gearty was kind enough to take notes during the session and here they are - to hopefully inspire you to do things. Do-ocracy is a tricky thing - but you just have to go in and do it. :)

Did you miss the conference? There are tons of awesome notes here.

 

_____________________________________

Do-ocracy Session // Tuesday, October 23, 2007 // 10:30 AM

Do-ocracy (definition on board)

Do-ocracy is a summary term for consensus management on a non-authoritarian, classical anarchist model emphasizing voluntary involvement and actual results, where those with an actual involvement make the decisions.

GTD = Getting Things Done (www.davidco.com)

How to Get Your Hearts Desire, a six step process outlined

Heather found Do-ocracy based on experience in mostly volunteer environments (e.g. large Burning Man camps www.burningman.com). From here she developed experience and transitioned to the LA tech community.

Key learning:  solicit/ask for help from trusted friends and colleagues 

Question: What if you are not clear on your vision?  How do you check this? How do you know?

• Need confidence in yourself
• Don’t always be a perfection tied down by details
• Allow yourself failure every once in awhile

 
How do you start the community?  -- Ignite action?

• Start with something small (a small vision) even something material and practice
• Don’t forget to be direct and ask for help, feedback, etc.
• Sometimes you just have to ask
• Consult with your friends
• Know feedback verses criticism

Find a Space to Stretch In -- find it, encourage it. A safe space to practice do-ocracy.

Creativity allows the development of ideas and enables action

Julia comments that Australia and New Zealand follow do-ocracy in the workplace. It must be a cultural phenomenon. From her experience it fostered honesty and a successful project

Ryanne (video blogging)does large scale events/video blogging practiced do-ocracy

Heathervescent comments on her same experiences.  She recommends that you have to be aware of others who want to step in and take over responsibilities.  By engaging others you open up growth and opportunity.

Cultivating Leaders: Pay attention and take note of others to get involved.  Sometimes you have to ask people to play certain roles.

Heather Newman "There is no fucking book!"  ~ Comment on where are the guidelines or rules?…where are the mentors that direct me?

You need consensus when working in teams; so, you have to communicate to get things done . . . to move forward.

Partner with people who compliment you, may be opposite of you  -- they can make you shine

There is a difference between "what you are good at" and "what your strengths are" -- Know this!

References:

Book: Strength Finders

Site: Positive Psychology - there is a test on the site

Book: The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield

Reference: Steve Pavlina's Personal Development for Smart People

What about when Do-ocracy goes wrong?

• You end up doing it all yourself
• Volunteers that are hurting (process, team, decision-making, etc). Sometimes you have to "fire" volunteers
• People don’t communicate and/or holding resentment can poison the success overall
• Be aware so that you can catch this early in the game
• One approach is to categorize late resentment comments as "data invalid"  -- they should be presented at a relevant point when action can be taken

If you want something, put it out to the universe but as specifically as possible

What about commitment?

Are you hearing the advice given?  Are you at a point where you are capable of hearing the advice? This is key.

On Tricksters

“Tricksters are boundary crossers; they destabilize structures,” Hansen explains. Many, if not all, cultures have trickster characters in their histories. For the Greeks it was Hermes. At least one characteristic of the trickster archetype should be obvious, a propensity for deceit. Tricksters, by definition, violate taboos and break social norms. They often have extravagant, unusual sexual tastes. Tricksters are also marginalized by society; however, to consider them unwilling recipients of discrimination is not altogether fair. Tricksters themselves often do not desire to be a part of the establishment, yet they are often, by their own anti-establishment views, fully embedded in the rich edifice of culture. The most significant generalization that can be made of all tricksters is that they are associated with disorder. The archetype of the trickster has tangible effects in many societies.
- Michael Shermer, Skeptics Society Newsletter

In questioning the boundaries, the trickster not only destabilizes the structure, but also makes it stronger. The above paragraph has a lot of generalizations about trickster characteristics, focusing primarily on the chaosness of tricksterness. But that is only one side to the yin/yang of the Trickster. The trickster's role is to stir the pot so patterns and order can be pulled, created, defined, discovered. The first step to creating order, is to manage the chaos. But that first step is so close to the chaos, it's hard to see the difference.

