Author: The Wise Owl (Page 7 of 10)

The back-to-paper movement

November 17, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Part one in this mini-series is Be productive using pen and paper.

I continued my reading and went to Why techies are leading the back-to-paper movement. This is an excellent article by Douglas Johnston of DIY Planner. Since I already am using pen and paper I am not really part of the back-to-paper movement but it is nice to know others are heading that way. I see no need to rewrite what is well written from the beginning so here are some quotes from that article:

Not only does using paper planners, storyboards, index cards, whiteboards and flip charts allow us to see and experience things from entirely new vantage points, they force us to re-examine the execution and importance of the task at hand. It’s the break from the worn-out tech-centred paradigm, with no restrictions to hinder you, not even battery life.

While we’re on the topic of focus, paper does help slow down the world, if only for a mere moment, and collect your thoughts.

Throw off your shackles, take up the torch, grab yourself a nice little organiser (you can make your own customised D*I*Y Planner, if you wish) and a Pilot G2 pen, and try an analog productivity system for a full week. Use it to manage your tasks, keep track of your appointments, take notes during meetings, brainstorm, and even doodle aimlessly in the pursuit of inspiration.

Bill Westerman writes about gsd (getting sh-t done) and has pictures at Flickr, Time-management software — offline version. I really like his solution with a task list and a time bar.

I also found Mike Rodhe who writes about Back to Paper: Should I Ditch My PDA? and Creating a Custom Moleskine Planner. Mike also has pictures at Flickr, Mike Rohde’s Custom Moleskine Planner, which makes it really easy to see how his solution works.

To those that prefer layouts to empty pages there is the D*I*Y Planner. I love the introduction:

We are a community of people who see the value of paper as a medium for planning, productivity, creative expression, and exploring ideas.

Moleskine and Miquelrius are mentioned frequently. Many seem to pick notebooks from one of these companies for their selfmade task managers and planners.

Be productive using pen and paper

November 16, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Even though I have worked with computers for 35+ years I still prefer to manage my own tasks using pen and paper. I have a paper calendar, not any high tech solution and when it comes to my to-do-lists I am writing lists – by hand. At work I use the calendar in Outlook for reminders, I wear no watch, but the paper calendar is my backbone since it covers all my bookings.

Today I came across a post at Success from the Nest titled How I Gained an Hour a Day by Ditching My Productivity Tools. I like this one, it goes in line with my own way of working. The post ends like this:

I never thought I’d be a productivity minimalist, but it works for me. Just by simplifying how I track my work I’ve saved on average an hour a day.

Through a link in the article above I arrived at “To Do” Gone Wild. This is a long but interesting post. I am not keen on the full solution but I intend to pick pieces from there. One simple but nifty trick is this one:

On the left hand side of each day’s entry pages, I have two lists, one beginning at the top and one working its way from the bottom up. The top list is for work tasks, the bottom is for personal.

I like that one, keeping work and private things apart in an easy way but still having all within the same view.

Being Alone – A Relationship With Self

July 18, 2007 / / 0 Comments

My DailyOM had this text today:

The most important relationship we have in our lives is with our selves. And even though we are the only ones who are present at every moment of our lives—from birth onward—this relationship can be the most difficult one to cultivate. This may be because society places such emphasis on the importance of being in a romantic partnership, even teaching us to set aside our own needs for the needs of another. Until we know ourselves, however, we cannot possibly choose the right relationship to support our mutual growth toward our highest potential. By allowing ourselves to be comfortable with being alone, we can become the people with whom we want to have a relationship.

Someone said this about living alone: I am not alone, I am with myself. Personally I need time alone as well as I need time being with other people.

Great truths about life

July 15, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Great truths about life that adults have learned

1. Raising teenagers is like nailing Jell-O to a tree.
2. Wrinkles don’t hurt.
3. Families are like fudge . . . mostly sweet, with a few nuts.
4. Today’s mighty oak is just yesterday’s nut that held its ground.
5. Laughing is good exercise. It’s like jogging on the inside.
6. Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fiber, not the toy.
7. Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
8. Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.
9. When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you’re down there.
10. You’re getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.
11. It’s frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.
12. Time may be a great healer, but it’s a lousy beautician.
13. Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.

Great truths about life that children have learned

1. No matter how hard you try, you can’t baptize cats.
2. When your Mom is mad at your Dad, don’t let her brush your hair.
3. If your sister hits you, don’t hit her back. They always catch the second person.
4. Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.
5. You can’t trust dogs to watch your food.
6. Don’t sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
7. Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.
8. You can’t hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
9. Don’t wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.
10. The best place to be when you’re sad is Grandpa’s lap.

Views on marriage

July 14, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then. (Katherine Hepburn)

Do not marry a person that you know that you can live with; only marry someone that you cannot live without.

If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married. (Katherine Hepburn)

Marriages are made in heaven. But so again, are thunder and lightning.

Instead of getting married again, I’m going to find a woman I don’t like and give her a house. (Lewis Grizzard)

Marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. Second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience. (Oscar Wilde)

Marriage is a great institution, but I’m not ready for an institution yet. (Mae West)

Smart enough for the 3rd grade?

July 14, 2007 / / 0 Comments

A first-grade teacher, Ms Brooks was having trouble with one of her students. The teacher asked, “Harry what is your problem?” Harry answered, “I’m too smart for the first-grade. My sister is in the third grade and I’m smarter than she is! I think I should be in the third grade too!”

