clear.your.mind

Loja Do Arco is the name of an excellent online shop where you can get your Moleskine in no time. The web is in Portuguese so it’s going to be a little difficult to English speakers to browse through, but they also have their content in English, the only drawback is their are using both, Portuguese and English at the same time (I would love to only see an English version!); that aside, it’s one of the best shops I evern come across. The reason? they love to serve their customers.

I bought a Moleskine just to test the service, and withing 1 day they answered me saying they already made the shipment! So it’s incredible quick, and trusty. You can pay via credit card or PayPal, which is marvelous this days where no-one seems to know PayPal is growing as fast as Google.

Of course, I will post some pictures when I get the Moleskine, in the meanwhile, enjoy their web and order a Moleskine if you can!
Thanks Gaston for the English corrections! and have a nice travel!

43folder’s (http://www.43folders.com) Merlin Mann is going to start a serie of Podcasts with David Allen, the author of the GTD system. I wrote sometime ago about this paper based system to carry your life, work projects and everything that needs organization. The main objetive as you know is the affirmation out of sight, out of mind (which talks about how you can stop worrying about 40 projects if you just get organized on paper). So, tomorrow, Tuesday 10 of october you and me will be able to hear the Merlin Mann & David Allen Podcast, and here is a little preview of it.

Doing several projects at the time can be a nightmare, but if you organize well enough, you will be able to carry them all together; althrough I have to recognize, no matter how much you can organizate yourself, you will always be subject to life, and as we all know, life is always on movement; so getting things done isn’t just a miracle cure for everyone who is overlwhelmed on work or life; it just brings a little bit of peace to the situation so you can deal with it much better. And from now on, you will be able to hear a big fish coacher like David Allen (who coached companies like IBM, Microsoft, Sun, etc) from your computer speark and that’s not all; you will be able to make him questions through Merlin Mann Blog.

Oh yes… and Merlin Mann will be there too. ;)

Howdy!
A while ago, I posted the tip my chap Tim Vaughan (http://www.eastendit.com/) told me for my Moleskine. People seems to love Tim’s hack, they found it very easy but until now, there aren’t any “basic” setups going on, so here is my first invention:

The graphic speaks for itself. Isn’t my best work, but is enough for you to see and understand what can be done with a couple of Post-its and a Moleskine. For all you GTD-fans, this is the ultimate setup. I only use three post-its because that’s all it takes for me, I don’t run errands so I don’t need a “street” section. When I need to write project’s a next action, I just turn the page (to the last empty page) and start there.

So if I have to work on a Wiki project, I just find an empty page and write @Wiki (@ is for “AT”). There you have it, a next-actions lists ready to get started. Every time I finish a page I just rip it off from my Moleskine… nah! I’m just kidding. I don’t do that (not anymore). You just turn strike every item (or the whole page if you like) and move on.

Fun isn’t it? What’s your solution?

Don’t go too digital or you may lose a great opportunity of being creative. I’m like you, I like digital; I love Apple products, I love some Microsoft products and I love working with my computers; but if you go too digital you may be losing a great burst of productivity. I know, I know; it’s hard to shut down your computer and grab a pen, but you can do it; trust me, I’m doing it.

Why paper is sometimes better

It’s easy to get, it’s easy to use and more. I won’t be talking about the whole Paper vs. Digital thing going on the world right now, but I’ll just say that, when you put anything on paper, suddenly it transforms to something more relevant. If it is an idea, it becomes more important, more malleable. If it is a commitment, it gets very serious, and the best of all: out of sight, out of mind. That’s the golden rule of organization.

If you ask me, as an advice, I will probably say that it’s a bad idea to relay completely on digital for organization or research. And its a bad idea to relay completely on paper for the same tasks too; the solution is obvious: mix both modes. My current percentage is 80% paper, 10% computer, 10% mind.

When you use a computer to get organized a couple of problems may show up:

• You can’t carry your computer with you all the time, even when its a notebook you need to re-charge batteries, etc and isn’t very fast to get it run when you need to jot down notes.
• Its dangerous to go around with a notebook; let’s face it, you won’t be the first person to be robed for being seen with an Ibook or a MacBook Pro.
• Your data isn’t on your sight at glance, you need to turn something on, plug something in, etc
• Want to be a nerd? come on!

Chances are, you won’t be around with a notebook attached to your side pocket all the time. So let’s face it, paper is better for somethings, bad for others. The good thing is that being on paper is cheaper, more productive (don’t know exactly why, but it bursts my productivity when I work on paper) and nice to jot down notes, trow papers away, etc.