How do I know? Because my sacred hunting grounds are the knife edge between chaos and order, between the known and the unknown. You must have guts of steel to venture into chaos, balls and courage to capture your prey, cunning ruthlessness to cross the line, and it never ever goes by the book (there is no book).

How to get out of the midwest

by heathervescent

1. Fall in Love
2. Have some money - you don't have to have a lot, but some (try not to be in credit card debt)
3. Pick a place
4. Pack all your belonging into your car
5. Drive there
6. Find a place to live (sublet - craigslist)
7. Find a job
8. Tada - Your life has changed

You don't necessarily have to do this in this particular order. The most important, critical thing, is that you take one audacious step towards your goal of leaving. The only thing holding you back is yourself. And that's the way it is in everything.

It's not going to be pretty at first, and you're going to have to work hard, and you'll probably make some mistakes, but if it's really what you want to do with your life - DO NOT PUT IT OFF. (Don't be rash though, either.)

On Leadership

A snippet from Steven Pressfield:

A military leader's duty to his subordinates, Pressfield writes, is "to fire their valor when it flags and rein in their fury when it threatens to take them out of hand." He is "just a man doing a job. A job whose primary attribute is self-restraint and self-composure, not for his own sake, but for those he leads by his example. A job ... of 'performing the commonplace under uncommonplace conditions.'"

Take out the word "military" in the first line, and you can apply it to any leader. A leader's duty, is to those he leads. I take this seriously. A good leader is not ego-driven. My own personal example is what I'm trying to do with the LA Tech community. I am constantly asking for commentary and feedback on what people are experience, what they like, don't like, and always always observing. Call it primary market research. I'm also watching the larger marketplace - what's happening in and around LA re: tech community building.

Creating a GTD Notebook

My friend Kathryn asked me how to create/organize a GTD notebook, so I created this little video for her. I realize that I didn't go into the explicit organizing of the notebook. I have my tabs in this order

1. Goals: My general big goals
2. Projects: More or less my active project list
3. Someday: Projects I want to do ... someday
4. Lists: My general catch-all tab for listy things. (Note: I used to have separate tabs for music, book recommendations, but I found it was easier for me to put it all on one list tab.)
5. @ASAP: My first @ (at) tab. Things I need to do RIGHT NOW
6. @wait: stuff I am waiting to hear back from people
7. @home: stuff I need to do at home
8. @brain: stuff I need to think about (half thoughts I want to flesh out more)
9. @laptop: stuff I do at my computer (which is a laptop)
10. @phone: people I have to call
11. @email: emails I have to send (or respond to) Note: I also manage my email in my email client. These are emails that I think of sending when I am not near my computer.
12. @car: stuff I have to do in my car, errands, etc
13. Agenda: My notes, fleshing out tasks, section of my notebook

Other tabs I have had in my notebooks
- Contacts: phone numbers, emails, etc
- Travel: travel schedule
- Inbox: I used to have a tab for inbox items, but I tend to process those on my desk and not in my notebook
- 2Blog: blog post ideas
- KickAss: Specific projects, ideas that kick ass

And then I have had project specific tabs for my clients, website or work.

The beauty of GTD is that you can completely customize it to work with your style - whatever that might be.

Now you can watch the video and learn how to create your own GTD notebook.

Unicorn Update

Unicorn Reality!

Thoughts Percolating

Friday I was hit with a big does of project creativity working on the various unicorn forms for my burning man camp. I was mocking out the 7ft metal structure, when staring out into the yard, I spied a pair of sawhorses. And the vision of transformation hit me. Or rather a vision that transformed the sawhorses into unicorns hit me. So I mocked it all out and proceeded to plan to work in wood.

That put on a trip down memory lane. Back to shop class in 8th grade (I was one of 4 girls) and metal working class in 7th grade. It was great fun to map out the plans and make templates/patterns. I imagined this was similar in a way to what Suz did when she was a pattern maker. And I could see the challenges in doing this work. Then I spent 2 hours at home depot gathering materials. I realized how thankful I am that I do not have to cut the trees myself or plane them for smooth edges. And I realized the amount of work it took to be a carpenter back in the day. You had to have tools, building knowledge, wood and tree knowledge (like do you want to map out your template against or with the grain of the wood?) and which wood is best for the thing you are working on?  And then of course my mind wandered to Jesus. (Disclaimer: do not think I am going all Christian on you, I am not - it's just the Jesus Year, ok.) And I was thinking about being a carpenter was about creating. Starting from a basic idea and some basic materials, a carpenter makes real an idea - cabinets, furniture, a house.

