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The Productivity Show #48 – Paul Ayling (Jimmy Yukka and GTD tips)

July 19th, 2009

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Paul Ayling, a listener to The Productivity Show, is the guest.  Paul has a band, with the stage name Jimmy Yukka.  Paul, partly from listening to the show, has implemented Getting Things Done for his productivity.  One year of GTD, let’s see how he’s doing, and what recommendations he has.

The book of Getting Things Done – And the book of The 4 Hour Work Week.  Using GTD to manage ideas and projects.

Looking for things – Cause of procrastination in trying to find things.  “Don’t put it down, Put it away“.

A simple single in-tray to put everything in – Set time to clear inbox tray. Put everything including “things” in the inbox, and put each single note on a single piece of paper into the inbox.

Pocketmod.com – Print out A4s of tips which fold into a small book.

Capture tool with tear out paper – Spiral bound books for note capture and task lists.

Strategic MindMap – MindMap of MindMaps in Concept Draw MindMap.  MindMapping to push projects forward.

Gmail – Autofilters be careful you don’t miss an email coming in!  Coloured stars for gmail in settings, then search by star, “has:green-star” filters on green stars.

Outlook Short Cut keys – Move emails CTL SHIFT V to navigate to folder using the keyboard and not the mouse.

Lack of Contexts – Not enough contexts, which all merge into @home, when working from home.  Go to coffee shop to create another context.

PowerPoint outline to organise folders around – Or use a MindMap!

Email folders or a single folder with desktop search?

Using GTD to manage lots of projects when it becomes overwhelming.

Who’s got the cheapest Nokia phone? Using travel time to not be on the Internet and in contact with people.

Moving to the cloud – Gmail, paper diary, Office2007 too slow with Excel and Word load times, but Publisher2007 good.

Total software capture tool? – Excel?  Visio?

DropBox – Virtual online folder which synchronises with other people’s PCs/Macs.

Living the Dream – Just Do It, consistency.

Promoting music in a rock band – Website, online, calling venues, putting the promotion plan together.  Subscription models and selling direct.

Productivity Tips – Spiral bound book to tear out.  Short cut keys for Outlook.  Refining your mail folders and re-organising them.  Dump folders in an archive untouched and create a new empty folder structure.  Single in-box to dump everything in.  Mind Like Water now?  If not, what’s the gap, until your mind is like water!

Bring your dream forward into now – Base your actions and life around the core dream.  Post the actions on the wall in post its. Brings it to life with a visual.  Shuffle the colour post-its around.  Write 3 pages of A4 journal to help the dream.

BooksThe History of the Isles, Biography of Malcolm X, The Bible, The Philosophy Gym.

Recorded with Callburner. Edited with Audacity. Music by Jimmy Yukka (The Dentist)

The Productivity Show #47 – David Freer Symantec and Norton

July 8th, 2009

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David Freer Symantec VP for Consumer Sales in Asia Pacific and Japan, is this show’s guest.  We talk about what the biggest security threats are to the end-user, beyond viruses and spyware.

Dave’s an Aussie living in Singapore for the last 2 years – Responsible for Symantec’s consumer arm in Asia

Data back-up and storage as well security

What are the potential threats? – Not just Viruses and worms. Threats more stealthy nowadays.  Online attacks via the browser.

Email threats and website visits – Flash players not being updated.  Website may attack from third party ads.  Or threat from websites asking you to update your Flash Player. Am I doing the right thing or the wrong thing.

Keyloggers and changing your password – Not using the same password for everything.   Unprotected wireless networks. Tony’s fear of registering his password at more and more websites.

We’re very trusting about giving detailed information about ourselves online – Which is stored on a server.  BBC’s “Amber”  fake to show how friends and data can be obtained.  Birthday not your birth year.

Threat from forums in traded credit cards and malicious software – Software writers, credit details and passwords traded, users of fake credit cards and bank details.  Cyber crime is now starting to exceed the international drug trade.

Mix and vary your passwords – Insurance for the unforeseen.

Back up of your data – Online back or spare discs to another site.

Singapore v Australia for data infrastructure – Data performance.

Safety for Kids and Teenagers accessing the internetNorton online family safety. More agreement with kids than parental spying.  What are our kids’ profiles online.  How much information should they give.

Norton bloat and search speeds – Improved?  Go try it out for yourself. Good for recovery after a virus.

David’s email load - Laptop for email not Blackberry. Personal productivity through Outlook inbox.  Read once and file. 150-200 emails per day. Pre-colour code emails.  cc is black, direct to David is blue.  Boss is red.

Twitter for contacts rather than business cards – Collecting Twitter names at business meetings.

Channels to market – Twitter, Facebook, Website.

David’s Memory! – Notes and laptop

Electronic interaction is cutting down cultural differences between countries – India, China, Japan, Italy.

Game Fishing – And returning the fish, catch and release.

Lord of the Rings – A great story for a kid to read.  And history of the world

Music by;

MuleShe Stole My Beer
“Twisted Vehicle” (mp3)
from “Mule”
(Curve Music)

Buy at Rhapsody
Buy at Napster
Stream from Rhapsody
More On This Album