Last in this to-do list series because I think I’ve nailed it so I’m out of things to say.

I had to make one small tweak to my perfect system by calendaring the rest of my commitments.

After 4 times around my 12-day cycle I’ve got them down to less than a dozen. Not including what’s already on the calendar because it’s time-specific.

I was very strict in creating the Commitment lists. The criteria is basically if I don’t do whatever-it-is the sky will fall in. Which puts almost everything into the Optional lists instead. What an illuminating moment that was.

But one thing that started to nag at me was not being able to see all my commitments in one place, just in case one commitment was more important than another one. Even though I know they’re all in ActionOutline and it can’t be more than 11 days before I get around to one -

What if the day I’m supposed to do a particular thing doesn’t work because:

• There’s a family emergency.
• I don’t get a good night’s sleep.
• Scheduled appointments get in the way.
• I don’t feel like it.
• etc., etc., etc.

And what if it happens twice in a row? Then I could be 35 days behind …

I went back and read some more about GTD and looked at Derek Franklin’s Action Map again looking for a clue. But neither one of them suits me exactly.

It assumes, at least the way I read it, that everyone’s swinging through the treetops all day. Do, do, do, do, do. It’s just not my life. I get my best work done taking a nap or staring out the window at the treetops.

If I move all the commitments to their own tab in ActionOutline they fall out of context with everything else. Commitment, Optional & Reference all clearly flagged together where I can see the whole picture one day at a time.

Also, a list like that makes me feel like there’s a whip on my back. You know, those things you have to do but you don’t want to and you don’t get any dessert until you eat your liver and onions.

After several days of thinking about it, experimenting around and rejecting things, I came up with a plan that hits all the bases for me. I put all the commitments on my calendar, all on the same day – today. Don’t gag yet; there’s a plan.

After going through the check list for PC TOOLS (today’s focus) and any regularly scheduled items like Sunday backups, what do I do next? If I’m still in the mood for doing anything, I look at my calendar first. No pressure; just a look.

I know this breaks my former rule about sticking with one area of focus per day but hey, I’m desperate.

If I don’t get the list finished today … and I won’t … I drag them all into tomorrow. And I keep dragging what’s left from day to day until they’re done.

This way I can see them all in one place every day without breaking the 12 categories in ActionOutline apart into actions today, actions soon, actions someday, waiting for and supporting materials (ala GTD and Derek Franklin). Too much hoopla. This whole system takes two pieces of software; ActionOutline divided into 12 tabs and a calendar. If there were more tabs or more software I’d be confused.

On the calendar, I don’t have to schedule these commitments precisely. I don’t have to prioritize them ahead of time. And I don’t have to decide my next day of actions the night before. Because my life almost never works like that.

If something is a have-to, it goes on the calendar because if I have to do it I have to do it, it’s just a matter of when. I’d rather leave that open-ended, just not TOO open-ended. Like burying them as I used to prefer.

OK, now the panic’s off. Hopefully I’ll delete them faster than I add new ones or this could get messy. I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re starting with a hundred. Side benefit: It may stop me from over-committing now that I can see them.

Original article: Calendaring Commitments

©2013 JLog. All Rights Reserved.

At the risk of sounding irreligious, I like ActionOutline better for collecting and printing email than EverNote 2.

I assume pretty much everyone uses Gmail. I’ve never been able to get over the mental hurdle of giving Google access to and control over my email and my contacts so I don’t use it. I have everything routed through Thunderbird on my desktop.

Rather than archiving email permanently in Thunderbird, I move it out and print it as PDF’s. I’ve done it this way for years. And not every single email but just the ones I want to keep. I used to use EverNote 2 for this but I’ve moved to ActionOutline and it works even better.

In ActionOutline, I make an EMAIL item and then a sub-item for each person (blurred here for privacy) that I’m in a conversation with.

I copy and paste the date straight from each email into ActionOutline. Or use the Date/Time stamp (F5) to get it started and then tweak the exact time.

(Then drag and drop the email next to it. This works perfectly for text emails and photos dragged over separately but not for HTML newsletters.

Tip: Most PDF printing will kill links unless they’re in http:// format so change the email view to Plain Text before moving them over.)

The Date/Time format can be defined by the Date/time format option.

