Living the Geek Life

Those who know me personally know that I am not, by nature, an organized person. If left to my own devices, I will leave my own little tornado of disaster behind me as I move from task to task. Now a large part of this is a result of my having Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). This was a rather recent discovery/diagnosis (October 2008) and, having since been put on medication, my world functions a bit differently now (thank God). One of the first things that I noticed, however, is that just because I could suddenly focus and stay on-task when I took my medication, I had never developed good personal organization and self-discipline skills and, as such, I suck at those things!

The following are some tips and techniques to help the hopelessly unorganized become organized and, therefore, more productive and happy! These are things that I have done, some have worked, others have not, but each of us is our own person and will benefit from things differently.

1. Make lists

This is probably the basic of the basic when it comes to personal organization. I read somewhere that over half of CEOs in the US do not use Outlook or planners or PDAs to organize their day but rather use a simple yellow legal pad. Whether or not that is true may be another story but the fact is, if you write down what you need to do and keep it in front of you, it makes it easier to complete your daily task list. Some people prefer spiral notebooks or even post-it-notes. At any rate, there’s something to be said in forgoing technology for a bit and busting out the old stone tablet and chisel. My problem is that when I have a notepad in front of me I tend to scribble all over it while I am on the phone and such. Either that or I would make the list and then put it aside and never revisit it again until the end of the day when I would lament the sad, pathetic amount of work that I had gotten done. Plus, it’s just a list on paper with no organization of priority. Sure you can list it by priority but what if something else comes in that is of a higher priority than something else already on the list?

2. Organizational Methodology – Lists to the Power of 2

Simply Google ‘organization methodology’ and you will find hundreds of thousands of results from products to online task managers, to full blown systems of organization. Of the more popular organizational methodologies is Gettings Things Done (or GTD). This sounded good to me when I first discovered it so I checked it out–and it’s a great system. Unfortunately, it’s also quite complex in structure and setup which, to me, seemed counterintuitive for what I wanted to do–learn a new way to organize myself that was quick, simple, and reliable. I didn’t want to spend a week reading how-tos on a website or purchasing and reading books (of which there are tons for GTD, by the way) to learn how to be organized. Then I found it: Getting Sh*t Done, or GSD (no really… that’s the name).

GSD is phenomenal. Here’s the gist of it: Get a small notebook (my faves are the Miquelrius grid notebooks). At the start of each day, write down a list of tasks that need to get done for the day, stream-of-consciousness style–just let the stuff pop out of your head and onto the paper as it comes to you. Place little boxes to the left of each item on the list. Now, go back over the list and pick four or five items that are the first priority for the day and place little dots in those boxes. Now, simple work through each of those and place check marks in them when done. Afterward, pick the next four or five tasks and dot those, too. Repeat until your list is complete.

Now, as we all know, we don’t always get everything done that we need to in a given day. At the end of the day, go back over the list and any items that are going to be done tomorrow, place a diagonal line through the check box. Tomorrow, you will look back and move any slashed items up to the current list for that day. Anything on the list that you have dropped and will not get done or do not need to do, place an X in the box.

That’s pretty much it. Fast to learn and incredibly effective. Another perk is the ability to look back on each day and see what got done when if you need to.

3. Get a PDA or Smartphone

I used to own a Handspring PDA. I paid about $200 for it at the time that I bought it and it got about a month of use before I started forgetting it at home or leaving it places when I did take it with me. Eventually, I had forgotten it so much that it was relegated to living in the drawer of my desk at home. If you don’t mind packing around a separate PDA device, this can be an excellent way to stay organized. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me.

Enter the Smartphone. Earlier this year, I upgraded my phone from a flip model to a Palm Centro. Now this was something I could use. I always have my phone with me so why not have my PDA with me in the same device? I am a big advocate of smartphones over stand-alone PDAs now due to that face: lots of functionality in one small device. Here’s the beauty of it: when I am at my office or at home and new to-dos pop up, I can write them on my GSD list and prioritize them accordingly. What if I’m in the car or at the store? This is where having a device of this type is awesome–simply open the calendar, type in the appointment/event/meeting and set an alarm. Then, when back at your list, review your phone and add any items that you need to add. If you forget, the phone will remind you when the scheduled event is coming close.

So there you have it–some items to help you be a more organized person. The GSD list/smartphone combination have been sure-fire winners for me. Please comment with your own experience with personal organization–I would love to see what works for you!

For the longest time I didn’t understand the point of sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, Friendfeed, etc. I would hear people say, “Do you have a MySpace?” or “Are you on Facebook?” and would think it was just another Internet trend that would come and go like so many other memes and sites have in the past. I didn’t see the value in these ’social networking’ sites and figured they were more for high schoolers to keep in touch and nothing more.

