GTD Digest 2008-09-21

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

[6 Entries]

The Best GTD Post I’ve Read in Like…Forever.
By owstarr
He talks of discipline and priorities and tweaking your system and in my opinion does a truly incredible job of putting into perspective something that I think anyone that’s done GTD for any length of time probably realizes at some ...

Getting on the Ball with GTD and the iPhone
By baron
I’ve been experimenting with GTD (Getting Things Done) since buying an iPhone. We live in an age where there are just way too many things to rob us of our attention and keeping us from focusing on the things that matter the most. ...

GTD for Parents — Navigating Deadlines and Diapers
By Naomi Dunford
I came across a book/process called ‘Getting Things Done’ that has worked great for me. In a nutshell, you organize your tasks by project as well as by the place that they are to be done. For example, the ‘Car’ grouping might have ‘Go ...

The GTD trials and tribulations of a disorganized commuter student
By jawmaster
In searching, I found that a lot of people were practitioners of a system called Getting Things Done, or GTD for short. The system gets its name directly from a book which was written by David Allen, a leading consultant/motivational ...

GTD: Microsoft Office Outlook Connector 12.1 Beta 2
By tonyso
Wouldn’t it be great if you could put up your personal/family/interest group (non-work) calendar next to your work Outlook calendar to plan your time? With Microsoft Office Outlook Connector , you can use Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 ...

43 Folders and Merlin Mann - “You’re stinking up the joint.”
By Troy Malone, Chief Evangelist
It makes a Getting Things Done (GTD) disciple sad! One element that I would like to see brought back into the fore front is the need for simplification. I think that this element has been missing from the mix for a long while. ...

 

Changing your Dual-Monitor Placement in Windows

Windows defaults to you having a 2nd monitor on the right side of your primary display.  If you use the feature to extend your desktop to the new monitor; this can be a drag if your monitor is on the left side of your primary monitor.

To fix this, simply check your display properties;

1. Right-Click on your Desktop and Select Properties

2. Click the Settings Tab

3. Drag the rectangle that represents your second monitor to the left of the rectangle that represents your primary monitor (or display)

That’s it!  Quick fix.

Rebecca's Story

Every once in while you hear a story that really makes you think.  It makes you think how truly lucky you are to be in good health.  It makes you think how truly petty some of your worries are.  It makes you think about doing your part to help others.  Following is one of those stories.

Recently, my friend Steve sent an e-mail asking his friends to sponsor him in a 5K run to support the National Lung Cancer Partnership.  Always being one to help out a friend raise money for a worthy cause, I was more than willing to make a tax deductible donation.  What I did not realize is that Steve and his family had been personally touched by this ugly disease.  It’s turns out that Lung Cancer took his younger sister, Rebecca, a few years back.  When I heard the story of Rebecca, I was floored.  When I learned more about the realities of Lung Cancer in the US, I was shocked.

Here is Rebecca's story as told by my friend Steve…

In July of 2005 Rebecca was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer after going to see her doctor about a persistent cough. She was 24 years old at the time, recently married and just starting her career as a librarian running a reading program for children. Like 10-15% of lung cancer patients, Rebecca was a non-smoker. She faced her illness and cancer treatments with great courage and always retained her optimism that the experimental treatments would lead to her recovery. But Stage IV lung cancer is extremely difficult to treat, having a mere 2% five-year survival rate, and Rebecca succumbed to the disease on September 27, 2005 just months after her initial diagnosis.

Dr. Joan Schiller, President of the National Lung Cancer Partnership, was Rebecca's doctor and treated her and our entire family with great compassion throughout the treatments and in the months following her death. For this reason we are especially committed to do what we can to support this charity event.

About National Lung Cancer Partnership

The National Lung Cancer Partnership (formerly Women Against Lung Cancer) is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization, originally formed in 2001, and officially incorporated in 2003. Our mission is to decrease deaths due to lung cancer, and help patients live longer and better, through research, awareness, and advocacy.
We will accomplish the above mission by:

• Raising awareness of the deadly impact of lung cancer, particularly upon women

• Increasing funding for lung cancer research

• Supporting and promoting research into sex differences in lung cancer

• Encouraging professionals to enter into and be successful in lung cancer research, treatment and care

• Educating and empowering patients to actively participate in their treatment and care

About Free to Breathe

The National Lung Cancer Partnership is a group of leading doctors, researchers, patient advocates, and lung cancer survivors dedicated to raising public awareness of the disease and generating funding for lung cancer research.

