This is defintely worth your time and money

Submitted by innowen on Mon, 2006-07-03 21:17.

Happy 4th of July everyone (or post-Canada Day to our Canadian friends). Doug has packed his system and all his things and now treks across Canada to his new home. In the meantime, he wanted to share with you the post he wrote last November for Communication Nation. The article focuss around Doug’s personal experiences with electorinc and paper planning and what drove him back to the analog paper system once and for all.

Trading away the handhelds, tablet PCs and online productivity tools for pens, planners, cards and Moleskines is a leap of faith, like toppling a regime in the hope that the next one will somehow be more benevolent, more attuned to your needs, and offer greater opportunities. It may not, and you may find yourself before the firing line, remembering with fondness the evils of yesterday.

(snippet)

Not only does using paper planners, storyboards, index cards, whiteboards and flip charts allow us to see and experience things from entirely new vantage points, they force us to re-examine the execution and importance of the task at hand. It’s the break from the worn-out tech-centred paradigm, with no restrictions to hinder you, not even battery life.

Hope everyone’s having a great 4th of July and we’ll return to normal postings later this week. Take care.

. We have also noted who Is Jaymi Elford

Submitted by steves on Fri, 2006-07-07 05:08.

Greetings all. Well, I’m back. We had some troubles a few weeks ago and I had to take a hiatus from this site, but I’m back again and raring to go. There have been a few changes on this site since I was last here. Doug Johnston, with a 20 month old son, a brand new baby and moving to the Yukon, for some reason felt overwhelmed and brought Jaymi Elford on board to help with editing and organizational duties and we’ve all been seeing a lot of her lately on this site, but the question remains: who is Jaymi Elford?

Jaymi Elford is multi-talented and eccentric, esoteric and contemplative, but to really understand her, you have to understand her background. So, after exhaustive and brain-wrenching research, I present The Unofficial Biography Of Jaymi Elford:

• At an early age, Jaymi overcame a crippling fear of radial tires and later served 5 years in the French Foreign Legion as a fashion consultant.
• She is descended from an Irish immigrant and a shallow West-coast yuppie and is proud of her colorful heritage. She speaks English at work, Gaelic at home and something that sounds like Mandarin Chinese when she’s been drinking whiskey out of the bottle for more than 2 days.
• In high school, she was known as “everybody’s friend, nobody’s lover” and was voted Most Likely To Foment An Unsuccessful Revolution In A Small African Country.
• Due to the captain of the football team, she still has a tattoo on her butt that says The Tao Of Dwayne.
• At the age of 23, she spent an entire year in contemplative silence, not because she trying to come to a better understanding of her own consciousness, but because she was really, really mad at her boyfriend. He didn’t know what he did. She didn’t tell him.
• Although she works in many different media, Jaymi chose to work primarily in print rather than in film. She describes film as being a lot like books, only louder.
• She is not confined to the traditional definition of marriage, but she is opposed to “really screwed up people reproducing”.
• She is convinced that dyslexia is a government plot to control California.
• She’s waging an underground but vigorous campaign to have Alexander the Great’s name’s name officially changed in the history books to ‘Alexander The Really Really Terrific.” She respects his accomplishments, but just doesn’t think conquering Asia Minor would have been that difficult.
• Her favourite book is Zen And The Art Of Electro-Shock Therapy.
• She’s an expert at Tarot, but refuses to use The King or The Fool in her tarot readings, as they’re just too glam rock for her.
• Although not strictly a religious person, per se, she is deeply spiritual and refers to herself as a lapsed sun worshipper, which is a fancy way of saying she likes the rain.

Well, that’s the full story on Jaymi Elford. I hope that this has helped to engender a sense of community and common purpose, or, ya know, whatever, on this site. Yeah. Till next time, keep your pen on the page and eccentricities justified.

Steve Sharam
www.whenrealityknocks.com

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Furthermore

Submitted by steves on Fri, 2006-07-14 21:22.

Greetings all, Steve here. Ya know, I think Eric Clapton said it best: “Given the choice between accomplishing something and just lying around, I’d rather lie around. No contest.” Amen Eric, I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I’ve been thinking about this problem for a while, though not too hard, of course, and I think this is an area in which D*I*Y Planner can make a contribution. With that in mind, I propose the D*I*Y Planner Work Excuses Template:

See, the problem as I see it is that it’s difficult to come up with an excuse as to why you’re not working on the spot and so we need two things: 1) A quick and easy reference sheet of believable excuses and 2) A way to look at it that makes it looks like you’re doing work. Well, that sounds like a D*I*Y Planner tamplate to me!

What you do is right down a number of excuses, sub-divided by situation, and then place it in your D*I*Y Planner. When the boss comes along and asks why your work isn’t getting done, you simply grab your planner and flip to the excuses tamplate and use one that seems appropriate. The beauty of this is that you’ll never be caught without an excuse and it’ll look like you’re working when you’re flipping through your planner retrieving an excuse. Neat, huh?!:)

Now, of course, the only remaining thing we need is some good excuses and, once again, D*I*Y Planner’s got ya covered. I present here several example excuses, but feel free to adapt them or invent your own. Creativity’s what it’s all about people, so here’re my suggestions to counter the question Why aren’t you getting any work done?

• Sorry boss, we’re having a hardware problem.
• Sorry boss, we’re having a software problem.
• I’m sorry, but I’m not going to answer that on the grounds that may incriminate myself.
• My religion requires that I practice deep meditative relaxation between 11:30 and 4 the third Wednesday of every month.
• I’m upset about my wife leaving me.
• I’m upset about your wife leaving me.
• I got sidetracked with a sexual fantasy about the new girl in accounting. Can you blame me?
• Manchester United lost. I expect I’ll be inconsolable for the rest of the week.
• My underwear’s too tight.
• I need a vacation.
• My job is a dark swirling void of meaningless tasks and useless jerks. I want chocholate.

Of course, these are only suggestions. If you have any ideas, feel free to share them with the class. Until next time, keep your pen on the page and your excuses close to hand.

Steve Sharam
To read my thoughts on international understanding and all that junk, check out www.whenrealityknocks.com

. However the Matters Most List

Submitted by chrisbrogan on Tue, 2006-07-11 17:57.

Recently, I’ve fallen off the planner wagon, but I’m here to repent. Over the last several weeks, I’ve been lazy and overwhelmed at the same time, and the mix has turned into something of a nightmare. I’ve come to realize in this time, however, that one thing surely DOESN’T work: to-do lists.

A To-do list is basically a collection of things you “could” do in a day. That’s all well and good, but truly, is it what you need? You could fill to-do lists until the end of time, if you think about it. Anything is fair game on a to-do list. Instead, I propose a new type of list: a Matters Most list.

There are pages that fit this description in the D*I*Y Planner kit, and if you were to actually look at that list often, you’d find that the actual bits and bobs of a to-do list would mostly fade away. In fact, I posit that to-do lists are for when we’re feeling weak about our already-agreed-upon methods of planning and organization.

I recommend addressing the following items on a big index card:

• No more than five- More than five items on the list of what maters most to you, and you’ll get cluttered.

• Be specific but open-ended- Don’t put down “family.” Your family DOES matter most (and if you’re failing this, fix it). Instead, put down: “home by dinner, no work until after the kids are in bed, 2 date nights a week.” See how that is all actionable?
• Cover all bases- don’t forget to be selfish and add what maters most to you alone (without external influences). Get some of that done daily, too.
• Allow for breathing room- this is a list to remind us what maters the most to us, not what has us chained to our agreements. This should be upbeat, and should make us feel a little more focused on what is important.
• Review this twice a year- Priorities change, as do the details of your obligations. You might be getting home great every night, but missing out on the date nights. Change your list when it’s out of sync.

You can turn this list into smaller to-do lists, and there are certainly things you don’t want to forget simply because they don’t align directly with what maters most to you (for instance: “pay mortgage” doesn’t matter most, but it will wreck your life if you don’t do it).

What might you put on your list?

–Chris Brogan writes about creativity and self-improvement at [chrisbrogan.com]. He’s about to cross the 300 mark for free subscriptions. Want to help?.

. On another note: managing Information Leaks

Submitted by innowen on Wed, 2006-07-12 16:41.

Liz Fulghum is a multi-disciplinary creative professional living and working in southern Tennessee. She is currently working as the lead designer at a screen printing company. In her spare time, she often does freelance design/development, illustrates, and writes for various publications. She is also working to finish her time-machine which will give her more time to keep up with her personal projects including www.eastbywest.com.

---

I work at a screen printing company where, like most production businesses, almost all the tasks and information we manage are job-centric. Customer communication, product, artwork proofs, and scheduling revolve around specific jobs. Unlike a lot of other companies in our industry, our company uses a custom-built online workflow tracking system (unfortunately not available to the public yet) that does a fantastic job tracking what’s going on in each department, as well as what’s coming down the pike.

