tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4003866020232553372024-03-08T03:05:48.538-08:00Always LearningBob Watkins's blog on learning, training, and the Oracle DatabaseBobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-17731909063525484292016-02-27T10:22:00.000-08:002016-02-27T17:25:36.399-08:00Search vs. Tagging vs. Notebooks in Evernote for GTDI use <a href="http://www.evernote.com/" target="_blank">Evernote </a>to organize my action lists and other checklists in my <a href="http://gettingthingsdone.com/" target="_blank">Getting Things Done</a> (GTD) system. Recently during weekly review, I was thinking about long-range planning -- what David Allen calls "Horizons of Focus" -- and I decided to add a series of notes to Evernote containing my current thinking on them.<br />
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I put the new notes in my existing notebook called "Reference". The problem was, there are many notes in Reference, covering everything from lists of movies I want to see to what kind of batteries my devices use. I wanted these new notes to be easily accessible during Weekly Planning. But how could I best group them together so that I could call them up conveniently?<br />
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My first thought was to create a new Evernote tag, .Planning, then tag all the notes with that tag. But then I realized that would be time-consuming, and wondered if there were other ways to do it.<br />
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The next thing I tried was simply naming the notes in a consistent way. I started each of the notes with the string "GTD", such as "GTD Horizon 2: Accountability (Roles / Responsibilities)". Now I can search for "GTD" and all the related notes popped up. This requires discipline to maintain: I have to remember that for a note to be in this group, I have to start it with GTD. If I forget, the search won't find the note. Plus, I have to be sure to keep hard edges: to NOT use the word GTD if I don't want the note to be lumped in with the others.<br />
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In the end I decided to create a new Notebook called "Planning", and transfer each of the "Horizon" notes to it. Then I could review not only those notes, but other planning related notes as well. All would be quickly accessible regardless of naming convention or tagging, as well as via search, and it would be easy to add a new planning-related note.<br />
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There's nothing wrong with any of these three approaches. In each situation, you can use the one that seems to be the best fit.BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-35647429859848472092012-10-17T05:40:00.002-07:002012-10-17T05:40:39.516-07:00@Pending vs @Waiting in GTDWhen I orginally set up my email programs (Gmail for personal, Outlook for work) for David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) method, I created folders for @Action, @Someday, and @Waiting, as well as named folders for projects to contain support and reference material. <br />
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As time went on, however, I found a new type of email that didn't really fit in those categories: things that are mine to do (I'm not @Waiting for someone else) and there is a next action on it (so it doesn't go in the project folders) but I can't do that action yet (so it doesn't go in @Action).<br />
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In short, I'm waiting not for a person, but for the time to be right, such as a meeting coming up this week that I'll need the directions to, or a webinar announcement with its login information. I was worried that if I put it in @Waiting, it would get lost. Since it's time based, it should probably go on my Calendar, but the email contains more information than I want to copy to the Calendar.<br />
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So I added a folder named @Pending. Here are the "hard edges" rules I use to decide what goes where:<br />
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<ul>
<li>If the email is just a notice, I add it to the calendar and delete the notice.</li>
<li>If the email has significant details, I add it to the calendar and file under @Pending until the event occurs. Then I delete it (usually) or file it under the proper reference folder. </li>
</ul>
BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-81344727336290678952012-10-17T05:35:00.001-07:002012-10-17T05:36:27.054-07:00Oct 2012 PSU and CPU ReleasedThe October 2012 Patch Set Update (PSU) and Critical Patch Update (CPU) for Oracle products were released yesterday, 16-Oct-2012. The Availability Document, which lists the patches to get for different products, is My Oracle Support note 1477727.1.<br />
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A couple of interesting things this quarter. Critical Patch Updates are being renamed Security Patch Updates, or SPUs. The release schedule is the same, as is the content. MOS note 1430923.1, "New Patch Nomenclature for Oracle Products", describes the change.<br />
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The PSU/CPU also includes patches for the SHA-1 hashing algorithm to address two vulnerabilities. There are special notes about how to apply patches this quarter because of these. Always read the README, and don't assume that you know how to do this quarter's patch just because you've done them before.<br />
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The PSUs for 11.2.0.2 (starting with 11.2.0.2.7) and 11.2.0.3 (starting with 11.2.0.3.2) now use the new Composite Patch format, which makes overlay patches to previous updates less troublesome. MOS note 1376691.1 describes the new format and its advantages.<br />
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The January 2013 PSU/CPU will be the final ones for Database 11.2.0.2, Oracle Fusion Middleware 11.1.1.5.0, and Oracle Fusion Middleware 11.1.1.4.0 for Portal, Forms, Reports, and Discoverer (PFRD).BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-77963977856224563552012-03-28T11:07:00.000-07:002012-03-28T11:07:00.631-07:00The Magic of Doing One Thing At A TimeTony Schwartz has a new article on the Harvard Business Review blog network. <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2012/03/the-magic-of-doing-one-thing-a.html%20" target="_blank">In The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time</a>, he talks about how multitasking is less effective, not more.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The biggest cost — assuming you don't crash — is to your productivity.
