Blog Action Day

Last year was the first edition Blog Action Day. At the time the event was launched as an annual event. So this year they kept their word and Blog Action Day is back. This year the theme is Poverty. On October 15 bloggers, podcasters and videocaster from all over the world will unite and address the topic of poverty. Thousands of voices with a reach of millions talking about the topic from hundreds of different angles.

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

I have already signed up to participate again. This year I even took an hour of extra time, and translated a part of the site to Dutch. Read about Blog Action Day and sign up to participate.

Alltop

This week I got the confirmation that I kick ass! How to be an Original has been included in the GTD section of Alltop. It’s only the productivity / GTD feed that’s included and not the entire site, but that makes sure that there’s a good topical focus on Alltop.

Alltop is a new activity started by Guy Kawasaki a while back. Alltop shows the last five items of a selection of feeds, related to a specific topic. Go check out GTD on Alltop!

Switching hosts

I’ve thought about switching hosts for How to be an Original a while back, but I’ve finally made the decision to follow through on that thought. I’m switching for two reasons.

The first reason is that my current host causes downtime everyday! Around 1am the database server goes down, and since WordPress is a database driven application, the blog goes down as a result too. I rediscovered this phenomenon, ever since I switched back to being a night owl. The reason for this downtime is most likely a scheduled restart of the server. But 1 am might be okay for people in my timezone, but most visitors on How to be an Original are from North America and for them the downtime is during the afternoon and early evening. Not a good thing.

The second reason is simply financial. I’m consolidating various hosting plans and domain registrations to a single host. And it’s gonna save me a lot of money! I’ve chosen Dreamhost as my new host, and so far I’m liking it very much (only on board for two days…). Dreamhost has had their fair share of problems too, but I very much like the transparency they give on their operations (and troubles). And they have humor.

This week I’ll be moving this blog. I’m planning to make this a smooth transition, but switching hosts is challenging and there might be some glitches. There’s not going to be a new design, so you won’t notice what host you’re getting your data from. For the curious among you: if you see “hosted on Dreamhost” in the footer, you know where you’re getting your data from.

That’s it for now. Wish me luck…switching hosts is not quite my hobby.

Over the past two weeks I have been reading Todoodlist, an e-book by Nick Cernis of Put Things Off (the laid-back productivity blog). It took me two weeks for three reasons:

1. it was a spare time activity (and I did not have a lot of spare time)
2. I couldn’t wait to start todoodling and sudoku calendering
3. it inspired me to re-read Zen To Done again

Although Nick mentions Leo Babauta of Zen Habits and his ideas on productivity, he doesn’t tell you to read Zen To Done. But Nick’s ideas on productivity and the simplicity they radiate, really reminded me of Zen To Done and the message it brings across (in a word: simplify!).

Now I have to tell you that I was already a little biased. At the end of last year I wrote about my switch back to paper, after trying several electronic devices and various online services for dealing with my to do’s, notes and appointments (the Getting Things done stuff).

One of the things I rediscovered is that I really (I mean really!) like to write stuff down by hand. And after some time I found myself drawing more and more in my little black moleskine and little red calender. Now why am I biased because of this? Well the tagline for Todoodlist is: “Technology is great. Pencils are better.”

Todoodlist

The e-book consists of three parts. The first part is a series of essays with funny titles like “Parrots in Space”, “Einstein Shaving” and “Zen Kitten in a Box”. The essays are an introduction to the ideas behind going back to paper and pencil.

Those ideas are presented in the second part of the book. You’ll learn about how to make todoodlists (yes they are special to do lists, and yes they kinda incorporate GTD’s projects and Next Actions), what Sudoku Calenders are and how nice it is to write on a banana. Allthough the last part is better performed with a ballpoint pen, instead of a pencil. All of them are rather simple ideas that make things easier and more fun (Sudoku Calenders are a lot easier than actual sudokus).

The third part of the book deals about how to embrace simplicity using several concepts. To be honest, most of these concepts I was familiar with (so I skipped some parts of that particular part of the book). Some of the concepts I have written about myself, and if you read The four hour work week by Tim Ferriss, you’ll recognize some of them too. Don’t get me wrong, they are valuable ideas and if you haven’t read about it, they’re simply gold.