Ms Brooks had had enough. She took Harry to the principal’s office. While Harry waited in the outer office, the teacher explained to the principal what the situation was. The principal told Ms Brooks he would give the boy a test and if he failed to answer any of his questions he was to go back to the first-grade and behave. She agreed. Harry was brought in and the conditions were explained to him and he agreed to take the test.

Principal: “What is 3 x 3?”
Harry: “9”.

Principal: “What is 6 x 6?”
Harry: “36”.

And so it went with every question the principal thought a third-grade should know. The principal looks at Ms Brooks and tells her, “I think Harry can go to the third-grade.”

Ms Brooks says to the principal, “Let me ask him some questions?” The principal and Harry both agree.

Ms Brooks asks, “What does a cow have four of that I have only two of?
Harry, after a moment: “Legs.”

Ms Brooks: “What is in your pants that you have but I do not have?”
The principal wondered, why does she ask such a question!
Harry replied: “Pockets.”

Ms Brooks: “What does a dog do that a man steps into?”
Harry: “Pants”

Ms Brooks: What’s starts with a C and ends with a T, is hairy, oval, delicious and contains thin whitish liquid?
Harry: Coconut

The principal’s eyes open really wide and before he could stop the answer, Harry was taking charge.

Ms Brooks: What goes in hard and pink then comes out soft and sticky?
Harry: Bubblegum

Ms Brooks: What does a man do standing up, a woman do sitting down and a dog do on three legs?”
The principal’s eyes open really wide and before he could stop the answer.
Harry: Shake hands

Ms Brooks: Now I will ask some “Who am I” sort of questions, okay?
Harry: Yep.

Ms Brooks: You stick your poles inside me. You tie me down to get me up. I get wet before you do.
Harry: Tent

Ms Brooks: A finger goes in me. You fiddle with me when you’re bored. The best man always has me first. The Principal was looking restless and bit tense.
Harry: Wedding Ring

Ms Brooks: I come in many sizes. When I’m not well, I drip. When you blow me, you feel good.
Harry: Nose

Ms Brooks: I have a stiff shaft. My tip penetrates. I come with a quiver.
Harry: Arrow

Ms Brooks: What word starts with an ‘F’ and ends in ‘K’ that means a lot of heat and excitement?
Harry: Firetruck

The principal breathed a sigh of relief and told the teacher, “Put Harry in the fifth-grade, I got the last ten questions wrong myself.”

The Responsibility Poem

July 14, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Condensed version

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody couldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have.

The Responsibility Poem

Charles Osgood has written “The Responsibility Poem” which is the full length version. I found it at Charles Osgood on Responsibility

There was a most important job that needed to be done,
And no reason not to do it, there was absolutely none.
But in vital matters such as this, the thing you have to ask
Is who exactly will it be who’ll carry out the task?

Anybody could have told you that Everybody knew
That this was something Somebody would surely have to do.
Nobody was unwilling; Anybody had the ability.
But Nobody believed that it was their responsibility.

It seemed to be a job that Anybody could have done,
If Anybody thought he was supposed to be the one.
But since Everybody recognized that Anybody could,
Everybody took for granted that Somebody would.

But Nobody told Anybody that we are aware of,
That he would be in charge of seeing it was taken care of.
And Nobody took it on himself to follow through,
And do what Everybody thought that Somebody would do.

When what Everybody needed so did not get done at all,
Everybody was complaining that Somebody dropped the ball.
Anybody then could see it was an awful crying shame,
And Everybody looked around for Somebody to blame.

Somebody should have done the job
And Everybody should have,
But in the end Nobody did
What Anybody could have.

Life, plans and opportunities

June 4, 2007 / / 0 Comments

John Lennon said ” Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” To me it does not mean to skip plans entirely, just that we need to enjoy life too.

“Opportunity favors the prepared mind” is the tag line for BlackRock, an investment company. It is also a great way of thinking, being prepared and having alternatives at hand makes life easier. The more we consider our options, the more open we are to see and grab opportunities when they turn up.

Writing lists – by hand

May 5, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Penelope Trunk from Brazen Careerist is guest blogger at JibberJobber and has posted about Writing Lists. She writes I am a list writer. I do it by hand. Every day.

I write lists by hand too, it makes me think more about what’s in the lists than when I just enter something into a computerized list. Penelope puts it this way:

You know those things that you keep on your list forever but never get to? You face reality much sooner if you rewrite by hand. The repetition of rewriting something that will never happen starts to get to you. You leave it off.

Writing lists by hand naturally helps me with one key issue, to decide what is important and what is not.

Butterflies First Live In Cocoons

April 6, 2007 / / 0 Comments

I found more interesting things to read at “Masterful Living Newsletter”. This post is about the importance of having periods of rest, to recharge and get ready for the next step in life. In “Butterflies First Live In Cocoons” Christen Murphy Resmo starts like this:

We all must have restful periods of incubation and calm. You’re meant to enjoy this time to relax and quietly grow, or simply catch your breath a while. Inactivity helps you gather energy so that you can take yourself to a whole new level in life. You’ll need these stores of energy so that, in the right time and place, you’ll be able to take off and fly high.

I agree that it is very important to take time outs, to rest a while and recharge.

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