They were always different attics, and there was always stairs leading up to them, but they were always scary, scary places. Dark, full of cobwebs and junk, and in my dream, I was always going to live up there and was terrified about it.

I did some research, and apparently there is no argument over the fact that dreams of architectural buildings represent the physical body. Attics, and the staircases leading up to them represent the mind. A dark and cluttered attic with bad energy was the current state of my mind. It was in a very dark place, and it was certainly cluttered. Truth be told, I was terrified of it!

My dreams were telling me something. I had to get organized.

Many of my problems stemmed from my inbox, aka the hub of my life. I run a server at home, and all of my four email addresses filter into the same inbox. One major problem that us home office dwellers have is when we use the same computer for our personal lives, and our professional lives. This is why I was a train wreck and master of mental clutter. In the same inbox, at any given time, I would get emails about the following:

1. A lady who saw my ad and wanted home computer coaching.
2. An invitation from a marketing company wanting to advertise on this blog.
3. A lengthy email conversation thread with multiple people from the non-profit I volunteer for about the bowling fund raiser we were putting on later in the month.
4. A corporate client who was having emergency trouble with their servers.
5. A reminder from the vet that my dog was due for her annual rabies shot.
6. An email from a dear old friend from high school that found me on Facebook.
7. My weekly Babycenter.com newsletter about Zoe’s development this week (she’ll be twenty before I get to that).
8. Gazillions of replies to a Craigslist posting about a coffee table I was selling for my mom.

My inbox was my metaphorical attic. Something had to be done. Replies weren’t being made in a timely manner. I was lucky if I even read the mail in a timely manner. As for my dear friend that found me on Facebook, it was months before I was able to reply. And in order not to forget about it, I kept the email in my inbox.

Take it from me, as the queen of “inbox angst”, there is nothing more psychologically damaging than having constant daily reminders of what you’re not getting around to doing every time you visit your inbox.

As an attendee of Lotusphere2009 in Orlando, I was fortunate to be able to see David Allen speak about the GTD methodology and how it can be applied to the application I use for email, Lotus Notes. (David Allen is the creator of the “Getting Things Done” time management method.)

In a pivotal moment in the presentation, David showed a picture of a cluttered kitchen. Spices were pouring out of cabinets, the island was filled with junk, and it was a horrible mess. This was immediately followed by a slide of a gleaming white kitchen. The island was empty. There was nothing on the counters. “Now”, David said with a gleam in his eye. “Which kitchen would YOU prefer to work in?” He then went on to say what I was slowly realizing. The clean kitchen WANTED you to spread out and get your hands dirty. Its very emptiness is what will spark creativity to create new recipes and lay out all your ingredients on the waiting island.

So how do we empty our islands? David then said that the biggest problem with a new system is that in order for it to work fully, you have to trust it 100% in order to let go.

I decided to give it a shot, and was able to get my hands on an evaluation version of “eProductivity for Notes”, GTD software for Lotus Notes to provide beta feedback to the company.

eProductivity for Notes is an actual product, not just an idea. It’s a customized mail template containing a series of folders named as actions in the GTD methodology. When I drag an email to a folder, a new ‘action’ is created. If I’ve put a due date on the action, it shows up in my calendar and will remind me about it on my Today screen in my email. The email then gets automatically deleted from my inbox once I’ve created the action, as it copies all the contents from the email anyway.

The sidebar is categorized into every possible action I could perform on an email. And if the stock ones aren’t good enough, you can add more. For example, when someone emails me an invoice, I have a “Quickbooks” action I can drag the email into (a calendar item is created, the email is deleted). When I’m doing my bookkeeping, I then pop over to “Quickbooks” to see what’s in there that needs processing. I’ll see the invoice email, and will pay it. There’s even a “Waiting for” category for things like Amazon.com shipment notifications that clutter up your inbox. When the shipment arrives, mark it complete.

(me dragging the invoice email over to the left columns…)

It’s possible to create a project. A project is when a series of emails are linked to the same action. In the help documentation, they give the example of an employee being told to order a new printer. The project subject would be “Order a new printer.” If a colleague sent them an email containing several printer models to look into, that email would get filed under “Read/Review”, and would get linked to the “Order a new printer” action.

Here’s my current projects. I created a “SHO Bowling Event” project for the non-profit I mentioned earlier. I created an action to send Charlene a sponsor letter (filed under “At Computer”) and popped Deb off an email asking her to send me the sponsor letter so I could have it for future sponsors. I then got an email back from Deb containing the letter and linked it to the project. Now, when I need the sponsor letter, I know where to find it. You can see it here in the structure. Once the bowling event is over, I can mark my project complete.

All these items have long been removed from my inbox, yet they are in the system so they will get reviewed regularly. I can now let them go from my mind.