You will kill entire forests, dumbass!

Eventually, Hobbits will find the way of living without trees. No, really; a lot of people say “I don’t use papers because writing on them will be justifying the killing of a tree, or an entire forest”, and they are being very honest with you when they say that. They really believe on it. And it’s ok, its a noble sense of ecology; but sadly, they are wrong. Every time a tree is chopped with commercial purposes, two trees are planted in its place, so there is no way you will be killing an entire forest just by writing a letter. That’s how business works. Think about it; if you run a paper business, would you be so stupid to chop all the trees on a forest and wait for mother nature to come up with more in 100 years? come one, you will have stock for like two years and after that you will be out of business.

Yes yes, I know what greenpeace says; but I have my opinion about them as well, which, I won’t be writing today here. Just think about it very well; it’s like saying that because McDonalds sell french fries, the world will be out of potatoes by the end of this year. Everytime you take something from earth, you have to put something else back, or you won’t be seeing too much of that thing you just took after a while. It’s a basic rule of nature, and it’s a basic rule of business as well; so don’t worry, you won’t be killing any tree because you buy post-its notes.

This is how I’m going to do it

I love working on sundays, it’s the best day ever. The streets are empty here at Buenos Aires, so it’s almost like a holiday. I can come to the office without having to avoid 100 people on the way in, it’s almost like working at 4:00 am.

Now, I love working on paper too, getting things done, organizing myself and my business; so I will be working from 8:00 am into a very known coffee shop here downtown with my mobile office set and later, at 1:00 pm I will be back to do some things at my office. Here is my original mobile office set

• Cellphone: a cheap one, nothing fancy. Its worth $99 on the street. No video games, no colours, no ringtones, no calendar; nothing! just a freaking phone.
• Moleskine: this is my baby from now on. I jot down notes, I write ideas, I brainstorm…etc, Its like having a conversation with myself. I still have to send something to the guy that sent me this moleskine, I haven’t had the proper time, sorry.
• Post-its notes: I love post-its to brainstorm. I also use it with my moleskine for my GTD setup (Tim’s Moleskine Hack)
• White Folder: in this one, I have printed emails, blank paper, case studies, articles I loved, reference sheets, post-its, etc. This is like my backpack; I have a lot of things I use regulary in my white folder. It’s like a sort of “bible” where I keep everything organized, with sections and all. I will write about it some day, with pics and everything.
• Cash for coffee and tips ;)
• Binder Clips
• Regular Clips
• A Pen (any pen will do, I use a black roller pen; nothing fancy).
• A pencil and a eraser.

Basically, this is my mobile office set which I will be using like five hours every sunday to get my head and my business, organized.

Thanks for reading! Have a good day! and write if you have questions ;)
Javier Cabrera

With my brand new Moleskine, I started to wonder if it will be productive enough to keep my old HPDA setup with me. I didn’t liked very much, it was very easy to use, but it bends all the time, it gets durty, etc., so I thought in a way of having best of both methods (HPDA and Moleskine) in just one single system. As I always do, I started to ask some questions around and Tim, one of my best friends and counselors, gave me an amazingly cool idea: he called it “Nsghmufhgk” which, wasn’t really working because at that time Tim was eating some cookies; so I thought on calling it, “The Tim’s Moleskine Hack ©”.

Behold!

It’s really easy: the first two pages of your Moleskine becomes your HPDA. It works with Post-its (those yellow little things that are attached to the bottom of your shoes) instead index cards. It is working very well with me right now, I can move things back an forth, on top of others, I can delete stuff right on the moment, I can review notes, etc!

The principe is the same, and it works better because it’s on your Moleskine now. I usually keeps one Post-it for On Computer, other for Street, other for Home and a bunch other for projects and ideas. If you are out of space, you can use the next two pages, that’s why I recommend you to leave four pages blank after the first two pages, that should work.

Thanks Tim for such great advice, again.

Howdy!

Too much paper work? Too many things to do? You can’t get organized because you lack space on your desk? I’m sure you’ve come across problems before like I did a couple of months ago. I work on the Internet and things can get wild on your desktop; it’s too easy to create a folder on any OS, so you can end up having 40 folders with mixed documents in every each one of them. How many times have you just copied all the things on your desktop to another folder because it got too messy? Well, I know plenty people who have just this week!

Here I won’t give you any magic formula. I will just tell you how I was able to get myself organized. If that helps you, fine. First off… why you must get organized.

