Hipster PDA

Page-a-Day PDA

wood.tang — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 10:36:08 -0500

Every year, somebody gets me one of those Page-a-Day calendars for Christmas. I never have the heart to tell them that I really don't want another, and every year I try to stick it out and dutifully tear off a sheet each morning. "There has to be something interesting in this 'George Washington Carver's 365 Interesting Uses for Peanuts' calendar," I say, then here comes the third week of the year and it's still stuck on January 8, "Anthropomorphic Dandies."

Even if you don't have the stamina to put the calendar through its intended use, you don't have to waste it. Chuck it in a drawer to make an excellent notepad. And folded in half, the pages by themselves make a fair substitute for the venerable index card, with the added bonus that when you pull them out of your pocket to jot a reminder, you get to bone up on the provenance of Prohibition era agricultural byproducts.

”Page-a-Day PDA” was written by Matt Wood for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 23, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Making friends with paper (again)

Merlin — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 10:03:07 -0400

Information R/evolution

I really enjoyed this video presentation by Michael Wesch on how we make, find, and share information in a world where we've shed the idea of paper as our sole medium for storage and communication -- where ideas can munge and mix freely, thanks to digital collaboration.

Gorgeous.

Now, of course, as a fan of paper for certain kinds of work, I always feel like jumping in at this point to defend our pulpy little friend from what sometimes turns into a blanket party.

See, the key is to use paper for what it's great at and to avoid relying on it for what it famously sucks at -- the second part of which I think this video does handsomely.

Still, for thinking, capture, and live collaboration, paper is one of the best friends you'll ever have. And as long as we use it properly, it's going to continue to enhance the creation of all downstream media. Even the shiny, embeddable, Web 2.0 kind.

Danny and I did a column about this topic for MAKE a while back, and I still feel like it's a point worth underscoring (again).

Friends, we’re here today to unveil the august secret that we hope will save potentially dozens of Important Technology Writers from needing to produce another wide-eyed report on how very odd it is that all these geeks seem to love paper so much. The trick is that there is no paradox, no more so than suggesting that people who buy screwdrivers must necessarily hate drills.

Geeks rely on paper for the same reason that the normals do: paper — along with conceptual cousins like whiteboards and magnets — is simply the most efficient tool for completing certain kinds of cognitive work. And no amount of enhanced technology will likely diminish this anytime soon.

And, I have to say, I still love that line I'd quoted from Malcolm Gladwell's The Social Life of Paper. Wraps the central point up with a bow:

It is only if paper's usefulness is in the information written directly on it that it must be stored. If its usefulness lies in the promotion of ongoing creative thinking, then, once that thinking is finished, the paper becomes superfluous. The solution to our paper problem, they write, is not to use less paper but to keep less paper. Why bother filing at all?

And ain't that really the heart of the matter?

When we rely on a paper document as the final, unique destination for information, we create physical and cognitive limitations that seem crazy once you've spent a chunk of your life living on Google. No one disputes that.

But as an intermediary medium between thinking and a final draft, I still just love what you can do with a stack of index cards and a little spare time.

No content types. No taxonomy. No typefaces. Just you and your ideas -- in a bunch of little piles that make sense to you.

Final funny thing: As the putative "inventor" of The Hipster PDA, I still get the odd phone call from some doofus journalist who wants to write yet another penetrating piece on how people decide between paper and digital as The Way to run their world.

And somehow a special irony is almost always lost on these folks. Who use a mobile phone to call me. To ask about paper fandom. Who record our conversation to a digital device. While taking notes on a sheet of paper. Who then type the draft into a PC. And then proof a paper print-out before deadline. Who then submit their completed story to a multi-bajillion-dollar networked CMS. And who then finally get to read their clever work the next day at Starbucks -- thanks to the papery dead-tree edition that has filled newspaper boxes throughout their city.

I'd call that a blended approach to media that -- while showing much potential for streamlining and improvement -- perfectly illustrates how paper spackles the cracks between cognition and creation and dissemination.

Paper's not perfect, but it's perfect for what it does.

