Blog subscribers, Bloglines, and geographical locations

I use Bloglines for my feed reading for the usual server-based reasons (multi-platform, no need to sync, etc.) and for a lark I thought I'd check out Ideamatt subscribers. One aspect of the results that was interesting was that some people include their weather in their subscriptions. (Bloglines provides this as a special feed.) Here are those that had a Bloglines weather subscription, and the place:

• Cambridge, England
  
• Pasco, WA
  
• Milton Keynes, England
  
• Eindhoven, Netherlands
  
• London, England
  
• Amherst, MA

I thought this was pretty cool because it provides some personalization (in addition to the feeds they subscribe to, of course). What I'd like to see from sites like Blogger and Bloglines is a push-pin map showing locations (e.g., who's blogging from where). The visualizations could be ala Tufte (e.g., scale states based on number of bloggers), and could include a zoom feature like the ultra cool zipcode applet. Of course after a little digging I found some sites that combine blogging and geographical location (listed below), but I'd love to hear from someone actively thinking this.

Related:

• Geominder
  
• Geobloggers
  
• Where's George?
  
• Buzztracker

Dealing with multiple/dependent next actions in GTD

Over at Notes from a messy desk, Graeme Mathieson brings up some good issues with dependent next actions in David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology. He says

... I can't really show dependencies effectively. ... So obviously it makes sense to write down all the tasks you can think of associated with a particular project. And to me, it makes sense to write them out on a todo list.

Here are a few of my thoughts about this:

• List your action plan in the project's folder, if necessary. Allen says many projects need only basic "napkin" planning, but some (like a wedding) need more detailed thinking to be successful.
  
• Add one or more concrete actions to your next actions list(s). If your project has multiple next actions that can be done in parallel, and you have the energy for them, put as many as you want on your lists. However, the minimum is one, in order to move the project forward.
  
• Don't worry too much about dependencies. Oftentimes it's best to only write next actions that you can do now, instead of planning out too far; you'll deal with the dependent ones when the time comes. Also, your plans may change by the time you get to the dependent actions (you might have new information, you might have changed the definition of the successful outcome, etc.)
  
• You will be thinking about your project a minimum of once per week during your weekly review, so you'll have a chance to think about dependent tasks then.
  
• Checking off precursors to dependent tasks may well trigger you to add a new one at that time.
  
• You can use a system such as Pig Pod to indicate next next action. It's also talked about at the davidco forums: Pocket PC - any tips for applying GTD?.

I'd love to hear other ideas about this.

Update: I certainly should have also mentioned
the excellent post Cascading Next Actions by Mark Wieczorek.

Surprise: David Allen's folders look just like the rest of ours

Earlier this month I attended David Allen's GTD | RoadMap seminar (in Boston) and I wanted to pass on a minor observation that was surprisingly pleasing. As Allen was talking about filing, he waved around some of his own folders, and I have to say I got a small thrill when I noticed that mine look just like his. Same generic manila folders, a few somewhat worn (I was sitting in the front), and the same black-on-white labeler-produced labels. I don't know, but I guess I had thought he was using something like gold-embossed labels on custom silk folders. In addition, it looked like he uses colored ones for "special" (non-project) folders, such as Read/Review. (I had identified a similar need, but was highlighting the labels to identify them.)

These are minor points, but it really was nice to get some reinforcement, esp. for those of us tackling the methodology on our own. Ha!

12 Wild Things people are visualizing, in addition to "Success"

As a follow-up to my article Top 10 things people are Getting, in addition to "Things Done", I present for your (somewhat bawdry) entertainment: 12 wild things people are visualizing, in addition to success (according to google):

1. type and mutant hemoglobin proteins
   
2. success (OK, I included anyway, despite the title)
   
3. shapes
   
4. Saracenic tribes adorned in flowing colored togas
   
5. bastards
   
6. sexual fantasies
   
7. gesticulations
   
8. geometry of invariant sets
   
9. urban adventure
   
10. rush of kayaking off a 100-foot waterfall
    
11. beaver
    
12. sensations of the rainforest
    
13. beauty of the rainforest

Again, apologies to The Onion, Timothy McSweeney, and David Allen.

The artifacts of getting organized, and their misleading prosaic nature

In the article Tools versus Process, Geekle talks about "the myth that tools [themselves] can make you more productive." I agree - to truly change and become more productive, adopters of any new organization system (including the one that I practice, from David Allen's book Getting Things Done) must change their thinking and habits, rather than simply buying something. As Allen says of his system in particular, it's simple (i.e., it's understandable and uses skills everyone has), but not easy (i.e., requires instituting the aforementioned changes).

I think this concept is behind a pattern I've noticed when introducing people to Allen's work. If I start the conversation by talking about the artifacts of getting organized (paper, to-do lists, folders, etc.) oftentimes their immediate reaction will be something like "lists - oh yea, I use lists" and then they're gone. End of story. (I see similar reactions when talking about filing systems.) I think one problem is that the tools of the discipline are composed of prosaic and common everyday business items, but the value is in how you use them. For example, when I started adopting GTD I experienced this distinction keenly with respect to how I used my calendar. Previously I'd been mixing date-independent action items with "hard landscape" appointments that had to happen on certain days, but once I had the conceptual framework (OK, "idea") of separating them, the use of the artifact became crystal clear. And this clarity allowed me to use the tool in a far more effective manner.

I believe this problem (focusing on tool, not process) is exacerbated when talking with the kinds of confident and intelligent people I work with, who sometimes assume they "got it" (or enough of it) after a brief introduction to dive in. (And to be honest, I think the geek culture many of us inhabit has a bigger focus on the "nouns" - be they electronic or paper - than on the "verbs" - process.) In other words, simply thinking solely about the artifacts can cause underestimation of the system's power, which in turn distracts potential users who might benefit from it. Such a focus also waters down the methodology's ability to be heard in a culture with a thousand other getting organized books and systems. (Searching Amazon for "organizing" gets almost 3,000 hits.)

However, as Don Norman writes, I think it's natural for us to be excited by attractive and functional things, and, for those of us who strive to improve ourselves, seeing tools like those mentioned above holds a promise for helping us deal with our stuff. (I admit - I now love to browse the office supply section of our awesome local general store - stickers, note cards, pens - yum!) But the challenge is to help people realize it's not the tool, but the process (as Geekle said) that provides the real power for lasting change. As Marian Bateman says in What is Organized?:

The real issue is not how your home or office looks, but how we all think about our workflow... This is the paradigm shift that is so radical, it is not about our outer environment, it is about our inner environment. The new conversation is about how we learn the methodology about the art of work. It is an educational process that takes time and energy to learn, just like learning any language.