Agave Mountain

GTD is shorthand for "Getting Things Done," the groundbreaking work-life management system and book by David Allen, that now has a cult-like following.  Here is how I am starting to implement within the confines of a traditional paper based organizer.

One of the things I wanted to improve in 2009 was my overall productivity.  Last year, I transited through several phases where I used various electronic devices (blackberry, palm, and pocket pc), and software utilities.  In the end, I always end up going back to my paper organizer -- a Day Timer (2 page per day format). 

I prefer the paper Day Timer because I never have to charge it and I quite frankly, like being able to staple, clip, tape, and glue things to it.  It is a color scrapbook of my life, in minute by minute detail.  I staple receipts and boarding passes to the pages.  There are coffee mug rings on pages.  Calendar days are colored with high lighters.  Additionally, I can print emails, notes, and documents to a printer and cut the 8 1/2  x 11 paper and slip it into my binder. 

Unfortunately, I since I'm relatively new to GTD, I didn't know how to fit GTD within the structure of a traditional paper organizer.  Here is my first attempt at merging GTD and the Day Timer paper organizer:

• The Journal page is still a record important events in my life, and a record of business information that might be necessary to submit during an audit, such as mileage and expenses.  I jot down notes, like "called and talked to xx about yy."  I highlight, I scribble, and sometimes annotate in multiple colors here.  More than once, I have pulled information noted here for powerful effect during a dispute.  I also still jot down notes about hours I spend on client projects, and staple receipts and boarding passes to it.  This is a blow-by-blow record of my time.
• I staple boarding passes to the day of travel.  If I travel a lot, I will use a 7 hole punch and simply insert them in between the proper pages, to keep the pages from bending under the weight when the pages are in the archive storage binder.
• The appointments pane is still for appointments, events, or things due at specific time of day.
• I almost never fill out the expenses pane.  Most of my business expenses go straight onto a business credit card, but if I do use my personal card, I usually will just staple the receipt to the paper to remind me later to fill out an expense report.
• Currently, I don't have address pages in my binder -- the constellation of contacts I have seems to be relatively steady.  When I do put address pages, I will staple the business cards into either the journal page or the address page.
• All of the above fits together relatively well.  If I get audited and the auditor has a question about a business trip, I flip over the the day, and oh here is my boarding pass, here is the business card of the people I met.  My notes of the meeting, and receipts all together, albeit in a stapled-amateur-art-project kind of way.

So far, nothing has changed.  That leaves the to-do list area.  How should I use it?  I have the following options:

• Use the to-do list as a record of accomplished tasks for that day only or ongoing tasks (copy the completed task there after it is completed and crossed off the contextual list); or
• Use the to-do list as a list of uncategorized and unfiltered captured tasks that come to me during the day, which will then be moved onto a proper contextual task list; or
• Use the to-do list as a list of tasks I need to accomplish for that particular day only, as pulled from the context lists.  This would mean plan out my day, and copy the chosen tasks to the to-do list pane before doing them.

Next, we have the context lists.  For the lists, it was a toss up between post-it sheets and Day-Timer short-trimmed sheets.  Since I already had the short-trimmed sheets, I went with them.  On each sheet, I wrote the context on top.  As a bonus, I can pull the sheets out of the binder and leave the binder behind -- useful when running errands. 

• @Home.  Stuff to do when at home.
• @Computer. Tasks I can accomplish with a computer (but not necessarily online).
• @Online. Tasks that can only be accomplished when on the internet.
• @Biz. Tasks related to running my business.
• @Waiting. Tasks that are blocked waiting for other commitments.
• @Someday. Things I want to do someday.
• @Errands. Tasks that can be accomplished while out and about.

I will try this for a week and see how well I do.

Labels: GTD, Time Management

Posted by Joe Turner at 3:44 AM | Permalink | Comments

Tonight, I spent several hours tonight attempting to synchronize my Palm Pilot Tungsten E2 with Entourage (Microsoft's Mac version of Outlook), in such a way that would allow me to preserve the categories so I could implement GTD.  Unfortunately, I wasted several hours in the attempt and never succeeded 100%.