If you don’t like the default formats, you can create your own.

When a conversation seems to be complete or, at least, complete for now I click the Print button and it takes me to a window of printing choices.

ActionOutline has a list of printing presets, otherwise you can create your own. I made one called Print Email.

Process current branch only will limit the email print-out to the one person I choose.

You can set up your print options easily by clicking on the Edit button (icon with the red check mark above).

I like to print my email without fanfare so what I get is just the date and time in bold at the top left and then the email content, one per page.

It makes for a very clean look. It doesn’t include company logos, headers and footers and other irrelevant crap all over the archives. (Yes, Gmail, you.)

Then I choose my default PDF print driver, PDF Creator.

For any conversations that continue later, PDF’s can be stitched together easily using a free PDF editor like PDFTKBuilder.

I have one PDF over 1100 pages long. And that’s email from someone who doesn’t write that often.

You can also choose the Export option instead of Print and have your output going to plain TXT, RTF or HTML instead.

These options, of course, apply to all other printing or exporting of ActionOutline content.

Original article: ActionOutline: Collecting & Printing Email

©2013 JLog. All Rights Reserved.

I’m midstream the 4th time around my 12-day cycle and it’s going well. In fact it’s going so well I wonder how I ever handled my computer life any other way.

At the beginning of the year, I made a tongue-in-cheek resolution to be more productive and reduce stress.  Only because I assume that’s everyone’s resolution. How to cram more and more into less and less time.

This method actually meets my needs. I’ve tried quite a few others and 40 days is a long time to last. I still think the 30-minute timer is a good idea. We need to wake ourselves up periodically and look around.

Last year I presented the idea of the desktop mind map. Similar concept; working around a circle. ActionOutline, that I use for organizing my lists now, has the advantage over mind mapping of being a word processor with lots of writing space.

When I split my lists into 12 categories I didn’t pull those categories out of thin air. I started a few years ago by doing a broad sort of everything on my computer and the categories naturally created themselves.

When I realized I was overwhelmed (more than ever) and spinning my wheels I split my days the same way:

• to create space
• to create focus
• to better control my computer time

I’m not suggesting this will work for teamwork. Some of the concepts may apply but not the application. There’s software specially built for teamwork; Asana, Basecamp, Wrike …

If you have a job, if you spend a lot of time traveling, your mileage will obviously vary. My life is very home-centric so this works for me.

If you’re a genealogist, maybe one of your categories would be the family history book you’re writing. If I was writing one, I’d give it a whole day on my wheel because I couldn’t get my mind in and out of it any faster than that.

Create Space

It’s fine to have to-do lists that go on forever. But, what happens to anything that’s trying to come in? You can’t lock yourself away with a to-do list for very long because Life will keep getting in the way.

If Life suddenly threw you a curve ball or a new opportunity, how well could you handle it? Or is your life already so full there’s no room for anything new?

When you’re closed in around your to-do list how do you know if Life is trying to offer you a better alignment? (Here wanders off into the philosophy of …)

Somehow your to-do list has to be open-ended. That seems paradoxical but I’ve found it’s possible.

First, you have to know that not every idea that crosses your mind will get done. I think computers delude us into thinking that all things are possible. Just because my hard-drive can run at 7200 rpm it doesn’t mean I can. When I looked at my 12 lists and what keeps getting added, I realized that I can reasonably work on one per day.

Leaving aside time for the obvious dailies (cooking, eating, sleeping, exercise, family …) my focus throughout each workday is only interrupted by what else has to be done. Email and phone calls that can’t wait, for instance. Appointments on my calendar. Otherwise anything incoming is filed to wait for its turn on the wheel.

Sometimes waiting a week to answer an email is a good idea. It might stop me from ripping off a reply to someone who’s irritating me and smacking them over the head.

If I finish my commitments early, good. It’s called Optional Time. Breathing space. Optional does not necessarily mean my optional computer list. Maybe I’ll take a nap instead. Most of us are sleep-deprived.

Create Focus

Obviously some things don’t need to be written down. Eating, sleeping …

Since everything else on my mind that I have to, want to, could do is written on a list, I spend zero time wondering what to do next. Working on one section per day instantly killed multitasking. Constantly checking email stopped. There’s no point. I clear my Inbox first thing in the morning and once in the evening. In between there’s nothing to look at. When did email become a variety of telephone that can ring at will?

