Ok, I said a while ago, that I was going to run out of good titles for posts that weren’t essays any even the most informal sense, but rather journal entries in the most conventional sense. So here we have “cold feet” literally, the only thing on my mind. (Don’t worry, I’ve since put on wool socks.)
I spent most of this weekend relaxing and unwinding. I didn’t get enough reading done, of course, but I think it was good to have some time to chill. I got some good knitting done, I watched some enjoyable television, mucked around with the computer productively, and worked a number of hours, and while I have been costing into the new week, I think I’m feeling pretty good about the world and my place in it.
I am, apparently, going to reflect in this post on my current state of mind vis a vis technology. Because that makes sense. I mean I am a huge geek, but it’s clear to me that so much of what I do is constrained by my computer usage. Writing happens almost entirely with the computer, a lot of my knitting time happens while I’m watching TV on my computer, my academic articles and database is on my computer. You get the idea.
The rest of the post is below the fold, because I’m going to be humane, but you really should read it. ;)
I’m still using Tiger (Mac OS 10.4) Despite what Andy/Chris says, I kind of would like to move to the new operating system, at some point. My mother is going to buy an iMac this week, after it’s clear what Steve announces tomorrow morning, and so with the extra computer in the mix, we’ll have a spare that we can use to shift data around on so that we can do clean installs on all of our machines which should be nice.
I write here about productivity a fair bit, and I’ve certainly sussed a fair bit about organizational methodologies like GTD from places like 43 folders. I’ve never had a lot of problems that productivity geeks seem to address. I’m good at writing things down, I’m good at making the write kind of lists, I don’t have problems with things falling through the cracks, and generally I don’t spend too much time futzing with the system.
So usually, new programs and productivity doodads, seem really cool for about the length of time it takes me to write a blog post, and then I’ve moved on, back whatever it was that I was doing previously. Recently I got the distinct feeling that what I was doing earlier, basically project based text file lists, with no automation, wasn’t cutting it. This is in part because I’ve not been using it properly for a while, and perhaps more importantly because I’m starting to get busier, and I need something more robust. So I downloaded OmniFocus, which is the long awaited Killer GTD App from OmniGroup. It’s descended from a hodgepodge of apple scripts that I tried and abandoned a while ago called KinklessGTD, and I have to say that it’s really amazing. I mean I don’t quite grok everything, and my perennial problems with GTD of basically not using contexts and having projects that are too big and ongoing… But I mean other than that.
It’s to early to tell, but I’m giving a preliminary thumbs up.
Part of my frustration in this sphere is tied into my state of mind regarding the way my files are organized. While SVN, as I’ve written earlier has been a great tool that I’ve come to really enjoy using and depend on, it means that I’m disinclined to reorganize files, and rearrange how things are laid out. Which is bad because I think some part of my brain really thinks on a cork wall and wants to move files around just to see how it looks or suits my state of mind. This is something that isn’t productive, so I’m fighting it, but it is throwing me for loop and i need to figure something out here. Ah well. Time will tell.
The next post had better be more interesting. That’s all I’m saying