Hipster PDA
May. 3rd, 2006 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liralenI have fallen to the geek side...
Okay... the sheer tactile frugality of hefting 800 cards (some graphed, some colored, all with some recycled paper content) and a boxing system for $8 was just too much (my local Office Depot was having an index card sale). Plus all the too cute templates on the D*I*Y hipster page appealed WAAAY too much to my already Covey-contaminated geek-side.
It didn't hurt that I already have (from years ago) a blue leather Levenger shirt pocket briefcase and, okay, I had more money back then and less sense, 2150-a few used (yes, two 1000 cases and one sampler) of their 3x5 cards. And I have a picture printer that can go pretty much all the way to the edge of a card which nearly never uses the black ink as quickly as the colored inks. So I printed up a few things to try.
I started by going overboard a bit and using my Circa system to create notebooks of various card types. Jet loved his notebook of cards and was going around filling it with lists of movies he's seen, toys he loves, books he's read, etc. (yes, he gets that from me). But the basically linear system was much harder for me to just spread out and sort, and continuously pulling all the rings out to get a big picture of what I needed to do was hard on the relatively fragile recycled content cards, so I finally ended up with the universal binder clip.
Lots of binder clips, actually. My main priorities at work have a five-way conceptual split that was starting to give me headaches as they ramped up. The sheer amount of stuff I had to keep track of has gotten so huge in the last week, that I finally had to stop and reorganize just to handle it and my old, calender-based Covey system was just not handling it. I could tell because I was getting massively stressed. So I dedicated a clip to each split, one for a parking lot, one for 'hey cool idea to cook', and I made my box the "done" pile with a marker for what's been put in my status and what hasn't.
I knew I might fall into a procrastination black-hole of fiddling with my new system. So I just watched out for it, and found that the one 20-minute max task per card was excellent in my interrupt driven existence. So I did that, and the pile of "done" cards has been even more satisfying than the initial heft. Plus I got through one difficult sequence just these last two days using the system on seven different projects.
Okay... the sheer tactile frugality of hefting 800 cards (some graphed, some colored, all with some recycled paper content) and a boxing system for $8 was just too much (my local Office Depot was having an index card sale). Plus all the too cute templates on the D*I*Y hipster page appealed WAAAY too much to my already Covey-contaminated geek-side.
It didn't hurt that I already have (from years ago) a blue leather Levenger shirt pocket briefcase and, okay, I had more money back then and less sense, 2150-a few used (yes, two 1000 cases and one sampler) of their 3x5 cards. And I have a picture printer that can go pretty much all the way to the edge of a card which nearly never uses the black ink as quickly as the colored inks. So I printed up a few things to try.
I started by going overboard a bit and using my Circa system to create notebooks of various card types. Jet loved his notebook of cards and was going around filling it with lists of movies he's seen, toys he loves, books he's read, etc. (yes, he gets that from me). But the basically linear system was much harder for me to just spread out and sort, and continuously pulling all the rings out to get a big picture of what I needed to do was hard on the relatively fragile recycled content cards, so I finally ended up with the universal binder clip.
Lots of binder clips, actually. My main priorities at work have a five-way conceptual split that was starting to give me headaches as they ramped up. The sheer amount of stuff I had to keep track of has gotten so huge in the last week, that I finally had to stop and reorganize just to handle it and my old, calender-based Covey system was just not handling it. I could tell because I was getting massively stressed. So I dedicated a clip to each split, one for a parking lot, one for 'hey cool idea to cook', and I made my box the "done" pile with a marker for what's been put in my status and what hasn't.
I knew I might fall into a procrastination black-hole of fiddling with my new system. So I just watched out for it, and found that the one 20-minute max task per card was excellent in my interrupt driven existence. So I did that, and the pile of "done" cards has been even more satisfying than the initial heft. Plus I got through one difficult sequence just these last two days using the system on seven different projects.
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 12:38 am (UTC)(BTW, there is Something in the post for you. Let me know when it gets there?)
no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 03:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 03:33 pm (UTC)All I can say is $550 and waaaaay limited working area (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=A0610964&c=us&l=en&cs=19&category_id=2999&page=external) or $8 and as much working area as I can reach with my arms.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 03:34 pm (UTC)It's good we have the mini-viewer so I can watch these while Jet's watching his cartoons. Yum.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 03:56 pm (UTC)Get yourself a copy of Getting Things Done. Go over and read Merlin Mann's excellent blog at http://43folders.com/
no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 03:57 pm (UTC)(The icon, btw, is a character who shows up in the Soul Society arc, and who has noted comparisons to a certain Archangel known for alcohol appreciation and irresponsibility . . .)
no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 03:57 pm (UTC)Go read this post at 43folders. Excerpt:
"And, finally, as you start to choose one new, dedicated tool to improve your productivity, be circumspect about the amount of pure “dicking around” time that you spend. Yes: learn the tool well and understand its functions and limitations, but avoid the temptation to blow a week moving “your system” into the Next Shiny Product until you really understand how you’ll be better off having used it. Don’t fiddle endlessly, just because it’s fun. That’s not running; that’s just playing with your shoes."
no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 04:29 pm (UTC)So, I'm doing it like I did code. Both ways at once on a "whatever works" basis for which works better with which project. It's... fun to use base skills that I have in a new system for a new problem.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 04:33 pm (UTC)I've been kind of doing it in the style of Extreme Programming I've done in the past, as that system recommends index cards for programming and testing tasks as well. And with that system I did things by doing the minimum necessary for any single aspect of the system I was working on in order to do the next step.
Given I've already been doing that I already know that my system architect hat is waaaaaaay too tempting to try and map everything out to start, but that, like any plan, it will disintigrate on contact with reality. But having *something* helps, and balancing the minimum needed with how much I need to work has been like using those old skills again and watching out for things I *know* are my weaknesses. Fun.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 05:10 pm (UTC)I have OneNote for any notes I have to keep for later.
I have lots of calendar choices, which I mostly don't need other than for coordinating at work, and that is provided here.
I mostly just have to organize all my brain bits about What To Do Next for my whole group. And the cards definitely are good for that.
Thanks for the pointer!!
no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 08:30 pm (UTC)Hm.
Luddite tendencies: Check.