Well, it’s been just over three months since I read Getting Things Done by David Allen. Some things have worked, some things just aren’t for me. Part of the why is how I function, which is usually isn’t particularly detail oriented. Part of it is just how my life is right now. I don’t have to go sit at a desk everyday, and being underemployed most every day is different. (The ability to take off and spend a half day at Big White or SilverStar is awesome…) Anyways, here are six things I’ve learned from GTD. 1. The basic GTD-style workspace is awesome. I made a desk from an old piece of countertop and two sawhorses. On the left is a spike for receipts and two trays (an inbox and a ‘to read’). On the right is a stack of index cards, a cup full of writing instruments, post-it’s, a date-stamp, and other desk-like things. Behind the desk is an old cubicle panel which is serving as my cork-board. I like to have a place to stick things. 2. For me a tickler file is useless. I think it will be used more often when I’m doing more, but for now it’s collecting dust. If I need to diarize something I make an appointment in Outlook (which I synch to my phone and to Google Calendar) and include a note for where any associated materials are (tickets, readings, notes). 3. The basic processing workflow is great for me. When I sit down to do a review, this is a great way to empty my brain. It’s as close as a muggle like me can get to having a pensive. 4. I have to print out my tasks from outlook, sorted by category. I assign categories like "home" or "computer" or "phone call" so I am more apt to actually get some of the next-actions done. 5. 43 Folders is a great resource, and links to some great resources. I’ve started a cycle of increasing the relevant things I read, and then simplifying them so I’m sticking to important/relevant/useful things. (My del.icio.us is a little bit like my virtual inbox, and I use Google Reader to keep track of things like blogs and some news feeds.) 6. Using an idea from Merlin Mann (and 43Folders), I’ve taken to carrying around a Hipster PDA. Trying to unpack as many tools as possible from the GTD toolkit has been an enlightening experience. If nothing else, I’ve become more creative, more task-oriented, and better able to keep track of the details. My calendar continutes to be my lifeline, and I’m going to end up getting a real PDA eventually…..but I think I’ll wait until the iPhone comes out.

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I put a piece of paper up on the big corkboard the other day. First, I have a big corkboard. When I first moved into my place I had a tiny little desk that just wasn’t cutting it. As those of you who have read Getting Things Done will know, having a functional workspace is essential. David Allen suggests the most basic idea is to take the door off your office and put it on a couple of saw horses. Add a couple of baskets (or whatever you use for GTD’s collection phase) and away you go. I basically did that. My landlord had a 3-4′ long piece of countertop, I made a couple of sawhorses, an now I have a workspace. I also have a cubicle divider panel which I’ve put behind my desk and serves as a large bulletin board. Anyways, I’ve also re-read The Wealthy Barber, Why We Want You to Be Rich, and Rich Dad Poor Dad over the last month. (I’ve also done some spiritual reading, which is always a good idea when you’re reading about money, but that’s another post) Combined with being officially under-employed right now, they’ve motivated me to make some hard-er and fast-er rules about my personal finances and my financial goals. Here’s the 4 that are up on the wall right now, and I’ll take a picture of it later.

• Pay me first => 10% Rule

   

• Tithe 10%

   

• If it goes on VISA it has to come off within 48 hours.

   

• 20% of $ from asset column profits can be mad money.

   

Now that’s definitely not an exhaustive list of my monetary guidelines, but it’s a start. I’ll explain. First, the 10% rule is the Wealthy Barber rule. It’s the 10% savings rule, and both Barber and Rich Dad are big advocates of the "pay yourself first" rule. The second rule is just a good idea. Most of the rich people I know or have read about are subscribers to the ‘give to receive’ school. As a Catholic Christian being charitable is important, both in terms of time and money. It’s one of those things that you pay first and then you don’t miss it, just like the first rule. I don’t just give to my church, but to all sorts of charitable things. Also, tax receipts aren’t a requirement. I’m giving to give, not to get a tax break. Third, the VISA rule. If you want to get ahead in terms of personal finances, you’ve got to dump the high-interest debt. That means cutting up the credit cards. I kept one card and keep (a) making at least 150% of the minimum payments and (b) throwing all sorts of extra money at it. If you have a credit card with a balance, see how much you’ve paid in interest in the last year. Then go change your pants, because you may have wet yourself. Why didn’t I take the scissors to all of my credit cards? Because there are times when you need to: buy airline tickets, put a deposit down for something, buy something online, or are picking up dinner and need an easy way to pay (so you can pay attention to whoever you’re with, and not on playing with a PIN-pad). By using the 48-hour rule I stop going deeper into useless debt; I’m not going to put it on the plastic unless I know I can pay that charge off. I put the receipts on the wall behind my computer so its looking me in the face until I do. Fourth, Chris’ strange 20% rule. It’s not going to make a lot of sense unless you’ve read Rich Dad, but here is the why and then an explanation in a nutshell. I use the 20% rule because spending money without feeling guilty is awesome! I’ll explain with an example. If you win $10,000 in the lotto and go spend it you’ll feel guilty. You know you will. "I should put it into my RRSP/401k, or my kid’s RESP, or pay down my mortgage, or…." However, if you stick it into your asset column (as Rich Dad defines it), which could be investment in real estate, stocks, whatever, then you’ll feel good, but have no money to play with. When you get the income/cash flow/capital gain from that $10,000, then you can play with 20% of the income from that money, and reinvest the rest. It might not seem like much, but if you stick $10k into a half-decent vehicle and get 15% a year ($1500), then you get at least $300 to play with guilt free every year. If you’re getting more than a 15% return (as is possible in many other investments) then you get more mad money. I also think that $300 guilt-free is much better than spending $3000 of guilty-money that could be working for you. Am I on crack? Possibly, but it’s a start.