I loved reading the first part of the book. I started reading it as a relaxing activity in spare time, and that part perfectly fit the need I had. I had some laughs, and some stories to help me in explaining concepts (thanks Nick!). The second part was so inspiring that I often stopped reading to get my moleskine and a pencil to start using it. And the third part I was skimming for the most part. All in all a very valuable e-book, well worth the $14 it sells for.

Zen To Done + Todoodlist = ZenToDoodlist

So it took me over 500 words to get to explaining the title (but you probably figured it out already). Why ZenToDoodlist? Because they are perfect additions to eachother. Zen To Done is a series of habits that will lead to a simple and effective productivity. The 10 habits are:

1. Collect



2. Process
3. Plan
4. Do
5. Simple Trusted System
6. Organize
7. Review
8. Simplify
9. Routine
10. Find Your Passion

In habit 3 Plan, one of the things to do is to plan your Big Rocks for the week. The Big Rocks are the things you really want to accomplish in that week. The same things goes for the daily schedule, but then they’re called MIT (Most Important Tasks). I find myself working with projects (GTD-style) as Big Rocks and the Next Actions in those projects as MIT’s. And the Todoodlist is the perfect tool to divide a project (big rock) into smaller actions and decide on the Next Action. And as soon as the context of these projects and actions is clear, planning them is a lot easier.

Habit 5, Simple Trusted System are my two little moleskines (black notebook and red calender). Black works as my ubiquituous capture tool, and it contains my todoodlists. Red has my appointments (and soon my sudoku notes and glyphies) and it contains my scatter-to-do’s (the random stuff that’s not project related). They simplify my system tremendously (to hand - pencil - paper). The only downside is that there are still two moleskines. So there’s some area of improvement is left…

If you follow Todoodlist closely, you’ll also find several tricks (with sticky tabs) to speed up your review process (I haven’t implemented them yet). Then go back to Zen To Done again and adopt the habits. The most important one: habit 4 Do. After that, look into habit 9 Routine. These will really get stuff done, the others are just there to help you not lose time on stuff that doesn’t matter.

Conclusion

Both Todoodlist and Zen To Done are valuable e-books, well worth the price the authors are charging for them. The combination makes it even more valuable, because they really go hand in hand in creating a simple trusted paper based system that will boost your productivity, simplify your life and inject some more fun into it.

PS: My own e-book Personal Core Values can help you with habit 10: Find your passion. You’ll discover what your personal core values are, and how you can use them to build a personal mission statement.

Grown-ups make things way too complicated. This is the toddler’s approach to getting everything you want.

1. Mastering six words is enough
   Yes — No — Mama — Papa — That — Bah
   Those are all the words you need to get around and get things done.
   Variation in volume seems more effective than variation in vocabulary.
2. Don’t ask, just do
   If you want to do something, don’t ask, just do.
   If you want to have something, don’t ask, just get it.
3. Don’t listen, just don’t do
   If you don’t want to do something, simply don’t do it.
   If you don’t want to have something, simply don’t take it.
   Have it already? Drop it instantly.
4. Pointing gets the message across
   If you want something but can’t reach, just point and say “That”.
   If you don’t want something, point and say “No” or “Bah”.
5. Turning your body away gets the message across
   If you really don’t want something, turn your body away.
   Out of view is out of existence. Treat it as such.
6. Ardently waving and repeatedly saying “No” has effect
   If your parents decide that you have to do something and persist,
   turn away your body while waving your hand ardently at them.
   Now say “No” repeatedly and walk away.
7. Add screaming, tears and stamping your feet for more emphasis
   When your parents are really persistant,throw yourself on the ground.
   Start crying and screaming “No” loud and repeatedly.
   Stamp your hands and feet, throw stuff around.
   Slam doors and smash stuff.
   For added effect: do all of this in public spaces.

8. Make sure to spend your energy wisely
   Tantrums cost energy. Conserve it when there’s no obvious effect.
   Go full blown and flat out of your mind, when effect is guaranteed.

9. Saying “Papa” or “Mama” during a spontaneous hug afterwards works wonders
   After all of the above, walk towards your parents in a quiet moment.
   Climb on the couch, and hug them spontaneously and say “Papa” or “Mama”.
   This seems to erase all negative effects from the above instantly.

