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GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK FOUR+FIVE ASSIGNMENT

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hugosanchez:
Thanks, Mark.
I will do a real inmersion in your website!
Hugo

alvnow:
I would like to welcome Mark Foster, too. I am "in love" with his book. I've read five chapters so far but I am surprised by its effects. I hope is not due the novelty. I 've been following his newslletters for two years. The book presents a new approach to conquer discipline...the easy way.

Curiously, I don't see myself more productive or moving fastly. No. It seems I am learning to deal with tasks and time. As he says,  I can't put too much in my plate.
It seems I am learning to be more reliable (to myself, at least).

urlwolf:
Ok, here is some thinking outloud.
I'm reading this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Discover-Your-Strengths-Marcus-Buckingham/dp/0743201140/sr=8-1/qid=1159815950/ref=sr_1_1/102-2000556-0084122?ie=UTF8&s=books

It basically says that we humans spend most of our time focusing on our weaknesses, trying to compensate for them, fix them. And this is a mistake. Buckingham defends that one should focus on his strengths, and develop those.

He proposes that we don't even have a good vocabulary to describe strengths (whereas we have loads of words to describe weaknesses: e.g., mental illnesses, etc). He has 34 factors that supposedly comprise the entire strength spectrum. And most people don't even know what their strenths are (so he has a test, and a website, to find your 5 best 'factors').

Anyway.

The thing is that, if we are here, one of our weaknesses is time management.
And according to this book, it is totally not worth it to try to fix it... we should instead focus on those things we do really well, and develop them even more.

What he says makes sense (although I can see flaws too). It is true that if you have no talent for example for dancing, you can spend many hours taking classes, and improve little. The same time/money, allocated to one of your strengths, could take you a long way.

This is making me think, as I have lots of activities I spend time in but I'm not particularly gifted.

I wonder how Mark Forster would see this. In my short experience, learning and sticking with a system like DIT will pay dividends, even for the chronically disorganized. On the other hand, the same time/effort could be allocated to something you actually do well (you are a 'natural') and would take you further.

I can remember that, in GED, the tale mentions boots that are not mended and horses that go lame because of lack of time allocated to the 'little things'. I wonder if following the advice in the strengths book would lead to umbalanced people with broken boots and lame horses :)

 

nudone:
i'll have to read the book but my first reaction is too say, perhaps activities can be done simply because you enjoy them - regardless of how well they are done.

this is a flippant remark for me to make, so i assume there must be more to the idea than merely doing what you are good at.

i'd guess it's how you define your goals/satisfaction. if you are doing a task in the hope it will make you become wealthy but you are absolutely terrible at the task then i'd agree you need to stop it - that's almost insanity. the problem might be that you just don't know that you are terrible at the task - isn't it true that humans tend to believe they are above the average at (almost) everything they do - this impossibility escapes our reasoning.

i'll certainly have to read the book...

tomos:
I've just read the bit in Do it Tomorrow about filing. (Chapter 15 -Sorting Out Systems - under the headings "Working from Home" then "Filing")

Mark recommends using Lever-arch folders instead of suspension files.

It makes sense to me (what he says), in that with suspension/alphabetically filed things I'm often not sure where things are - is it filed under Software, Computer OR Programmes for example.

He just stacks his folders on a shelf, with the most recently used one always on the left.

Has anyone tried this out ?
I'm wondering as well how to group the stuff that's to be filed ... e.g. Finances is an obvious one & depending what line you're in you could break that down - I'm going for "Current Year" & "Finances General"
But with other stuff - especially scrappy bits n pieces I'm not sure how to go about it.

I guess whatever I try, as I work with it, it will evolve .. :)

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