The proceeds from the Free to Breathe® events will help fund the National Lung Cancer Partnership's research, education, and awareness programs.

Lung Cancer Facts

• Lung cancer is the #1 cancer killer of American men and women; it kills more people than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and melanoma cancers COMBINED.

• Lung cancer kills almost twice as many American women as breast cancer annually.

• 1 in 13 men and 1 in 16 women will get lung cancer in their lifetimes.

**END

I would encourage all of you to join me in sponsoring Steve and making a donation to the National Lung Cancer Partnership.

GTD Digest 2008-09-14

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

[9 Entries]

GTD - The Backlash or: What Does It Take to Actually Be Better
By chris 
For several weeks I’ve had a half written post based on the negativity I’ve seen lately towards GTD, just sitting on my laptop, waiting for the ideas to become fully fleshed. Last week, the idea got kick-started by Merlin’s post on his ...

GTD: Keeping Things Accessible
By robc.the.geek@gmail.com (Rob The Geek) 
Following this, I now have all of my major GTD tools at my fingertips, all accessible within 5 keystrokes (Win+Esc for Launchy, up to three keystrokes for a shortcut). This has REALLY helped me in becoming more productive with the tools ...

8 GTD Wallpapers to Keep You on Track
By Scott 
Here are some GTD wallpapers that I’ve found over the past few months. You can click on any of the images below to visit the sites of the original author. First off is the Smart Productivity addition to the list of available GTD ...

Simply GTD with Kelly: A day with no new input
By kelly@davidco.com (Kelly) 
Let's pretend that today is a day where you will get no new input. No email will arrive. No one will try to chat online with you. No newspapers will land on your doorstep. No colleagues will want to meet or talk to you. ...

David Allen Reveals the Five “I’s” of GTD Applications
David Allen Reveals the Five “I’s” of GTD Applications: From the GTD Application Panel discussion...

"Getting Things Done" in The Enterprise
ReadWriteWeb - CA,USA
The highlight for me was the first session where Ismael Ghalimi interviewed David Allen, the author of "Getting Things Done." The book and associated ...

Sales Management - GTD For Your Sales Pipeline
By Don Weyant 
Getting Things Done (GTD), the powerful efficiency concept from David Allen, is often applied to our task list and our email inbox, but rarely to more complex processes like our sales pipeline. However, the principles are the same and ...

Getting things done with Jott
By davidabrahams 
I’ve read David Allen’s book Getting Things Done (GTD) and practise the GTD methodology in my daily routine managing work at kmsystems. I find that GTD works well in an agile environment similar methodology to first identifying your to …

GTD With The iPhone
By Adrian 
I recently read David Allen’s Getting Things Done and it was a great book! Most of the books I read are techie books and I felt a bit foo foo reading a productivity book. Far be it for a sophisticated and intelligent nerd like myself to ..

GTD Digest 2008-09-07

 

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

[7 Entries]

getting things done
By fivedigits 
I had been playing around with David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” methodology (aka GTD) for a while. It’sa great idea but I personally found it a bit much to implement fully. I would get everything organized but eventually I find ...

3 Ways to Create More Time
By Shawn Kinkade 
The reason the whole decluttering thing is important is because it tends to represent unfinished business or ‘open loops’ in the Getting Things Done parlance. The more open loops you have, the more likely you will be distracted or just ...

5 Ways to Use Ubiquity for Getting Things Done
By Rahsheen 
Ubiquity is a new Firefox add-on that attempts to fix problems with the usability of the web. Developers and users alike can extend the web as they see fit. It allows you to control the web using regular language. ...

GTD iPhone Community Implementation Project
By PalmOrganized 
It is all part of a plan to create a GTD Community so a group can assist each other in implementingGTD. I am using this post to see if there are any iPhone users interested in taking this on. I have set up a ning group for this very ...

The lesson of Wu Wei - getting things done without effort
By Michael Miles 
Our western puritan work ethic has taught us that hard work, industry, struggle and effort are necessary prerequisites for achievement. I respectfully but passionately disagree. In fact, I believe that the opposite is true, ...

