Elements from my Hipster PDA
Yesterday, my friend Greg saw my Hipster PDA and couldn't believe I was married to my gear-head husband. I like my gear just fine, but my GTD implementation is delicously low-tech. I use a combination of a Circa binder rooted firmly to my desk and a stack of 3x5 cards, mostly plain white with a few color-coded cards, bound with a rubber band.
I actually found the Hipster PDA idea first, then followed the links to the Getting Things Done literature.
I keep my shopping lists, book lists, the size of the new rug for the living room, in my PDA. I downloaded the template for the flowchart from D*I*Y Planner. I reformatted my model release to a 3x5 format. I write my Highway 89 driving notes on 3x5 cards. The bound stack fits in my favorite cargo pocket pants. I actually have gone a little overboard, having about a thousand of them now, but that will be another post.
The pink card comes from a clever idea I saw on tv at my mom's house. Mom saves knitting shows on Tivo for me. Yes, there are knitting shows, and the one she likes best is Knitty Gritty. A knitter uses needles of various diameters to control the density of her fabric. These needles come in different lengths, materials, points at one end or two. So many needles that it is easy forget what I already own when I am in the knitting shop. The Knitty Gritty show suggested a 3x5 card template traced from a needle gauge tool. (Non-knitters, think of a metal plate with holes to measure the diameters of your vast collection of drill bits.)
A mini-round of GTD activity ensued: collect the needles from all the various bags and bins, organize them into piles, figure out where to store the unified pile of pointy sticks. Solid dots indicate sizes I already possess. Actually, this image only shows half the collection, the double pointed needles for small round things like socks and cuffs. The other side lists the circulars and straights, for making bigger objects, like sweaters. No next action resulted; I am trying to knit through some of my stash, and stay out of the yarn store until I have an empty bin to store more yarn.
Two other great GTD-related innovations in my workflow: IPaste and NetFlix I'm using IPaste to write this post, right now. It holds snippets of text and images in a little window on my desktop. Two clicks and the link to my Highway 89 project copies itself to my blogging window. How cool is that? No html typing errors.
And then there's NetFlix. One of the core GTD ideas is that you separate out functions like collecting ideas, deciding what to do about them, and then actually doing them. Apply this idea to watching a DVD. When I am in a low-energy state, I am deeply uninterested in going to the movie store to choose a DVD. But I may be interested in watching a DVD. NetFlix separates those two distinct actions into actions I can do when it fits my energy state and interest level. Result: I've watched a lot more movies in the last 6 months. And I have a DVD right here, ready to watch, when I'm ready for it. For me, having a range of possible activities queued up and ready for the next action, whether work or play, is what GTD is all about.
Comments (1)
Well, at least with my hearing aids I can't wear a blue-tooth ear bud (like some), I don't use a PDA at all, I keep my cell phone on vibrate in my pocket, I don't own Pocket-Wizards (true uber-gear for the hot photog), etc ... so ...
Then again, I guess my assortment of Line 6 toys does count as major gear head. And I do depend on iSynch. Guilty as charged I suppose.
Posted by Robert Marc | September 20, 2007 7:54 PM
Posted on September 20, 2007 19:54