I RECENTLY picked up the NoteTaker wallet from David Allen's site. I'm a firm believer in David's GTD precept to have a "capture device" with you at all times so you can get things out of your head (and eventually into your system and off your mind) whenever they come to you. I'd tried index cards, my notebook, my Palm and then BlackBerry. Nothing matched the ease of paper, but what I wanted was something that would be with me always, and be as easy to carry in jeans as in a suit (and index cards and notebooks are decidedly not).

I had thought about David's wallet in the past, and took the opportunity to inspect his first-hand when we spent some time together last year (disclosure: I have at times served as a "friend of the court" to David and his team, but am not a paid consultant of DavidCo.), but was concerned about the size. "What would I do if I was limited to just a few cards, license, and cash?" I wondered.

"Stop carrying all that extra crap around in your wallet" was the answer.

I've been using the thing for a few months now and love it. Slender (no trouble carrying in jeans, shorts , or suit jacket pockets), high-quality leather, and the retractable Rotring pen, which quickly expands to be a full-sized ball point so you're not fiddling with some minuscule half-pen, is ingenious. In the wallet I comfortably carry the pen, the writing pad (the wallet comes with 9 or 10 extras), five cards of various forms (license, passkeys, insurance card, credit cards), an NYC MetroCard, a pic of Kate, the last five or six receipts I've collected, and some cash.

It all fits well, and the minimizing process, like when I switched to a smaller briefcase last year, was a useful exercise in itself. "Do I really need to carry those extra credit cards with me at all times? Why, should I even have those extra credit cards? (No. Shred them.) And those frequent flier cards?" Nope ... I put them all in a travel wallet that I carry in my briefcase at all times anyway. It's a nice principle: Move to a smaller space and simplify.

It's worked very well. Not only can I quickly jot down any thought for processing later, having the pen in the wallet makes it easy to note receipts and all that other paper you collect while using your wallet on the road. Highly recommended.

I'VE SWITCHED from the Treo 650 to the BlackBerry Pearl, and I couldn't be happier. I'll try to post a longer review later, but the bottom line is that I find the Pearl significantly more reliable, a better phone, and easier for implementing GTD (primarily because the enterprise server syncs tasks and memos on-the-fly).

FlightStats.com

Today Pascal Venier pointed me to FlightStats (which he learned about here). If you're a frequent traveler, FlightStats has more information than you could likely use. It's especially good for judging on-time performance for particular flights and routes, and also has an RSS feed for FAA flight delays -- something I've been looking for for some time. (Thanks, Pascal!)

The Power of Paper

LIFEHACKER has a nice post on the power and utility of paper. I'm a very connected guy and I use a lot of technology. But I still put a lot of faith in paper, and often think business people have been seduced by the novelty of the technology that surrounds them.

Paper is fast. By the time you've opened your PDA or Laptop, I've jotted a note. By the time you've loaded a web-based article in your browser cache, I've taken it out of my "Reading" file and am, well, reading. Paper is also tangible: There is a wonderful kinesthetic quality to reviewing a calendar hard-copy or striking items from a printed or hand-written list. I think that quality makes the experience of review and action more tangible and more lasting.

Example: Kate and I have begun training for a year's worth of distance races, leading up to the Marine Corps. Marathon this October. I wanted to keep a running log to capture exercise and diet, and while I could do so electronically, I chose a small Moleskine ('Mole-eh-skeen-eh') notebook. I did so because I can carry it nearly anywhere, and I can quickly grab and jot items when opportunity strikes. I also knew it would be more powerful to see the ink of my exercise and dietary choices sinking into the paper -- in my own hand -- than it would be to see them appear on a screen.

In fact, I carry three notebooks: A Moleskine journal for personal reflection and as a "commonplace book," a Levenger Circa for work, and the running log. And in a marriage of digital and physical, each week I print my calendar and next actions, which I keep on my laptop, and insert them in my Levenger simply so I can enjoy the qualities of paper as I get things done.

Paper may also be the best medium for something else everyone should carry: A ubiquitous tool for getting things out of your head and off your mind as soon as possible. I've carried 3x5 index cards for this in the past, but know think I'm going to switch to one of these new, small Moleskines. They're thin and flexible enough to carry in the back pocket of your jeans, yet nice enough to carry in your suit-coat pocket.

Look at your worklife and ask the question: Is everything that's digital serving me best in digital form? I think you'll answer, "Probably not."

