The David Allen Collection is Released - Pricey? You Bet!

posted at 13:48:51 GMT By Flipping Heck!

Posted In Blogging

This post has been viewed 299 times

David Allen has just announced the launch of the David Allen Collection, a range of "Beautiful Leather Desk Accessories Designed by David Allen and manufactured by Fedon of Italy!". Sounds too good to be true right? Well, you know what they say "If it sounds to good to be true...."

I had a quick look at the store and the prices are astronomical; $85 (approx £44) for a leather bound folio and a couple of graph paper pads (which you could pick up for about £15 at Staples); $99 - Yes! $99 for a desk tray. A desk Tray!

David Allen Collection "Vision" Set  - A bargain at only $835

Talk about cashing in on a name.

Do people seriously think that these items will be any better than those bought from Office Depot or Wal*Mart? Do they they that they'll be able to get more done?

Remember:

It's not the tool you use, it's the way that you use it

Sure, a £45 document wallet may look a heck of a lot flashier than the one from Tescos, but a PDA looks flashier than a Moleskine. What does it matter if it sits unused in a draw (which reminds me, I really need to get my PDA out of the draw!)?

I apologose somewhat for the rant-ish nature of this post but I was just so shocked at the cost of these items I had to vent. I know they're probably not aimed at a lowly web developer like myself (and I know that the pads of paper are cheap-ish if you like that kind of thing) but rather the CEO of MegaCorp, but sill, you would have thought something in there would contain a real-world price.

Mind you, if you have a company credit card I suppose you don't care about the cost...

Click To View Comments		Permalink To This Post
Trackback URL: http://www.flippingheck.com/tracker.asp?PostID=796

Improve your productivity with Remote Desktop Connections (and why Macs just work)

posted at 21:13:51 GMT By Flipping Heck!

Posted In GTD/Productivity

This post has been viewed 445 times

I was getting rather fed up of having to physically get up and go to my PC from my Mac at home when I wanted to do something - sure I have access to my PC folders on my Mac but sometimes I'd need a program or file that was hidden away and not accessible so I decided to install VNC on both my Mac and PC so I could remote onto them from any machine on my network.

I had read an article on on Lifehacker which discussed remoting in from somewhere outside your network which wasn't what I was looking for but it pointed me in the direction of the programs I needed.

I installed Vine from Redstone software on my Mac (note the server is free but you need to pay to use the client so I used Chicken of the VNC instead as it's free).

When you start the Vine VNC server you get a simple box to enter your Computer's display name and a password and that's it! No more configuration than that. "Wow, how easy is this going to be?" I thought.


So, I then decided to VNC from my Mac to my PC, so I set TightVNC server up which was as simple as Vine - until it came to remoting on from my Mac.

Nothing worked. I disabled the firewall on the PC, checked that I could access my PC via IP address, everything I could think of. The I thought it may be that Micro$oft had blocked the ports (VNC Uses 5900) as default. Can I find how to check if they're allowing access? Nope.

"So, great" I thought, "my Plans are well and truly scuppered. I can get to the machine I don't need to see and not the one I need." Then it struck me, whist I was fiddling with all of these Windows settings I saw one that was to "Allow remote connections to this computer.

Ah Ha! Windows remote desktop to the rescue!

Click To View Comments (2)		Permalink To This Post
Trackback URL: http://www.flippingheck.com/tracker.asp?PostID=795

It's a good week to be English

posted at 13:30:53 GMT By Flipping Heck!

Posted In Personal

This post has been viewed 442 times

A little off-topic I know but I am proud of where I come from so...

Happy birthday to Her Maj who was 82 on Monday. Hip, Hip, Hooray!





Secondly, today is the birthday of William Shakespeare (who quite unfortunately also died on this day too). Happy birthday to the best writer who ever lived (apart from myself of course)

Click To View Comments (2)		Permalink To This Post
Trackback URL: http://www.flippingheck.com/tracker.asp?PostID=794

Four in Ten employees are thinking of quitting their jobs

posted at 13:13:55 GMT By Flipping Heck!

Posted In Motivation

This post has been viewed 734 times

There's an article on the BBC website today stating that more than four in ten UK employees are considering quitting their job in the next year. That's a staggering amount of people that are thinking about moving jobs - especially in the current uncertain economic climate.

The main cause for all this dissatisfaction?



Crikey, half of people hadn't had any help since the inital "here's the toilet and that's where you make the coffee" speech. How bad is that?

When my Dad first started work 50 years ago, you joined a company and stayed there for life progressing through the ranks into management. Now it seems that these "jobs for life" don't exist any more - we flit from post to post usually as a way to move up a step because a lot of companies seem to have adopted a somewhat flat organisational structure as opposed to a tiered approach.

When I first started work straight out of University, I joined a company as a junior web developer. I then became just a "web developer", then "senior web developer" and finally "website maintenance manager". A clear career progression path was laid out for me with multiple steps up the chain if I decided I wanted to take them.