And the act of creating, the practice of creating something over and over gives one a lot of power and insight, not to mention skills.

A comment on my suicide post a few weeks ago. There is a follow-up rattling around in my head called, the human is dead, long live the human. When the human sheds its form and becomes something different and at the same time retains human shape.

Which reminds me of detachment. Recapitulation. Self-observation. The Confessional. The act of Confession, practicing Buddhist detachment, the warrior's method of recapitulation, and Gurdjieff's self-observations methods are all methods to the same end. Awareness of the many facets of our personality, (bonus points for understanding that others have many same and different facets), detaching from those facets as our ultimate identity (realizing the collection of facets is not You), and forgive oneself when those personalities manifest themselves to us/in us again.

Hey, wasn't that one of the roles of the pantheon of Gods? (I am just remembering an idea I had about this.) It was because the Gods/desses were making you do it, or you were under the influence of that Goddess, or you pissed one of them off. The Gods gave standard metaphors for a  personality characteristics that you and I have. It's a facet inside us. The gods and goddesses are in_side us. But they are not us. Yes, we are puppets of the gods, until we are master of ourselves, and then the gods are the puppets.

Anyway, enough on this subject for Sunday morning. I've got some projects to manifest.

Heather is Busy

First off - Hello to anyone stopping by because we met at Twiistup last night. I had a great time and have to write my shout out post. If you're looking to download ooVoo - go here to download the client. If you want info on the geek dinners and barcampLA - go here. And be sure to join the mailing list.

I have been really busy and it doesn't look like it's going to stop. I was at Twiistup last night - which was awesome.

Tomorrow I head north to attend an intense weekend called Fusion with a bunch of futurists in beautiful Mendocino. I'm very excited to participate.

Then, since I will be in the Bay Area, I'm going to attend the Internet Identity Workshop on Monday, Tues & Wed.

Oh - did I mention I'm back on Theory Radio and my show is tonight. In fact, I have an awesome show lined up. Matt is joining me and we are spinning music to trip out too. This music is absolutely insanely amazingly awesomely strange and unique and it blew my mind when I heard it. The show starts at 7, but Matt will be joining me at 8.

Oh yeah, and I still have to pack. So much for sleep these days.

Getting into the Flow

Here are my notes from the Web2Open session on Flow State by Janette Girod of That Voodoo You Do.

Flow state

aspects of flow
- attention is key (to experience)
(attention can be trained)

- make it easy for yourself
(screen out distractions)
beware the rabbit hole

9 components of the flow state

1. Clear goals (not too abstract or long term)
achievable in one single session
sit down, decide what you want to do, by end of the session, you have achieved it

2. A high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention
multi-taking is switching btwn tasks

3. A loss of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness
(work is not extention of your self image  - get your ego out of your work)

4. A distorted sense of time
(you get more out of the time in flow)
set aside a specific allocated time for flow (and block out distractions for that time)
takes at least 15 minutes to get into flow state
the power of 48 minutes (48 minute work sessions with 12 mnute breaks)
requires a timer (egg timer)
timeleft desktop widget

5. Direct & immediate feedback, behavior can be adjusted as needed.
getting something built and out there, for fine tune tweaking
practicing and doing more
pottery class example

6. Balance between ability level and challenge.

7. a sense of personal control over the situation.

8. Intrinsically rewarding action, resulting in effortless of action.
develop and refine your own style.

9. Focus of awareness is narrowed down to the activity itself.
fully occupy the mind, the less it wanders

There will always be interruptions.

My Auto-responder

So if you've emailed me recently you may have gotten an immediate message from me. For those curious, this is it:

Thank you for your email. To limit the interruptions while shifting between email and work I will only be checking and responding to email at 9am and 3pm on weekdays. I will try and respond to your message in a timely manner.

If you need an immediate time-sensitive response, please don't hesitate to call my cell phone.

What's up with that, huh? Well, what's up is that I finally implemented Tim Ferriss's suggestions from his SXSW presentation. Tim wrote the book "The Four Hour Workweek" and he blew me away with what he had to say.

I like to think I've got my shit together. That I'm uber efficient (especially since I use the GTD method of getting shit done) but Tim's suggestions are sublime. Here are some key notes.

