Philosophy
Organization
You know how some people just seem to have everything together? They know exactly what they need to do and just go out and do it. That’s not me.
I am not a naturally organized person at all.
What I am good at, generally, is finding systems that help to mitigate my weaknesses. I have been tweaking my systems for organization over the past few years and, with the help of technology, I’m finding greater and greater success in keeping myself organized.
I thought I would take a few moments to share some of the tools that I have had success with, and give you a look at the current tools that I am using.
I’ve tried any number of task manager apps and sites and I found a lot of things that I like. I’ve run the obstacle course of free products and services and, while there are plenty o great individual features, nobody in the free space has quite gotten it right yet.
The one free (or freemium, depending on what you want to use it for) product that I am keeping a close eye one is The Deadline. Long Term, I feel that these guys have the most potential both because of how far they’ve come since launch and how quickly they react to user suggestions and comments.
The Deadline is the best for working with others who are also using their web app, but market penetration is negligible and I’ve personally had a hard time converting users. It also hurts them not to have a dedicated iPhone and iPad app, although I believe they are currently working on it.
The deadline offers a number of sorting and grouping options using hashtags and other like symbols, which allow you to slice and dice your task list in any number of ways. I relied on this tool as my primary organization system for most of this past year.
Another great tool for either daily or occasional use is Toggl. The main function of Toggl is tracking what you spend your time on. I could see this being very powerful for someone who needs to bill by project, however I use Toggl more as a tool to track and tweak where I’m spending my time during the day for the sake of efficiency. For example, if I need to focus on a specific task, I will use Toggl to keep myself focused and avoid unnecessary distractions by having a clear and obvious timer on any distractions.
Another huge benefit to Toggl is using it over a longer period of time. After two weeks of consistently using Toggl, I was able to help make an educated case for reducing the amount of admin work that is required for my job. I was able to demonstrate that admin was taking up an unreasonable amount of my time and the company actually made changes that reduced the amount of admin that was part of my responsibilities.
For my day to day organization today, I am now using an entirely new set of tools. The launch of iOS5 brought along the iPhone native app for reminders. This app is brilliant. The ability to set location-based reminders has entirely changed the way that I use a task list. The second feature in this app is the ability to use dedicated custom lists. Combined with Siri, the iPhone4S built-in digital, voice activated personal assistant, custom lists and location-based reminders are my new go-to combination for simple task management. I can set a quick and easy reminder for a task literally with the push of a single button: “Remind me to grab a bottle of wine when I get home” will prompt me to grab a bottle of wine when I roll into my driveway and I am ready to go for dinner at a friend’s house.
The only weakness that I have found with the native reminders app is an ability to nest tasks and create more complex combinations that group into projects. On advice from a colleague, I invested in a relatively expensive app for iOS called OmniFocus. I haven’t yet purchased the mac version of this software because I don’t see myself using my mac to stay organized, but I have purchased both the iPhone and iPad versions. I’m using the more powerful iPad version to define my organization system and then using the iPhone version to run the course afterwards. OmniFocus is truly awesome. I can define projects and create tasks that run in sequence or in parallel. I can group tasks to be done in the same context, be it at home, at work, at the hardware store, etc. It allows me to not only be organized, but also be efficient in the execution of a plan. I can re-work the plan at any time, on the fly, to account for unexpected situations and it will automatically push every thing around for me.
I also love the direct integration of OmniFocus with my browser, which allows me to clip webpages as tasks and send them to my task list as follow up items. It’s kind of like having an Evernote plugin that directly feeds my task list. Another beautiful feature is the seamless cloud syncing that is either available if you have an existing service, or built-in if you choose to use the servers owned by OmniFocus for free! This service keeps both of my OmniFocus apps in perfect sync without my having to think about it at all.
Read MoreSigned, but not read
More and more these days I find that I am required to give up rights in order to access goods, services, and opportunities.
Companies with teams of legal professionals create ridiculously long sets of terms and conditions that I am forced to agree with in order to participate in today’s society.
