Rhoneisms

Merlin tries to nail down his five top “no-duh” lifehacks in 300 words. Boy does he seem to nail it on the head.
Giles over at MacDevCenter lays down some smack for the text junkies. Some good text tips here in. It finally got me to give a serious look at John Gruber’s Markdown text formatting wizardry. Once I was able to grok the syntax which was not all that far from Textile which I already knew, I knew I had found nirvana. Using it to write this post right now.
Just after I posted about using Basecamp for GTD yesterday, I jumped over to my feed reader only to discover that LifeDev had also posted on the same subject. They don’t have context hack though. Soylent Green is Contexts!
Lovely Design is aptly named. They have some beautiful paper pr0n. Take this lovely journal made from found paper and envelopes. Every page turn screams possibility.

Long time readers know that I am a fairly regular user of Writely, an online web based word processor. Writely allows me to be able to store and work on documents from any computer with a web browser. Well, Writely was gobbled up by Google some months ago. Now, their assimilation with the hive mind is complete and Google has rebranded and merged it with their online spreadsheet tool to give you… Wait for this amazing and catchy name… Google Docs and Spreadsheets.
From the copy:
“If you’ve ever struggled to keep track of different versions of spreadsheet or word processor files sent over email, Google Docs & Spreadsheets may be right for you. Google Docs & Spreadsheets is a web-based word processing and spreadsheet program that keeps documents current and lets the people you choose update files from their own computers.”
There you have it. Writely users are now redirected to the new URL where they will find all of their documents still just as they left them. They will also find that it is still the same old Writely with the same old features. It is just a little bit more Google in flavor than before.

I have been using Basecamp for some time to implement larger multi-tiered and ongoing projects. Lately, I have been using it even more to manage projects for the team I lead at work. While I am using Basecamp mostly in the fashion it was intended for, since proposing my ideas about changes to my GTD implementation in Backpack, I have been pondering how some of those same changes (as well as some other useful hacks) could be applied to using Basecamp for GTD as well.
The Setup
Basecamp is designed so that, on paying accounts, one can manage multiple projects. A “project” in their definition assumes a y large one with the need for multiple sub-projects, messaging, colaboration, milestones, etc. – in other words, a lot like most people’s daily lives. The free version only allows for one project which is just fine for one’s life so this setup assumes that you are going to use one project for your GTD implementation.

Basecamp, like Backpack, allows you to create multiple lists under the To-Do tab for a project. For a GTD implementation one could have one list for single action items (i.e. projects with only one action) and then a list for each project (i.e. anything which requires two or more steps). You can see in the picture above an example of this setup. That part is pretty straight forward and pretty much inline with my @Projects setup in Backpack.
The Context Hack
I am sure you also notice in the picture above that I have set contexts for items in bold. I also bet you are wondering how that was achieved. Here is how…
People. That’s right – People.
Basecamp allows one to add people to a project and assign To-Do list items to those people responsible for them. Therefore, I thought, if people were actually contexts, then you could just as easily make the person’s name the context you want, give them an e-mail address (I just used the dummy Gmail account I have for such nonsense purposes), an equally nonsense password, and… um… tada! You have contexts which you can assign to those list items.
Another advantage to this is that Basecamp allows one to view just To-do items assigned to a specific person. Therefore, if your person is a context, you can use this hack to just list specific contexts:

GTDynomite!
Of course, one can use all of the other features of Basecamp as well. For instance, you can use the Messages section for notes, set Milestones for important projects, etc.
Basically, with a little outside of the box thinking and repurposing, one could easily use a free Basecamp account as a real and effective GTD solution with the ability to organize actions as well as viewing and printing by both context and individual project lists.

This is for all you plain text addicts out there. Mike Mellor has a bundle for the excellent Textmate that turns it into a lean mean GTD machine. In an effort to make a good thing even better, he has implemented a text version of the metadata markup I use and define in my Productivity Whitepaper.
Here is how he describes it:
In a nutshell, this syntax works to provide “state” (my word, not Patrick’s) to a task. I have reversed two of the items, but here they are:
– (Dash): Undone Action Item.
+ (Plus): Done Action Item.
-> (Right Arrow): Delegated (with a note to whom and the date).
<- (Left Arrow): Waiting – (i.e. for another action).
^ (Triangle): Data Point.
The difference between this and what Patrick devised is I reversed “Delegated” and “Waiting.” To me, the right arrow gives me the impression that I have passed the task along, where the left arrow better fits my thinking for a task that I am waiting on. I also added one more item:
* (Asterisk): Project.
So that I don’t have to keep writing “Patrick Rhone’s ‘Metadata Markdown’ Syntax”, I’m going to call it “OrgFu”
Very, very cool. To say I am honored by the response I have received thus far would be an understatement. The word “humbled” might even be a more apt description.
GTD with “Metadata Markdown” Syntax @ Panageek

So, in the coming days you may notice some changes around here. Michael (Web-fu Sensi) and I are making some changes to the layout of the site. For instance, there is now a colophon link where the photos used to be. It includes a little bit about me and the tools we use to build patrickrhone.com. Photos will soon be found on the status page and updated much more frequently. There will be some other content and style changes coming, lots of stuff moving around, plus some back end stuff to keep things performing at their optimum level. The upshot of all of this is to say – pardon our dust while we improve your reading experience.