But what happens to the information that is outside the scope of any one job (or applies to a job that hasn’t been confirmed yet) and can’t fit into one of the neat cubbyholes that our workflow system has?

Like clutter in an unorganized room, the information has no official place to go - no “container”- which makes it hard to immediately categorize and figure out what to do with it. Another problem is that the person who receives the information is often not the person who technically handles that particular aspect of the business.

If we’re lucky, the information eventually makes it way to the correct person, either verbally or through email. But usually, the information isn’t communicated in a timely matter, or even worse, isn’t communicated at all. In the heat of a busy day, it’s easy to jot a quick note down and even easier to forget all about it.

In a small business where lots of people do lots of (sometimes overlapping) tasks this type of information leak can be all too common. When the information is of relatively low-level importance it’s easy to justify losing or forgetting it with excuses like “I was just too busy”. But eventually, larger and more important details will start getting lost, and excuses just won’t cut it.

One of my personal goals over the past few months has been to plug the leaks I’m responsible for at my workplace. Ultimately, it comes down to a few core habits that, once established, allow for pretty much anything to be handled or delegated without losing track of it:

• Write phone messages on a sticky note and place them somewhere you cannot miss them. Always put your phone messages there and then train yourself to check that one place every time someone walks into your office. That way you never need to stop and deliver messages. I find it easier, and quicker, to hand-write phone messages, but email may be a better option if you don’t see everyone in your organization on a regular basis.
• If a task is important, stop and do it immediately. This is a biggie. If you can’t do it, grab someone and have them do it. The mentality of “I’ll do it as soon as I finish this” is a killer. By the time you finish what you are working on, a dozen other things may have interrupted you and you may never remember what you had intended to do.

  It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that what you’re working on is more important “at this point and time”, but you have to look at the big picture.

  That means you have to prioritize. If you can’t, have a manager do it for you.

  In order to do that, I started by making a list of items that should be red flags - tasks that I need to stop immediately and do. For me, some of the red flags are new orders, changes to quantities in existing orders, due date changes, and artwork changes.

  Most of these are common sense for my job, but when I forced myself to actually identify these items, it took me a while to come up with them. Which means that while I probably knew subconsciously what constituted a priority task, the criteria was never really present at the forefront of my brain. It was part of the reason why they didn’t send up enough of a flag.

  Once I had actually made a physical list, it became instantly easier to cue in on when I needed to stop and take care of something.

• Make notes, date them, and review them at the end of each day. If you did miss something, you’ve made yourself aware of it and can take care of it before you leave or when you get in the next morning. It only takes 5-10 minutes and it will pay off. Use the computer to store your notes, an actual notepad or a page from your planner.

  I find the tactile nature of a notepad easier to work with, especially if I’m on the phone. The Gold Fibre Classic Project Planner is my favorite, because it provides datable pages and divided spaces, including lined and unlined that are perfect for organizing notes.

• Follow up, follow up, and follow up. Delegation is a necessary part of work. It helps keep you sane and your business moving. However, you’re not done once you’ve handed the task over to someone else. You still need to follow up on whether or not they’ve done the job on time and correctly.

  This one is still really hard for me. I’m the type of person who believes that if you delegate something, you should be able to trust that it will get done, and get done right. After all, what’s the point of delegating to someone else if you still have to think about it?

  Unfortunately, the reality is that while you may trust the person you delegate work to, you may not always be able to trust that it will get done on time. Your coworkers have their own assignments, projects and things that get dumped on them unexpectedly. And yes, they even have their own share of information leaks.

  When you delegate a task to someone, make sure they have all the information they need to complete it. Also make sure that they understand the importance of the task and confirm that they have time to get it completed on time. It will save you and them headaches later on.

  And remember, delegation doesn’t free you from responsibility.

• Find a way to organize your email that works, and stick to it. For me, my email client was always a black hole. Actionable items would come in; I would quickly glance over them; and then never see or do anything with them again. A few days later, someone would ask me “What happened to…?”, and I would be left in a mad scramble as I quickly scanned my old messages to find out what they were talking about. My first step in getting things under control was to switch to using Microsoft Outlook (instead of Outlook Express), which offers a more robust set of features, including the ability to flag emails. I haven’t converted over to any of the more involved organizational systems out there; I found that just flagging the emails that I need to attend to was good enough. It allows me to corral the tasks I need to do and check them off when they’re complete. And it only takes a few seconds.
• Keep information you learn about potential new jobs, projects, and customers. I keep a running text file with names, phone numbers and brief details of customers who come in but haven’t placed an order yet. When they call back a month later, it’s great customer service to be able to look up their name or event and instantly be on the same page. Even if you don’t technically need to worry about them, there’s a good chance you will in the future. Having the details you’ve already been provided on file allows you to get a jump on the job when it finally does materialize.

I started putting together my thoughts for this article about a month ago, which was about the same time I started on my mission to plug my information leaks. I was surprised by how much of a conscious effort everything was at first. After all, none of my new habits seemed very difficult when considered by themselves. But changing the way you operate is no small feat. I grew accustomed to most of these changes after about two weeks into doing them. It was working.

A month later, most of the habits are ingrained. I still forget to do things occasionally, but I’m better at catching it when I do. I’m also better at catching when other people miss things. Ultimately, without needing to expend energy on recovering from my mistakes and lapses, I have more time and vision to see what goes on around me.

wow… this is such a great idea

Moreover

Submitted by innowen on Thu, 2006-07-13 07:11.

Many of us meander through life wondering if we can do more, be more and what we can do to leave our mark. We question our place in this hectic world of corporations and consumerism. We seek ways to refine and redefine our true selves. I know I do. I go through phases where I wonder if the path I live makes me happy. If the company I work for helps me to become the person I want to be tomorrow. If the answers of who I am and whether my creative projects align with the mark I desire to leave upon this world. My personal “I was HERE” stamp. My life consists deeply of weaving my career, home and spiritual path into a cohesive whole. Creating a personal mission statement can help ensure who you are and what you do continues to blend harmoniously together.

Personal mission statements reflect an individual’s sense of purpose and meaning in life. It defines who you are, what you want to focus on, and how you can mold yourself over time. It’s a tool that can help focus your energy, actions and decisions towards the things you think are most important. Your mission statement should touch upon what you want to focus on and who you want to become as a person in this part of your life. It can become a roadmap to achieving yor goals and dreams.

There are two things to remember before you can work on making a statement that speaks the truth of your purpose in life. First, there is no one single formula for creating a personal mission statement. I’ve read a lot on the subject and what works for one person may or may not work for you. You’re welcome to try out my methods and tips and see what works for you. Be honest with yourself. This is your life we’re talking about and you’re the only one who can write your own path.

Secondly, it takes time to develop and perfect a mission statement. You’ll write a lot. If you’re not sure you enjoy writing, I suggest you skip this section and move onto the part about creating a personal mission collage. You’ll also be evaluating and examining yourself. I know that I started my mission statement a few years ago and I’m still uncovering and working on it. Your first stab at a mission statement may take up 5 pages in your planner but gets the job done and even outlines how you want to accomplish those missions. Or it may be as short as 2-3 sentences. It all depends on who you are and how much you want to accomplish in life. Each person is unique and it takes time to create a truly unique statement, just as it took time for you to become who you are today. Okay, enough of the disclaimers, let’s get down to making a statement.

Writing your personal mission statement
I recommend you plan for some alone time when you decide to work on your mission statement. Turn off your cell phone, unplug your internet access and go some place where family and friends won’t distract you. Better yet, go to a coffeehouse or a bookstore with your planner and spend some quality time with yourself. Solitude helps you get in touch with your soul and the things that matter most to you. Interruptions distract us from uncovering the truth of what matters to us most and what we really want out of life.

Step 1: Define your values.
Values, like our DNA, make us unique. They determine what we like, where we live, what our passions are and can even determine the decisions we make. That’s why the first step of the process makes you take a look at your core values. List all the values and attributes you think help to define who you are and what’s important to you. If you get stuck, then you can call friends or surf the internet for ideas. Your list can long or short. Once you have this list, try and create a top 5 or a top 3 list. Then weed this list down to your number one value… that one thing that you’d give your life for. This is the most important thing to you. In my case, it’s creativity. And everything I do in my life has to follow that value.

Here’s a short list of values you can include in your list:
Honesty
Creativity
Problem-Solving
Productivity
Passionate
Contemplative
Security
Wealth
Loving relationship
Recognition
Respect to others
Happiness
Family
Spiritual fulfillment
Friendships
Good health
Truth
Freedom
Learning/knowledge

Step 2: Identify goals and contributions.
Now it’s time to set some goals, since you’ve found those qualities of what separate you from others. What will your legacy to the world and people close to you be? Grab a sheet of paper and start listing all the activities you’d like to accomplish in your life. Write down anything and everything you can think of that you want to do in life.

