sacha chua

If you want to be radically more effective at doing things, get better at deciding what to do. Few things are more personal than figuring out what you're going to do with your life: at this moment, for this day, for the next few years. Few decisions are made as frequently. If you can improve the way you make that decision, you'll reap the benefits everywhere.

We've all developed some ways of coping. We all have our quirks. One of mine is that I can't settle on one way of planning my tasks. Some days, I'm all strategic and top-down, connecting my life goals with the tasks I plan to do that day. Other days, I just need to get a crucial task out of my head so that I don't forget it while hunting for my keys. Some days, I block out time to work on my priority projects. Other days, I have to work around other people's schedules, so it's all about cramming whatever I can into whenever I've got.

Now think of all the other geeks out there, and you'll understand how to-do list programs might outnumber programmers. Despite the collective efforts of companies like Microsoft and IBM, despite the coolness of Web 2.0 services like Remember the Milk, despite the renaissance of paper-based planners such as the Hipster PDA, I have never found anything as powerful as a plain text file in terms of personal productivity: a plain text file with shortcuts that are form-fitted to the way I work.

Here's what my workday looks like:

• I do a _quick_ scan of e-mail to see if any tasks have come in. I copy those into my inbox. I resist the urge to reply right away, as that turns e-mail into a huge timesink.
• 5-10 minutes are enough to schedule and prioritize my tasks for the day. I see both my calendar and my task list at the same time, and I can estimate my load. I leave plenty of space for things that come up. I feel better when I finish my scheduled tasks and then cross off a few more, than when I don't finish everything I planned and I have to postpone tasks to the next day.
• I work on my highest-priority task for the day.
• _Then_ I respond to e-mail.
• Then I work through everything else in roughly 45-minute chunks, with some downtime in between to recharge my brain and take care of routine tasks.
• My computer is set up to encourage me to take 10-second breaks every 5 minutes and 2.5 minute breaks every hour. The numbers are arbitrary, but the result feels good. This works out even better when I work from home: 2.5 minutes is just enough time to clear the sink, or to empty the dishwasher, or to start some tea...

A plain text file keeps me all organized, thanks to the Org module for the Emacs text editor. The text file shows me what's on my horizon and what's on today's schedule. The text file helps me deal with interruptions because it keeps track of what I was working on and what I need to do.

The text file even helps me learn more about myself and my skills through detailed time-tracking. Every time I start a task, the clock starts. Every time I mark a task as waiting or done, the clock stops, and the elapsed time is stored in the task. This helps me tune my time estimates and report time at the end of the week.

And it's just amazing. I don't feel that I waste a lot of time. I have a sense of progress. I can see the big picture, and things almost never fall through the cracks. (When they do, that's because I hadn't gotten around to putting them in my text file yet.) Sure, this still doesn't give me enough time to do everything I want to do, but I don't feel stressed out about it because I'm working well. From now on, most of the performance improvement will come from improving my skills and learning more.

If I can do this much as a new hire with a pretty nifty task management system, think about what you can do with all your experience. What _could_ you do if you spent less time fighting with your memory or with your TODO system, and more time making the difference you want to make?

On Technorati: planning, book-draft, org, emacs, tasks, pim

Random Emacs symbol: edebug-stop - Command: Stop execution and do not continue.

Tags: book-draft, emacs, org, pim, planning, tasks by Sacha Chua
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People often find the public nature of my blog remarkable. They boggle at the idea that I put my task list online and that I share my reflections on my quarter-life crisis.

I share a lot, but this blog doesn't have *everything.* There are a lot of things I don't write about because I haven't figured them out yet or because I don't feel like writing about them. I also have quite a number of stories that I just haven't gotten around to writing!

But yes, my life is mostly public. Why, when I know that Google and Archive.org will mean that these things will be around for pretty much forever? ;)

In particular, people find my task list unusual. Sacha Peter said:

... she has taken the step to pretty much put her task lists online for the whole world to see.

