Carthage: Hannibal's Journal: Personal: Rolling my own paper-based time management system

I like this simple homemade paper planner -- especially the free form lined approach for the pages.

What I recently decided to do is make my own day planner, print it up on my laser-jet, and then take it somewhere to have it spiral bound. Since I'm lazy, I didn't want to have to type the date at the top of 365 pages in Word, so I came up with a way to do it by putting "March, 2006" next to the automatically generated page numbers in the header. I also put all the other formatting for the page in the header as well, so that it's reproduced on each page of the document. Then, I just add 31 page breaks and voila, a DIY day planner for the month of March...

The wide lined column is for writing down the day's tasks. The narrower one is for appointments; I just scribble in the time and a note. The "Contacts" region is where I write reminders to get back to people by phone, email, etc. Finally, the "Notes" region is where I write down stuff like confirmation numbers, tracking numbers, phone numbers, and anything else anyone tells me while I'm on the phone that I need to jot down.

Today’s gonna be a quickie since I can audibly hear a couple deadlines whooshing past me right this second.

Why Jargon Feeds on Lazy Minds - Scott Berkun

Scott Berkun, writing on how buzzwords cheapen language, dull meaning, and enfeeble our thinking:

If I could give every single business writer, guru or executive one thing to read every morning before work, it'd be this essay by George Orwell: Politics and the English Language.

Not only is this essay short, brilliant, thought-provoking and memorable, it calls bullshit on most of what passes today as speech and written language in management circles. And if you are too lazy to read the article, all you need to remember is this: never use a fancy word when a simple one will do. If your idea is good, no hype is necessary. Explain it clearly and people will get it, if there truly is something notable to get. If your idea is bad: keep working before you share it with others. And if you don't have time for that, you might as well be honest. Because when you throw jargon around, most of us know you're probably lying about something anyway.

Marry me, Scott. (And, yes: I, for one, will stop saying "game-changer" now. Tic noted.)

Orwell's excellent 1946 essay is freely available in numerous locations and in various formats across the web. I like this vanilla version.

[via delicious/charliepark]

Great article on dealing with high email volume that focuses on what you can do to craft email messages that are easy to process, read, and answer.

• Inconsolata - "It is a monospace font, designed for code listings and the like, in print." This has quickly become my new favorite monospace font. It’s kicky, and looks great in TextMate, esp. at larger sizes.
• Star Wars viewing order (kottke.org) - Veen has wisdom on the proper order for showing your child the Star Wars movies: “Show him Episodes 4 and 5 together and let him know that ‘They find Han - he was ok.’ Leave it at that. Let him experience the later disappointments as we did - all grown up.”
• Wakerupper.com - Free Wake-up Calls and Telephone Reminders - Get fancy-hotel-like wakeup service for your phone. Optimized for iPhone
• The Onion: Google Launches ‘The Google’ For Older Adults - "All you have to do to turn the website on is put the little blinking line thing in the cyberspace window at the top of the screen…" (see also)
• Getting things done with mutt - "Mutt is extremely powerful, but lacks a little when attempting to implement GTD and the ‘Inbox Zero’ concept." Looks like a cool patch.
• your monkey called - "LIFEHACK: Create a simple but effective 'mood necklace' from freely available materials!"

iPhone size comparison
Originally uploaded by freshyill.

Slenderlicious.

Tickler File Hack

GTD Connect [TechGTD]

Members of David Allen's GTD Connect membership program can login to hear a technology panel that David conducted with tech über-geek Eric Mack, DavidCo CTO Robert Peake, and myself down in Ojai a few weeks back.

We talk about all kinds of stuff related to tech in general, and how we use GTD and technology in particular. One nice thing you learn: Robert, who is the wildly gifted tech stud at DavidCo, is a big Mac user. Pretty cool.

Note that this is made available as part of the GTD Connect for-pay service, so I don't have a way to preview this for folks who aren't a member. But for Connectors who are joined up, I think you'll enjoy the conversation. It was a lot of fun to do.

More baby step questions