Recommended Podcast: 43 Folders on Kung Fu, Meditation, and Sex
February 2nd, 2007 | Posted in blog 8 Comments »
With a title like this, the 43 folders podcast is bound to attract listeners. But more than a gimmick, this podcast from 43 folders is actually pretty interesting. Basically, with kung fu, meditation, and sex, you can study and think and learn about these topics all day, but until you actually go out and do them, you’ll never get anywhere.
The 43 folders guy explained how some people can become obsessed with studying methods for productivity. You can spend hours categorizing, prioritizing, and quantifying your goals and list of items to do. But if you’ve got a to-do list, he said stop studying proactive methodology — just go out and do it!
He also said that if you have to-do’s you never seem to get to, you should remove them from your list. You don’t care about them. They aren’t important to you.
This reminds me of a story from Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography. Apparently Franklin had 11 virtues he strived to achieve. His friend encouraged him to add humility to his list of virtues. At the end of the year, Franklin looked back at whether he had achieved his goals. He said he achieved all but one: humility. It was never really his goal. It wasn’t something he truly wanted, even though he had added it to his list.
I actually have a to-do list that I use from 37 Signals, but I haven’t updated it for a while, and to be honest, as the list grows ever larger, it becomes more and more depressing. After a while I feel like I have 200,000 things that I have to do, so I throw up my hands and say ‘screw you’ to my to-do list. Then after a week or so I say, wait a minute, I need to get organized again, so I resurrect the list.
What do you use to organize yourself?
Sponsors
Tags: Web 2.0
If you liked this post, keep updated with new content: Subscribe to I'd Rather Be Writing.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
3977 Subscribers
There’s a lot in what you say,... (
Mark Baker (5)
DiSc (3)
Jen (3)
Richard Hamilton (3)
Jenny (2)
Sarah Maddox (2)
Sarah O'Keefe (2)
Aneesha (1)
Barrie Byron (1)
Catherine Crane (1)
I use http://www.backpackit.com/, a grown-up version of ta-da. It was so nice to be able to throw out all those slips of paper and torn pieces of newspaper! I was introduced to ta-da first, stumbled over backpackit, and decided to use it instead. Then I went back and tried ta-da anyway. Both products have a free version. Backpackit has just that little bit more.
I still have things to do, and the lists haven’t gotten any shorter! I do believe in writing things down so I don’t have to fret about forgetting something important that just fell out of my brain because of too much clutter. At least it gets registered. But yes, it is true. Actually *doing* things, rather than fussing and mollycoddling a list, is the only thing that truly shortens the list of things to do!
I’m getting a virtual kick in the seat of my pants from listening to the audio book of “7 Habits of Highly Successful People” by Steven Covey. As an intelligent adult, I should be able to organize my life all by myself. After a busy work week, and this, that, and the other thing, I sometimes feel like doing absolutely nothing. There must be time for that as well. That is why I am interested in what Covey has to say. It is my choice how I prioritize my time. I just want to learn tricks so I can have my cake and eat it, too.
For me, organization is a lot of different things. Getting coaching through good books, articles, etc. Using nifty little tools like Firefox with Google Notebook and Firefox Add-In Clippings. Or del.icio.us for all my bookmarks (still have a whole pile to transfer from Opera on my home pc to del.icio.us.) Having a nice 2007 paper calendar always handy in my backpack (cloth, not virtual). These are all part of the picture. I also went to Ikea and bought various bits and pieces to whip my home office into shape. No more shoeboxes and other feeble attempts at economizing, which only looked a mess and stressed me even more. I look for virtual and physical gadgets that can keep the chaos under control.
I drooled over the moleskine in the C.P.U blog here: http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2007/01/gettingstaying_.html
I have many notebooks that I use for different things, and I think I will adapt her ideas to my notebooks, even though she’d say they’re not quite moleskine!
Bottomline – maybe because I am a writer – I ALWAYS have some paper with me at all times for jotting down Things To Do or ideas or … whatever.
Having various containers for all the ideas and thoughts leaping or strolling out of my head gives me a semblance of control. That keeps me calm and makes me feel organized!
Karen,
I wasn’t even aware of some of the tools you mentioned — Google Notebook, Firefox Add-In Clippings, Backpack. Thanks for the tips! I like the products from 37 Signals — particularly because they are all online, and so easy to use. I just checked out Backpack. Looks nice.
I am also a fan of Stephen Covey’s habits and organization philosophy. He’s right about so many things.
Thanks for sharing your tips on getting organized and in control.
I’m a big fan of David Allan’s “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” ,
though I certainly haven’t implemented his system perfectly. As he points out, the trouble with most “to-do” lists is that they mix items of different granularity, some of which are much too big “to do” as a unitary thing. Those big things tend to stay on your list way too long, which leads to the kind of frustration you describe.
Instead, he suggests keeping a list of “projects” and a list of “next actions”, which are the next concrete thing you can do for a project. (A project is anything that takes two or more actions.) Organize the “next actions” according to the context you need in order to do them, such as “home”, “office”, “phone”, or “internet”. Usually, when you complete a “next action”, the next “next action” for that project is self-evident, and you can just add it to the appropriate context list.
There’s a lot more to his system than that, especially regarding dealing with incoming “stuff”, but that’s the gist of the “to-do” aspect. I keep my “next actions” in my Palm Treo Tasks app, categorized by context.
Cool site. Some really nice good tips. Thanks for sharing:)))
Great discussion! You’ve got a good blog going here.
It’s great to see someone covering such a sensitive subject as sexual Chi Kung. I’ve studied this in the past. Its funny how many things in you life can change by simply focusing sexual energy.
Ilchi Lees last blog post..Ilchi Lee on being genuine and real
Not sure about the sexual energy but spiritually that’s something else – goal setting and following through, whatever the topic, makes things happen!
Small steps leading to a bigger journey makes perfect sense to me
I Really Love Reading Your Blog. Excellent. Keep up the great work!