Eric Mack On-Line

A marriage proposal to remember...

Eric Mack — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:50:21 -0700

Here's an over-the-top and magical wedding proposal. John proposes to Erika in the middle of Main Street at Disneyland.

But watch, something special happens.

I wonder if she knew he could sing?

I still prefer my marriage proposal to my kindergarten crush. (See the comments for Kathy's telling of the story)

Via: Video of the Day
Eric Mack's personal blog

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

"Jesus Saved my Soul. GTD Saved my future"

Eric Mack — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:48:04 -0700

"Jesus Saved my Soul. GTD Saved my future."

Now there's a blog opener that will get someone's attention. It's from a blog post, How GTD Rescued Me, by Scott Gould. Scott's sharing his experience implementing GTD and specific the impact it's having on his life and ministry.

I know that there are a significant number of people in ministry that have implemented the GTD methodology to help them cope with a constantly changing set of priorities. For these people ministry is all about getting things done.

David Allen lovingly refers to these folks as ClerGTD.

I talked with a pastor friend about this phenomenon and he explained that GTD is the approach that allows him to serve his congregation and stay on top of things when his priorities can suddenly change with a phone call (e.g. Mrs. Smith is in the hospital, etc.)

I'm delighted to see the positive impact that GTD is having in people's lives.

Neat stuff.

Welcome to the GTD community, Scott. I look forward to reading about your experiences getting things done in ministry!

Blog: Scott Gould
Eric Mack's personal blog

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

Emily & Kelly draw 12 names of lucky GTD Software winners!

Eric Mack — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:30:00 -0700

A few weeks ago, I announced two free drawings for GTD Productivity tools. Sponsored by ICA, ActiveWord Systems, and Gyronix, the drawings awarded prizes with a total value of over $2000.

People were invited to to download and explore eProductivity for Lotus Notes. Everyone that did, got their name entered in the drawing. Those that took the time to send in feedback, got their name entered a second time. No purchase was required.

On June 2, Kelly drew the names of the first six winners and on June 15 Emily drew the next six for a total of 12 lucky winners.

Visit the Inside.eProductivity blog to find out who won.

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

Top Ten Gifts a Dad can give his Children

Eric Mack — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:52:44 -0700

This weekend, a friend shared a list of the top ten things a father can give his children.

1. A Spiritual compass

2. A Biblical self-image

3. Physical affection

4. Roots and wings

5. Marital harmony

6. A positive attitude

7. Purposeful discipline

8. A good role-model

9. A passion for life

10. ______________

What would YOU add to this list?
Eric Mack's personal blog

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

I’m giving away free GTD & productivity software

Eric Mack — Fri, 5 Jun 2009 12:04:00 -0700

I've decided to give away licenses and subscriptions to some of my favorite GTD productivity software.

Inspired by this week's GTD with Lotus Notes podcast with GTD Coach, Kelly Forrister, I've decided to take a short break from showing people how to get more done with Lotus Notes and eProductivity to equip them with a way to get more done:

Here are ome of the applications I'm giving away:

Why am I doing this? This is an experiment to see if a drawing will be successful in encouraging people who have never experienced eProductiivty to visit the web site and try it.

In just over a week, I will hold a drawing for free GTD & productivity software. The drawing will be Monday, June 15, 2009. That's only 10-days away; so follow this link for to enter.

Help me spread the word. Do you blog or Tweet? Do you think this offer would be of interest to your friends? You know what to do. (Thanks!)

I wish you the best of luck in the drawing.

Eric

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

Podcast: Getting Things Done with IBM Lotus Notes

Eric Mack — Thu, 4 Jun 2009 12:47:30 -0700

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

Worldwide GTD Weekly Review this coming week

Eric Mack — Sat, 23 May 2009 23:20:56 -0700

In the fast pace of today's business world, we are pressed to do more with less, to track more things and, well, get things done. Unfortunately, it's easy to get overwhelmed, miss something, and have things fall through the cracks. When that happens, you lose control and perspective and this can have a draining impact on your personal productivity, causing unpleasant ripples in your personal and professional life.

The solution is to hold the world back once a week so that you can do a thorough review of everything that you have (or should have) attention on. David Allen calls this, the Weekly Review. By completing a thorough review, you will feel a greater sense of control and perspective throughout the week and when you do it consistently it will transform the way you get things done.

The Weekly Review Process. It is the critical success factor for people that want to get things done.

This Thursday, May 28th, GTD Coach and fellow eProductivity user Kelly Forrister is leading the first Worldwide GTD Weekly Review. Kelly will be using Twitter to coach a global audience through the Weekly Review process.

Here's how the Worldwide GTD Weekly Review will work:

On Thursday, May 28th from 10AM-11AM Pacific Time (check your local time), clear your schedule to do a GTD Weekly Review. Follow me @GTDCoachKelly, or follow the tag #Tweekly. I’ll walk everyone through the GTD Weekly Review checklist. We’ll have 5 minutes per step before moving on to the next one. Yes, 5 minutes. Idea is to get you through a taste of all of 11 steps. If you’re not done with a step, just bookmark your next actions list with what’s left and move on to the next one. I’ll Tweet the step and an explanation of what you can do. Or, if you are so inspired and getting good stuff out of the step you’re on, stay there. There’s no “should” here except to get whatever value you want to get out of it!

