Where will you spend your Stimulus Check?

As you may have already heard, the US government will be distributing stimulus checks (aka. tax rebate checks) a few days earlier than expected.  Personally, I am not convinced that a couple hundred dollar government sponsored rebate check for each household is going to save the US economy.  On the other hand, I'm not an economist, so I'm willing to take part in the rebate "experiment".

Following are a few tips to maximize your stimulus check spending.

• Sears is offering an additional 10% when you use your rebate check to purchase a Sears gift card.  Sears gift cards can be used at Sears, Kmart, and Lands End.
• SuperValu will redeem stimulus checks for gift cards and add $30 to each $300, or 10%.  SuperValu gift cards can be purchased and used at all SuperValu owned stores which includes Acme, Albertsons, bigg's, Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher's, Jewel-Osco, Lucky, Shaw's/Star Market, Shop 'n Save and Shoppers Food & Pharmacy.
• Kroger Stores is offering a similar 10% rebate check for gift card exchanges at all of it's stores which includes Kroger, Baker’s, City Market, Dillons, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, Gerbes, Hilander, Jay C, King Soopers, Owen’s, Pay Less, Ralphs, Smith’s and QFC stores.
• RadioShack is offering a 10% discount on all purchases when you use your stimulus check to make your purchase at any of the 6,000 RadioShack stores.
• Roundy's, a 153 store grocery retailer in the Midwest, is offering a $30 for each $300 (10%) bonus on all stimulus check exchanges at their Pick 'n Save, Copps, Rainbow and Metro Market stores in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

For me, I'm thinking of maximizing my stimulus check on the staples (not the office supply store; I mean food).  10% seems to be the sweet spot for stimulus check incentives and I'll always need food, so the Supermarket seems to make the most sense to me.  How about you?  What do you plan to do with your stimulus check?

GTD Digest 2008-04-27

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

[7 Entries]

Productivity is the latest web craze
The Star-Ledger - NJ.com - Newark,NJ,USA
Getting things done, in fact, is the title of a best-selling book ("Getting Things Done" by David Allen), as well as a popular productivity method and an ...

How I Use Google Calendar as a GTD tool
By Carrie
I’m SO OVER THAT. Google calendar far surpasses Outlook in ease of use where getting things done is concerned. Here’s what I do with it : I should just get out of the way that it’s free and an [...]

David Allen: Mental Ecology
By David Allen(webmaster@huffingtonpost.com)
In honor of Earth Day, let's look at how to use our natural mental resources more effectively. My systems are set up and maintained with a standard of thinking as little as possible. That way I can use my mind to think ABOUT my work, ...

Fast GTD on Windows Mobile
By jeff
I’ve been a fan of David Allen’s Getting Things Done time management methodology for years. And while I had it down to a science on my various Palms and Treos, a really good GTD implementation has eluded me on Windows Mobile until just ...

How will sugar, water, and stimulants affect my work during the day?
By LauraStack
(NOTE: We're moving! The Productivity Pro(R) blog has moved to http://www.theproductivitypro.com/blog/. We will continue to post here through May as well. Please change your feed to the new address, or you won't receive posts after May. ...

Are you having trouble getting out of bed?
American Chronicle - Beverly Hills,CA,USA
The point here is to get you used to getting things done; to taking consistent action on a daily basis. In due course, you will attain the habit of taking ...

Simply GTD with Kelly: Rolling up your hoses when you're not ...
By kelly@davidco.com (Kelly)
We were in a staff meeting the other day discussing some of the finer points of David Allen's 3-Fold nature of work. Part of the Doing phase, the 3-Fold nature describes how you spend your time: Doing Pre-defined Work (choosing from ...

Create a temporary space for your stuff

Just about any time I use my computer, I create or find stuff (on the Internet) that I do not need to keep long term.  An e-mail attachment I want to review, a file that installs an application I want to try, a white-paper that I want to quickly read.  I find that if I tuck these files away in a sub-folder, I can rarely find them again.  If I simply save them in the My Documents folder, I lose track of the name and end up with a long list of trash collecting in the My Documents directory.

Remembering back to the good old days of DOS, I longed for an old fashion C:\TEMP directory.  Somewhere to store files on a temporary basis.  Someplace I can safely clean-out without having to worry if it is something I need.  If it's in the TEMP directory, it's free game for deletion. 

As you can guess, this was  not too challenging to replicate in the Windows environment.  I created a My Documents\TEMP folder.  This is my default dumping ground for things I do not necessarily want to keep.  Install files, papers to review, temporary document drafts.  If I find that I need a file, I move it to a safe place.  If not, it stays in the My Documents\TEMP folder and is periodically purged with the rest of my junk.

