The Bull Og

As foreseen…

Google Discloses Plans For Long-Awaited Office Suite, First Components Due This Week

I recently downloaded the trial version of PlanPlus for Outlook.  I had been a die-hard Franklin Planner addict before moving to Europe but then had to ween myself off of it because, well, quite simply there aren’t any Franklin Planner stores in Vienna. 

So, I felt comfortable with the Covey methodology because I had been using it for years and I was armed with Outlook so I thought “Alright, well, I’ll re-create my Franklin Planner electronically using only the basic functionality of Outlook.”

In so doing, I’ve gotten to know the functionality of Outlook pretty well and even came up with a tweak or two to make Outlook “Covey-friendly.”  Even still, I recently decided to give PlanPlus for Outlook a try. 

It’s only been two days and the jury’s still out as to whether I’m going to buy the full version but I’m generally pleased.  The thing I like the most so far is that the interface forces me to follow the methodology.  Even though I did a pretty good job of adapting Outlook for my needs, it still wasn’t the same as having a box to constrain my way of interacting with the information (i.e. full-on compact Franklin Planner.)

Among the pieces of advice my father’s passed on to me, I’ve probably been most influenced by this one:

“Plan your work and work your plan.”

One of the reasons I started started carrying a day planner 13 years ago was that I figured to achieve more, I would have to be more efficient.  To be more efficient, I would have to habe better control of my time.  To have better control of my time, I would need a day planner.  There have been many changes in the tool but I still use a day planner pretty fervently with the intent of getting the most out of the day.

My current system for achieving through doing is a Palm Zire 72 synced with MS Outlook 2003 both at work and at home.  As I explore how to integrate my current set of day planning data islands with 43 Things to take advantage of a world of like-minded people looking to learn and do new things, it’s interesting to see to which level of detail people refine their goals. 

I don’t know if some people have heard of SMART* goals.   I try to make all my goals as explicit as possible with a given time frame.  That can be a bit of overkill sometimes, I know, but “Exercise more” is just pie-in-the-sky until you make it “Lose five pounds in the next three months with a plan of aerobic activity three times a week.”

That’s my two cents on goal setting… for now anyway…

*Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Tangible

Long before I had heard of 43 Things, I knew Ryan. Long before I knew Ryan, I had a PDA. Well, after I got to know Ryan, he told me that his mother kept a list of 50 goals of what she wanted to do in her life and whenever she would finish one, she would cross it off the list and add another. That way, she would always have a challenge and stay motivated to accomplish new things. I was rather impressed by the system and took it to heart creating a category called “50Goals” in my PDA and in Outlook (for synchronization of course.) Since then, that’s where I keep my list of things I’d like to do someday.

Skip ahead several years when I heard about 43 Things. “Well” I said to myself “the advantage here is two fold. Once you tell somebody about your goal, you’re that much more bound to it because of the face-saving factor. Also, having a community of others interested in your success is another positive motivator.” That’s when I set about to figure a way to sync my “50Goals” category with 43 Things to enjoy having my goals on my PDA as well as enjoying the benefits of a global community.

I almost have a solution. Check back here again soon for 43 Things integration with Microsoft Outlook…

Aug. 28th, 2006 UPDATE:  I just noticed that I have 113 tasks with the “50Goals” label.  Maybe I should have called the category “100+Goals.”

“As the world learns to deal with the domination of English, [...] it is native English speakers who could be in need of extra preparation. Though English fluency can seem like the key to the kingdom today, in the future, if there are two billion people who can speak English, the English speaker without knowledge of another language will be at a disadvantage.”

 - English, now the global language, drifts from its roots

 Shall I start posting in Spanish and German for my Spanish and German readers respectively?