[video link via Boing Boing]

”Making friends with paper (again)” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on October 22, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Active Voice's free Hipster PDA templates

Merlin — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 13:11:12 -0500

Active Voice Writing & Editorial Services in Baltimore -- Downloads

Cool-looking collection of CC-licensed Hipster PDA templates include iconic "capture notes," research notes, and (here's a new one for me) a "yarn sorting card." Neat stuff.

Simply drag and drop them to your desktop, or right-click and "save as." Templates are formatted as .png graphics and can be printed as-is or inserted into a formatted document. They can be resized to fit everything from a 3x5 card to a daily organizer to an 8.5x11 sheet.

Kvet.ch features an excellent article on how to print D*I*Y Planner HPDA cards (see the end of this page) directly to 3x5 cards for Mac users. The technique should also work nicely with the templates offered here.

”Active Voice's free Hipster PDA templates” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on February 20, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Introducing the Hipster Shuffle

Merlin — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 21:50:58 -0500

Restless Dreaming » Hipster Shuffle

The crickets. Awesome.

[ via Daring Fireball ]

”Introducing the Hipster Shuffle” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 29, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Podophile on Actiontastic for GTD with your iPod

Merlin — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 08:24:08 -0500

Getting Things Done With Your iPod

My head swims with the number of Mac GTD apps that have sprung up over the last year or so, one of which is the Quicksilver-friendly Actiontastic. Although I haven't spent more than a few minutes playing with Actiontastic, as described by Podophile it appears to merit a look for Hipster PDA-centric iPod fans:

Syncing to my iPod is obviously another big feature for me. At the click of a button, all of your Projects and Context Lists are sent to your Notes folder, making it easy to review them anywhere you happen to be. Obviously, you can’t add or edit items directly with your iPod, but that’s why I always carry my Hipster POD with me. It’s easy enough to input any new items when I get back to my computer.

Funny thing. My newish Treo died two weeks ago, and I've been too busy to get it fixed. Yet, pretty much as I'd predicted to myself when I bought it late last summer, I'm not really missing it. I still was using index cards for on-the-go capture, and, thus far, since the Treo's demise, I find myself no poorer for not being able to check email on MUNI. Yeah, I definitely will get it fixed (Man, I love having Google Maps with me everywhere), but it is interesting how fundamentally a Hipster POD-esque approach must have been encoded on my brain.

[ via LifeDev - GTD for iPods ]

”Podophile on Actiontastic for GTD with your iPod” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on December 28, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Crossword-maker Merl Reagle on index cards

Merlin — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:27:30 -0500

YouTube - The Hipster PDA in Wordplay

In the Will Shortz crossword puzzle documentary, Wordplay, Merl Reagle discusses how he uses index cards to collect and track ideas on the go.

[ via: The Hipster PDA in Wordplay - Lifehacker ]

I love two things in particular about this.

First, I like how Merl Reagle has embraced ubiquitous capture as a way to systematically gather all the disparate drizzles of inspiration that constitute his job's research. Can you imagine how to wrangle the intellectual raw materials for a task like making crossword puzzles? Yikes.

So, just as much, I like how this illustrates the opportunity (and challenge) that more and more people face today: defining what your own job is_. While we're not all employed in a field that's as unique as puzzle-making, most of share Mr. Reagle's need to decide _how we do what we do. And one of the affordances for that process that a lot of folks are using is -- you guessed it -- portable paper.

Thus, crossword puzzle maker now joins my running list of "Black Box Careers."

”Crossword-maker Merl Reagle on index cards” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on December 19, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Michael Angeles: Hipster PDA gear

Merlin — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 05:51:21 -0400

The evolving configuration of my LowFi PDA | urlgreyhot

Michael Angeles on his super-slim lofi setup and a very cool-sounding pen:

I now carry around the Fischer Space Pen I got for Christmas a few years ago, a Nick(it) wallet I got for free in the goody bag from MAD Museum's Mad About Dance event, and a small stack of index cards.

Problem is that I often take the pen out and throw it in a bag or something so I find myself on a subway train with an idea, but nothing to write with. Tina pointed to the Inka Pen, which looks perfect.

If I attach it to my keys, I'll never be without it. Sweetness.

