I’ve been listening to David Allen a lot this past week, that guy has it totally figured out. Truly inspiring. The inspiration naturally translates into working until midnight on a project that keeps lagging, but the end is in sight which is good because I have to meet with the client today (who undoubtedly has more changes). It’s a well known fact in software development that in order to make a product ship on schedule you have to nail down the features and functionality. Sadly, thats not what happens 90% of the time because people change their minds (all the time).

It never ceases to amaze and astound me how clients can fail to understand that if you change the scope, the timeline is also going to change (even when you look the client in the eye and tell them, this is going to add time). But thats how the cookie crumbles, and the developers inevitably end up burning the midnight oil to get something functional for a client who somehow has managed to miss that things take time, and time is worth money.

In the Freelance world, how much you let a project change is ultimately up to you, I think that one of the bigger things I have to take away from this project is that once the requirements start to change from the initial requirements, you need to nail it down (fast). In a development shop, you have less control over this but there has to be a way to manage it (fast). Otherwise you end up dealing with ‘add feature x please’ one day, and ‘oh I don’t want that anymore’ two days later which just totally zaps the energy out of a project.

If you can sense the slight irritation in my post today, its because I’m slightly irritated. Not with the client though, with myself. This is the second project this year that I’ve ended up, essentially working for free, (read outside of alloted hours for no additional pay). I’m not totally sure what the solution is, but I know I’m looking for one, and I also know that this is one of those problems that can work itself into just about any environment.

I wonder what I’m trying to tell myself?

Please post suggestions in the comments.

A prime example of why I need to be be more organized, and why the world needs ubiqx (project idea I have had form many years) … I made an appointment with a lady, but it got entered into my phone, my phone (being the normal variety and not one that I typically use to store appointments in because I don’t sync it with anything). End result, the meeting got forgot about (completely left my brain) until 30 minutes before the meeting, at which time my phone made a little jingle noise that caught my attention. But there was no way for me to get to the meeting on time, so I had to call and apologize, and then re-schedule.

Now if I was on top of things, I would have moved my appointment to my iCal and everything would have been gravy. But because I never use the schedule in my phone, I didn’t think of it. (Clearly another case for why I could use an iPhone). This is exactly he type of thing that drive me nuts, so I added a few things to my GTD schedule and with some luck that will be the last time I have to re-schedule an appointment because of a lack of organization on my part.

The GTD stuff really is simple to adopt, I have only been at it for a few days and already things are coming together, I can see the next steps required for all of the tasks on my plate and that gives me a lighter / good feeling. As long as I can keep with it, I know this is going to make a huge impact on my life. I will admit that I feel kinda dumb for not implementing these simple principals sooner, but I still know forgiveness for myself when I fail, so I trudge happily forward.

I’ve started taking advantage of my morning commute again, (I don’t do the driving in Wed, Thurs, or Fri) … This turns out to be an ideal time to make sure I’m caught up and review what I need to get done for the day. It also makes the ride in go uber quick, and makes me start the day off feeling productive.

I signed up for 43 Things a few months back, and then I forgot about it… Want to know why I forgot about it? Because I added the 43 Things widget to my iGoogle so that I would see it all the time (releasing my mind from having to think about it). Problem was, it’s lower on the page and not somewhere I actually look, so it wasn’t somewhere that I would see it (although my mind thought it was a good enough place to put it to allow me to forget about it).

So my ranting the past few days has been centered around GTD, and clearly, I haven’t been getting anything done (or at least very little). My biggest problem is that I’m taxing my brain to remember far too much, so I took the time to do a brain dump a few days back, and I actually already feel less stressed about some of the things I need to get done, not because there is a lot of forward movement on any of them yet, but because I know that getting them out of my head was a great step in the right direction.

Today I have to get a few more details for a project wrapped up and I’m utilizing the GTD philosophy to manage the project. I haven’t started using OmniFocus to it’s full potential yet, but in the coming days I hope too, such a great tool (and the iPhone support makes another case for acquiring an iPhone in the near future).

So I nabbed a copy of David Allen’s book, and Audio Set, I swapped out my normal nighttime audio to the Getting Things Done Fast seminar. So far, so good. I also actually fired up my OmniFocus because although I have had it for a while I never actually bothered looking at it too closely. The site has a few short video tutorials that got me moving pretty quick, although I still have this nagging feeling that something is missing from my understanding…

The premise to GTD is pretty simple, Collect your ‘stuff’ (write it down / get it out of your head), Process your stuff into actionable, not actionable, Organize your stuff into projects (anything thats more then a single actionable item), and assign a context to them (where you physically have to be to perform the actionable step). This in itself will reduce the clutter in your brain, all that pointless thinking…

David says that the things your thinking about that cause you distraction are there not because they are unfinished, but because you either don’t know what finished looks like for them, and/or you haven’t determined the next step to move them forward, and/or you have not placed a reminder to do the next action step in a place that your mind believes will help you get it done. So you think about it.

There are some interesting parallels between what David Allen is saying about thoughts and the mind and how Eckhart Tolle expresses the thinking self in ‘The Power of Now’. They are both quite correct in their understanding that NOW is the only time, so I’m having a good time so far listening to David and pounding out lists of things that I need to get done. OmniFocus looks like it was designed specifically for the GTD principals, and meshes perfectly with what David is saying.

I’ll update this line of thinking from time to time, but I highly encourage you to check out GTD. (Thanks Craig for reminding me to look at the resources I have, its been a godsend) … After all, nobody is going to manage my life but me.

Yesterday, Craig asked me if I had any good resources for GTD (Getting Things Done)… Because I’m a LifeHacker whore, naturally I did, so I pointed him towards David Allen’s Site, and the 43 Folders Site…

But that got me thinking… Why am I not utilizing my GTD knowledge to help ME get things done?

That said … off I go on a distraction/rampage that hopefully will help me get things organized and done

Some links to get you started if your interested in the GTD philosophy.

David Allen’s Site (http://www.davidco.com/)
43 Folders (http://www.43folders.com/)
LifeHacker (more of a distraction then a strict GTD site, but a GREAT distraction full of usefulness) … (http://lifehacker.com/)
OmniFocus (if your looking for a good commercial GTD app) … (http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnifocus/)

I have read a fair amount of GTD stuff in the past, but in all honesty i have NEVER really implemented it.
I guess I should take a few deep breaths and plunge in… back to student mode while I re-learn my habits to get things done.