There are a few things I’ve learned to truly make it work:

1. You must trust it. Now, I can actually remember things on my own without even needing a calendar reminder! I can tell I am allowing myself to let them go in my head once it’s in eProductivity.
2. You must review your actions regularly. I was pleasantly surprised to find many of them were taken care of through the daily course of action anyway. There is no greater feel-good lift than to be able to use that “Mark complete” button.
3. This is key: use Jott while on the road to easily make sure those to-do’s that clutter your brain get handled. Jott will transcribe your voice message to yourself, and send it to your… drumroll… inbox! To which you can then just process it like a task.
4. Home projects can be handled just like professional projects. Getting your chimney swept is a project in itself when multiple people are emailing you the name of “their guy” like you asked them to at the neighborhood party.
5. My Craigslist post? Yeah, that’s a project all right. Each reply that comes into my Inbox gets linked to the original Craiglist post project.

Here’s my category list. Most of them came with the software, I added a few others, such as “To Sell”. These are reminders of things I need to sell on Craigslist or eBay.

Here’s a sampling of my action list by category. You can see the mesh of personal and professional lives, as I need to review an article on toilet training one day, drop off a monitor to a client the next, and oh yeah, send Charlene that sponsor letter!

I had a dream about an attic last night. It was bright, had beautiful woven walls, and I was looking up the staircase to choose which empty, clean room I wanted to live in. It was a tough decision. They were both great.

eProductivity for Notes – http://www.eproductivity.com

]]> http://momelettes.com/2009/08/gtd-by-using-lotus-notes-and-eproductivity-to-manage-my-personal-and-professional-life-%e2%80%93-from-the-same-inbox/feed/ 4 http://momelettes.com/2009/01/overwhelmed-by-your-new-gadget-start-here/ http://momelettes.com/2009/01/overwhelmed-by-your-new-gadget-start-here/#comments Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:04:06 +0000 Jess Stratton http://momelettes.com/?p=55 I firmly believe that all gadgets should be created like the Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy; that is to say their boxes and manuals should have the words “DON’T PANIC” inscribed on large, friendly letters on the cover (We miss you, Mr. Adams).

I consider myself a pretty technical person. I built my own computer, and have knowledge of hardware and software interactions through drivers right down to their basic binary operations. Yet, once I got my first handheld computer, it came with Windows Mobile, an operating system I had never seen. I was so overwhelmed I wanted to cry. I needed to make sure I could check my email. And I had to put my songs on it to play MP3s in my car. And since I wanted to play them in my car, I had to figure out how to wire an aux port into my car audio system. And, did you know I could hook it up to WIFI to surf the Internet? But where do I tell the handheld what my WPA key is? I know computers inside out and BACKWARDS, and I barely knew how to turn this little machine on.

I wanted to run before I could walk, and from someone who is technical, it was especially frustrating to have a gadget I didn’t know how to use.

So, ladies, if there is anyone who understands what you are going through now, it is me. Wholeheartedly. We’re talking full-on panic, blood-pressure-rising frustration.

I have learned one or two things about overcoming this extreme gadget stress over the years, especially as I tend to acquire new gadgets faster than my milk goes out of date.

Always run the installation CD before hooking up your gadget to your computer.

The chances are pretty good that if your gadget needs a specific piece of software to work, it came on a CD. In most cases, the CD install program needs to run before physically connecting the device to your computer, so save yourself some unnecessary troubleshooting steps by following the install instructions exactly as the install guide says.

A cautionary tale for the bold: Yes, it absolutely could cause things to not work correctly by hooking up the device first – trust me, I used to fix computers for a living. Many times I got called onsite to fix a new gadget that wasn’t working, only to find the user had not read the instructions first and just connected the device to the machine.

Take it one task at a time.

To combat that run-before-you-walk feeling, solve one problem you have, and THEN move onto the next problem. For example, if you have an MP3 player, you know you can load it up with movies and music, and then play them back, and wait a minute, what if I don’t want a song on it anymore? How do I delete it? I can delete it, right? Will it get deleted from my computer, also?

By writing down each problem to master into an itemized list of tasks, you’ll find that you are mastering your gadget without even realizing it, and accomplishing what you need to learn. Here’s an example of how you might write down your tasks for your MP3 player:

1. Connect my MP3 player to my computer
2. Transfer music to my player.
3. Delete a specific song from my player.
4. Finding a specific song to play on my player.
5. etc.

IMHO, RTFM.

Be warned – many device manufacturers know that most folks tend to have Internet access these days. To save on printing costs, many times your gadget may only come with initial setup instructions, and the actual user manual can be downloaded online. Read the initial instructions to find out if this is the case and where to go to download the manual.

This does sound crazy, but I’ve found that many times the user manual is already organized into specific tasks to make it easy to follow, rather than an inside-out read-through. Give it a chance. Manuals are getting better. I promise.

Find out the specific version of your software.

In most cases, your software probably has a menu at the top that says “Help”. Clicking this usually yields a pull-down menu with an option of “About <software name>”.

This option should bring up a window that contains the exact version number of your software. In order to find out how to properly use the software that came with your gadget, it’s important that you know which version you are using. Here’s an example:

This version number will become important in the next step.

Probably the most useful tip I could give anyone with an extreme case of “gadget stress” is this next one.

