Sunday, May 23, 2004
THE 6 REALMS OF COMPUTER ORGANIZATION + 4
The following can be regarded as the most important elements of organizing data with a computer: - (1) The calendar. (2) The to-do list. (3) Contacts. (4) Email. (5) Internet Links. (6) PC and LAN file links. I call these the 6 Realms of Computer Organization.
To these can be added 4 more organizational realms that are not governed by the computer: - (7) The hardfile, or folder. (8) Personal work space. (9) Team work space. (10) Interior, or spiritual, space.
Anything that can be done purposefully is subject to being organized in one or a combination of these realms.
It is possible to get things done without recognizing the possible inter-relationship between these realms. But, it is more effective and efficient to find and deploy a unifying principle.
This requires a system. And, in today's world, why not a computer system?
The purpose of this Blog is to explore and explain why and how The MasterList employs the to-do list as a purpose-centric, project-centric basis for Centrifugal Thinking that provides a unified principle for bringing projects and purposeful action into focus, clearing up life and professional chaos and stress through application of a simplified paradigm, and ending reactivity and replacing it with an integrative approach that allows breathing space for planning and enjoyment.
The following can be regarded as the most important elements of organizing data with a computer: - (1) The calendar. (2) The to-do list. (3) Contacts. (4) Email. (5) Internet Links. (6) PC and LAN file links. I call these the 6 Realms of Computer Organization.
To these can be added 4 more organizational realms that are not governed by the computer: - (7) The hardfile, or folder. (8) Personal work space. (9) Team work space. (10) Interior, or spiritual, space.
Anything that can be done purposefully is subject to being organized in one or a combination of these realms.
It is possible to get things done without recognizing the possible inter-relationship between these realms. But, it is more effective and efficient to find and deploy a unifying principle.
This requires a system. And, in today's world, why not a computer system?
The purpose of this Blog is to explore and explain why and how The MasterList employs the to-do list as a purpose-centric, project-centric basis for Centrifugal Thinking that provides a unified principle for bringing projects and purposeful action into focus, clearing up life and professional chaos and stress through application of a simplified paradigm, and ending reactivity and replacing it with an integrative approach that allows breathing space for planning and enjoyment.
Sunday, May 16, 2004
THE GTD MOVEMENT
The acronym GTD (Getting Things Done) is really catching on. GTD used to mean “Going The Distance”. But all that has changed. The quantitative approach to GTD has become the qualitative approach to GTD. More and more GTD means GTN (Getting To Now) by applying mental tools (including software such as The MasterList and concepts such as those espoused by David Allen) to empty the mind and hone the focus of the to-do list by differentiating what is peripheral from what is priority.
GTD is nothing less than a new way of self-actualizing involving a methodology for structuring of to-dos. Maslow called this "efficient perception". Maslow's theory was that self-actualized persons had more efficient perception because they were problem-centered rather than ego-centered.
We can thank Maslow, Alan Lakein (the inventor of prioritization), and W. Edwards Deming (who innovated TQC - Total Quality Control) for the path-breaking work that set the stage for GTD.
But, it was the PC, the internet, and the dot.com revolution that sprang GTD center-stage. Because once we could know more faster, communicate more faster, and do more faster, we found that our technical innovations had created the problem of needing to know faster, needing to respond faster, and needing to implement faster.
New needs always generate new ways of doing things.
Enter GTD and David Allen. Also, The MasterList system.
GTD is ubiquitous. At the GTD – TQC interface, we can read Getting Things Done When You Are Not In Charge by Geoffrey Bellman. Followers of Anthony Robbins’ RPM (Rapid Planning Method) are writing seriously about the integration of GTD with RPM.
There is fascinating blog-writing going on about GTD too. K Wendelken who writes on logistics at his blog When You Come Right Down To It, Life Is All About Logistics has also noted the potential good blending of GTD with RPM. Flemming Funch who authors the blog Ming The Mechanic recently ran a great piece called NoteTaking in which the “Getting Things Done analogy” was discussed in terms of the development of “some kind of a pervasive system” “to be better organized.. by strategically placing notes to myself”.
Hey! That’s The MasterList system! Better organization through software that strategically places notations to yourself and others that pervasively, strategically, and logistically get you to GTD by providing problem-centered focus and more efficient perception of to-dos.
Stay posted. More on other great GTD links to follow.
