Steve Holden's Blog

FriendsInTech.com Bloggers, New Podcast, & Improved Forum

FriendsInTech.com has recently added the following bloggers to our site to provide some great technology topic posts and discussions: David Wertz, Mike McBride, and Andy Helsby.  You can subscribe via this RSS feed in your blog reader of choice [mine is Newsgator].

The collection of podcasters at FriendsInTech.com has also recently grown to include Matt Hull and Rich Nason, hosts of Casting from the Server Room.  I highly recommend checking out their show and consider subscribing via your favorite podcatching client [mine is Juice].

In addition, if you haven't been over to the Forums.FriendsInTech.com recently, I highly recommend it.  We have upgraded the software, and the look, feel, & function is much improved IMHO.  You can get directly to TechNewsRadio.com's area via this link.

Thoughts On Re-Reading David Allen's Getting Things Done (Phase I)

I seem to be in a nearly constant state of working on being personally more efficient and productive.

This seems to even creep in during vacation.   So, while I can honestly say "I had a great two-week family beach camping vacation at San Elijo, CA" -- it will seem strange to many that one of the things I did that I really enjoyed was re-reading David Allen's "Getting Things Done."

My mind set on re-reading it was to self-evaluate what I'm doing "good" vs. "what needs improvement."

First my success areas:

• Capturing all loose items, actions, responsibilities, etc.
• Inbox (email) = zero at COB [if not earlier]
• Tracking delegated tasks
• Regular status reports
• Staying as digital as possible [limited hard copy]
• MindMaps for meeting notes and project specific planning
• Microsoft Outlook as the core primary application for work [helps with Windows Mobile sync]

Second my areas of that need improvement:

• Better master projects list (MindMap?)
• Do I merge work/personal or keep them separate [they are now more separated then combined]
• "Weekly Review" [need to find a day of the week and a consistent time]
• Digitize more reference material
• Can I draw the 'Getting work-flow diagram' on a blank piece of paper?
• More efficient physical filing system [@Home & @ Work]
• During my processing of "stuff" I need to be more realistic about what really requires a Next Action vs. needs to just go on a Someday/Maybe list [see next item]
• Use more Someday/Maybe lists [see above item]
• Categorize tasks more specifically like "computer-work", "computer-home", "shopping-costco", or "shopping-homedepot"
• Is it possible to do a digital tickler file with tools I already have?

My personal goal for September is to try to address my areas that need improvement.  So, far I am trying to be more focused with my Tasks/Next Actions/Someday-Maybe/Categories in Microsoft Outlook, and better Project tracking/linking/workflow using MindJet MindManager.

If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Bill Simmons on Poker

Bill Simmons has an interesting article in his ESPN Sports Guy column for the recent edition of print ESPN Magazine. I liked this quote:

"If you enter a major chess tournament, no matter how much you'd practiced, you'd get wiped out.  Same for the Golden Gloves, a PGA tournament, PBA, you name it.  But everyone has a chance in the WSOP [World Series Of Poker].  On the bright side, anyone can win. On the flip side, you can say the same about keno."

Some Interesting History: Entebbe

I found the following article on the "Entebbe Operation" pretty interesting reading from a historial and political perspective. More via Wikipedia.

As a Cold War history buff, I wish a similar in-depth article was written to expand on this short blurb about CIA efforts in Istanbul in the 1980s.

Del.icio.us Links in RSS Feed

A couple of days ago I started adding my del.icio.us feeds into my RSS feed after I figured out from Douglas Welch that it was a check box option in Feedburner.  Both Douglas and Eric Rice have been doing it for a while and I enjoy see what they tag vs. blog.

Chad Dickerson also recently turned on his del.icio.us feed into his RSS stream.

I think the feature is pretty cool.

Musical Medley Tribute for 300 Podcasts from TechNewsRadio.com

I recently posted podcast #300 on TechNewsRadio.com.  And at the end of the podcast I mixed in a 10 song musical medley from the music that I originally had in podcasts #2-11.  Here is the list:

• The Untouchables "Wild Child"
• Screaming Blue Messiahs "I Can Speak American"
• Violent Femmes "American Music"
• Bad Manners "My Girl Lollipop"
• The Style Council "Internationalist"
• The Jags "Back of My Hand"
• Chris Isaak "Livin' For Your Lover (1985)"
• Boomtown Rats "Drag Me Down"
• The Smithereens "Green Thoughts"
• Dead By Gun "I'm Coming Home"

New How To Podcast Pointers

A couple of new "how to" podcast pointers have crossed my inbox:

• Phil Windley has posted his setup details.
• Doc Searls points to a this example.
• Podcast Brother's are recommending this video from Craig Syverson.

MindManager - Task Status Tracking?

I went looking for a feature that I use to remember using in Mindjet MindManager but I'm not sure if it got deleted or moved from Version 5 to Verison 6, or if I just can't find the feature.

The function I was looking is a minor subst of what Result Manager does, but it seemed like it was built-in to MindManager.  I would bring up a map, and I thought run something from the Tools menu that would walk me through all the outstanding tasks in the current MindMap.  Like a task review.

I've searched on the Help both internal and on the the Net but haven't turned up anything.

Suggestions?!?