Simple and clean!  If you are one that frequently saves files to your desktop, you could take this a step further and create a desktop shortcut that point to the My Documents\TEMP folder.  Now, it does not matter if you are navigating your My Documents folder or your Desktop, you have one spot for your temporary stuff.

The Oracle of Organization

For me, getting things done all started with an article in Time Magazine called "The Oracle of Organization".  This article prompted me to buy the book, Getting Things Done by David Allen and learn about David's  philosophies on personal productivity.  Since then, my life has changed.

• I am more organized.
• My work/life balance is "balanced".
• I am far more efficient in everything I do.
• I learned to focus on only the most important things in my life and work.
• I found free time to do things like blogging!

I speak about this epiphany on my "About Me" page.  If you have not read the Time Magazine article, I'd highly recommend it!

A Simple Guide to RSS

As you surf the web, I am sure you have seen references to RSS.  As a minimum, I am sure you have at least run across the universal RSS icon;  .  So what does it mean? 

RSS stands for Really Simply Syndication.  RSS has also been called a "feed" or "Channel".  Basically, through RSS, a blog or web-site content can be read like an online newspaper.  That is; article by article.  RSS readers allow you to collect many websites and/or blogs and read them in a clean, organized fashion.  Rather than jumping from website to website or blog to blog, an RSS reader will present all the content (articles) to you in one place. 

To start with RSS, you need an RSS reader (aka feed reader).  Which RSS reader is best?  There are many available, it's up to you.  Here are the most popular RSS readers that myGTDstuff.com readers use:

• 60% use Google Reader
• 11% use Bloglines
• 6% use NewsGator
• The remainder use several others (Sage, BlogRover, Fastladder, Yahoo, Windows Live, etc)

I prefer Google Reader.  It's simple, has a clean interface, and shares the same user-id and password with other Google services (Gmail, Picassa, Docs, etc). 

Assuming you now have an RSS Reader, how do you use it?  This is where things can get a bit confusing.  First, you need to add a few "feeds" to your RSS reader.  Again, a feed, is simply content from a blog or website.  Adding feeds to your RSS Reader (aka subscribing) can be as simple as clicking the universal RSS icon , also known as a chicklet, or copying and pasting the address (URL) of the RSS feed into your RSS Reader. 

How you subscribe to a feed may depend on which Internet Browser you use.  I use two different browsers, Internet Explorer 6.0 and Mozilla Firefox 2.0.  Firefox is far more RSS friendly than IE 6.  I have not upgraded to IE 7, so I cannot comment on IE 7 RSS capabilities.  Before subscribing to a feed with Firefox, you need to configure your Firefox for your RSS Reader.  From the Tools menu, select Options. Next, click the Feeds icon, then select the RSS Reader that you will be using.  In my case, I selected Google as my default Firefox RSS Reader.

Now, whenever I find a feed I want to add to my RSS Reader (when using Firefox), I click the chicklet and I am prompted to add it to Google Reader.

Internet Explorer 6 is not as RSS friendly.  When I click the chicklet using IE 6, it opens a new windows to the raw RSS feed.  For example;

In this case, I would need to copy the URL (the http://yada.yada.yada) and paste it manually into my RSS Reader.  It is kind of a pain.  This is one of the main reason I avoid using Internet Explorer 6.

To make subscribing to RSS feeds easier with RSS unfriendly Internet Browsers, some sites will offer you several RSS Reader specific subscription options represented by icons.  For example;

• MSNBC offers several icons that allow you to directly subscribe with Windows Live RSS Reader, Yahoo's RSS Reader, NetVibes RSS Reader, Bloglines RSS Reader, or an XML icon that allows you to subscribe with any other RSS Reader.
  
• CNN offers a direct access icon to subscribe via Yahoo's RSS Reader or the standard RSS chicklet.
  
• Many blog sites (including myGTDstuff.com) offer an array of RSS Reader options once you click the RSS chicklet ().
  

 

So you've subscribed to a number of RSS feeds, what does it look like?  All RSS Readers are a bit different.  Here is what it looks like using Google's RSS Reader.

1. To view all of the new articles from all of your subscriptions click All Items.
2. To add an additional RSS feed that you want to subscribe to, click Add Subscription.  Google Reader has a cool feature called Discover.  When you click the Discover link, Google will present you with a list of RSS feeds that it thinks you might like.
3. Area 3 shows all of your active subscriptions.  Click the name of each feed to view the latest articles.
4. Area 4 is the reading section.  The latest articles will appear in area 4.