There are 4 stages

1. Definition (the life you want)
2. Elimination
3. Automation
4. Renewal

With definition:

• define what you want to do
• What you want to be
• What you want to have

The 80/20 rule:
What 20% of your efforts are going to create the 80% of your desired results?
What 20% of activities are producing what I don't want? Shamelessly ELIMINATE them.

• "I realized I was creating activities to fill my time."
• "Is this a crutch activity?"
• "A task will swell in perceived importance by the time you allot to it"
• "There is an efficiency epidemic. (I totally agree with this.) More time is spent switching between tasks. Once you switch tasks there is a 40% chance you'll never go back to that task."
• The point of life is to enjoy it!
• Only have a meeting to solve the problem.
• Put an auto-responder on your email and then check your email 2 or max 3 times a day. Here's Tim's post on how to do this.

When he talked about the elimination section it was scary. Who wants to eliminate things right? But he even talked about how he fired some of his clients.

I have to say in the two days since I've implemented this auto-responder (and re-programed my brain) I have gotten more things done with more relaxation, efficiency and creativity. I'm slowly implementing some of his other ideas... I can't wait to see how they turn out.

Do-Ocracy

It's how I do my stuff.

Do-ocracy is a summary term for consensus management on a non-authoritarian, classical anarchist model emphasizing voluntary involvement and actual results, where those with an actual involvement make the decisions.

The practice is also fairly common whenever volunteers are working towards a project together. The lack of a formal command structure or compensation for the work means that each person works on what interests them creating a format of a Do-ocracy.

from wikipedia. Or as Nike put it "Just Do it"

Planning Squared

And here I thought my personal yearly planning was descriptive and anal. The Daniel has really impressed me with his Project Plan for 2007. Check it out! Fortunately for me, I still have a few days until the gun goes off, as I start my year on my birthday, which is in about a week.

Updated: Saying goodbye to 2006

It's this time of year when I revisit my 2006 goal and see how I did. And more importantly, decide my goals for 2007. I'll say it up front - 2006 is a hard year to follow. My goal was to kick ass in 2006. It was a vague goal on purpose. And Here's my list of ass kicking items.

1. I threw a kick ass birthday party.
2. I did some tagging.
3. I launched the Daily Mantra blog (and added 5 authors)
4. I moved in with the boyfriend, and moved out of the future.
5. I brought Streetwars to LA.
6. I made a bunch of custom cowbells for my friends.
7. I did lots of desert camping (Joshua Tree, Death Valley and my old friend the Mojave)
8. I attended Barcamp LA in March, and then coordinated the one in November.
9. I launched the LA Geek dinners and continue to coordinate them.
10. I learned to pole dance, and I won second place in a competition.
11. I got to wield a flamethrower and play with a brick of magnesium.
12. I presented a workshop on blogging at BlogHer.
13. I kept making my living working on cool projects with good people.
14. I kept my blogging up at blogging.la.
15. I choreographed and performed a club dance show @ BootieLA.
16. I started The Purple Tornado.
17. I sold my car, my bike, my truck and got Ingemar.
18. Having the most kick ass 3 day party with so many of my friends the last 3 days of the year. Baking 4 cakes. Winning Iron Chef. Giving my heart's desire workshop. Spending time watching the gorgeous ocean and watching the moon.

I've met lots of amazing people. I've been able to collaborate with many of them on projects. Yes, 2006 was the year of kicking ass. I can look back and see everything I've done. That's a long list. That's a lot of ass kicking. So how do I expect 2007 to even compete? Easy. 2007 not about kicking ass. 2007 is the Jesus Year, double triangle, whatever I make that mean. And that is the final item to kick ass on this year.

GTD makes you sane, gives you control

I've been a big fan of GTD since I got on it last year. I've always been an extremely organized person in work and life, but implementing GTD has allowed me to take my life to a different level. I keep track of the infrastructure of my life in my book, which allows my brain to think about exciting projects and possibilities and then my body executes on those ideas, which are later tracked in the book. It's a cycle of success that allows me to focus my laser beam attention on many diverse projects - and easily add new projects to the workload with minimal impact. (Um, like my ceiling falling in.)