First of all, much of the information on this on the web is no longer correct.  Microsoft no longer distributes a palm conduit that allows you to synchronize your Palm directly with Entourage.  Instead, you must synchronize  your palm with iSync.

So the process is pretty simple:

1. Install the palm desktop software and synchronize with your palm.  This will validate that your HotSync utility is working.
2. Next, run the iSync application and select "Enable Palm OS Synching"  The Apple iSync package contains a Palm conduit.  Got back the Palm HotSync and change the conduit settings to synch with iSync.  Synch and you should see your calendar and tasks populate iCal.  
3. Finally, set Entourage to synchronize with iCal, etc.,

You are now done, except for one major problem: all of the appointments and tasks on your Palm are dumped into a single category ("Home").  Likewise, if you execute iCal, you will see that it has a new Entourage category.  If you make a change in Entourage, it will show up in iCal under the Entourage calendar.  Changes made to any other categories will not get synchronized with Entourage or the Palm.

In my opinion, that is simply retarded.  Of course, Apple blames Microsoft for not having a conduit of their own for Entourage, completely oblivious to the fact that all Palm data gets funneled into a single calendar category in iCal.

While their may be a workaround that involves plunking $40 down to purchase a third-party condiut, I'm not investing any more time in trying to get this to work.  It's back to Palm Desktop until I can get Outlook running under VMware Fusion to synchronize with the Palm.

Labels: Mac OS X, Time Management

Posted by Joe Turner at 9:41 PM | Permalink | Comments

"If it takes one woman nine months to make a baby, all we need is nine women and we will have a baby in one month." -- anonymous project manager.

After being sick and unproductive for the last few weeks, I decided to refocus on getting a shrink wrapped product out the door.  What I needed was a list of tasks, or better yet a schedule to keep me motivated (and maybe I could see tasks I could farm out to other coders).

Of course, I reached for the biggest time management hammer I could find -- Microsoft Project.  I quickly downloaded the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) application development project plan template-- a project template that contains outlines Microsoft's heavyweight process in detail.  When I adjusted the start date to today, the entire project stretched out into the second week of May 2009. 

The pointy haired manager in my head shrieked, "No. No. No. That won't do. We must ship sooner."  I sighed and started editing to make the schedule more sane.  At that moment, I became acutely aware of how much more productive a solitary developer can be when isolated from corporate bureaucracies and six sigma philosophies.

• Project Kick-Off?  Deleted.  I don't need to define project rolls or form a team.  No donuts or bagels for the team.  (-6 days).
• The Envisioning Phase?  I know exactly what I am going to build and I don't need 44 days to define, review, and collaborate on a vision/scope document (-44 Days).

Now, that pulled the end date into to January. 

I'm feeling the kind of elation that comes from warping the laws of the universe and bending time to my will.  I pause and imagine the possibilities.  I briefly envision myself as a tyrannical project manager, except I hate meetings more than I love telling people what to do.   I press onwards.

• Planing.  36 days for "User Education?"  Nah, my users are the smartest in the world.  After a few deletes, planning is down to 2 days -- I need a functional spec after all (it is basically written so this is just padding). 

After cutting out the endless meetings and collaboration milestones, I ended up with a schedule that still didn't make sense.  Clearly there had to be a better way...

Now for the Hard Part...

Developers have advocated many different approaches to software guestimation.  Joel Spolsky originally recommended "Painless Software Schedules," (a simple schedule with lots of small tasks in Excel) but has since changed his recommendation to follow, "Evidence Based Scheduling."  Mix in development methodologies such as Agile and the picture gets murkier.

I chose to merge various scheduling/development methodologies into a set of rules I could afford to live with, based around a sliding two week window:

• Since I'm not good at estimating software tasks down to the minute, I've decided to schedule firm commitments four weeks out (this iteration, plus the next), where I will enter estimates down to the hour.   Past the four week window, I will simply schedule features and milestones. 
• Firm 2-week iteration schedule.  Every two weeks I have an internal release milestone.  Version 0.0.1 is scheduled for release this Sunday, March 30th.  Version 0.0.2 is scheduled fro April 13, 2008.  Each milestone has specific features associated with it.  According to my schedule, Release version 1.0 will ship the week of May 25, 2008.
• I've decided to use FogBugz to track my four week estimate window.  I'm basically pulling things off my Project generated Gantt chart and adding them to FogBugz.  I am curious to see how well I do against my timed estimates.