Passwords! My God, don’t you need a frigging shitload of them these days? I have a love/hate relationship with Digg, I keep forgetting the password I have there (it’s because they don’t allow special characters like ? @ ! &), forcing me to go through the annoying process of resetting it, confirming that via email, rethinking a new password, working my way through all the errors caused by special characters, compromising me in a password that I’m bound to forget again.

I was listing the passwords I use online, and it was plain scary. The list is enormous, and I haven’t even finished it yet (scroll down for the list). Argh!

A lot of them share passwords, because my brain capacity is limited (or I’m just too lazy to have different ones for each site). Most of them I use only once in a while, but some of them I use daily. And these are where you can put your passwords to work for you. You can turn them into a fun and productive event, rather than an annoying but necessary event.

Passwords you use frequently, should change frequently as well (how annoying is that!?). And they should be strong passwords too, if you care about the content they are protecting (or to satisfy the IT guidelines). This can sometimes be a real challenge, but with these simple tips you can turn them into assets, instead of a nuisance.

List your goals

This is something I’ve used a lot. Whatever goals you have, use them for your passwords. I’ve used passwords like:

• Finish2ndFloor!
• GrowBlogNow
• Get2500RSS

They’re pretty strong passwords, and when you’re typing them you get reminded instantly of what you want to achieve.

Prevent pitfalls of bad habits

When you log into one of your biggest time wasters for instance (IM, gaming, Twitter, Facebook, whatever), remind yourself that it’s a time waster. Use a passwords like:

• OneHourIsEnough (upper and lower case, not too bad)
• RUsure? (special character added, pretty strong)
• 1h=Q2>1h=Q4 (yay, Covey in action with a very strong password)

Learn spelling

Pick a word you have trouble spelling word and use that as a password. The sheer repetition will make sure you’ll never spell it wrong again.
Examples: Definitely - Opthalmology - Massachusetts - Prolificacy

Learn (a couple of words in) a foreign language

It can be fun to add some foreign words to your vocabulary. Want to know how to say beer in 20 langauges? Just look them up and use them as passwords:

• Spanish:Cerveza
• French:Biere (okay, accents are a problem)
• Italian:Birra

Or use the real translation:

• Merde=Damn
• Giornale=Newspaper
• Freizeit=LeisureTime

Extend your vocabulary

Use a new word and it’s meaning as the password. The trick is to find synonyms here, because the dictionary meanings tend to be long.

• Prolificacy=Fruitfulness
• Defiance=Resistance
• Superfluous=Redundant

Use affirmations

Affirmations are a popular technique to get you (back) in a productive state, or a harmonious state or whatever state you want to be in. In a lot of self improvement books the use of positive affirmations is advocated, but how often are you going to sit and read them out loud to yourself?

But if you use them as your passwords, you will repeat them often. Some examples:

• I’mFinanciallyFree
• IAm@Peace
• MyBodyVibratesWithEnergy

Have fun!

Admitted, it’s only a microhack. It’s not going to massively change your world, make you more productive, increase your IQ, expand your network or whatever. But it turns passwords into fun, and you might also learn something.

The sites I need passwords for:
So far I have: StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn, Plaxo Pulse, Facebook, Twitter, Twitterfeed (via OpenID), Reddit, Gaia (former Zaadz), MyBlogLog, WordPress.com, How to be an Original (admin interface), WordPress DIY (admin interface), Feedburner, Joe’s Goals, Flickr, iStockPhoto, several bank accounts (4), Paypal, Neteller, Dutch State Lottery, Gmail (google, thanks for sharing passwords across ALL services!!), Lotus Notes at work, Hosting at Argeweb, Hosting at GoDaddy, Cell phone account at Orange (2), Internet Provider, alumni network of former employer, bol.com, Amazon, Text Link Ads, Linkworth, YouTube, Revver, several online poker accounts (pokerstars, partypoker, and the likes) and counting…

I’ll admit it, I’m a stats junkie. I like to track progress, see numbers, have charts on whatever it is I’m trying to accomplish. I share my blog stats with you on a weekly basis in the weekly reviews.

I track my goals and habits on a daily basis too. For this I use Joe’s Goals, a simple web app designed to do just that. In this post I’m going to share with you how I use Joe’s Goals.