 

Still confused?  Check out this nicely crafted video titled RSS in Plain English.

I hope this gives you a good idea of what RSS is all about and how you can use RSS feeds to view website content from multiple sources (feeds) in one place.  Feel free to contact me with any questions.

GTD Digest 2008-04-20

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

[8 Entries]

GTD soft review for your Apple Mac
By Danil Negrienko(Danil Negrienko)
Ghost Action - only for simple tasks on the theory of reference GTD. Among the pluses include synchronization with any supported by iSync devices. Worth $ 19.95. Actiontastic - is a very simple program like Ghost Action. ...

David Allen: The Curse Of The Eternally Urgent
By David Allen
The David Allen Company is a professional training, coaching, and management consulting organization, based in Ojai, California. Its purpose is to enhance performance and improve the quality of life by providing the world's best ...

Maintaining “Inbox Zero” with Google Apps
WebWorkerDaily - San Francisco,CA,USA
I don’t follow “Getting Things Done” to the letter. But there’s one tenant I hold close to my heart: only touch an email once. Read it, decide what to do ...

Get organized with Toodledo Online Todo List
By sali
Getting Things Done (GTD) friendly online todo list - there are the “Context” option for you to define tasks based on location or what you actually do eg work, home, telephone, car. “Tags” support is also available. ...

Building better habits
China Daily - China
Getting Things Done (GTD) is based on the principle that a person needs to get tasks out of his head and onto a list. Writing down a list of tasks frees the ...

Mindmap of Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen
By pkab
As an experiment, this is a mindmap I created of the methodology of Getting Things Done by David Allen. (Click on image to enlarge.) (UPDATE: By popular request, I’ve also created a printable PDF file. If DavidCo gives me [...]

Simply GTD with Kelly: A short list of a few good GTD list managers
By kelly@davidco.com (Kelly)
A good GTD list manager should give you a bullet-proof, rock solid, trusted place to track your projects and actions. A starter set of lists David Allen recommends to store in that system would include: Projects Someday/Maybe @Agendas ...

An Interesting Interview with David Allen
By fwade
I just listened to a very interesting interview of David Allen of GTD fame conducted by Merlin Mann of 43 folders. In the interview Allen speaks frankly about the development of the GTD system, and concludes that if he were to write the ...

The Future of TV

We cannot perform at our peak 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  On occasion we need to disengage, kick back, relax and re-energize.  For me, I prefer to relax with a good movie or television show.  The bummer about TV is that inevitably, what I want to see, is not on when I have time to sit down and watch it (yes, I don't own a Tivo).  The Internet is changing that.

If I may be so bold; This technology shift, that finally merges TV, Movies and the Internet, is called Hulu.  Hulu is a website offering a a ton of popular TV shows and full length movies on-demand.  ...and here's the best part; It's all Free!

Hulu is a joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp.  Hulu offers online TV and Movies from more than 50 content providers including FOX, MGM, NBC, Sony Pictures Television Warner Bros., and Lionsgate.  Hulu was founded in March 2007 and officially launched their website on March 12, 2008.  Hulu has a simple, easy to use, easy to search, easy to navigate user interface.  What separates Hulu from any of the other online video websites is the huge amount of quality online content.  The folks who own Hulu, own a ton of content.  The technology to display the content already existed, NBC and News Corp just needed to pony up the initial content.  And they did; making Hulu the poster child for the future of on-demand television.

Hulu offers full-length episodes of not only current hit shows like My Name is Earl, The Simpsons and The Office but also classics like The Bob Newhart Show, Miami Vice and Hill Street Blues, and in some cases, as with Arrested Development or Friday Night Lights, they have every episode ever aired. The full length movie collection includes Field of Dreams, Meet Joe Black, and Psycho, to name a few.

I would highly recommend giving Hulu a try.  Click play below for a quick introduction to Hulu.

Special shout-out to my son Kyle for turning me on to Hulu!  Thanks Kyle!

10 Steps to Getting Things Done

Earlier this year Michael Sliwinski of Nozbe.com published a 10 step course on Getting Things Done. The course does of nice job of highlighting the best aspects of GTD. It goes into some detail on how to use Michael’s application called Nozbe, which I have never used. I’m sure it’s a fine application. In fact, if you like the article, I’d recommend giving Nozbe a try! I know I plan to take Nozbe for a test drive in the near future.

A bit about Nozbe;

Nozbe is a web-based task manager and to-do list gtd software that will help your personal productivity - project management and time tracking. Nozbe's gtd software is available in your web browser and on your mobile phone and Apple iPhone. Inspired by David Allen's best-selling book "Getting Things Done - The Art of stress-free productivity".

