Category RSS Archive for the ‘Planning Tips’ Category

Take a walk

Posted May 18, 2012 by
in Editorial, Planning Tips | Add your comment »

Time-management experts often tell us to take short breaks throughout the day. It’s advice I find easy to agree with but hard to put into practice, at least regularly, because I don’t remember, or I just wasted time checking email and don’t see how I can justify it, or I’m not really sure what I should be working on now, anyway.

Yesterday around 4:00 pm I realized I had a serious case of work doldrums — it was a sunny day, and I hadn’t gotten much accomplished, and though I knew I was in no danger of, say, blowing a deadline because of it, I couldn’t bring myself to give up… and yet I couldn’t focus. Usually what I do in such times is take care of some small, domestic errand like folding laundry or doing the dishes, which is generally enough to kick me back into action at work. Instead, I took a short walk.

Lo and behold! It was glorious, and I felt great on my return, and though I was initially tempted to grab a book and relax on the sofa, I sat down on my desk and enjoyed a compact, productive next hour.

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Same (note)book, new cover

Posted May 7, 2012 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips | Add your comment »

A lot of you like to give your old planner covers new life by reusing them on notebooks, and there are a number of different combinations that work.

So what if you want to buy a new cover on its own, either to replace one that’s damaged mid-year or to use alone on a notebook? Generally, this is a question we’re hard put to answer, because we rely on retailers to distribute our products, and those retailers tend to sell covers and planners together since that’s what most people want.

However, we’ve been able to confirm that New Jersey based Classic Office Products is willing to fill special covers-only orders. If that’s something that interests you, I’d suggest you email their service department at customerservice [AT] classicofficeproducts [DOT] com or call 888-285-6330.

Happy (re)covering!

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Making a list, checking it twice

Posted April 30, 2012 by
in Planning Tips | 2 comments »

225/365 Reminders

I heard a business coach speak recently on the subject of productivity, and was struck by something she said about to-do lists: make sure to keep each task manageable. So rather than noting that you have to write your company’s marketing plan, break the job down into multiple steps you can tackle, cross off, and feel good about.

It’s an interesting point, and one I don’t always adhere to. My main work related to-do list is pretty big picture, in fact — as a freelancer, I like to have a good high-level sense of how much, exactly, I’m juggling — though I do sometimes write out a secondary list so that smaller tasks don’t fall through the cracks.

Which doesn’t mean there’s no room for improvement, of course. Rather than reminding myself to prepare some advance posts for this blog, for instance, I suspect I’d be better off committing to a specific number — say, enough for next week. And rather than noting that I need to research an article I’m preparing, it might make sense to define a couple of micro-topics I’d like to explore.

How do you manage your to-do lists?

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Blog overload

Posted April 23, 2012 by
in Editorial, Planning Tips | 5 comments »

A couple years ago, I tried and failed to bat back the tangled mess my RSS reader had become. (Categories helped me prioritize, and I cut some subscriptions, like BoingBoing, that I knew I could never keep up with… but I’ve still got more than a thousand unread posts.)

Social media mavens say that people are relying more on their friends (through Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and less on personal subscriptions to keep up with Internet content. That isn’t quite true in my case — I’m on Facebook, but I’m not very active, and I gravitate first to sites like the New York Times and Slate, which I’ve had bookmarked for years — though I often find great blogs and articles through Quo Vadis’s own social media presence. Still, I’d be curious to learn more about other people’s habits. What’s your preferred mode of navigation and/or discovery? Has it changed over the past few years?

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Use an address book to store your recipes

Posted April 19, 2012 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips | Add your comment »

Here’s an intriguing idea from bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler, which I got to via The Kitchn: use an address book to store your most-referenced recipes.

It’s the most important tool I own, and I never set foot behind a bar without my book. The alphabetical tabs make it quick and easy to look up a recipe, and inside I’ve got years worth of classic cocktails, house recipes, syrup and mixer recipes for prep or to share with guests, variations, and layer upon layer of correction fluid and margin notes. It’s absolutely indispensable to me.

Morgenthaler uses a Moleskine address book for this purpose, but you could easily use the insert that comes with your planner (assuming that, like many of us who are tethered to our cell phones and computers, you don’t already use it for addresses) and move it with you from year to year, as it grows. And of course, you could store more than cocktails — I know I’m always looking up the quantities for my favorite pancake recipe on the weekend, which I can never seem to remember…

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Personal metrics

Posted March 19, 2012 by
in Planning Tips | 1 comment »

Here’s some more fun with data: The Economist reported recently on a trend known as “self-tracking,” or using data about your everyday activities to improve your health and quality of life.