Setting up an account

This is a breeze! No annoying questions, just an email address, a nickname and a password and you’re all setup.

Configuring your goals and habits

Once you setup your account, you can start configuring your goals and habits. There are two types of entries that you can make, Goal or Logbook. Goals have scores, Logbooks are meant for comments.

I use both types. Goals are meant for checking off on habits I have completed successfully for the day or for checking of on activities that lead me closer to accomplishing my goals. The Logbook-type I use for planning purposes and for making notes on things I have done. And I use them in combination too, more on that later.

As you can see in the images, the setup screens for an entries are pretty straightforward. They have a nice set of options, but nothing too fancy.

• Goal name
  Like it says, this is where the name goes. Choose any name you like, you don’t have to worry about sorting, because you can change the sort order later.
• Tags
  You can put tags in here. I don’t use this feature.
• Weight - goal only
  You can give a score to the checks you put in this goal. Values range from 1 to 10. This is something I use to give relative weight to my goals and habits.
• Type - goal only
  You can choose whether you want the goal to be positive and earning you points, or negative making you lose points. All my goals are positive, because I want to reward myself for doing something I like, not punish myself.
• Target Days
  Use this feature to mark on what days you want the goal to be active. My weekly review habit for instance is only active on Sundays.
• Display Stats - goal only
  Here you can select what stats you want to see in the overview screen.
• Notes
  And finally, this is where you put whatever it is you feel you need to write down. This does not show in the overview screen.

Sorting your goals

Goals and habits are initially ordered in the order you create them. But fear not as it’s easy to sort them later on, when you discover one you forgot. Just click in the upper right hand corner on the link to “sort goals”. There you can sort them by Alphabetically, by Goal Type or Weight.

If you’re like me, you want neither of those orders. For people like us, you can create a custom sorting order by simply rearranging the goals in the list. Scroll down and click on the “Save Custom Sort Order” button in the bottom.

The overview screen

When you trusted all your goals, habits and other thoughts to the program, you get a nice overview of all your entries in a table. The entries are listed on the left, and you get a week’s worth of spaces to mark your progress.

The default view places the current date as the last date in the table. But using the arrow in the top right hand corner, you scroll forward into the near future. By clicking the calender icon, you can choose a date further away.

Some of my tricks

• Injecting Planning: This feature, combined with the Logbook item, is a great way to inject some planning into the table. I use this for my renovation project as you can see. There’s not an awful lot of room for text, so you can’t be too verbose. By putting the Logbook for actuals (a) right below the planning (p) I can see instantly how much of my plan got executed (and consequently whether I need to adjust my planning).
• Divide into sections: Another trick I use is to divide my table into sections, by inserting a Logbook item with no active days. This results in a blue bar across the table. Make sure to give it a clickable title though (like the dashes I used). I have one goal dangling on the bottom of the table, where I brilliantly used the spacebar to give it an unclickable name. I still need to send a mail to ‘Joe’ to get that one removed from the database.
• Declining points for ‘old’ habit changes: As you can see I used the weight function a lot. For the habits section, I more or less have a system for that. The habits that I have been doing for quite a while now get a lower score than the ones that I just started. But some of them are multi-clickable, like the “Drink water” habit. Every glass of water results in a checkmark.
• Extra credit for perfect days: When I have a perfect day with all my habits, I allow myself to check the main habits goal as well, scoring me an additional 10 points. This is one I came up with fairly recently, so I have yet to get the pleasure of putting in a checkmark there!

Now get started!

There are more features to be discovered in Joe’s Goals, and I could write a lot more about it. The truth is that I don’t use the rest of the features, so I’m not going to elaborate on them.

The biggest benefit of using Joe’s Goals is the fact that you’re inclined to check in daily, to score your progress. Doing this on a daily basis will help you build your goals and habit changes into your daily routine, increasing the likelihood of success.

The important thing is to get started. So surf on over to Joe’s Goals and start tracking your progress. Use my tips if they suit you, or come up with your own hacks. But ultimately it’s not about the hacks or the tracking software, it’s about getting serious about change and progress. But this sure is a nifty tool to enable you to succeed.

Oh…and in case you’re worried about forgetting to check-in on a regular basis: you will get an e-mail reminder (after a configurable number of days) to get your butt back to the site and hold yourself accountable!