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David Allen: Handy lists to maintain

The David Allen Company [Cool/convenient lists to have]

David Allen’s suggestions for lists that are handy to keep around.

A few of my favorite ideas of his:

  • Might wanna buy… - could be one mega-list, or (more commonly) grouped by the type of thing it is: cds, cigars, wines, books, videos
  • Might wanna do when… - possibilities when you’re in a certain location or doing a certain activity. By city, country, or region (things to do/think about when I’m in Napa Valley, London, Santiago.) Or by activity (Web surfing places to visit.)
  • Quotes - “Cool Quotes - where I can jot down quotations I come across that I like.” (Joel Millican)
  • Restaurants - for business or pleasure, to review for ideas instead of same-old same-old.
  • Style or product numbers I may need when I’m buying things - oil filter, vacuum cleaner bags, labeler cassettes, etc.

I have many of these myself and more (broken stuff, skills to learn, personal Oblique Strategies, etc.), all kept in plain text, natch, which makes it easy to quickly append to them with Quicksilver.

I then sync all my text files to a thumbdrive every week or so. Provides a quick backup as well as a nice way to have emergency access when I’m away from my own computer.

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About Merlin

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Bio

Merlin Mann is an independent writer, speaker, and broadcaster. He’s best known for being the guy who created the website you’re reading right now. He lives in San Francisco, does lots of public speaking, and helps make cool things like You Look Nice Today, Back to Work, and Kung Fu Grippe. Also? He’s writing this book, he lives with this face, he suffers from this hair, he answers these questions, and he’s had this life. So far.

Merlin’s favorite thing he’s written in the past few years is an essay entitled, “Cranking.”

 
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