Rhoneisms

Here are some random items regarding text stuff I have been collecting for linkage and feeding thought…
Barkings! | The Small Dog Apple Blog: Lowly Old TextEdit – This is a great write up of that often forgotten but consistently improving text editor that does not get nearly the press it deserves – TextEdit. That’s right, the one that comes with Mac OS X. The most recent version of TextEdit is actually a fairly capable basic word processing machine that can do tables, outlines, lists, formatting and more. The other benefit, if you are using Mac OS X, is that it is free. Personally, I think that TextEdit is enough word processor for most users.
WriteRoom | Hog Bay Software – WriteRoom is designed to do one thing and one thing only, provide a full screen distraction free writing environment. Basically (pun intended), you fire up write room and your screen fades to a black blank state. Start typing and your green text is auto-saved on the fly. When you are done, you can export your text to a text file – ready for you to take anywhere. Simple as pudding pie. Again, one benefit of this app is that it is free. Still, for a little money, you could do the same thing and oh so much more with what I use which is…
MacJournal | Mariner Software – MacJournal just plain rules when it comes to getting text done. I will write more about how I use it and, occasionally, Mariner Write to do almost every post you see here. For now I will simply metion on MacJournal’s full screen writing mode (which I am using right now) and how it does everything that WriteRoom and has a few full screen mode features like a scroll bar that WriteRoom does not. Of course, MacJournal also does a bunch more so when I am done typing this I will click one button and publish this but, like I said, more about that in a few days…

Seems as if Amanda Congdon, host of Rocketboom, has had a falling out with Andrew Baron and is now off the hit video blog. I don’t know the full story of what has happened but, let me just say that, without Amanda, why even bother to watch. Not only was she quirky and cute but she has what David Lee Roth calls “CharASSma!” What a huge loss of this great daily vlog and here is to hoping she channels her many talents elsewhere soon. She has a short video post about not being on the show on her personal blog here:
Amanda UnBoomed

