Just finished my first read of GTD.  Very interesting, identified a lot of areas which related to me (some didn’t), any ways I know it will help me.  Got a lot of ideas now, one thing I didn’t do is actually follow what it was saying – wanted to get a good overview of the concepts first.  So now, I am going to read (quickly) over it again and actually do everything and get all the ideas on paper (using paper because I haven’t found any good software just yet).

If anyone knows of any good software – then please let me know.

I will let you know how I get on after the second read…

I came across this article today, it’s a shame more managers don’t pay attention and read articles like this (or maybe they do, comments welcome).

Top 10 ways to motivate geeks
http://www.retrospector.com/2006/06/21/top-10-ways-to-motivate-geeks/

Classic!

http://c9park.wordpress.com/2006/07/03/9-patrol/

My first project has appeared on codeplex!!  If you don’t know, codeplex is a project setup by Microsoft for people to host their own open source projects and get feedback from the community.  Very cool idea and a site I really like.  Plus it’s all run off Team Foundation Server!

Read all about it here.

http://www.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?ProjectName=ASPnetDeploy

I will post more in the next few days.

So today I am going to start GTD (Getting Things Done).

Found this link which talks about the approach from a student point of view.
http://www.studenttabletpc.com/gtd/

Not sure how well it will work – but I will give it a go. Might solve all my problems, or might be a week wasted reading the book.

I think it could be important at this point to set out some objectives, or things I would like to solve by trying this approach.

• Not get so distracted by what I have to do


• Not get so distracted by tangents


• No more down time – this morning I have spent 2 hours trying decide on what to do. This happens a lot and I hate wasting the time.


• Have some time off to watch DVDs (still haven’t watched 24 Season 2) without feeling like I should be doing some work


• When reading a book, not to stop half way and move onto another completely different topic (Design Patterns > C++ coding)


• Have a system in place for when I return to University so things don’t get forgotten and mismanaged and I have time to successfully do all the work required.

Think I should point out that I am not doing GTD to help me study, but to allow me to study without being distracted (procrastinating http://www.43things.com/things/view/225 & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrastinate), to allow me to read all the books required, develop applications, spend time with the girlfriend and basically work on everything I want (the list is endless).

Even if I don’t follow GTD to the book, I am hoping I will be able to take some tips from it.  Just a shame I didn’t start this time last year.

Blog from Word 2003

So Word 2007 works just great once I saved the FTP user/pass into the website.

This post is using the add-on for Word 2003. This has the nice ability to Open previous posts.

First one posted fine onto blogger but didn’t make its way onto my website via FTP.  

Edit: This one worked
    

Blogging from Word 2007.

 

So this is just a test to see how well word performs as a blogging tool. Already found one problem I think – I don’t save my FTP details in blogger and there isn’t an option to enter this within word

So my placement year as a trainee system developer has come to the end. I have learnt a lot of the past year! And would like to thank everyone who has helped me (inside and outside of the company). So what now? well I have until September to learn as much as possible which I couldn't over the past year. This includes: .net 3.0 UML and Patterns C++ Code Complete and Writing Secure Code books IIS7 Modules How much will I get done? Not as much as I hope i'm guessing, but I can but try. Hopefully I am going to be blogging a lot more as well....so I will try and post useful information.

Hello, Bit of a shameless plug, but below if the link to Computer Manuals via my Affiliate ID (means I make money!). Computer Manuals.co.uk If your still using another suppiler for your computer books then I would suggest looking at these guys. Very very good service at great prices!! Must have spent around £400 on PC books from them. Just need time to read them.... which leads me onto my next link

Title : Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity Ref. No : 0749922648 Publisher : Piatkus Books Author : Allen, David Price*: £7.91 RRP: £10.99 Discount: 28% User level: All Date pub: Jan 2002 Description : Is your workload overwhelming? Does it just keep mounting up while your stress levels reach fever pitch? In "Getting Things Done" David Allen teaches you how to keep a clear head, relax and organise your thoughts while implementing the methods that he has introduced at organisations like Microsoft, Lockheed and the US Department of Justice: Learn ... [more]

Going to have a read over this, and see if it can productivity.