Getting things done

I'm an incredibly disorganised person. You can usually tell where I have been in residence as there is always stuff everywhere, generally accompanied by teetering piles of paper which in turn are occasionally balanced or weighed down with a collection of stuff that is separate from, but related to, the other stuff that is, as I have already mentioned, generally everywhere. This habitual habitation ritual can be witnessed at work, in my car, my desk at home, my coffee table at home, my dining room table at home, my side of the bedroom floor and in large piles of bank statements, paid bills and other receipts in the study, which are often weighed down by obsolete pieces of computer hardware that no longer fit on my desk.

I'm a big procrastinator, which goes a long way towards explaining the preceding paragraph. I am also very easily distracted and I am sure that this is strongly linked to my procrastination. It is amazing what mundane item of trivia will catch your attention and leave you engrossed for hours when you are supposed to be sorting through old telephone bills from 2002 which for some reason you have kept but you cannot for the life of you work out why.

Being like this actually offends my geek sensibilities and my almost obsessive desire to categorise and order just about everything in existence.

(this last point will confuse my wife no end who would probably argue quite convincingly that she has never seen me exercise a desire to organise and categorise in the 8 years she has known me. In my defence, I'm easily distracted and just because you don't act on the desire, doesn't mean it isn't strong, obsessive and tears you apart inside when you never quite get around to doing it)

The thing is, I should know better. Late last year and early this year, work paid for me and five other people to undergo a Personal Efficiency Program, or PEP. PEP is full of incredibly useful, but also painfully obvious ways of improving your own productivity and helping you keep on top of things. Possibly the biggest driving force behind the PEP philosophy is "Do it now" which translates to "If it can be done in under ten minutes, do it straight away and then it's out of your way. Don't let it sit there, nagging at you, festering, sneering at your ability to keep control of your own life and circumstances, mocking and deriding your organisational skills". Something like that anyway. PEP was useful, but it is all too easy to stray once more.

"Do it now" seems to have a lot in common with the "Getting things done" movement, based on the book by David Allen titled, strangely enough, "Getting Things Done". I haven't read the book myself, but I have found something that seems just as inspired (and indeed has been inspired by David Allen) - 43 folders.

43folders falls under the category of "lifehacks". Little things you can do to try and be a little bit more productive. There's more than the website - there's a 43folders wiki, a 43folders Google Group and it's a blog and community as well. So much stuff to look at. So little time to look at it all (largely because I'm not as productive as I could be).

This time, I'll try harder. With Web 2.0 on my side, how can I fail?


As something of a post script, Merlin Mann, founder of 43folders is an interesting guy. He's a regular on MacBreak Weekly (an Apple based weekly podcast on the TWiT Netcast Network) and will also be featuring in an upcoming Inside the Net podcast (also on TNN).

White & Nerdy

Edit 6/11/06: For some reason, the video shows up as currently not available on Google Video. Maybe Weird Al thought there'd been enough viral marketing and took it back down again. Link left for posterity.

Yes. Yes I am. It's probably not a surprise to anyone who knows me that I understand everything in this song (even identify with some of it). I've always had a soft spot for Weird Al and it's comforting to know that as I get older, some things will never change. It's also comforting to know that once again I'm a little late to a bandwagon. Some other things don't change either...

Marmaduke Explained

When I was a kid, we had this giant book of Marmaduke cartoons. I used to love reading them while eating my breakfast in the mornings. However, a large book of Marmaduke cartoons quickly brings the reader to two conclusions:

1. they don't really make a lot of sense
2. they're not actually all that funny.

These two conclusions held true for many years, but now all that is about to change.

Joe Mathlete Explains Today's Marmaduke.

Gold. Pure gold.

Found via Boing Boing (permalink)

A few more days away

I'll be off-line until Monday evening as we're having the boy christened this weekend. Yay.

The coolest bookshelves I have ever seen...

Tangram.

I could have a lot of fun with these. There's a bunch of other cool products around on their site as well. I'm fairly sure I could never afford any of them...