Focusing on one area per day allows me to dig deep where I am instead of flitting from one thing to another in sniper mode. Sniper mode doesn’t just waste time, it kills focus.

When I lapse into nervous clicking around I know I’ve lost focus for some reason. It’s better I get up and walk around, wash a few dishes, do some laundry …

Commitments

Somewhere, I heard David Allen say that most people don’t know what their commitments are.

Something along the lines of: If you don’t know what you’re already committed to you have no perspective. And if you have no perspective, you’re living in chaos.

It took about two weeks for that concept to sink in because I’ve never thought of myself as a disorganized person. I’m not trying to follow GTD but it seems I may have stumbled backwards through the fog into at least a small part of it.

That’s really step #1 as I see it. Write everything down and then check off your commitments.

Being able to clearly see the difference between commitments and optional to-do’s gave me instant perspective.

Commitments are your have-to’s, your promises to other people and the things that you’ve fallen into that have to be maintained. No-one else can tell you what those are but if you think about it you’ll know you have them. If you don’t like your commitments or you’ve got too many, start cutting them back.

It doesn’t mean breaking promises. I hate when people do that. It means responsibly and respectfully un-committing. I’ve stopped email from people who are interesting but talk way too much relative to the amount of time I have for listening to them. Do what you have to do.

Once you know what your commitments are you have a reality check with Time.

You don’t have to put them all on a calendar but you do have to have a general sense of how much time they’re going to take and where you’re going to find that time. In other words, if your commitments are adding up to 150 years of 15 hour days, I’d say you’re overbooked.

I don’t prioritize my lists by number. Life changes too fast and I’d end up spending more time renumbering my lists than actually doing anything. All I need to know is where I’m committed and where I’m not (yet).

Control Computer Time

Some days are more demanding than others. Some days there are too many items flagged “commitment” to do in one day.

I simply work on the most important, acknowledge the reality of time and leave the rest for the next time around. When I go to bed I have a feeling of satisfaction about my day’s accomplishments. I don’t look back and I don’t look forward. Tomorrow’s another day and another tab in the cycle and I’ll get there in the morning.

Within another month or so half of them may not have any commitment flags other than the cyclical check list. They won’t even have optional items.

So, do I tighten up my cycle into 6 days? Probably not. I may fill that space with things that don’t involve a computer. Clear space is welcome.

The only guideline I’ve made for myself is that I don’t shift between tabs in the same day except for quickly adding things that come up. Because, if I do, I’ll be right back where I was running around in dizzying circles all day.

Some things obviously have the potential to go on forever in a 24/7 kind of way; the ancestors, my website and other Internet interests.

My simple daily plan is to start with the day’s check list. I put it in red font and then turn each item back to black as it gets done. The less I have to think or remember the better, even for something as simple as this. Then I move onto other green-flagged items or yellow-flagged (optional) if it’s still early in the day and I feel like it.

Taking into consideration my health and my energy level, I work as hard as I can on the day’s focus area and then I quit.

Over a 12-day cycle I hit the high points and file the rest. This way I know I’m getting the most important things done.

Original article: The 12-Day Cycle

©2013 JLog. All Rights Reserved.

When I started writing README files several years ago, it was to explain the contents of my computer to my power of attorney and executor.

As I went along I found them to be a good impulse to re-organize my computer for myself. Because if I couldn’t explain my computer files to myself how could it make sense to anyone else?

Financial records, legal files, health notes and contact information are the places, in particular, where ‘real’ life and computer life bleed together. Since I don’t favor the option of printing it all back to paper, what’s on my computer is as much a part of my home and my life as anything else.

Who, besides you, knows what’s on your computer and why? As anyone who’s been married for 40+ years can tell you, no-one knows everything about you; not even your spouse.

So I started by writing to a real person but this works just as well if you pretend. Because in the end, barring a meteor strike, someone is going to be there. And something is going to happen to your computer files.

My README files follow the same 12-folder division as everything else on my computer; main folders, bookmarks, passwords, (KeePass) calendar, address books, email, blog subscriptions, 0.Inbox & ActionOutline.