Tags: moleskine, levenger

What's In My Bag

I ENJOYED READING THIS MICHAEL HYATT POST from this past Spring about "what's in your carry on." As a frequent traveler, every so often I'm asked what I take on the road, and in the spirit of Michael's post, here are my standard carry-on contents.

First of all, I carry the Tumi Gen 4 Expandable Computer Brief in napa leather. It's the top of the line, but with luggage I've found you very much get what you pay for. Tumi's reputation is the best, and it's well deserved. The bag is functional, has many pockets (including rubber-lined pockets for a water bottle and wet umbrella), and most important, it has a sling compartment that saves your laptop from shocks. Critical if you're living on airplanes or mass transit. When expanded, it can carry a huge amount of material--especially important if you do multi-city, multi-meeting trips as do I. I love the leather, but candidly, I hate to see it weather. My next (and third) Tumi bag will likely be ballistic nylon.

In the bag I typically carry:

• One book for reading, and sometimes two. Currently: The Metaphysical Club.
  
  
• A large-size Moleskine ruled notebook, which I use as a personal journal. Moleskine makes a wonderful journal. I first saw them in the news shop at the Savoy in London in 1999, and finally picked one up early this year. They're great.
  
  
• An iGo charger, which I use to charge my laptop. The nice thing about iGo is you can use interchangeable tips to charge other items, like your phone or camera, and only take one charger on the road. So far, I've not gotten other tips. The iGo comes with an airplane and car adapter as well, so you're pretty much good to go for charging anywhere.
  
  
• A Bosca Flight Attendant travel wallet. Carries all my travel documents, frequent guest/flier cards, cash, etc. with ease. My grandfather worked in a Bosca plant in Springfield, Ohio, and in addition to being a fine piece of leather, it's a sentimental favorite.
  
  
• An older iPod with Etymotic's er6i headphones. I've posted about these headphones before; they're spectacular for air travel, exercise ... they do it all.
  
  
• Airplane sleeping comforts: An eye mask, earplugs (if I don't want the Etymotics in), and some Tylenol Cold. I don't sleep well on planes ... too tall to be comfortable ... but a combination of these three makes most red-eyes bearable.
  
  
• A 1 gig jump drive, which I use to backup the current year's files on my PC. It's also useful for giving documents to clients, admins, TelePrompTer operators, etc.
  
  
• A Hitachi 2 gig microdrive and it's PCMIA adapter. This slips into the PCMIA slot on my laptop and is the drive on which I keep all my personal computer documents (the more you work off your PC's hard drive, the sooner your hard drive dies). The adapter also lets me slide any other compact flash-format card into the laptop, like the memory card for my digital camera.
  
  
• A Treo 650 Smartphone. Very nearly the perfect all-in-one PDA, phone, email, web browser tool. I also carry a charger (I should really get the iGo tip) and an extra battery. An example of its handiness: On Friday I needed to send a document to a client but didn't have access to wifi at the airport. So I saved the file (MS Word) on a secure digital card, popped the card in the phone, wrote an email to the client, attached the doc, and sent it along. Seamless. (In fact, as the phone came with DocumentsToGo, I could have edited the document on the phone, if I had so wanted.)
  
  
• A large leather Levenger Circa notebook. I'm going to write a separate post on how I use my Levenger, but suffice to say it's a wonderful tool. I started using Circa four or five years ago, and now they're the tool of choice across the firm.
  
  
• Cords: A charger for the iPod, a sync cable and charger for the Treo, a short Ethernet cable, a dial-up cable, and here's one most people don't carry: a headphone-to-RCA jack cable that lets me plug the iPod into any stereo. Nice if you have a stereo or radio in the hotel room with RCA jacks as you can listen to your music on the road without headphones. Incidentally, these cords all fit nicely in a mesh cord pack that comes with the Tumi bag.
  
  
• The road warrior's greatest companion: The IBM ThinkPad X40. Again, a pricey solution (like the Tumi), but with laptops, too, you get what you pay for. With the X40 you pay for small, light, and rugged. I and others in the firm have carried other laptops -- they just don't hold up like ThinkPads (although anybody can abuse a laptop into submission if they're not careful). Battery lasts forever. Wifi works seamlessly. It's a great traveling PC. (That said, if the world were a perfect place, I'd carry this ...)
  
