Back to basics

I've been really struggling with a way to drag my work into my system. So, of course, I keep trying to change the system to fit the work. At times, I seem headed for a basically Vanilla system. Other times, I dive back into Note Studio or something else. Even took a look at the new Mac OSX desktop for Shadow this week. Was tempted.

The thing is, it's not the software. It's that I'm not entering things into my system. I thought of a half dozen things I hadn't bothered to enter into anything. There are a couple of new projects lurking out there. I was focused on entering a bunch of stuff into my Palm that I really don't need there. It's reference stuff I can look up at the computer. I thought somehow it would help with organizing the next catalog. I had an unbelievable mess in my memos, caused by exporting everything in Note Studio to memos before deleting it off my Palm. I'd done it twice and I had some of the same stuff that was exported into docs. Again, most was unimportant stuff. It's not really that I want to play around with software. I just want to find a structure that will help me to enter this stuff, so I can find it again. And I always think that the structure will help me to actually use my system. It also dawned on me that I hadn't bothered to tape the Graffiti area, something I've always done to cut down on scratching. I think I haven't been entering as much stuff directly into my Palm because I knew I was just scratching it up.

I'm still working on cleaning up the memo mess and am thinking of a way to flag them better. I noticed that I'm getting a bunch of stuff I don't want in Memoleaf searches. So I need to make sure that things are flagged to facilitate searches. And it's time to go back to basics, starting with a real true clean out your inbox review. I don't have time to waste on this software dance any more.

Useful book

I've been reading "Finding Your Own North Star" by Martha Beck and I find that parts are very GTD-like. When you reach what she calls the third quadrant, the part where you are doing the hard work of trying to achieve the life you were meant to lead, she talks about breaking things down into "turtle steps". You break it down to the point where your body no longer rebels at doing something. If you can't make yourself write for an hour or a half hour, maybe you'll be okay with fifteen minutes. She says that even small steps will add up if you keep at it and you will make more progress than not doing anything at all. That's why she calls them turtle steps. I think that what happens most of the time is that we don't really have next actions. We've left things in too big of a chunk to really do.

My problem is doing real weekly reviews. They're great, when I really sit down and think through things. They just don't come often enough. I am trying to get things set up to use the computer more for data entry, something that I haven't done a lot of in the time I've had a Palm. I am starting to drift away from Note Studio (yet again) and have been trying the Day Notez desktop. It's nice and seems useful. I like the ability to have a followup flag. I'm holding off on registering it, until I decide if I will really use it or not. I've moved from Pedit to WordSmith (which I already owned), so that I can sync at the desktop. And I've moved all my stuff back into memos, with an occasional todo. I am trying to really flatten this down to basics, to see if I can get back into the habits that make it all work. Wish me luck!

GTD Ping Pong

I'm back in that state where I have the urge to switch applications on a weekly basis. This means that I'm not putting anything into my system, which is definitely the case. I am trying to go plain vanilla till the urge goes away. I still have Note Studio installed on my Palm and work computer. I am hoping that all of this will pass and I can get back to business. Mostly, I need to do a good brain dump and get the system primed again. I get so frustrated when I go through these periods.

When things don't work out

I can always tell when a bright idea isn't working. I said I was going to switch to A5 and use NS for reference. I can tell it's not working, because I haven't been looking at my Palm. At this job, I need something I can quickly dump stuff into and can view on the computer. Most of what I need to review is work stuff when I'm at work. So I am rethinking the best way to use NS. I am leaving A5 on for a calendar view. And I am experimenting with a catalog view where I keep all the stuff on my current catalog in one book. But I've brought back my homepage, with all the contexts and the nav bar. There's some missing link, some page that I need to bring this together. It may be that I need agenda pages, where I can dump copies of emails to sort out for next actions later. Or I need to do a bit more work with dumping those into the inbox. I am keeping too much stuff in my head and not doing a good review. All are sure signs that I don't trust my system. Time to reread the book and make sure that I'm on the right path.

It would be simplier if I could plain vanilla stuff, but I have not been able to deal with finding things in memos. And Palm desktop seems to take up more system resources than Note Studio. Will finish this catalog cycle and take some time to review and figure out the best way to structure this, so I can track exactly where I am in the process.