The 10 step articles are great. I would highly recommend giving them a read. Whether you are new to GTD or a GTD ninja looking for a refresher, I am sure you will get something from Michael’s 10 posts on Getting Things Done.

10-Steps to Simply Get Things Done Course

1. Clear your head
2. Get organized with Projects
3. What is the Next Action?
4. Work in Contexts
5. Manage your reference material
6. Be productive everywhere - on the move, online/offline
7. Share and Delegate - Synergize
8. Review your stuff regularly
9. Seek guidance and keep improving your system
10. Get things done now - final tips and tricks

The First 90 Days - Success Strategies for New Leaders

One of the better books that I have read is called The First 90 Days - Success Strategies for New Leaders by Harvard professor Michael Watkins.  The book is tailored to people who are  new to leadership roles.  This book is not only for new "people managers", but many of the strategies discussed can be applied to just about anyone taking on a leadership role (e.g. Project Managers) or someone taking on a new role in their community (e.g. Cub Scout Den Leaders).  The First 90 Days can be broken down into 5 main topics;

• How to get yourself focused
• How to learn your new role faster
• How to choose the right strategy
• How to make good things happen right away
• How to build a winning team

Why do I bring this book up now?  I am embarking upon a new role within the company I work for.  In light of that, I thought it would be a good idea to break this book out of my library and brush up on some of the key concepts.  I first read this book 4 years ago before I started a new job.  Not my last job, but the job prior to that.  It served me well and helped me define my road-map for the first 90 days of my new role.

Below I will do my best to summarize the main points of the book.

Focus Yourself

• Mentally prepare yourself for your new role.
• Put the past behind you.  What worked before won't necessarily serve you well now.  Don't ignore what you don't know.
• Along those same lines; Establish a clear break point.  Celebrate the transition and then be done.  Do whatever it takes to forget your old role and focus on the new.
• Hit the ground running.  At the 90 day mark, your boss, your peers, your direct reports expect you to be making an impact.
• Asses your vulnerabilities.  Identify your "problem preferences".  That is; the problems you prefer to work on.  Make a point not to neglect the activities you do not enjoy or activities that do not come naturally.

Accelerate Your Learning

• Define your learning agenda.  What do you need to learn 1st, 2nd, 3rd?
• Adopt a structured learning method.  This is a favorite of mine!  This step has served me quite well in the past.
  • Meet with your new boss and direct reports and ask the following questions;
    • What are the biggest challenges the organization (or team) is facing (or will face) in the near future?
    • Why is the organization (or team) facing (or going to face) these challenges?
    • What are the most promising unexploited opportunities for growth?
    • What would need to happen or the organization (or team) to exploit the potential of these opportunities?
    • If you were me, what would you focus on?

Match your Strategy to the Situation

• Be sure to correctly diagnose the situation
  • Start-up.  Is this a new team (or company)?
  • Turnaround.  Is the group in trouble and you need to get things back on track?
  • Realignment. Do you need to revitalize the project, team or processes?
  • Sustaining Success.  Is this a well oiled machine that you simply need to keep moving in the right direction?
• Understand the History.  What got the team, company, project to the current state.  Seek to understand the history.
• Focus your energy.  Ask yourself;
  • How much emphasis will I place on learning versus doing?
  • How much emphasis will I place on offense versus defense?
  • What should I do to get some early wins?