Phrase what you want to do with your gadget into a logical statement or question, and then turn to Google.

Earlier, I suggested you write down a list of tasks that you’ll need to know how to do with your gadget. If you can’t find the answer in the manual, and you just can’t figure it out on your own, turn to Google. I don’t know how many times Google has saved me from tearing my hair out. Here’s a moment of comfort for you – no matter how crazy your question may be, someone out there on the Interweb has already asked it, and some kind person has thought fit to answer it.

“How do I connect my Dell Axim x50v to my wireless network?”

“How do I use Windows Media Player 11 to download songs onto a Creative Zen player?”

“How do I delete a song from my Creative Zen player?”

“Can I use iTunes with any MP3 player?”

“How do I disable the touchscreen on my Treo 800w while I am on a call?”

Finally, turn to user forums specific to your gadget.

The Internet is full of lively, supportive user communities chock full of people who have the exact same device you have, and are having the exact same problems you are. However, there are also people who have overcome those problems, and are more than happy to help you overcome yours.

By searching Google for user communities with your specific gadget name, you’ll most likely come across some that will make you feel right at home. For example, here’s some user forums that I’ve found based on things that I have:

Panasonic’s Living in HD community offers insight, forums, and how-tos for Blu Ray players, and their flat panel TVs. This is a fairly new site targeting families, and it has good tips including how to mount a flat panel TV to a wall.

WMExperts.com is the place to hang out and learn how to your Windows Mobile device. Whether you’re a newb or a seasoned developer, you can ask a question and someone will help you.

Aximsite.com was crucial to my mastery when I had my Dell Axim handheld. Again, a warm community that welcomes newcomers, I felt totally comfortable asking what I thought were mundane questions that I couldn’t find the answer to anywhere else.

Did you get a gadget over the holidays that you just can’t figure out? Are you stuck? Have you found a great community dedicated to a gadget others may be having trouble with? Feel free to post any questions or useful gadget sites in the comments. Let’s get a lively discussion going!

In the meantime, I’m going to continue my life with my current technological frustrations and hope I come through unscathed, and with a blood-pressure that’s actually in range with my age group. My most recent battle was with the Blu Ray menu for of all things, the movie Cars. I think I was just too old to get to the Chapter selection screen. I finally did it, but not before seriously contemplating waiting until my 16 month-old was old enough to learn it, and then teach me.

After cleaning out their computer, I’d always end by asking if they minded if the computer didn’t look quite as nice, but ran faster. When they said no, I changed one setting on their computer and out went the fancy Windows XP look and feel, and in came the old Windows 98 look and feel, but with about ten times the speed.

Everything you do on your computer takes up memory, that is to say, the amount of tasks that Windows can handle at once. The more memory your computer has, the more tasks it can accomplish at once with greater speed. If you are holding a conversation with someone, and someone else comes up to you and starts talking, you’d start struggling with trying to keep up with both conversations. Now if you gave yourself a memory upgrade, you’d be able to have multiple simultaneous conversations as well as watch TV, while writing your thesis at the same time! This is why people consider a memory upgrade on a computer a pretty powerful thing. You’ve heard people say that they added more ‘gigs of RAM’ to their computer, right? They’ve just done a memory upgrade.

On a quick aside, this is not to be confused with hard drive storage space, even though both are declared in terms such as “gigs of RAM”. Hard drive space is permanent storage on your computer, such as the digital photos. If we stick to YOU as an analogy, the clothes in your closet would take up permanent space in your house. I see enough confusion between the two terms that I thought it was worth mentioning.

Now, I digress. (I think *I* need a memory upgrade!)

That nice, fancy Windows XP desktop does not come without a price. That pretty green Start button in the lower left-hand corner actually takes up valuable memory to look that nice that could be used elsewhere. The picture of your dog on your desktop wallpaper also takes up memory. If Windows XP no longer needs to use that memory to keep itself looking nice, it can use it instead to help programs open and close faster.

Would you be willing to give those nice looking screens up for a significant overall speed increase to your computer?

Click on Start, then RIGHT-click on My Computer, and select Properties.

From there, go to the Advanced tab and under Performance, choose Settings.

The default for Windows XP visual performance is “Let Windows choose what’s best for my computer.”

Changing it to “Adjust for best performance” will take away all the nice Windows XP-styled screens, and will make your system look like a Windows 98 computer (remember the grey Start button?). However, the speed increase will be noticed instantly by you.

Now, if you really, really, REALLY would like that picture of your dog to stay as your desktop wallpaper, you can just click the Custom button to pick and choose what options you are willing to give up for more speed. Every little bit helps.

It takes such little time to speed up my client’s computers, many times we move on to other things once that’s been done. I’ll never forget the time I walked my client through it on the phone, and then we moved on to a printer problem.

Client: “I’ll pick a random document and print it out. Here, I’ll choose Ted’s resume, he just sent it to me so it’s on my desktop. It’s printing now… well, the first page is completely blank.”

pause.

“But I guess if you know Ted, that sort of makes sense.”