DIY Planner - Story - Comments

Well, I never saw a problem

Courtney — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:07:18 -0400

Well, I never saw a problem with multiple inboxes. Yes, you want to keep things as simple as possible.

I have one of each of these for home and for work.

1. Email inbox
2. Paper inbox (at work, a plastic shallow box. At home, a pretty basket)
3. Portable inbox (a folder I carry with me. Any papers, brochures, business cards, etc. go into the folder - but once I hit work or home, I empty it into the Paper inbox or process it right away)
4. An "items" inbox. At work, it's an office drawer. At home, it's a big bin. This is for items that are not paper but will need to be dealt with shortly - for example, the baseball uniform my babysitting client left at my house, or the labelmaker I just got in the mail but haven't had time to read the directions and put away. Admittedly I often keep it near my door and dump all my shopping bags, briefcase, coat, and other random items when I get home - but I try to make it a habit to "process" these items just as soon as I can.

That's it! That is all you need.

I have a telephone voicemail inbox that, in both my work and home systems, forwards the message electronically to my email inbox. Therefore I don't really consider this an "inbox". I never check it.

The key is to process, process, process. Just like in GTD. Don't ever put anything back into your inbox. Don't look at anything twice. Just process it in a batch and forget about it.

It is especially tempting to let the "items" inbox sit there, but don't do it! Put things away.

Prioritizing the information influx

Dien — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:25:18 -0400

I've learned the most important way to handle work and personal inboxes is to honestly assess how much in life I can handle. I've learned not to take on too much. Also, I keep work and personal info separate. I realize not everyone can or wants to do that but prioritizing helps me from being overwhelmed. Some things I do:

-The second I get new info I can't get to right away, I immediately write down the action I'll take and when in my planner. This way I don't stress myself trying to remember it.

-E-mails, seem to have urgency. I check them once every two hours and reply right away, unless something in that e-mail requires me to pencil it in my planner.

-If a low-priority to-do item doesn't get touched, I kill it. I figure it's not that important if I keep pushing it back.

-I designate a day of the week for returning personal phone calls. I even go down the list and leave messages. This way no one tells me I never call, and I get back to everyone.

Grocery lists - timely now more than ever

JWhitt — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:54:25 -0400

I thought I had remembered this topic from more than a year ago...with gas and food prices soaring, we're trying our best to plan well when it comes to shopping. My husband is a military veteran, and though the base is about an hour away, it still pays to do most of our grocery/essentials shopping at the commissary- as long as we plan it! Otherwise, there are just too many good deals to pass up and all of our savings are wasted. These tips are wonderful and will help to make the big shopping trip less painful.

One thing that has helped is in organizing the coupons better. I invested $1USD on a cheapo 4x6 photo album. Each photo pocket holds coupons for different needs: canned goods, cleaning products, breakfast foods, etc. I use a post-it note on each photo pocket and list the coupon and expiration date. That way I know exactly what I have when making the list and don't let the good coupons expire like I have in the past.

There are just so many good ideas and tips on this site -- i just love it here!
Jenn

I guess I use the Nay Nay system too

GG — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:55:12 -0400

This got me thinking, and it sounds like I do about like Nay Nay does.

This post seems to address several issues -- a ubiquitous capture device (per David Allen) for information and notes, and an inbox for the desk. And the landing spot could also come into it.

For capture, a stack of 4x6 cards (preferably the brightly colored ones) stays on my desk for notes and can be grabbed and taken with me when I go out. Sticky notes are helpful for posting info to the planner if it doesn't need to be kept permanently. And I get small notebooks for my purse for those times when my planner or note cards aren't at hand. They're also handy for keeping info for semi-permanent reference, like the hours of a restaurant or gym. I wish there were just one solution I could have with me all the time, but actually this works pretty well. Although my head keeps telling me I should be doing a better job of it. But I just don't know how.

The closest thing to an inbox would be a rolling file cart where work gets stacked or filed. Other paperwork, like mail that needs to be taken care of, gets carried around in a computer bag, the purse, or the planner.

I don't feel organized like this but I don't lose things. And I can find them when it's time to work on them.

I have lots of inboxes -- twenty or so -- for sorting forms, office supplies, and computer miscellanea. But they don't get used as an inbox.

