Comments on: Weekend Project: Hō‘imi your Trusted System

By: Ulla Hennig

Ulla Hennig — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:25:10 +0000

Thanks for the support, Rich! I m doing that take-steps-avoid-lift program in order to get my heart and lungs in better shape (and my leg muscles as well). I am not a running person, but taking steps may have the same effect one day…

By: Ulla Hennig

Ulla Hennig — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:30:41 +0000

Rosa,
thank you for the links – I followed them and they provice great information!
Ulla´s last blog ..Friends – Online and Offline

By: Rich G.

Rich G. — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:01:31 +0000

The latest project I put up is one called health – with tasks like take steps instead of lift two times a day (sounds silly, I know).

No way is it silly. Sparkpeople.com, a site I’m a raving fan of and prone to evangelizing about at any opportunity lol is all about making small changes over time that add up to a big difference. I’ve been using that technique and their site and tools for months now and have reached my lightest weight since… well since forever. At least 10 years, probably 15.

By: Rosa Say

Rosa Say — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:17:56 +0000

Just one more thing Ulla; I don’t think your health project sounds silly, not at all! In fact, I believe we all need on-going projects connected to our health, for without good health so much else simply stops as health struggles consume us, and we don’t attain ‘Imi ola (our best possible life), or we find that seeking it has become increasingly difficult.

So hurrah, and I am with you in taking those stairs!

By: Rosa Say

Rosa Say — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:00:19 +0000

Good morning Ulla, Listing the different tools you use is a good way to tackle this project, for when you do so you identify the performance processes you are drawn to (simply feeling better when you use it is a strength clue), and which you find you use more than others (which is a clue as to when ease syncs up with “it works!”). With each tool listed, you can then ask yourself, why this one?, and do I trust in it? (it puts you on auto-pilot in the good-habit way, it traces recurrences or sends you a reminder, that sort of thing). With tech apps exploding in variation, we do get lulled into a lot of needless duplication, and can end up having info all over the place. Then maintaining them becomes busywork that doesn’t really move our performance along or serve a foundational purpose (such as deciding on your Address Book/Contact Manager). After you have your list of tools, put them to the test using the chart above, and see which column gets the most checkmarks - are they part of your trusted system (or becoming part of it), or are they trending the other way into “everything else?” One thing I’ve found in helping many managers streamline their systems at work, is that most of us have a relatively short learning/attention span with our new tools (or those mandated by our companies, e.g. Outlook instead of Gmail). We don’t investigate them fully to make those decisions on which features we will use, and which we purposely will not. A good example are the filters in Gmail, which are a HUGE timesaver and auto-labeler of your information inventory. Much as I love Gmail however, I turned off Buzz because besides the privacy issues within the release, it was pretty much all in the “everything else” column of my chart. If you decide to tackle the project starting with a tool inventory and find you have some holes to fill, and suspect you want to go the digital route, this post may trigger some thinking for you: The Tech Life of a Manager, 2010 and Beyond. Rich G. also followed up on it with: What tech can’t I do without?

By: Ulla Hennig

Ulla Hennig — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:21:27 +0000

Rosa,
this is not an easy to answer question for me. Regarding the tools I use I think I have found some which I trust and feel comfortable with – it is toodledo and springnote.com .
Toodledo I use for task management. It is an online web application and for free. You can put up projects, tasks, goals and so on. The latest project I put up is one called health – with tasks like take steps instead of lift two times a day (sounds silly, I know).
Springnote.com I use as a journal – I write down the results of meetings, use it for writing text for webpages, as a learning journal, for collecting ideas for squidoo pages and blog posts.
It took me some time to find those tools – I played around with some but was never really happy. Now I have got – so I think – my trusted system of productivity.
Ulla´s last blog ..Why You should use Flickr