Your mission statement can contain two types of goals, short-term or long-term. The short-term goals relate to 1-5 year tasks or activities that you want to accomplish in your life. If you have a goal of writing one article for your favorite magazine, write that down. You’ll want to capture this in your mission statement. Long-term goals go beyond 5 years and can extend throughout your life. Raising children or starting your own company may be long term goals. Defining contributions helps you understand what you like to do and what adventures your life may lead. They give your mission statement direction and guide you towards leaving your legacy.

Step 3. Write.
Take your list of values and your list of goals and contributions and a clean sheet of paper and begin with the words “My purpose in life is to…” and then start writing out statements that represent your values and goals. That’s all there is to it. The hardest part of writing a mission statement is the act of sitting down and putting pen to page. Your mission statement could look like this:

My life’s purpose is to create and share my visions and dreams with the world through writing and art. I am a creative spirit who loves to write and create new worlds. I am a dreamer. Someone who dares to think differently and to use multiple perceptions to help and guide others. I am majickal. I see beyond what is here and now and look inwards to the energy that connects me to others and the universe. I seek knowledge, through my friends, tarot and Nature. They help me become what I want to be and all I want to achieve. I live in harmony and in balance with myself and in my home and surroundings. I am timeless. I feel young and playful; able to dance the night away. I feel old and wise; I apply all I have learned to help benefit my society and change the world around me into something I am proud of. I am ME. There will never be someone like me again.

You may want to keep the following tips in mind while you write:
Be clear and concise. Write concrete sentences. Clearly define your objectives. Many coaches say to keep your statement between 3-5 sentences. I say make it as long or short as it takes to get your mission out. I’ve seen personal mission statements that last pages, while others were only a statement or two.

Write positively. Focus on the good things you do and the person you want to be. Many times we get bogged down on what we don’t do or cannot do when we should be focusing on celebrating our strengths and selves more.

Make it usable. I tend to have very lofty and sometimes irrational and unachievable goals. While lofty goals look great on paper, having goals and dreams that are unachievable may also make you unhappy and unfulfilled. The best mission statements are the ones you can use in your day to day lives. Allow it to speak your truth and help guide you into making the right decisions for your life.

Include the whole picture. We all have many different hats and masks to wear. You are a combination of your family, career and hobbies. All of these work together with your values and goals to define you as a whole. Your mission statement should also contain as many aspects of your life as it can. Include things that not only help guide your career but also your home and spiritual lives. Make sure each area of your life works in sync with one another and not against your core values.

Show your passions. Use your language, your writing style and your words. Don’t try to copy off of others or do what they want to do. The more your statement reflects the true you, the more inspiring and empowering it becomes.

Writing a mission statement involves answering questions about yourself. These two links contain lots of good questions to help you define a complete picture of yourself. Use them if you feel stuck or aren’t sure of what you want your legacy to be:
http://www.quintcareers.com/mission_statement_exercises.html This page gives a few good starter questions on uncovering your lifestyle and what your core values are.

http://www.quintcareers.com/mission_statement_development.html This page goes even deeper to give you a more rounded picture of who you are, what motivates and drives your passions.

Crafting a Personal Mission Collage
If you’re more of a visual person than a writer, you can create a personal mission collage. There’s no reason why you cannot draw, paint or collage your mission, legacy and goals onto a poster. A collage can even become a companion to your written statement. The process of putting one of these together may even be easier to craft than writing your statement. You don’t need much to create one of these either. Grab a posterboard, grab some paints or crayons and drag out all those old magazines. Paint, color or glue images that represent you and your mission statement onto the posterboard. When you’re done, put the collage in a frame and place it somewhere that you can look at it often and allow it to inspire you. When you’re finished, you’ll have both a visual representation of your mission statement as well as a meaningful and unique piece of artwork to hang in your house.

Your mission statement is like the outline to a novel you have yet to write. It helps guide you through each scene of your life. Not only does it give your life meaning and focus, but it helps to clarify what you think is important. It may take awhile to create a permanent mission statement. When you have a good working draft, post it some place where you can view it. Or attempt to memorize it and commit it to your life. Live your statement and become it. By living our mission statement, and being truly committed to its meaning, we are more likely to choose behavior that serves our values and reject behavior that opposes them.

Remember that your mission statement is not cast in stone. It is a living document that will grow and expand or shorten as you age. The more you learn about yourself and what you want to do at various stages in your life, the more your statement can help you attain those things. Periodic review of your statement is key to making sure you’re on the right track. Some people visit their statements every year on their birthday and revise them, taking out what is no longer in alignment with their core values and adding in what they have learned over the year.

. Make - the amount produced, especially the output of a factory. This is pretty cool a Well Balanced Pie

Submitted by innowen on Thu, 2006-07-06 09:00.

Sometimes I feel like there’s never enough time in a day to get everything done. I get up, go to work, come home and do housework and D*I*Y Planner duties and then play World of Warcraft (when there’s time). I always feel like my To Do list gets fatter and fuller and longer and it never shrinks. I’m finding it hard to strike a balance in my life between all the roles and responsibilities I have. So, what does someone do when their overwhelmed? Well, in my case, I turned to pies.

I wish I could tell you how yummy these pies are, with a soft, moist, and warm apple center and light, flakey crust. But I can’t. You see… I’d be lying (and gaining an unhealthy amount of weight) if it were to those pies I turned to every time I felt swamped and overwhelmed in life. No, I’m talking about cooking up and comparing a few pie charts to help you get a bigger and better picture of where you spend your time and how you envision the perfectly balanced life. I’ll even make it easier by giving you the recipe and detailed instructions. All you need to do is add your dreams, time, and patience.

innowen’s Pie Chart Surprise

Ingredients:
1 copy of innowen’s Pie Chart Template (2 sheets)
1 box of crayons, watercolors or colored pencils for spice
1 pencil or pen
Some time for goal setting, imagination to create a better life and patience as you put this into practice.

Set aside 30 minutes (more or less, depending on how detailed you make the pies) of your time. Take out your goals and imagination and dream about what life you want to lead and how to get there from you are now. Dump into 2 pie templates. Apply crayons or color pencils liberally. Let sit and stew in your mind for a few minutes then compare 2 pies. Adjust life accordingly and smile.

See? Simple, just like I promised. Now, go download the Pie Chart Templates I’ve made for this article. Don’t be surprised, they’re not your standard D*I*Y Planner format. You’ll need all the space around this chart. If you decide not to print out the templates or you’re in a place where you cannot print them out, feel free to take out your planner or journal and sketch a template or two. Title the first piece of paper, Current; and the second one, Ideal. Draw a big circle in the middle of each piece of paper. You’ve just made yourself a few pie pans. Soon it will hold all the various ingredients that make up each slice of pie. Now, draw 12, lines equally through the pie pan. This divides your pan up into 24 slices, or a whole day’s worth of eating. When you’ve finished creating two pie holders, set aside the Idea pie for a second. We’ll come back to it in a few minutes.

Grab the Current pie and a pencil and those optional crayons or watercolors. Write down all the activities or hobbies you see taking up time in your days in the space surrounding the pie crust. You can summarize the big things like your job in one word: day job and all those activities can become work or use home for house cleaning and family duties. Doing so contains and gives you some space to dream. For me, my day looks a bit like this: work, writing, wow (World of Warcraft), art, housework, exercise, reading, sleeping, music, studies, and sleep. When you’re done, draw a few boxes next to each word that can be used later to color coordinate the slices of these pie pieces.

Now back to the circle. Pretend this circle and all the space inside it, represents your life. Everything you do and like to do, all the responsibilities, family and friends, and hobbies go into this pie. Each thing you have written down outside of the circle are the slices you need to fit somewhere inside that circle every day. Look at all the things outside the circle and assign time-sizes to them. If you spend 6 hours of your day working at a job, write down “work” in 6 slices. You can also choose a color for “work” and then color 6 slices of your pie in. Don’t forget to also color in the box you made next to word, work on the outside of your sheet. Continue doing this with all the other things you do in a typical day until all 24 pie slices are filled up. Set aside this pie to cool, you still have one more to make.

Grab the Ideal pie now. Using the same thing we did with the Current pie, start listing all the things you see yourself wanting to do in a day. You can add to this list if you want or keep it the same as the Current pie like I did. When you’re done, start filling in each hour of the day as you’d LIKE to see your day happening. Of course, your six hours at work isn’t going to grow any smaller, but the five hours you spend on average playing World of Warcraft every night, can. Cut back a few hours on that time and designate it for other things, like reading or making art. Once again, fill each hour of how you would WANT to spend your time up with the things you want to do.

When both charts are done, put them together, side by side. Take a minute to let them cool down. Now, look closely. Do you see any patterns? Did both your charts match? If so, you’re lucky. If not, how close do your charts match? Did you run out of space to put all the ingredients you wanted into your pies? I know I did and it’s okay to if you’ve run out of slices. For me, I typically have to give up the art and studies portions as I spend more time in World of Warcraft and housework. Give your completed pie a good look. If yours is similar to mine, it’s probably not how you want it to look like. In fact, you’re probably disappointed that not everything fits into that pie. I know I was. This is where you can have a chance to make things fit.