Make good things happen right away

• It is crucial to get some early wins.  You want to make sure your boss, peers and subordinates all feel that something new and good is happening.
• Here are some of the most common mistakes that will prevent something new and good from happening;
  • Failing to focus. It's easy to take on too much during a transition.  The results can be disastrous.
  • Not taking the business situation into account.  The definition of an early win will differ greatly based on the situation you are in.
  • Not adjusting to the corporate culture.  If you are an outsider, make understanding the culture a high priority.
  • Failing to get wins that matter to your boss. Be it right, wrong or indifferent, if it's not important to your boss, it's not important.
  • Letting your means undermine your ends.  Avoid being perceived as manipulative, underhanded or going against corporate culture.
• Establish long term goals
  • Be consistent with organizational priorities.
  • Introduce the new patterns of behavior you want to install in the organization (or team).
• Build your credibility.  Your earliest actions with your new team will have a huge influence on how you are perceived.
• Negotiate success (Part I).  Engage with your new boss to establish realistic expectations.  Here are a few things to avoid when engaging with your new boss;
  • Don't trash the past.  Nothing can be gained from criticising your predecessors.
  • Don't stay away.  If your boss doesn't reach out to you, reach out yourself to him or her.
  • Don't surprise your boss.  Even bad new is OK as long as it is not a surprise.
  • Don't approach your boss only with problems.  Be sure to understand the problem and identify what you'll (realistically) need before approaching your boss.
  • Don't run down your checklist.  It's rarely that your boss wants to hear every nit-and-nat you are working on.
  • Don't try to change your boss.  Adapt to his/her style rather than the other way around.
• Negotiate success (Part II).  Engage with your new boss to establish realistic expectations.  Here are a few things you should do when engaging with your new boss;
  • Take 100% responsibility for making the relationship work.
  • Clarify mutual expectations early and often.
  • Negotiate time-lines for diagnosis and actions.
  • Aim for early wins in areas that are important to your boss.
  • Try to get "good grades" from those whose opinions your boss respects.
• Achieve Alignment.  You want to make sure your organization or team is all marching in the same direction.  Try to avoid some of the common mistakes;
  • Resist changing any structure until you understand whether restructuring will address the root cause of any problems.
  • Creating structures that are too complex.  Don't over-engineer things.
  • Automate problem processes.  If the process is flawed, fix the process first.  Don't be tempted to automate a flawed process.
  • Make changes for change's sake.
  • Overestimate your team's capacity to absorb change.  Focus on a few vital priorities and make changes gradually if time permits.

Build your team

• A high performing team can create tremendous value.  Avoid the following common mistakes when creating your organizational plans;
  • Some leaders clean house too quickly, but it's more common to keep people on-board too long.
  • Not repairing the airplane.  Molding a team is like repairing a plane in mid-flight. You will not reach your destination if you ignore the necessary repairs.
  • Not holding on to good people. 
  • Starting team-building before the core team is in place.
  • Trying to do it all yourself.
• Assess your existing team.  During your first 30-60 days, assess who is who, who are the high performers, who are the sub-par performers.  Don't suppress these early impressions, but take a step back from them and take the time to make a more vigorous evaluation.
• If your success depends on the support of people outside your direct line of command, it's important to create coalitions to get things done.

I plan to keep most of this in mind as I embark upon my new role.  If you are entering a new leadership role, I would highly recommend reading The First 90 Days.  The guidance from this book has worked for me, and I hope it will work for you.

GTD Digest 2008-04-13

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

[14 Entries]

My weekly review routine
By Dave
That worker is getting things done, that’s for sure. But I’d argue that the most productive part of my week is when I appear to be doing the least. Each Sunday morning you’ll find me seated at my desk with my notebook open and a pencil ...

Microsoft vs. Google - Competing For GTD
By alik levin
You practice, practice, practice this until it becomes daily habit so that your thoughtful part of brain is available for creative work - The Secret Behind GTD [Getting Things Done] Revealed. ...

5 Great Organizing and Productivity Blogs
By Emily(Emily)
Named for the setup of a tickler system (click here for an explanation of tickler files), the blog covers a wide range of topics, from those specific to Getting Things Done (or GTD) to general tips on productivity to ideas on how to use ...

Handmade moleskine: a GTD planner for creative writers
By Mark(Mark)
The planner is for work and holds my Getting Things Done (GTD) system, including a calendar and lists. It also holds all of my meeting notes from work. The notebook is a home for all of my ideas related to characters, plots, dialogue, ...

Simply GTD with Kelly: Dealing with interruptions
By kelly@davidco.com (Kelly)
Interruptions are a fact of life in every job and in every company. It's one of the most common things people tell me drags on their productivity. Formany of us, our jobs require us to handle work as it appears, so the only choice ...

David Allen: The Project Management Problem
By David Allen(webmaster@huffingtonpost.com)
The David Allen Company is a professional training, coaching, and management consulting organization, based in Ojai, California. Its purpose is to enhance performance and improve the quality of life by providing the world's best ...

Filling Your Inbox [GTD]
By Bruce
David Allen emphasizes this, too, and I think he is great at practicing what he preaches: he even throws his voice recorder into his physical inbox to make sure he processes the voice notes. Now, while this is patently obvious, ...

What Getting Things Done Has Taught Me
By Fernando Gros
I’ve been living with Getting Things Done for close to 18 months now. At the risk of sounding overly enthusiastic or, heaven forbid, evangelistic, I would encourage everyone to read the book, especially anyone in ministry (why, ...

eProductivity Equation: Methodology
By Eric Mack
Start by reading David's book, Getting Things Done (yes, again). It's good stuff -- it's all advanced common sense, but will often take many iterations to make the connection to the finer points of your work. ...