Ooooo...Daddy like. Anybody else tried this Inka Pen? Looks like a very clever design. (See also: Gizmodo: The Inka Pen Lets You Write Underwater)

”Michael Angeles: Hipster PDA gear” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on August 31, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

7 Principles of "Idea Dumping"

Merlin — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 08:44:03 -0400

7 Idea Dumping Tips (How To Manage Diarrhea of the Brain) at LifeDev

LifeDev lays out some good tips for "idea dumping," based on these seven ideas.

ALWAYS carry paper

Be descriptive when writing it down

Plan for not planning on it

Good environments matter

Think big picture down

Organize your thoughts

Know when to stop

Of course I'm a big fan of #1, but I also think there's some terrific advice in #3 (Plan for not planning on it):

One problem with the way we typically brainstorm is this: it’s unnatural. We bang our heads against the wall while chanting “think, think”. If you’re like me, your brain doesn’t like to be told what to do. The second I sit down and “make” myself be creative, my brain goes on lockdown. Nothing in, nothing out. There’s no such thing as forced creativity.

I’ve found that the best way to allow your mind to form ideas is when I’m doing something else. You have to be ready at anytime to jot something down. I know this point is a lot like #1, but I can’t stress it enough.

”7 Principles of "Idea Dumping"” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on August 16, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Back to GTD: Do a fast "mind-sweep"

Merlin — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 13:28:57 -0400

This post is part of the periodic “Back to GTD” series, designed to help you improve your implementation of David Allen’s Getting Things Done.

Whether you learned GTD from the book or heard it from The David himself (via one of his excellent seminars), you know that the vital first stage of Getting Things Done is Collection.

As laid out in Chapter 5:

Basically, everything is already being collected, in the larger sense. If it's not being directly managed in a trusted external system of yours, then it's resident somewhere in your psyche. The fact that you haven't put an item in your in-basket doesn't mean you haven't got it. But we're talking here about making sure that everything you need is collected somewhere other than in your head.

And, as David succinctly states elsewhere in the book, if you don't use a dedicated inbox in the context of a healthy collection habit, your whole house or office turns into your inbox. And that just doesn't scale. Failing to do so in recent weeks may be why you've fallen off the GTD wagon.

So, just as you learned Collection as the first step in implementing GTD (and to subsequently maintain your system), it's precisely the place to start when you're trying to properly get back into it.

And for the errant GTDer, I feel like the most powerful collection exercise is what DA calls "the mind-sweep."

Why the Sweep?

The idea behind the mind-sweep is to identify and gather everything that is making claims on your attention or is likely to affect the larger areas of responsibility in your life -- everything that's quietly burning cycles, stealing focus, and whittling away at your attention -- so that you can then decide what (if anything) must be done about each of those things.

By and large, you'll discover, your head is flooded with this stuff that you aren't or haven't been doing anything about. Not coincidentally, this is almost always stuff that represents some kind of incompletion, functional fuzziness, or procrastination on your part. And as long as you let that stuff accumulate as chunky deposits on the edges of your perception, it's very unlikely it'll get done since -- well -- they won't get done until they're been captured and properly started, right?

I mean, you don't sit around all day obsessing over chores and errands you finished two years ago, do you? No. Duh. They're done. And that's where you want to eventually re-locate all that you're not doing now: "done." That all starts with an exhaustive mind-sweep.

Get it on paper

As I tell my coaching peeps, anxiety unexpectedly becomes your best friend once you start to make a list, so try starting with a single sheet of printer paper and a pencil, set a timer for 10 minutes, and just begin scraping every conceivable anxiety and "open loop" from the corners of your brainpan.

Definitely begin with the hopelessly-behind project that's making you insane right now (don't front; you know that's why you're here), then proceed methodically (and eventually stream-of-consciousness-ly) through every flash of thought that makes you cringe, groan, pause, ponder, or exclaim; these are the runaway processes that are (at least partly) responsible for your brain's current CPU issues. You need them out.

