The Weekly Review

It’s the beginning of a brand new year and in this episode Jean and James take a look back at 2019 with some resolutions and accomplishments and look forward to getting things done in 2020. Topics include getting away from or sticking with social media platforms and getting a new health care plan.

The holiday season can be a time to gather together with those we care about. It can also be a season of not only giving, but receiving. In this episode, Jean and James talk about receiving gifts that can become projects in and of themselves. Topics include everything from clothing in the wrong size, to making a cash gift more personally meaningful, to thoughts on how to handle a gift from someone you care about that leaves you scratching your head with what to do with it.

The holiday season is in full swing. Did you forget to get yourself a gift? Here’s a suggestion.

As we prepare to enter these too busy times, don’t forget to give yourself the gift of spending some time doing absolutely nothing this season.
Patrick Rhone, Rhoneisms, December 1, 2019

The Case For Doing Nothing, Olga Mecking, New York Times, April 29, 2019

We have a special guest this week: David Sparks from the podcast Focused, among many others. David and his co-host Mike Schmitz recently did an episode on the best use of calendars, and we asked David to talk about some of his favorite calendar strategies, including hyperscheduling and a year-at-a-glance wall calendar.

David and Mike even designed a special 2020 FOCUSED Wall Calendar, available for purchase from NeuYear. Jean bought one, and is looking forward to 2020 a little bit more now.

Thanks again, David, for coming on our podcast.

James and Jean talk about that awkward year-end period, wedged between two major holidays in the U.S. (not counting Black Friday and Cyber Monday), when important year-end matters vie for attention with holiday-related shopping and travel. How do you stay on track during these challenging seasons? (No, seriously, it’s not a rhetorical question. Help us out with your strategies!)

The Depth of Our Madness, Focused podcast, Episode 85, Oct. 29, 2019.

The FOCUSED 2020 Wall Calendar. “Life is more than cranking widgets.”

During this Thanksgiving week episode Jean and James talk about things they are thankful for. This includes their trusted systems which not only help them accomplish things but also lets them have piece of mind when spending time with family and friends.

The conversation veers into technology more than originally intended: James is very thankful for his new 16-inch MacBook Pro. Jean contemplates getting some Air Pods Pro and James unveils his new service to help people rationalize buying things they want to buy anyway.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our listeners!

In this episode Jean and James talk about different modes of operation. James observes a long-standing pattern in his behavior that automatically flips between project-focus and organizational-focus. Jean and James brainstorm some ways to try to keep this pattern from causing weekly reviews and trusted system updates from slipping.

Plus, a karaoke discussion about projects versus external lists as well as the odd karaoke song selection at the resort where Jean and James attended the Release Notes conference last month.

Jean attended WordCamp Seattle over the weekend to catch up with the latest topics of interest in the WordPress user community. A session on task management caught her attention, so she attended and got some fresh perspective from a non-Getting Things Done point of view.

Many thanks to Annie LaCroix of Brainy Boss for an excellent and thought-provoking presentation.

In this episode, Jean and James talk about some items that have on their project lists for a long time, progress made, next actions taken, and the wonderful feeling of finally completing a long-running project. Also, James celebrates an anniversary and Jean describes how she is using OmniFocus to make the transition back to activity from convelescence.

This week, James and Jean talk about a tool used in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: “15 Styles of Distorted Thinking,” a list of common traps our minds fall into when assessing reality, and how those traps prevent us from having the stress-free approach to productivity we are seeking.

Disclaimer: as we frequently like to say, we are not gurus. We are not experts on productivity or psychology. We are just two friends talking about what works for us.

15 Styles of Distorted Thinking

PDF: 15 Styles of Distorted Thinking