Simply GTD with Kelly: What makes a good GTD list manager?
By kelly@davidco.com (Kelly)
Unfortunately, some of the programs out there that are trying to be "GTD list managers" miss the mark not by what they didn't include, but by what they did include. Some of them build in too many convoluted features, that in GTD terms ...

Getting Things Done
By gregorylouie
Inspired by David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” methodology, here’s how I started:. I decluttered over 1000 items in four different email accounts by:. Unsubscribing to any mass mailing that I no longer needed. ...

Productivity Tips from the Master: This You Gotta Hear
By Stephan Spencer
Thankfully there's a way out - it's called "GTD" (Getting Things Done), a time management, or more appropriately, life management methodology developed by best-selling author David Allen. This methodology is outlined in great detail in ...

GTD: Collection Tools
By Palermo4
In my ongoing quest to live by "Getting Things Done" (GTD), I am always looking for ways to maximize each principle. One recommendation that is very important is to identify what my collection tools are (and use them). ...

Getting Things Done using your Palm to Collect
By Michael Brown
In his books, David Allen talks about having a Ubiquitous capture device; something that can capture all the “stuff” that comes flying your way during the day. It can be reminders to get something, someone asking you to do something, ...

(Best of) The Year so far...

It's already April.  The 1st quarter of 2008 sure flew by fast.  Before we go full swing into quarter 2 of 2008, here are a few myGTDstuff highlights from the year so far...

• Do a Periodic Mind Sweep - My last post in Q1 was one of my better posts, IMHO.
• Today, It's all about me!  - This links to a nicely written interview with me(!) from HackYourDay.com.
• Fun Day Friday - How to get through Fridays!
• Need a copy of Office applications for free?  - This was a quite popular post, and rightly so.  Open Office rocks!
• Set a due date! - Set expectations when you are asking others to Get Things Done.
• David Allen @ The Huffington Post - A nice compilation of links to David Allen articles at The Huffington Post.
• Plant watering hack - Kind of dopey, but one of my favorite lifehacks! (Plant-Hack?)
• Don't be late - I've been trying to follow this recommendation religiously.
• When I do my Weekly Review - How I do my Weekly Review - Insight into my weekly review routine.
• Best Cash Back Credit Card Deal - I started the year with a financial post.  I still stand by this recommendation.

From the interesting stat file... This past quarter, most of you used Firefox as your Internet browser when accessing myGTDstuff.com.

Photoshop Express - Free Image Editor & Host

Photoshop Express is a free, web based image editor and photo hosting service available from Adobe.  Yes, this is the same Adobe that makes the most popular image editing software with a similar name; Photoshop CS3 (US $650).  Don't confuse the two.  Photoshop (the CS3 version) is a full featured image editor tailored toward professional photographers, serious amateur photographers, or graphics and web designers.  Photoshop Express is a web based tool that contains a small, easy to use subset of high quality image editing tools for the average user.  Photoshop Express also offers 2 gigabytes of free image hosting space - All for free!

Here is a quick overview of Photoshop Express.

To use Photoshop Express, simply go to www.photoshop.com/express and signup for a free account.  Once you have your account, you will be able to upload your files and access a nice array of image editing tools. 

• Crop & Rotate--Turn it, straighten it, crop out the background.
• Auto Correct--Automatic, one-click, optimal lighting and contrast adjustment.
• Exposure--Change the brightness of the photo.
• Red-Eye Removal--Removes red eyes caused by some camera flashes.
• Touchup--Remove scratches and other imperfections.
• Saturation--Ramp up the colors to blinding brightness, dampen them down to black and white, or anywhere in between.
• White Balance--Ever notice how people look different inside an office with the ugly fluorescent tubes, as opposed to outside on a bright sunny day? Adjust the white balance and you change the type of lighting in the photo.
• Highlight--The brightest parts of a photo are the highlights. This control lets you brighten or darken just the brightest part of the photo, without affecting the darker parts (we call those the shadows).
• Fill Light--If you take a shot facing into the sun, your subject can end up too dark due to the camera's automatic exposure adjustment. Fill Light brightens the dark area without overbrightening the background.
• Sharpen--It's like putting in your contacts. Suddenly everything comes more into focus.
• Soft Focus--It's like taking your contacts out. Soft Focus creates a subtle blur for artistic effect.
• Hue--This one changes all the colors in a photo at once.
• Black & White--Control how the colors are converted when you change a photo to black and white.
• Tint--Imagine instead of black and white, you want red and white, or pale brown and white for that old Western look.
• Sketch--Makes any photo look like you drew it yourself.
• Distort--Stretch, twist, bulge specific areas of your photos.

