In basket

Believe it or not, when I first joined IBM, every other cubicle dweller seemed to have one of those desk baskets that consisted of an in, a pending and an out shelf. The pending shelf was usually the middle shelf, while the in and the out shelf could be either the top or the bottom depending on the person's taste. The lack of standards necessitated labeling of them In or Out.

And if you had achieved enough of a rank (like becoming a manager or level l 59 which is band 9 for you youngsters) the department assistant would come to your office to feed your in basket and take care of filing stuff from your out basket.

Eldon's talk last LPG brought back this timeless technique of managing activities and to-do's, which goes to show that good ideas never die they just get recycled.

I am a believer of recycling good ideas. Often times wisdom comes when you take another look at a situation or some piece information with a different perspective--from another angle. It might surprise some that not every one is equally endowed with this ability to widen the scope to take another look. There are people who are so convinced that they got it right the first time they will fight you and argue with you and convince you that there is only one way and it's their way.

Since last week I have been in Orlando for a couple of weeks to practice taking another look at things. I am attending the Avatar Wizard course for the fifth time.

I won't be at LPG this Friday. Eldon will conduct session 2 of the life hacking discussions.