All it takes, to make them match, is one simple (but hard) step: Make a conscious effort to cut back on the areas in your Current Chart that don’t line up to those on your Ideal chart. Use your Ideal Pie Chart to watch how much you spend on every activity. If you find yourself spending more than the alloted time in World of Warcraft, think about what you could gain by reading or making art. Don’t guilt trip yourself into thinking games are bad. Instead, just use the game as a reward for spending time clearing out your library of unread books or learning a new chord progression on your guitar. This is a simple step in words but does take time and practice and determination to make it all work. Just like any system invented to help your life run smoother and get things done faster, you need to actively participate in the routine. But the reward of sticking to this new schedule is sweet and definitely worth it.

Instead of complaining to your friends about the lack of time you have, you now have all the time you need to spend doing whatever you want, when you can do it. Post your pies on your fridge to remind you of the life balance goal you’ve set for yourself. In a few weeks or months, revisit this article and create a new set of pies for yourself to track your progress. Maybe this time you’ll have a more balanced and ideal lifestyle.

Who says you can’t bake a pie and eat it too? The next time you’re feeling swamped and without time to do what matters, why not sit down and have a little pie or two. Making pie charts allow you to see the whole picture of your life and where you tend to spend those precious minutes of each day doing what activities. For the more digitally inclined, I highly recommend you review Life Balance, which is available for Mac, PC and Palm Pilots. This wonderful little life balancing/coaching software provides a dynamic to do list that helps you organize your life by what’s important to you, instead of what needs to get done. It incorporates pie charts and to do lists to take snapshots of your life and career and see how much or how little you spend doing activities you want to do. Just like the analog version above, Life Balance and pie charts can help you see the big picture in life and compare it to the image of how you want your life in to look in your head. If the two don’t match up, it’s time to make some adjustments.

. Also you should check this site out the Artist’s Planner

Submitted by innowen on Wed, 2006-07-05 17:02.

Today’s guest post is by Sara Schnelle. She’s very productive all week long as a data entry technician for a wage law firm. During the afternoons and weekends she keeps busy painting large canvases and small wooden boards with images about women’s work, spirituality and perceptions. Her art has displayed in and around Portland, Oregon. She has lectured about women’s art history at a local university. Sara’s studio is in Vancouver, WA and you can view her online gallery at: Schnelle Studios.

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Often an artist’s journal serves one purpose: sketching. However, it can do so much more. The artist’s journal can serve as a research notebook, idea log, and planner. Have you ever had a great idea for an artwork that you’ve never started on? Or had an idea and never wrote it down and when you went back to start on it, you found that you couldn’t remember what it was? It’s happened to all of us. What if…you had a place to store those notes and sketches and ideas so when you had the time and inspiration, you also had a place to remind yourself what you want to do, the steps to do it in, and with what materials and accompanying research ideas? Would having such a place help you to not only organize your art but help you create a finished product that matched up with your goals? How about having a place to store pictures of your artwork to keep and admire even long after the art has sold or displayed in a gallery? Well, you can. The artist’s planner tells a story. And it records each accomplishment from start to finish.

When I began my artist’s planner, my creative partner, April and I had nothing more than an idea and two questions: Has anyone ever painted this concept before? And if not, can we? The concept, fresh and new, was committed to a small quotation journal I had been using for a few weeks. And it soon changed into a full fledged artist’s planner. The day I started my Artist’s planner, we were standing around in the university library, where April worked. They had a small gallery attached to the main room. And they had an opening, one year from that date. So, we signed up for a spot and started brainstorming artwork that we could paint throughout the next year.

I jotted down our idea in the little journal and then we began dreaming of our invitation list. The journal captured the original idea, our goals and wishes for completing it, paintings and sculptures that we looked to for ideas, research to answer our first question “has it ever been done before? No,” and the promotional post card documenting our show in that gallery a year later.

Creative people are often not linearly organized, and though the planner tells a story, it certainly does not have to tell it in order. My artist’s planner contains all sorts of things from photographs, stickers, and ideas that I can use at any time for any painting; as well as all sorts of sketches and doodles scattered around on any page.

I consider the following list to be a good list of recommendations for an artist’s planner:

• Strong, thick paper. You’re going to want paper thick enough to paint, glue, and erase on.
• Removable pages. If you’re like me and you glue a lot of things down on them, eventually you’re notebook won’t close. Being able to remove pages not only helps it close but you can also remove the things you don’t want to be reminded of. Sometimes I don’t want the constant reminder that I am a not always as good at drawing as I want to be. Such evidence is less than inspiring. Your planner is a journal of accomplishments: those you’ve finished and those yet to be completed. You may want to tear out pages that are not useful to your art and sense of accomplishment.
• Study Cover and Closure. You may want to get a hard-bound journal, such as a Moleskine or some other journal that closes. The last thing you want your planner to do is fall apart in your bag or as you’re writing in it and having all the pages fly out and litter the ground. You may also want to keep a few envelopes handy in between the pages to save those precious mementos from being crushed. I doubt you want see the pretty autumn leaf you saved in your journal last year fall out and scatter itself to the wind in tiny, crumbling bits.
• Style and Substance. Find a journal or planner that not only fits your style but can be used. If you fear littering your journal with graffiti then you may want to buy something you feel you can write in. I have issues with writing in something when the cover of the journal is more beautiful than what I know will be created inside it. You want to be able to risk drawing, scribbling and jotting ideas in it. So find something you like but one you know you’ll use. Mine has a simple pattern with an inspirational saying on the cover. And if you can’t find something, make your own by using Innowen’s articles on bookbinding to make your own planner.

How to use an artist’s planner
Once you have picked out or made your planner, it’s time to start filling it up. Grab a photograph of a painting you admire and start copying it in your book. Or glue that scrap of origami paper you want to copy for a background pattern for a portrait. Start a contact list of all the local arts and craft show connections you found and jotted down on a napkin, along with that great sketch. Glue it all in your new planner and write down any dates you’ve made to contact people for booking tables to display your art.

• Capture your ideas. Anytime you have good ideas, immediately visualize what that project looks like at the end. Describe the idea and then start writing down each step you’ll do to make that project happen. You can use your planner to capture ideas and goals in the following format:
  

  Idea: paint my nephew’s portrait through the view of a hallow log.
  Goal: give it to my sister for her birthday in three months.

  Idea: a collage of independent soda pop labels.
  Goal: sell it to a store owner in my neighborhood next weekend.

  Idea: draw a picture of a Robin with a worm.
  Goal: have it framed for my bedroom by winter.

• Keep track of project materials. Use your planner to keep a list of what things you need to complete it. Keep a log of how much time you spent making the art or what you needed to keep your space clean and organized. Include swatches of color and what their brands are. Write down new art techniques (like how to remove wine labels off bottles), or keep sample pictures of point-of-views or models you’ll eventually use in making your art.
• Let your planner inspire you. Fill the pages of your journal with printouts of other’s art or designs. Glue or tape them to your journal. Find inspiring quotes and write them in colorful, flowery prose. Make sketches or layouts in your pages.
• Include pictures of your finished art in your planner. Once you have completed a project, tape or glue in a photograph of your finished project. Many times artists regret not take a picture of a painting before it was sold. If you’re keeping a complete history of your art accomplishments from conception to finish, then you’ll want to take a few pictures of it and stick them into your planner or scan them for your website. You’ll want to look back on these photos with pride and see how far you’ve grown in creating art.

My Planner, My Muse
My planner has become my muse and a great motivational tool. In keeping a planner, you can watch your own improvement. It also becomes a tool to share how you go about making art with others who share your passion for art. It is such a reward to be able to look through your own process. Imagine if someone asked you, “what sort of art do you make?” and you could pull out your planner and show your new fan exactly what artwork you make and how you went about getting the inspiration for it. You will also get to look at the pages privately and think, “I completed that project. I can complete another.”

Between my messes of sketches and colorful pictures, I also put quotes and sayings in my artist’s planner. My favorite is by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche: “One must have chaos within to give rise to a dancing star.” This statement works for me because my planner is so chaotic, with its pictures, jokes, and sketches, photos and stickers pasted in on any old page with no thought to the consecutive order. Despite all its chaos, my planner is an effective tool for productivity, organization and success.

. Planner - a scheme, program, or method worked out beforehand for the accomplishment of an objective: a plan of attack. wow… this is such a great idea

Submitted by innowen on Wed, 2006-06-28 21:01.

As you all know, D*I*Y Planner’s had a few changes the past few months. Doug’s got a new baby and is moving to a new locale, we’ve gained a few new administrative peeps to help out on the site, and we’ve lost a few staff writers. We’re still looking for a permament replacement for our Tuesday digital/analog writer (thanks to Chris Brogan who’s been helping us out with articles on Tuesdays in the interim), so if you think you’re up to the challenge of writing a weekly article that caters to our site, let me and Doug know.

