And, where do you keep it? It seems that whether at work or at home office or even in the kitchen, I rely a lot on posted paper reference lists such as conversions, reference calendar (multiple), printed directories,words I always misspell, other lists. My co-workers and family think this is old fashioned at best and ocd at worst. And, now I want to add a new one from a fabulous little book called "The 10% Solution" by Ken Rand, which is a guide for reducing the length of your written work by 10%. I shared this with them and instead of gratitude, they are rolling their eyes... .
Do you use any Ready Reference stuff? What? How?
- Thread starter Jamie Elis
- Start date
Quick Reference
I have many things like this at work - schedules, charts, directories, benefit percentages, etc. I use a "presentation book" from Staples that comes bound with sheet protector pages inside. I put my most frequently used pages on the front and back cover sleeves and then fill pages so I can see items from both sides of each page.
You can also buy wall mounted or stands that are made to hold reference material, but they're expensive and the book works fine for me.
I have many things like this at work - schedules, charts, directories, benefit percentages, etc. I use a "presentation book" from Staples that comes bound with sheet protector pages inside. I put my most frequently used pages on the front and back cover sleeves and then fill pages so I can see items from both sides of each page.
You can also buy wall mounted or stands that are made to hold reference material, but they're expensive and the book works fine for me.
I have a few of such lists. Most are digital so they're on my computer in Basket note pads (it's kinda similar to things / oneNote but for linux) in a checklists folder.
But your 'real' question seems to be "Are you doing this as well, because people are calling me nuts and I hate it", So I think you should look at one or two of your most productivity-increasing lists and ask them nicely "I noticed you apparantly don't agree that this is worth doing, but could you tell me why because I don't understand". Then listen, don't react emotionally, but try to provide counterarguments (in the style "but what about...?" and not like "you're wrong because...") to their arguments and don't discuss for too long. Either they wil have good arguments, and then you need to think about those, either they will have bad/no arguments, and they you can stop worrying about the whole thing since you're know certain that they are simply wrong. But you won't know until you honostly listen to their arguments.
PS: Also, make sure you're not actually obsessing over this stuff. If you were to come up to them screaming "Woohoo, look at this, I just spend an entire workday not doing work but creating a new list based on this awesome book I read and it's gone be so super awesome when I use it. I just love lists, they are the gateway to productivity paradise" then rolling eyes are of course not an unusual answer
But I assume that's not the case for you.
But your 'real' question seems to be "Are you doing this as well, because people are calling me nuts and I hate it", So I think you should look at one or two of your most productivity-increasing lists and ask them nicely "I noticed you apparantly don't agree that this is worth doing, but could you tell me why because I don't understand". Then listen, don't react emotionally, but try to provide counterarguments (in the style "but what about...?" and not like "you're wrong because...") to their arguments and don't discuss for too long. Either they wil have good arguments, and then you need to think about those, either they will have bad/no arguments, and they you can stop worrying about the whole thing since you're know certain that they are simply wrong. But you won't know until you honostly listen to their arguments.
PS: Also, make sure you're not actually obsessing over this stuff. If you were to come up to them screaming "Woohoo, look at this, I just spend an entire workday not doing work but creating a new list based on this awesome book I read and it's gone be so super awesome when I use it. I just love lists, they are the gateway to productivity paradise" then rolling eyes are of course not an unusual answer
But I assume that's not the case for you.
Oogiem
0
Jamie Elis;84926 said:
My ready reference stuff is now kept in a DEVONThink database that is synced between my Mac and my iPod Touch. That way I have it to hand whenever I need it.
I have things like normal body temps for various livestock, drug doses, grazing days, fence costs and dates installed, irrigation data all sorts of misc small notes.
I have a noticeboard at work that I keep this kind of thing on - phone numbers, budget codes, the address for the notary we use most often, a list of who edits each section of our monthly newsletter, the exercises my chiropractor told me to do at my desk each day, and so on. I also have quite a few in the Notes section of my Outlook/Blackberry.