In part, that's a simple consequence of splitting your attention, so
that you're partially engaged in multiple activities but rarely fully
engaged in any one. In part, it's because when you switch away from a
primary task to do something else, you're <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/business/25multi.html?pagewanted=all">increasing the time </a>it takes to finish that task by an average of 25 per cent. </blockquote>
Not only that, but the constant switching from task to task burns up your limited resources of energy and attention. To use a computer analogy: you can write a program that fetches (retrieves) one row at a time from a database, or you can write the same program to do a single bulk fetch of many rows. The single-row approach is much less effective, because of the overhead of switching back and forth between your program and the database engine. The bulk fetch is more effective by far, because it eliminates most of the overhead.<br />
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In the same way, when we multitask we spend a lot of our energy on simply switching back and forth between the several things we've got going. When we dedicate ourselves to a single task at a time, we still spend the same amount of time doing the tasks. But we save time overall because we have spend less time managing the tasks.BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-6880515017383611362012-03-27T10:56:00.000-07:002012-03-27T10:56:35.095-07:00Change Data Capture for Oracle in SQL Server 2012I just ran across <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mattm/archive/2012/03/26/cdc-for-oracle-in-sql-server-2012.aspx" target="_blank">this article</a> on Microsoft's SQL Server Integration Services blog. SSIS was always impressive, even back when it was called Data Transformation Services (DTS), because it could move data between any OLEDB data provider, not just Microsoft SQL Server.<br />
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Now apparently the latest version of SSIS goes one step further, mining the logs of an Oracle instance to provide Change Data Capture (CDC) services. For those who need to maintain both platforms and get them talking to each other, this is an interesting read.BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-426347822452917242011-11-27T17:09:00.001-08:002011-11-27T17:39:49.600-08:00My GTD Weekly Review processI created a simple Excel worksheet the other day, called Checklists. Each tab in the spreadsheet file is one checklist of how I do various processes, such as setting up a new task.<br />
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Here is my GTD Weekly Review checklist. It doesn't cover every step, but is basically a set of reminders to make sure I don't miss an important step.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Collect loose stuff</b>. I check my pocket notebook, travel Inbox folder, etc. to make sure all my captured "stuff" is in the Inbox.</li>
<li><b>Weigh and measure myself </b>for the week. (most violated step on the checklist!)</li>
<li><b>Update logs</b>. I keep various logs to track my progress over time. For example, my fitness log has records of my weight and measurements back to the late '90s. I have capture forms that I carry with me for some of this stuff, but I want to get them into electronic form periodically.</li>
<li><b>Move pagefinder </b>forward in planner. I'm still using a paper planner for calendar and action lists, and it's a week-on-two-pages format.</li>
<li><b>Copy appointments</b> from monthly pages, last week, Outlook. When I make a future appointment, it goes only on the monthly calendar page. During weekly planning, I build the calendar for the upcoming week. I also reschedule anything incomplete from last week's calendar page. Unfortunately, I can't integrate personal with company calendars at this time, so during weekly planning I add any meetings created via Outlook invites.</li>
<li><b>Reconcile calendar</b>. My company uses a task scheduling system. I synchronize my paper calendar with it weekly and do new task setup for any new assignments.</li>
<li><b>Process electronic Inboxes</b>. Work and personal.</li>
<li><b>Process physical Inbox</b>. The Inbox on my desk gets to zero less often that the electronic ones do.</li>
<li><b>Review @Watching</b>. This Outlook folder is for potential upcoming tasks that I've not been assigned to yet, but want to track the email discussion. Some of these can go away after a while, some need to be setup as a new task assignment.</li>
<li><b>Review @Waiting</b>. Do I need to send reminders to anyone that I'm waiting for an answer from?</li>
<li><b>Review </b><b>Someday/Maybe list</b>. Does anything on here need to go away or get promoted to a current project?</li>
<li><b>Review Current Projects list</b>. Make sure that everything has a "next action" identified and on the proper action list, or that I'm consciously deciding not to move forward on it this week. Some things may need to be dropped or moved to Someday/Maybe. I don't do this step every week, but that's okay because it shouldn't get out of whack over the short term.</li>
</ul>
This currently takes longer than I would like, and I'm looking for ways to streamline it. But for now, this is how I do Weekly Review in my Getting Things Done system.BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-38388205680311819252011-09-25T11:37:00.000-07:002012-03-27T10:56:36.608-07:00Thoughts on Customer Satisfaction Surveys"Close to the Customer" has become a mantra of many companies ever since Tom Peters and Bob Waterman introduced the phrase in their book, In Search of Excellence. And often, our attempts at being close to the customer involve taking their temperature on a regular basis via customer satisfaction surveys.<br />
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That's a good thing. However, at some point, some executive takes it one step further and thinks: "We'll hold our (employees, partners) accountable for customer satisfaction by basing part of their (compensation, promotion, renewal) on the results on these surveys."<br />
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I think that's the wrong move, for several reasons.<br />
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It skews the results, and in the totally wrong direction. People don't like to get bad news anyway, but if their salary or bonus or other compensation depends on how little bad news they get, they'll do everything that can to avoid negative feedback. "Good," you might say, "They'll please our customers so they won't get negative feedback." No, they'll game the system. For example:<br />
<ul>
<li>They'll hint or even downright tell customers how to respond. "If my service isn't a perfect 10, let me know so I can fix it."</li>
<li>They'll cherry pick, only sending surveys to customers whose projects went well and "forgetting" to send the survey when they went bad.</li>
<li>They'll avoid risky engagements, such as new products and sensitive customers, delegating them to less experienced colleagues. So paradoxically, the most experienced people withdraw from the places they're most needed.</li>