I encourage everyone to participate in the Worldwide GTD Weekly Review.

Notes users: I invite you to have a look at how David Allan and I manage our Weekly Review in Lotus Notes, While, you do not have to use Lotus Notes or eProductivity to do a successful Weekly Review, it just might be easier.

Bloggers/Twitterers: It would be great to have some people blog or tweet their experience doing a Weekly Review in Lotus Notes. (If you would like your own license of eProductivity see here. I have three left.) It looks like Paul Gardner already has the first post up.

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

Watching Free Willy with my daughters

Eric Mack — Sat, 23 May 2009 21:53:06 -0700

We've got Free Willy playing on the big screen.

On the first 5 minutes of the VHS tape there is a music video by Michael Jackson and a commercial for the "Save the Whales Foundation."

Let me get this straight:

In the commercial, the Save the Whales foundation is sponsored by BumbleBee Tuna?

Sounds fishy to me.

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

Celebrating accomplishments in the AWANA program

Eric Mack — Tue, 19 May 2009 09:44:00 -0700

We recently attended the Awana year-end celebration. Part of the activities include recognition of each child's accomplishments.

Emily (11) earned her Timothy Award through the Awana Bible club program. She has been a part of Awana since she was 3. To earn this award, Emily spent the last four years memorizing 438 Bible verses! Emily also participated in Awana Bible Quizzing this year, and her team earned a second place ribbon.

Kelly (9) earned the Awana Bible club Excellence Award. Like her sister, she has participated in the Awana program since age 3. Kelly spent the last two years memorizing 190 Bible verses. She also represented our church at the Awana Games tournament, earning a third place ribbon, and at the Awana Bible Quizzing event, where she took home a first place medal.

Next year, Amy & Wendy will earn their Citation awards for their accomplishments, including memorization and reference of almost 800 verses.

The Awana program has spent the last 60 years helping churches and parents raise children and youth to know, love, and serve Christ. It does this by teaching them to hide God's Word in their heart (Psalm 119:11) - by memorizing the Scriptures and by study, Q&A, and games. Each week more than 1 million children and youth, and 250,000 volunteers participate in Awana in over 17,000 U.S. churches, and in over 100 countries.

I am thankful for the Awana program which helps parents teach their children to hid God's Word in their hearts. The Bible teaches us that God's Word does not return void. No doubt, this knowledge will serve them well throughout their lifetime.

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

Kelly’s first fish

Eric Mack — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:05:24 -0700

I spend far too much time in my office. Fortunately, I only have to step outside to enjoy the beauty of God's creation. Yesterday, I took the girls fishing at the lake down the street. Within minutes, Kelly had caught her first fish, an 11" Bass. A wonderful day and a delight to see the smile on my daughter's face when she proudly displayed her catch!

We did see 24" Catfish swimming around, but it was not the least bit interested in our measly worm. Perhaps another day...

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

What most excites me about Knowledge Management

Eric Mack — Thu, 7 May 2009 18:15:00 -0700

This evening in one of my Knowledge Management (KM) meetings, we were asked to introduce ourselves and share what most excites us about Knowledge Management. Here's what I shared:

I am an eProductivity specialist - I show people how to use information, communication, and action tools to get things done. I've spent most of my career working on helping people apply tools and methodologies to become more productive, efficient and effective at what they do.

I believe the next great opportunity in individual and team performance and innovation is in the area of Personal Knowledge Management (PKM): how we use what we know and what others know to get things done.

I believe that PKM skills can help people bring about the greatest transformation in individual and organizational productivity and innovation. It is this aspect/opportunity of KM that excites me the most.

I realize that some of you may not like my use of the term "Knowledge Management," Perhaps you think that it's not possible to manage what's inside of other people's heads. That's true, but I still think KM is an appropriate term and here's why: Since what we know is a critical part of our intellectual value equation, then clearly managing what we know and who we know and how we use that knowledge to make informed decisions has great value.

As knoweldge workers, knowledge is the raw material that drives our work. Therefore, we must learn to become better at managing and transforming what we know into what we do.

Notice that my emphasis is on what we know and on the decisions we make. Simply knowing something does not create results. That knowledge must be turned into action and ultimately, actions happen at the individual level.

That's why I'm most excited about personal KM.

How about you? What most excites you about knowledge management?

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

Managing GTD systems on two machines

Eric Mack — Thu, 7 May 2009 14:09:34 -0700

Over on the GTD Times blog, Patrick asks how to manage GTD system across multiple machines. Peter Simoons says that eProductivity is the answer.

That's not quite true.

While Peter is a big fan of eProductivity and I appreciate the unsolicited promotion, the real credit goes to Lotus Notes and its ability to replicate information across Windows/Mac/Linux computers seamlessly.

