Shortcut Key of the Week [CTRL-Z]

Today's shortcut key tip for Windows...

CTRL-Z - Undo

Did you ever do something in a Windows application that you did not want to do?  CTRL-Z will undo it.  Assuming you use CTRL-Z right after you "did it", CTRL-Z will "undo it". 

Do three things in a row you want to undo?  Use CTRL-Z three times in a row to undo all three things.

This shortcut key combination applies to just about any Windows application.  Use with care or you run the risk of undoing something you wanted to-do.

This is the latest shortcut tip in my ongoing quest to share one shortcut per week; making keyboard shortcuts easy to digest, easy to remember.

Getting things done to fight Autism

John Ondrasik, lead singer of the band Five For Fighting, has launched a web site called WHAT KIND OF WORLD DO YOU WANT.COM as part of a fundraising effort to support Autism Speaks and other charities. The site was launched in conjunction with their recently released song "What Kind of World do You Want." Users are invited to upload videos describing how to make the world a better place, or to simply view videos created by others. Each time a video viewed, $1.00 will be donated to one of 5 charitable organizations.

When you get a moment, please take the time to view the video called Change Her World.  Donations aside, this touching video will go a long way in raising awareness about autism and its effects on individuals, families, and society.

:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:

Facts about Autism

• Autism affects 1 in 150 children born
• 1 to 1.5 million Americans have been diagnosed with autism
• Autism is the fastest-growing developmental disability
• Autism rates have been growing at a rate of 10-17% annually
• Growth comparison during the 1990s:
  - U.S. population increase: 13%
  - Disabilities increase: 16%
  - Autism increase: 172%
• In the US,  $90 billion is spent annually to care for those with autism
• 90% of costs are in adult services
• Cost of lifelong care can be reduced by 2/3 with early diagnosis and intervention
• In 10 years, the annual cost will be $200-400 billion

Want to Help?

There are a number of ways you help in the fight against Autism.  Visit the  Autism Speaks donation page to see how you can help.

Autism Speaks is a non-profit organization dedicated to funding global biomedical research into the causes, prevention, treatments, and cure for autism; to raising public awareness about autism and its effects on individuals, families, and society; and to bringing hope to all who deal with the hardships of this disorder.

GTD Digest 2008-01-27

Weekly recap of GTD highlights (news, views, tips and tricks) from around the web

Designing GTD Contexts
By Bruce
Designing GTD contexts? What’s wrong with the standard ones that David Allen mentions? Well, David’s list is certainly a good one. Almost everyone can organize their tasks by contexts such as @Computer, @Errands, @Home, @Office, @Calls, ...

7 Powerful Steps to Overcoming Resistance and Actually Getting ...
By Leo
There are a slew of popular books and systems, from favorites of mine such as Getting Things Done to the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to the Now Habit and more, all designed to get us more productive and effective. ...

GTD Toolbox: Get Things Done On Mobile Devices
By Sean P. Aune
Everyone wants to be more productive, and that’s what Getting Things Done (GTD) services are all about. However, if you always wait until you are near a computer, it’s somewhat self-defeating. We’ve gathered together several GTD tools ...

I’ve Gotta Do A Weekly Review! (GTD Tuesday)
By Craig Huggart
Bigstackofpapers Those were the words I silently shouted on a Friday morning about two weeks ago. After I made that decision, I immediately felt a deep sense of relief. I scheduled the review for the following morning. ...

Focus is Fragile: 10 Disturbances to Eliminate
By Lodewijkvdb
True productivity is about getting things done efficiently. To be able to be efficient you need to be focused at the task at hand. But focus is fragile in this fast-paced world with an abundance of interruptions. ...

Top 100 Motivational Blog Posts of All Time
By admin
David Allen’s Getting Things Done philosophy has helped countless individuals and businesses become more productive and successful. Check out the following posts for tips on staying motivated and organized, whether at home, ...

Cookbook: My GTD experience: emptying your head
By Yegor Gilyov
I wanted to share my own experience in organizing my life in accordance with GTD for a very long time. You have most likely heard about the GTD. However you have probably missed the book under the same name. I would definitely recommend ...

Speaking English in Business (aka Getting things done in English)
By Ben Shoemate
Most of the work I do is related in some way to communication. I take it seriously enough that it actually hurts me when I am misunderstood. The potential for misunderstanding is magnified on large international projects even when ...

9 Great E-mail Tips

Kelly Forrister from the David Allen Company shared the following 9 e-mail tips with me a few months back. I have incorporated a number of these tips into my daily e-mail routine. I'd highly recommend giving a few of these a try. I would also recommend sending all or a subset of these to your team members in an effort to align everyone on a set of simple, time-saving e-mail guidelines.

1. If the subject of the email turns to a different matter than what was originally indicated in the Subject line, change the subject line to reflect the new topic. Be descriptive in your subject lines.
   