<li>They'll avoid being heroes and parachuting into existing projects that are not going well, because their name will be associated with the low-satisfaction project.</li>
<li>They'll prefer to do the safe and reduced-to-practice services that they know well, instead of innovating or being willing to take on tasks they haven't done before. This leads to stagnation and boredom.</li>
<li>In rare cases, they'll even cheat and file bogus surveys themselves to raise their scores. </li>
</ul>
On the customer side, the problem with customer surveys is that customers get so many of them already, and when survey scores influence compensation the company has to send one for every interaction, not just periodically. Even though a survey may claim to require only "a few minutes of your time," most are far too long. This discourages response rate, or worse, encourages down the middle lukewarm responses that are easy to give but reveal little.<br />
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The net effect is to reduce corporate learning. It's unfortunate, but true: you learn from the bad news. It's hard enough for even the very professional to seek out bad news over compliments because they know it will help them improve. Add a monetary disincentive, and even saints can turn into sinners.<br />
<br />A lot of this is unconscious, of course. Though a few bad apples will play the system consciously, customer be damned, I believe most folks really do care. The unconscious motivations are corrosive.<br />
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The bottom line: if you want to get feedback from customers, great! Encourage them to not hold back and tell you everything you could have done to make it better. Then act on that feedback. Just don't hold a gun to people's heads and hold their paycheck hostage.<br />
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BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-6074703225162060752011-08-14T13:16:00.000-07:002011-08-14T13:16:41.217-07:00Another use for the blind copying (BCC) email fieldMany email etiquette guides caution against using the blind copy, or BCC, feature of your email program. <a href="http://www.businessemailetiquette.com/is-bcc-polite/">One article</a> on Business Email Etiquette calls the practice "impolite and sneaky". <a href="http://www.netmanners.com/email-etiquette/is-bcc-polite/">Another</a>, from Net M@nners.com, allows that there are both polite and impolite reasons to use BCC.<br />
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The most common and acceptable use of BCC is with mailing lists, says <a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/to-bcc-or-not-bcc-email-etiquette.html">this article</a> on LifeHack. You send a message to many people without revealing all their email addresses to each other. This protects their privacy.<br />
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Recently, I've begun using it for a different purpose. I'll include my own email address on an outgoing email, but in the BCC field so it doesn't show on the message that others receive. This plants a copy in my Inbox so I can easily drag it to my @Waiting folder as a tickler to follow up if I don't hear back. It's easier for me to stay in the Inbox and drag the new message, than to switch back and forth between Inbox and Sent. This is especially the case if I'm accessing my email from a client's network via Outlook Web Access, in which switching folders is a bit more work.BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-9950881774814339752011-06-24T05:17:00.000-07:002011-06-24T05:18:04.683-07:00GTD = Just Enough StructureLast week I was able to attend a webinar given by <a href="http://www.danpink.com/about">Dan Pink</a>, author of <a href="http://www.danpink.com/drive">Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us</a> . He's started a new webinar series called "Office Hours", in which he and a special guest just take questions the whole hour, much like a professor's office hours in college. (You can listen to past episodes, such as Seth Godin, on the <a href="http://www.danpink.com/office-hours">Office Hours</a> page.)<br />
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The special guest last week was none other than <a href="http://www.davidco.com/about-us/about-david-allen">David Allen</a>, the <a href="http://www.davidco.com/about-gtd">Getting Things Done</a> guy. It was a funny and informative hour.<br />
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One of the best discussions of the hour was about what tool to use to implement GTD. Dan was impressed by how the system itself is "tool agnostic" -- it doesn't matter what tool you use as long as you are comfortable using it.The key thing, he said, is to get stuff out of your head and decide what it means. David said that until you get it all out of your head (capture) and then be very discrete about each item and what to do about it (processing), the rest of the system doesn't matter.<br />
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"I'm running across a lot of high tech people who are going back to paper, because paper is a good way to keep track of stuff running through your head," David said. The computer can be a dangerous animal, he added, because out of sight, out of mind. A computer screen or PDA screen cannot display all the relationships you have to keep in mind all at once.<br />
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Someone suggested using a database system, and while David was supportive of anything that works for you, he cautioned that if it's too much work to keep the system up, you won't use it. This was the key takeaway from the session for me, because I tend to over-engineer things. <br />
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"GTD needs to be just structured enough, but not so much that you have to think too much, or you won't use it when things get fast-moving."BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-76494140495675492732011-05-14T07:33:00.000-07:002011-05-14T07:36:29.956-07:00On ResiliencyThis is the first post in what I hope will become a series on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_management">Change Management</a>. Wikipedia defines Change Management as "a structured approach to shifting/transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state." In this series, I hope to examine and reflect upon those factors that help us survive change well, without becoming too disfunctional in the process.<br />
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I first became interested in Change Management when I was working for <a href="http://www.sqlsoft.com/">SQLSoft+</a>, a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner for Learning Solutions. (They've since been acquired by QuickStart ). Microsoft was rolling out something called Microsoft Readiness Framework, a tool for assessing an organization's readiness to implement Microsoft solutions. Although MRF never really took off like its sister, <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/msf">Microsoft Solutions Framework</a> (which in turn has become an Agile-based, scrum methodology), I found the MRF training valuable. The training was conducted by Linda Hoopes, who now heads <a href="http://www.resiliencealliance.com/">Resilience Alliance</a> in Atlanta, GA, and was based on the work of Daryl Conner, author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managing-Speed-Change-Daryl-Conner/dp/0679406840">Managing at the Speed of Change</a>, and the founder of Conner Partners, Inc.<br />
