I devote a lot of time to reading Lifehacker.  My favorite posts center around the "workspace renovation" of an office or a room. I love the cleanup posts. This inspires me to want to re-do my desk once a week (even more if there are more than one workspace post in a week!).  Today, I did a slight cleanup of my desk, which is tucked into the corner of our family room (pics are in previous workspace posts in this blog). Exactly what I did was to take the games that were under the desk and move them down to the basement where there are other games on shelves.  This not only gets them out from under my workspace, but puts them in the same location as other games.  This way, the games are easily found when you want to play. I went through the "box" of crap I brought home from Delphi when I was laid off.  I've been meaning to do it, but I never got around to it.  I threw away all the safety crap and miscellaneous Delphi-specific crap.  I kept some stuff from my last job (GD&T books) but most of it was thrown away.  I kept the folder of crap I got from my contract house, lest I need it for something. I wanted to clear out that area.  I did a pretty good job and now I have room for some of my other stuff that I want easier access to (like office supplies). Clearing off stuff I didn't need hopefully will organize my thoughts as well as let me embark on my new GTD method. The GTD method has a few parts:

• Moleskine calendar book (pocket size)
• Google Calendar/Gmail
• Remember the Milk
• Cell Phone
• Pen

Here's the way it works: I "sync" stuff between the Google Calendar and the Moleskine.  Remember the Milk organizes my to-do lists (and has recurring events; awesome!).  The cell is for my phone numbers.  Gmail (besides its awesome email function) also serves as my "address book".  I've tried to keep analogue address books, but it never works for me.  Stuff gets out of date, and I always forget to have it with me.  With the phone, it's right there and I'm almost never without it. Do note: people who follow me on twitter/identi.ca/plurk/friendfeed may have noticed that I was using Toodledo.  Yes, I was.  I found it didn't sync with Tasque (a nice desktop app for lists) and I wanted that.  Also, I wasn't using all of its features.  I need a simple to-do list that syncs with the web and RTM takes care of that.  I like having the priority (1, 2, 3) setup.  It was pretty much the same as RTM but it had loads of other features: stars, folders, tags, etc.  All I really need are tags, priority listing and syncing with a desktop app. So, this GTD method works for me.  It might not work for others, but I think I've found the perfect way to "get things done".

I wanted to clean up my desk. Not a simple prospect, since I have a lot of stuff on this desk that I need to use.  But, I had a lot of books and other things that I wasn't using (burned CDs, game CDs, etc) that I needed to clean up. First, some pictures: I removed a bunch of books, got rid of the magazines (moved upstairs to my bookshelf), re-organized the CDs into a CD wallet, threw away unused detritus I haven't touched in six months, threw away booklets to long-lost gadgets that were donated or thrown away or recycled, and put all of my cords in a CD spindle that I cut the center spindle out of.  This is a brilliant way to clean up cords that you don't use as often as you like.  Saw off that center spindle so you can fit more cords (and wall-warts) into the case, recycle the spindle, and put your cords, wall-warts, and other things in it.  Screw the top on (which was formerly the bottom) and you have a nice, simple box to hold your cords. Some after pics: As you can see, I have a slight obsession with penguins.  :)  They were my sorority mascot, and they are the mascot of Linux (Tux) so I generally keep them around my computer. Anyway, I wanted to share my cleanup with the web.  I promised everyone that follows my twitter/identi.ca/friendfeed/etc that I'd post before and after pics.  So, I did.