Several days ago I had a revelation about my current use of Backpack as a GTD tool and how I might use it even more effectively. Part of this revelation was spurred by an e-mail I received from Swedish reader Daniel Westergren who had some questions about my use of Backpack for GTD after reading my Productivity Whitepaper. The subsequent e-mail exchange that followed led me to some serious “getting real” about my system.
I have described my system in great detail before so I wont go into any more here. Basically, up until now, I have been using the front page in my Backpack as a “Today” page – i.e. things I would like to get done today. I have been moving by copy and paste next actions from my @Action, @Projects, ious individual project pages and @Errands pages to the front page. In other words, my own laborious “kinkless” system of next actions. One benefit to this was the very act of doing this forced a daily review of the items and projects. The obvious problem was how time consuming and counter efficient all of the shuffling around is. Basically, I was using the front page for all of my next actions and therefore would end up with duplicates as keeping track of it all was a tangled mess.
Therefore, here is what I am trying out to make my Backpack system a little more productive:
My Page Setup
Inbox (Home Page) – True to the spirit of GTD, the “home page” in Backpack has been re-titled “Inbox” and basically acts as a digital Inbox. There is one list on this page. One big dumping ground for any action item or project that pops into the head. Just what the name implies. Because it is on the home page it is easy to get to quickly (also, as Daniel pointed out when I ran it past him, easy to get to and dump things from a mobile device – those euros love their mobiles) and that is what you want for an Inbox. Very GTD. When time allows (daily review), two minute or less items are knocked off right away (per The David) and any projects are migrated to and fleshed out on the @Projects page or it’s own separate page (more on that in a bit).
@Projects – This page exists how I use it right now, with a separate list for each project, but with an added but important modification. I have added a topmost list titled Next Actions. N/As are then moved from the projects below to the NA list at the top via Backpack’s ajaxy drag and droppiness. This way, I go to that page and see right away the next actions for all of the projects on the page.
Individual Project Pages – Now I should take a moment here to clarify what the projects are on the @Projects page. That page is for smaller one-to-five step projects as to do anything else would make the page too confusing and long. Projects that are larger than that (my wedding for example) I actually break out into their own separate page as they may have multiple lists and sub projects. Another advantage to this approach is that you can use the other features of backpack like notes, attaching documents, etc. for things that are specific to that project. With that being said, I still make a next action list the first list on the top so I can see right away what I need to do. I have an example project page here: Sweetime Project.
@Someday – Like any good GTDer, you need a space to defer and to dream. The someday/maybe list is where you do that. Scan this as part of your weekly review.
OK, so here is the workflow in a nutshell…
1. Log into Backpack.
2. Process Items in the Inbox using the “Three D’s” (Do, Defer, Delegate). Move any projects to either @Projects, an existing project or a new project page as appropriate.
3. Switch to the @Projects page and process the Next Actions list at the top accordingly.
4. Switch to any individual project pages. Do the same thing.
5. Feel smug about your Org-fu.
Notes About Contexts
I myself do not use contexts that often. Mainly it is because I find most days too interrupt driven to have a block of time to work on a specific context list and Backpack does not seem well designed for them. I just do what I do, when I do them, where I can do them. That being said, I do foresee a way to make contexts a part of this system. Place them before the action to be done. This can be especially useful on project pages where you can group items on the Next Action list by context. For example:
Next Actions
Call – Bob re: Chocolate levels.
Call – Peter re: Additional flavors of creamy nougat.
Computer – Google map Tobelerone factory.
Computer – Look up Wikipedia entry for William Wonka.
Errand – Buy a box of Kit Kat bars for evaluation.
Another way to handle contexts would be to have multiple context lists on individual project pages. I suspect that will get messy quite fast but your milage may y.
Other Pages to Consider
The idea and motivation of all of this is to not only show you what I am doing but also to help spur ideas for you, the reader. Ultimately, the only system that works is one that works for you. That being said, here are some other pages you may find a useful part of your Backpack GTD setup:
@Waiting For – These are items that you delegated or deferred pending others but still need to track. It would be useful here to add who you delegated the item to and the date (i.e. “Call – Board Members re: Drop in stock price > Bill 06.27.06”). Include in your weekly review.
@Stalled – This is an area for projects and/or actions that are currently inactive or stalled for an indefinite period of time. Ditto for the review.
Using Tags for Review Time
Backpack has a feature that allows you to tag pages. I have started using this feature to easily do my daily, weekly and monthly reviews. Basically, every page has one or more of these tags with the exception of the front page which has all of them. Why does the front page have them all? Because that way I can click on “daily” and it drops down a list of all of the pages I should review daily. Same with weekly and monthly. Thus allowing me to easily cycle through the pages during those review times right from the front page.
Wrapping Up
I have not been with this new setup long but it seems to be working well thus far. The “rethinking” of the front page has really been a huge time saver and helped me focus on getting things out of my effed up mess of a head fast. Simple and seemless capture and collection is the first step of what GTD is all about. I then can spend time on processing them later.
As with everything here, your comments, questions and criticisms (assuming they are constructive) are welcome. It is only through such an exchange this post exists to begin with.

This news is now all over the place but I would be remiss if I did not say something about it. In case you live in a world without media and have not heard, Warren Buffett, head of Berkshire Hathaway and the worlds 2nd richest person, is going to give away a vast majority of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. You read that right. The worlds 2nd rich person is giving most of his money to the foundation of the worlds richest person.
Now before all you pinks get your panties in a bunch about rich guys giving other rich guys money, let us remember just how much the Gates Foundation has done to fight diseases, improve education, build libraries and sponsor NPR. Just think how much more they could do with even more money and resources. I mean, seriously, diseases like malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis could be a memory in a relatively short time with enough money thrown at them. The possibilities of this kind of philanthropy are staggering.
FORTUNE Magazine: Warren Buffett gives away his fortune