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It’s been a busy week for me. I’ve been doing the orientation at CBD Network, which is career management group. Great people, and a very useful program. An amazing number of people have been through their program, and they’ve got contacts with just about every company in the Kelowna area. If you ever move here, definitely take the time to check out their program. You never know what you could be until you try, and they’ve got a way of helping people realize their hidden potential. Cheesy, but true. In the vein of job hunting, someone back in Edmonton told me about a job here with a Neurologist that was office work and a bit of child care. I met someone at CBD who would be perfect for it, but I can’t remember who it was who told me about it. Shoot me an email if you remember. I also ordered a watch from Steep and Cheap and they’ve shipped me two. I emailed them and the got back to me right away with a RMA and a 15% discount code. The funny thing was it’s not good for Steep and Cheap (SAC). Now it makes sense because the stuff on SAC is alway 60% or more, and they don’t make much off it, but I found it pretty funny. (It does work on their sister sites: www.backcountry.com, www.tramdock.com, www.dogfunk.com, www.backcountryoutlet.com and www.explore64.com) Also of note, when I emailed them about the discount code I said:

About the discount code….it’s from Steep and Cheap, but it says it’s not valid for SAC or Whiskey Militia. Or am I on crack?

And they said:

Hey Chris, Thanks for getting back to us, I hope you are not on crack, crack is wack.

Good times. For now it’s back to work on getting Quicken set up and maybe doing some laundry!

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You can never find a power bar when you need one. I’ve got a dozen old cell phones (nokia 3590s and LG 4010s) that the company has gone through over time and I’m going to sell them on Craigslist. I’ve opened them up, recorded the numbers, made sure the SIM cards have been removed, and I want to charge them and make sure they all work.

Can I find a power bar? Nope! We’ve got 8 of them floating around the office, all in use right now. I guess we use a lot of juice.  

So the cell phones are a project that gets moved on to the next action (Home) list.

On the good news front I’ve heard back from a couple jobs in Kelowna and have an interview or two scheduled. And looking at Kelowna house listings there’s some decently affordable places. And I leave on Friday, which is really quite frightening.

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Last Saturday I finished Getting Things Done, and the next day I began the slow process of dumping everything into an inbox, and starting to Get Stuff Done. Thus far I like it. It’s frustrating at first to adhere to the processing policy of "once you pick something up out of the inbox, don’t put it back in the inbox." I’m a fan of looking at it, saying "this is what I’ll do" and putting it back in the inbox. With GTD if it’s an actionable item you can do it, delegate it, or defer it. I’d say I did 30% of it, delegated 15% of it, and deferred the other 55% of it. The un-actionable items get tossed, put into reference, or put in my incubator (a someday/maybe list and folders). This had the effect of creating some projects (and their corresponding next actions), moving some projects to the someday/maybe list, and creating a nice little set of lists. Next Actions (Tasks): 35 Someday/Maybe: 14 Projects: 19 Waiting for: 6 Read/Review: 4 Files in the A-Z drawer: 53 But, I haven’t sorted all of my old filing system, and I haven’t gone through my email. (Although my email is a pretty tight ship, thanks to gmail) I’m not really going to put stuff from my current work because I’m winding that down; work and moving is part of why I chose to start up GTD now. It’s much simpler to start a system when (a) your system has relatively few things in it and (b) you’ve got something important (like a move and a wedding) to plan that needs some serious organizing. I’m also not sure I’m going to use a tickler file, although I did make one. And thus the GTD starts. Thus far, I’m a fan.

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The next book I read will be an exciting one, I promise. I’m just finishing up Stock Investing For Canadians For Dummies, and I’m about to start reading David Allen’s Getting Things Done. I’ve gotten busy enough with so many different things that my old organizing system is running at capacity so I’m going to see if Mr. Allen‘s book is any good. I read about it an article that Craig Silverman wrote in the Globe and Mail and it might be a system that makes sense for me. Anyways, for $20 it’s worth a read. My current organizational system works on 2 ideas. First, if it’s important enough to do, it’s important enough to get put on my calendar. I use MS Outlook, sync’ed to my Nokia 6620. If it doesn’t get done, it gets rescheduled (which can be pretty entertaining when I synch with both my laptop and office computer). Second, I’ve got a priority list that’s never allowed to be more than one page. It’s split into four sections: High Priority (Urgent), High Priority (Not Urgent), Low Priority (Urgent), and Low Priority (Not Urgent). I try and update the list every second day but that hasn’t been happening very much lately. And now it’s hot tub time!

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