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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Getting things done

I'm terrible at tasks at hand.
I always have to get a "go do it" mentality before an annoying task gets done. Can't have that in the future so slowly building things up for when I'm in the Dominican Republic.
First step was two months ago, making a little schedule on my desktop screen. It kinda works. But it's too rough and too static and I can hide it under a pile of windows. I rarely touch the Windows-M key combination.
So next step was adding the phrase "To help beat procrastination, will yourself to spend just a few minutes working on whatever needs to be done." to the desktop. Now that works. If I get to look at the desktop! The phrase comes from 59 seconds. Haven't read the book, but got some snippets of it.

Lifehacker posted the results of a poll on what is the best to-do list manager. Seems it's paper. In the comments somebody mentions AutoFocus v4. Now, if you think this is some fancy program, wrong! It's a method. And clicking through the PDF that animates the process, it's pretty straightforward. Only a few rules, you can hand-pick the tasks that need to be done, you duplicate them if needed. And it took me 5 minutes to add in my 'spreadsheet of progress'.

Last step in the process will be two programs that will keep an eye on me: either ManicTime or iFocus. They seem to be up for it and both are free. Will try them out after I made the jump to DR.


Not to my surprise packing and cleaning went slower than expected. And breaking a wheel nut of the 2cv last minute is not the best way to go as well. Although there is a solution for that: 2cv community to the rescue! Even in Ireland!

2 comments:

  1. Danny was a good bowler, and a good man. He was one of us. He was a man who loved the outdoors... and bowling, and as a 2cv lover he explored the beaches of Dutch-land, from Texel to Den Helder and... up to... Hoek van Holland. He died, like so many young men of his generation, he died before his time. In your wisdom, Lord, you took him, as you took so many bright flowering young men at Khe Sanh, at Langdok, at Hill 364. These young men gave their lives. And so would Danny. Danny, who loved bowling. And so, Theodore Daniel Zuidema, in accordance with what we think your dying wishes might well have been, we commit your remnants to the service point outside the coffee-stop, which you loved so well. Good night, sweet prince.

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  2. http://www.helpmeob1.org/images/Danny's Grave.JPG

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