Ecc
9:10 KJV
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no
work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
_ In
order to do work "with thy might", good, stable, work organization is
essential. A longtime favorite blogger has some great suggestions. I can vouch
for most of them and trust him with the rest.
Confessions of a Carioca - How I (attempt to) stay
organized http://j.mp/ccOrganized
A discussion on a listserv that I participate
in resulted earlier today in a request that I share some of the methods and
technological tools I use to stay (somewhat) organized and focused as I go
about my work and personal life on a daily and weekly basis. So, what follows
is a quick and pointed summary, for whatever it may be worth. I'm going to
mention several applications to which I might otherwise be inclined to provide
links if I were not trying to be really quick about this. So ... that's why God
made search engines.
Most of my work is generated by email, or
requires the use of email at some point in the process of its completion. I use
Gmail. My diocesan email account is configured to deliver messages into my
personal Gmail account. Gmail is rock solid in terms of downtime (i.e. lack
thereof), spam prevention (i.e. it is virtually spam-free), and searchability.
It allows me to either originate a message or reply to one from either account,
as seems appropriate. I am not particularly fond of Google's design aesthetic,
including and especially Gmail's. So I have, at various times, experimented
with alternatives to the Gmail interface. So far, I have always returned to the
interface I don't like the looks of because of its sheer unmatched
functionality. Lately I'm auditioning Google's still-in-beta Inbox. It has a
couple of features I need for it to acquire before I can put the classic Gmail
interface out to pasture, but I generally like it--especially the
"snooze" feature, which allows me to kick a message down the road to
a time when I will be better able to deal with it.
So Gmail is the foundation of the entire
system. The other two critical elements are Evernote and GQueues.
Evernote is the gold standard note application
available today. It operates on a "freemium" business model and is
very affordable any way you use it. It uses both categories and tags and is
completely searchable--not only the notes that you type in, and not only
editable attachments, but even graphic files. It is both highly functional and
very easy on the eyes. It also plays extremely well with Gmail. There is a
Gmail extension called PowerBot that allows me to clip either entire email
messages, or just attachments, directly to Evernote, including categorizing and
tagging without leaving my Gmail screen. There is also a browser extension (I
use Chrome, by the way) that allows me to easily send web content--full pages
or portions that I select--into Evernote, retaining hyperlink functionality.
Evernote rocks. I mostly use the web version, but there are desktop (Windows
and Mac) clients, and iOS and Android apps, so it is usable seamlessly across
the array of devices. My goal is to be as paperless as possible, and a Fujitsu
ScanSnap digital scanner allows me to scan hard copy directly into Evernote.
Correspondence, invoices, and most anything else that lies flat goes that
route, and is then disposed of.
GQueues is a task management app designed to
play well with Gmail and Google Calendar. At its heart, it tries to be
compliant with the principles of David Allen's Getting Things Done, which has a
sort of cult following. So the program makes it easy to capture ideas about
actions and projects right when they occur to me (provided I'm not in the
shower, which, alarmingly, is where a lot of important ideas do tend to occur
to me!), and have them available when I'm able to do further processing and
organizing. There are iOS (and Android) versions of the app, which means I can
use my phone's voice recognition abilities to create new tasks on the fly.
GQueues supports both categories and tags, handles recurring actions with great
flexibility (a non-negotiable for me), and is nice to look at. It also has a
Gmail extension that allows me to turn an email into a task almost
effortlessly, which means I can immediately kick it out of my email inbox. But
here's the best part: GQueues can be configured as a Google calendar, which
comes in handy when I do my weekly review (per GTD best practice) on Sunday
evening. I go to my monthly calendar view, make the GQs calendar visible (it's
usually turned off, for appearance purposes), and then I can drag leftover
tasks from the previous week to new dates, turn off the GQs calendar, and
forget about those items until their assigned date arrives and they appear in
the "Currently Active" "smart queue" that I have created
and configured.
At a lower level, I could also mention Dropbox,
which I use every day--but it could just as easily be Google Drive or iCloud.
Dropbox is just what I happened to fall into.
So, since Tuesday morning is the beginning of
my work week, here's what will happen when I open up my Macbook over morning
tea tomorrow: First I will look at my email (using Inbox), both for new
arrivals that need to be converted to tasks, and items from today or earlier
that I snoozed until tomorrow morning. Then I will go to my GQueues tab and
navigate to my Inbox (my GQs Inbox, that is), where those tasks will be waiting
for me. I will process them by assigning a category, perhaps a tag, and a
"start" date (that is, when I want to begin seeing them on my
radar--in the case of newly-arrived emails, probably the same day). Then I will
open my Currently Active category (defined as all tasks with dates of today or
earlier) and select some that either must be completed that day, or that I
would like to complete that day. These I move into a category called Next
Actions (GTD lingo). The system allows me to drag and drop them into a ranked
order. This Next Actions list, then, is what drives my work day, apart from
scheduled meetings and unforeseeable developments.
One last thought: I am grateful that the nature
of my work enables me to integrate my vocational and personal lives. I don't
keep two different systems. Tasks and calendars and contacts are all
integrated, personal and professional. I realize not everybody can do this, but
I sure am glad I can. So I may do "work" stuff while home in the
evening, and I may sometimes do "personal" stuff while at my desk in
the office. It all evens out.
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