Thanks for starting this subject -- I'm sure there will be some great ideas that will help me get more organized. One thing I wish I did is to take the time every day to consolidate, sort, and process things, like you mentioned. But I've never done that and probably never will, though I'm hoping someone here will say something inspiring that will change my ways.

One thing that helps when I use it is a plastic zippered envelope -- like a ziploc bag but heavier and about 8x5 inches. It's small enough to fit in a bag and it can hold quite a bit, as it has expanding sides. Sometimes I manage to consolidate everything I've picked up in the day into that, and it helps things stay together and keeps them secure. But discipline is needed to process the contents regularly.

The inbox is the weak link in my system

Rocket Jones — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:48:38 -0400

At work, I don't have an inbox, I have an in*desk*. Folders and forms, scratchpad notes, phone memos, email, voice mail, it all gets dumped on my desk. Granted, my desk is organized enough that I don't lose anything, but I've been looking hard at my workflow and am trying to figure out how I can improve the "inbox".

my inbox

busylilnurse — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:14:08 -0400

Nay Nay,
My inbox is basically a drawer at work. I have one drawer thats just my stuff, no work stuff allowed.I have my snacks in there :) , my splenda, my planner and I put things on sticky notes and toss them in the drawer. at the end of the day I gather them up and stick them in the planner.

Its not the best system but it works for now. I really love sticky notes :) and they are a great way to capture an idea quickly that you can add to the planner later.

busylilnurse

"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and good with ketchup"

Resistance Crumbling

Rocket Jones — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:50:00 -0400

My daughter has used her eeePC now for an entire year of college and still loves it, while I've been resisting the urge to pick one up for myself.

She's had two hiccups. Firstly, her wireless setup was very difficult because her school uses an obscure protocol, which is apparently standard-ish amongst US colleges. She needed help from the tech support people at her school to figure it out, but they got it going and even managed wireless printing, which was an unexpected bonus.

The second hiccup happened when a software upgrade crashed in the middle of the update, rendering the wee beastie non-startable. By pressing F5 during the boot sequence, you get an option screen that can completely reset your machine to original condition for just such an occasion. Works great. Fortunately, she had current backups!!!

The eeePC can make an impression as well. She attended a conference in the Spring, doing multiple interviews for Summer jobs (she works in theater). She set up the eeePC to open directly to her online portfolio, which the interviewers could then see. She'd also hand them a one-page summary with her URL prominently displayed so they could go back and review it again later if they wanted. She got a lot of favorable comments on the setup, and more than one interviewer referred to her as "mini laptop girl" as a distinguishing characteristic.

I really want my own eeePC, but at this time it would be just to play with. That's a fair bit of money to spend on a toy, and the new model is more expensive, even overpriced, IMO.

...and after three more months...

Jon Rutherford — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 08:50:59 -0400

Thought I'd update my original "after one month" comment to reflect my feelings about the EeePC here in the middle of July, a little over four months since I acquired it.

I still admire and appreciate its ultra-solid construction every time I open it (with some difficulty -- which is good, since it's virtually impossible for it to open on its own while it's under your arm in the espresso stand line, for example, or if you drop it -- in which case it will most likely emerge both still shut and undamaged, amazing).

The display continues to impress me with its clarity and ease on my eyes. I thought my desktop 19-inch Princeton monitor was easy to look at, but now I actually prefer using the EeePC when I don't need all that screen space.

I loathe the built-in touchpad, though, and pretty much refuse to use it. A wireless mouse I found on eBay for about two dollars (that's right, $2) is so wonderful I lack words to describe it. Problem solved. (The "dongle" that goes into the USB slot on the EeePC even stows in the back of the mouse, and turns it off at the same time, when you want to wrap things up and move on.)

I generally do all my work (mainly, I admit, email, a spreadsheet, and browsing and doing research on the Web; I'm retired) in the living room on the EeePC and rarely even visit my desktop machine anymore. If I can fire myself up to get involved heavily in photography again (I hit a slump when I resigned from Flickr), then I'll do all photo editing on the desktop machine.

I would rate my satisfaction with the 701 at 9 on a scale of ten. I would probably rate the larger machine even higher, but I don't have any plan to get one, at this time.

Anything like JOTT ?