When I was writing for TechRepublic, I wrote a <a href="http://www.techrepublic.com/article/a-change-management-primer-for-it-consultants/1031069">Change Management Primer</a> based on an interview with Mr. Conner.<br />
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I really like Linda's list of seven <a href="http://www.resiliencealliance.com/?p=315">Resilience Characteristics</a>: traits that people with a high degree of personal resilience seem to have.<br />
<blockquote><ol><li><strong>Positive: The World -</strong> Resilient individuals effectively identify opportunities in turbulent environments.</li>
<li><strong>Positive: Yourself</strong> - Resilient individuals have the personal confidence to believe they can succeed in the face of uncertainty.</li>
<li><strong>Focused</strong> - Resilient individuals have a clear vision of what they want to achieve and use this as a guide when they become disoriented<strong>.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Flexible: Thoughts</strong> - Resilient individuals generate a wide range of ideas and approaches for responding to change.</li>
<li><strong>Flexible: Social</strong> - Resilient individuals draw readily on others’ resources for assistance and support during change.</li>
<li><strong>Organized</strong> - Resilient individuals effectively develop and apply systems, processes, and structures when dealing with change.</li>
<li><strong>Proactive</strong> - Resilient individuals initiate action in the face of uncertainty, taking calculated risks rather than seeking the comfort of the status quo.</li>
</ol></blockquote><br />
In the training we learned that when the amount of change a person is faced with exceeds their their capacity to change, they become dysfunctional in various ways: actively resisting the change, passively resisting the change (sabotaging), freezing up (procrastinating), or seeking a return to the old status quo. This slows adoption of the change and also creates stress within the individual.<br />
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Sometimes, an organization doesn't understand the cumulative effects of change. Different parts of the organization propose a number of initiatives, each one reasonable in itself. But the targets of the initiatives -- those being asked to change -- experience the combination as beyond their ability to absorb.<br />
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Change Management is a process of consciously addressing the impact of change upon people, both individually, and as a group (teams and organization-wide). It is a vital, but often ignored, companion to Project Management.BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-74603438214850455192011-04-23T05:57:00.000-07:002011-04-23T05:58:52.605-07:00Google Apps MigrationI'm midway through a migration of my GTD system to Google Apps. It's been a bit of a challenge. Here's what's been accomplished so far, Phase 1 was to migrate my electronic services:<br />
<ul><li>Migrate domains bwatkins.com and bnlventures.com to new registrars. My old registrar was the same as my hosting company, and it turned out I wasn't able to create custom DNS records with them if I also didn't host my email and website with them. This was more stressful than it needed to be, because I had taken the time to talk with their support staff and was assured I could still control my domain on the free parking account. They were wrong. Or maybe they just didn't have the same definition of "control" that I had.</li>
<li>Migrate email to Google Apps Mail. Their free level of service now includes custom domain names, so I could keep "@bwatkins.com" for my email addresses. On the old service, I had actual mailboxes for various uses; on Google Apps Mail I just created aliases for all of these but my main email address. I only created all those boxes as an anti-spam measure; Google's spam filtering seems to be good enough that I don't need to do that any more. I'm slowly working through the list and changing my address at various sites to use my primary again.</li>
<li>Migrate blog from Typepad to Blogger. This, too, was a challenge, until I discovered a tool that let me convert my Typepad export file to Blogger format. I was able to import most of the content including comments. I imported without publishing, then went through the posts to decide which ones I wanted to leave behind.</li>
</ul>I'm currently in Phase 2, which is to convert my paper planner into Google Apps. Here's what I've done on that:<br />
<ul><li>Migrate my calendar to Google Apps Calendar. I now have four calendars to maintain: my paper planner, my work Outlook calendar, a scheduling system my employer uses (which doesn't sync with Outlook so I have to do that manually), and now Google Apps Calendar. I spent the better part of a day synchronizing all four. I also jotted down some process notes on what to do when changes happen. Four calendars is insane: but it will get better. I'll eventually replace the paper planner with occasional printouts from Google Apps Calendar, and I've been told that the scheduling system will eventually be able to auto-update Outlook. So I'll only have two. I wish it could be one, but given my employer's policies, it's not gonna happen.</li>
<li>Migrate my GTD review lists -- Projects, Someday/Maybe, and Waiting -- to Google Apps Docs. I typically only review these once a week, so it wasn't a big impact on my daily workstyle to move them. Bonus: I can now review and update them while on the road; before they were in Excel documents on my desktop at home.</li>
</ul>The hardest part of Phase 2 is still ahead: migrating my Action Lists. Although some say that Google Apps Calendar's task list is not powerful enough for GTD, I like the minimalist approach of simple lists. I've created separate lists for each GTD context ("Calls", "Errands", etc.). My next step is to dump all the items in my paper Action Lists into this structure. I don't know if I will feel constrained by having to be online to look at my action lists. I may have to do an occasional printout of them. I'm not sure how this will work, and it may be that I'll have to re-engineer this later. But I want to try the simple way first.<br />
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Phase 3, and where this is all heading, is that I plan to upgrade my plain phone to a smartphone in a while. At that point, I'll have all this information sync'ed on a regular basis and be able to carry it with me. The work I'm doing now may seem odd from a paper planner viewpoint, but it is laying a foundation of moving all my planning information from PC to the cloud, so once I get the smartphone it will all be in place and ready to switch over.BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-60743400114804954872011-04-21T11:52:00.000-07:002011-04-23T05:58:39.023-07:00Database ShardingI discovered a new term today, via a useful post on Julian Dontcheff's Database Blog (which I also discovered today). His post, <a href="http://juliandontcheff.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/database-shards/">Do not go beyond this point: on the "obvious advantages" of Database Shards</a>, succinctly describes what database sharding is, and even better, points to three resources for deeper study. He writes:<br />
