Quadrant IV

Yesterday was Blog Action Day, a day put aside for participating blogs to post on one particular topic – The Environment.  The idea was one central theme, but handled according to each blogger’s individual style and theme. 

So far I’ve seen posts on recycling notepads, planting trees, turning off computers and influencing ‘green’ political parties.  And while I haven’t seen many tips or posts of a very novel nature, that is probably more to do with the feeds I watch, rather than the quality of the blogosphere’s offering to this project.  I did rather expect a bit more retoric on the nature of climate change, but again, perhaps it is just because I tend not to hang with that crowd.

Needless to say, the gremlins of time stole up on me and I missed it completely.  Bugger.

It is almost September and I’m already getting emails trying to claim a date for a Christmas Party.  ‘Date Claiming’ has become a very common occurrence in my inbox of late, and I must admit to finding the habit a little presumptuous.  While it seems like a smart idea on the surface to get the date booked in everyone’s calendars, such an extended date claimer means that it is near impossible to actually cancel should something better/more urgent/more important come along. 

Don’t get me wrong; I have no problem with date claimers that are set for a month or so in advance for events that the marketing stuff just isn’t ready for.  But for a party in December, I think that might be pushing the envelope just a bit.

/rant

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’ve been following a number of blogs on my early morning feed program for a while now, and just recently I added Jason DeFillippo’s blog to my list, for no other reason that his ambitious life change.

So I’ve been following for what is apparently the past 17 days now, and enjoying the glimpse of someone else’s personal purge. But when I got up this morning and read my morning ‘news’, I found myself undergoing a little life change of my own.

Jason’s post from today, combined with some really great advice from Merlin Mann, has jump started me into realising that while I spent a weekend just recently ‘tidying’ my home office, all I was really doing was storing useless things in boxes in the cupboad and not really throwing out anything more than a few papers. Kind of makes me feel pretty lousy. And yes, I have a number of telephone cables, and no use for them. I also have a non-working docking hub thing, and an external USB CD-RW/DVD-ROM player. Yeah, go figure.

So I got online and found a local charity that would be happy to take some of my old stuff and turn it into useful gifts for abused children and the elderly.  I’ll be sorting out around five boxes this weekend and giving most of it to them.

And I got online and found Robert Ullrey’s amazing podcast accompaniments to the coolrunning.com Couch to 5k program.  And tonight, for the first time in a long time, I got off the couch and, podcast in my ears, I went running.

So for tonight, my legs hurt and I’m worn out, but I’m feeling great.

My last post, on the contents of my del.icio.us account, generated Google Ads entirely about cakes and pancakes.  I love it!

Once again, I find myself drowning under a sea of paperwork.  It seems like every project with which I’m involved has suddenly ground to a halt and demanded my attention.  But contrary to last time this occured, I’m feeling calm and on top of my workload.

The reason for this is I have been diligently doing my weekly reviews for the past few weeks.  I have found my equilibrium with these little things, and now I’m really starting to get the hang of this GTD thing.

The one thing that has helped make this happen is that I’m not doing my reviews strictly weekly.  While they occur at least every week, I’m doing a full review of my work-life whenever I feel that I am losing my grip.  Whether this occurs on a Friday afternoon (which is my traditional time-blocked weekly review appointment) or on a Wednesday morning because I’m starting the freak, they are getting done now far more regularly.  And in return, I’m finding myself far more efficient and relaxed.

Technorati Tags: GTD, weekly review