2. In some cases, when responding, you can type your answer in the Subject line, thereby saving the recipient from having to open the email up. Example:
   Subject: Hi Dave, give me a call when you have some time <EOM>
   EOM or END = end of message (no need to open email)
   
3. Purpose of Cc and To
   To: is for the name of main recipient(s). This is the person(s) expected to reply or take action. Others should simply be Cc:ed. Someone who is Cc:ed on an email is not expected to do anything unless specifically asked to in the email, more often the email is simply an fyi for them.
   
4. Request action clearly up front with a clear statement at the beginning of the email stating the required next action.
   
5. Process and respond to external emails within 24 hours. This doesn't mean you have to have carried out any action but it lets the sender know you're on it. This is not expected of you when you are on vacation or taking time off.
   
6. While we all like to thank others for their efforts and actions, if that is the only reason you're sending an email to a fellow staff member, you can save your colleague time by putting your thanks in the subject line. For folks with several hundred emails to process each day, this will be much appreciated. Additionally, consider "thanks" and "got it" emails don't always need to be sent.
   
7. Resist the urge to "Reply to All" if not everyone on the original email needs to see your reply.
   
8. If the email could take the recipient less than two minutes to reply (in your best estimate), include the keyword "2 min" in the subject line to indicate that for them.
   
9. If there are several recipients who have action within the body of the email, highlight their names throughout the body with a text change to flag them of those actions.

Getting Things Done in Spanish

As a member and frequent reader of the Getting Things Done Feedburner network, I get to read some of the best articles in the blogosphere about GTD and personal productivity. One blog in particular that caught my eye was; El Canasto @ http://canasto.es/. This blog is frequently featured on the GTD Feedburner network and looks to be updated quite regularly. I'd review it, but it's written in Spanish. It's not that I'm against blogs written in Spanish. I simply don't know how to read or speak Spanish. Until today! Well, sort of...

I figured out a way to read El Canasto and I can now confirm, it's a pretty good site. I'd recommend you give it a look. Here's how (for the non-Spanish reading readers):

Google has a set of translation tools that will work quite well for this task. Visit Google's language tools site at http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en. In the "translate a website" section, enter the web site address for El Canasto, http://canasto.es/ and select the option to translate Spanish to English.

[Click the image above to see a larger version]

Next, click Translate to view and navigate through El Canasto in English. How cool is that!

If you are interested in simply jumping to the Google translated version of El Canasto, Click <HERE>.

I think you will agree with me, El Canasto is a pretty good read.

Excel Tip for Selecting a Range of Cells

A while back a colleague of mine turned me on to a great Excel keyboard shortcut for selecting a range of cells. The key combination is CTRL + SHIFT + END. By holding these 3 keys together Excel selects a range of cells starting with your current cell down to the last used cell on your worksheet. This is quite handy if you frequently use lists, data-tables or recordsets in Excel.

Consider this example. Using the data-set shown below, with your cursor in cell A1, CTRL + SHIFT + END produces a selected range from A1 through C11.

CTRL + SHIFT + END is smart enough to know that the last row containing data is 11 and the last column containing data is C.

This is one of my favorite tips for Getting Things Done with Excel.

If you are feeling kinda nutty, try CTRL + SHIFT + HOME. It works the opposite of CTRL + SHIFT + END. Try it, and you'll understand I mean by "opposite".

GTD Digest 2008-01-20

Weekly recap of GTD highlights (news, views, tips and tricks) from around the web

Time To Get Organized
Hartford Business - USA
Productivity guru David Allen, author of “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity,” says we need to get organized so we can do what we need ...

Five Steps to Get Back on the GTD Track
By Al at 7P
You took David Allen’s system, tweaked it to suit your style, and you’re functioning like a well-oiled machine. Sooner or later, it’ll hit you. You hit a snag, a roadblock, something that disrupts your workflow. ...

ThinkingRock - Desktop GTD
By Daniel
When it comes to GTD I’m pretty picky about what I use. I do enjoy the simplicity of online applications like Simple GTD, but if I have a lot of very elaborate projects I need much more power. There are online solutions, but the great ...

How to manage older employees
New Vision - Kampala,Uganda
Build a reputation of keeping and getting things done on time. This will be passed on to your subordinates. There is nothing as annoying as a manager who ...

Simply GTD with Kelly: How much do you value your attention?
By kelly@davidco.com (Kelly)
I was doing a class recently and suggested to the group, as I often do, to resist the urge to 'reply to all' on emails. In my opinion, that's one of those seemingly innocent things that is a huge contributor to email volume. ...

How I Solved the Problem of Collecting Tasks!
By Andrew Mason
One of the major improvements in my life since starting following the Getting Things Done Methodology, is the reduction of Open Loops. As we all know, Open Loops are those tasks floating around in the ether, that we should be doing, ...

Simply GTD with Kelly: Balancing proactive vs. reactive
By kelly@davidco.com (Kelly)
Someone recently asked me, "How do you manage your day so that you are proactive versus reactive? I assume you have lots of people/projects pulling for your time â€" how do you stay focused?" Here was my response: ...