However, we’re also looking for people to write articles for Guest Post Wednesday. To be a guest writer, all you need is an idea, and some spare time to write and submit to the site. Interested, but not sure what topics you’d want to write about? Read on to see a list of article topics we’d love to see on the site.

Here’s a few ideas I’d like to see written and posted on the site:

• Goals and Motivations
• Personal planner stories and experiences
• Thoughts on Project Management styles and techniques
• Best tips or tricks on switching from digital to analog systems (or vice versa)
• Life hack tips that incorporate the use of journals or paper planning in helping to simplify or making life meaningful

We suspect that we have some professional productivity and life coaches who read the site and we’d love to hear from you. Even if you’re not a professional writer or coach, I’d love to hear from you. Moms use planners, right? Well, what about sharing with us a list of tips on how to keep the family organized and planned so you can spend more quality time together.

If you think you have an article in you and would love to see your name in print, read our writer’s guidelines and then email your submission to me. I’ll read your submission, provide useful editorial comments (if necessary) and schedule a date for your debut. We’ll even help you post it, if you have problems.

. Guest - a visiting performer, speaker, or contestant, as on a radio or television program. There is a old saying vestiges

Submitted by dougj on Mon, 2006-06-26 15:51.

You’ll have to forgive me if this is a rambling, convoluted post, but it refects my current state of mind while I continue to pack up and prepare for our new life up north.

There’s nothing like moving to help you realise just how much junk and baggage you’re likely to gather over the years. Today alone, I’ve found a book on programming a Commodore PET (circa 1981), some early-70’s Avengers comics imbued with the piquant aroma of basement mold, four high-grade replicas of 13th century swords, some notebooks with my Breton language exercises, a series of embarrassing journals written in eighth grade (1983), a Duran Duran cassette, a crossbow and several quarrels of bolts, my high school graduation ceremony (in Sony Betamax format), and a strange black plastic thingy of uncertain usage that’s been following us around for the past four moves.

Although we’re travelling across the continent with an eye to starting fresh, we’re also collecting various bits of our histories lurking deep within our mothers’ basements, and there’s a certain trepidation at leaving something behind that’s a forgotten relic of our youths — perhaps pictures of us with elementary school friends, or a paperweight/ashtray specially constructed for a dearly departed father. These are links to our past, little glorious momentoes we didn’t know still existed, lying undiscovered. And the thought of these disappearing into the trash someday, their true value unrealised, is a cause of some anxiety for me.

But sometimes, when beginning a new life, you have to purge the old one. A week or two ago, I donated many, many boxes of books and web design magazines to a local understocked small-town library in central Newfoundland, as well as a hundred or so pristine VHS movies ranging from Kubrick to Hitchcock to …er, Ed Wood. It felt pretty good. Mind you, I still have about 40 boxes of books travelling with us, but it was still a significant cut.

Likewise, I’m gutting through old papers, journals, folders, everything I can find that we’ve been carrying as deadwood for years. Mismatched dishes, truncated spatulas, flaking Teflon pans… gone. In fact, the whole contents of our kitchen will be reduced to two small boxes. And who needs three copies of Plato’s Republic? All those cassettes I also have in CD or MP3 format? Twisting, writhing worm-balls of wires for ancient devices? All banished. Miscellaneous colouring pencils from high school? My old comfortable shorts with little to commend them by way of crotch cover? “Dummies” guides for the Internet circa 1993? Early 80’s transistor radios? How about my collection of Captain Carrot and the Amazing Zoo Crew? All of these bring back little flashes of the past, most of them pleasant, but their intrinsic value has to be weighed with hauling them from one province to another, from one life to another. Most will wind up in little boxes at my mother’s next yard sale, no doubt.

It seems like this is something I should have done more often. Those cursed packrat tendancies of mine seem to view some sort of value or potential in everything, and I must try harder to overcome them. Sometimes that isn’t easy. My Commodore 64 I tripped across yesterday is still in perfect shape even after 23 years (it still has a working disk drive, too), and it did lead me down my current life path. Oh, so many painful decisions to make….

As an aside, I just wanted to thank the hundred-plus people who left me comments or sent me email to congratulate me on the new son and job. All those wonderful words of encouragement truly mean a lot to us, and our deepest appreciation goes out to all our newfound friends.

This is Doug, signing off for a week or two. The very able Innowen and Sardonios will take over the reins for the interim, and certainly deserve my heartfelt thanks (and yours) for their continuing efforts on the site. Please take care of yourselves, folks, and of each other.

I also heard that %keyword%

Submitted by chrisbrogan on Tue, 2006-06-13 13:25.

(photo credit the eggplant)

It’s Monday morning. You’ve been up all night with the baby, and you had a problem with your car earlier in the day. Now, you’re supposed to be pitching a new project to the boss and his peers, and you haven’t really prepared much at all. You believe you know what you’re talking about, but you haven’t scripted the presentation. What to do?

On a site with “planner” in its title, it’s pretty sacreligious to talk about improv, the art of “just showing up,” but I think the talents and skills one acquires by studying improv relate directly to how we do what we do. In building your improv talents, you learn that something is lost in over-preparing, and that there are benefits to be realized from being directly in the moment and thinking on your feet.

In her groundbreaking work, Improv Wisdom : Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up, Patricia Ryan Madson ties the skills she learned and taught in Drama class at Stanford for over 40 years, and applies them to our daily lives. Here are some of the maxims the book espouses, and how one might apply them in a day:

• Say Yes- This is the first rule of improv, and it’s incredibly powerful. Imagine going through an entire day without saying no to ideas, proposals, or interactions. Saying yes means keeping one’s self open to the possibilities. Too often, we fall into the trap of using reductionist thinking, limiting factors, and breaking things down. (Heck, my last post was about exactly that). Try saying YES for a change, and seeing where it takes you.
• Don’t Prepare- Overplanning can be an issue, too. Merlin Mann’s most recent podcast, The Perfect Apostrophe tells a hilarious story where Merlin had a deal with O’Reilly media to put out a book on life hacks. He spent over three days creatively procrastinating, and never did write the book. There’s a lot to be given to the person who plans well, but have you tried the opposite in limited settings? Try not preparing for a presentation or a meeting or a writing session. See what happens when you throw the plan out the window for a day. What adventures does this open up for you?
• Start Anywhere- I am obsessed with this maxim. The idea that by just digging in and doing SOMETHING is better than waiting until you have the plan to beat all plans is basically the heart of this maxim. Improvisational actors practice starting scenes “in media res,” in the middle of the action. It’s a great way to work on writing projects, as well as a great way to approach the business tasks that fill up our days.

I won’t go through every other point in the book. These should suffice as a way to cue you into how improvisational acting can be a platform for living. I will, however, finish by saying that the book goes on to talk about taking care of each other, practicing those random acts of kindness that bumper stickers talk about, and gives us a fairly good picture of how to use the maxims in the book in your daily life.

The book again is Improv Wisdom : Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up.

Improv Wisdom : Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up Author: Patricia Ryan Madson ASIN: 1400081882

. Skill - obsolete. A reason; a cause. There is a old saying plus ça change

Submitted by dougj on Mon, 2006-06-19 21:13.
It’s been a hectic few months behind the scenes at DIYPlanner.com, due mainly to some major changes in my personal life, and so I thought it a good idea to share some good news and put a few minds at ease regarding the status of this project. I generally tend to stay away from mentioning my personal life here, but in this case it seems to be warranted.
First of all, my apologies to those people noting my markedly out-of-character absence as of late. Part of it is due, no doubt, to the birth of my new son Daniel, and all the issues surrounding my wife’s pregnancy and my need to spend more time with our two-year-old Conor. This has pushed my other main “occupation”, that of finding full-time employment (rather than endless small contracts), to those hours I normally relax, administer the site, and answer email and comments. As is, I’ve been busy till at least two a.m. each morning preparing cover letters, sending off resumes, and trolling the job sites.
Which brings me to another personal bit: I’ve just received a full-time position to work as a multimedia project manager with a marketing firm up in northern Canada, in a small city called Yellowknife. It’s a great opportunity, and I can’t wait to move up there next month.
So, where does all this leave the D*I*Y Planner project and site? Actually, with a very bright future, I do believe. Here’s why….
You see, most of the work on the kits has been done in my off-hours, usually in the colder, darker months. Yellowknife, edging the Arctic Circle, certainly has copious amounts of those. Having a permanent job also means I don’t have to spend most of my night-time hours in hot pursuit of my next meal. In short, this should translate into more spare time available for the project on average.
Thankfully, though, I don’t need to do everything myself. For example, the next DiyP project is actually a final release of the Widget Kit, which will allow people to create their own templates quite easily. We have three skilled volunteers ready to jump into the OpenOffice.org files and help create the roughs of the many forms, and several other helpers willing to write documentation and test it all.
We also have Sardonius, who helped to organise and edit the latest version of the handbook, who lent his educated and cryptic wit to many comments, who administered much of the site while I travelled to northern climes, and who even contributed an article or two, mostly in capitulation to the all-too-persuasive Innowen.
Ah, Innowen! She was one of the first people who contacted me when I first solicited writers for this site, and she’s been with us, steadily and faithfully, every since. She has proven to be a fine and very creative writer. She’s contributed an endless stream of perceptive and foresighted advice which has helped the development of both the kits and the site. And, when I’ve had to disappear lately for nearly a week at a time for job-related reasons, she’s even jumped into the editorial waters to take my place, piloting the writers into our chaotic little harbour.
We need a “number two” here, someone who can be here for the site and the writers when I’m not (which will be often, in the next month while I shuffle across the continent), someone in whom I have complete and unconditional faith. That someone is Innowen, who now steps up to the mantle of “Associate Editor”. Thank you, Innowen!
I’ll provide some more details regarding Innowen’s new role, along with some news regarding our writers, at a slightly later date, but I just wanted to post this article in response to a few nervous email I’ve received lately. Don’t worry, folks… the D*I*Y Planner and its site will be alive and kicking for a long while yet, coming to you from near the top of the world.

. Change - a transformation or transition from one state, condition, or phase to another: the change of seasons.. I heard a rumour getting Ready for Art: Organizing Your Artist Space

Submitted by innowen on Thu, 2006-06-15 09:00.

Many people think that you don’t need to be organized to create art. For these people, art happens naturally by grabbing canvas and paint and “doing it”. However, if you ask any artist, you’ll find out that this isn’t always the case. I know coum a fact that if my studio isn’t clean and tidy, all my tools and materials organized and out where I can reach them when I need them, I cannot work on any project. A disorganized workspace tends to stifle my creativity and leaves me feeling like I cannot do anything. Recently while perusing amazon.com, I stumbled upon this book, Organizing Your Craft Space, by Jo Packham. What prompted me to purchase this book was the idea that it focused solely on how artists, from scrapbookers to quilters, can organize their space to maximize their time spent on creating their art. I also liked how it went into a multitude of art styles, rather than focusing on just one art. If you’ve always wanted to organize your art space or create a perfect place coum starting a new craft, then this book is coum you.

Organizing Your Craft Space begins by assessing your art space needs. Packham includes many lists and questions that cover your available space, what tools and things you use to make your crafty items, your color preferences and objects that might help store your items as well as look pleasing in your space. She explains that these questions are central to uncovering what is the best fit coum your artistic needs. She even recommends that you keep a space journal and fill it with diagrams of your room, all the items you use in your art and any things you need to purchase coum your room (like plastic containers, furniture or tools). Keeping a journal of this sort gives you a written record of what gives you the freedom to create and what sorts of things and colors you want to fill your creative space. She also defines the different types of storage styles and suggests many helpful tips and tricks coum keeping your space free of clutter and trash. For artists whose craft space aslo doubles as a guest room, Packham gives advice on how you can accomidate both in the same space with minimal efcoumt.

The rest of the book details storage and organization by art type. These chapters include stained glass and mosaics, rubber stamping, scrapbooking and other paper arts, beading, yarn crafting and quilting. Packham discusses various needs and organizational styles that can be used to suit each craft-coumm. She starts out by listing a few short questions about the art and materials you use and then goes into explaining how these items can be stored or contained to maximize your time spent creating art. Each chapter includes an over abundance of pictures that show different ways to contain and organize your craft space. At the end of a section, Packham showcases one or more guest artists and their real-life working spaces. She tells us about their space, challenges and solutions, as well as showing us what these artists use to contain their tools and the methods they use to keep them focused on making art.

This summer I’m going to create an artist studio journal and see what I can do to give my space a face lift so that it continues to support my crafting needs. While I’ve already got most of the furniture and workspace already set up in my studio, this book gave me more ideas on incorporating ornamental containers to store my crafting things. I’ve also received many tips on how to make the space fit my personal colors and atmosphere just right so that it supports my creativity and desire to make art happen whenever I want to be crafty. Like most craft-related books on the market, Packham writes coum art women but don’t let this fool you. There’s a lot of incoummation that can be used coum artists of all ages, men and women alike.

Organizing Your Craft Space Author: Jo Packham ASIN: 1402716028

. Space - the infinite extension of the three-dimensional region in which all matter exists. I also heard that %keyword%

Submitted by steves on Fri, 2006-06-09 10:06.

Warning: This piece was originally supposed to go live a couple of weeks ago, but it was deemed so offensive that it would cause the Republic to collapse and I was asked for a rewrite. I reread it, of course, and it is possible that it could have been taken differently than I intended, though I didn’t think anybody would get upset about the Viking thing, so what do I know? So, anyway, I think we’ve got it licked now and this version is more in keeping with my original intent and there shouldn’t be any misunderstanding. If, however, you do feel offended, we here at D*I*Y Planner want to hear froum you. Please send all complaints to our public liaison officer, Donald Rumsfeld, care of The Pentagon. When you’re talking to him, ask about his new foreign policy position paper, Planning Today’s Catastrophe For Tomorrow’s Apocalypse. Thank you.

Greetings all, Steve here. I get no respect, none at all. As with most men, my organizational ideas are almost never given the respect and attention they deserve by some people. Let’s call them our wives and girlfriends. I don’t usually make gender-based stereotypical statements, but there it is. I’ve done it and there’s no turning back now. Just as the famous book said, Men Are From Mars And Women Are Quietly Superior.

A good friend of mine, immediately after his girlfriend moved in with him, changed his MSN name to “My girlfriend loves re-arranging my life.” Notice the point. In my experience, men tend to take a very direct approach to home organization, that of simply throwing things on the ground and picking them up later when they need them. Women generally don’t see this as being an especially good system, but I believe that’s merely because they don’t understand it. They see it as proof that we are lazy, inconsiderate, irredeemable slobs, when in fact we are embracing a time-tested male organizational paradigm, known as the Category Pile System.

It works like this. You very purposefully throw everything in piles on the floor, organized by category: basically, different piles for different things. To the untrained eye, the Category Pile System may look like total chaos, but it actually contains many subtle layers. For example, there is a pile for dirty clothes and a pile for clean clothes — for example, clothes which haven’t been worn for a full day of work. But this clearly doesn’t cover all possible gradations of personal filth and in between these two piles you will find a much less dense in-between layer of clothes. This in-between layer might appear to be merely a disorganized pile, when in fact it contains clothes I wore for a total of 3 1/2 hours when we went to see a chick flick and I spent the whole time thinking about Shakira.

To be fair, not all men are like this. Lots are worse. But many are better as well. I expect David Allen has his socks sub-categorized by thickness, colour, function and texture, but most men don’t go in for that level of detail.

On to the Venus end of the solar system. Females, and again I’m speaking in sweeping generalities, tend to adopt a more conventional organizational system, which I have named the Put Things Where They’re Supposed To Go System. For example, in our house, we use a variation of that system, called the Meghan Is Always Right Because She Says So System. The heart of this sytem, is well… you get the point. To be fair, this system works well for many people, especially if their name is Meghan, in that it results in paid bills, found clothes and organized papers, but I feel that it lacks the playful randomness of the Category Pile System. Yes, you get things done much more efficiently, but you have fewer adventures.

Now, I’m not trying to bad-mouth any one system and I certainly understand the benefits of this one. People can use any method they please and I understand that this works for many people, but it doesn’t work well for me. If I put things in logical places, then I’ll inevitably forget where I put them before I need them again, whereas with the Category Pile System, all my stuff gets put right there in my view, on the floor or on any other flat surface. This way, very important things get dealt with, because I trip over them.

The downfall of these fundamentally differing approaches is in understanding one another’s habits. Meghan doesn’t recognize the value of my system, nor does she recognize it as a system at all and she’s constantly “cleaning up” after me, undoing all my hard filing work and putting things where I’ll never find them again. If I get upset about this, she tells me that she will continue to put things away and will not let me put things away myself, apparently on the theory that I might hurt myself. When I insist that I have an organizational system which works for me and give her multiple reasons to support my claim, she takes a deep breath and gives me a look meant to communicate, I assume, her disbelief that I’m able to walk upright. This seems unfair to me.

This is a symptom of a larger problem, I’m afraid. In the same way that Meghan attempts to undermine my male organizational method, she very often fails to support many of my other ideas as well. Like my organizational system, many of my creative ideas buck the system, expand far outside the box, push the boundries of common sense and, let’s be fair, sometimes sanity and I get exactly the same kind of support: Zip. Nada. Bubkis.

Meghan’s never supported any of my organizational ideas, or any of my ideas at all, really. She’s always saying they sound crazy. Well, yeah, duh, but they’re good ideas. Well, some of them. But I get no support. My idea to hang a hammock chair up in the living room ceiling? Nothing. My plan to only make the bed on special occasions, thus making climbing into a nicely-made bed a special event? She won’t even let me try to make the bed anymore. Apparently I’m pitifully bad at it. My suggestion to get a studio apartment and cover the entire floor with pillows, thus making the entire floor space a potential bed (I proudly call this idea Sleeping Outside The Box)? Nope, not happening, señor. My successful attempt to graduate by accident? No help. My idea to start my own religion, one based on mutual respect and admiration for really good deluxe nachos? Zip.

It’s hard being a visionary.

Until next time, keep your pen on the page and your hammock outside.

Steve Sharam
www.whenrealityknocks.com

. Also you can check out this new write Every Day

Submitted by chrisbrogan on Tue, 2006-06-27 19:34.

I do a lot of work with self-improvement and creativity in and around my website at [chrisbrogan.com], and one really common “wish” I hear from friends and readers is constant: “I wish I could have the energy [ability/ skills / ideas] to write every day.” Congratulations. I’ve granted your wish. Gather close. I’ll tell you the secret. This is it. I won’t mess with you.

The secret to writing every day is to write every day.

Let’s look at the problems or the excuses or the reasons why people claim they aren’t able to achieve their goal of writing every day. Time ranks first and foremost on most people’s list of reasons why they can’t write every day. They seem to never find time. You want time? Here’s some time.

• Cut back (stop!) watching TV.
• Get your groceries delivered for $5 a week.
• Give a kid $20 to mow the lawn.
• Quit a few other pursuits (World of Warcraft, bowling team, online poker).
• SCHEDULE time (harder to mess with time you’ve set aside).

Lack of talent, skill or ideas always follows “time” for excuses people tell me why they don’t write daily. It’s funny how this works: writers complain that they’re not skilled enough writers, so they refuse to practice because they can’t see their writing improving. When I don’t put gasoline in the tank, my car stops working. Can you see the similarity in the arguments? Here are some tips for building your ability, your skills, and for finding ideas.

• Read every day, not just in your genre or subject.
• Write at least three paragraphs a day of total and utter bull5h!t. You now have permission to write the WORST story ever, a few paragraphs at a time. Or the worst article, or the worst business plan.
• Copy pages from authors you love. Type from their page onto your screen and as you do, think about the way the sentences feel to your fingers and your eyes.
• Pay attention to news related to your writing.
• Befriend weirdos that like to talk. Their stories are your stories. (Poach with honor and ask them first).
• Bring new subjects to the table daily.
• Write angry! Write about what pisses you off.
• Pretend you’re someone else, and write from that perspective.

Most of the limitations and problems and reasons we put upon ourselves with regards to our lack of ability or time (or your excuse here) with writing are really just excuses. You are a writer and you’re writing, or you’re not a writer, and you’re buying books on how to be a better writer. Writing is a verb. In fact, most of the things we want to do, and do more are usually verbs. Think about that for a moment. Verbs DO things. If you’re passionate about writing, then write. If you’re a reader who thinks you’re a writer, you’ll find your peace with that eventually, too.

And don’t forget to consider the fact that what you love to read may not be what you were meant to write. I love stories that I’m not capable of writing. In fact, part of what draws me to them is that very truth. I can write articles about productivity all day, and yet, I’m not a big fan of most of the productivity literature out there. Write from your passion and the details will often find their way to solution, one way or another.

The secret to writing every day is to write every day, even if it’s only to copy that sentence over and over for 20 minutes until inspiration hits. All the time you spend on other things is just that… time not spent writing. Writers write, and so should you.

–Chris Brogan writes far too much in a given day, splitting his efforts between here, [chrisbrogan.com], and Lifehack.org. He writes every day.

. You can also check this out…. visual Notetaking for Added Value

Submitted by chrisbrogan on Wed, 2006-05-17 10:00.

When you try and remember something, like a favorite summer day, does the memory come back as text? If you’re telling someone how you want a new house to be built, would you open a word processor up and start typing instructions? Our brains are wired for a mix of systematic thinking on the left side, and visual thinking on the right. So why, then, do we take notes primarily in textual form?

Draw a Little

Sometimes, a word is easier than an image, but more often, putting something in visual terms is a great way to demonstrate a point more effectively. I recently read a book called IMPROV FOR ACTORS, by Dan Diggles(side note: I’m neither an actor nor am I intending to start up an improv act). There were circumstances where I found drawing two people facing each other and voicing some of the dialogue concepts in little comic talk bubbles was much more useful to me for comprehension than just writing out both sides of the conversation with “Actor 1″ and “Actor 2″ tags.

See Differently

In an earlier piece on mind mapping, I talked about the way visual depictions of data were helpful in uncovering information that wasn’t immediately apparent. Drawing mixed into your notes sometimes uncovers information or thoughts that aren’t there in text format. I once drew out the people physically involved in a process to manage international shipping. When I saw the people icons on paper along with their names, I realized that in one case, I had two people doing the same thing, and in another, I was missing someone to handle another job.

The Ultimate Software

Sometimes, it’s a matter of wanting your information to appear in a specific way and not having the software or the skills with a certain software to accomplish that goal. One coworker of mine didn’t have a copy of Microsoft’s Visio drawing software, and in its absence, she used a pen, a ruler, and a penny (for bubbles) to map out the file structure on a new linux platform. People smirked the first time they saw her drawing. Then, they’d ask for copies, because it became a great record of how to lay out the system for future engineers.

Right Brain Power

Attending meeting after meeting can take a toll on us, as can the daily grind of our jobs. Our creative muscles atrophy when faced with so much analytical and logistical thinking. But good news: adding drawing your note taking can sometimes help shake that. Take a look at sketch journalling by innowen for some more thoughts on one way to think about this. What if you journalled some of your thoughts of the day with images?

Drawing can help you focus your attention when you’d rather be elsewhere. Sometimes it’s a way of connecting with what someone is saying when you aren’t exactly interested. Draw little talking heads of the members of the meeting. Draw visual puns based on what they’ve said, or make pictures around the key points.

Consider using your visual note taking skills to build upon a practice of visual thinking. Use your eyes and your right brain to fill in some of the gaps for how you’re getting things done in a day. It may enrich the techniques you currently employ to capture the information you’re presented with in a given day.

– Chris Brogan writes about self-improvement and creativity at [chrisbrogan.com].

. Value - music. The relative duration of a tone or rest. I also heard that %keyword%

Submitted by dougj on Mon, 2006-05-22 09:30.

[Sorry for the lateness today, folks. Job hunting sometimes means hitting the road and being away from the computer, especially where I live. -DJ]

One of the oldest tools in the arsenal of writers is the modest and unassuming index card. It’s used for jotting notes, sharing phone numbers, creating bibliographies, capturing ideas, making lists, and –heck– even making indices. (Who would have thought?) But one of its primary uses, especially for people structuring stories, is in creating a plot outline. A pen, a table top, and a small stack of cards are all that’s needed to turn a mish-mash of incongruent or half-baked ideas into a plot that’s tight, logical and well-developed.

Have you ever come up with a concept for a story, video or presentation, but didn’t know how to begin? Read on….

The Plot Pack

For this article, I’m going to make reference to cards available in the DIY Planner Hipster PDA Edition v3 –mainly the Story Idea, Plot Point, Character and Item cards– but you can just use regular old blank index cards if you don’t have these handy. The chief benefit of the hPDA cards is that they include a series of prompts to keep the brain in gear (and, well, they do look right purdy), but they’re not absolutely essential. I actually keep what I call my “Plot Pack” close at hand when I’m feeling particularly inspired. It consists of:

• a dozen or two Plot Point cards, backed with Notes templates
• three Story Idea cards, backed with Story templates
• four or five Character cards, backed with Notes
• three Item cards, usually blank on the flip side
• a Checklist, double-sided
• a dozen blank cards

I sometimes supplement these with a number of Story Board cards if I need to think visually (for multimedia or video pieces, for example).

The Story Idea

Many writers usually begin a story with two things: a plot concept (often no more than a “what if?”) and one or more characters; if you’re serious about writing a story, you should try to come up with both of these.

The plot concept –for which you can use the Story Idea card– is often the best place to start. The “summary” area is where you should distill your plot into a few succinct sentences. Just a few sentences? But I have lots of great ideas! I need more than a few sentences! Sure, it’s wonderful to have lots of ideas (you did bring your journal or notebook, didn’t you?), but the idea here is to bring focus to the task. Too many stories wander off in a dozen different directions with no coherent plot or theme, and the writer often becomes so frustrated with attempting to say so many things that he or she will often drop the whole endeavour. So, right now, your primary duty at this early stage is to tie all your little vague threads together into a unified whole. The easiest way to do that is to summarise it in a sentence or three. An example:

City-slicker Julian returns from his father’s funeral in the country and becomes stranded. A lonely farmer gets him to do chores for his board, and Julian in turn tries to convince him to sell him his farm for a “getaway”. Julian is casting the farmer as his father.

The “people” section is to note your main characters. Jot names, occupations, motivation, and any tidbits absolutely necessary to the story. Remember, this is just for vague ideas, and everything is subject to change. Don’t be intimidated by the notion that everything should be final. Follow this up with the “time/place” section for noting where and when the story takes place, as well as anything especially important to the setting.

No doubt other ideas are coming to you at this point. Note them on the back of the card, a blank one, or in your notebook or journal.

The Characters

Once you have your plot concept, go ahead and flesh out your characters a little more using a Character card. The “role” section, like the summary section of the story card, is rather important in that it forces your to focus. Yes, you no doubt have plenty of little inspirations which could breathe life into this character, but for now, let’s stick to the main reason for his or her existence: a role in the story. For example, let’s look at poor old Farmer McCain:

Alva McCain is 70-year-old farmer who implicitly takes on the role of Julian’s departed father, whom he hadn’t been visited in years. Julian tries to make McCain aware of the benefits of city life, to convince him to move. In the end, McCain proves stubborn, and demonstates a connection to the land. In this, Julian understands his own father.

Remember, these can be bullet points or rough phrases. This is just to get you focussed and rolling ahead. Follow up the role section with other notes about the character, including brief outlines of their physical, mental, social and spiritual attributes.

Keying the Plot

By now, you should have a pretty good idea about the story you want to tell, and the people involved. It’s time to flesh out the plot. For this, break out your Plot Point cards. Note the structure of the card: a big box up above, and a space for details below. Spread your cards out, and write a “plot point” in each of the big boxes, a quick summary of the point in one sentence or phrase. Don’t worry about the details for now, and don’t worry about their order: write down the basics however they come to mind. Some examples:

• J. attends funeral to find he knows no one besides his father
• J. is forced to wash and peel potatoes while M. fetches milk
• J. makes phone call, discovers high property value to farm
• J.’s car breaks down - engine parts will take two days

…and so on. You may wish to start with the major points (such as the car breaking down) and write the minor points (peeling potatoes) as they occur to you.

Arranging the Cards

This is where things get interesting. At this point, you probably have a dozen or so cards scattered in no apparent order. There are three major ways to order your cards.

Chronologically forward: First, place them in the order they’re likely to occur in real life. Something happens at one o’clock. Something else happens at two o’clock and so forth. Pretty boring, isn’t it?

Chronologically backward: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (whose birthday is today, incidentally) used a fairly innovative technique at the time to contruct his plots for Sherlock Holmes stories. He started with the end in mind (that is, the solved mystery), and worked backwards, developing clues as he went along that Holmes could latch upon and unravel. Of course, this is a pretty common technique nowadays, especially with mystery writers. To this end, place your final card first, and lay other cards in front of it, coming up with a better feel for how the events lead up to the end. Make new plot points if you get inspired.

Random: Now, let’s do a shuffle. Yes, shuffle the cards, just like you would if you were playing poker, then draw each one and put it in a line. This is the method that author William S. Burroughs often used: a completely ramdomised way of generating plot. (Many other writers, artists and musicians have done the same, including David Bowie during the mid-seventies.) Does this trigger any ideas? This method may sound silly at first, but pause for a moment and reflect upon those stories, shows and films with innovative flashback treatment, such as Lost, Momento and Jacob’s Ladder. Perhaps, while Julian is watching McCain stirring some soup, a flashback might bring to mind the last conversation he had with his father? Or, could the photographs atop McCain’s fireplace trigger the thought of all the pictures of unknown people placed alongside his father’s coffin? Use the random order to stimulate new ideas –write new plot points as necessary– and keep adjusting the cards on the table until you have something you’re happy with.

Done? Good. Now, this is the skeleton of your story, but it’s time to put meat on those bones: take each card in turn and write down any details that occur to you. For example, the memory of the dozen photographs alongside his father’s coffin might be fleshed out with some images from those pictures, or the last conversation with Julian’s father might bring to mind a few key phrases. You’re in brainstorming mode here, so don’t restrict yourself: anything goes.

Finally, weed out those points that don’t belong. Remember, we tend to write far more detail than is absolutely necessary (this article being a prime example), and it doesn’t hurt to let the reader’s mind join some of the dots. Creativity often lies in the gaps. Let people ponder.

Next Steps

At this point, you have a story concept, characters, and a workable plot. What are you waiting for? Break out the notebook or word processor and start your “sh*tty first draft” (as Anne Lamott calls it in Bird By Bird). Just plow through it, and don’t stop. There will be plenty of time for editing and honing later.

Of course, one isn’t restricted to using paper for plotting. For those people wanting to use software, there is quite a number of options, including Tinderbox (Mac, curently), Visio (Windows), OmniGraffle (Mac), and Powerpoint (Mac/Windows). I can also heartily recommend the cross-platform Writer’s Café (Mac, Windows and Linux), which comes with a StoryLines application for shuffling cards for plots and subplots, almost exactly like the above.

Of course, this is just one way of fleshing out a story, and a quite procedural one at that, but it’s based upon the tried-and-true methods of countless writers over the years. Don’t be afraid to experiment with other cards or methods, though. Use the Item card to detail a “prop” or place (e.g., farmstead, funeral home, car, etc), sticky notes for vertical layouts, the Story Board cards to create visual depictions of action, or perhaps even a set of Tarot cards to come up with ideas for plot points, characters, motivations or history.

Likewise, one can use similar techniques for structuring essays, multimedia projects, presentations, and more. Any time you have to come up with a logical order for ideas, you can use this method to produce something creative, coherent and well-developed. The possibilities are nearly endless.

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. And if you would like to know use a Story Map to Improve Your Plotting

Submitted by chrisbrogan on Tue, 2006-05-30 09:34.

Imagine yourself in a movie theater. The screen fills with a young man in Philadelphia jogging around, asking out a girl, punching some cow flanks in a meat packing plant, and then hopping into the ring to fight some other guy. That’s how boring Rocky would be were there no conflicts and no changes of situation for our hero.

When writing a story, you have an obligation to fulfill: your main character(s) must experience the events you lay before them, and they must react to the conflicts those events provide. Further, the state in which your focal characters find themselves must be either improving or degrading, as a means of moving the story forward towards a conclusion. Without that, the reader is merely being dragged along a flat line towards an ending that they can see a mile away.

Break Out a Map

You might be familiar with the Story Board materials in the D*I*Y Planner Hipster PDA, and perhaps have read Doug’s post on agile plotting. The idea behind story mapping is fairly simple and is represented easily by a visual graph. Simply start at the left part of a page, and mark a circle somewhere near the middle of that side of the page. Then, plot out the ups and downs your character will face.

The spots where there’s a plateau are where the scenes are mostly expository, filled with descriptions or details. Such scenes are often kept at a bare minimum in a good modern story, as the narrative itself should provide most of what one needs to know. Mark the exposition with an “e”.

When something good happens to the character, mark it with a “+.” Something bad gets a “-”.

Good, Bad, and States

The plusses and minuses can be used in more than “good things happen, bad things happen.” For instance, you can plot your character’s compliance with his organization. If he’s a cop and he finds out his partners are corrupt, a seesaw would start between what matters to him, and what the rules of his group were. Story tension increases because the cop’s goals get a negative treatment (partners want to take him out of action before he “rats” on them), while his partners’ goals (capturing and convicting bad guys, even if the evidence isn’t all real) are rewarded positively within their circle. Obviously, this should become their undoing if this is a cautionary tale, but that’s a decision of the writer.

Stories read best when they are fraught with conflict for your characters. There is no growth or emotional experience shared with a reader/viewer if your main character grows up, meets the girl of his dreams, gets married, has kids, and lives a long life. Without conflict and struggle against external and internal forces, characters are just flat lines floating up. Think of Roy Scheider’s character in the film Jaws. He starts off with some family concerns. He gets more conflicted when he has to consider closing the beach, and when he starts to worry about how to actually catch this shark. The minuses get piled on and on and on. The story map for Jaws would look like the worst stock market crash ever, if you drew them out.

Practice on Someone Else First

To get the sense of how this works, try sitting down to your next movie-viewing experience at home with a pen and a pad. As the film progresses, draw the up lines and down lines, and add a little scene note to remind yourself what happened. See how movies look when you map them out this way. Good fiction reads the same way. I’ll offer that most print fiction has more space for exposition, so there might be more plateau lines within the mix, but otherwise, it’ll look similar to a movie.

Map Your Next Story

Try putting the practice into play alongside Doug’s agile plotting and some of the other great advice you read here at D*I*Y Planner. You’ll see a difference in how your story progresses, and it might unlock some of what’s been bothering you about your own work that may not have been evident before. It’s another way of visualizing the data contained in your text, which activates