Seinfeld Chain and GTD

1. Get started
Seinfeld chain is a simple technique that helps me to keep a continuous practice.

1.1 Basics
First step is to understand the technique. The best explanation I've found about it is here:
http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret

1.2 What is needed
A simple tool for keeping track of the chains.
There are some on-line alternatives here:
http://www.persistenceunlimited.com/2007/09/seinfeld-says-dont-break-the-chain/
I found them a bit raw and use a spreadsheet instead.

2. Learning
It is not really too much to learn about Seinfeld chain. The difficult part is know what you want to be part of your daily practice. You will need to list your activities, its frequency and the timeframe it will be performed.

Example:

Read technical books - 10 min per day - at least 5 days a week
Play/study chess - 30 min per day - at least 6 days a week
English study - 15 min per day or 2 complete exercises - at least 5 days a week

3. Practice
First step is create your core-list-of-tasks.
I got mine using the following steps:
(a) I listed everything I would like to do with my free time in a regular day
(b) I put the time you would like to spent in each activity (it is important reserve time for family, friends, sleep, unexpected, etc)
(c) After adding the times and compare with my free time I started to cut activities to a minimum
(d) I repeated step (c) until I reached a compromise situation. Of course later I discovered that I was still far away from the truth.

4. Tools
5. Going further
6. Caveats

How I use the Seinfeld Chain technique to Get Things Done

I will develop this article step-by-step.
I will cover these topics:

1. Get started
1.1 Basics
1.2 What is needed
2. Learning
3. Practice
4. Tools
5. Going further
6. Caveats

Kaizaen mindmap 3 - refurbished...

Filling the future with the past

POOL RESULT

Give your opinion

Kaizen map - part 4

Last one...

Kaizen map - part 3

The last one will be about my personal impressions about the book and will end the serie about it.

Kaizen map - part 2

part 2 of 3.

Kaizen map - part 1

I've decided to break down the previous mindmap.

Homage to MMJr

bow

Intermezzo: Kaizen Book Mindmap 1

Memos - How they look like...

How my memos look like:

Categories

GTD is about lists. I use my Palm categories to create sets of lists. The second level of classification is the name of the file.

This is an overview how things look:

GTD
crit for choosing act
level to review work
what is work
weekly review
collectors
mission
levels of importance
LOCAL
past accomplishment
home
palm
contactnet
head
work
errands
computerhome
calls
PROJ
blog Luciano
blog Alex
Mindmap license
personal productivity
asw Disconzi's questionnaire
RUP for Eliane
professional
health
english
error message in the computer
explore chroma
instal torrent in Acer
cleanup Acer
kbase in Buffallo
media control
fix bluettoth earphone
chess
lone wolf and cub collection
PROJOK
logo
sandman collection
RF (reference)
10 for health
10 for chess
10 for ...
List frog
List ideas
List...
Learn with XYZ
Learn with ...
Info Jung types
RR (read review)
books read
magazines
articles
listen(audible)
books
chess books
SM (someday maybe)
ideas
see
do
visit
know
go
subscribe
learn
write
eat
buy
listen
taste
watch
music
surf
handwriting
storytelling
Nilo's thesis
cvt
43FOLDERS
...


Cost: 2 30-min timebox.

Collectors (Buckets)

GTD starts with collecting.

I use three buckets and am a firm believer that the fewer collectors you have the better. As you are supposed to always have a bucket with you, I would suggest that you have at least one physical collector available (remember the eletromagnetic pulse).

My buckets are: 

1. My Palm (Treo 640) software BugMe;
2. Loose paper leaves that I always carry around in my shirt pocket;
3. A notepad that I always carry with me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done

This is the result of 3 timeboxes of 30 min
To do:
-Fix the links and review the article;

-Add images

GTD and the Electromagnetic pulse

One of my deepest fears is the ultimate electromagnetic pulse. After it, all my electronic media and backups will be obsolete and I always ask myself how to deal with cockroaches and lack of technology.

to be continued...

Intermezzo: Quis ustodiet ipso custodes (Juvenal)

For those who like Comics, Watchmen movie is a must see.
More intelligent than other adaptations, full of cool references and with an excellent soundtrack it is a really good entertainment.
I liked it very much.

Bow,

lsf.

Coming soon: GTD and the Eletromagnetic Pulse

Johnny goes to war

Conflict is part of life. The worst kind of confict is war, because it represents a dead end in the effort to find a solution. Being against war isn't necessarily right or wrong and I think that we should always think about it. Poetry is always a good start...

Johnny Goes To War
by William Thomas Dodd, Germany

Clip clop, clip clop, Johnny goes to war,
left right, left right, does he know what for?
Bang, bang, bang, off goes the gun,
click, clack, clang, Johnnies on the run.
Running for his life, thinking of his wife.