Sure, I have choices: I can opt not to participate; or I can carefully review every letter of the legalese while doing my best to understand the intricacies of the jargon that I was not trained for years to understand; I can even pay a lawyer to read through everything and break it down into layman terms that help me to understand.
Instead, I do what all of us do. I simply realize that I have to sign the document, check the box, or click on the “agree” button in order to participate and go on my merry way.
Does anyone actually read what rights we are waiving by agreeing to things that we simply have to agree to in order to participate in society?
Come to think of it, to even write this post I have had to agree to a whole gamut of separate Terms and Conditions:
- OSX has a set (so that I can install iTunes)
- iTunes has a set (so that I can activate my iPhone and download the WordPress app)
- iOS4.1 has a set (so that the phone is updated to function as intended)
- Rogers Internet has a set (to download and update iTunes as well as register my hardware)
- Rogers Wireless has a different set (so that I can post from my phone)
- GoDaddy.com has a set for owning the URL
- I had to agree to a different set from GoDaddy for hosting of this site
- And, I think finally, I had to agree to a set in order to use WordPress
That’s at least 8 sets of Terms and Conditions that I was forced to agree to simply to write a single blog post.
Now I’m no lawyer and, despite being a relatively intelligent man, I am not trained well enough to be able to identify what every clause in every agreement actually means. I’m put in a position whereby the sheer volume and technical jargon of most of these agreements make reading and comprehending the information unreasonable.
Do you realize that just to use the freely available iTunes, which I do, I had to agree to a 26,000 word agreement? That doesn’t sound reasonable to me. In fact, I think that it sounds down right unfair. And I’m the very definition of an Apple fanboy.
I’ve decided to do something about it. I’m going to be the first person to stand up and change the definition of a convention that has become commonplace. I am changing the definition of my signature.
From this point, my signature, when dealing with any entity beyond an individual, no longer constitutes an agreement of any kind. My signature means “Signed, under duress, without reading or comprehending”. And this counts for every check box that I have to check or “Agree” button that i have to click on to participate in society, whether it’s something that I pay for or something that is offered for free.
Hey world, this is your notice … With the billions of words on the Internet and the unreasonable nature of this forced agreement I bet this seems unfair.
How do you think I feel?
N
Read MoreFamily Guy #150
I just re-watched the 150th episode of Family Guy and really want to break down this episode a little bit to see if anyone else is left with the same questions and feelings that I am.
Be advised that the rest of this post may be a spoiler for anyone who hasn’t yet seen the episode.
The Family Guy team went with a very different structure for the show this week. First of all, it was an hour from beginning to end, including about 40 minutes of “story” and the remaining 20 minutes being a gamut of musical numbers that may or may not have appeared in previous episodes.
The “story” segment stands out as the real episode with the rest feeling like either filler or a purposeful series of scenes meant to uplift our spirits after the somewhat dark journey of the “story”.
The technique to telling this story was a very different approach for Family Guy. So much so that it felt almost like there was a guest director. There were almost no sounds outside of the voices of the characters. (Very little sound effects and no soundtrack whatsoever after the opening credits) When compared to the usual play-ins from commercials, there was a very different overall tone to this episode.
The story begins with Brian and Stewie getting trapped in a timed bank vault over night when visiting Brian’s safety deposit box at the end of the business day.
After becoming locked in, Stewie proceeds to soil his diaper and tries to convince Brian that the only way he can make it through the night is if Brian eats his feces to clean out the diaper as well as cleaning Stewie with his tongue. The way that the writers let this play out was brilliant. You knew immediately that it was going to be disgusting, but they built up suspense so perfectly that that you were relieved when they didn’t show you the actual act when it happened.
Throughout the episode it was hard not to hear the words and tones of the characters and not imagine the pair as a married couple where Brian was the husband and Stewie was the wife (even the example of Stewie buying a $3,000 sweater and Brian calling him a an idiotic and pretentious moron as you would imagine a husband who is displeased with his wife’s superfluous shopping might have in the 50s). You see them as two people who know each other very well and are hashing out some ongoing arguments.