There’s a ticking bomb if you don’t

Recognize this? Well, this can happen often if you don’t get organized. How many items do you have right now in your drawers? How many of those are you using on daily basis? What about the papers in your inbox or your tray? Are there are some old, old bills you already payed laying there? Some useless emails you printed to follow a project and now there is no reason for having them in the middle of your face, maybe?

We’ve all had that desk. I had a desk at work and a desk at home, and both were so full of paper and trash that the only way I could know if I were at home of at work was because of the wallpaper on my PC. I couldn’t see beyond my computer! There was too much trash piled in behind and on top of it! No shame there, we just need to learn a few new tips.

First, I grabbed a HipsterPDA (more about it in the related links at the end of the page) and I started my GTD setup with it. It was quite difficult to throw away that amount of trash before GTD, but now I do my weekly review almost like an automate process and it isn’t that hard anymore. It get some time to get used to it, but you need to give yourself time!

For a couple of months the HipsterPDA just laid down at one side of my desktop without any use. I threw away all my papers and got organized, but it was quite difficult for me to follow the HPDA scheme because I work too much from my computer; I almost never go 5 inches away from it. So 20 of my 24hs, I’m at the computer. The HPDA wasn’t too useful by that time, so I did a couple of modifications.

Introducing: the PROJECTS HPDA

I needed something besides next actions for my week because it is hard to figure it out what is most important to do first! You have next actions but when you have several projects, next actions can get really messy. GTD works (for me, at least) if you are doing one, two project top, but when you are doing seven different projects that may be interconnected or no some how, you can get lost. So I just took another deck of index cards with a new binder clip and I created a PROJECTS HPDA. (ta-da!)

The PROJECTS HPDA works for projects really well until now; it is a simple deck of index cards (can be blank cards, can be ruled; whatever) held together with a binder clip. Then I wrote PROJECTS horizontally, on big black letters at the end of the deck. On the top of the deck I have my This Week card, and behind it, I have other next actions projects. Every card is a context for a project, not for a place, but for a defined project (because I’m 24/7 in a computer). For example: “@Book” for the book I’m writing, “@Marketing” for the marketing campaign I’m planning, etc. But those are behind the This Week card.

On the This Week card, the first thing you’re going to see is the Stephen Covey system for Sharpening the Saw (or Physical Actions) where you can write as many items as you want, I only write two for week (just because I don’t like to lie to myself). After that there is a blank space for filling my weekly Next Actions List. If the list is very long I just flip the card and continue it there.

For me, it works like charm. I’m able to see all my week next actions on a single visual scan. If for example, I need to write a book chapter on “@Book” I just add it on the This Week card and on the “@Book” card. When I have it done I just strike trough the This Week card and leave the “@Book” one for the end of the week. Then, on my weekly review I just go trough all my Next Action Cards holding the This Week card on one hand, when I read my @Book card I will see “write a chapter” unchecked and, on my This Week Card it is checked because I did it this week; so I only have to update my @Book card and that’s it. That is all it takes. It may sound a little complex, but it is a very easy way to follow your GTD scheme.

Introducing: the LIFE BALANCE HPDA

I needed something to balance my work and my life too now that I had my projects under control, so I created the LIFE BALANCE HPDA! (or LB.HPDA) Almost identical to the PROJECTS HPDA, the LIFE BALANCE HPDA works for having a visual help on the first index card of what you want to accomplish for the next X period of time.

I like to write medium term goals, so I have a THREE MONTHS GOAL card at the top of the deck; on this card you would find a VALUES box and nothing else. On the VALUES box I like to write at least three values I want to develop or master for that three months.

The objective is making an habits of these goals if I can hold them for three months. So far, I had a couple learned as habits but I need to work on them every while to make them a permanent habit.

Under the VALUES BOX you will find an empty space; there you can have all the Next Actions you would like to accomplish in those three months period. Once you check a good couple of them, you just need to go trough your Next Actions cards behind the THREE MONTHS GOAL card and update all those little cards. Check what is checked on the first card, and you’re done.

I use this the LIFE BALANCE HPDA to keep my personal and really important goals in mind. At the moment I have the @Books, @GoalList (regarding emaginacion), @Books per month, @Quotes and @Habits. I also have a @Values card where I hold every value I want to make an habit. My setup is really personal, you can see that, but that is what is all about. The LB.HPDA is sort of a “life time to-do list” where you can keep listed the important matters of your life, outside work.

What if I don’t complete an action?