Some of the 12 sections have more than one README. FINANCES, for instance, has four because it’s complicated. PERSONAL has five. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you write it down and make it accessible to the right person.

As I go around my 12-day cycle of computer work, I make a review of the README’s in each section. Things change fast.

Writing them initially is hard work because you have to think. A lot. But if you start with something, the rest will follow in time. Updating them is easier.

Original article: README Files

©2013 JLog. All Rights Reserved.

At the top of each of my 12 outlines in ActionOutline is a check list.

The check lists are comprised of things that I need to look at regularly. One outline, one check list per day. If I did them all at once I’d be right back where I was and my head would explode.

Since most recurring things are already on my calendar, these are just a few odd reminders left over:

• 0.Inbox
• Email
• Google Reader
• README
• Review

0.Inbox

This means the specific category folder inside 0.Inbox that sits at the top of My Documents where I toss downloads and screenshots and things like that as I’m going along.

Email

You might wonder how anyone could forget to check their email. But it’s not so much about remembering it; it’s about recognizing it as a commitment. Except for the junk mail, it’s something I’ve agreed to. So, either be there or end the relationship.

It’s going much better since I split it into categories.

I can handle one box per day. I do it and it’s done. I don’t have to keep going back every two minutes to see what else might be there. This saves a lot of time and a lot of distraction. As it used to be, probably an hour a day being indecisive; looking at it and then deciding to not look at it. I used to have email dated months ago. Even as far back as 3 years.

Google Reader

You guessed it. My RSS subscriptions are also split into 12 categories. So I scan through my category of the day and see what the rest of the world is doing.

This is redundant because I keep a few sites, including this one, bookmarked with the login set to remember me. It saves me the time of going back and forth logging in. That must have been at least an hour a day wasted.

README

These are simple documents covering every aspect of my life and my computer. Health issues, financial, legal, what’s on my computer, what I’d like done with it. In case I get hit by a bus tomorrow.

Out of the 325GB of personal files on my computer, 200GB of it is family history.

I started writing these several years ago so now I just scan through and update them. One category per day. It’s amazing how much can change in a couple of weeks. There are 24 of them and I used to try to update all of them once a month. It was too much.

Other Reminders

Under my 3 blogs there’s also a note about updates and backups telling me exactly what I need to do.

Under the PC TOOLS category is also a note about updating software.

So, they’re not all exactly the same but that’s the general idea.

Review

Review means to scan down the whole outline and remind myself of what’s there and notice anything that’s changed. If I have free time I might pick something optional and change the flag to green. Of course, it’s my list so I can also change my mind and turn the flag back to yellow. It depends how things are going.

Life can change on a dime so it’s imperative to have a system that’s focused and open-ended at the same time.

I suspected I had a problem when I heard myself telling a friend, “If I stay focused I might be able to get through my Inbox by the end of 2013. And it wasn’t even 2013 yet. I’d killed off all my dinging-around time and where’s the fun in that?

This turned everything around.

Commitment

If you know what your commitments are you’ll know if you have time, money or energy for any more.

Optional

My optional lists go on forever. None of us are getting out of here without a to-do list.

Reference

Keeping reference items in the same outline as the to-do’s means I don’t have to go very far to find them. They might be URLs, custom code used on my website or how-to instructions. It runs the gamut.

Original article: The Check List

©2013 JLog. All Rights Reserved.

So, where was I? Right.The red flag list. Preamble at Reasonable Expectations and So, What’s Important?

It’s been about six months since I hit my limit with trying to cram too many things into not enough time. Time being the insurmountable factor.

So I started cleaning up my computer late last summer, hoping to stir up my thinking in the process. Since my computer has long since become another home within my home, I can’t just turn it off and forget that half my life lives in this box. And I can’t go another ten years without taking out the trash either.

I was bemused to realize that everything critical are things that would be on a list even if I had no computer. In this case, my computer is only functioning as an excessively upscale typewriter and storage facility for what would otherwise exist on paper, as it used to do.

I see two ways of looking at this irony:

1. Wow! Look at all the things I can do with a computer.
2. Wow! Look at how much simpler my life would be if I didn’t have a computer.

The Red Flag List

This is all the stuff I am supposed to get done in my life because, if I don’t, big trouble is coming. These are things I don’t necessarily want to do when faced with more enticing possibilities but I really have to.