Time management for creative people
By George Ambler
No, it’s not an ancient Zen text – these words are lifted from David Allen’s best-selling book on productivity, Getting Things Done. When I read this section of the book, I grasped the true value of having a system for managing your ...

Implementing Inbox Zero
By Simeon Simeonov
After some research following the comments I received about email management, I decided to implement Inbox Zero, which is based on David Allen’s Getting Things Done. The first step was to start with success. I created a folder called ...

Review: Remember the Milk
By FreelanceSwitch.com
For fans of David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology, implementation in Remember the Milk is pretty simple. Create a separate list for each project and add the actions to it. The tagging feature allows you to add the contexts like ...

How To Take Back Your Time And Attention
InformationWeek - Manhasset,NY,USA
Unlike other self-help programs, which try to make you more spiritually evolved, or change your entire focus on life, GTD's goals are more modest: It's a ...

Work, Play and Sleep - Finding The Balance
By Ritu
Finding applicable GTD tips and following up with good execution is what is going to get things done. Nothing is more discouraging than trying a tip and failing to live by it. You revert back to your old habits. ...

GTD: The weekly review
By Rebecca
In Getting Things Done David Allen suggests doing your weekly review on friday afternoon. A lot of other people have suggested the same thing (such as the blog post above) and frankly I've tried. But I have concluded that friday ...

Plant watering hack

My wife and I have a number of small bonsai type plants in our house. The challenge of having small plants in small pots is that you cannot pour water into them without making a mess. More often than not, I put too much water in and it either flows over the top or quickly seeps through the soil and the holes at the bottom of the pot.

Recently, I stumbled across a great solution. Ice cubes! Rather than dumping a cup of water into the planter, put an ice cube on the top of the dirt in the planter. As the ice melts, the soil (and ultimately the plant) will absorb the water at a rate it can handle. No mess, no fuss.

Doing research within Microsoft Office Apps

An often overlook feature in Microsoft Office Applications (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook) is the Look Up function.  With the Look Up function you can;

• Look up a word in a dictionary (with pronunciation and definitions)
• Get a list of synonyms and homonyms from an online Thesaurus
• Translate a word or phrase to a different language
• Find references to a word or phrase in an Encyclopedia
• Lookup a stock quote or find a company profile

...all within Microsoft Office! 

To use the Look Up function simply highlight a word or phrase, right click and select Look Up.  Your MS Office application will open up a pane on the right and display the results.  For example, here is a quick Look Up on the word "Productivity".

How cool is that! 

This feature has been around since the early versions of Microsoft Office.  What amazed me is that this feature does not get a lot of press.  In fact, I just stumbled across it recently.  If you have not yet tried the Microsoft Office Look Up function, I'd highly recommend it.

Related Links:

• Microsoft Office Timesaver: Using the Research Pane @ Dummies.com

Don't be late

I'm making an effort to not be late anymore.  Late for meetings.  Late for appointments.  Late for dinner. 

It's not that I'm habitually late for things.  It's that I hate when other people are late.  I find it very irritating when a 9:00 meeting cannot start because we have stragglers coming in at 9:05, or 9:10.  It drives me nuts to fill my scheduled "productive time" with unscheduled idle chit-chat when I am waiting for everyone to make it into a meeting room.

I will admit, I am late from time to time.  It's no one's fault but my own.  There is no good reason for me to be late.  I control my schedule.  I can control how long or short my prior commitments run.  It's time to be as courteous to others time as I expect others be of my time.  Perhaps if I lead by example, this will catch on!  I'm a big believer in karma.

Here's my plan:

• If I have back to back meetings (as I do just about every day), I will end them 5 minutes early to give myself time to walk to my next meeting.
• If I bump into someone while I head to my next meeting, I will politely avoid any quick chit-chats.
• If I am hosting an online meeting with a conference call, video conference or WebEx, I will arrive at the meeting place ahead of time and get the technology (the phone, the computer, the overhead) ready prior to the start of the meeting.
• If I have a meeting off-campus, I will block my calendar for "travel time" prior to the meeting, allowing me scheduled time to get there.
• Conversely, if I am returning to the office from an off-site meeting, I will block my calendar for "travel time" after the meeting.

Got any other tips for me?  Leave a comment and let me know.  ...and DON'T BE LATE!

When I do my Weekly Review - How I do my Weekly Review

I struggled with the best time do do my weekly review for quite a while. Sunday night? Monday morning? Whenever I felt the need to? Mid-week? ...I finally settled on Friday afternoons. Friday afternoon allows me to clean up the loose ends from the week, plan my next week, and go into the weekend with a mind clear of work related issues.

