Steve Holden's Blog

Summary - Doing A GTD Weekly Review Via Twitter

I wasn't able to attend this event but I thought it was important to capture and share.

Kelly Forrister at the David Allen Company recently did an innovative event on Twitter (#GTD #Tweekly).  It was an interactive Getting Things Done Weekly Review.  Here is the sequence via 29 tweets that she posted:

1. Hello everyone! Ready? We'll do this in 3 parts/11 steps
2. PART ONE: GET CLEAR. Collect loose paper and materials. Gather everything that's loose into an Inbox, Tray or folder.
3. You have 5 minutes for this step. Go...
4. You all have one more minute on step one: Collect loose papers and materials.
5. PART ONE-STEP TWO-GET CLEAR: Get In to Zero. Choose the inbox that can good progress on in 5 min--email? paper? VM? Go!
6. a good way to process in is 4D's: Delete it, Do it (under 2 mins), Delegate it, Defer it (onto a list)
7. PART ONE-STEP THREE-GET CLEAR: Empty your head. Open a Word doc, or grab and pad and clear your head for 5 minutes. Go.
8. STEP THREE - SOME MINDSWEEP TRIGGERS: Family, health, meetings you've had, meetings you're going to have...
9. SOME MORE MINDSWEEP TRIGGERS: Your direct reports, finances, 401k, the dog, your car, health appts you've been putting off...
10. PART TWO, STEP FOUR-GET CURRENT: Review your Action lists (or maybe you call them Tasks or To Do's.)5 minutes start now. Go!
11. 2 more minutes to review action lists--are they current? anything to mark done? anything trigger you to add?
12. PART TWO-STEP 5-Review previous calendar info. Any triggers?
13. Many times reviewing your old calendar (go back about 3 wks) catches things you meant to do. 3 more mins left
14. PART TWO-STEP 6-REVIEW UPCOMING CALENDAR DATA - anything you should start getting ready for? Go!
15. REVIEW UPCOMING CALENDAR TIP: if you find something you need to process, you can add to your mindsweep for now.
16. if you don't get anything on reviewing your calendar, try going further out. Recurring Tasks are great for calendar.
17. PART TWO-STEP 7-REVIEW WAITING FOR - if you've got a list review it. If you don't have one, what are you waiting on?
18. WAITING FOR TIP: Review your email Sent folder. Usually some waiting for's hiding in there.
19. PART TWO-STEP 8-REVIEW PROJECT LISTS. Projects are your outcomes that require more than one action step. Go!
20. PROJECT TIP: Projects are typically completed within 18 mos. If you can NEVER mark it done, it's likely an Area of Focus.
21. PROJECT TIP: Most people we coach have 30-100 current personal & professional projects. Don't be surprised!
22. PROJECT TIP: If you are not willing to take any next action on a current project, are you sure it's not Someday/Maybe?
23. PART 2-STEP 9 - REVIEW CHECKLISTS - birthday checklists? travel checklists? home mntce? Go!
24. CHECKLIST TIP: Maybe you want to CREATE a checklist? Anything recurring that would be good? What to always pack for vacation?
25. PART 3-GET CREATIVE!-STEP 10-REVIEW SOMEDAY/MAYBE: If you have one, update it. If you don't have one, create it!
26. SOMEDAY /MAYBE TIP: S/M is not just a "fantasy wish" list. It can be a fantastic place to stage "not yet" projects.
27. SOMEDAY TIP: You'll trust S/M list(s) more if you know you're actually going to review them again. Otherwise they'll die.
28. PART 3-STEP 11-BE CREATIVE & COURAGEOUS! Any new thought-provoking, creative, risk taking ideas to add to your system?
29. CREATIVE & COURAGEOUS TIP: What's REALLY got your attention in your job, family, environment? This is the last step!

It is my understanding from the GTD Virtual Study Group which did a quick review at the very beginning of their latest podcast is that the timing for this weekly review was limited to 1 hour with all the major items (11 steps) taking approximately 5 minutes each.  The big take away from many of the participants was that they were  amazed at what they accomplished in 1 hour.

Other recommended resources during the Twitter session were:

• Weekly Review CDs
• Weekly Review Summary Article 
• Weekly Review Guides

I've listened to the Weekly Review CDs and I personally recommend them.  The guides are excellent also, and I use them when I need references during GTD processing.

Podcast Recommendation - Berlin Airlift Book Review

I just finished a highly recommended podcast interview with Andrei Cherny over at the Pritzker Military Library in Chicago about his book "The Candy Bombers." 

