Category: post

This is the first of several entries for the readers of my ious locations around the interwebs. Here is a definition of people, relationships, holdings, and terms that I refer to often:
* Princess Bethany – My wife, best friend and soul mate. Mother of my future daughter. The woman I have waited all of my life to find. We do almost everything together. She is one of the few people that I never tire of and am always intrigued by.
* My sons, Maxim and Miles -They are aged 16 and 14 respectively.
* Trixie – My future daughter (not yet here). Due date, February 14th but, you know, kids never listen. Therefore could be anytime.
* Roy the Wonderpug – My old Pug dog. He is getting up there in age and can no longer walk. He has lost control of most of his bodily functions as well. His time is coming soon. He has been a good companion and I will miss him deeply.
* Geronimo! – Our new dog. He is a 7 year old Keeshond with a real joy for life. A bit of a handful and a bundle of affection. Hence the reason I spell his name with a bang (!).

More reports of my stumbles around the internets…
Macworld has a great little tutorial for Mac users on creating a smart folder in the Finder to find recent files and applications. This is a great way to get at documents you have worked on recently that may be scattered in different folders. (via Lifehacker)
Moleskine is now offering it’s classic notebook line with soft covers versus the normal ones. The soft covers are a bit more pliable and, therefore, perhaps even more pocket friendly. (via Moleskinerie)
Like the Pilot G2 series of pens but the point is a little thick for your tastes? Well, Staples is now offering the Ultra Fine Point version (.38mm). Only $14.99 for a dozen. Having been a Pilot G2 fan, I can personally attest that these are a great and relatively inexpensive option. (via Daring Fireball)
Lifehacker has some good tips on how to cover your butt by taking good notes. The idea being that, if you have good notes on a situation, you can have a log of who said/did what, when and how. Great example of how simply having pen and paper at hand can save the day. Here is a quote:

The best way to avoid conflict is to understand what you are being asked to do. The next best way is to have proof that you’re doing what you were asked. That proof is complete and accurate notes. Of all the ways to keep yourself out of trouble and get ahead, your notes—if thorough and detailed—can provide you a clear path.
Great stuff!
Wired Magazine has a great write-up on David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, in it’s current issue. One of the better articles I have seen. They even peek a bit into his personal life and associations with Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness.
Speaking of The David, his series at The Huffington Post continues to impress. His latest entry, “What Does ”Organized“ Really Mean?“
Zen Habits comes through again with 10 Things You Can Do Today to Simplify Your Life. There are some good tips here including one I am a recent fan of – the small to-do list.
Favorite productivity site 43 Folders has had a complete overhaul with not only a new look but new features that make it a lot more easy to find popular and related content. I am still trying to come to terms with some aspects of it. I love the design and feel but I hate the new forums (which I was an active contributor to).

I have written before of my love for my Levenger Shirt Pocket Briefcase as my ubiquitous capture tool of choice. It is small, keeps me organized and is highly back pocketable. Always at the ready to help capture the action items that pop up in the course of my day. The three pockets help to keep a few spare index cards around (I use Levenger’s expensive-but-worth-it brand) and allow me to stash a few business cards to boot.
While it was great for capture, I needed something equally portable, pocketable and chic (style is important to me) for personal note taking. I often find myself in situations outside of work that require me to jot down things of a more permanent nature. For that, I am loving the new Field Notes notebooks. They have a durable cover, great grid style paper that takes ink very well and a fantastic sense of design nerd style. You get a three pack of these babies for just under 10 bucks and it is money well spent.
Due to recent health concerns, the idea of getting to a point where I can carry everything I need to get me through my day in my pockets is an especially important goal to me. Not to mention, once a baby girl comes along and I now have my hands full of strollers and bottles. These two items get my a long way there.

