Write This Down
Howdy, Gang!
This is so important, you are going to want to write it down. Full of myself? Finish reading and you can decide.
A revolutionary thought to help you get things done and have a sense of accomplishment in life had to be explained to me by Paul Kyriazi in How to Live the James Bond Lifestyle, one of the best self-improvement books that I have ever read. Or heard (audio only available now). Well, Bond knows how to get things done.
If you want to get something accomplished, write it down! Yes, it is simple. Too simple. Most of us forget this. When I am working, I scratch something onto a piece of paper or fire off an e-mail to my home account. When I get home, I consolidate things onto my PDA. Substitute your appointment calendar, Outlook, Sunbird calendar, Google calendar, ring binder notebook or whatever. Get a consistent system, check it at least once a day.
Kyriazi insists that we use target dates. Well, if everything is left open-ended, it becomes "eventually", and then nothing gets done. Even the small stuff that you think you will remember should be on the list, at least at first. I like to put everything on it, though, including the "eventually" stuff (watch for my eBay listings in early December, that task is open-ended right now). Come back to it, prioritize or even discard. Yes, you can discard things to trim out what you do not really need to deal with.
Here is a tip from my Buddhist friends: Forgive yourself if you mess up. Your reminder alarm went off and you forgot to do that thing? Fuggedaboudit. Re-date and reset the alarm, try again. But I have to interject here that your commitments to other people, things that require you to keep your word, are your priority. Promises to yourself are very important, but doing the manly thing of keeping your word is first place.
(Checking PDA, clicking "done" column for "Task: AoM Article on Writing it Down". I love that sense of accomplishment when I click on "Done"!)
See? Told you this was important!
This is so important, you are going to want to write it down. Full of myself? Finish reading and you can decide.
A revolutionary thought to help you get things done and have a sense of accomplishment in life had to be explained to me by Paul Kyriazi in How to Live the James Bond Lifestyle, one of the best self-improvement books that I have ever read. Or heard (audio only available now). Well, Bond knows how to get things done.
If you want to get something accomplished, write it down! Yes, it is simple. Too simple. Most of us forget this. When I am working, I scratch something onto a piece of paper or fire off an e-mail to my home account. When I get home, I consolidate things onto my PDA. Substitute your appointment calendar, Outlook, Sunbird calendar, Google calendar, ring binder notebook or whatever. Get a consistent system, check it at least once a day.
Kyriazi insists that we use target dates. Well, if everything is left open-ended, it becomes "eventually", and then nothing gets done. Even the small stuff that you think you will remember should be on the list, at least at first. I like to put everything on it, though, including the "eventually" stuff (watch for my eBay listings in early December, that task is open-ended right now). Come back to it, prioritize or even discard. Yes, you can discard things to trim out what you do not really need to deal with.
Here is a tip from my Buddhist friends: Forgive yourself if you mess up. Your reminder alarm went off and you forgot to do that thing? Fuggedaboudit. Re-date and reset the alarm, try again. But I have to interject here that your commitments to other people, things that require you to keep your word, are your priority. Promises to yourself are very important, but doing the manly thing of keeping your word is first place.
(Checking PDA, clicking "done" column for "Task: AoM Article on Writing it Down". I love that sense of accomplishment when I click on "Done"!)
See? Told you this was important!
Tags: gtd, james bond, paul kyriazi
Add a Comment
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Comment by Leif on October 8, 2009 at 1:44pm - @Yankee - Nice find on the link. Will have to go there gain when I need to reorder. They are pricey, but I can skip a few cappuccino-mochaccino-alpacinos every now and then
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Comment by Yankee Cowboy Bob on October 8, 2009 at 11:40am - but it works for me Pat, you have a system that works. That is the important thing.
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Comment by Pat Newbold on October 8, 2009 at 11:21am - I have been using a pda from the time they first came out, and I was called every name in the book: geek, kook, pencil neck, wierd, etc. But it was funny to me, you see, because those same individuals were always coming to me for information and were always upset that I didn't miss appointments and wasn't late for events. After all......THEY could remember that stuff, even though they proved they didn't. Seems like I wore a pda out about every year or so. The latest incarnation of this is my mini-laptop. It's the same size as a small book, but has the capacity of a large pc. I constantly write myself notes and then transfer them to my mini. When at work I carry a flashdrive and type notes into a temporary file that is downloaded and easily carried home to upload to my mini. The programs are the same as my desktop computers so it includes Outlook, Adobe, Word, Excel, and all the other related programs. I type faster and keep thoughts straighter then when I manually write them out. I know it seems complicated.....but it works for me.
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Comment by Philip Rodney Moon on October 7, 2009 at 8:08pm -
Writing down ideas is good for writers or creative thinkers as well. I got into it when another friend who was a screenwriter and trying stand up started carrying one around with him. He had several filled up with ideas, many that would never go anywhere, but several that could have been lost and forgotten had he not jotted it down.
I used one that isn't a moleskin, but has the elastic strap. For organization I date the entry, which gives a cue to the context of where the idea came from.
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Comment by Yankee Cowboy Bob on October 7, 2009 at 5:37pm
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http://bit.ly/9EcHE
This link was hidden with all of my other messing around. You can get them a bit cheaper than from the main site.
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Comment by Leif on October 7, 2009 at 5:21pm
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CD mix of my New Age Celtic Music Them's fightin' words! (ain't I a devil?)So that's why you wear the the hat ;-)
There are some things that I know I just won't remember so I like to get them on paper as soon as I can. And you're right, it does free of the mind so you don't have to spend the energy worrying about this, that, and the other.
Forgot the link: http://bit.ly/Ih7v
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Comment by Yankee Cowboy Bob on October 7, 2009 at 4:22pm
- Wow, you guys expanded it! I recommend writing down "to do", and you write everything down. Something I forgot to put in my article will apply very well here: Free up your mind! Something pops into your head and floats around like a gnat on acid, taking up brain memory space until you delete it by writing it down. I wrote this to help others, and you guys are helping me out! Isn't community great? I should send Leif a CD mix of my New Age Celtic Music }:-)> (ain't I a devil?), but instead, how about a link to some Field Notes? http://bit.ly/9EcHE Maybe Gregory can use that idea as well.
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Comment by Leif on October 7, 2009 at 2:28pm
- I use Field Notes notebooks. They're small and fit well enough into a pocket. NOt to mention they've got a great (and useful) motto, "I'm not writing it down to remember it later, I'm writing it down to remember it now." I write just about anything in them - notes, phone numbers how much I spent for lunch, ideas for world domination, etc. Then at home, depending on the entry goes into a computer and/or Moleskine (gift)
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Comment by Gregory Throne on October 7, 2009 at 12:47pm - That's exactly what a Moleskine is. I've found I tend to ruin most pocket notebooks well before I've filled them. So I was looking for something with a hard binding & cover. I'm seeing how long the Moleskine lasts me (alright, I bought one because of the glowing referrals on AoM).
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Comment by Yankee Cowboy Bob on October 7, 2009 at 12:31pm
- Thanks for the comment. You reinforced things quite well. Have to admit that I don't "get" the Moleskine journals, though, don't know what they really are except a hard shell booklet that you can't tear pages out of.
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