It is a great intro and overview to the history of the Berlin Blockage, and the remarkable airlift that changed history. 

While listening to the podcast it made me think a lot about what Dan Carlin over at the Hardcore History podcast likes to say about examining/studying/imagining one of those major "what if" time period scenarios in history.  By many accounts, if the airlift didn't work the "Cold War" could have been over (with the Russians controlling all of Europe) or radically different by the end of 1948.

Conference Update - GTD Roadmap, New Media, MT Communications, Office 2.0

I was recently able to attend a David Allen Getting Things Done (GTD) Roadmap seminar during one of my regular trips to Washington DC. 

It was a fabulous one-day conference. 

As someone who has been practicing some form of GTD since 2004, it was great to finally get to learn from David Allen in-person.  The Roadmap material was, frankly, excellent for someone in my situation who tries to practice GTD on a daily basis and is maturing in the model.  For instance for me, my Runway is pretty well managed, as is my Horizon's of focus above 20,000 feet. But I do struggle with Projects (10,000 feet) and consistent Weekly Reviews.  This year (2008) could be considered the year of getting a handle on both Projects & Weekly Reviews. After this seminar, I definitely think I have some good best practices to move forward with.

There are three other conferences that have my attention right now:

I will be at the upcoming New Media Expo (NME) 2008 speaking on "Getting Started With Audio Editing - Hands-on With Audacity." More information about my Audacity related resources over at AztecMedia.net/Audacity.  Christy is going to go with me this year, and we hope to get some Jersey Boys Las Vegas interviews completed for the Jersey Boys Podcast. And yes, we will be seeing the show again while we are there. ;-)

I am also planning  to attend the Manager-Tools.com Effective Communications conference in San Antonio, TX on September 9-10, 2008.  This should be a great conference and if you are a manager, you should really consider attending.  Or at the very least, go over to Manager-Tools.com Getting Started page and get started.

The other conference that is on my radar but I don't think I'm going to be able to attend is Ismael Ghalimi's Office 2.0 Conference.  David Allen is going to be giving the keynote which is great, but the line-up of other speakers is impressive, and the content seems right up my alley.  If you are interested in attending, you can save $100 off the conference fee by using this link that Ismael gave me.  For those who are GTD Connect members, David recently interviewed Ismael for the In Conversation podcast.  It is a very good podcast that examines what Ismael is up to with regards to Office 2.0, and gets deep into the personal GTD systems Ismael is deploying.  He is definitely an impressive 'cloud/virtual systems' guy.

 

Cold War Pointer - Bagley's Spy Wars Book

The Yale University Press Podcast has a great interview with the  Tennent H. Bagley the author of Spy Wars - Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games.

If you are interested in 1960's CIA vs. KGB stories and insight then you should enjoy the podcast.  The book sounds very interesting and is going on my someday maybe list.

Amount other roles at the CIA, Tennent H. "Pete" Bagley was the case officer for Yuri Nosenko.

Thoughts on LifeBook?!? - San Diego Self-Improvement Service

I am still trying to wrap my head around an article written by Jennifer Davies in the San Diego Union-Tribune called "Shelf Help: There's a new tool in the individual improvement library - personalized books that are made to guide you to your goals in life."

This new $4000 service is delivered over four days by LifeBook (mylifebook.com) to help participants to outline their goals in such a way that a personal book can be built summing up all that is learned and experienced during the four days of sessions.

Right now the service is available in San Diego and Chicago with future plans to expand their 'lounges' to Orange County and Los Angeles.

The article did mention three other resources:

• Self Help Inc by Micki McGee,
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (which is an excellent book that I highly recommend), and
• Marketdata Enterprises (that studies the self-help market).

Multi-Topic Update: San Diego Fires, Jersey Boys, Technology

The last week or so has been extremely crazy and busy. 

First up the San Diego Wild Fires (aka FireStorm 2007) have been all consuming, and I'm happy to report that my immediate & extended family, friends, and co-workers in the San Diego area have been spared major hardships.  But our hearts go out to those who lost love ones or their homes.  The fire fighters and public safety folks have been outstanding and they deserve a ton of credit & praise.  Thanks!

The weirdest thing about the fires, was that during the whole time it was going on, Christy and I have been in Jersey Boys heaven.  They have released a new Jersey Boys Book, Frankie Valli has an excellent new album out called "Romancing the 60's", the touring cast is in San Diego, and we traveled to New York City (NYC) / New Jersey (NJ) on Sat. 10/20 returning Tue. 10/23 for the Fan Tribute and to interview Tommy DeVito. And did we mention we've seen the musical three times in six days: Fri. 10/19 (Opening Night in San Diego), Sun. 10/21 (Broadway), and Wed. 10/24 (Cast Talk Back in San Diego).  Yes ... we are crazy.