Here is what my weekly review looks like:

First, an e-mail Review -

1. Clean out the inbox. Goal: Inbox Zero!
2. Review my ..Review and Action e-mail folder. These are things that take more than 2 minutes to complete. Is there anything I can schedule for the next week? If so, I schedule it on my calendar. Is there anything I can delete (e.g. I've already done it)? Is there anything I can delegate?
3. Check my Projects e-mail folders. These hold the most recent and pertinent e-mails related to my current projects. Is there anything I should do now? Is there anything I should delegate? Is there anything I can move to my calendar to do or follow-up on? Is there anything I can archive (I don't need it in my immediate project folder)? Is there anything I can delete?
4. Check my @Agenda e-mail folders. These are folders that hold agenda items I want to review during a meeting with another team or person. Is anything outdated that I can delete?
5. Check my @Follow-Up e-mail folders. These folders hold requests I've made or delegated tasks. I file them by "lastname, firstname". Does anything require that I send a reminder? Is there anything old that can be deleted? Should I ask someone else to fulfill my original request?
6. For this phase, I finish with a little cleanup of my online mailbox. I move my Deleted Items and Sent Mail to an Archive folder. Why save deleted items? I talk about this in an article called Don't be Afraid of the Delete Key.

Next, on to my Outlook Task list -

My task list is broken down by just a few categories. I simply review each task category and delete, add or schedule the task on my calendar. My task categories consist of:

• @Action - These are things that take more than 2 minutes to complete. Is there anything I can schedule for the next week? If so, I schedule it on my calendar. Is there anything I can delete (e.g. I've already done it)? Is there anything I can delegate?
• @Agendas - These are tasks that hold notes on agenda items I want to review during a meeting with another team or person. Is anything outdated that I can delete? Is there anything I need to add?
• @Someday - These are those things I want to someday do. Is there anything new to add? Anything I might want to delete?
• @Blogstuff - This is my list of blog topics. Similar drill...Should I add, remove, or change any items?

Lastly, I run through all my paper notes from the week.

1. I go through my Moleskine notebook. This is my quick thought repository (slowly being replaced by Jott!). Is there anything I need to make into an electronic Outlook task? Is there anything I need to e-mail someone? Is there a telephone call I need to make? - Once addressed, I cross them out in my Moleskine. I typically process my Moleskine twice daily.
2. I review my meeting notebook. My meeting notebook is a simple notebook that I take to meetings for note taking. I typically process my meeting notebook on a daily basis, but I do like to review each week to make sure I have not missed something.

That's about it. That's the weekly review process that prepares me for my next week, organizes my tasks and keeps my mind like water.

GTD Digest 2008-01-13

Weekly recap of GTD highlights (news, views, tips and tricks) from around the web

The best GTD tool is still a Wiki - part I
By Miro
Did you notice that there are seasons for software as well ? Similarly as with other merchandise, there are times during the year when many more people suddenly decide they need that one application X. Luckily, this trend is not as ...

Looking back at three years of Getting Things Done
By Heidi Adkisson
It's now been three full years since I've been using GTD, and while overall I've adhered to the basic principles, the depth of my implementation has waxed and waned somewhat. I tend to have periods on intense, single-focus ...

The Basics of GTD
By bobhyatt
Here's a good rundown/summary of the whole GTD thing. Good review if you're familiar, good intro if you are not! From Nuance Labs... "Here are our thoughts on the fundamentals, the core supporting pillars, of David Allen’s “Getting ...

What Does the Super Bowl Have to do with Time Management?
By LauraStack
By studying the game of football, you can learn a lot about how to set and achieve goals and spend your time more productively. What does time management have to do with Super Bowl football? Everything! Football pros competing in the ...

Five simple ways I get more than 24 hours in a day
By Eric
getting things done My Year of Sagely Living began in earnest with the start of classes yesterday at 8:30am. This week is going to be a little different than future weeks because I haven’t yet started ALL of my classes, thus have less ...

Getting Started with GTD
By Benjamin
A larger than usual number of friends and fellows are getting started with David Allen’s Getting Things Done, so it seemed timely to dust off this post and move it from draft to done. I offer this post with my thoughts on getting ...

A Few New Year Tips - ORGANISE
By Mark Conner
I've just recently read David Allen's book How to Get Things Done and found it extremely helpful. He has a heap of really practical tips for getting more organised and for being more productive in both life and work. ...

When Your GTD System Crashes
By dnaphil
So you have spent months tweaking your GTD system, getting it set up just the way you want it. Then one day, you wake up to find out your system has been: lost, hacked, crashed, stolen… Now what?

Making your resolutions a reality
By Erin Doland
I want to walk through my process attack, which is loosely based on David Allen’s Getting Things Done method, to help you see how lofty goals can easily become experienced reality. 1. Commit your resolution to writing. ...

Speed up your computer

A simple, yet often overlooked Windows utility for adding a little zip to your computer is the Windows Disk Defragmenter.  It's free, built into all versions of Windows, and provides a quick easy tune-up on your computer hard disk drive.