Everyone’s got one of those lists. You can bury it for awhile but you can’t forget it. Bringing mine to light put the rest of my list in perspective. Suddenly things that were making me sweat are way down on the optional list.

To-do lists can be like junk food. If you eat white bread and white sugar all the time, you’re up in the middle of the night eating more of it because your body’s still trying to find some real nutrition.

If you’re just knocking things off a to-do list all day for something to do, at the end of the day you feel like you haven’t really gotten anything done. And tomorrow there’s still a whole ocean of the same waiting for you.

If, on the other hand, you could see the entire contents of the-rest-of-your-life-according-to-you on one long list and pick the most important each day, at bedtime you’d think, Wow, I really accomplished something today.

Just writing the list can be an illuminating experience. And to answer the anticipated question: No, I’m not a devotee of GTD. I haven’t even read the book. This is just me muddling along.

Perspective

I write everything down. If some brilliant, or even idiot, idea pops into my mind I write it down. I wouldn’t ever want to limit the number of ideas my mind is allowed to generate. That part’s not even negotiable.

But then I put red flags on my have-to’s because, you know, I have to. My red flag list was surprisingly short the first time around. And the incoming items are filed where they belong or dealt with in the present.

Real life always comes first; my people and my appointments. Then comes the red flag list. And then, if there’s any time left, my pick of the rest of the brilliant or idiot ideas.

Not to confuse you but I changed the red flags to green because red was sending the wrong message to my brain. I reverted all text to default black and un-nested the Inboxes. Too much nesting confuses me. So do too many ‘go’ flags. But the idea is still the same.

• Green=Committed, so Go
• Yellow=Optional
• Blue=Reference

Context

If it’s in my house, the list is on my computer.

If it’s happening out of my house it’s on paper. A notebook is too complicated for me because of the multiple pages so it’s just a single piece of paper that I scribble on.

If I’m going out of town there’s another section of notes to cover that so I don’t have to reinvent the wheel when I’m packing. My mind’s gotten lazy that way.

ActionOutline

I can’t open all the tab contents at the same time so this is just one of the 12.

And there are the flags. The bright green catches my attention right away and gets me in the mood.

This is where my day begins. This and my calendar because I take my calendar seriously. The calendar items each include a short list of things I need to check up on or update regularly. Once again, it’s easier than trying to remember what I’m supposed to be remembering.

Having now split my life into one focal area per day, my mind rests easier. It’s my comfort zone of no time. The great expanse of an entire day; eternity by today’s standards.

The first time around the wheel I found it really hard to stop my mind from racing off in other directions. By the second time that had reversed itself and it was hard to multitask. My mind can now comfortably fixate on its job for the day.

Brilliant & Idiot Ideas

So, say I hit a day when there are no green flags and I’m through my calendar and check list and it’s only Noon. Now what?

Well, whatever strikes my fancy. In most categories there’s an optional to-do list. Some of them are very long.

If there is no list, I resist the urge to move onto the next category because:

• If I dig deep where I am it’s likely that other things will come to light.
• I can enjoy more time to take care of things that show up out of the blue.
• There’s the whole rest of the Universe not in my office.

The only exception I make to this is writing. I write when I feel like it.

0.Inbox

If you’re wondering why I call it this it’s because alphabetically 0. forces it to sit at the top of My Documents. An underscore would work just as well.

My 0.Inbox is also split into 12 categories so anything incoming gets dropped into its own folder for later. It keeps me from being sidetracked away from my focus of the day.

I make the same split for my email and that’s a huge relief. Even if I woke up bouncing into my sneakers to greet the day, the Inbox was like a boulder dropped on my head and I needed to go back to bed for a rest. No more.

If you thrive on multitasking you might hate this. But if you want to slow down and focus this might be it. It’s working for me.

Original article: The Red Flag List

©2013 JLog. All Rights Reserved.

On the path to a computer life of reasonable expectations, there will be distractions.

I could make a diary out of successes and failures at handling them but it would be quite long so I’ll cut straight to the tips because I know everyone’s in a hurry.

The last 200 people to my website have stayed an average of 56 seconds. A website that’s taken me over six years to create is being consumed at the rate of 56 seconds per visitor.