The beauty of these tools is their simplicity to use, and their professional results.  To give you an idea of how simple Photoshop Express is to use, here is a quick overview of how to edit a photograph.

Step one, upload your files.  The File Upload function is flexible and easy to use.  Simply find the files on your computer and click upload.  Photoshop Express has a nice status screen showing you the progress of the upload process.

When you edit your image with one of the tools, Photoshop Express gives you several thumbnail views of the possibilities.  In the example below, you can see the 7 options available when using the Exposure tool.  (Click the image to see a larger version)

This same "several thumbnail change" view will appear for just about every image editing tool you select.  This is a very cool feature!

As you edit your images you will always have three option available to you;

Reset to Original: Discard any changes and revert to the original image.
Cancel: Cancel the current changes and revert to the last change made.
Save: Save your changes.

Pretty simple, eh?

In addition to quality, easy-to-use image editing functions. Photoshop Express can be used to;

• Host your images on a public Web Server.  Your files can be made available to the public via a personal URL.  For example: MyName.photoshop.com
• Access and edit images stored on other publicly hosted servers such as Facebook, PhotoBucket or Picassa.

Overall, I'm impressed!  Photoshop Express provides an easy to use, high quality, simple, image editing environment.  That, and 2gb of free hosted space to share your images makes Photoshop Express worth a try.  For the price (free!) you can't beat it.

GTD Digest 2008-04-06

 

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

[10 Entries]

The Basics Of Getting Things Done (GTD)
By Mason Sklut
David Allen’s book, titled “Getting Things Done“, is a very well-written system that teaches you how to use GTD to become a more productive individual. To start off, I’ll just explain the very basics of GTD that I’ve tweaked and used. ...

GTD and Remember the Milk: Lists and Smart Lists tips and gotchas
By jkratz
I have to take exception to that because there is a huge difference: you can’t move items to a Smart List. One of the ideas of GTD is getting your Inbox to empty. In RTM you can’t do that if you are simply relying on tags. ...

Beta Beat: Dejumble, task management simplified
tuaw.com - Santa Monica,CA,USA
If you're sick of hearing about GTD, relax, this isn't about that. This is about a program that's just a to-do list; no contexts, ...

GTD: Airplane Mode
By Todd
I’ve been pushing myself to be more productive during my work hours, especially since I now have two days of the week where I watch my boys. Since I work from home and am usually alone most of the day I have found services such as AIM ...

Using Bonsai And My Closed List Forms
By LJ
My closed list consists of two different types of tasks: those that are recurring tasks associated with daily life (what David Allen would call “checklists”) and those that come from my project work, which are stored in Bonsai. ...

New On-line Application for Getting Things Done
By Ian McKenzie
There’sa new on-line GTD application available. Gtdagenda lets you organize your goals, projects, tasks, etc. using GTD methodology. It’sa fairly straightforward app. The screenshots below come from some of the sections of Gtdagenda. ...

GTD Overview Part 2 - My Setup
By chris
So now that I’ve talked about how I understand the concepts of GTD, I’d like to share how I’ve implemented my system. My current setup has lasted for quite a while as I have finally settled on the tools that work for me. ...

My Moleskine GTD implementation
By pete
Well I’ve decided to try using a Moleskine for my GTD implementation. I was using Emacs Org-mode and really finding it good but I’m often out and about in my new job and so I found I wanted my lists with me. So I went with the Moleskine ...

5 Tips to Scheduling Work and Family
By Tamara
I will admit with this I have slacked off my schedule and boy can I feel it when it comes to getting things done. As I mentioned before its a good idea to have one especially when working from home. This helps you and your children who ...

33 Things, 33 Years
By stugray
22. Always carry a “Ubiquitous Capturing Tool” (journal, notebook, paper, digital recorder), you never know when that thought will come. And it won’t be there when you try to remember it later. - David Allen. 23. Every Saint has a past. ...

The Ultimate Guide to GTD Desktop Wallpaper

There are a handful of GTD oriented desktop wallpaper files available for free from various sources.  Here is a guide to the most popular.

from Anabubula.com

 

from Analubula.com

 

 
from Anabubula.com

 

from Anabubula.com

 

from johnlawrence.net

 

from Gabriel Radic at flikr - This is what I use!

 

from davidfisco.com

 

One of the challenges with managing your desktop icon placement on top of custom wallpaper is that icons don't always stay where you put them.  If you change your screen resolution or accidentally choose the "auto arrange" function, your icons will typically shuffle all around (where you don't want them).  I have a solution for this.  Read my post on Keeping your Windows Desktop Organized for a great tip on managing your desktop icons.