Work the anxiety

Remember, this is your big chance to reward that overly sensitive constitution of yours by converting the fuel for flopsweat into items that can later be made actionable (or deferred or delegated or killed etc). But you can't do anything about it until it's been captured and evaluated in some location that has better lighting than the inside of your pointy little head. So, be courageous, loosen your brain's sphincter, and let 'er rip.

It's very useful here to employ the "Incompletion Triggers List" that David Allen provides in Getting Things Done (look in Chapter 5). If you can read phrases like "Cash flow," "Upcoming Events: Birthdays," and "Areas to Clean" and not feel some cringe of nagging incompletion -- well, you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din. Reading that list sends my own head into paroxysms.

Relentless, exhaustive, and focused

For the sweep to really do its best work, you must call upon extraordinary willpower to stay in collection mode. Remember the day you finally "got" how GTD worked by firewalling your planning time from your doing time? Same idea here. No straying.

Don't go tearing ass toward beginning every task you capture the second it occurs to you. If you're really behind in collection and suffer from distraction, I would (non-canonically) suggest even a sparing use of the two-minute rule. Don't afford yourself opportunities to break concentration if you're really on a roll. Staying focused on, as DA says, quantity of items captured is paramount. Be slavish about constantly returning to capture and follow every mental rabbit hole as far as it goes. Relief is at the other end.

Remember, your brain is smarter than you, and it can't be tricked into thinking that things are taken care of when they actually aren't. It's kind of a dick like that.

So, if the ten minute timer dings, and you've still got stuff on your mind, just keep on plowing away. It might take ten minutes just for you to sufficiently loosen up, and it's important that you gather as much as you can -- particularly if it's been a while since you've done this.

So, now what?

Well, if you've read GTD, you know what to do next; you process.

But, for the purposes of seeing this particular collection strictly in terms of getting back into GTD, I'd suggest also asking yourself a few questions as you read through your list:

Are there items on this list I now realize might have been aggravating my recent GTD slack?
Did anxiety or a feeling of being overwhelmed contribute to avoiding proper planning and execution of these items?
Might there be holes in my system that have made it easy for some of these items to escape and resist subsequent capture?
Has my work, home life, or general focus changed in subtle ways that might make me want to rethink best use of my planning time?
Are there interesting clusters within these projects that suggest opportunities and imminent change?
What sorts of tasks and projects are causing the biggest pain for me now? And how can I evolve a system that helps to compensate for that?

See if you aren't feeling a little better about getting back into things. Do you need more collection or can you proceed to processing? Cool. Onward!

Better collection habits

Remember, now, this doesn't all just happen once; ubiquitous capture is a process that means staying mindful, always having the collection tools you need nearby, and then using them. No, it doesn't have to be a Hipster PDA -- it could be a Treo, a whiteboard, or the side of your freshly shorn cat. The point is, capture the first time you think of it and you can rededicate that mental processing cycle to more interesting creative work.

Have you had good luck using Collection and mind-sweeps to get back into Getting Things Done? Got an inspiring tip to help other folks get back in the swing via smart Collection?

”Back to GTD: Do a fast "mind-sweep"” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on July 24, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

New GTD resources page

Merlin — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 07:01:10 -0400

52 Reviews » Getting Things Done, Resource Edition

52 Reviews has a handy reference page on popular GTD implementation tools. Although, personally, it looks incomplete to me without Kinkless GTD on there :) .

Many of these will be familiar to GTD fans, but there are a few I hadn't seen or that are worthy of a second look:

gsd3 - "It’s all about checkboxes, baby. Bang out a list of the things that you have to do, and draw a little box next to each of them. Finish one up and check it off. Decide to blow it off forever? Just draw an 'X' through the box. Simple, clean, done."
Creating a Custom Moleskine Planner - "With the Palm, I could see a full week, but it was either filled with very tiny type, or the type was large but clipped off, requiring additional taps to see an entry."
Jason: My GTD Implementation - "This system is working well for me. I enjoy the freedom of using 3×5 cards in that they are portable (I also use a Hipster PDA…) and disposable. I love being analog!"

I don't use Moleskines as much as I used to these days, but some of these paper systems get me itching to pick one up again.

”New GTD resources page” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on July 10, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"