Getting Things Done: David Allen
By Bana 
This book was/is a very detailed book. It takes organizing tasks to a very professional level. It starts by list making and goes as far as changing your drawer or file type in the office to how much to stack in them. ...

GTD Altitudes
By Luke Fullagar(Luke Fullagar) 
Going through old files earlier today, I dug out this Getting Things Done altitude statement which I put together in early 2007. I've found ruminating on this list exceedingly helpful when I've been stuck, and so felt moved to share it. ...

 

Annotate PDF Files for Free

On occasion, I need to add a comment or text to a PDF file and send it to a colleague.  Unfortunately, Adobe’s free PDF Reader does not allow you to do this.  Adobe’s answer to annotating PDF files is for you to shell out $290 for a copy of Adobe Acrobat.  Too much money (and additional functionality) for me.  I need something simpler and far less expensive.

After quite a bit of research, I stumbled upon a freeware program called PDF X-CHANGE VIEWER from Tracker Software.  PDF X-CHANGE VIEWER is incredible!  As their website says;

PDF X-CHANGE VIEWER is the free alternative to Adobe PDF Viewer/Reader – fully featured, faster and ‘lighter’ on your PC’s resources without sacrificing quality or functionality.

Not only does PDF X-Change Viewer not sacrifice any functionality, it adds a bunch of additional features!  Following is a quick overview of some of the features in PDF X-Change Viewer.

Stamp
PDF X-CHANGE VIEWER includes 12 predefined stamps you can add to a PDF.  You can also create your own stamps!

Post-It Type Notes
With the Sticky Note Tool you can add post-it like notes to your PDF’s.

Text Boxes
PDF X-CHANGE VIEWER has 3 ways to add text to a PDF.  The Typewriter Tool allows you to simply add text.  The Text Box Tool put’s a customizable box around your text.  The Callout Tool adds an arrow to your text box to call-out (or point to)what you are commenting on.

Modify Text Tools
You can highlight existing text in your PDF files.  You can cross out text.  You can underline text.

Lines, Arrows and Shapes
PDF X-CHANGE VIEWER has a nice selection of arrows, ovals and lines to add to your PDF’s.

In addition to PDF X-CHANGE VIEWER being a feature laden free product, their tech support is top notch.  I had an issue opening a specific PDF; asked for help on their support forum; …and had a response with a resolution the next day.

You can’t go wrong with PDF X-CHANGE VIEWER.  I’d highly recommend it for anyone who needs to read and/or annotate PDF files.

Restarting your Windows Desktop

Occasionally you may need to restart your Windows Desktop.  Something may have become corrupt on your Desktop.  A change you made to the Registry may need to be activated.

In a recent post, I showed you how to Remove Help and Support from your XP Start Menu.  The last step of this process was to reboot your computer.  You could have saved some time by simply restarting your Windows Desktop.

Here is the procedure to restart your Windows Desktop:

1. Right click on your Windows Taskbar and select Task Manager

2. In Task Manager, Find the program called explorer.exe, click to highlight explorer.exe, then click End Process (Tip: Click the Image Name box to put the running applications in alphabetical order).

3. Your taskbar and desktop icons should disappear.  This means your Windows Desktop (explorer.exe) is not running.  To restart your desktop, select the File | New Task (Run) menu option in Windows Task Manager and run explorer.exe to restart your Windows Desktop.

  

 

With that, your Desktop icons and your Windows Task Bar should return.  Compared to a lengthy reboot, this is guaranteed to save you a bunch of time!

Google takes web browsing to the next level; Here comes Chrome!

Today, Google announced their own open source web browser called Chrome.  The first beta version of Google Chrome will be released for Windows based PC’s tomorrow.  What will Google Chrome do different from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox?  Per Google;

Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers.

Google has done some great things with Search and Advertising during their short existence as a company.  I’m excited to see what they have up their sleeves for the Internet Browser market.  At a minimum, this will be an exciting dual to watch with Microsoft!

For more information on Google Chrome, see;

• The Official Google Blog
• A comic  book put together by the Google Chrome Team.  It’s a pretty neat way to introduce Chrome!

Keep checking back to the Google Blog for details on how to get the beta version of Google Chrome. 

Will Google Chrome make you more productive?  Time will tell.  In the interim, keep your eye on the browser battle with Microsoft.   It will be fun to watch!