To start the Disk Defragmenter; Click your START menu, select Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Defragmenter.  Once the Disk Defragmenter starts, Click the Defragment button and away you go.  Once it completes (a few hours later), I recommend a reboot.  You will surely notice a difference in how fast your computer boots (starts) up.  You will notice a difference in how fast your applications load and run.  I would recommend running a disk defrag once a week.

OK, I know, the super techies in the room are saying "no duh, this is pretty obvious".  Yes and no.  I would argue that for most people, they may have heard of defragmenting their hard disk, but they either neglect to do it or don't know how. 

So what is disk defragmenting?  Let me try to explain with a pie analogy...

Your computers' hard disk is a round platter that spins.  As it spins, data is written and read.  Ideally, when data is read, it is read sequentially.  That is, all of the data is aligned.  If the data is spread all over the hard disk, your hard drive has to look in many different, non-contiguous places to get the data.  Consider the following "pie-like" representation of a hard disk:

This is a representation (albeit simplistic and sad) of a fragmented hard disk.  When your computer reads the data, it needs to jump around the hard disk.  To optimize the speed of your hard drive, you want it to read the data in contiguous chunks.  For example:

In this picture, all of the data segments are aligned next to each other, allowing your hard drive to read the data in a smooth, contiguous, sequential manner.

So how does a hard disk get defragmented?  When data is written to your hard disk, it is written in the first available spot.  This may not be the optimal spot, simply the next available.  In addition, as you remove programs or delete data (documents, spreadsheets, etc), this leaves gaps on your hard disk (similar to the first pie).  Periodically running your Disk Defragmenter utility will straighten this all out.

There are 3rd party applications that you can buy from your local computer store (or on the popup-ad laden Internet) that claim to defragment your disk drive and speed things up.  I would not recommend any of these applications.  Unless you have some data intensive, multi-gigabyte, super application, these programs will do nothing more for you than the built in Windows disk defragmenter.

This weekend, give your computer a good disk defragmenting.  You will not regret it!

Related Links:

• Optimizing Windows Startup Programs
• Keeping your Windows Desktop Organized
• Disk Defragmenter @ Wikipedia

Conference Call Etiquette - Ten Tips

For many of us, conference calling is a critical business tool. On a daily basis, we deal with people from different countries, time zones or companies. An audio (or video) conference call is no longer an exception, it's typically the rule.

I hosted a rather embarrassing conference call recently.

• I setup a meeting and distributed a shared conference call phone number to all of the participants.
• When the time came for the meeting, I dialed the wrong conference call number.
• I waited 20 minutes before I realized everyone else was waiting for me on the original conference call number that I published!

As you can image, this was quite embarrassing.

After that fumble, I gave some thought to conference call etiquette. These are things that we all know, but we don't always pay them enough attention. Following is my conference call etiquette top 10.

1. Dial the correct number. OK, that was too obvious. Let's start with; Dial the correct number a few minutes before the start time of the meeting. Don't ever be late. If you are the host, always be the first one on the conference call.
   
2. Take roll call before you start the discussion. Level set everyone on who is in attendance. As new people join, ask "who has joined".
   
3. If you use your mute button, be sure to un-mute when it is your turn to talk. Seriously, I see this happen at least once a week. Someone is asked a question and after 45 seconds of silence they respond with "oops, I had my mute on".
   
4. If you are listening to other members of the call, don't be clicking away on your keyboard. One, people can hear you. Two, it's obvious you are not giving the other member of the call your full attention.
   
5. If you are with a group of people in a conference room and you are on a call, eliminate any side conversations. You would be amazed at how easily a side conversation can be heard over the main conversation at the other end of a conference call.
   
6. Avoid participating on a conference call using a cell phone. The connection can be noisy and the conversation is never as fluid as with a land-line.
   
7. Speak slowly and clearly. Especially if you are speaking with people who use English as their second language.
   
8. If you are participating in a conference call from home, eliminate any background noise. Get away from the kids. Turn the TV off. Keep the dogs from barking.
   
9. Give everyone a chance to talk. Even if it means explicitly calling out each participant and asking if they have input. Some people are reluctant to join in. You may need to invite them in.
   
10. Introduce yourself, at a minimum, the first time you speak. This goes for everyone on the call, not just the host. Give people a chance to put a name to the voice.

Simple stuff, right? Unfortunately these few simple tips are sometimes forgotten, bringing down the value of your conference calls. I would encourage you to super charge your conference calls by sharing these simple tips with your colleagues.

Best Cash Back Credit Card Deal

 

I just got my first cash back check in the mail from Chase Bank.  What a deal!  Cash back for simply buying stuff!

The back-story: About 6 months ago, I was on a mission to find the best cash back credit card deal.  I searched long and hard.  For me, I wanted the cash back reward benefit.  I was not interested in any other rewards programs.  I was not interested in earning airline miles, money toward a car, credit at a big-box retailer, or investing in a college fund.  I simply wanted cash back for my purchases.

My search came down to 2 different credit cards.  The American Express Blue Cash card and the Chase Freedom card. 