Know of other GTD wallpaper?  Got a favorite? - Leave a comment and let us know about it!

Blogger Tip: Expandable Posts

Today I added the ability to display expandable posts on my blog.  What's an expandable post?  Let's take a step back and talk about posts.  A blog post is another name for an article written for a blog.  Normally all articles, or posts, appear in full on the main page.  An expandable post is a post that displays a summary on the main page, and offers a link to another page for the full article.  For example;

Expandable posts keep things cleaner on the main page.  I plan to use them for the larger posts (articles).

For my fellow Google-Blogger blog users out there, here is how I built my expandable post capability;

1. From the Layout Tab of your Blogger Dashboard, Select Edit HTML.

2. Make a backup copy your Template.  This is critical.  Changing your template incorrectly can be detrimental to the health of your blog!

3. Check the Expand Widget Templates box.

See the graphic below for a summary of Steps 1-3.

4. Within the HTML, find the code;
</head>

5. Right before the </head> tag, past the the code from <THIS PAGE>.

6. Look for the code <data:post.body/>.

7. Replace it with;

     <b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;'>
        <style>#fullpost{display:inline;}</style>
        <p><data:post.body/></p>
     <b:else/>
        <style>#fullpost{display:none;}</style>

        <p><data:post.body/></p>

       <span id='showlink'>
        <a expr:href='data:post.url'>Read More...</a>
       </span>
       <script type='text/javascript'>
         checkFull(&quot;post-&quot; + &quot;<data:post.id/>&quot;);
       </script>
     </b:if>

8. If you are using a standard blogger template, you may need to perform this step.

- Find <div class='post-body'>

- and change to <div class='post-body'  expr:id='"post-" + data:post.id'>

9. Lastly, from the Setting, Formatting menu, add this code to the Post Template Box

Type Your Post Summary Here
<span id="fullpost">
The Remainder of Your Post Goes Here
</span>

For example;

Now each new post will be ready for a Post Summary section and a Post Remainder section.

Special thanks to Ramani at Hackosphere.com for this tip!  If you decide to use this tip on your blogger blog, be sure to add a link to Hackosphere to your sidebar in return.

Online Note & Task Management

I've been looking for a quick and easy application to track my tasks and notes.  I had been using Microsoft Outlook, but it's rather cumbersome.  The problems I have with Outlook include;

• Outlook is slow to startup.  I don't always have Outlook running and firing it up takes some time.
• Adding notes and tasks to Outlook is a bit cumbersome.  I'm looking for something quick and easy.
• Creating categories in Outlook is not intuitive and lacks flexibility.  For example, you cannot created nested categories.
• Notes and Tasks are in different places in Outlook.  You have to jump between screens to see everything.

I stumbled across an application called EverNote that has met my needs, and exceeded my expectations.  I simple love this app!  EverNote is a fast, flexible, free little application specifically designed for quick note taking and task management.

Here is what I like about EverNote:

• It's a quick, small application.
  • You can minimize it to the System Tray.  It's only a mouse click away
  • Notes and tasks can be created quickly
  • It starts up fast
  • It consumes very few system resources
• EverNote can be set to start when Windows starts
• Flexible category management
  • Create your own categories
  • Each category can be assigned it's own icon
  • Standard categories can be removed
• Simple, clean, drag-and-drop interface
  • To assign a category to a note, simple drag the category name to the note
• Deleted notes go into an internal "recycle bin" before being permanently deleted
• It's Free!
  • There is an advanced version available for ~ $50, but for my needs, the freeware version works quite well.

If you need a quick and easy to use note and task tracking application, I'd highly recommend giving EverNote a try.  You will not be disappointed.  The EverNote website has a nice list of user testimonials that will give you a good idea of this applications potential.

From the "How Ironic" File:   A day after I wrote this article, I ran across a recent post at Ian's Messy Desk (what a cool name for a blog!) that talks about the new features in the latest EverNote beta.  Check out Ian's blog for details.

Trigger List for Project Planning

Speaking of trigger lists (see yesterday's post), David Allen put together an excellent trigger list that can be used for Project Management.  You can find the list on the website for a piece of Project Management software called Project Kickstart.  To quote David Allen;

Talking to corporate executives across the country, I often find that project planning is an issue.  I developed this Trigger List to scan possible ideas to be considered in your projects. It is especially good when you're just brainstorming, and giving yourself permission to capture any and all ideas that pop into your head.

It's a great list of considerations for any project large or small.