Mimi Yin wrote:
<small>Re: [Design] stickies on the calendar...Chandler as
a syst</small>
Hi Daniel,
So if I
understand you correctly, your concern is that Stickies
encourages the wrong kinds of behaviors? By allowing people to pile on
lots of fuzzy-date Stickies, do we set people up to delay and perhaps
never decide what their information means to them? Possibly No. 1 way
to not getting anything done, ever in GTD?
This is precisely
what I meant. Although 3M might sell a huge lot of them and might be a
really successful business
I completely
see where you're coming from and it's a fine line to
walk when designing any personal productivity tool. How do you provide
people with enough flexibility, such that they will actually bother to
use the system, yet herd them in the general direction of more
effective productivity? It was a recurring theme in our day with David
Allen and we haven't quite figured out a party line on this
issue.
Neither have I
However, a
pattern has begun to emerge from our various GTD
discussions:
While the core
of GTD is conceptual in nature and addresses basic
human behavioral tendencies and problems, I often feel the specifics
of GTD methodology have more to do with treating the symptoms of the
problem of human disorganization, not the problem itself.
An analogy
might be: Having chocolate cake around results in
over-eating for some people. But it would be very sad for everyone if
we had to ban chocolate cake altogether AND it's not clear that
getting rid of the source of temptation would solve the root of
someone's overeating problem either.
If you dare to ban
chocolate cake I will personally go up there and kill you with my own
hands, don´t even dare!! :o)
Being less childish, lets put an analogy.
One could go with a Freudian psychologist and would probably be for
many years trying to solve the root of a problem
One could go to a behavior (not sure the word in English) psychologist
and treat the symptoms but get you going in a month or two.
Or one could go to first a behavior and after treating successfully the
symptom, then decide to dig deeper and do a Freudian but maybe taking
less time and pain.
If it was you, which one would you choose?
Please note that I know nothing about psychologist treatments, I am
only supposing.
In GTD, the
resistance to keeping things fuzzy could be
reinterpreted as simply an antidote to symptoms specific to a concrete
and unflexible "information world" where:
1. a piece of
paper can only live in a single folder
2. a note can
only live in one GTD flat list and
3. pieces of
paper and notes can't change to become other
things
Which leads us
to ponder: how would the GTD methodology change if
it was no longer bounded by the real-world physical metaphors of files
in file folders?
Let me think it
over the pillow
In Chandler,
items can live in multiple places and items
themselves can change (through stamping). Chandler items are NOT like
the papers and manila folders in our file cabinets.
So now if we
address two of the specific GTD concerns you brought
up in the context of Chandler's "new world" paradigm, how
does the discussion change?
1. Do Stickies
encourage people to have multiple Inboxes? One on
their calendar, the other in the Dashboard. Not really, since items
live in multiple places in Chandler, any sticky you add to your
Calendar would have a Triage status (just like any other content item
in the PIM) and would be managed in your Dashboard as well with the
help of automatic Ticklers.
I am not at your
same level about Chandler to give you a quick response to this one :o(
2. Will
Stickies just pile up into an incomprehensible mess over
time? This is certainly a danger for some people. But I wonder if one
of the problems with Stickies (both electronic and paper) is that
they're great for capturing fuzzy data, but once they've been created,
they can never become more than that. They can never become more
structured and specific OR at least, it's an onerous process for you
to turn a generic sticky into something that has specific meaning to
you.
You really have a
point in this one. Please note that in my last mails I was speaking of
the stickies less like stickies but more of what they could actually
mean to the user. Fuzziness, Different kind of graphic representation.
I would include the property of morphing into something else maybe from
your words above.
Which is where
stamping and labeling in Chandler comes in. You
can start out by plopping a sticky on your calendar for this week. And
then over time, you can add specificity to the sticky: Tuesday, 2PM,
with Joanne, at Mondo's, to talk about: new hires, etc...
=====
In sum,
The ability to
easily"turn your sticky" into more and
more structured data over time PLUS
The ability to
keep track of this "fuzzy" data through
Triage and Tickling in the Dashboard may EQUAL
A
self-sustaining system that actually allows people to be
flexible with data and iterate on information WITHOUT losing track of
it and having it all end up in various messy piles all over the
place.
At least that's
the dream.
I now it´s a dream
and I am well intentioned to feed it.
I for sure love to dream.
What I feel right now is that everything is very abstract (minded).
It´s like I would love to give it a try and say well I was wrong or
well this is great but with this little twist it would be excellent.
But what is sure is that I am here to help (or at least I want to).
I think this
gets at some of the core concepts behind how
Chandler is a system, not just a storage facility.
I have been doing
some thinking about this, I have (I believe) some interesting concepts
I would love to share, but still I could not find the time to fully
(even quickly) develop.
Yours,
Daniel
:o) Mimi
At 11:14 AM
-0300 11/9/05, Daniel Vareika wrote:
Mimi:
As I said, with stickies I am not sure where I am right or wrong, I
was just putting forward a pillar of GTD.
I understand every point you make, I do not disagree with you.
A part of me loves the stickies in the calendar, the other part tells
me it might be wrong.
Self Criticism:
I do have stickies (real physical ones) around the computer
monitor.
They are actually even one on top of the other.
I have counted them, there are 40 of them in 12 piles.
Some are short lived and work, some are not.
I did use stickies on the mac, but in the end I decided that it was
more of a mess than a help (this is truly personal).
Points in this issue:
1) To know whether people find stickies (physical or software
based) really useful. What I mean is whether they help more than get
in the way although one might use them a lot.
I use them a lot but doing a serious self criticism I would prefer not
having to use them at all or limit my usage.
