Tradenotes

I haven’t done a tradenotes piece in a while, so here goes.

Now that lots of people have commented on the whole NBC leaving iTunes issue, I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned the guys in Redmond who help keep things like MSNBC going… The no proof conspiracy theorist in me could easily see some back room dealings going on, especially with Amazon (what NBC switched to) being a Microsoft DRM licensee.

In other Microsoft news, what’s up with Linux being a dirty word on Xbox Live?

Man, this hits home. I remember in high school hating to hear the phone ring… Heck, even if it wasn’t for me, I didn’t want anything to do with it. I’m completely behind the “email is better, less intrusive, and often more useful” school of thought, but often times nobody checks their email.

Speaking of phones in high school, I remember a prank call I got back then. Someone called claiming to be from the FBI, and said “I know about all those illegal program you have” or some such bogus line. Unfortunately for him, he called on some weekend night, asked to talk to me instead of my parents, and when I asked about how he liked working for the government if he had to call teenagers at home on the weekend, *click* .

Speaking of not checking email, I’m rolling on and off the GTD bandwagon. I’ve tried a few pieces of software, such as Omnifocus and kGTD that proceeded it, and while they are useful, I just can’t bring myself to use them on a regular basis. Here are a few of the issues:

The 43 folders “store items for when you need them” metaphor breaks down when taken into a computer

Almost all the task managers work on a project basis. They don’t provide a repository for documents, notes, etc that need to be attached to events and tasks. The only planner I’ve seen that can do this is Time and Chaos which is frankly weird in parts, and has no Mac version. What I would give to attach a folder to a contact, or a document to an event. It’s really all I ask.

I have physical stuff that needs to go along with jobs

I often get equipment or parts in. Right now, what I do is when I get the item, most of the time it goes directly in my car, so I don’t forget it when I’m out and about. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen

I’m bad at initial processing of issues

I’ll sit on phone messages for a day or two over the weekend. I’m particularly bad about physical mail. I think this is a discipline thing – I get freaked out at having a really long todo list, so I avoid adding things to it by avoiding the initial processing step. Bad Zack! Bad!

I’m probably ADD or something like it.

On the upside, I’ve started using DevonTHINK Pro and a ScanSnap to organize all my papers coming in. That plus the awesome PDF->DevonThink workflow really reduces my filing clutter on the computer, and hopefully in meatspace as well.

Ok, enough rambling. It’s off to bed with me!