DIY Planner - Journalling - Comments

Open Office is free

ygor — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:41:42 -0500

Try it out.
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"I think the surest sign that there is intelligent life out there in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." (Calvin and Hobbes/Bill Waterson)

Application

mccheval5 — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 19:34:21 -0500

Is there a pdf or MS Office version of this file? You actually have put into words what I have been practicing for about a year. Both Covey and GTD are great methods, but each of them have strengths and weaknesses. Why not take the strengths from each? I think you've done an excellent job of doing just that!

I Wear Many Hats

LizPf — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 07:48:44 -0500

and if I were to write a personal mission statement, it would have about 17 chapters, none of which tied in to each other.

Or, I guess I could spend a couple of hours searching my mind for some over-arcing principle to try to tie everything together. I could then do a typographic poster of my mission statement, hang it on the wall — and it wouldn't change whet I'm doing, not one bit.

Brilliant example

Schollert — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:23:35 -0500

What a brilliant example! It gave me a bunch of information in just four lines. I believe it will be easier for me now, to explain (to myself) how these things relate to each other. Thanks!

Mission statements

Katrina — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:47:38 -0500

I see mission statements as describing your personal aims and ethics around what you're doing.

eg.
Task - find a panda
Goal - find a panda and hug it
Project - Complete the Hug a Panda Project
Mission - To be a happier, more rounded and claw-scratched panda hugger

A real example

LisaPT — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:23:18 -0500

From a company I once worked for:

"Making a difference in areas that make a difference."

Missions are where the soup kitchens are.

jjhitt — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:33:58 -0500

I cringe at the mention of Mission Statements.

They have spawned some of the worst purple prose in the corporate world (if not the entire planet).

Adjective laden, rambling, built-by-committee paragraphs that almost always boil down to:

"We are in business to sell stuff and make money."

5 little symbols

jordanjm — Tue, 2 Feb 2010 11:59:35 -0500

http://www.diyplanner.com/node/765

This is the harmony template. The symbols are described here.

Tip for using Wordle

kevl — Mon, 1 Feb 2010 11:38:53 -0500

Just read this on another listserv and thought I'd share.

If you put a ~ (tilde) between words, the wordle software will keep the words together allowing you to deal with phrases and not just individual words....

I like the ability to deal in phrases rather than individual words very much.
If you check out the advanced features of WORDLE, you can actually take complete control of the sizes you want everything to be, but with the tilde feature, you only need to cut and paste a text and then insert tildes as appropriate.

opening docs and making changes

Anonymous — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 11:17:14 -0500

Hi,

I love this website - it has revolutionised my life in terms of getting organised and feeling happier for being more productive and focussed - so thanks to all involved.

I have some difficulty opening files and also in making changes to them. I have downloaded open office. I am using a mac. When I tried to open the journal.zip file in open office for example it just opened something with a load of gobbledygoop in it. All help welcomed.

I'd also love to know what the 5 little symbols stand for in the weekly middle way sheets. - two presumably are exercise and a quote - but not sure about the other three.

Regards,

Anne

Notice that I said "after

civil — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:43:07 -0500

Notice that I said "after you break it down properly" that is, after you process it. Capturing thoughts on paper is writing too, but it is not the only capturing method.

Rewriting of unfinished items is intended on other systems, not on GTD.
It will make more sense if you read the book.

Confused...

OregonJim — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:36:20 -0500

"But you must put your thinking in your Inbox for processing, not directly on your lists. Why? Because in GTD, the aim is to write things down only once, after you break it down properly."

I'm confused - doesn't your first statement infer that, in GTD, you must write down everything at least TWICE, not once? First in your inbox, and then later where it really belongs?

I understand, sorry if I

civil — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:32:38 -0500

I understand, sorry if I overexplained GTD, my point was simply that I get the impression the Middle Way seems largely based on GTD, with Covey attached, rather than the other way around. Actually, the Middle Way blends Covey into GTD much better than I currently am doing.

I myself get confused with Covey, I believe I will not really understand Covey unless I attempt pure Covey, but I tend to resist the parts of Covey that seem antithetical to GTD, hence I don't get the full benefit of Covey myself.

Kinda like trying to use the best parts of a Ford in a Toyota, I am not doing Covey quite well enough. But I persist because Covey is very much value based, whereas GTD is intentionally value agnostic, so ideologically at least, Covey feels right, it just doesn't fit right yet.

Yes, I'm mostly Covey, but

aarondesk — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:52:46 -0500

Yes, I'm mostly Covey, but have read and tried GTD. Bunches of it didn't stick, like having long lists of next actions, or contexts. But the idea of a project certainly did, and almost everything I do/plan is arranged around a project. I find it helps to think in terms of projects (or connected actions) when planning. But come to think of it, my projects may not be what everyone else thinks of projects and some of my projects may be more roles (teaching, reading, etc.). I just lump a bunch of related actions together and call it a project, as this makes more sense to me.

Anyways, I believe my confusion likely arises from the idea of mixing the project planning stage, which is a GTD-esque method, and the role planning stage, which is a Covey-eque method. In role planning you're supposed to pick your most important tasks (quadrant II). But in GTD importance takes a step back compared to Covey. So when I think of the project planning step, I think of a GTD style, look at the lists, and pick what to do this next week, ending up with a bunch of tasks where context, not importance, separates the actions. When I think of role planning, I think of picking a half dozen to dozen most important tasks to do. One could in principle just do the project planning and end up with a to-do list, so this is why I said that perhaps the role planning actions are 'bonus' actions that you think are the most important to do.

How all this works in practice, I'm not entirely sure and maybe I just need to give it a go. I don't know if I'm making any sense, or just confusing the issue already.

Roles are less useful than names of persons and contexts

civil — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:05:44 -0500

Having said all that, I find that I tend to use agendas and contexts more than roles. Roles are helpful with higher thinking and motivation analysis, but I end up subdividing roles by the name of the person I am dealing with, so more often I end up planning projects and actions with the name of the child in mind, for example, rather than the role of parent.

D*I*Y Planner - Journalling - Comments