<blockquote>Caution! Database Sharding is like the anti-consolidation of databases. It is splitting the database into many small databases. You spend years and years on trying to unify and gather together databases and all of a sudden you are told that there is an application managed scaling technique using hundreds of independent databases. Tricky, right?</blockquote><blockquote>Sometimes, when planning database solutions in terms of scalability and massiveness, going beyond a certain point might be risky. This is the case when database shards may be of huge help (big website used globally). The word shard may sometimes refer to a piece of glass, a sea glass that can be found almost everywhere, for example at the beaches near San Francisco.</blockquote>I share his amazement that after years of listening to vendor sermons on the benefits of server consolidation, now there's talk about going the opposite direction. Whatever happened to "green" in the data center?<br />
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He also makes the excellent point that proponents of standing up many servers with small databases typically ignore database licensing fees, which are typically charged per server (sometimes per core).<br />
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Anyway, good read.BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-58370294875512219122011-04-01T20:15:00.000-07:002011-04-01T20:15:49.370-07:00Always Learning - RebootedI've just spent a painful few weeks with my blog down as I changed hosting companies. But Always Learning is back, with only minor changes.<br />
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I dropped the Business Travel Tips category, and also removed some of the older announcements that are no longer relevant.<br />
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Another announcement is that my business, B. Watkins Database Training and Consulting, is no more. The domain name bwatkins.com has reverted to my personal use. Email addresses should all still work, and the blog will continue to be at this address.<br />
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I have plans for new articles on areas of personal interest, such as resiliency, change management, training, Getting Things Done (GTD), and of course, Oracle. Please stay tuned!BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-4827691213594855532011-02-12T00:04:00.000-08:002011-03-26T21:44:54.843-07:00My Outbox<p>I've had an IN box for as long as I can remember. But it's only comparatively recently (a year or so) that I've had a formal OUT box. Here's what I've discovered about using it.</p><br /><p>It's not actually a box or tray, like my physical IN box. Rather, it's more of a "landing zone" on top of the printer stand - a designated bit of clear space which, in my mind, carries the label "OUT".</p><br /><p>When something needs to go out of my office, I put it there. Bowl from this morning's cereal? OUT box. Completed expense reports that need to be mailed? OUT box.  Mail that needs my wife's attention instead of mine? OUT box.</p><br /><p>In the same way that a pad of paper lets me capture thoughts without acting on them immediately, the Out Box lets me stage items that need to be moved somewhere, without interrupting my flow of work. I can let go mentally of the thought that this item needs to be put away. When I do want to take a break and stretch, all these "somewhere else" items are in one place so it's easy to scoop them up and walk them to where they need to be.</p><br /><p>What I DON'T put in the OUT box are things "to be filed".  I've learned that that doesn't work. It grows without bound, and then OUT is useless because it's cluttered.  I file most things immediately, though I'm ashamed to say there's still a bit of a TO FILE pile that needs attention.  (It's on my "IN OFFICE" action list to clean that up.)</p><br /><p>So, the two habits I'm working on right now have to do with comings and goings: (1) when I enter my office, I need to toss any notes I've taken into my In Box for processing; and (2) when I leave my office, I need to check the Out Box to see what can be delivered elsewhere.</p><br /><p>Simple things, but they help.</p><br /><br/>BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-50912085749538026282011-02-09T05:09:00.000-08:002011-03-26T21:44:54.846-07:00Most expensive training vehicle?<p>I was listening to the replay of a webinar by <a href="http://www.datango.com/en/index.php" target="_blank" title="datango home page">datango AG </a>and <a href="http://www.neochange.com/" target="_blank" title="Neochange">Neochange</a> about trends in end user adoption of IT applications. One comment really grabbed me:</p><br /><p>"With the average cost of a help desk call hovering between 35 and 45 dollars, that's your most expensive training vehicle."</p><br /><p>It reminded me of the Fram oil filter slogan quoted often by David Allen:  "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later."  If companies don't invest in training up front, they'll pay more on the back end in help desk calls. But one way or another, there will be a training cost. It's not optional.</p><br /><p>Overall, the survey question, "% of Application Budget Spent on End-User Programs" revealed that most of the money spent on end users was skewed to new users (End-user training for new hires) and "laggards" (Help desk support).  Power user support for other users and a self-help knowledge base were second, and Perodic Refresher training for all users was last.</p><br /><p>But companies that had a higher than average investment in end user training also had the highest adoption rates - go figure!</p><br /><p>The survey can be downloaded from the Neochange link above.</p><br /><br/>BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-51100090590139290072011-01-05T04:43:00.000-08:002011-03-26T21:44:54.849-07:00Mike Smith's Open Education Resources (OER) List<p>I ran across this <a href="http://edreformer.com/2010/12/mike-smiths-oer/" target="_blank" title="list of open education resources">list of open education resources</a>, posted by Tom Vander Ark at e<a href="http://edreformer.com/" target="_blank" title="edReformer">dReformer</a>.  Lots of great stuff here, including government sources, MIT's Open Courseware program, Curriki curriculum wiki, and various other courseware consortiums.</p><br /><p>I saw some other interesting posts on the site, such as reading lists and reports on experiments in education, such as a <a href="http://edreformer.com/2011/01/can-teachers-run-schools/" target="_blank" title="teacher-run school in Minnesota">teacher-run school in Minnesota </a>that operates as a producer's cooperative -- as the article notes, not unusual in the Midwest but unusual for schools.</p><br /><p>Although the site seems to be oriented toward K-12 and post-secondary education, I think there will be useful information there for corporate trainers as well.