1. The Amex card offered 5% cash back on "common purchases" (Supermarket, Gas, Drug store) and 1.5% cash back on all other purchases.
2. The Chase Freedom card offered 3% cash back on "common purchases" (Supermarket, Gas, Drug store) and 1% cash back on all other purchases.

There was a Discover card that offered a similarly attractive cash back program, but not all retailers take Discover, so I passed on the Discover card.

I already had a long used Amex card, so I was ready to commit to the American Express Blue Cash card until I read the fine print.  The advertised rates were only available after you spent $6,500 (per year) on the card.  Not knowing if I was disciplined enough to charge $6,500 per year, I passed on the Amex Card. ...Amex only gives you a 1%/.5% cash back deal on less than $6,500 per year.

So I went with the Chase Freedom Visa card.  This was clearly the best deal for me.  It had the highest cash back rate for my types of purchases and as I've found, the redemption process is super simple.  Simply ask for your money on the Chase website, and within days you'll have a check mailed to you.

Related Links:

• The best credit card rewards comparison site I found was CreditCards.com.
• Want a Chase Freedom Visa Card?  Go to the Chase Freedom Visa Card site.
• Want to keep on eye on your credit?  Check out my article on getting a Free Credit Report.

Keep in mind, for credit card cash back deals to work well, the trick is to pay off your credit card balance each month.  If you are looking for a credit card and want to carry a balance each month, there are much better non-reward cards available.

Shortcut Key of the Week [CTRL-ESC]

Today's shortcut key tip for Windows...

CTRL-ESC - Brings up the Windows START Menu

So what, right? The cool thing about using the CONTROL-ESCAPE combination to load the Start menu is that you can then easily use your Arrow keys to navigate the Start menu. Arrow Up to Programs, Arrow over to your favorite program, hit Enter to start the program. Pretty handy!

This is the latest shortcut tip in my ongoing quest to share one shortcut per week; making keyboard shortcuts easy to digest, easy to remember.

Using Jott for Reminders

Jott now has a reminder service.  I recently started using it and find it quite handy.  After you leave your message with Jott, you are asked if you would like to set a reminder.  You simply answer "yes" and then speak the date and time that you wish to be reminded of the message you just left.  When the reminder time comes, you get an e-mail with your message along with a text message on your cell phone of the same.  Very cool.

>> Need to call your dentist on Monday to make an appointment?  Have Jott remind you on Monday.

>> Need to pick up flowers for your wife on your anniversary?  Have Jott remind you the day before your anniversary.

>> Need to remember that you need something from the hardware store on the weekend?  Have Jott remind you on Saturday.

>> Need to make sure your best friend buys you a birthday present?  Have Jott remind your friend a week before your birthday!

For those not familiar with Jott, Jott is a service that allows you to send yourself or others emails via your telephone.  For details on Jott, see my article titled Jott.com - Mobile Note Taking.

Want to see Jott in action?  Check out the following YouTube video.

GTD Digest 2008-01-06

Weekly recap of GTD highlights (news, views, tips and tricks) from around the web

Getting Things Done GTD on Your iPhone
By Andrew Mason
Now, I haven't yet played with Nozbe, as I tend to be a bit of an offline app love for GTD and don't really know how the online version would be for myself. The app seems pretty cool on the iPhone. The fact you have [...]

Later, 2007: How To Make 2008 Your Most Productive Year Ever
Huffington Post - New York,NY,USA
... you at lightning speed, no matter what. Just get the decks clear so you're really ready to rock `n roll. Return every Monday for more from David Allen.

New Year’s Links
By Craig
Not sure how you approach a new year, but here are some helpful/humorous links for you: David Allen of Getting Things Done on, well, getting things done. Life Dev recommends Twelve Programs to Put on Your Brand New Christmas Mac; ...

Zen To Done: Your fieldguide for getting a handle on your life
By Greg Go
Zen To Done is based on the work of productivity gurus like David Allen (Getting Things Done) and Stephen Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) with a sprinkling of Zen Habits magic. Based on what worked for him personally, ...

Simply GTD with Kelly: More of and Less of
By kelly@davidco.com (Kelly)
I don't make too much of New Year's Resolutions--probably because they tend to have such a negative connotation and guilt around subsequently breaking them. What works better for me instead is to take a look this time of year around ...

GTD Mastery
By Stephen
Chris Y. at Gearfire Productivity is working towards GTD Mastery by posting on how to implement each of the 100 items on the GTD Mastery 100 Checklist. As part of my personal development program for 2008 (more on that later, ...

Simply GTD with Kelly: David Allen gives the keys to GTD on YouTube
By kelly@davidco.com (Kelly)
A few months back, I had the pleasure of accompanying David Allen to Google where he presented the keys to GTD to a standing-room only crowd. It was a fantastic talk and it's now available on YouTube: ...

iGTD: The Way GTD Should Be
By Eric Norton
It shares some similarities with David Allen’s acclaimed Getting Things Done action managing methodology, but you’re not bound to that action management style if you find that it doesn’t suit you. In other words, iGTD is a life ...

