Floods of Information

In my life information doesn’t come in a nice orderly stream. It floods, overall/on average the amount of information is not overly massive, but it’s the drought periods which are left unproductive and make me lazy. When the flood of information comes in, systems come back. But, wouldn’t it be more productive/better to always have these systems in place so that there is no lost time. We can always be more productive, especially when its not so busy, or when we procrastinate on jobs we don’t want to do, then all of a sudden everything is due all at once. Not a nice situation to be in.

I have tried getting back to GTD, but since I never read the book the whole way through, I’m probably missing some vital information. But I understand the major concepts and I am currently trying to implement a system, mainly for work, but would also like to have something in place for home and personal projects as they are also important and need to be cared for in a professional way. My spreadsheet is basically a list, which doesn’t help to prioritise unless I use extra numerical fields and sort that way, but that’s extra work is too complex. Not that I don’t want to or couldn’t, just that I also need to be mindful I am also required to update and maintain about another 6 systems, the common denominator here are the clients they stay the same. But it’s the information that I want or need to track at a particular time that is a pain in the ass.

One area which has been seriously neglected is my weekly review. The weekly review gives my a good overview of what needs doing and keeps my workspace clear of shit that not necessary the current project/task I am currently working on. For whatever reason I need a tidy workspace and as I am learning I also need a tidy filing space, as all I have been doing is literally dumping anything I don’t want to do in great big piles on the floor. This has many problems,

• Cant Find anything
• Silverfish
• Duplication of materials
• Inability to find information when you need it, leading you to not do the task
• Lack of floor space
• General ill feeling of untidiness (OCD?)

The storm is here, but the bulk of it hasn’t quite hit so I still have time to board up the house, put the sprinklers on and start building a boat.

New Dealer

I bought my first moleskine about 1 month ago. Its a pocket squared moleskine. I got it from Boarders. They didn't have much a selection, A lot of chasiers, which upon closer inspection is really a waste of money since the quality of the paper isn't as good and the cover is just a heavier stock paper. Sure u get 3 but I could make one for less that the $10 they are asking, and still have change left over. The main problem is the crappy paper...

The squared notebook, is really nice. Small, portable, lots of pages, the paper is a nice off white creamy colour. So its nice to read from. I do have a problem with the paper not taking up the ink from my uni-ball. Probably because its quite smooth. I have to let it dry before I close it or I get bleed onto the opposite facing page. And it smudges easily. So I have to find a new pen to write with. Probably a roller ball of some kind. I was hoping to use a fountain pen, but if the uni-ball wont stick I doubt the fountain pen will.

The new quest is now a smooth pen, that has a nice rich colour and I find comfortable writing with. I guess the main advantage of the uni-ball is that its a decent pen, nice rich colour, smooth AND has a nice size barrel which I can hold onto. I really don't like skinny pens. Pencils and automatic pencils mostly come in the skinny variety, however I have found the Lamy Scribble, which is a fat mechanical pencil. Its a little pricey for what is essentially a pencil. I need a pen. The pencil can wait.

So, Boarders is switching around their notebook/journal section, and have moved the moleskines near the magazines in the 'gift book' section, and now have a special section for girly notebooks. However, they have forgotten to actually stock a variety of moleskines, meaning the ones people don't want, eg the squared large cashiers etc, are hanging around. I thought they may have got some new stuff in, since they have the diaries.

So, there was basically no place to get moleskines in Brisbane, subsequent searches of the internet showed that there were other places to get moleskines from, meaning I didn't have to fork out for shipping, hurray.

Its lunch time and I decided to go try something completely different, and eat in a different location. I end up at the Queens Plaza food court, for such a fancy mall, there seems a lack of quality food vendors... basically its got the same stuff as in the other food courts at any other shopping centre. And then I pass by a paper store, with a big sign that says "mmmm delicious paper". How could I resist, then, all of a sudden, through the trendy white displays I notice rows of moleskines. Its dark cover drawing me in like a black hole about to destroy a solar system. With the full selection of moleskines on offer, I regressed back to my tried and tested "I cant decide". But these days I have a plan, I call it, come back later.

After work I went in picked up a large squared moleskine, and I still had time to catch the bus. Why I bought the large squared. I'm not sure, I probably should have gotten the lined one, now that I think about it, but the squared one means it should be easier to line stuff up, and do my little diagrams and graphs while I try to explain something to my self.