Lastly a quick update on some technology stuff.  Things are still going on over at TechNewsRadio but a little slower than I'd like.  My fellow FriendsInTech members have put together another new Halloween special called "It's The Great Server Chuck and Kreg."

Other quick tech mentions:

I recently upgraded from a Cingular 8125 to an AT&T Tilt and I'm really loving the new phone with high speed 3G/UMTS/HSDPA connectivity plus Windows Mobile 6 and integrated GPS.  The camera is also a big improvement, as is the keyboard/button interfaces.

A couple of weeks ago I did upgrade my 8-GB 2nd Gen Apple iPod Nano to an 8-GB 3rd Gen Apple iPod Nano.  I have some unboxing pictures posted to Google.  I like the video option a great deal. I used it to watch dozens of video podcasts recently on the trip back to NYC/NJ.  I have also been using it a lot at home sitting in bed or by my computer using a DIY  Lego stand.

I have also picked up a copy of Apple's new OS X via Amazon.  I hope it gets here soon so I can rebuild my old G4 iBook for Christy and finally get her off of Windows XP and spare her the horror of Vista.

Book Reviews: Dead Sea Scrolls, Google, Freemasonry

I finished reading several potentially interesting books during our recent family vacation trip to Vashon Island, WA:

• Weston W. Fields "The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Short History"
• David A. Vise & Mark Malseed "The Google Story"
• S. Brent Morris "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Freemasonry"

I really have to recommend the Fields book on the Dead Sea Scrolls.  It is very well documented and historically interesting - plus it has some great pictures.  Part of the Dead Sea Scrolls are on display in San Diego (through December 2007) which is the main reason I picked up the book.

The Google book is also recommended for those interested in technology, Internet history, and business & organizational ideas.  I personally only had a minor understanding of the history, technologies, and personalities related to Google so I found this book very interesting.

The Freemasonry book was entertaining but nothing spectacular.  I enjoyed it because my father and his father were Masons, and I learned a lot about what they probably went through.  The background history was interesting and I enjoyed the humor of the author.

 

Podcast Recommendation - Interview With New Media Author Philip Meza

Chris Gondek over at the Invisible Hand Podcast had a great interview with Philip Meza the author of the book "Coming Attractions: Hollywood, High Tech, and the Future of Entertainment" that is definitely worth a listen.

The one great thing in the podcast was that Chris let Philip outline some key recommendations that companies and organizations should be doing to excel in this new media world.

Open Source Rapid Prototyping - PDF, Nagios, & VMWARE

The combo of open source and virtual machines is really providing some powerful options for rapid evaluation and prototyping. 

Here is an example ... "Want to do some network management?" ... then download the $10 PDF of "Network Monitoring with Nagios", then get the VMWARE Player, and then check out the Nagios appliance deployment for VMWARE. 

In a couple of clicks, your up and running and ready to do some network management.  If you like what you see, a couple of file transfers, and some more clicks, and you can be in production mode. Nice.

Thanks to a recent HomeNetworkHelp.info podcast for getting my thoughts moving in this direction.

Survived the DC Trip - Theodore Roosevelt Island, Beer Recommendation, & W.E.B. Griffin

I managed to survive and still have a good time on my recent business trip to Washington DC (the way back was DCA to Dallas to SAN). 

One of the main reasons I had a good time, was that I managed to sneak in three great runs in the Rossyln area of Virgina. One of the better ones included an exploration of Theodore Roosevelt Island which is part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway that is operated by the Virgina Turkey Run Park.

I'm also going to have to recommend the following beers:

• Rogue's Kell Irish Style Lager
• Ridgeway Brewing's Very Bad Elf Special Reserve Ale (7.5% AlcVol which is based on a 1795 Thames Valley recipe)
• Weisse Hacker-Pschorr Traditional Wheat Ale

Lastly, I have to admit I'm becoming a fan of "reading fiction books" while in transit, vice pulling out the work Tablet PC or the personal iBook or a tech journal.  Right now, I am busy quickly turning pages of W.E.B. Griffen's By Order Of The President.  This is my first Griffen book (definitely not my last Griffen book). I had heard his name before, but never got introduced until I listened to his recent podcast at Pritzker Military Library.