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The final piece of my Stationery fix for my GTD arrived yesterday… The Rhodia Meeting Book..

Now I can use this for both meetings and concept planning. I got in in A4 so that I wouldn’t be cramped for room. I love the Action column on the right side of the page so I can separate the Action items from the rest of the notes. While I had though of keeping my note-taking electronic and using my laptop or Netbook, I realised that my typing is not anywhere near fast enough or is it even close to being accurate enough….

So now I have everything set…. Diary, Notepads and the Meeting Book.  My Pen is still just a Bic e.3 – a combo Pen, Pencil (using 2B) and Stylus. I don’t see any real need to move away from that at this stage… cheap, reliable and it fits well in my hand.

Now comes the two hardest bits… the clean-out… My Pack-rat habits have been formed over a looong time and have unfortunately been reinforced by saving my butt a couple of times. time to get critical in my review on what needs to be tossed and what needs to be filed…

the other difficult one is maintaining the process. A bit like my attempts to move from look-typing to touch-typing… It needs dedication to the process and the ease and speed will come. I just hope it is a lot more successful than my typing transition.

So as part of my re-organisation of my processes to a more GTD-friendly setup, I have already got my diary for next year …

This year, I went for a quality diary rather than something newsagent special. last year, I didn’t go with a diary, looking to keep it all electronic. however, the theory was much better than the practical. While everything was synchronising well, too much was still popping up where I couldn’t get Internet access or didn’t have the right device with me… Sure I could have bought one but a $36 diary is a better than a $1200 phone (in this case anyway…). The electronic Vs paper Diary battle may continue all next year anyway…

I ordered the Rhodia 2010 Diary from Ink2pen and it arrived just 2 business days later. It has fantastic 90gsm pages and a Week to a View with the 5x5 graph on the facing page….

This allows me to throw in the weeks appointments as well as jot down any relevant thoughts and ideas on the facing page and link the two so that info isn’t lost or forgotten ( a frequent problem of mine). Not only that, it has perforated corners that can be torn out for each week so you can always open to the right week.

The cover is vinyl and the Standard Orange with an embossed logo and an orange elastic for holding it closed. Surprisingly, it isn’t a standard A5 size. When I put it next to my No. 16 Pad, you can clearly see the size difference.

I can definitely recommend this Diary for the aficionados of fine stationery looking for a new diary for 2010. You can get it from Here

I am slowly getting it together with implementing a GTD system that works for me…. The increased amount of inputs during our Infrastructure Virtualisation Project as well as an Office 2010 upgrade that rendered my previous email inbox management next to useless has finally ushered in the inevitable. Having an expert GTDer start working with us certainly helps (although his palm slaps to the forehead  while willing us forward won’t be helping).

My desk is (relatively) tidy from what it was and now I have my latest wepaons in the battle against overload – My Rhodia NotePads.

I purchased numbers 11, 13 and 16. That is an A5, A6 and A7 for the un-initiated. I had planned to order them online at NoteMaker or even had fancied the possibility of ordering them Yoda-Style. Last night I was idly wandering through Borders in Chermside Shopping Centre and sure enough, a brief flash of Orange grabs the corner of my eye.

Sure enough, just the very notepads I was looking for… and for a very competitive price. I was surprised, I didn’t realise that Borders Australia was a supplier so I’m sure glad they are. The only other one that I had considered was the A5 meeting pad. I can just rule some lines in my Number 16 so that one will do…

So now I have the 16 for my meetings and to have on my desk, my Number 13 to have in my bag and my Number 11 to carry around with me..

Next up in my GTD plans is to re-do my Mailbox and then adapt Office 2010 views to facilitate my Inbox processing. Whether or not I can get to Inx Zero remains to be seen..

Of course if you are a serious IT Pro or Developer, you’ll have one of these subscriptions, right?… Right?? If not, I’d advise you do so quick-smart…

Now that the RTM versions of Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode are here, it is time to uninstall the RC versions and install the RTM versions.

To uninstall the XP Mode, it is simple.

• Click Start | Control Panel | Programs | uninstall a program
• choose Windows XP mode and it will uninstall

To uninstall Windows Virtual PC, it is slightly different.

• If you still have Control Panel open, click on View Installed Updates (otherwise repeat step 1 from the previous uninstall)
• Select Windows Virtual PC and it will uninstall…
• Reboot

and you are ready to install the RTM version that you have already downloaded… Virtual PC first, then XP mode after that…

I had a couple of good post ideas for this week… but Halo 3 ODST is now out so I am busy… Not only that, the girls will be away this weekend at the in-laws so I am on my own with the Dog, my console and footy finals for companions…

In the meantime, here are some video tips from ign.com for Firefight … and yes, like my Halo 3 multiplayer, I suck at this…