Lex — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:06:11 -0400

Anyone aware of a service like Jott? It won't work for me because my cell-co won't pass through 5 digit SMS addresses like theirs. I could really use the text reminder feature.

www.xfountainpens.com is also a Jinhao fountain pen distributor

Terry Gulliver — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:22:47 -0400

I purchase a Jinhao fountain pen from www.xfountainpens.com a few days ago. I'm very pleased with the quality of the pen as referenced in the article. The selection was somewhat limited but they claim to have plans to add more items in the future.

Welcome

Jon Rutherford — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:06:58 -0400

I enjoyed your first article and look forward to more. I immediately got a warm feeling from your statement about collecting notebooks and pens. I don't even know how many of them I have! I used to keep a journal on computer and enjoyed it but I enjoy more doing it longhand. You can't (usually) look at two facing computer "pages" and admire them as a kind of work of art, but two pages of a longhand journal carry a fascination, no matter who wrote them -- just from the un-regimented character formation, perhaps, or the straggling uphill/downhill lines; from the texture of the paper and the color and intensity of the ink... And more. It's interesting to photograph (with a good camera) two facing pages of a longhand journal and look at them on a computer screen. That in itself might entice some away from electronic journal keeping. There's just no comparison aesthetically -- or in the feeling of actually writing, entirely different when longhand.

I didn't mean to go on so long. But you inspired such good thoughts, and I wanted to say welcome and thanks.

Debates

nay nay — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:01:36 -0400

Hey everyone! I agree that debates are not a bad thing. Actually, I play devil's advocate quite often as I feel I learn more by making people tell me their opinions (this drives my family MAD!). Many times, my original opinion or thought will change due to the convincing arguments of others! I enjoy that. So, I consider part of my job here to introduce you to planning tools and let you discover if they work for you or not. Maybe they don't (which is fine) and maybe I will find that they really do not work for me as well.

So, to sum it up... I want to hear your thoughts - good or bad. Otherwise, none of us will learn anything! So, keep 'em coming!

nay nay

P.S. Let's put the "driving while talking discussion" on the back burner as I think that could get pretty heated, pretty fast. Let's imagine using Jott while sitting outside with a cold beverage when an amazing thought pops into your head. ;)

note taking using MSFT OneNote

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:17:23 -0400

I love engineering notebooks with grids. I love whiteboards. I don't think well without my notebook or a clean sheet of paper.

I have found that the latest version of Microsoft's OneNote is fantastic for taking notes in meetings, researching ideas on the internet, or recording your daily thoughts in a journal.

Typically, I am not a microsoft fan. My brother, a semi-famous journalist, turned me on to OneNote about a month ago, and it has made quite a difference.

Cheers.

Debate is not necessarily a bad thing

star — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:31:00 -0400

I didn't get the impression that you ruffled anyone's feather. I think there were some good points on either side of the Jott debate.

One of the purposes of this forum is to discuss "the why" of systems that work for some and not for others. Some debate may happen between members because of this, but nobody does it to be nasty.

Like any tool, it just needs to be used with some common sense. I don't have a problem with someone using the cell phone for two minutes while driving. I have a problem with the idiot in front of me on the freeway who is obviously having a very long involved conversation on cell phone. This is made worse because he is oblivious to the fact that he needs to get out of the passing lane so he isn't slowing me down.

I agree there are legimate reasons to question the safety of cell phone usage while driving, but personally I felt your last comment came across pretty mean, and that was probably not your intent. This is only my observation and not meant to offend.

While naynay may come accross like the paid spokesperson for this service, it is only because she has a found a great tool that works well in her organizational system. She can't help it, she's excited about it. (Just like I was very excited over the Ren Art 4x6 holder a few months ago.)

Star

"Okay, I need to get in the habit of actually using my planner, but it looks really cool!"

I didn't mean to ruffle any feathers

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:57:33 -0400

I realize that there are things that are useful to other people that might not be useful to me so I don't say much concerning the different sites that are on here.

I was just expressing an opinion that I found this particular one to be somewhat archaic having to do so much to send a simple reminder.

And my concern about doing this while driving down the road at 65 miles an hour goes for the writing it down while going down the road at 65 miles an hour. If you can't pull over and write it down or send it then you are endangering your life and mine. And maybe if your life is so hectic that you have to do this at 65 miles an hour then isn't it possible that you need to re-evaluate your priorities and maybe see that that one note, written or voice mailed, isn't worth the price of mommy or daddy, aunt or uncle, etc being injured or possibly killed.

D*I*Y Planner - Story - Comments