TheScri.be

Yesterday I downloaded and read Scott H Young’s “eBook on holistic learning”:http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/04/21/holistic-learning-ebook/. He makes some very interesting points in it and along with his “post on the subject”:http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/03/29/studying-and-holistic-learning/ is well worth a read.

Scott maintains that while it’s entirely possible to learn through memorization, very rarely will a student have a full knowledge of the subject and truly understand it.

While reading through the book I realised that I did, at one time, learn holistically. While I was at school I had no problem learning with very little study. I was able to absorb information without trying, much to the annoyance of many of my peers. It seems that at some point between then and now I’ve lost that ability. What I want to know is why?

Read the rest of this entry »

Along with a whole bunch of other GTD guys, I use “kinkless GTD”:http://www.kinkless.com/ to keep track of all my next actions. Along with exeryone else I’m exceited about the release of “OmniFocus”:http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnifocus/, which will print to index cards. Until it’s release, however, I need the ability to print my NA’s to my hPDA as “Kinkless”:http://www.kinkless.com/ or OOP doesn’t provide this functionality.

A few weeks ago I started syncing kGTD with iCal and using iCal to work from. I now use kGTD to organize my NAs and iCal to tick them off. This saves having OmniOutliner open the whole time and stops the temptation to re-shuffle my projects every five minutes.

After a bit of research I whipped up a script that formats NA’s from iCal in Textedit and then saves it as an HTML file for printing. Safari will then print the nicely formatted list to 3×5 index cards, providing your printer supports it.

Download: “Print kGTD to Index Cards script”:http://thescri.be/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/kgtd-print.scpt

Make sure that you change the user_name to your login name and change show_help_at_start to false if you don’t want to be reminded about Safari’s printing options when you run the script.

In hindsight It woud have made sense to simply format the file as HTML and write it directly to a text file, I may still rewrite the script.

If you like the script or have any problems with it, leave a comment or linkt o me.

Leo Babauta of “Zen Habits”:http://zenhabits.net has written a wonderful post on ZTD. Zen To Done is his attempt to simplify David Allen’s GTD system - it addresses many of the pitfalls that new GTDers (including myself) often fall into.

“Zen To Done (ZTD): The Ultimate Simple Productivity System”:http://zenhabits.net/2007/04/zen-to-done-ztd-the-ultimate-simple-productivity-system/

Give it a look, it;s well worth the read if you’re having trouble with GTD.

As we’re all aware, I’m quite into productivity. I jumped on the bandwagon about a year ago when I was overrun with work and needed a way to deal with it all. Someone pointed me towards “Dave Seah’s”:http://davidseah.com PCEO and through that I discovered GTD and the massive online productivity community that surrounds it.

Lately I’ve been looking into the more spiritual side of so-called “self-help”, reading about increasing energy, meditating and practicing “Boabom”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boabom. I’ve also developed an interest in psychology.

It seems to a lot of my friends that I spend a disproportionate amount of my time reading about and practicing the various life hacks I come across, especially when they see that my desk is still covered in clutter and I still fall behind with my work. I think that some of them would be quick to label me as one of “Steve Pavlina’s Self Help Junkies”:http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/04/self-help-junkies/. I’m not so sure.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a good piece of advice from the National Health Service and unusually it isn’t about Health.

“NHS The Improvement Network - Five Whys”:http://www.tin.nhs.uk/tools – techniques/links-to-other-tt/hidden/five-whys

They recommend asking why five times in order to drill down to the core of a problem. I does leave me wondering what happens if you need to ask more than five whys to get to the root, but I suppose you have to draw a line somewhere.

I think this ties in well with “my last post”:http://thescri.be/2007/04/07/problems-solutions-worrying/ as far as the way in which you should break down problems is concerned.

Many people see a problem and then produce a solution to it, without giving a thought to the underlying cause of that problem. By asking why a few times the problem, and others like it, can be solved for good.

Over the last few months I’ve had a number of problems in my life, and at some points they seemed almost insurmountable. Here’s a brief description of the process I use whenever I’m faced with that “_Oh My God - Everything’s Getting Too much_” feeling. It’s reasonably quick and leads to a nice feeling of control.

*The Too-Much-Stuff Reduction Method*

*Step 1: Problem dump*
The first step is to get all of those problems out of your head. Scribble them on a piece of paper or record them, or paint them on your wall, it doesn’t matter how - *just write them down*. I record them on my phone as I’m driving and then translate that into a text file.

*Step 2: Problem Identification*
Once you have your big senseless and unorganized brain dump you ned to *organize the nonsense* into problem areas. From these you can identify sub-problems and master-problems and sister-problems and connect everything together. I use a big sheet of paper and a pencil to make a giant mind map. You’ll find that while you may start with your dump from _step 1_, you’ll quickly discover other things you’re worrying about.

You should try to break down each problem into as many sub problems as you can, thus “No Money” becomes “No Job” and “Spending too much on shiny gadgets”. “No Job” can be broken down further still, perhaps to “No Time”. You’ll discover a whole bunch of links between your various problems (”No Time” because I’m playing with my shiny gadgets) and these links can help to clarify what’s worrying you the most and how other things on your mind influence those worries. I usually end up with a _big web of connected worries_.

*Step 3: Problem solutions*
Once each big problem has been broken down into smaller ones, and the connections between them are apparent, you can start to look for solutions. I add these to my mind map in a different colour, branching them off the various problems they solve.

*Step 4: List solutions*
List all the Scribbled solutions from your mind-map.

*Step 5: Categorize solutions*
The next step is to look at your solutions and categorize them. Play with them and try to identify any changes in your lifestyle which would solve a number of problems. Look for non-specific solutions (”Buy less Stuff”) and specific ones (”Stop buying Tobacco”) & write down the changes you intend to make somewhere.

*Step 6: Identify Specific Actions*
From your categorized solutions create a list of small, actionable things which you can actually _do_ right now. For instance, while an overall solution might be “Send out CV’s to get some Work”, you cold “Find your old employment records” right now.

While this system looks a little over-complicated for what it is (that’s writing down your troubles and then writing how you can solve them), It allows your already chaotic mind to remain so, even when defining the solutions. Try it next time everything gets too much.

I spent some time today putting together a new business card. I found myself pondering quite what to put on them, as they’re more multi-use than your regular biz card because I don’t have a business/job to promote - at least not a specific one.

I seem to be asked for business cards by three groups of people: those who want my contact details relating to my work in the Air Training Corps, those interested in my web design and those who want to get in touch with me regarding my music. (I’m forever being asked what my myspace address is by the latter.)

In the end I decided to just stick with my name, email address, website and phone number so that the card could be as multi-purpose as possible - I suppose it’s more typical of the old fashioned “calling cards”, albeit with a little more information.

Along with my name, the circles at the bottom are meant to suggest an acoustic guitar, at least that’s the intention! I’ve also made the email address (and specifically the [at] symbol) quite prominent to suggest a technology connection. The blank space on the left allows me to write any details which aren’t on the card - my address or ATC Squadron number, for instance.

So, without further ado, here’s the initial design:

Let us know what you think.