</p><br /><br/>BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-19446577403342354372011-01-02T10:48:00.000-08:002011-03-26T21:44:54.852-07:00New Year's Resolution: Unlearning<p>It's the time of year for articles about New Year's Resolutions -- and most of them are about doing things, such as establishing new habits. Some, though, urge the reader to <em>stop</em> doing things. An example is <a href="http://thedx.org/2010/12/your-not-to-do-list/" target="_blank" title="this one">this one</a>, from the Drucker Exchange (devoted to the writings and management philosophy of Peter Drucker):</p><br /><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"If you’re like most people, you’re working on a list of resolutions for 2011: Eat healthy. Go to the gym more. Read the classics. But <strong>Peter Drucker</strong> would have likely asked you for a different kind of list: What are you going to <em>stop</em> doing?"</p><br /><p>An older post by Bob Sutton, "<a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/sutton/2010/09/bad_is_stronger_than_good_evid.html" target="_blank" title="Bad is Stronger Than Good">Bad is Stronger than Good</a>", echoes this theme:</p><br /><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"Studies on workplaces suggest ... that bosses and companies will get more bang for the buck if they focus on eliminating the negative rather than accentuating the positive."</p><br /><p>It seems to me that the same thing applies to learning. As 2011 begins, in addition to listing the things I want to learn I'm also asking myself: "What have I learned, that is no longer useful or relevant? What do I need to un-learn in order to move ahead? As Wll Rogers once observed, "It ain't so much what a man doesn't know that causes him so many problems, but what he knows that ain't so."</p><br /><br/>BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-26604580692576502542010-12-11T01:36:00.000-08:002011-03-26T21:44:54.855-07:00No More Learners?<p>I ran across a short <a href="http://www.informl.com/2009/02/26/no-more-learners/" target="_blank" title="video">video </a>by Jay Cross today, in which he states:</p><br /><p>"Let's not think of people as learners. Let's think of them as people, and use our opportunities together -- in conversation, in collaboration, online, face to face, whatever -- to be partners in learning...."</p><br /><p>"We're brothers and sisters here", he writes in the intro to this clip, "not parents and children".</p><br /><p>I couldn't agree more.</p><br /><p>If you've ever been in class with me, you've probably heard me talk about how most of us subconsciously see a person in the front of the room, and neat rows of desks where we're sitting, and think: "Oh no, I'm back in high school."  I try to defuse this subconscious tendency by making it explicit at the start of class.  "You're not here to serve me; I'm here to serve you."  It's a servant leadership model that I've been using in the classroom for most of my career in technical training. It also puts most of the responsibility for learning upon the learner.  I can't teach anybody anything -- but I'm pretty good at helping them do the learning.  "I Karate teach; you Karate learn."</p><br /><p>Occasionally, this approach doesn't work. I've had individuals, and sometimes entire classes, that WANT the strong leader to take responsibility for them, to tell them what to do. If that's the culture at the organization, I blend with it and am only occasionally "subversive."  But my goal is always the same: to help a group of individuals get what they need from the time we have together.</p><br /><br/>BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-4482327346982995682010-11-12T09:58:00.000-08:002011-03-26T21:44:54.858-07:00Business and Technology Black Belts<p>I've seen several references recently to black belt rankings in business and technology, similar to those used by some martial arts schools. In some martial arts (by no means all), the color of the belt used to hold one's practice jacket closed is colored to indicate student rank. Tests given in front of the class and judged by a panel of teachers are the basis for the ranking. A scheme widely used in Karate, for example, includes the sequence: white belt (the natural color of the belt) for beginners, advancing through green belt, brown belt, and black belt.</p><br /><p>Although a recent invention, not an ancient practice (the black belt was invented by Judo's founder Jigoro Kano in the 1880's, and colored belts date back only to the early 1900s), it has caught the popular imagination, especially the black belt that indicates the first of the advanced ranks. Because of this popularity, some business and technology organizations have adopted the terminology.</p><br /><p>For example, the manufacturing quality program <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Sigma" target="_blank" title="Six Sigma">Six Sigma </a>developed by Motorola in the 1980s, ranks its practitioners as green belts (beginners), black belts (advanced), and Master Black Belts (champions and coaches).  David Allen, author of the Getting Things Done productivity system, has referred to "<a href="http://www.gtdreviews.com/2010/06/becoming-gtd-black-belt/" target="_blank" title="Black Belts">GTD Black Belts</a>" in some of his talks, although he has no formal system like Six Sigma.  And another company I'm aware of, which has cloud-based process modeling software, also grants various belt rankings to the consultants who implement their methodology.</p><br /><p>I'm not sure what to think about this, having been a student of both <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judo" target="_blank" title="Wikipedia article on Judo">Judo </a>and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aikido" target="_blank" title="Wikipedia article on Aikido">Aikido </a>in the past. I remember vividly suiting up for Aikido class one night, glowing with the accomplishment of passing my last test in the <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/mcse.aspx" target="_blank" title="MCSE">MIcrosoft Certified Systems Engineer </a>(MCSE) series. I was sharing with the other students getting dressed, who didn't know "Microsoft-fu," that this was like a black belt in computing.</p><br /><p>They looked at me like I just crawled out from under a rock.</p><br /><p>I tried to explain that I knew that the black belt isn't the top or expert level, that it is in fact really the starting point (it shows you're a serious student), and that I felt the same way about achieving my Microsoft certification. Still, I got the same stony silence.</p><br /><p>It was many years and many certification tests later that I realized that while my analogy had a certain amount of truth to it, there really is no comparison between the daily practice and dedication it takes over years to get to that "advanced beginner" stage in a martial art, and passing a series of computer-based tests that you can cram for. You can't cram for reality.</p><br /><p>Certification programs, in general, have been criticized for not being reality-based.  Some people have advocated putting into place a certification review board, like those for other professions, in which your peers would decide if you qualify. The <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/architect-review.aspx" target="_blank" title="MCA review process">Microsoft Certified Architect </a>program uses this approach. Others have promoted the idea of hands-on lab testing. The <a href="http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=159" target="_blank" title="OCM">Oracle Certified Master </a>(OCM) program is an example: it requires a two day, timed, practical test performing the kinds of activities a database administrator would be called upon to perform.</p><br /><p>I think that identifying senior level practitioners is a useful idea, and if borrowing martial arts terminology because it's familiar makes it easier to understand, all the better. But in the words of Mr. Miyagi, the wise teacher in the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087538/" target="_blank" title="IMDB on The Karate Kid">Karate Kid </a>movies:</p><br /><p>"In Okinawa, belt mean no need rope to hold up pants."  </p><br /><p>Words to live by.</p><br /><br/>BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-32630502756790034152010-09-26T10:46:00.000-07:002011-03-26T21:44:54.862-07:00Article: Collections in PL/SQL - An Introduction<p>My latest technical article, "<a href="http://doug.org/newsletter/2010/Spring/article3.html" target="_blank" title="PL/SQL article">Collections in PL/SQL: An Introduction</a>", has been published online in the newsletter of the <a href="http://www.doug.org" target="_blank" title="DOUG home page">Dallas Oracle Users Group</a> (DOUG).  </p><br /><p>The article explains why collections are an important part of the PL/SQL language, and lists some typical uses for them. It then walks through three sample scripts showing an associative array indexed by a character string instead of an integer; using a collection to read multiple rows from the database at once with a bulk fetch; and creating a collection in which each element is an entire row from a table.</p><br /><p>The newsletters are available to the public without membershp or registration on the site.</p><br /><br/>BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-53138230066436782762010-08-16T06:20:00.000-07:002011-03-26T21:44:54.865-07:00MR Trace: SQL Developer Add-In Gets Trace Files for You<p><a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/16697498718050285274" target="_blank" title="Who Cary is">Cary Millsap</a> and the folks at <a href="http://method-r.com/" title="Method R home page">Method R</a> have devised a cute add-in to Oracle SQL Developer.  It's called Method R Trace (MR Trace or "Mister Trace" for short) and it does a very simple thing elegantly: when you run PL/SQL code, it automatically turns tracing on and off at the right times, fetches the trace file for you, and presents it in a list right there on the screen.</p><br /><p>I read about it on <a href="http://carymillsap.blogspot.com/2010/08/mister-trace.html" target="_blank" title="Cary Millsap's blog">Cary's blog</a>.  Here's <a href="http://method-r.com/software/mrtrace" target="_blank" title="demo of MR Trace">a short video demo</a> with Cary at the keyboard:  </p><br /><p>He's proud of it because it's the "smallest software tool we've ever designed," but it's usefulness seems way out of proportion to its size.  Just not having to bug the DBA to get your trace files seems worth it to me!</p><br /><p>(I'm going to start a new policy here that I hope will catch on among all bloggers: anytime I talk about a product, I'm going to disclose whether or not I received anything of value for the mention.  I didn't, though I did win a Method R door prize at an Oracle User Group meeting once.)</p><br /><br/>BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-67842729179361226532010-08-11T02:36:00.000-07:002011-03-26T21:44:54.868-07:00Simple Oracle Practices<p>Sometimes, it's the simple things that get us into trouble -- or can save us big time.</p><br /><p>Any experienced UNIX admin will tell you to always do an "ls" (list structure) command with your wildcards before you use them in a "rm"  (remove) command.  Similarly, you should test your WHERE criteria in a SELECT statement (perhaps with COUNT) before you use them with a DELETE.</p><br /><p>Here are some more very simple practices to develop as a habit, and which will save you at some future time.</p><br /><p>1.  After you set ORACLE_HOME manually, test it by changing your current directory to it.  In Unix/Linux, the command is "cd $ORACLE_HOME"; in Windows, it's "cd %ORACLE_HOME%".  If the cd command succeeds and you list the contents of the directory, you should see a standard ORACLE_HOME.  If the cd command fails, or doesn't have the usual subdirectories in it, you've mistyped the pathname and can fix it before relying on it in other commands.</p><br /><p>2.  After you connect to the database using "/ AS SYSDBA", test it by the following query:</p><br /><p>SELECT instance_name, status FROM v$instance;</p><br /><p>You'd be surprised how many times you THINK you connected to one instance, but in reality, you've connected to a different one. This only takes a second, and can save you a LOT of grief.</p><br /><p>3.  After a SHUTDOWN ABORT for any reason, immediately follow with STARTUP RESTRICT.  This lets the SMON process perform instance recovery, so that the database is consistent; but it doesn't allow non-privileged users into the database.  Then do a SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE and continue with whatever corrective action you need.</p><br /><p>Three simple things, which if made into a habit, can help prevent gunshot wounds in your feet.</p><br /><br/>BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-24124729577393741432010-08-05T01:14:00.000-07:002011-03-26T21:44:54.871-07:00Apologies for my Blackberry<p>Well, not mine.  I don't have a Blackberry.  What I'm referring to is a trend I've begun to see in emails from my Blackberry-toting friends and associates at work: adding a signature line apologizing for the fact that the email was sent from their Blackberry.</p><br /><p>Originally, the tag line "Sent by Blackberry" was probably RIM's strategy for viral adoption of the device: promoting that this email was sent by someone with a cool new technology gadget.</p><br /><p>But lately, I'm seeing signature lines more like the following:  "Please excuse misspellings, sent by Blackberry."   Or "Sent by Blackberry, excuse typos and terse replies."</p><br /><p>Am I crazy to think that if you have to apologize for a technology, you might have to rethink why and how you're using it in the first place?</p><br /><ul><br /><li>Are you misspelling things because you're trying to text and drive? Pull off the road before replying so you can focus on your typing (and on keeping the rest of us alive).<br /><li>Are you sending such a terse reply because it's hard to type on the tiny keyboard? Could your reply wait until you get back to the office, when you could send a more thorough reply? Just because you CAN respond immediately, does every incoming email require an immediate reply at the risk of offending the recipient?