The only unknowns at this point are distribution and marketing, but those will be resolved in time.

Labels: mISV, Time Management

Posted by Joe Turner at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments

Last week I said good-bye to the confederated system of time management tools that I have cobbled together over the years.  The "system" was composed of post-it notes, scribbles in a spiral notebook, two day planners, a Google calendar, outlook on various computers, and data that I left back in a yahoo calendar years ago.    

So when I forgot about a major deadline two weeks ago (Doh!), I decided it was time to get serious about time management again.  My wife donated her Palm Tungsten E2 (no wireless) to the cause, while I started searching for something better.

I found "better" in the form of the iPAQ rx5915; the rx5915 is a Pocket PC with an integrated GPS receiver and 2 GB of flash memory aimed at squarely at frequent travelers.  It also has Bluetooth, wireless, and a cheesy World traveler application. 

Also, the price has reduced to almost half of what the introductory price was a year ago, so now it is price competitive with entry level touch screen stand alone GPS units (the Garmin nuvi 350 is running around $350; the rx5915 is around $385).   I think you can see where I am going with this...

Although I severely dislike the Microsoft Pocket outlook/calendar/task combo, I decided to take a risk.  I rationalized that worst case I could just use it as a GPS receiver.  I'm glad I did.

Integrated GPS Receiver

The GPS module in the rx5915 is a SiRFstar III.  I won't bore you with the gory details, but the SiRFstar III it is a high sensitivity GPS microcontroller that supports Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) and EGNOS; it can also track up to 20 satellite channels at a time. GPS receivers based on this chipset have routinely outperformed receivers based on other chipsets. 

The device comes preloaded with a base map covering the United States and most of Canada; the preloaded software and maps are TomTom Navigator 6. 

Locking in the satellite didn't take very long.  I plotted a route from Minnesota to Houston Texas in a few minutes.  It took a few more when I told it to avoid toll roads.  Around the neighborhood the device functioned flawlessly, although the voice prompts are somewhat muted due to the rear facing speaker and mounting bracket that covers it.

Also, pilots can purchase additional software (such as AnywhareMap), slap it on the device and presto, you have a VFR aviation GPS without any additional hardware.  In fact, AnywhereMap is offering a bundled package with a XM satellite, if your pockets are deep enough.  In addition, there are digital approach plates, and AFDs available from a number of publishers.  Considering the high price tag of an handheld aviation GPS, it makes the device a much easier purchase decision.

Media Player

HP is also positioning this device as a portable media device.  There is even a button on the side which is mapped to the media player.  Press it an the media player pops up.  I was able to rip several CDs (in mp3 format) onto an SD card.  I was able to play several hours worth of music without much impact on the battery. 

Docking and Charging

Thankfully, HP dropped the classic proprietary connector in favor  mini-USB port for both power and data.  Additionally, rather than the standard AC bricks and transformers, the AC and auto power adapters simply provide powered USB ports.  You plug your USB to mini-USB cable to charge your iPAQ.  You can take the cable with you and use it to transfer data or charge (albeit slowly) from your PC.

Hardware

Here are the high points:

• The processor is a 400Mhz Samsung CPU
• OS is Windows Mobile 5.1 (Pocket PC) with AKU 2.6
• Memory: 64MB RAM; 2 GB internal flash memory (which is mostly occupied by the TomTom GPS base maps).  About 300 MB is available to the user.
• A single SDIO slot provides for memory expansion up to 4GB.
• 80211b/g + Bluetooth 2.0+EDR support
• Audio: internal speaker and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
• Display: 3.5 Inch QVGA (320x240) TFT/LCD
• Input: 5 re-mappable buttons; touchscreen; 5-way directional pad

Pros:

• Built-in GPS with software and complete US map.
• Relatively long battery life.