Tatter-Tatter-Tatter-Natter,
listen to machine-gun clatter,
splitter- splatter, splitter-splatter
another life it doesn’t matter.

Politicians tittle-tattle
while brave men, for them do battle,
then die in their wars
while they take the applause,
listen to their roars,
“Let’s fight for the cause”

Scrunching, screeching,
in sun gleaming
is the Tank, commander beaming,
“Fire” he shouts then turns about,
to watch them die, hear them screaming

Boing, boing, boing, bouncing bomb,
boom, boom, doom, gloom,
Bomb explodes, Johnnies gone.
Derrrr-da-derrrr, derrrr-da-derrr,
the bugle sounds retreat.
Johnnies gone to heaven
his maker to meet.

Knock-knock, knock-knock,
there’s someone at the door,
it’s a telegram addressed to mam,
Johnnies gone to war.

Intermezzo: Dark room

There is nothing more old-fashioned than text editors.
It seems, nowaday, that we are all stuck with Microsoft Word which, in my opinion, is a shame. I'm in conflict with Word, and still prefer WordPerfect.

As a tradionalist, I miss the plain Terminal sessions, reminders of a time when things were simpler.

This is why I was pleasantly surprised with They Misled Us' Dark Room, the distraction-free text editor.

You can read about and try it by following these links::

Dark Room
Text Editor Dark Room
Text Editor White Room





Hope you like it.

bow.

Do you write for yourself of for others v 1.1

Of course you write for both but the trick is not the answer but the approach used to write. When I received this question some time ago, I thought that I will have no difficulty in answering it. Of course I should do some research so that I not became obvious or too simplistic. Note that this is a part of the answer already.
I did a mindmap (shown here) and played with some ideas when I started to realize that the task is not so simple as I thought in the beginning. I've spent some time reading books about how to write: The 4 Noble truths for writers and Clockwork Muse. Meanwhile I discovered that reading about writing and writing are two different (but related) things. So, as to exercise is the key - I started to write, and write and write...
Every single paragraph was complicated or presumptuous. I became eager to have something ready fast. Not even Beyond Bullet Points technique (I event thought about making a presentation instead of a text) helped me at that point. I read more
Orsai (Hernan Casciari) and tried to do something more relaxed. I started to think about concepts and keywords.
My first and more important concept is that writing is sharing and sharing is the start point to discuss and learn. The second concept is that writing is communication, meaning that I have to have an emissor, a receptor, and the writing itself is the media. It is OK to write with one or more aspects of my personality - I can be part of the audience, as well. The catch is that the more distant I become from myself, less things I will have in common with the audience I'm sharing with.
In essence, what I've learnt is that I can write for myself or for the audience it does not really matters (as I may write as myself or as another one), writing is sharing, the only error is not to write (and not to share) - so I should write for anyone (or anyway) that can maximize my sharing and communication.

next: final review

Do you write for yourself of for others? v 1.0

Of course you write for both but the trick is not the answer but the approach used to write. When I received this question some time ago, I thought that I will have no difficulty in answering it. Of course I should do some research so that I not became obvious or too simplistic. Note that this is a part of the answer already.
I did a mindmap (shown here) and played with some ideas when I started to realize that the task is not so simple as I thought in the beginning. I've spent some time reading books about how to write: The clockwork muse and Four noble truths for writers. Meanwhile I discovered that reading about writing and writing are two different (but related) things. So, as to exercise is the key - I started to write, and write and write...
Every single paragraph was complicated or presumptuous. I became eager to have something ready fast. Not even Beyound Bullet Points technique (I event thought about making a presentation instead of a text) helped me at that point. I read more Orsai and tried to do something more relaxed. I started to think about concepts and keywords.
My first and more important concept is that writing is sharing and sharing is the start point to discuss and learn. The second concept is that writing is communication, meaning that I have to have an emissor, a receptor, and the writing itself is the media. It is OK to write with one or more aspects of my personality - I can be part of the audience, as well. The catch is that the more distant I become from myself, less things I will have in common with the audience I'm sharing with.
In essence, what I've learnt is that I can write for myself or for the audience it does not really matters (as I may write as myself or as another one), writing is sharing, the only error is not to write (and not to share) - so I should write for anyone (or anyway) that can maximize my sharing and communication.

next: fix the links, correct english, review text

New Year's resolutions:

I like this tradition so let's start:

1. use GDT properly
2. use Time Boxes
3. complete at least 100 Polgar Chess problems
4. use Jerry Seinfeld’s “task chain” tip
5. Use ISO Weeks.

And, lastly, whether to post regularly or close the blog for good.

Happy New Year!