Get a Magnetic Board for Easy Notes

I don't know about you, but I can't stand putting holes in my paper and notes with push pins. Thus, I use magnets to hang notes.

This works especially well at home, with my current desk setup. My desk is actually hung on the wall with metal brackets called "standards." Thus, I have metal bars to which I can stick magnets. Also, I have a metal filing cabinet right beside my desk for extra magnet space.

Just what kind of things do I put up there? Usually a receipt or bill that can't get lost will get hung up with a magnet. Right now I have a paper that I really need affixed to my desk with a magnet.

If you're looking for a good note-holding method, try magnets. I love them.

Do We Need Phones?

Seriously, shouldn't we ask ourselves that question? What do we really need phones for?

I guess they're handy for communicating with each other. They help us connect quickly and efficiently.

But don't email and IM do the same thing? Why call someone when you can just IM him? Or you can even do a voice chat over the internet.

Maybe the problem is that we don't always have access to the internet. But we usually do, don't we. Maybe we're just too connected with people. Do we really need to be able to call people at any time of the day? Who knows?

Room Temperatures Are Crazy

Have you ever been in a building where one room is freezing and another one is a furnace? What's up with that?

The school I attend is one large building. It's newly rennovated, but it still has horrid circulation problems. I froze in yesterday's class. Today I wore a sweater. The rooms I was in today were boiling hot. You just can't win.

I guess the only solution is to bring a pullover or something. That's it. I'll get some zip-off pants and a pullover. I'll always be prepared.

Try the Train for Travel

I took my first real train ride this weekend. It was pretty nice, a great way to travel.

I only rode about three hours in the morning, and then the same trip back home in the evening. But I think this simple ride gave me a neat glimpse of the United States' train system.

The best part of the trip were the train seats themselves. They are huge! Plus, you get tons of leg room (important for me: 6'3"). I'd say the regular "coach" seats on the train were the size of the nice airliner first class seats. I wonder what the sleeping cars are like.

A cool feature that I noticed is that all the seats have wall 120v wall outlets. Thus, you can plugin your CD player, DVD player, computer, etc. Since train rides can be lengthy, especially across country, that's a really convenient feature.

The most comical thing that happened was when I arrived at the station to leave in the morning. The train was supposed to leave at 7:20 AM, so I checked in at 6:45. The lady at counter said, "Didn't you know, the train's always late." It didn't pull in until 8:35. But it only actually delayed us about an hour, so that's not too bad.

My advice: if you need to go somewhere, give the train a try.

Separate Contexts to be More Productive

I'm anticipating next week to be busy, at least for the first few days. Surely you've had similar weeks. You know the storm's approaching. Here's how I'm going to handle it this week.

I will be traveling a lot on Sunday. I'm taking a three hour train ride in the morning and evening. For the past couple days, and up until Sunday, I'm trying to do things that I can't do while I'm traveling. I'll save things that I can do on the train for Sunday.

This is a big key in the GTD methodology: separate the contexts. For this simple example, I'm thinking in two contexts: home v. travel. To be most productive, I'm trying to do things when & where I can do them. This takes planning, but the rewards will be worth it.

In the end, I'm saving some computer-based tasks for my train trip. I'll leverage my 9-cell laptop battery and get as many things done on the computer as I can. Mostly this will be writing, such as blog posts, letters, etc.

Hard to Get Motivated

Do you ever have problems getting motivated? I know that I do.

Lately, my biggest problem has been getting things done in the morning. I'm doing good with getting up at 8:00, even though I have no time commitments right now (winter vacation from school). However, I tend to sit around like a slug. Or, worse yet, fall asleep at my desk.

This morning I did better by watching a little online TV. CSI will get anyone awake. :) Now, I'm sipping a latte, and that's definitely going to get me wired for the day. Yippee!