Robin Barooah, a software designer, said he had lost 20kg by monitoring his after-lunch mood using flashcards, which heightened his awareness of how different foods made him feel. Sara Riggare, an engineer from Sweden, described how she used an iPhone app to determine the best drug combination to control her Parkinson’s Disease, and a Nintendo Wii game to monitor and improve her balance.

Unsurprisingly, start-ups and larger companies have begun to support self-trackers with gadgets and apps that facilitate the collection and analysis of personal data.

It’s a promising approach, though I’m reminded of a thought I had, years ago, while working at Forbes.com. I was on a tour of the MIT Media Lab and listening to one of the grad students talk about how mobile phones could help you track what you ate and let you know, for example, if you needed to eat more veggies or lay off the red wine. And, you know, nutrition is great, but will nobody stand up for our capacity for self-deception? There are things I’d like to understand about myself, and things that are important to know. But gosh, I’m not sure I could take that level of clarity in every last aspect of my life!

Do you use any self-tracking tools?

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Dr. Beltrami’s prescription for better time management

Posted March 1, 2012 by
in Planning Tips | 1 comment »

Another great thing I discovered in the old brochure Karen sent me is some time management advice from Quo Vadis founder Dr. FG Beltrami.

“Remember,” Dr. Beltrami writes, “My system works because it is simple. Just take one step at a time.”

With that in mind, he outlines these three steps:

1. Make a list

Go through the projects that you are working on. Make an inventory of all the things you have to do, appointments not to be forgotten, and notes on little scraps of paper.

2. Establish priorities

No matter how many things you have to do, and no matter how urgent they are, you just cannot do them all at the same time. Just take everything one step at a time.

3. The time factor

Plans are only as good as how you implement them. It is not just enough to make lists, or even prioritize them… you must give some thought as to when you will be doing the project, making the phone calls, etc. that are important to you.

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Habits and destiny

Posted February 23, 2012 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips | 4 comments »

Treadmill

Another great piece in this weekend’s New York Times magazine, adapted from a forthcoming book, told the story of Andrew Pole, who analyzes retail behavior for the marketers at mega-retailer Target. The goal, of course, is to get shoppers to change their habits and buy more stuff at Target.

It’s fascinating stuff, however. Author Charles Duhigg describes the three-step process by which habits are formed:

First, there is a cue, a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use. Then there is the routine, which can be physical or mental or emotional. Finally, there is a reward, which helps your brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future. Over time, this loop — cue, routine, reward; cue, routine, reward — becomes more and more automatic.

But habits aren’t destiny, pace the famous proverb that’s attributed to Gandhi, and the neuroscience that underpins Pole’s analysis can be used for more constructive purposes, too. Pole describes using it to break his mid-afternoon habit of going down to the cafeteria for a cookie. The secret was to determine that the reward he really sought was a bit of socialization: “When I walked to a colleague’s desk and chatted for a few minutes, it turned out, my cookie urge was gone.” He has since lost 21 pounds.

Are there habits that you’ve broken, or that you’re trying to break right now?

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How many planners and calendars do you use?

Posted February 13, 2012 by
in Planning Tips | 5 comments »

I imagine that most of our readers use at least one paper planner, and many of you probably also use an electronic calendar, too. (Gotta have those auto-reminders!)

What else do you use in addition to those things? Wall calendars? Notebooks? How many items and devices are there in total?

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On calendars and kitchen tips

Posted February 2, 2012 by
in Planning Tips | 3 comments »

Every year around Christmas, one of my father’s sisters sends me a German wall calendar; it’s a great way to keep up my language skills while also staying organized. This year’s calendar is called Was Grossmutter noch wusste, or “What Grandmother still knew,” and it’s packed with old tips, recipes, and sayings.

I couldn’t resist reading ahead on the tips. Many of them make use of common household objects (using vinegar to clean mirrors, say). A number of them involve potatoes — something every good Hausfrau has on hand — so, for instance, you’re instructed to soak old, matted sweaters in a mush of grated potatoes and cold water. I haven’t tried that one yet, but I may give it a whirl before winter’s over.

Do you have any favorite old household tips or tricks?

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