If you're going to invoke "Kanban" i'm going to invoke Lean Thinking and Six Sigma ;o)
Personal opinion follows and i'm no authority.
"I multitask. And when I multitask, I tend to divide my attention, wander through projects, look up something on the Internet, etc etc etc."
You've identified that you don't multitask, you distract yourself. Solution: manufacture a methodology by which you cannot distract yourself - there is only one piece of paper on your desk.
However, you currently appear to have a system that means as soon as you raise your eyeline 3 inches you will see a mass of work.
Not good.
The other work you have around you should be available, but not seen. By having it visible, it will trigger you to think about it, beg you to work on it. If this is how you wish to work things, so be it, i would contend though that your system should encourage you to think about something when it is most advantageous to do so.
Avoid the mental rabbit warrens.
Your system seems to decrease one of my key goals in "GTD", Velocity. Do one thing at a time, but do that -very- fast. Remove all waste activities around your execution of that task.
You've found that yourself, turn off the monitor - narrow the pipeline, focus your mental push on one thing and fly it through that pipe. Your piles of paper will probably become your new "monitor" that you have to turn off.
"In practice, I actually like having my projects in front of me. There's something tangible about it that's extremely helpful."
Ask yourself the "5 Whys" as to what possible benefit there is to having a lot of projects on your desk that -you can do nothing about right now-. (unless you wish to distract yourself from the task that you were doing.
>Ask yourself the "5 Whys" as to what possible benefit there is to
>having a lot of projects on your desk that -you can do nothing about
>right now-. (unless you wish to distract yourself from the task that
>you were doing.
"Asking "Why?" may be a favorite technique of your three year old child in driving you crazy, but it could teach you a valuable Six Sigma quality lesson."
Cameron -- Thanks so much for your thoughtful input. I think you're definitely right -- the goal of the system (and I need to re-read "The Goal," come to think of it) should be to do two things: 1) make the current task happen faster and better, and 2) make sure that you're working on the right task at any given time. Or to paraphrase, that you're doing the thing right, and doing the right thing. In theory, the GTD system would help me do both. But as I've described, I've had trouble with implementation. Thus far, this hybrid system seems to help me deal with my love of piles of paper -- at least the piles are organized now! But seriously, the whole concept of the "Kanban" (Ternouth's use is probably not strictly accurate) is to have one project on your workspace at a time. I find this easier to do in the physical workspace than the electronic.(My description of multitasking woes are more about computer desktops rather than real ones.) It's still a work in progress, and your comments are very helpful.
I had the same problem with distractions in the electronic desktop. I
find the computer much more productive if I maximize all windows. Everything is still there (ALT-tab, in Windoze), but you can absorbed
by the *ONLY ONE* visible window. Yeah, even that browser window is
hidden so I can't see what's going on in the groups, mailing lists,
etc. Also, no IM windows for me. Too distracting, and no way to keep
them from popping up.
On 6/19/05, everettlane <everettl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> ... I find this easier to do in the
> physical workspace than the electronic.(My description of multitasking
> woes are more about computer desktops rather than real ones.) It's
> still a work in progress, and your comments are very helpful.
I'm a few days into trying on a Mac. While I've found Mac analogs for
most of my Windows apps already, the lack of maximize and tile are
driving me batty. My normal mode is to have one app full screen, or
two apps balanced on the left and right of my screen.
If there's a hack to tile or quickly maximize apps on the Mac (full
screen, not zoom to fit) I'd be grateful to hear details.
On 6/21/05, Bryan Ewbank <ewb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I find the computer much more productive if I maximize all windows.
> Everything is still there (ALT-tab, in Windoze), but you can absorbed
> by the *ONLY ONE* visible window.
First of all if you only want to see the windows of one application it is possible to option+cmd click on its dock icon. This will hide all other applications. I know this isn't the same as fullscreen but may help you to concentrate on one app at a time.
When you are using cmd+tab it is also possible to hide and quit applications from the applications list. If you highlight an application in the list then you can press h to hide it or q to quit it.
Finally I would recommend getting into using Expose. If you press the default key to view all windows of the current application (F10) you can then press TAB to move through all your visible applications' windows.
On Jun 21, 2005, at 11:27 PM, Brian McGroarty wrote:
> I'm a few days into trying on a Mac. While I've found Mac analogs for
> most of my Windows apps already, the lack of maximize and tile are
> driving me batty. My normal mode is to have one app full screen, or
> two apps balanced on the left and right of my screen.
> If there's a hack to tile or quickly maximize apps on the Mac (full
> screen, not zoom to fit) I'd be grateful to hear details.
Holding the option key while clicking the zoom box should maximize it
to its fullest extent. What that means varies slightly from
application to application, but it's typically equivalent to the
Maximize button on Windows.
For Windows users -- if you're working on a single task, hide the task bar at the bottom. (You can set it to "Auto-Hide" under taskbar & start menu properties). Not having a string of icons at the bottom of the screen not only reduces visual clutter, it also discourages you from switching back and forth to other programs. Remove the temptation! You can use alt-tab to switch.
> For Windows users -- if you're working on a single task, hide the task
> bar at the bottom. (You can set it to "Auto-Hide" under taskbar & start
> menu properties). Not having a string of icons at the bottom of the
> screen not only reduces visual clutter, it also discourages you from
> switching back and forth to other programs. Remove the temptation! You
> can use alt-tab to switch.