One day, a couple years ago, a coworker and I were talking about old friends we hadn’t seen since high school. He told me that he had actually reconnected with them via MySpace and so I decided to take the dive and make a profile. As I looked around MySpace, I found myself irritated with the vast amount of useless (and rather personal) information about people on there. Determined not to be ‘one of those people’, I set my profile to private and did find a few friends but after a year or so found myself feeling very unattached to the site as a whole and deleted my profile. My original venture into the world of social networking had begun, however, and I had no idea where it was to go…

In June of 2008 I read an article about a social networking site that was brand new called Plurk. The article spoke very highly of it and mentioned how it was like Twitter only more conversational and more personal. I decided to check it out. Plurk displays your posts (called plurks) in a horizontal timeline fashion alongside other Plurkers that are are following but keeps replies to those plurks vertically inline with that plurk. Difficult to explain in words but I suggest you check Plurk out for yourself.

I found it difficult to pull myself away from Plurk. I was either anxiously awaiting replies to my own plurks or mad with curiosity about what the next plurk from another plurk friend. I would spend hours each day browsing, plurking, and replying to others’ plurks. I couldn’t get enough.

A couple months after joining Plurk, I created a Facebook profile. I consider Facebook to be MySpace without all of the crap associated with it. Facebook also has a more mature user base which makes the whole networking aspect of social networking more possible. I have continued to use Facebook and enjoy it very much. Next came Twitter. Yet another fix for my growing online addiction.

So here I am today, like a crack addict, Plurking, Tweeting, and Facebooking daily. There are certainly more unhealthy addictions that I could have. I have got to say, though, with Twitter in particular, I have come to use it as a networking tool and have met the most interesting people locally through it that I would not have otherwise. I have also received business leads from being a part of those social networks. The point is, online social networking, while addictive, can be a great way to build your business. They can be whatever you make of them, and that’s the beauty of modern social networking online.

Soon I will be posting some information on how to use social networks to build a good business network. Until then, go ahead and join those networks. Join and take in the addiction, the crack, that is online social networking.

So I have been tossing this thought around in my head that I need to get a personal blog up and rolling. The problem is that I tend to put these grandiose plans together and then analyze them to death and then they never get the momentum needed to make it happen. Analysis to paralysis, I have often heard it called. Seems to be the downfall of many creative types, I have found.

I registered this domain name two months ago–so what took me so long to get a blog up? No time to put together that ‘perfect design‘. I have been reflecting seriously on myself and my habits as of late and have decided that action first, details follow is a much better way to get stuff like this done. So, as you can see, I am using a WordPress template designed by someone else and put out on the Internet for free. There will be time to get my perfect design done and, believe me, when I get it out of my head it will be awesome! Until then, no reason I can’t get a blog going and start this rock a rollin’!

The other thing is that my wife has had her blog up and rolling for two months now and she is seriously kicking my arse and taking names with it. Time to play catch up.

So who is this guy?

My name is Cory, I am a Christian, live in Meridian, ID, and have been blessed with the most amazing family I could ever hope for. I’m married, obviously, and have three beautiful children–5-year-old and 2-year-old boys and an 11-month-old girl. They are everything to me and feel incredibly priveleged to have them in my life.

During the day I work as the IT Director for a local real estate office, supporting them and a number of other companies under the same roof. After hours I run my own web design company called Polygon. As you can see from the link, the new site is pending there but will be finished very very soon! After finishing my degree in Networking and Telecommunications from Boise State University, I have learned that web design and web programming are where my passion lies and seek to learn all I can in those areas. I don’t really read novels (with a few exceptions) but if you give me a book about PHP, AJAX, or other programming or scripting language, I will devour it from cover to cover and revisit it several times over. I’m a geek like that.

On the more personal front, I enjoy time with my family first and foremost. I have learned more in life from my wife and three kids than I could have ever hoped to learn on my own and I thank God for them daily. My wife and I enjoy watching movies on our home theater system and my Mythbuntu box running Boxee. I enjoy building lego creations and playing video games with my oldest son and rough-housing with my 2-year-old son (the kid’s a tank!). My little girl has successfully wrapped me around her little finger before she has even turned 1 and she is the best little cuddler around.

Me? I spend lots of time on the Internet (obviously), and I also enjoy video games immensely–sometimes too much. I was raised with Atari and Nintendo and have come to develop quite the addiction to those time-sucking games–although I don’t have much time to play them these days. I love tabletop gaming and card games. Everything from board games to games like Heroclix and Heroscape for more strategy type gaming. Cards? I love Texas Hold ‘Em and Fluxx. Munchkin is always a fun one, too. I still have about a million Magic: The Gathering cards, though I haven’t played in years.

The hardest thing I have come to discover is how to balance it all. I’m still trying to figure that out. Perhaps I never will but I am determined to do the best I can and look forward to what life has to offer.

Thanks for viewing my blog and I look forward to rocking this into the future!