I've just posted a comment that explains how David Allen uses Lotus Notes to create a single trusted system across all of his computers and mobile devices.

Read: Managing GTD systems on two machines and David's Lotusphere greeting

Update: Apparently my comment son GTD Times have not been approved yet, so here's what I posted:

Patrick,
As David Allen’s technologist for 15 years, I can share that David uses Lotus Notes, from IBM, to solve this challenge and it works very well. with Lotus Notes, he can maintain his projects and actions in a single trusted system that replicates across ALL of his computers, including his Mac, PC, and mobile devices (e.g. Treo).
If David wants to work on his PC, he can pick up his ThinkPad and everything will be there. If he wants to play with his shiny new Mac Air, he can pick that up and all of his information will be there. And, if he’s on the run, he takes his Treo with him and his stuff is there.
In short, he simply picks up whichever tool he prefers and gets things done.
Lotus Notes makes it seamless.
In addition to Lotus Notes, David also uses and recommends eProductivity (http://www.eProductivity.com), an optional tool that makes GTD in Lotus Notes easy. You can start with basic Lotus Notes and follow the GTD Implementation guide to create a very nice system.
Eric Mack
eProductivity Specialist
http://www.eProductivity.com

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

Efficienter werken met GTD en Lotus Notes

Eric Mack — Fri, 1 May 2009 14:46:00 -0700

Sander Zwart is blogging about his experience implementing GTD in Lotus Notes.

It's exciting to read emails and blogs from people around the world that are finding ways to increase their personal productivity and effectiveness using IBM Lotus Notes.

In case you don't read Dutch, here's the English translation.
Eric Mack's personal blog

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

Yes, you can get sent home from homeschool

Eric Mack — Fri, 1 May 2009 13:46:21 -0700

Not that this ever happens in our home but the neat thing about homeschool discipline is that you can tell your child that if she continues to disrupt the class she will have to leave the room and will miss home school for the rest of the day.

No one wants to miss out on homeschool.

Works like a charm.
Eric Mack's personal blog

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

GTD Summit Videos - See what you missed

Eric Mack — Fri, 1 May 2009 02:41:50 -0700

A simply awesome event. I can hardly wait for the next one.

GTD Summit web site
Eric Mack's personal blog

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

Facebook, the Electronic Friendship Generator

Eric Mack — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 09:56:18 -0700

Facebook Manners and You - everything you need to know for happy, healthy relationships on FaceBook

Via: Six Pixels of Separation
Eric Mack's personal blog

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

Did you know? The Case for Knowledge Management & Social Networking at IBM

Eric Mack — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:48:13 -0700

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

Are you an early or late chronotype?

Eric Mack — Mon, 6 Apr 2009 18:36:11 -0700

"If we really wanted a productive solution for life and business, we would let morning people work at their optimum time, and let night persons work when they are at their best. A novel thought, but maybe people would be happier and more productive?"

Dr. John Medina, Author Brain Rules.
Eric Mack's personal blog

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

Teach me to think. Engage Me...

Eric Mack — Fri, 3 Apr 2009 17:26:56 -0700

It seems that the students have changed and adapted from the industrial age to the information age, but has the educational system kept up?
This video highlights some of the challenges of knowledge transfer in K-12 education.

What do you think?
Eric Mack's personal blog

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online

“Small is the new big.” “Trust is the new competitive advantage” KM/PKM is an Opportunity.

Eric Mack — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 07:25:00 -0700

I read Peter Bregman’s post in Harvard Business Publishing on why be believes that small businesses will win in this economy. Several things he said have me thinking about the opportunities in this up economy. At a time when many large organizations are downsizing to try and become more productive, I believe there are significant opportunities for small businesses to leverage KM and PKM principles for competitive advantage.

The author explains why small businesses are poised for significant advantage over large companies.

Some key points that I took away:

People in senior positions don’t trust the decisions being handed to them.

Customers value the personal relationship.

Small businesses give their employees a sense of security, which they in turn pass along to their customers/clients.

The gap of confidence between small businesses and big ones is growing.

We don’t trust companies any more; we trust people.

Small companies with low overhead, reliable owners, a small number of committed employees, personal client relationships, and sustainable business models that drive a reasonable profit are the great opportunity of our time.

Clearly, there’s an opportunity to model leadership and ethics here. There’s also an opportunity for KM and PKM to support these growing small businesses. One of the commenter’s, Dan Collins, had this to say:

“There’s so much the little guy can do that large corporates can’t – communicate internally, react quickly to client demands and make priorities to name just three.”

I may be looking at this through KM-colored glasses, but I think that KM can be a powerful tool to support a) communicating internally, b) react quickly to client demands, and c) making [informed] priorities.

With so many businesses going out of business, I believe now is the time for ethically-led and well- informed knowledge-driven, customer-focused businesses to flourish.

What do you think? Do you agree with the author? …with my takeaways? …with the opportunity for KM/PKM to support small business service and competition?

SOURCE: Why Small Companies Will Win in This Economy

Originally posted on Eric Mack Online