Since there are over half a billion websites online constituting trillions of pages with less than 7 billion people on the planet to look at them all, I’ll consider myself flattered. Although I know, in truth, it’s a just a crap shoot. At least, that’s how I find my way around.

Your mileage may vary depending on your age and state of health but, for me, the idea is not to get up in the morning and go at 0.ANCESTORS, for example, with a vengeance til I drop into bed again at midnight. It’s more of a casual thought; flavor of the day, if you will.

When I’m not at my computer but going around doing my regular human-being things on auto-pilot, I’m also lightly focused on ANCESTORS. Anything on my mind that I should add to my list?

Taking a gander through the folders, anything jumping out at me? Looking at 0.ANCESTORS I first deal with the red-flag items if there are any. If I don’t get through those, my mind will never rest. I take long breaks. I’ve got the whole day.

As I’m drifting off to sleep that night I’m kissing the ANCESTORS good-bye for 12 days (and I grieve) and reminding myself that tomorrow’s Inbox is FINANCES. When I wake up in the morning, my subconscious has had all night to prepare me.

Focusing on one main area per day keeps my mind from fixating on one thing for too long when, practically-speaking, I shouldn’t be. It’s also giving me enough time to get some things done and enough time to enjoy doing them.

Whether this would suit you depends on your comfort level with multitasking. If I’m, in rapid-fire succession, balancing a bank statement and then surfing through 30 emails and then entering a death certificate into my genealogy database and then editing a video, to me that’s multitasking. Even though it’s not happening at exactly the same time it’s still too close.

Interruptions

Yesterday, for instance, I had 3 scheduled phone calls, one interruption phone call and one scheduled knock on the door, none of which had anything to do with the day’s Inbox.

The options for phone calls are:

• It’s an answer I needed to hear. I’ve now heard it, thank-you.
• It requires a time commitment. I put it on my calendar.
• It’s information I need to file for reference. I put it under the appropriate tab in ActionOutline.
• It’s information I still need to do something with. I put it under the appropriate Inbox in ActionOutline with or without a red flag.

Either way, it’s dispatched quickly and I return to the day’s focus.

This is a guide, not a prison sentence.

Maybe it’s a personal call from someone I haven’t talked to in eons and that becomes a priority. Maybe Brad Pitt calls and wants me to co-star in his next movie. I get to decide.

If I Don’t Feel Like It

This is where a timer comes in handy. If I can make it through the first 30 minutes, I’ve got momentum on my side. Hopefully.

For example, I hadn’t looked lately (for a year or two) through the box where I toss mail from my bank. I think I should get at least 5 points out of 10 for tossing it in the same box every time. It could be worse.

I shouldn’t have been surprised but I was surprised to find paper to scan, paper to shred and contact information to add to my address book. It was incredibly tedious, I never really got any momentum behind me and it took 3 hours spread across the entire day. Some days it’s just better to not get up.

Folder Structure

Besides my C-drive and ActionOutline, the 12 folder division that I use also exists in:

• address books
• bookmarks
• calendar
• Local Folders email (not JGEN)
• Google Reader subscriptions
• KeePass (logins & serial numbers)
• README’s

These are also areas that I can look at to see if anything needs updating or triggers ideas for anything I need to add to today’s Inbox.

Consider the benefit. One Inbox per day means I’m looking at 8.3% of my computer content per day instead of 100% of it every day.

Email

When I check my email, I immediately answer anything critical. Everything else is dragged and dropped into the appropriate sub-folder to be looked at the next time that focus area comes around on the wheel. Again, I’m only dealing with a fragment of the total per day. Some categories don’t get mail!

Twelve days’ collection of email is frightful to consider. On the other hand, I can delete a batch of it just as easily a week from now as I can today. I just don’t want to take the time to look at it today if it’s not today’s area of focus.

Surfing the Web

I start and end my day with reading; Google Reader, G+, email, etc. In the middle of my day, if I come across an article I want to study, rather than scan quickly, I bookmark it under the appropriate folder rather than allow it to entice me from page to page to page all day. What makes it suddenly more important than the hundreds of other things already on my list? It probably isn’t and it can wait. The next time I get around to that area of focus it will be part of my reading list for the day.