Sunday morning, The Boyfriend (TB) is feeling stressed because he has so many projects in his head and feels like he doesn't have time to do any of them. Let alone pick which one he wants to work on. So I suggested that maybe it was the day to get him on GTD. (He's been interested about it since I went on it.) So Sunday afternoon we went through my bookcase of blank books and found one that was perfect for him. (It was a mini-moleskine.) I pulled out my stick-on tabs and we found a pen that he liked. In GTD, it's really important to have materials you like. Because if you like them, you'll use them. I took him on a tour of my book and we picked out categories for his book (Project list, @Computer, @Home, @Errands, Business, @Agenda and added a calendar that I printed off of Outlook). Then we started the brain dump.

I've never GTDed someone before, so this was really interesting to me. It was part conversation, part coach, part task-master, part psychologist. Personalizing GTD is important to its success. Part of that is figuring out HOW you think about projects. TB is very organized and has very specific ways of thinking about projects. Some of these ways worked very well with GTD - and other ways of thinking needed to be tweaked. The whole action list (@Computer, @Home, @Phone, etc) is a novel concept. Tasks and actions are not prioritized. They go on a single list.

We spent about an hour brain dumping his projects into the book and then picking a few to figure out the next actions for. Once we were finished he looked over the project list and said, "That's a manageable list." And I could see his relief in knowing what all his projects were and what he needed to do next to "get things done."

And that's a great feeling - knowing that all your ideas are in a safe place and available at any moment. Knowing that you don't have to actively think about each and every project, and more importantly, having the power to decide what you do and when - and not be motivated by fear and anxiety.

Save that, for when the ceiling falls in.

Photo is a picture of my GTD notebook. Complete with Heart's Challenger sticker.

lifehacking

It's not new to me or even a lot of people, but I'm on the GTD train now. Watch out world, cause 2006 is right around the corner and I'm implementing the new and improved method for me to execute on my dreams. That's right, more dreams actualized faster. Watch and see.

falling leaves and a clean future

There's nothing like two cups of coffee to motivate me to clean. I don't dislike cleaning, I just have trouble getting started cleaning. But once I get started, watch out... I can clean anything with bleach, water and plenty of towels. (I learned this skill in Brazil.) But today I wasn't using bleach - just your conventional cleaning supplies.

You can't really multi-task cleaning, but you can multi-thread it. This is the efficiency game I play. (I also sometimes add the wait till the last minute game to increase risk, but that's a totally different game, not to be confused with the procrastination game.) What are the things I want to accomplish and do today? Where do I want to be today? What else am I thinking about doing? And how can I that fit in?

I've been wanting to mop the floors in the house for a while. And Gloria mentioned painting the shed door before she left for Italy. Moki has been stinking and although I am afraid of his growls, I am determined not to live with a stinky dog. Yesterday, when I had some people over for lunch, I noticed how many leaves had fallen all over the terrace garden and upper deck. I have a surprise for Sam that I want to work on. So these are all the things on my mind (and in my GTD book) in addition to blog posts I've started and other projects that have action items. So, how to attack the day? With efficiency, fun, structure for freedom and the ability to throw all the planning out the window and do something completely different. (Just because I plan to do something, doesn't mean that I always do it. Planning gives me a path to diverge from at any point. Planning gives me possibilities.)

I stick my hand out into the whirlwind of project opportunities and a grasp a rake. A vacuum. A paintbrush. A mop. A rake. A broom. A green trash barrel. A black plastic bag. A bucket. A paintbrush. A rake. A black plastic bag. A paintbrush. A vacuum. A mop. A stack of towels. A couple dog biscuits. A dog. A shower-head. A towel. A handful of wet towels. A biscuit. A glass of soda and some lunch.

A couple hours later I've completed many of the things on my mind. Many of these projects took various steps, so I intertwined them together. Painting the shed door took a primer and two coats of paint, which had to dry in between them. So I raked and vacuumed and mopped between the coats. A threaded braid of cleaning activities. I talked to my neighbors, set up an email mailing list, washed the dog and took a shower myself.

This is the way I like to live. I like to have big and small projects that I can twist and weave and form around themselves and my life to make it interesting and fun. When I set my life up this way, I get into the flow. The momentum of the activities and projects moves me easily along. I'm making progress on many tasks all at once until I tie up the threads in a nice knot for the day. Nothing hanging lose.

Now it's time to go out!