Starting this week, I am moving from my trusty Moleskine Pocket Ruled to a new Moleskine Pocket 18 Month Softcover Weekly Planner. As regular readers know, I have been breathlessly anticipating the arrival of these new planners. They have a new layout which features a weekly calendar on the left hand page and a basic ruled page on the right, therefore allowing me to keep my action items and calendar items in one easy to carry place. Here are some quick initial impressions:
• I am not sure if this is due to age or wear and tear but the paper in the new planners seems brighter than that of the ruled style I was using.
• The pocket on the new planners is not gusseted like the old style and, therefore, items placed inside are a bit more difficult to see and access.
• The ruled lines on the new planners also seem to be closer together but I have not actually measured to see if that is correct.
• There are a wealth of additional pages included in the planner. Some you might expect like Time Zones, International Dialing Codes and Distances (a grid to figure out distances between major cities). There are some others that are surprising but useful such as Travel Planning pages, a page with a ruler on the side for being able to mark down measurements and some monthly pages for 2006-2008 to mark birthdays, anniversaries and other similar items.
• These have a softcover unlike the standard hard cover Moleskines. Although it is soft it still seems very durable and well designed (perhaps even better because it can flex a bit) for carrying in your pants pocket.
• I also have switched the pen I am using from the (still awesome) Pilot G2 Pro with a .05mm cartridge to a Uniball Signo Micro 207. This is due in part to Mike Rohde’s review and recomendation and also to my own side by side comparison. The Uniball has a slightly slimmer line and seems to dry more quickly. So far it is being good to me.
All in all, I am pretty pleased thus far. Also, a major shout out to Ninth Wave Designs where I purchased it from for the very fast delivery and friendly service. They rock and I recommend them highly for all of your Moleskine needs. they also have a great blog filled with lots of drool worthy artwork and Moleskine pr0n

On June 15, 2006 at 9:30PM, Bethany and I were married in a small candlelit ceremony with our family and close friends in attendance. It was beautiful, romantic, filled with love and plenty of fun. There are way to many details of the evening to post them all right now. All I can say is that it was a perfect day in every respect. From picking up friends at the airport, to picking up the cakes and desserts, to getting dressed, to seeing my beautiful bride for the first time, to taking pictures in the park, to eating dinner with the Best Ma’am and Man of Honor, to the space lit entirely by candles, to the beautiful music, to Rev Xanthia, to the heart felt and personal vows, to the moment we kissed, to the dessert and very expensive champagne, to the wedding night spent in our new loft space at home – It was all like a very beautiful dream. I know it was not because we have pictures to prove it all really happened.
This was followed by a whirlwind of setup, cooking, driving, picking up, delivering, frantic hand waving and then…
On June 17th, 2006 at 7:00pm, Bethany and I had a kick-ass reception. I won’t go into great detail as Bethany has done a much better and more thorough job on Indebride (she begins her 12 step program soon we hope). Let me just say that we put a lot of work into it and had a lot of fun. It was the exactly what we both wanted and envisioned and came off without a hitch.
I am still filled with humble wonderment every time I look at her and say “This is my wife”.
Update: Pictures from our friend Val here.

I feel like Michael and I have just been knighted by the queen! My website, co-designed with Michael, has been picked as one of the Screens Around Town by the 37 Signals guys. This is a regular feature of web design they deem to be top notch and examples of “Getting Real”. It is quite an honor.

Why oh why do the otherwise nice folks at 37 Signals taunt me this way? Here is a screencast of the not-yet-released calendar feature they are adding to Backpack.
Backpack Calendar teaser video

I have been playing around a bit as of late with Flock 0.7, the latest version of the Web 2.0-ified, Firefox based browser. I must say that I am more and more impressed with every release. They really seem to be making it as easy as possible to integrate a fast browser with bookmarking services like del.icio.us, Flickr and built in blogging support. In fact, I am making this post using it right now. It has a great built-in news reader and a nice little snippets function to clip and save text and images for later use. All with drag and drop goodness. Also, because it is based on Firefox it supports many of the extensions that us Firefox users have grown to depend on. Oh, and it looks good too.

Seems like they are actually going from alpha to beta with the next release so it seems like a good time to check it out especially if you are a blogger and looking for a solution to browse and easily post the stuff you find. Once it does go beta, I may have to give it some love as my full time browser to see if it can last.

Those of you who are not long time Mac users may not even remember Claris. Claris was a wholly owned Apple subsidiary that produced some of the most killer software of its day. Most of Claris software offerings still live on today. Filemaker, for instance, is still around. Parts of Claris Emailer got worked into Mail.app (although my friend Dawn would argue, not enough of it). Claris Organizer was sold to Palm Inc. and became Palm Desktop for the Mac (and remains to this day largely identical to the Claris version). ClarisWorks eventually became AppleWorks.
In my opinion, ClarisWorks is one of the best office suites ever conceived. It was the most used application on my Mac for several years. It was way ahead of it’s time and even Microsoft Office took years to even catch up with it’s features on the Mac. Therefore, it was with great interest and excitement that I stumbled across this history of ClarisWorks that ends up, in part, being a history of Claris the company:
A Brief History of ClarisWorks