Sure, the content of the arguments was, at times, farcical but the progression and resulting hurt feelings was like watching a couple work through marital issues stemming from individuals treating each other poorly after being together for a long time.
It’s only after Brian hurts Stewie’s feelings that he agrees to eat the soil out of the diaper, and once he eats a little poop … Everything is ok for a while. Eventually, we find out that Stewie didn’t really even need Brian to eat it, but rather was manipulating Brian for his own amusement.
Later, Brian gives Stewie some scotch, until Stewie feels like dancing in front of him, right after saying that he doesn’t want to drink too much because “I don’t want to get buzzed. People take advantage of kids who get buzzed *playfully* so don’t you try anything.” Brian sits back and tells him how good he is and how he’s really impressed. The whole scene seems like watching a pedophile seducing a little boy with the use of alcohol.
Once they are completely drunk, it’s like watching a couple of guys who are drunk telling each other how much they like each other before doing something stupid that drunk guys might do resulting in Stewie getting hurt physically.
The next part involved an emotional revelation by Brian that among his possessions inside the safety deposit box is a gun that he keeps, just in case he decides he needs it to kill himself with at some point. When pressed for a reason that he would commit suicide, he revealed that he doesn’t live with purpose and that maybe his life has no meaning. ”Is there ever a time when we’re truly in the present moment, and not looking to the past of the future.” The scotch that he had shared with Stewie was intended to be his last drink before pulling the trigger.
Of course, they wrap it all up at the end by declaring their love for each other and Stewie tells Brian that his presence give’s Stewie’s life purpose before they fall asleep in each other’s arms. The segment ends with the bank vault opening and Brian carrying Stewie out of the vault in silence.
Maybe I’m over-thinking the whole thing … maybe it’s a cartoon, intended to be entertaining and that’s it, but I don’t think so. I think that Seth MacFarlane and the Family Guy team are tricking people into realizing a little about themselves. By injecting a little of the common experiences people have had, good and bad, and in a variety of different ways, the show has much more to say than it really seems.
A man who has spoken down to the woman he supposedly loves may have noticed a similarity in Stewie’s reaction to that of his wife. A manipulative person may see that the way they treat their partner isn’t that nice. Someone who has ever thought about committing suicide may hear Brian’s reasoning and Stewie’s reassurance and be reassured themselves. And a pedophile may have noticed that society is watching, deterring them from acting on whatever urges they might have for fear of getting caught.
I know that Macfarlane has said he likes to hold a mirror up to society in the past, but never has it been more obvious for me than this past Sunday.
N
Read MoreWhat did you guys talk about?
There are many differences between men and women. I’m not so dense that I would say that I know anything about these differences better than anyone else, but I would like to draw attention to one of the finer points that I’ve been noticing lately.
As pretext, I am married to a beautiful and intelligent woman. I have been getting to know her for the last three years and she still surprises me every day with further insight into how the female mind works.
One thing that I don’t think I will ever understand is why she is always disappointed with the answer to the inevitable question she asks whenever I spend time with one of my friends:
“What did you guys talk about?”
The fact is that, as men, we talked about three things while we were together:
- The task at hand, including, but not limited to other times that we did that task, future instances when we plan to do that thing again, and general discussion about how to be better at that task.
- What we’ve been up to since the last time we spent time together, including updates on previous conversations, major milestones and interesting anecdotes.
- Taking the other guys to task, including telling stories that either make them out to be heroes or zeroes, arguing about the rules of engagement regarding any of the above, and perpetuating any possible running jokes at someone elses expense.
Notice that at no time did I mention talking about each others feelings, asking about details of each others families or friends.
I usually get a barrage of questions first before the exasperated “What did you guys talk about?”
- How is his girlfriend, wife, partner? With the corollary, if applicable, “When is he going to propose?”
- How is he enjoying work?
- What does he think of what’s happening with so-and-so?
