R getting some R & R & GTD
7.01.2009
So since Saturday is July 4th, our school is closed on Friday, and I am taking tomorrow off too. Great Success! I do have one pesky inescapable conference call, and likely several people running around panicking will contact me tomorrow, because I do a lot of, er, wiping in my job. That's okay, though, because I am thoroughly looking forward to a four-day weekend.
Shel is already trying to engage me on things to be done re: home improvement during this time, but I've been careful to point out the need for serious planning well in advance, and also to suggest that Sunday night might be the best time for such a planning conversation.
I don't think she's buying it.
In other news I'm once again considering the prospect of getting a degree in counseling. I'm a little tired of being an armchair psychologist, and several folks have suggested I look into further developing this skill (coincidentally, usually while sobbing, and just before hurling themselves from this or that bridge or skyscraper). So it turns out that one option is to go through one of the partner schools my own college works with, since one such school is actually quite distinguished for graduate degrees in the field. I'm talking to my boss now about it.
The whole GTD methodology that I posted about a year ago is still very much in mind. Lately my approach has been to adopt/adapt Merlin Mann's1 Inbox Zero approach with my work email. The biggest challenge is keeping my inbox literally zeroed out on a daily basis. When I started, I cleared out 17,000 messages in one day. But I literally get hundreds each day, and staying on top of sorting them demands CONSTANT VIGILANCE! My latest innovation has been to follow a set of Lifehacker tips regarding toolbar shortcuts for an Inbox Zero approach. You can check them out here. The best tip so far has been the one about the Copy and Move toolbar commands.
1Merlin Mann is well known for his productivity work. But what he should be most known for is his work on You Look Nice Today, quite possibly the greatest podcast evar. Just subscribe to it already.
Shel is already trying to engage me on things to be done re: home improvement during this time, but I've been careful to point out the need for serious planning well in advance, and also to suggest that Sunday night might be the best time for such a planning conversation.
I don't think she's buying it.
In other news I'm once again considering the prospect of getting a degree in counseling. I'm a little tired of being an armchair psychologist, and several folks have suggested I look into further developing this skill (coincidentally, usually while sobbing, and just before hurling themselves from this or that bridge or skyscraper). So it turns out that one option is to go through one of the partner schools my own college works with, since one such school is actually quite distinguished for graduate degrees in the field. I'm talking to my boss now about it.
The whole GTD methodology that I posted about a year ago is still very much in mind. Lately my approach has been to adopt/adapt Merlin Mann's1 Inbox Zero approach with my work email. The biggest challenge is keeping my inbox literally zeroed out on a daily basis. When I started, I cleared out 17,000 messages in one day. But I literally get hundreds each day, and staying on top of sorting them demands CONSTANT VIGILANCE! My latest innovation has been to follow a set of Lifehacker tips regarding toolbar shortcuts for an Inbox Zero approach. You can check them out here. The best tip so far has been the one about the Copy and Move toolbar commands.
1Merlin Mann is well known for his productivity work. But what he should be most known for is his work on You Look Nice Today, quite possibly the greatest podcast evar. Just subscribe to it already.