He wonders whether it might be interesting to look back over several years of data. Hmm... Come to think of it, I've been using Planner for four and a half years now. Whoa.

I use my task list as both a tool for proactive planning, reactive management, and retrospective reflection. I mainly use it to plan ahead, get stuff out of my head, and keep track of what I accomplished for the day. I *could* use Planner to keep track of tasks that I didn't finish or didn't get around to, and I might change to doing that one of these days.

I guess the strange thing is that I do this kind of planning out in public. This has helped me countless times. A public task list lets people figure out if I remembered that I have a meeting with them. Sometimes people will remind me of things if they see me procrastinate. And every so often, people offer tips and suggestions that help me do my work more effectively.

It's easy to have private tasks. Here's the basic Emacs Lisp code I'd need for that:

(defun sacha/planner-skip-private ()
  "Remove all lines matching {{ private }} (no spaces)."
  (goto-char (point-min))
  (delete-matching-lines "{{private}\}")) ; escaped here just so that you can see it

I don't think I'll use it often, though. It's kinda nice keeping people up to date on what I'm working on even if I don't have the time to write long blog entries...

On Technorati: planning

Tags: emacs, planning by Sacha Chua
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I went to a shop specializing in pens and organizers, but I couldn't find anything that matched what I had in mind. So I made my own planner templates using OpenOffice.org Calc and Inkscape. I made a week planner with plenty of space for action items and notes, a month list I can use to keep track of things like meals or whatever, and a booknotes template.

I'm going to test the templates over the next few days. If it works for me, then I'll put the templates up on the Net. They're for standard letter-size three-ring binders, so anyone can use them easily. =)

I'm a happy girl.

私達がコンピュータの使い方を知る事は重要になってきている。 It is becoming important for us to know how to use a computer.

On Technorati: planning, productivity, organizer

Tags: emacs, organizer, planning, productivity by Sacha Chua
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by Sacha Chua

(Sneak preview of m-ph entry for tomorrow)

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"I've found the perfect PDA," I gushed. My friends perked up. Knowing how much of a geek I am, anything I was that crazy about was bound to be interesting. They leaned over and watched as I reached into my bag and brought out...

... my Hipster PDA.

"SACHA?!"

---

Introducing the Hipster PDA

One of the hottest topics in the productivity blogosphere right now is the Hipster PDA, a surprisingly effective low-tech way to organize your life. Grab a pack of 3"x5" index cards and a fold-back clip and you're set to go!

What's so cool about the Hipster PDA?

• Gets rid of worries. You don't have to worry about running out of battery during a critical meeting. You can drop it and it will still work. Even if you dunk it in water, you'll still be able to recover your data.
• Grows along with you. Don't be constrained by software or hardware limitations! You can easily experiment with different ways of planning, and you can expand your Hipster PDA's memory simply by buying another pack of index cards at your nearest bookstore.
• Helps you stay focused. The Hipster PDA helps you stay focused and on-track by not supporting addictive games like Tradewinds. To help you pass the time, the Hipster PDA comes with a few built-in two-player games like Tic-tac-toe and Hangman.
• Organizes real-life data. Receipts? Business cards? Movie tickets? No problem! Just tuck them into the fold-back clip and process them when you get home.
• Beams anything to anyone. You can easily "beam" information to other people—just scribble a note and give it to them. 3x5 index cards don't crumple easily and can easily be shared with other people no matter what mobile device they use.

Here's what you can do with your own Hipster PDA:

• Get a good pen or mechanical pencil. Keep it with your Hipster PDA at all times.
• Write down one task per index card. You can write down subtasks and notes there as well. Rip up the task card up after completing the task for a satisfying finish.
• Alternatively, divide your tasks into projects and write down your tasks. Check the tasks off as you finish them.
• Scribble notes and ideas down on index cards.
• Write down a month calendar so that you can easily see when you have appointments.
• Print important contact information on an index card. You can probably fit 50 names and phone numbers. Good backup if your phone is out of battery or gets lost.
• Print birthdays on an index card, sorted by month and day.
• Label your Hipster PDA with your contact information just in case it gets lost. (name, phone number, e-mail address)
• Clip a cheap pen to your Hipster PDA for people who borrow pens. Never lend your good pen.
• Keep newly-written cards in an "inbox" section (front or back) so that you can process them when you get home.