- How does he feel about _______?
- How is his mother doing since having her appendix out?
- Is he thinking about _______?
- When is he going to _______?
And my answers to all of these sorts of questions are always dissappointingly vague. Usually coming in the form of an “I don’t know” that sounds more like “uh mn oh”.
I can only imagine what this means conversations between women are like when they’re alone together. In my mind they must talk a lot about how they feel about things, about how everyone they know is doing, about how they think everyone else is feeling, what they think everyone else is thinking, and what events could potentially be happening in the near future.
If that’s true … No wonder my wife is always surprised that guys don’t talk about anything.
N
Read MoreMoney is such a tricky thing
I read a great article in The Globe and Mail today: Joint or separate bank accounts? That is the question
This is a very common issue that couples face and it’s nice to have someone bring attention towards making it okay to talk about.
My wife and I recently had to make some decisions about how we handle money in our household. We ended up going to a bank and having a very honest conversation with one of their personal banking representatives.
I have to say that it really was like that Scotiabank TV ad where the couple sits with a bank rep and when the woman pushes the finance information in front of the male partner and he turns his head away so that he can’t see their finances. We were both surprised by each other’s attitudes when it came to managing money. In retrospect, it is surprising that it took more than 2.5 years for us to sit down and talk about money.
At the end of the conversation at the bank, we ended up opening a joint account to manage our monthly living expenses. We didn’t combine our finances completely because we both agree that everybody needs their own private money to manage and do with what they choose. We both receive our income to a personal account and then contribute an appropriate amount every month towards the common bills.
We’ve been using the new system for two months now and it seems to be working very well. We both feel more confident that everything is covered every month and we are already making contributions towards both personal and shared goals.
My favourite quote about money came from a true gentleman who, coincidentally, shared more than 30 birthdays with me:
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“I never like to talk about money, I don’t think it’s important once you are not hungry. After a while, you’re nothing but a caretaker or a custodian.” ~ Honest Ed Mirvish
I guess all that really matters is that both partners agree that the system that they decide to use works.
Read MoreNecessity begets Opportunity
Ever think about why you take advantage of some opportunities but not others? Ever consider how you came across those same opportunities in the first place?
We all have stories about missed opportunities and we all have those moments in our lives when we make pivotal decisions that completely change the direction that we are headed … For good or for bad.
It makes sense to me that people would tend towards weighing the pros and cons of a given situation and then applying a risk/reward factor to make the big decisions in their lives. It seems to me that this formula for decision making is pretty solid, except for one consideration; it is very conservative.
Does everyone follow this type of a decision making thought process? Absolutely not, but I would bet on it being a very high percentage.
What about the group outside of those described above? I like to think that they comprise the people that are either extremely successful or are spectacular failures in life.
I think that those who fail spectacularly have an inherent flaw in their decision making process at one of the steps. Either they can’t see the whole picture of the pros and cons or they don’t understand the impact of taking risks in life.
The opposite must be true to some extent when looking at the extremely successful. They inherently must be adept at seeing the big picture of how their decisions impact their lives, but that’s not what sets them aside from the masses. There has to be something more.
I think that the risk component definitely plays a big part. Big risks often come with big rewards or they wouldn’t be worth taking in the first place. But what makes one person more tolerant to those bigger risks than another? I think that the answer comes on both sides of the nature vs. nurture argument. Either these people have been taught that they cannot fail, or they find themselves in a situation where the alternative simply isn’t an option and the big risk is seen as the only choice.
Some people have certain distinct advantages in life. Some are born to stable families, to parents who are already successful icons in their community. Some have the advantages of education, money, or social status. These people are taught by their environment that they can be successful and, often, that there is a safety net to catch them if they make a mistake.
Others rise like a phoenix from an unexpected beginning. They see the options around them from birth or after making some bad decisions and, often out of desperation, achieve greatness through innovation, inspiration, or raw talent.
And that, my friends, is how I came to get a deal for three belts at 30% off today.
Read More