2) White spaces in a calendar is really telling us something not
nothing. It is telling us how much time by the space do we have left
so as to use thoughtfully.
White spaces are useful, the size of them transmit invaluable
information.
3) I love the concept of fuzziness in a calendar, that is for me the
greatest point Mimi has. With other calendar apps like the Palm
Desktop one finds things to be sometimes too rigid. Fuzziness is a
great concept to explore.
4) Going over the stickies concept what I love is not really the
concept as a stickie but graphically speaking, another way to convey
info.
Let me explain myself: I, might be boring regarding calendars, but I
recall what girls did in school and high school. They did a lot of
drawing, some really beautiful, most of them conveyed really useful
info for them, like their best friends birthdays. To be able to convey
some type of info in a different manner, even different size makes it
much more attractive, but mostly much more useful, since for them,
their best friends party was the most important thing.
I know this concept is adding a layer of complexity not intended even
for 1.0 but it could be good to brainstorm on it, why we are compelled
by some other form of graphically presenting the information.
For one thing we have different icons in our desktop that transmit
clearly their function.
5) I believe there are other, really useful ways of managing and
arranging information.
This might have nothing to do with tags, keywords, dates or users. It
is how we arrange spatially that info. I do it for certain with my
desktop, even taking the time to change some folders icon to more
descriptive ones.
For me, the spatial relationship of these folders, their icons and how
they are arranged, conveys really useful info.
The same thing happens with our physical desktop and our office in a
broader sense.
6) Clutter. I understand Mimi´s point in that visual clutter
regarding the GUI is different from one owns clutter.
>From experience we all know that what might be clean for one is a mess
to another, and one is capable of finding even in it´s own mess that
little paper. Nonetheless, reading GTD points out some other things,
like its bad to have many different in boxes, that we end up not
really managing our life. I am trying to work like GTD although it´s
hard to be methodical, but I find there are really benefits on it.
Still I would not generalize an opinion (I am talking only for
myself).
Idea:
Maybe those stickies could be really small ones like the notes in
Acrobat (much cuter though!) and that you could open them or see
inside them if you point at them. This way they won´t use much real
state. On the other hand they could be different icons like smiling
faces, etc.. to be able to personalize them and mean something to the
user. This way it gets much more personal a calendar in a traditional
sense.
Transparency and Fade in or out as Brad pointed out, I think are worth
brainstorming.
Yours,
Daniel
Mimi Yin wrote:
Yes
you're right, David Allen does say to only put things on your calendar
that are appointments, commitments to time that you will not break,
not well-intentioned plans to get work done, that in all likelihood
will get pushed aside as new emergencies come in to throw you off
balance.
By
simply maintaining a list of things you CAN do rather than trying to
adhere to traditional notions of "time management" where you
try and plot out exactly when you're going to complete tasks, is his
way of maintaining a state of mind like water. You stay flexible, by
not locking yourself down with a "schedule" you can't keep
anyway.
I wonder
though, if the stickies on the calendar is something different from
"time management." The whole idea is that you keep things
loose. You're not blocking out time to complete tasks (ie. Next Monday
from 1-3PM, I'm going to write this proposal) which is simply
unrealistic, because you have no idea what's going to have happened
Monday morning that's going to blow away your
plans.
Instead,
you're simply placing reminders for yourself near and around the
appropriate time period.
So think
of the stickies as yet another way to display a GTD context. Time
sensitive contexts. This is essentially what David Allen does himself
with his month-based Tickler files. He puts items into folders labeled
with each month of the year and the beginning of each Month, he dumps
the contents of that Month's folder into his
Inbox.
Instead
of @hardware store or @computer, this is for things that are @October
(ie. Go enjoy fall colors in the park.) or @Next week (ie. Pick up
pastries for people at the Office on the way to
work.)
Whenever
you are looking at a week on your calendar, you are pulling up an
@context list for things that are relevant to that week. The same way
when you pull up an @context list for things relevant to the hardware
store, you're asking yourself, what things can I get done at the
hardware store?
So if
anything, stickies on the calendar could be conceived of as the
opposite of time management. Instead, it's a way for people to
"be fuzzy" about when they do things and simply assign a
loose date range. Over time, as things become clearer, as your
calendar fills up, as new information comes to light, you may narrow
the window of time...but like most other things in Chandler, it's an
iterative process.
:o)
As for
clutter, I generally believe that self-made clutter is okay. Some
people thrive on it. What's overwhelming is when the UI comes
pre-cluttered with concepts and gizmos you don't understand or when
you have to navigate someone else's self-made
clutter.
On Nov
8, 2005, at 5:20 PM, Daniel Vareika wrote:
Mimi:
Although it sounds compelling (to use real state that is in other way
unused, we would be promoting as for GTD a bad habit.
If I was to stick to the rule of GTD that only those things that one
should do on a certain moment should be in the calendar, then the
concept of stickies shouldn´t go.
On the other hand one is being too orthodox on this matter.
It is extremely attractive the idea and the display, but again:
would we be promoting clear, fast transmission of the info, or
clutter?
I still prefer the Mac OS simplicity.
I do not know how to make this powerful, attractive idea something
that empowers users instead of getting into the way.
I would like feedbacks on that matter.
I might be completely off
I think it means much more than stickies whats in place in this
one.
Yours,
Daniel
I am being the devils advocate on purpose, not because I want to.
Mimi Yin wrote:
Also
sending out an idea that someone who is interviewing for the
Scooby designer position came up with during their interview.
The problem they were presented with was: There's all this free space
on the calendar that's not being used, how can we help the user
maximize screen real estate?
It's potentially a really great way to simulate the way people use
paper calendars.
Proposal: Floating stickies on the calendar.
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