For more information, check out the following links:
43 Folders: Introducing the Hipster PDA
Technorati: Hipster PDA

Check back on Wednesday for tips on making the most of your Hipster PDA!

そのデザイン・ハウスにとって、コンピュータ製造にさらに急進的な色彩を導入することは適切な戦略であった。 For this design house it was an appropriate strategy to introduce even more radical colors into computer production.

On Technorati: productivity, organizer, hipster, hipsterpda, planning

Tags: hipster, hipsterpda, organizer, planning, productivity by Sacha Chua
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I love posting my productivity ideas because every time I do so, I get comments suggesting even better ways to do things. Today's tip comes from Christopher Allan Webber, whose colored index cards are leaps and bounds ahead of my deck of plain white index cards. He has some cool ideas here!

He uses colored notecards to separate his notes into categories.

Yellow	schedule & project cards
Red	todo cards (or just stuff I should copy to planner-mode)
Blue	idea cards
Green	expenses (writing down stuff to copy to my ledger file later)

He also uses cards that are lined on just one side. On the lined side of schedule & project cards, he writes down:

Photography

Mon	5/9	Lab
Wed	5/11	Critique of Assignment II & I (pics don't have to be dry - must by Wednesday)
Mon	5/16	Field trip
.	.	Assignment #2 dry-mounted

On the back, he keeps a TODO list. When a task needs to be done multiple times—for example, preparing a print of a picture—he adds extra checkboxes before the task.

I think he writes down non-project-related TODOs and random notes on red cards, which are easy to pick out in the pack. Right now, I jumble them all together on white index cards. I'll try keeping the front half of the deck for tasks and the back half for notes.

Green cards help him keep track of his expenses. I keep receipts in front of my index cards using the handy fold-back clip, although an organized table view would be pretty cool.

I don't know where he managed to find lined-on-one-side 3x5 colored index cards. I guess bookstores in other countries are better stocked. On the other hand, I found 3x5 organizer refills, so I'm not absolutely deprived.

He was bemused by my mention of "two pages of month templates from a 3x5 day planner". If you crack open a pack of 3x5 organizer refills, you'll get year, month, and day views. Normally a single month would span two pages, but if you're using a planner where month views haven't been labeled "January", "February"—in short, blank ones—then you can use one page to represent one month. If you don't have organizer refills handy, simply print the numbers 1 to 15 down one side of an index card and 16 to 31 on the other. Leave space at the top for the month name, and space beside the numbers for appointments.

He also had this interesting anecdote to relate about a friend's way of planning.

"Oh, I gave up keeping track of to do lists," she sighed. "These days I just write everything on my mirror with a dry-erase marker, so when I groggily stumble into my bathroom in the morning I go, 'OH SHIT! I HAVE *THAT* TO DO TODAY!'"

I should do that with a random Japanese quote of the day. I'll write it down the day before, then groggily try to read it in the morning. Or I can scribble my Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals (superb teaching and quality assurance for computer science education, and strategy coaching for life planning (must find better way to summarize these things!)) on my ceiling at home. Ooooh. My ceiling is low enough for me to do that...

Check out Christopher Allan Webber's website at http://dustycloud.org/ . =)

I love swapping ideas with people, so feel free to send in more suggestions!

コンピューターは単なる計算機だと考えられている。 Computers are thought of as mere calculating machines.

On Technorati: planning, productivity, hipster, hipsterpda, organizer

Tags: emacs, hipster, hipsterpda, organizer, planning, productivity by Sacha Chua
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