Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Ciak v Moleskin

Tempted by a fruit of another?

I have been a Moleskin fan for years. But like any good addict I can always be tempted by something new and shiny. I acquired two pocket size Ciaks - one with multi cooured paper ideal for GTD. The other a slimmer pocket version with a pen and Moleskin style pocket.

Unlike the Moleskin the Ciaks have a stiff bonded leather cover, this looks quite stylish at first but in use it doesn't lossen up well which means the notebooks don't lay flat - a major drawback from my perspective.

I'm no expert but the paper doesn't seem to be as good the Moleskin seems to write better. The organisational ability of the multi coloured paper is good i set up all the necessary categories of In-notes, actions, agendas, waiting for, project lists etc . At one level this is handy and less work than the tab-hacks but personally less effective than lists on Index cards.

The slim pocket book is good to carry round being fewer pages and more flexi than a pocket Moleskin . But overall quality the Moleskin is better the pocket is better - the Ciak pocket is outward facing which is not as good . The ribbon on the Ciak is much longer and frayed very quickly and doesn't look good.

Overall I think I will stick with Moleskin the overall quality and range is better. But the big plus is the lay flat ability of the Moleskin.

Next stop the new city notebook range - I will get a London one and set up as a reference book, roll on early October!!

Thursday, September 14, 2006

At zero

A milestone was achieved this week the inbox went to zero and so far is remaining under control. My blinding flash of the obvious was that despite using GTD I was still using my inbox to remind me to do something rather than deciding and processing appropriately. A simple change has worked wonders, it sort of proved what a serial procrastinator I was and how easily I fooled myself I was on top of things.

Anyone else had any recent obvious moments?

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Index cards in files


Index cards in files
Originally uploaded by Nialljd.

Index cards to the rescue...

I joined GTD Connect last week, OK it is a bit pricey but the cancel whenever option allows me to decide if the value is no longer there. But to date I think it is very good, great content, very responsive support so pretty good so far.

The value for me is hearing via audio and video the messages in the book being reinforced - I think I'm getting it at last!!

I finally cracked the behaviour of dealing with things once ie capture once and process once (according to context). I found keeping everything lo-tech has helped, hence index cards to the rescue for lists and lists.

I found simple templates courtesy of Bare Bones HPDA and found plastic envelopes for each context - this allows easy access for viewing and portability.
Cards are colour coded red for next actions, green for projects, blue for agendas , yellow for waiting and white for notes or someday projects.

The accessibility, portability and flexibility of paper based approach has made this more second nature to me than the pda and computer methods.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Action flags


Action flags
Originally uploaded by Nialljd.