Rodent Regatta

I learned the best system for personal productivity and organization in 1976 from an expert in inventory control and replenishment. While unrelated to his automated replenishment savvy, his method for staying personally organized was flawless, and not one electron was energized to make it happen. It was and remains a paper system.

Getting Things Done by David Allen explains a system that is analogous to the one I learned. There is also a weblog called 43 Folders which amplifies this and other techniques for personal organization and priority setting. Merlin Mann who writes the weblog recently suggested the Hipster PDA as an alternative to your $400 electron eater. Click on the photo and read the comments.

Is It Urgent or Important?

We look cool or connected or important when we punch, poke and tap our electronics, but how effective are we? How certain are we that we have not fallen into the trap of the Tyranny of the Urgent? (Buy five and give four away.) The urgent is seldom our most important priority.

Moleskine notebooks have been mentioned here a few times. Surprise yourself this year by thinking outside the (PC) box. Before you cast off any paper solution as silly, wasteful or unworkable, do some reading. Make sure you realize just how effective some tried-and-true techniques can be.

Go back to some simple tools that lend themselves to thinking about your priorities rather than thinking about your technology. You’ll be glad you did. It’s 2005: the year of the text.

A Note About Amazon

Amazon needs to facilitate their partnership with webloggers. It was once easy to post a simple, small image of a book cover along with a link to that book’s page at Amazon. As a member of Amazon Associates Central, you might record a few cents of income each month when others bought the books using your link.

Now you get non-validating, grotesque images as long as a grocery receipt. Ah, you doubt me? Examine this carefully immediately after memorizing the periodic table:http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/ref=sc_fe_c_4_3435371_3/103-7479907-4810204?%5Fencoding=UTF8&node=12920511&no=3435371&me=A36L942TSJ2AJA

I like Amazon and buy things there. I just wish they’d enhance their affiliate program and the ease with which we can link to books and products. There is no reason we should not be able to generate a personalized link to any book just by clicking on the proper button while logged in. The link and the image should be well-formed. They should not look like they were intended for Crazy Al’s Used Car Lot.

Perhaps I’m merely assuming that Amazon wants to get things done.