I just roll it forward to the next month or the next week. That depends if that action is important to me, if its not, I just leave it for another time. I encourage you to do the same, chose wise between your actions or you may end up doing hundreds of next actions and for nothing.

But, it is difficult to keep it going?

Absolutely no (at least for me). I think that you can have it done in an hour because its very fast and easy to get organized. The interesting thing is that you can work it out with GTD and still not get lost. I do the normal GTD setup, I have an INBOX tray and weekly I go trough all those stuff on that tray to decide what its important and what no. I write down my Next Actions on every card, then I decide witch one of those is really important to pull a project off. This can vary; it’s not just “Call Tom on the Phone.” You can get into very serious decisions and you need to trust your instincts (is this action really important enough for me to invest my time in it? What is the outcome? What are the consequences of this action?)

The LIFE BALANCE HPDA and the PROJECTS HPDA lie on my desk every day. The Mac is a good help too–no more PC problems! I just grab one of my HPDAs and see what is going on this week, what I’ve accomplished, and what I did not. Whatever is on life or work situations I have a little amount of control. And it feels good ;)

Hope this can be helpful for you!
Cheers
Javier Cabrera
CEO, Emaginacion

P.S: Tom, thanks for your time today!

Related Links
Basics on HipsterPDA at 43 folders
Buy some index cards at Amazon (and support this blog!)
Buy David Allen’s Book GTD -time management system- (and support this blog!)

A couple of days before I wrote about a hipsterPDA on the GTD Block post comic and some people may ask what is a HPDA?. Well, the answer is this:

A HipsterPDA is a paper based system emulating a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and is fully customizable (because… you know, it is made from paper). We usually use 3×5 index cards available on any amazon clipped togheter with a binder clip.

Just a bunch of paper and a clip

It might look that way, but a HPDA is a powerful tool. The nerd/geek community is going wild with the HPDAs! you can write on them, you can switch cards, you can trow them away, they don’t break if they fall on the floor, etc. There are some interesting setups out there you can do with little effort like the one you saw above (that is mine). I used to use that calendar but now I’m using
the one that came with my Mac Mini (ICal) because my line of work requires being in front of the computer 90% of my time. But

I added some tabs to it so I can quickly browse trough my notes and to-do lists. I also have some motivational quotes noted down at the end like my favorite from Jed Barlet of the WestWing tv Show:

They will hit you hard… remember all your victories.

Altrough I’m online all the time, I still use my HPDA to keep my head clean, writing down every thing I need to do or every thought I don’t want to forget. It’s a really smart low-fi gadget you can do with only 4 dollars or less (amazing!)

What can you do with it?

Well, you can do pretty much anything you can do with a small notepad, but more. Because every single index card its only attached by the Binder Clip you can move things back and forward, you can switch positions, you can mix, you can even take one and trow it away without compromising the integrity of all the others. So you can be flexible with HPDA! this are some of the things you can do with it:

• Write down your troughs. No “runes” to learn with the HPDA to write, just your own handwrite.
• Maintain your check lists with you, your to-do lists, your GTD setup
• Have a handy piece of paper with you all the time
• Have a calendar, fully customizable
• Simple and beautiful

The D*I*Y guys did some amazing FREE printable templates for the HipsterPDA with:

• A cover, including an “if lost, please return to” form
• Getting Things Done Quick Reference Card, including a flow chart, a weekly review list, and a list of “Stuff” (TM, patent pending)
• Yearly calendars for 2005 and 2006
• Three variations on the monthly calendar, both horizontal and vertical
• A weekly calendar
• Notes templates in lined and grid versions
• Basic Project and Checklist templates

And a lot of other interesting stuff you can print yourself in your home/office printer at HPDA Printable templates.

Just take a look at the graphics and you will be in-loved. This is a great way to be more productive; because you know… if you write it down, you got it!

Cheers,
Javier Cabrera

Oh no! I can’t keep going with this!

Best way to beat GTD procrastination? take a minute and start again. I have a quick reference sheet posted on my left wall next to me with the GTD process, so when I need to start over again I just turn my eyes to the left and follow the rules! try it, it may save your week.
Some people is having problem to start on GTD because they think they may be doing it wrong. Best advice anyone can give you is this: don’t follow GTD on a lineal way; work on your own system and that system will work. GTD only works if you are comfortable with it, otherwise, like Buddhism, take whatever you can use and move on.

I will be posting this kind of cartoon two or three time per week, so don’t go far!

Cheers
Javier Cabrera