Cons:

• Microsoft Mobile 5 has horrible productivity software, I will have to write my own calendar or purchase a third party version.
• The processor seems a little underpowered at times.  Sometimes there is a definite pause between screen taps and actions.
• The 5-way direction pad is marginal.  I had trouble hitting the center select without also triggering a random side button.
• The device has a few quarks.

Labels: Gadgets, Time Management, Windows Mobile

Posted by Joe Turner at 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments

 

Once you apply the patch, you must manually change your timezone to something else and click apply. After that, change it back to your correct time zone. This forces the Pocket PC to re-read the registry file.

Labels: Time Management, Windows Mobile

Posted by Joe Turner at 9:32 AM | Permalink | Comments

The easiest way to begin a paperless office is to implement a "scan forward" approach.  The idea is simple: purchase a scanner, and then pick a cut-off date, after which all new documents will be electronic.

The benefit to this approach is that you only scan existing paper records if they're used.  If documents don't get scanned after a year they can be archived or destroyed.

Choosing a Scanner

For obvious reasons, the scanner is the most important component to a paperless office setup.  Look for a scanner with the following options:

• ADF - Automatic Document Feeder/Automatic Sheet Feeding.  Using a flat bed scanner is tedious since you will have to manually swap out the paper. 
• Duplex - In addition, you want a scanner with duplex -- the ability to read both sides of documents.  Some software packages are smart enough to merge two one sided scans into a single pdf file, but it is way more convenient if your scanner does this automatically.

I can't tell you how nice it is to load up the scanner with a 25 page, double-sided document and walk away.

I could only find two scanners with these features in my budget: the HP N6010 ScanJet (poorly rated on Amazon) and the Fujitsu S500M.

I ended up purchasing the Fujitsu S500M ScanSnap.  It is a duplex, color scanner capable of 18 pages per minute.  So far it works wonderfully, even with credit card receipts. 

Choosing Shredder

I wouldn't waste too much time dickering about which kind of shredder is best.  The following features are pretty much a necessity for me:

• "Confetti" cut.  Smaller pieces are better.  
• The ability to shred credit cards and CDs, and eat staples.  If you can shred a credit card, a few sheets of paper won't bother it.

Also, unless you want to shred as you go, I suggest staged shredding.  I have a plastic file box that I dump papers to be shredded.  When it gets full or enough time goes by, I shred them at one sitting.

How to Begin

Next, start to define and create your own process for dealing with paper.  I would suggest something similar to what I do.

I now open my mail next to a 50 gallon trash can.  I try to throw away as much as possible.  Envelopes, catalogs, flyers, brochures and advertisements are immediately and automatically thrown away.  The application part of the credit card solicitations are separated to be shredded.  Roughly 90% of my mail now ends up immediately in the trash or shredded.

Next take the remaining paper and decide what to do, and then take action.  I view each piece of paper on my desk is something I haven't done yet.  When it is done, it is in the trash or shredded.

1. Scan an pay bills and invoices (I usually scribble the date and check # before scanning);   
2. Bank statements and credit card statements should be scanned and reconciled immediately.
3. For magazines, I will take some time to read them, or set them aside.  I started putting a purge date on the front with permanent marker.  If I don't read them within two weeks they are gone. 

Also, for reciepts:

• The IRS says you don't need receipts for purchases under $75.  B.S.  Scan them in and save them.  One day you may (possibly) thank me. 
• Every business purchase receipt is scanned in and organized after I purchase.
• Other receipts, grocery, gas, restaurant, credit card receipts are thrown away unless it is a major purchase or a reimbursable expense.

Labels: Business, Consulting, mISV, Startup, Time Management

Posted by Joe Turner at 7:39 PM | Permalink | Comments

"Inbox Zero" is a presentation given by Merlin Mann. In a nutshell, the presentation covers time management tips on how to trim back, delete, or act on your email until your inbox is completely empty. It is a philosophy that I now ruthlessly utilize.

Mangled by (and hand corrected) ScribeFire.

Labels: Time Management

Posted by Joe Turner at 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments