Rogue Wolves

I bit the bullet and installed OSX 10.5 "Leopard" on Friday. I first did a full backup, then did a clean install and used the Migration Assistant to transfer my user folder, settings and applications from the backup. So far it seems to have worked well, with the exception of several applications (all of which were Mail.app extensions such as MailTags, GPGMail, GrowlMail, etc.)

I did have one annoying issue that I just recently have resolved. I noticed that a process ATSServer was continually eating up lots of my CPU cycles. I eventually tried killing it but it would respawn and resume eating up CPU cycles doing whatever it was doing. After a bit of searching I found that this process is related to Apple Type Services and the problem is typically due to corrupt fonts or a damaged cache file. Long story short, this wasn't the issue and none of the provided fixes helped.

After reading through my log files I found a mention of a permission error, so I decided to run Disk Utility and repair the file permissions on my volume. Then I reboot and the problem seems to be gone.

Hopefully this will help anyone else having this problem.

As some of you know, my brother Steve lives down in Southern California near San Diego which is where all the fires in California are burning. I've talked with Steve last night and he and his family are fine. There was a fire about six miles away but it is now contained and they are in no immediate danger and have not been evacuated. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way.

Before I talked with him I was pretty worried when I found the below google map marking the fires, evacuation areas, etc. He's pretty much surrounded by fires but they are fortunately far away still. Take a look at that map and see how wide spread the fires are. (Steve lives in San Marcos near Oceanside).

I've also been using Twitter to keep track of the latest news. News seems to break there way faster than the media networks. It's a great use for the technology. If you haven't used twitter it's like the Facebook status messages (*) but much more flexible in that you can choose to follow particular people or key words (tags) and be notified of new messages via twitter.com, SMS, Instant Messaging, etc. There is an API to the service so there are many different clients to access the service. Careful if you use the SMS feature because it can potentially send a lot of messages to your cell phone and may cost you some big $$$

(*) If you have no idea what a Facebook status message is, it's basically a simple way to tell people what you are doing, thinking, feeling, etc. It sounds mundane but it is actually a nice light weight way to keep people up to date on what is happening in your world. Twitter takes this a step further.

Examples of Twitter Commands

follow slangevi - this tells twitter to follow this user and notify you of their updates

leave slangevi - this tells twitter to stop notifying you of the users updates

track sandiegofire - this tells twitter to notify you of any twitter messages that contain this keyword

untrack sandiegofire - this tells twitter to stop notifying you of any twitter messages containing this keyword

Anyways, I thought the use of Google maps and twitter as public announcement tools was interesting and thought I'd pass it along.

Here is some Help on Twitter Commands. Note that the track/untrack command isn't listed as its a fairly new feature.

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Merlin Mann of 43 Folders recently gave a great talk on common sense tips for managing todays bulging email inboxes. I've revamped my own email practices recently, but I think I'll adopt some of his methods. This is worth a watch, especially if you live by email and are having trouble keeping up.

His system is pretty simple, rather than "checking" email you process email and act on them as appropriate. He associates an action to each email he receives and carries out the action required. Make sure when you check email you process everything rather than just sitting on the emails and letting them pile up unprocessed. Also, he recommends doing email LESS not more and only at designated times (once per hour or whatever works for you).

Great quote from the talk:

The default state of your inbox should probably not be keep sitting here until I start weeping.

Actions he associates with emails are:

• Delete (or Archive): If it's junk or nothing important delete it. When done with emails, archive them. Keep your inbox as an INBOX, not a storage locker. (GUILTY!)
• Delegate - If this is for someone else, forward it and forget it.
• Respond - Keep responses terse and only respond to things necessary.
• Defer - If it's something you need to follow up on later then put in your calendar or in a tickler file to remind you later.
• Do - If the email is an action and can be done in five minutes then do it, otherwise schedule to do it when you have time.

Another good tip he mentions is using email templates to speed up responses. Good stuff!

Merlin also posted a good article on how to make use of a single email archive folder rather than a byzantine folder structure to organize archives.

For more on his Inbox Zero system refer to InboxZero.com

I must admit GTD lives up to the hype. It has definitely improved my workflow and helped me keep track of tasks. Several of the principles of GTD I was already doing but I didn't take it far enough or clearly organize them. I've found that GTD makes keeping track of things easy to do and easy to review to stay on track. I'm now a believer in the Cult of GTD.

The first day I did my collection was daunting. I had a room full of "junk" piled on the floor. Processing it took three days! Once I had finished, the feeling of having EVERYTHING filed away and organized was euphoric. I've never been so organized in my life. When I was going through my stuff I found tax information and other odd things from the early nineties. Stuff I had been carting around with me for over a decade and a half in an amorphous pile for no good reason. I never wanted to attack it before but this time I forced myself to. It's an almost spiritual event processing the first time. It turned into a trip down memory lane.

Here is my advice for those contemplating GTD: Just Jump in. Don't get caught up in making the perfect workflow or setup. You can tweak it as you go. You will figure out the tools you need as you become familiar with your new workflow.

Picking the right tools can be tricky. You want something reliable, simple and that works for your needs. Spend a bit of time playing with the various options, but to get started, just work with good old paper and then convert to digital tools later or pick a simple digital tool (note taking app or list maker) and dive in. I ended up using iGTD for OS X and while it started out a bit rocky the app has stabilized and has turned into a great tool.

For most software professionals home/work has fuzzy edges. I treat contexts not as physical locations but rather as mind sets (modes of operation). Home is when I'm focussing on things I want to do at home. Work is when I want to spend time getting things done for work. This has helped me make sense of my contexts and keep them contained.

I suggest the following starter contexts (add or remove contexts as you work out the kinks):

• Work
• Home
• School (if you are taking classes or working on a degree)
• Errands
• Shopping (could merge with Errands but I find its nice to keep them separate)
• Agendas
• Calls
• Email

Also, get religious about checking your hard landscape (calendar) every morning and processing your inbox periodically (once a week minimum). If you don't, you find things pile up and your brain starts to juggle things again. The point is to keep stuff out of your brain and in a trusted system so use it!

One last suggestion, always keep a capture tool with you at all times. This can be a pad of paper, journal, pda, or even call your answering machine with your cell phone and leave voice memos. Trust me it helps. You don't want to forget something you thought of when out and about. For me I commute an hour (podcasts are your friend) and I keep my Palm on the passenger seat in case I think of something and record voice memos that I process when I get to my office. I also keep a file folder in my bag that I put physical items I collect when I'm out. This is my "To Go Inbox".

Good luck with Getting Things Done.