I have a whole backlog of stuff to catch up on so this might be one long, rambling mess. Also, since it has been a while, some of this may already be old news to you. This being said, you may find a a gem or two in the rubble. Let’s get started.
On the productivity front…
Kelly Forester of David Co, recently wrote something that really resonated with me and has caused me to look through, reevaluate and clean up my lists. For GTD best practice, she argues that one does not DO projects, you DO next actions. One should review the projects list regularly but one should only be working from the next action list. Great little post that helps to get your GTD back in focus.
That being said, one thing I have been doing lately that kind of goes against the tenants of GTD is making up a tiny todo list on an index card at the start of each day as recommended in this post by Leo Babauta at Web Worker Daily. This has really worked for me and keeps me from being overwhelmed by the giant working list of next actions I seem to have (which I probably need to refocus a la above).
There have been a few good recent reviews of Grand Central, a recent Google acquisition. Grand Central allows you to sign up for a local phone number and, with that one number, control all of your phone routing and voicemail. Merlin Mann has a nice little write up on how it has helped manage his telephonic life. Planet Intertwingly has an even longer review. I have signed up and have only just begun to dip my feet in the water but so far it looks very cool.
LifeClever cites a recent interview of Jason Fried of 37 Signals on the negative productivity costs of working closely together with others. In fact, Jason says “Proximity is an invitation to interrupt somebody. And interruption is the biggest enemy of productivity that there is.” Interesting stuff.
In a little bit of related self promotion, your truly was featured when the 37 Signals Product Blog took a look at Ideas for Getting Things Done with Backpack. Color me honored!
Hey paper nerds. Do you like lined paper for taking notes but wish you had grid paper for sketching on the fly? With Doane Paper you can have both. It combines both into a single sheet. You have to click the link and take a look for a better explanation of why they mean. The prices for each pad are not bad and the paper looks to be of good quality so well worth it. They also have a free template to download and print your own if that is your thing.
In other news…
As a sort of addendum to my previous iPhone post (and why I am waiting to get one), Thoughtfix has a fabulous post up comparing the iPod Touch to the Nokia N800. It is very thorough and makes a very strong case for the reasons why you may want both.
The New York Times has recently (finally) dropped the paywall they had for many of the archives of their articles and Jason Kottke is dumpster diving for the best stuff. The journalistic history here is astounding. Some of his finds include the firs mention of the World Wide Web, an early report of Lincoln’s assassination, and a report on the sinking of the Titanic. If you are even a casual fan of history, this post will save a lot of the hard work of trolling through this vast archive for you. Outstanding.
I have written about Flock before. It is an amazing new web browser, based upon the Mozilla engine, that is built around the idea of the “social web”. It has tight integration with many social networking and blogging services such a Flickr and del.icio.us. Flock is looking like it will be a real winner once it officially hits 1.0 as this video with CEO Shawn Hardin at PodTech indicates. I am betting my friend Jane at Social Days will be all over this when it hits.

I have had a terrible cold/flu type bug that has had me pretty much incapacitated for the last several days. While this sucked for sure, it gave me much time to ruminate on a tough decision I have had on my mind a lot lately weather or not to get an iPhone.
I really want one. There would be several advantages to my getting one. It would replace several devices I currently carry with just one. It has seamless integration with my Mac. The interface is intuitive and elegant. My work provides a reimbursement for getting a smart phone, thus reducing the cost. Oh, did I mention that it would make me look cool too?
The main problem is that I have an active Verizon contract. Getting out of it would either be a) expensive (i.e. Early Termination Fee) or b) a hassle (i.e. arguing my way out of Early Termination Fee). Not to mention that Princess Bethany and I have a shared plan and it would entail getting us both switched, porting numbers, etc. A lot of work…
The thing is, I currently have a device that can do everything that the iPhone can and more, is equally portable, is open source and has a wealth of 3rd party applications that can extend the capabilities of the device even further – The Nokia N800. The Nokia has WiFi, can play most video types, music files, has an excellent web browser that supports flash, has bluetooth that, with the addition of a data plan, will allow me to access the web through my phone, over 3G no less. Not to mention I can make calls via Skype or Gizmo Project via VOIP.
Although the integration with the desktop is not nearly as seamless as the iPhone, and it means having to also carry (and use) my (crappy, defective, and getting worse) RAZR, it means I can wait until my contract is up next May to think about making the switch. By that time, hopefully the iPhone will be greatly improved (more storage, support for flash in the browser, 3G, etc.) and the wait will be worth it.