My focus is always on what I’m choosing to do today, not the endless lists for later. The cream will inevitably rise to the top.

Original article: Tips For Handling Distraction

©2013 JLog. All Rights Reserved.

I have no delusions about getting to the bottom of my 12 Inboxes. Some of them I will, others I won’t. What’s happening here is a spiral, starting from the top. In other words, it’s a downward spiral. But only in a good way.

Over 12 days I pick the most important thing from each of 12 categories instead of choosing from one long list I found near impossible considering the size of it. And then over the next 12 days I pick the 12 most important things again. And I continue around and around until it’s time for me to die and go to Heaven.

So, how do I choose what’s most important?

First of all, I put everything on a list. I scour through my computer folders regularly looking for those things. I scour the rooms of my house and I scour my mind. As new things and ideas arrive they get added to the impossibly long list.

And then I look at my Inbox for the day and make a choice.

• It could be as simple as the thing that’s been on the list bugging me the longest.
• It could be the thing that jumps out at me from the list for some unknown reason.
• It could be something that suddenly pops into my mind out of nowhere.
• Sometimes it arrives by way of a phone call, a knock on the door or a dream.

I don’t prioritize lists by number because that would assume that I’m living in a vacuum and, of course, I’m not.

What I think is the most important thing one day will almost never be what I would think is the most important thing on another day. The changing complexity of our environment re-colors our sense of ‘what’s next’ continually.

I take note of what energizes me. I take note of what I’m dragging myself through. Do I have to do it at all? If I do, is there a way to make it simpler or more enjoyable? Can I make it shorter? Can I make it easier? Can I change my attitude?

I use ActionOutline for most of my thinking out loud because I love the way it’s designed. Outline on the left; word processor on the right.

This is not rocket science so don’t over-think it.

I went through all my Inboxes and put a red flag on anything that I have to do. I don’t mean what I want to do, prefer to do or am addicted to doing. I mean what I have to do; file-your-taxes-or-the-sky-will-fall-in have to.

If it doesn’t have a red flag on it, it’s optional. Yep, every single other thing.

And optional is optional.

Original article: So, What’s Important?

©2013 JLog. All Rights Reserved.

Maybe it’s just me, but …

Since I know a lot of us are post-60 or post-70 or 80 this is an idea for the organization of reasonable expectations for the geriatric crowd, of which I am one.

Every once in awhile someone pops up somewhere wondering how everyone else is managing to keep on track with their research, write a blog, write books, hang out on social networks, answer their email, learn new hardware and software, read other blogs and comment on them while also having regular time with their family and trips around the country for conferences and so on.

Well, no-one’s doing it all and if they talk like they are, they’re lying. We all have the same 24 hours a day. And granted, I’m moving slower than I was 40 years ago but not that much slower. I still remember being 20-something like it was yesterday.

Unnatural Expectations

What we tend to forget is that computer technology is totally unnatural. The constant assault on our senses of text, video, music and photos is unnatural. Staring at text hours a day is unnatural. Sitting for hours a day is unnatural. Collecting and organizing massive amounts of information is unnatural. Listening to (reading) what hundreds of other people think every day is unnatural.

But we’re supposed to just get on board.

Typically

I start my computer day by checking email for anything important and cruising through G+ to see what’s happening. In a small sense. My god, that’s a noisy place. And I look at my calendar in case I’ve forgotten what it says since yesterday. Which I haven’t, of course, but it’s a nervous habit.

I’m old-fashioned and I still believe in the principle of keeping my promises. So, if I commit to something, I put it on my calendar and there’s a 100% chance of it getting done. Of course, one can overwhelm a calendar which I try to avoid.

So, the rest of it?

In pursuit of reasonable expectations, I’ve found myself once again looking at ways to re-arrange my to-do list to keep me sane.

My list in ActionOutline, as previously defined, was 136 pages the last time I printed it out as an RTF. That’s daunting no matter which way I print it or count it. It does not include the 45GB of files in my 0.Inbox or the 50,000 to-do’s in Legacy, (which Cuz is chipping away at because she lives in a place with sunlight and, therefore, energy) or the contents of my email Inbox.

It’s gotten to be such a blur nothing seems any more important than anything else these days.