The acronym GTD (Getting Things Done) is really catching on. GTD used to mean “Going The Distance”. But all that has changed. The quantitative approach to GTD has become the qualitative approach to GTD. More and more GTD means GTN (Getting To Now) by applying mental tools (including software such as The MasterList and concepts such as those espoused by David Allen) to empty the mind and hone the focus of the to-do list by differentiating what is peripheral from what is priority.
GTD is nothing less than a new way of self-actualizing involving a methodology for structuring of to-dos. Maslow called this "efficient perception". Maslow's theory was that self-actualized persons had more efficient perception because they were problem-centered rather than ego-centered.
We can thank Maslow, Alan Lakein (the inventor of prioritization), and W. Edwards Deming (who innovated TQC - Total Quality Control) for the path-breaking work that set the stage for GTD.
But, it was the PC, the internet, and the dot.com revolution that sprang GTD center-stage. Because once we could know more faster, communicate more faster, and do more faster, we found that our technical innovations had created the problem of needing to know faster, needing to respond faster, and needing to implement faster.
New needs always generate new ways of doing things.
Enter GTD and David Allen. Also, The MasterList system.
GTD is ubiquitous. At the GTD – TQC interface, we can read Getting Things Done When You Are Not In Charge by Geoffrey Bellman. Followers of Anthony Robbins’ RPM (Rapid Planning Method) are writing seriously about the integration of GTD with RPM.
There is fascinating blog-writing going on about GTD too. K Wendelken who writes on logistics at his blog When You Come Right Down To It, Life Is All About Logistics has also noted the potential good blending of GTD with RPM. Flemming Funch who authors the blog Ming The Mechanic recently ran a great piece called NoteTaking in which the “Getting Things Done analogy” was discussed in terms of the development of “some kind of a pervasive system” “to be better organized.. by strategically placing notes to myself”.
Hey! That’s The MasterList system! Better organization through software that strategically places notations to yourself and others that pervasively, strategically, and logistically get you to GTD by providing problem-centered focus and more efficient perception of to-dos.
Stay posted. More on other great GTD links to follow.
Saturday, May 15, 2004
WHY THE MASTERLIST IS PROJECT-CENTRIC
This question has come up in the GTD (Getting Things Done) community: Why is it difficult to track tasks without jumping from project to project?
The answer is simple. Life is filled with boundless complexity. There are lots of balls in the air, plans built on unknowns, and decisions to be made that defy single-focus tracking of unique tasks. If we follow all tasks single-mindedly, as if each did not exist in the context of a project, which was itself a mere solar system in the larger context of innumerable projects of the personal and professional universe of who each of us is, the effort to push that single task ahead single-mindedly would be defeated by the impinging pressure of complexity from all those other tasks and projects.
Organizing chaos requires an organizational structure that works. As it so happened, in creating The MasterList, the idea of clustering tasks as projects turns out to have been a good design decision, because it allows for fast and flexible jumps between projects while staying on track with what is most important in any moment on a priority basis.
Imagine all your tasks as a messy child's room that hasn't been picked up in several months. What you want to do is magically "woosh" the socks into the sock drawer, the pants into the pants drawer, the books onto the shelf (hopefully the RIGHT shelf, History on the History shelf, maybe), and the dirty laundry into the white basket or the dark basket. Then, once that is done you can ask yourself. What Now?
The MasterList provides a software structure within which to organize your tasks around a unifying concept. The project. Then, if you triage your tasks several times throughout the day with the My Day report, you can achieve a level of simplicity that allows you to make choices at a more leisurely, less frantic pace. Good decisions are easier to make and implement when the complexity landscape has been clarified.
This question has come up in the GTD (Getting Things Done) community: Why is it difficult to track tasks without jumping from project to project?
The answer is simple. Life is filled with boundless complexity. There are lots of balls in the air, plans built on unknowns, and decisions to be made that defy single-focus tracking of unique tasks. If we follow all tasks single-mindedly, as if each did not exist in the context of a project, which was itself a mere solar system in the larger context of innumerable projects of the personal and professional universe of who each of us is, the effort to push that single task ahead single-mindedly would be defeated by the impinging pressure of complexity from all those other tasks and projects.
Organizing chaos requires an organizational structure that works. As it so happened, in creating The MasterList, the idea of clustering tasks as projects turns out to have been a good design decision, because it allows for fast and flexible jumps between projects while staying on track with what is most important in any moment on a priority basis.