How To Tame a Mail-Eating Monster in Five Easy Steps
By Jarkko
This, of course, isn’t good for getting things done (unless your work is all about e-mail), so I think we need a compromise. For example three times a day: in the morning, after lunch, and in the evening. Don’t sleep with unprocessed ...

Optimizing Windows Startup Programs

When Windows starts, there are a number of programs and applications that load.

1. Some of these programs are used to support your hardware devices.

2. Some of these programs are used to provide support for software applications you have installed.

3. ...and unfortunately some of these programs are viruses or malware programs that have infected your computer.

You will want some of these programs to load when Windows starts. Others you may not. I use a freeware program called Startup Control Panel to manage my Windows startup programs. It has a quick and clean interface that allows you to control the programs starting when Windows loads. As with any application to manage the Windows startup process, you need to be careful. If you inadvertently disable an application that your computer needs, you can "break" a software application or hardware add-on. In most cases, it's a simple process of re-enabling the program to get things working normally. The Startup Control Panel is an easy way to do this.

When you load the Startup Control Panel, you are shown 5 tabs that represent the areas that Windows uses to load applications when it starts.

1. Startup (user) - This shows programs that will run only for the currently logged in user. The represents current user applications found in the START menu | Programs | Startup folder.
2. Startup (common) - This shows programs that will run for all users when they login. The represents applications available to all users found in the START menu | Programs | Startup folder.
3. HKCU/RUN - These are programs activated via the registry that will run when the current user is logging in. The complete registry path for these entries is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
   Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
4. HKLM/RUN - These are programs activated via the registry that will run when the computer is powered on or rebooted. The complete registry path for these entries is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\
   Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
5. RunOnce -This is another section of the Windows Registry that tells the computer to run a program one time. Never again. This is typically only used right after a software application is installed to initialize it's settings.
   
   Note on the Windows Registry: The Windows registry can be intimidating and dangerous. Making changes to the Windows registry can be detrimental to your computers health. The Windows registry basically contains everything needed to run your computer correctly. Do not carelessly modify your Windows registry (via RegEdit.exe or another user-unfriendly application). If you do not know what you are doing, you can easily turn your computer into an unrecoverable mess. Be sure to use a program like Startup Control Panel to modify any registry entries in a safe, simple, user friendly manner.
   

So what can you do with this information and what should you
disable?
Basically, the fewer applications loaded (in memory) on your computer, the faster it boots up, the faster it operates.

How can you figure out what's what and get rid of the crap?
The picture above shows that I have something called TkBellEXE loading in HKLM/Run (#4 above). The program it executes is called realsched.exe (see the Path column).

First, I determine what this program is by Google-ing the name of the application. In this case, "realsched.exe". Google finds me one of many of the sites that can answer my question. The answer is;

"realsched.exe is a program which schedules manual update checks for Real Networks products. This is a non-essential process. Disabling or enabling this is down to user preference however disabling may prevent notification of updates."

Cool. I have no need for automatic update for my Real Player (made by Real Networks), so I uncheck the box in the Startup Control Panel and I never load this program again.

Be sure to investigate any programs thoroughly (by Google-ing them) before disabling them. The nice thing about the Startup Control Panel is that if you goof something up, you can always run Startup Control Panel again and re-enable any program.

I highly recommend checking out the Startup Control Panel. It's a free, easy to use application for optimizing your computer startup processes. If you have any questions about the Startup Control Panel or any of the startup processes on your computer, feel free to drop me a line. I'll be happy to do my best to answer your question.

Everything you ever wanted to know about GTD

I was turned on to a great blog post with links to more than you may ever want to know about GTD.  I'd recommend giving it a look. 

Check out The GTD Resource Motherload: 100+ Links.  Good stuff.

 

Contact Me

This is a test

About Me

This article is almost two years old.  It is still topical and my friend Daniel at HackYourDay.com is still blogging.  Feel free to contact me at kwiatkowski@gmail.com with any questions or comments.  For those new to MyGTDStuff.com, Enjoy!

---

Rather than ramble on about myself, I thought I would take a different approach on the My GTD Stuff “About Me” page.

Below is an interview I did with Daniel from HackYourDay.com in March, 2008. This should give you a good flavor of who I am, how I’ve implemented GTD and why I’m a fan of Getting Things Done.

<INTERVIEW>
Daniel: Hi Tim! Thanks for taking the time out for this interview! As an introduction, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Tim: My name is Tim Kwiatkowski. I am a resident of Racine, Wisconsin which is located in the Midwestern United States. I am married with 3 boys. I am currently employed as an IT Manager for a Fortune 100 consumer products company. I enjoy time with my wife and three sons, photography, movies, biking, and travel.