One of my reactions to being overwhelmed is to give up altogether. Hit the Delete button and go to sleep.

I went for the latter. And while I was resting I defined the obvious problem:

• to-do list is too long
• energy is too low
• time is too short

So, what to do other than outright give up?

Sometimes we just can’t resist the notion that there might be better software for the job. Most of the time that’s not true but hope springs eternal. The hope that someone has designed something that works the same way I think except better with motivation and a younger body built in. So I looked at a few things, including Simpleology and Nozbe, both of which I dislike but may work for the mobile-gadgeteers amongst us.

And I considered putting everything on my calendar before coming to rest back where I started.

I put a 0.Inbox under each of my 12 tabs in ActionOutline; the tabs representing the main divisions of my computer files:

• ANCESTORS
• FINANCES
• HEALTH
• IBIZ
• JGEN
• JLOG
• WEBSTREAM
• MY MUSIC
• MY PICTURES
• MY VIDEOS
• PC TOOLS
• PERSONAL

Either you got on board with something like this a long time ago or you’re tired of hearing about it. I’ve been talking about these categories for the past 2 or 3 years but it’s one thing I’ve never wanted to change. They work really well. For me. Your categories and mileage will vary.

Then I took my giant to-do list and divided it up into the 12 Inboxes. This sort of thing:

Everything in the Inboxes is red to distinguish it from everything else under the same tabs that are Reference items.

Being Reasonable

Here’s the plan based on reasonable expectations taking into consideration that it’s January (no sun) and no matter what time of year it is my spine does not like sitting for hours on end.

Every day I pick one tab with its one Inbox. Some have hundreds of items but that’s OK. I set a timer for a minimum of 30 minutes (just to get the lead out) and pick something to work on; whatever jumps out as the most important or interesting thing for that day. Maybe I work for 30 minutes and need another nap or maybe I get fired up and carry on for hours.

It doesn’t mean I can’t work on other things but I commit to one of the 12 tabs and one Inbox per day. If I feel like it at all. Which means, if you’re following this, I only get around to ANCESTORS every 12 days at most. Impossible you say? That’s only one month out of the whole year! BUT, focus is way better than being scattered and I’m amazed how much more I enjoy what I’m doing when I’m not thinking about a gazillion other things at the same time.

Maybe your categories are nothing but different genealogy projects so you get the whole year?

If I have to go into town maybe I get nothing done that day but that’s also OK. I’ll get onto the next tab and the next Inbox tomorrow.

Technology will go racing on. Unless it pays your rent, you’re not obliged to keep up. IMO. Or maybe it’s all too far gone now and we are obliged but I intend to keep up slower.

Original article: Reasonable Expectations

©2013 JLog. All Rights Reserved.

This details how to add keywords using GeoSetter but applies to all other types of IPTC tags.

Thumbnail Browser

Open GeoSetter and browse to your folder of images.

Select Image

Highlight the desired image by a single-click. For multiple images, select by holding down the Ctrl key.

Images Menu

Under Images, click on Edit Data or Ctrl+E. Or you can use the Edit button in the toolbar.

Edit Data

Click on the Categories/Keywords tab.

Add Keyword(s)

Under Keywords, type your keyword and click Enter. Repeat for each keyword. And then click OK at the bottom of this window.

Add Keywords to Multiple Images

When selecting and adding keywords to multiple images, you have to take the extra step of clicking on Set Current Values For All Selected Images at the bottom of the Categories/Keywords window.

Set Current Values For All Selected Images

Select Keywords.

Selected Photos

Note that all selected photos on the left will now be in bold.

Changed Thumbnail

In the Thumbnail browser, your changed photo(s) will now be highlighted in purple.

Save Image(s)

Click on the Images menu and click Save Changes or Save Changes of Selected Images. Or use the hotkey combination.

Keyword List

As you add keywords, they are automatically saved to a drop-down list for future use.

Edit Most Recently Used Items

If you click the three dots next to the arrow, you can type in a list of keywords or paste them in from another source. Of course, you can also save them from this location.

Expand this process for all other types of tags such as copyright, source, contacts, captions, etc.

Related Post:

Tag Images

Original article: How To Add Keywords (GeoSetter)

©2013 JLog. All Rights Reserved.