Imagine all your tasks as a messy child's room that hasn't been picked up in several months. What you want to do is magically "woosh" the socks into the sock drawer, the pants into the pants drawer, the books onto the shelf (hopefully the RIGHT shelf, History on the History shelf, maybe), and the dirty laundry into the white basket or the dark basket. Then, once that is done you can ask yourself. What Now?
The MasterList provides a software structure within which to organize your tasks around a unifying concept. The project. Then, if you triage your tasks several times throughout the day with the My Day report, you can achieve a level of simplicity that allows you to make choices at a more leisurely, less frantic pace. Good decisions are easier to make and implement when the complexity landscape has been clarified.
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
THE MAGIC OF TO-DOS
I went to a retreat recently at a cozy farm in the hills of Ohio close on the side of a small hidden valley carved by glacial melt and now fed by an ancient spring. Our host is a well-read man, Ted, a student of wholeness, and a very busy person. He spends his days reading, writing, consulting, working in his green house, tending his 60 acres to look in spots like the best of zen gardens, and championing his spot as a uniquely open spiritual center that brings many diverse groups of spiritual seekers together.
Whenever I visit this amazing place which we call The Hermitage, Ted lets me use his personal library which is in the retreat barn. It's the best. I read Steven Harrison for the first time recently and found myself asking What Good have I done. And, if I were to do Good, actively, what would it be?
Ted keeps notes, lots of notes; and because I needed to take notes on some of my reading, I went to his desk to borrow a blank note pad, where I saw a binder with plastic covering on every page under which, like photos in a photo album were Ted's to-do notes. I didn't read them, but I saw instantly what it was. I think one note said something like Put Shingles up on South Shed.
As a student of how to utilize notation to get things done, the idea of this Magic Binder captivated me. Ted obviously, moves his notes forward in time to future pages and then on any given day the current page displays only today's to-do list.
That's how a spiritual person invents a MasterList. Now, having invented a software version based on the same concept, I plan to offer Ted a free copy of The MasterList, next visit several weeks from now. It's not important whether he takes to it or not. This is not a sale. It's a gift. A thank you. I like the way Ted thinks, spiritually, and how he gets things done in the world.
He probably best exemplifies the saying "Once you realize that nothing matters, you can go about choosing what to do about what really matters."
I hope maybe The MasterList will help him. I know it can. It has helped many to go about lives as busy and spiritual as Ted's in just the way Ted and they have creatively envisioned for themselves. The MasterList is useful that way in providing a little boost on the software side to keeping your thoughts and notes together about what needs to get done or remembered.
So, The MasterList is some good that I am grateful to have had a chance to foster.
I went to a retreat recently at a cozy farm in the hills of Ohio close on the side of a small hidden valley carved by glacial melt and now fed by an ancient spring. Our host is a well-read man, Ted, a student of wholeness, and a very busy person. He spends his days reading, writing, consulting, working in his green house, tending his 60 acres to look in spots like the best of zen gardens, and championing his spot as a uniquely open spiritual center that brings many diverse groups of spiritual seekers together.
Whenever I visit this amazing place which we call The Hermitage, Ted lets me use his personal library which is in the retreat barn. It's the best. I read Steven Harrison for the first time recently and found myself asking What Good have I done. And, if I were to do Good, actively, what would it be?
Ted keeps notes, lots of notes; and because I needed to take notes on some of my reading, I went to his desk to borrow a blank note pad, where I saw a binder with plastic covering on every page under which, like photos in a photo album were Ted's to-do notes. I didn't read them, but I saw instantly what it was. I think one note said something like Put Shingles up on South Shed.
As a student of how to utilize notation to get things done, the idea of this Magic Binder captivated me. Ted obviously, moves his notes forward in time to future pages and then on any given day the current page displays only today's to-do list.
That's how a spiritual person invents a MasterList. Now, having invented a software version based on the same concept, I plan to offer Ted a free copy of The MasterList, next visit several weeks from now. It's not important whether he takes to it or not. This is not a sale. It's a gift. A thank you. I like the way Ted thinks, spiritually, and how he gets things done in the world.
He probably best exemplifies the saying "Once you realize that nothing matters, you can go about choosing what to do about what really matters."
I hope maybe The MasterList will help him. I know it can. It has helped many to go about lives as busy and spiritual as Ted's in just the way Ted and they have creatively envisioned for themselves. The MasterList is useful that way in providing a little boost on the software side to keeping your thoughts and notes together about what needs to get done or remembered.
So, The MasterList is some good that I am grateful to have had a chance to foster.