Two steps forward, one step back

This time of year has traditionally been a good time of year for us - Tax Return Season. I don't think there has been a single year when the ATO hasn't given us both back at least a little something. For a change, both us have got a decent return so we've been able to retire some of the credit card debt that has been mounting since we reverted to one income.

Today, we've changed debt situation. Again. We have been in need of a new refrigerator for quite a while and we have known that as soon as Bugs moves onto solids we were going to have to replace it with something bigger. Harvey Norman and Domayne have been offering a large amount of goods on 40 months interest free. This is an offer that is very hard to resist, and it proved impossible in the end. We now own a new refrigerator (to be delivered), digital camcorder and a printer. The printer was dirt cheap (and in the end I paid for it with my credit card anyway because we had reached my limit with my GE Creditline - which is not as bad as it sounds as it's purposely a lower limit) and the camcorder was reduced, but still...

Yay. Debt. Woo. We've made a calculated decision to enter into interest free debt, and we have the means to pay out the amount well in advance of the due period. That doesn't mean I have to like it though.

Preserving the ozone layer

The ozone layer is one of things we probably can't do without. It blocks large amounts of ultraviolet radiation, which is responsible for sunburn and, if exposure is high enough, skin cancers. We've all heard for many years that the ozone layer has big "holes" in it at the poles (which is more like an extreme reduction in the concentration, but the idea's the same) as well as a general depletion of levels in the atmosphere.

Recent press reports would indicate that while the ozone layer is recovering, it may not be doing so as fast as we originally thought it might. Indeed, some skeptics question whether there was ever a problem in the first place. Arguments aside, living in Australia I'm a prime ozone depletion sufferer, so I'm inclined to side with the green and unwashed on this one, which is why in support of the United Nations International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer (September 16) I bring you this:



In 2006, Al Gore spoke at the annual Technology, Entertainment and Design conference. It's worth watching, and at about 17 minutes it won't take much of your time.

Thank you.


Edit: If you don't want to (or can't) stream the video, it's also available in mp4 format at http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/.

Trying something new...

pixelated dreams

Let me know what you think...

Stalk much?

Got your next victim lined up but no subterranean stronghold to contain them? Then you need to check out this place.

Creepy.

I'm guessing the fortress was built by "end of the world" survivalist nuts, and I must admit that I would do almost anything in the world to have a fortress of my very own (mainly because then I could pretend the rest of the world didn't exist and both myself and the rest of the world would probably be much happier as a result), but still... Just think of the weirdos lining up to buy this place.

I guess it must be some consolation that most creeps or freaks wouldn't have the cash to shell out on this baby.

Boonie's back!

For a brief few days, Boonie was back, asking for a VB like the little champion and loyal servant he has always been.

Yesterday he started speaking constantly for about half an hour (although I use the phrase "speaking" rather loosely as it was more an unitelligble mutter) before the unthinkable happened: his battery ran out, and Boonie was silenced, I think this time for good.

Given his battery was supposed to run out back around March, and he's already arisen from the dead once alread, it's been a bloodly marvellous effort from the little Aussie battler.

I can't wait for this season's VB Series of One Day cricket, where a new Boonie will be unleashed on us all (yay!), and rumour has it that this time he'll have a little friend as well.

Off their trolley

If finally had to happen. The trolley is gone.

On the weekend all the tertiary institutions in Canberra had an open day, where prospective students would be shown around the campus and the institutions would have an opportunity to offload all the pamphletts that they had lying about the place because someone accidentally added a zero the Quantity column on the printer's order form. This time last weekI figured that if ever there was a time when CIT would want to not look like the dudes from Animal House had just visited after yet another giant kegger, this would be the time.

Monday morning, bright and early, I mentally waved to the trolley still sitting in the tree as I sped past on the bus. I guess CIT was about more than looking good. "We're not shallow" the campus seemed to say. "We are all about the learning here, we are. Frankly, we're a little disappointed that you could think so little of us. For shame."

Tuesday morning I drove to work as I had a lecture in the afternoon, so I did not pass the trolley. In a way, I'm sad, because on Wednesday when I passed CIT on the bus, the trolley was gone.

I never even got to say goodbye...