I just started a new job a few weeks ago. Nothing special about that, except that the company I now work for was started six years ago by two 17 year-olds. Now that’s both amazing and depressing.

Here I am, almost 30 and have not achieved anywhere near the business success that they have. Of course, I haven’t tried either. So, on the one hand, it’s violently depressing that 17 year-olds can be more successful at business in the first 17 years of their lives than I have been in my first 30. And on the other hand, it’s quite inspiring. If they can do it, I can do it, too.

I remember a high school teacher that once told my class that we had to be realistic in what we hoped to achieve out in the real world. He was trying to level-set our expectations—to strip out some of that adolescent idealism, but thinking back, his statement was counter-productive. Instead of focusing on what we could not achieve, he should have taught us how we could achieve great things.

And that’s where I’m at. I’ve finally learned how to accomplish great things because I have developed the discipline to accomplish many small things. This realization has been a long time coming, but I very much feel that I can accomplish any goal I set and with every goal I accomplish, the realm of possibility expands.

So, to answer my own question: I get inspiration from where I’ve been and where I’m going. Stories about successful people just remind me that anything, taken one step at a time, is possible.

I’m trying out Omea Pro and so far, I’m really frustrated. This application has so much potential, but using it is not as smooth as I had hoped it would be.

First off, the concept behind Omea is awesome. It’s something I’ve wanted for a long time. A long time. Basically, it’s an application that allows you to sort your files, email, news groups, feeds, bookmarks, contacts, and tasks as if they were the same thing. That’s right, you can tag a file, a bookmark, an email, and a feed and see them all in the same place, allowing you to see all the information associated with a project in one place. There is no artificial separation of these items. If you have a file associated with a project, you can find it in the same place as the 200 emails you’ve received about the project.

To date, I’ve been using ContentSaver to store my resources. It was the best application I could find of its kind, allowing me to assign a file to multiple categories, so that I could put my hand on it when I needed it. But it fell short of being powerful because it imported files into a database and it didn’t catalog email very well. I used it because it was better than storing things on the antiquated hierarchical file system (for the record, I’m using Windows XP).

Now Omea Pro. I had to jump on this application as soon as I heard about it. But, it’s like pulling teeth to get it to work.

1. First off, the Firefox plugin doesn’t always work. When it fails, I have to restart both Omea and Firefox. That’s probbaly going to be a pretty big nuisance once I get up and running (assuming I stick with it that long) as a lot of the information I want to catalog comes from the Web.

2. I can’t create new categories at every dialog that I can associate an object with a category. The idea of assignment and creation are, seemingly, two separate tasks. There are plenty of times (especially in the beginning) when I need to create a new category for the particular piece of content that I’m saving, but can’t because I’m in assignment mode, not in create mode. This isn’t always the case, but it is often enough to be extremely frustrating.

3. I can’t assign feeds to a category. I can assign posts from a feed to a category, but what if I want an entire feed in a category? This would be partiuclarly useful when I’m creating new workspaces.

4. There is no way to edit HTML files. This wouldn’t be a negative thing, except that it doesn’t always display HTML clippings in the best manner. In fact, sometimes it’s downright bad.

5. I can’t associate multiple files to a category. For normal operation, this is probably not necessary. Except that I’m transferring a fairly large collection of files from ContentSaver to Omea and it would save a lot of time.

Even with all these quirks, I’m willing to give this application a shot. It does everything I want it to do—everything I wish the OS did. Maybe Windows Vista will get it right next year, and maybe not. With any luck, though, Omea Pro, even with all its annoyances, will actually make my life a little easier. I’ll definitely report back on my progress. And I’ll even try to be a bit more positive than negative next time.

I used to be a piler that wanted to be a filer, which just means that I was a mess. I hated the piles, but I never filed the content because I wasn’t sure where to put things. It’s not something I worry about anymore as software makers are offering a mix of tags and saved searches, effectively removing the need for hierarchical data storage. (I just wish this option was available for physical files.)

I often encounter people who look at my email inbox (using Outlook 2003) piled with hundreds of email (right now I have over 2500 messages in my inbox) and I see them cringe. Especially the GTD folk. But it’s so much easier for me to locate what I need when I need it using saved searches and tags than if I were to actually place it in another folder. My system works like this:

• I check my email once every hour. Or, at least, I try to limit it to once every hour.
• If something comes in and I can respond to it in two minutes or less, I do it.
• If I need to respond sometime today, I flag it with a red flag
• If I need to respond sometime in the next few days, I flag it with a blue flag. I review these items once in the morning, early afternoon, and just before I head home.
• If I need to reference the email at some point in the future, I flag it with a green flag.

