Nosce te ipsum

You don't have to look far to be reminded why Mac users are so fond of Apple vs how Windows users feel about their corporate overlords at Microsoft. I think it might have something to do with the fact that Apple (at least it appears) is run by human beings with thoughts, emotions and a conscious. As the death toll continues to rise in the east, Apple devoted it's entire home page to putting up a message with links to relevant aid organizations. I went to Apple just to download some AppleScript code for a project and was happily surprised to see their kind gesture. Out of curiousity, I wondered what the good folks at Microsoft had done on their site - and the result speaks for itself - absolutely nothing new, just more of the same, buy! buy! buy!

Oh well, it's still early in the day, they've still got several hours left to follow Apple's lead and do the right thing. (With the volume both of those sites draw, I can only think that putting up links to those respective aid agencies would certainly help them to bring in donations).

The good folks over at 43 Folders have got a piece up on Getting started with "Getting Things Done". The timing is perfect for this is one of the pieces of my life that I'm interested in putting some major focus on into the new year.

The irony for me is that I've been a subscriber to David Allen's Productivity Tips for several years now and even purchased a white paper he wrote dealing with incorporating modern productivity tips into your Microsoft Outlook based work life (which thankfully Outlook is no longer a big part of my work life). In addition, I also own the audio book + paperback edition but have never gotten through them yet. It's amazing to see how GTD is really popular right now with a lot of people in technology. I can relate to these folks and the massive demands on their time so if this system works well for them, I'm at least interested in learning more.

So how does GTD work?

This is a really summarized version, but here it is, PowerPoint-style:

• identify all the stuff in your life that isn’t in the right place (close all open loops)
• get rid of the stuff that isn’t yours or you don’t need right now
• create a right place that you trust and that supports your working style and values
• put your stuff in the right place, consistently
• do your stuff in a way that honors your time, your energy, and the context of any given moment
• iterate and refactor mercilessly