Sorry for the lack of posts as of late. There are many reasons for this that I could list here but they would all sound like a lot of excuses. They would not hold much water anyway. The fact is that I have been posting a fair amount other places. Just not here.
Many who know me are aware of the fact the I have a very broad set of interests. When I started this blog, it was supposed to be just a place for me to post any old thing I wanted. Anything that had my attention at the time. Apple news, productivity stuff, film and media, science, religion – anything. I had a handful of readers. Most of them were friends, or family, or internet acquaintances. They stopped by to see what was on my mind that day or week. They stopped by after Apple news broke to see my take on it. They stopped by to see what I had to say about an article on particle accelerators that I read. They stopped by to see what was up with me and Princess Bethany. It was a lot of fun. It was mine.
It just so happened that, I caught the GTD bug right around the time that über-meme was beginning to catch fire. Therefore, I just happened to be posting a lot about that subject because that is what was up with me. I had this new and very busy life and personal productivity, lifehacks, Moleskine, Backpack, GTD was helping me get through it.
Then, to my amazement, my little musings on these subjects started getting linked by others. Not just any others mind you, but some of the gurus of the GTD field. My traffic from this exposure grew exponentially. More and more people were coming to the site, looking for more and more of that type of information. Therefore, I felt the obligation to deliver, since that is what so many of my visitors were looking for. My little spot on the net became “Patrick Rhone’s Personal Productivity Blog”. I soon felt like I could not post about other things that captured my attention because that is not what people were visiting for. People wanted GTD. They wanted lifehacks. They wanted info on web apps. It was an obligation. It was a task. It stopped being fun. It stopped being mine. It belonged to the readers.
This being said, I am posting a whole bunch some other places. You may even find some of those posts of interest. Here is where you can often see me:

• The Random Post – This is my current favorite baby. It really is as close to what I originally intended for this blog. Just like the name implies, I post anything that captures my interest or that I run across in my internet travels. I post short little reviews about stuff I read, see or buy. My del.icio.us links and Flickr photos get aggregated there as well. I am having a lot of fun with it.
• Jaiku – This is fairly new for me but I am having fun with the whole idea of “microblogging”. If you want to see what I am doing and where I am going on a regular basis, this is a low impact way to see.

• Team Trixie – This is the blog I have started to keep family and friends updated as to the progress of my (yet to be born) daughter. For those not aware, Princess Bethany and I are having a baby.

• Geek Gather – This is a collection of friends of mine that get together on a regular basis at a local venue to talk tech and such.

• In addition, I have several other projects in the cooker but not ready to share those yet.

I am not quite sure where to go next with my feelings stated above on this site, or what to do to change them. I have some ideas but they are not well fleshed out, and may not come while patrickrhone.com is in it’s current configuration. That does not mean that you wont see any more posts here. You will. Just expect them with the frequency that they have been for the past few months (i.e. occasionally).
Thanks to all of you who have followed this far. I hope not to let you down.

There are a ton of GTD based task management applications still on the horizon. One to fit just about any preference it seems.
On one end of the spectrum, there will be Things by Cultured Code. If you like the bells and whistles wrapped in a pretty package than this will be the one for you. It has a ton of features like tagging, hierarchy, a quick entry pane, etc. You can even delegate items by Mail, Bonjour or iChat. (via Daring Fireball)
On the other end, there is TaskPaper. It is basically a very simple GUI and formatting structure wrapped around a text file. Seriously, the document it creates to store your data is nothing more than a text file and can be opened and manipulated with a text editor. It is done in such a disarmingly simple and minimalist way that I immediately fell in love. If you are looking for something with a little more formating and clarity than a plain text file but no more than this is for you. (via 43 Folders)
If neither of those flip your switch, ATPM has a fantastic rundown of the current deluge of GTD applications that are available. Well worth a read if you are still on the search. (via 43 Folders)
Not GTD related, an interesting blog to pop up on the radar screen is TagaMac. They plan to explore the intersections of “tagging” and the Macintosh. Tagging is becoming an increasingly popular way to classify and easily search and sort items. Many of the applications I use rely heavily on tags. If given the choice between tagging and organizing things into folders, give me tagging any day.
Being that I am about to have a newborn (Princess Bethany and I are “with child”), I found this post at The Simple Dollar timely. If you start saving 10 dollars a day on the day your child is born, and you play your cards right, you could have $38,952.16 to give them when they are 25. Great down payment for their first house.

For those who are not in the know, there was a major bridge collapse in Minneapolis today. It is unbelievable, surreal and tragic. Everyone I know, including many who take that bridge every day near that time, are OK so far. Peace be with those affected.

Here is a quick little tip I have been using lately. Lately, in order to hold my place in books and magazines, I have been using a business card for a bookmark. The advantages of this are several, but here are the ones I like. First, I always seem to have one with me so I never have to search for a “proper” bookmark. Second, if I were to leave my book somewhere accidentally, it might have a chance of finding it’s way back to me, due to the information contained on the card.