I also have search folders for different projects. Each search folder includes email addresses, keywords in the subject, and some keywords in the body. I try, though, to limit the keywords I search for in the body as it is often too broad.

Now, I’m really looking forward to Windows Vista when a lot of this stuff will be built into the file system. For now, though, I use a program called ContentSaver. The application allows me to tag files and save searches, which makes finding files that much easier.

I bet the next big leap in digital organization will be abandoning the concept of the file altogether, and instead we’ll focus on storing information and how to interconnect that information more effectively. Maybe they’ll make that leap in Windows 2010.

I was just recently reminded about something I heard several years ago: everyone should have a list of 100 things they want to do before they die.

Can someone from the GTD crowd say @someday, please?

I think I’m going to split the “Things I want to do for fun” from the “Things I may get around to doing, but don’t really want to do.” I’ll have a list that I actually enjoy looking at versus one that’s just depressing.

Also, speaking of the @someday list. When was the last time you checked yours? I try to get to mine in the weekly review, but don’t always manage it. If I’m honest, I rarely get to it. After sorting through all the work I need to do, looking at future projects just seems pointless.

I know, I know. I’m only ever going to get to the items on my someday/maybe list if I make them a priority. Maybe it’s time to start?

If you’re doing something that requires a lot of attention, stop doing it thirty minutes before it’s time to leave. You can go as much as fifteen minutes, but you’re pushing it. Best to stop at thirty. You spend the remaining 15-30 minutes conducting your daily review, processing your inbox, or completing some of your nagging to do’s.

1. Do less. “Be content with quite a little. Allow for accidents. Allow for human nature, especially your own.” Take your time. There are a lot of things to do, so choose one or two things you want to do and focus on those. You’re much more likely to accomplish your goals if you focus on one or two things than if you were to spread your energy over four or five. (How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett)
2. Sleep. It’s a blessing and a curse. As humans, we spend so much of our lives sleeping. Imagine what we could do if we didn’t have to sleep. On the flip side, letting your head fall back into your pillow after a long day (or several long days, as the case may be) feels so damned good. Staying awake for long periods of time exhausts your body and mind. You lose focus and perspective, your goals become pipe dreams, and your stamina fades. A good night’s sleep provides not only a much needed perspective, but the strength to continue.
3. Keep trying. Don’t give up when you fail. Look at every failure as a pre-requisite to success, and keep going. Life is a test of endurance. The more you apply what you’ve learned from your failures, the more likely you are to succeed. (Summarized from a recent post by Jason Womack.)
4. Curb your optimism.Be Realistic. Play to win every day, but remember the Stockdale Paradox: “…maintain unwavering faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” (As summarized in Good to Great by Jim Collins)

So, seemingly, one of the problems with using multiple user accounts to separate work and play is that you might have some data that you want to share between the two accounts, but which should actually be stored in someone’s “My Documents” folder. Take music, for instance. I listen to my music at work and at home, so where should it go? Under my work account or under my home account?

As it turns out, you can have the data appear in both places by placing it in

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\My Documents

So, my music placed in

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\My Documents\My Music

will magically appear in both my work and my home accounts’ “My Music” directories. In fact, anything placed in the “All Users” directory in this fashion will work this way.

Like most things I think, say, or do: this isn’t earth shattering. But it has certainly made things a bit easier for me. And, of course, this technique assumes that you haven’t by-passed the entire “My Documents” paradigm. For example, on my desktop I’ve setup a separate drive to store my data.

Here’s an interesting tip for those who use the same computer for work and personal use: create different accounts for personal use and another for work.

I use a laptop that my employer bought. It’s been an amazing convenience—and has contributed to the huge increase in productivity I’ve seen in the past couple of months. (Getting Things Done by David Allen has also been a significant factor.) I’ve always hated, though, that email from work often interrupted my play. Even if Outlook was closed, there was always the temptation to open it and check my mail.

Having separate accounts ensures that I’m not going to be tempted to check mail over the weekend. And, if I absolutely, positively wanted to check my email, I can log into my work account.