As regular readers know, I recently switched my “Moleskine of Choice” from the Pocket Ruled to the 18 Month Weekly Planner. One of the principal reasons I wanted this planner as soon as it was anounced and eagerly awaited it’s release was it’s layout.
On the left hand page is a week laid out in blocks starting on Monday and running through Sunday. A large header space at the top of that page offers lots of room for writing “soft landscape” items like conference dates and such. The right hand facing page is just a plain ruled page with no header. What this layout allows me to do is have one easy place to glance at my calendar items for the week and have an easy space for next actions and capture.
My use of it is not much different than it was before. Because the planner is organized weekly, I use the ruled page for my actions and capture for just that week using the same dash/plus system as before. With no header at the top of the ruled page there are a full 28 lines available. This is more than enougfh for me. I do not tend to have enough to fully fill the page on any given week. In fact, I rarely fill 3/4 of it (yes, I am really busy – seriously). At the end of the week, as part of my weekly review, I process the carryovers (i.e. unfinished or unprocessed items) to the next weeks ruled page. Also part of that weekly review process is “syncing” my calendar items for the upcoming week with my Backpack calendar. Also, just as before, action items get synced with Backpack as well so I always have those available and easily portable.
Therefore, some of the tools have changed but my system remains pretty much the same as it was. There is a deeper lesson to be learned in this. The goal of GTD is to create a trusted system. If you trust and stick to your system then the tools are chosen to best support the system and not the other way around. Therefore, it was an easy transition between one calendar program, capture device, etc. to another because my system remained the same.

One of the things I have always loved about the idea of GTD is one that a lot of folks have the hardest times committing to – that the priority of a task is only one factor in deciding if a task can actually get done. As a matter of fact, I would argue that it is one of the last classifications one should use for any task. Today, Merlin Mann explains on the ever excellent 43 Folders exactly why this is:
“Unless you can always satisfy the big red letter commitments you’ve created for yourself — as well as the ones that are constantly being generated for you by others — an obsession with priority alone is pointlessly stress-inducing, unhealthy, and unrealistic. The truth is that sometimes you have crap days, pencils need to be sharpened, or maybe you just don’t have the tools or energy to do what you want the second you want. That’s life, pal. Deal.”

Read the whole thing. You wont regret it. Do it. Now!
GTD: Priorities don’t exist in a vacuum

Starbury is a new line of clothing from NBA Basketball star Stephon Marbury. The twist is that he is striving to prove that, unlike some of his peers, you can make shoes just as good as the ones that cost 100.00 at prices that regular kids can afford. The rationale being that most kids who grow up in “da hood” like he did could never afford a pair of decent shoes to play the game and will often resort to crime in order to get them. He plans on wearing the shoes from his new line in every game he plays from now on just to prove their equality with the other brands. The price for the shoes: .99. Most of the clothing items are similarly priced or less. Quite amazing when you think about it. They are available exclusively from Steve and Barry’s stores. Although not officially available online you can find them on eBay (at slightly higher prices) if you don’t have a store in your area.

I received a couple of comments on my post about Yojimbo putting forth Journler as a more feature rich and free alternative. I can’t argue against either of those points – It is a great app with an amazing feature set for the price (did I mention it was free). In any case, OK Scarfone has a great write up of how she has implemented GTD using Journler. I am pretty happy with my system but it might help others who are searching.

Do you ever have the need to create a quick little list or have a note, quote or piece of text that does not yet have a home? For instance, there are little text clippings that I like to keep in Yojimbo but, because I am on my Unbuntu box or otherwise at a computer but away from my main system, have to park them somewhere. Then there are the weekends when Bethany and I need to pound out a quick list of things we want to accomplish for that time – I just want to type it up, arrange it, print it out and take it with us. I think I have come up with a useful little Backpack hack that will solve these situations – The “Scratch” Page.
Here is the idea, create a page called “Scratch” and then give yourself permission to throw anything on there that wont fit anywhere else. This is not a place to keep these items. It is just a temporary parking space for those quick lists, text snippets and random files and images. And, just like a real scratch page, I delete them when I am done with them.