Ten years down the line and I'm back to being a plain old "Web Developer" again, no junior or senior roles exist and the next step up of "Team Leader" is taken by someone who's not going anywhere in the near future.

Even though most of us work in a similar situation, people still feel that if the company thinks they are a valued part of the team they show this through job titles (adding "senior" or "manager" for example) and providing promotion prospects and career progression paths so it's no wonder that such a high percentage of people are thinking of moving jobs.

Add into the mix that we're expected to do more hours for less money and take on a wider variety of work without the responsibility, salary or job title that would traditionally come with such a role it's not difficult to see why there is such a massive problem.

People need incentives to work under these conditions, and whereas traditionally you could work a 50+ hour week, get noticed and get promoted, now all you get is an ulcer.

I'm not sure what the solution is here. Offering bonuses, extra holidays or a change in job title is not an option for the majority of companies that are affected - heck, if they can't even give you a pay rise then they're not going to give you a nice fat bonus just in time for Christmas (something that used to happen at my first company - those were the days). And to be honest, I'm not sure even that would be motivating enough for a lot of people to make them want to stay.

Sometimes it could be the smallest thing that has the greatest motivational impact. In the survey mentioned above, a quarter of people said that they felt unsupported by their bosses, and it's probably true to say that those very bosses feel unsupported by their own managers.

If you support your staff then they will support you.

By support I don't mean terrible micro-managing or hand-holding but little things like taking an interest in them, their family and hobbies; saying "Thank-you" when they present some work to you; or even a 10 minute team meeting once a week just to see how everyone is getting on - all of these can have a great impact on how people think, and approach their jobs, and none of that costs a penny.

The funny thing is that these small changes can save the company a lot of money in the future. I think it's fair to say that the people who leave a job and move on to another company are usually the best employees, leaving behind those too stuck in their ways or incompetant to get a job elsewhere. So, now you're left with a rubbish team and have to pay to advertise the position and (maybe) train up the new hire, plus loose money whilst they get up to speed with the way everything works.

We're already getting into a position in a lot of industries where the recruitment process is in the employee's favour any they can cherry pick who they want to work for and I think that companies will need to realise this and do something about it soon otherwise all they'll be left with is an ineffective and inefficient workforce, and a company that's falling apart at the seams.

Click To View Comments (4)		Permalink To This Post
Trackback URL: http://www.flippingheck.com/tracker.asp?PostID=793

Review: Sound Asleep Pillow

posted at 17:06:36 GMT By Flipping Heck!

Posted In Review

This post has been viewed 766 times

I saw a pillow on The Gadget Show recenty that was part of a mega prize package and it caught my eye. "Why are they giving away a pillow on a gadget show?" I thought to myself so I did a little Google and found that the "Sound Asleep Pillow" contains a small speaker so you can listen to your MP3 player in bed without headphones.

How cool is that? I had a bit of a problem finding someone in the UK that sold them but eventually found one for sale in by TD Textiles inthe Amazon Marketplace.

Essentially, you can plug anything into the pillow as long as it has a 3.5mm jack (or can be converted to one) and it stops the hastle ofgetting strangled by your headphone cables.

The cable supplied with the pillow is extremley long and I had to shorten it with a tie - this is probably because they recommend placing your MP3 player on the floor - presumably so you don't roll over, squash it and then sue them. Here's the cable:



And here it is with an IPod attached:



If, like me, you listen to a lot of music or audio books at bed time, don't want to get wrapped in cables or disturb anyone with full-onspeakers then you should try this out.

The only downside is that the pillow isn't machine washable due to the speaker, but it can be cleaned with a damp cloth.

TD Textiles have the pillow available direct from their website (I can't link to the individual product page as it's part of a frameset) for £11.99 with £4.99 p&p (prices correct as of 20th April)

Click To View Comments		Permalink To This Post
Trackback URL: http://www.flippingheck.com/tracker.asp?PostID=792

GTD: Projects and Duplicate Actions and how to avoid them

posted at 11:24:27 GMT By Flipping Heck!

Posted In GTD/Productivity

This post has been viewed 877 times

I had an email from a reader recently (yes, I have at least one!) regarding my paper based system and how I deal with managing projects/actions in order to avoid duplication across lists (e.g have an action assigned to a project list and then having the same action written on a context list). I thought I'd share my reply with you all here as I think it's quite a common problem and one that I don't really "get" in terms of GTD.

The Problem...

How to manage projects and avoid duplication of next actions across project/context lists

The Solution....?

I think my personal problem is the way I define projects in a very different way to the GTD idea that a project is a collection of 2 or more actions.

I see a project from more of a high-level project planning view where all actions are known and they must occur in a given order for the project to be completed on budget and on time - the curse of years in web project management I guess!

So basically, all of my actions are already pre-defined at the project planning stage and they're all within one context (e.g. @computer or @coding for example) so in essence the true context here would be the project itself.