Daniel: Fortune 100? No wonder you’re “not bad” at GTD. How long ago did you start your blog and what are your plans for the future?
Tim: I started blogging last September (2007) for a couple of reasons. At the time, I had been following GTD for about 6 months and GTD allowed me to free my mind. This newfound efficiency allowed me the free time to focus on the things I wanted to do.

I felt like I had a bunch of GTD specific and non-GTD related tips and tricks that I could share with others. I really wanted to learn what blogging was all about. I wanted to learn how to start a blog. I'm just a computer geek at heart.

My plans for the future… I am not quite sure. I thought I would run out of things to blog about by now! As long as the ideas keep coming, I'll keep blogging about them.

Daniel: If you had a process leading into what you do today, can you please describe it?
Tim: My earlier process was ad-hoc and cluttered with ambiguous tasks. No actionable tasks. A weekly to-do list that I would reinvent on Monday mornings. Little concept of projects. Most projects on one big long list. Major time spent in tactical mode, addressing the "here and now" as things hit my e-mail inbox. Little strategic thinking. I was busy, but not efficient.

Daniel: When did you first learn about GTD?
Tim: In March of 2007, I read an article in Time Magazine called The Oracle of Organization. As someone who was always looking for the organizational "silver bullet", I was intrigued, so I bought David Allen's book, Getting Things Done. From there, I was hooked. I had finally found a "system" that worked for me.

Daniel: I guess finding the system is one of the hardest parts, but starting out and sticking to it can also be very hard. Was you "initiation" difficult, was it a process, or was it love at first site?
Tim: It was "love at first sight"! I was always a big "list" person so I gravitated toward GTD. What really made a difference for me, was;

• Getting things out of your head and writing them down in a trusted place. The "freemind" feeling is incredible.
• Defining the next action for tasks. I never realized how important that is for me. I always know what I want to do next because I always know what the next action is for everything on my task list. I don't have any ambiguous projects cluttering my task list.  It's all "next actions".
• Staying out of my e-mail inbox. Before GTD, I was the king of tactical emailing. I could knock off 100 emails an hour. What I did not realize is that I did not have to address every email immediately. I have been far more effective checking my e-mail inbox 4 or 5 times a day (at regular intervals) and "processing" my inbox.

Daniel: Do you have any tips for people just starting out with GTD?
Tim: The best tip I give to new GTDers is to not take it literally. Adapt the GTD basics to how you work. Don't apply your work to GTD. We all work a little differently. Don't think that David Allen knows exactly what will work best for you.  In addition;

• Embrace and adopt the basics
• Keep your mind free
• Define the Next Action for all your tasks
• Do a weekly review
• Always be in processing mode as new things come up; Do it, Delegate it, Defer it or Delete it.

Daniel: I think you spoke from my heart there. I always try and stress how important it is to not follow anything blindly. So how rigidly do you follow David Allen? Where do you deviate most from his methods?
Tim: The biggest difference for me is in using contexts. That is, I do not have place/time related categories. I do not use a @Computer list, a @Home list, or a @Calls list. For me, those types of activities all fall in one list (@Actions) and I think through the context sensitive nature of my tasks on the fly.

Daniel: I think that’s a great tip for everyone, I see that most people struggling with GTD have context-problems. I for one don’t really have context like in the book, since all my work is done @computer, so I just don’t use them, or find alternative uses.

What is your favorite app or service for GTD?
Tim: My favorite tool is my Moleskine notebook. I'd tell you why, but then you would miss some of my favorite blog posts!

• How I keep my mind free – My Moleskine notebook
• Trials and tribulations of a Moleskine notebook owner: A real feel good story.  I carry it everywhere. It's my trusted place to record my thoughts, projects, to-do's, ideas, tasks, goals or whatever comes to mind.

Daniel: A Moleskine? I wouldn’t really expect anything less! It’s probably one of the best tools for GTD because of its freedom. The major drawback is that searching is difficult and you do run out of space eventually, although a solid system will make up for these. What are some of the apps you use every day?
Tim: I am a frequent Microsoft Office user. The cool thing about MS Office is that there are many ways to do something. Seems like I find a better way to do something with Microsoft Office every day. I've heard that the average MS Office user uses only 10% of the available features in MS Office. Imagine if we all learn just one new MS Office feature each week!

Daniel: Said like a true productivity ninja! I couldn’t agree with you more! I know at least 200 tips for Word off the top of my head and I run into new stuff on a daily basis.

What are your favorite blogs, apart from Hack Your Day of course?
Tim: Hack Your Day is clearly my favorite!

In addition, I regularly read 43Folders.com, Lifehacker.com, BlackBeltProductivity.net, Photojojo.com, ZenHabits.net and CrankingWidgets.com.

Daniel: Thanks a lot Tim for taking the time to answer my questions, I look forward to your future posts on Stuff for Getting Things Done, and also to the opportunity of maybe another interview down the road!
</INTERVIEW>

A special THANKS goes out to Daniel at HackYourDay.com for putting this interview together!  Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments. 

Don't forget, if you like what you read here, you can subscribe for free!