<br /><li>Are you sending a short reply because you're in a meeting or with someone else? Is the person you're replying to that much more important than those sitting with you, that it's worth disrespecting those in the room? </li><br /></li></li></ul><br /><p>Text is such an unforgiving medium, that people are forced to read between the lines when interpreting the messages they receive. Right or wrong, a very short reply is often seen as a sign that the sender is angry or upset.  Right or wrong, typos make the sender look like someone who doesn't care enough to correct them before sending, or worse, doesn't know how to spell in the first place.</p><br /><p>Granted that the Blackberry is a very useful device, and judging by its nickname ("Crackberry") highly engaging to use. But if you have to apologize for it, maybe you're using it wrong.</p><br /><br/>BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-67199968261085575712010-07-16T11:04:00.000-07:002011-04-23T05:59:21.494-07:00Tear Up Your Moleskine<p>I've been conducting an experiment that may seem like heresy to those who swear by the <a href="http://www.moleskine.com" target="_blank" title="Mokeskine website">Moleskine</a> brand of pocket notebooks.</p><br /><p>I rip the pages out.</p><br /><p>Now before you organize an angry mob of townspeople with torches and pitchforks, let me explain why I'm doing such a thing, and how I use my <a href="http://www.moleskine.com/catalogue/classic/hard_black_cover/ruled__notebook__pocket.php" target="_blank" title="Moleskine ruled pocket notebook">Mokeskine 3.5" x 5.5" ruled pocket notebook</a> with my GTD system.</p><br /><p>As I wrote in my previous post on <a href="http://www.bwatkins.com/2010/05/capture-and-focus-i-dont-have-to-do-everything-right-now.html" target="_blank" title="a previous post">Capture and Focus</a>, it's important to have a notePAD not a noteBOOK as a capture tool, so you can toss loose sheets, 1 per idea, into your In Box for later processing. I don't use the Moleskine as a journal; I have another solution for that, so permanence is not an issue as it would be if I were using the sketchbook like my son does.  (Yes, he keeps them.)  </p><br /><p>The durability of the Mokeskine stitched binding actually put me off from buying it for a while. I looked in all the office supply stores for a nice cover with a refillable notepad and a pocket for loose papers, without success.  Finally, I decided to try the Moleskine -- and I'm glad I did.  It's just the right size, and the unfolding pocket in the back is perfect for collecting ATM and debit card receipts.</p><br /><p>I was mesmerized by the beautiful binding at first, so I just wrote my notes and checked them off as I processed them into my GTD system. Except that it was too easy to forget.</p><br /><p>Then one day I figured what the heck, and the next time I got back home I grabbed hold of the three sheets I had used that day, and slowly ripped them asunder from that oh-so-perfect binding. I was surprised to find that the skies did not open and smite me with lightning, the earth didn't shake, and most important, the book seemed unfazed by it all.</p><br /><p>If a couple of sheets come loose by my doing this, well, the elastic strap will certainly keep them in place until I need them. (The book supposedly has 16 perforated pages designed to be torn out, but I didn't see them.)  And at $12 at Barnes and Noble, it's a heck of a deal compared to the $80 leather <a href="https://secure.davidco.com/store/catalog/GTD-NOTETAKER-WALLET-ORIGINAL-STYLE-BLACK-p-16167.php" target="_blank" title="David Allen Co Notetaker Wallet">Notetaker Wallet</a> kit sold in the David Allen Co online store. </p><br /><p>By the way, since the Moleskine doesn't have a pen like the Notetaker Wallet, I've found a marvelous companion to my Moleskine in the <a href="http://www.zebrapen.com/products/pen/f-301-compact?c=30" target="_blank" title="Zebra F-301 compact pen">Zebra F-301 Compact Pen</a>, which folded in half is less than 4" long and protected from leaks because the cap snaps into place. You get two in the package for under $10 at Staples and refills are available in fine point in various colors.</p><br /><p>UPDATE 7/20/2010:  My latest experiment is the <a href="http://www.containerstore.com/shop?productId=10023452" target="_blank" title="Mini booksling">Mini Booksling with Pen</a> from <a href="http://www.containerstore.com" title="Container Store home page">The Container Store</a>. I replaced its plastic pen with my Zebra, and I'm good to go.  I taped the elastic that comes with the Molestine inside the back cover so it's out of the way, and use the Booksling across the width of the Moleskine instead. This places the pen along the long edge of the notebook. It still fits in my pocket.</p><br /><br/>BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400386602023255337.post-921928697279661752010-05-29T03:54:00.000-07:002011-03-26T21:44:54.878-07:00Capture and Focus: I Don't Have to Do Everything RIght Now<p>On my business trip last week, I listened to an older David Allen podcast on the <a href="http://www.davidco.com/podcasts/play/26.html" target="_blank" title="GTD podcast">Best Practices of Collect</a>. I download <a href="http://www.davidco.com/podcast.php" target="_blank" title="GTD podcasts">these podcasts</a> to my iPod so I can listen to them on airplane rides. I seem to hear something new each time I review them.</p><br /><p>What struck me this time around is the impact that having a good collection system has on your ability to focus. David was describing his own capture tools, such as a tray of loose sheets of paper on his desk. When he gets an idea in the middle of doing something, he writes it down and throws the paper into his Inbox tray. Then he can let go of it, because he knows it's in his system and he will see it again the next time he processes his Inbox.</p><br /><p>A lot of what I do, such as software installs or courseware development, requires intense focus. Interruptions blast my concentration to pieces, and it takes time to put those pieces back together again so I can make sure I'm not forgetting a step (installs) or that I'm keeping the big picture in mind as I write (courseware).  Although some interruptions demand immediate attention (such as an instant message from my manager) many more of them really don't need to be acted on in the moment.</p><br /><p>So the past few days, I've been trying to ask myself, "Do I need to do this now?" Even if it will take less than two minutes to do, if it will interrupt something and cause a context shift, I capture it and keep working. I don't need to do everything Right Now for fear of losing it, if I can capture it for later processing.</p><br /><p>Another tip: all three speakers in the podcast were insistent that they captured thoughts on a notePAD, not a noteBOOK.  You have to be able to tear out the individual sheets and put them into your Inbox for later processing.  It's too hard to go back through a whole notebook to hunt for action items. With one item per sheet, it's easy. They recommended half-size legal pads so they didn't waste a whole 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of paper for each idea.</p><br /><br/>BobWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15167014551739867469noreply@blogger.com0