You can view a simple project plan here or a more complicated project planner here.

With this planning stage complete I have all of my actions on a project planning sheet so when I'm working on a given project (or project/context) I refer to the project plan rather than moving a next action over to my notebook or context list. This gets around the duplication issue we referred to.

Of course though, I still have actions that need to be done that aren't reflected in a project plan such as emails, arranging meetings, 'phone calls etc. So this is where my notebook comes in.

All of these extra non-project or non-scoped (although they may technically relate to a project) go into my notebook in the manner I described in the article "My Killer GTD Setup".

One problem working with notebooks with fixed pages such as a Moleskine is that if you try and split the notebook into sections for each of your context lists you'll quickly fill a section up, so what then?

For example, you may have 10 pages for @Phone, 10 for @Email etc. so what happens when a section gets filled? You don't want to have a new notebook just for one context so that you have to carry around 2, which is why my system is a bit different.

To qualify my system, I may be building a website for "XYZ Ltd" and I'm working on transferring existing content from their old website to the new one. So my action may be "Data Migration" which is on my project plan but I may have a query regarding what info needs copying and I may need to contactsomeone to get a development server set up as well, so in my notebook I'd put something like:

O P Phone John @ XYL RE Data to Copy
O E Email Mike RE Dev server for XYZ

So technically I'm mixing contexts in one list which is a big no-no (as I understand it) in GTD Term. The problem I faced when using separate context lists like those available on DIY Planner (Which I used to use in an A5 planner then moved on to a Filofax) - my procrastination kicks in and I find myself ignoring contexts I don't like - mainly @Phone as I can't stand telephones and try to do it all by email which doesn't work, but I'm getting better with this, honest!

Having all the contexts in one list really highlights what I'm avoiding and acts as a push to complete it - especially if it's the only action on that page that's not crossed off.

Of course, all of the issues stated above are negated using an electronic system. Projects and actions are created which are then assigned to contexts and can be easily moved, assigned to multiple projects, contexts etc. The problem is then having to carry that information around to different locations/machines.

I have a PC & Mac at work, and a PC & Mac at home (show-off aren't I?!) so technically it should be relatively easy to find something that suits me on either plaform. The main issue I face is that due to a stringent IT Security policy it's difficult - if not impossible - to transfer files from work to home, and a web based system wouldn't work either thanks to our web-usage policy (unless I could convince management of the cost/benefits) so that's why I ended up paper-based again.

I understand concerns in regards to security of a paper-based system but I personally think (in my case at least) it's more secure than a computer based one. Anyone at work can log onto my computers and see anything I'm working on (standard "off sick" or "hit by a bus" procedure) whereas my notebook is my own personal property.

To get around the issue of losing my notebook, I only carry it to work and around the house. When I'm out somewhere I carry slips of paper (or a mini-notebook that fits in my wallet) that I capture my actions on, these then get transferred into my notebook when I get home.

Any calendar items I have go in one of two places - either a shared calendar at work or the calendar on my mobile which only occasionally gets work related items on it if I think I'll forget them!

So, to sum up, I have 4 areas in which I capture actions:

• Project Plan
• Moleskine Notebook
• Paper in my wallet (temporary capture tool)
• Calendar (Phone/Shared Entourage)

I think the inherent problem with GTD is that it's geared to people that live in multiple contexts (such as admin assistants or people who do a lot of paperwork for example) whereas I live within the realms of the @Computer context 99.9999% of my time.

I hope that makes a bit more sense and I've managed to answer the questions about my system. I also think that we should never just take a system at face value, we need to tweak it in order for it to fit in with our own circumstances and ways of working the problem is knowing when to stop tweaking and start doing!

What do you guys think?

I can just never seem to get my head around how GTD works with projects - maybe it's because I'm stuck in my ways or simply looking at it from the wrong angle.

How do you cope with projects and actions? Let me know in the comments or Contact me, I'd love to hear your suggestions.

Click To View Comments		Permalink To This Post
Trackback URL: http://www.flippingheck.com/tracker.asp?PostID=789

New Feature: Tag Cloud

posted at 09:00:00 GMT By Flipping Heck!

Posted In Site News

This post has been viewed 727 times

If you've not been to the website in the last couple of days (or use the search feature much) then you may not have seen the new "Tag Cloud" and "Category Cloud" pages that I've implemented.

The Tag Cloud and Category Cloud pages lists all of the tags/categories I've used on the site and rates them in order of how many posts they have associated with them.

Basically, the bigger it is, the more I've rabbited on about it.

Enjoy!

Click To View Comments		Permalink To This Post
Trackback URL: http://www.flippingheck.com/tracker.asp?PostID=788

Archive

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004

Recent Posts

Popular Posts

Categories

Who I'm Reading

Stats

Admin

Search

 

View the Tag Cloud or View the Category

Reader Survey

Featured Posts

Links and things

Move It About!

Recent Comments