  
• A packet of iKlear Apple Polish and klear kloths, which I use to keep the screen on the ThinkPad clean and bright (DON'T use water, ammonia, or alcohol ... they trash LCD screens).
  
  
• Client files and project materials. Anything I don't need on a given travel day I pack in my rollaboard suitcase (again Tumi: a Gen 4 Wheeled 22-inch Frequent Traveler ... absolutely incredible bag, especially for packing suits ... again, you get what you pay for), keeping my brief a bit lighter.
  
  
• Supplies: Index cards and pens. I'm very picky about pens, and my current favorite is the uni-ball Signo 207. It's a great gel pen; only downside is no cap, but I don't typically carry a pen in my pocket, so it's not a big deal. It's even refillable.
  
  
• Stationary. In the back pocket of my Levenger I carry some stationary and envelopes that I liberate from hotel room desks. Not a lot; maybe four or five of each. I'm a big believer of high-touch in a time of high-tech, and having some stationary on-hand makes it very easy to jot a handwritten note or letter to someone on the fly. Mailing is easy: just give your letter to the front desk of whatever hotel you might be frequenting and they'll send it for you (and usually not bother you for the postage). I also carry some office stationary in a plastic folder that I can use to print "official" documents on the road, should the need arise.
  
  
• Two clear plastic tie-top folders, both of which are part of my Getting Things Done system: One that's labeled "Home Inbox," where I put anything I want to process at home, and another labeled "Work Inbox," where I put anything I collect on the road that I should process at the office (receipts, business cards, notes to myself, etc.).
  
  
• Two standard plastic file folders, one labeled "Reference / Pending" where I stash any non-client-file materials I'll need for tasks during that trip, and one labeled "Read / Review" which is my read and review file.
  
  
• A book of crossword puzzles for times when I'm toast and don't feel like reading.

It's a lot, but it keeps me productive. When packed, the bag looks something like this. What's in your bag? I'd be interested to know.

Moleskine

Several years ago I had the good fortune to spend the better part of a week in London at the Savoy. One of the things I took away from that trip (besides fine memories and an affection for cocktails made in the style of The American Bar) was a memory of the curious yet strangely appealing notebook in the gift shop I neglected to buy.

I remember its features well: Black. An oddly appealing heft and feeling to the touch. A handy pocket inside the back cover. An elastic band to bind the whole thing together. And a description noting how it was the same notebook used by Picasso and Hemingway.

I didn't think of the notebook again until earlier this year, when I stumbled across a reference to the same notebook at Merlin Mann's 43 Folders. It's called a Moleskine (pronounced "mole-eh-skeen-ah"), and I promptly picked one up at my local Barnes and Noble to use as a journal for recording thoughts on the road.

While the stories of Picasso and Hemingway are in some dispute, and while the notebooks cost more than your average set of tear sheets, they're a wonderful journal with a beautiful aesthetic. You just feel better holding a Moleskine, and they've become a permanent addition to my bag. Find them here.

My interest in Moleskines also led me to two blogs I enjoy: Moleskinerie and Journalisimo (subtitled "Back to Analog"). Both celebrate the aesthetic and art of writing, something I've increasingly enjoyed as I've tried to focus and simplify the technology in my life (my current mantra: be a geek, but be a geek with balance and purpose).

FitDeck

Here's a great little tool for exercising on the road: FitDeck. A deck of 50 cards, each with a  different upper, lower, core, or full body exercise and three different intensity levels for that exercise. The exercises require no equipment, and each takes approximately one minute to complete. Shuffle the deck and pull a card for each minute of workout you want to do ... have 10 minutes, pull 10 cards.

Kate and I have each had a set for a few months, and we love them. Because you're shuffling the deck each time, you never have the same workout twice. They're literally the size of a deck of cards (I leave mine in my suitcase), and they're perfect for strength training in a hotel room or outdoors. And here's the kicker: whatever intensity level you choose, the exercises will kick your butt ... likely because the creator is a former Navy SEAL who has drawn on the workouts SEALs do in the field for the portfolio of exercises in the deck. (That said, there's no workout here than anyone of any fitness level couldn't really do.)

Great if you work out at home; essential if you work out on the road.

As an aside, the founder, Phil Black, is a pretty amazing guy as well. How's this for a resume?

• 1988-92  Yale University
• 1992-94 Goldman, Sachs & Co. (Banker)
• 1995-99 Navy SEAL Officer
• 1999-00 Navy SEAL Instructor
• 2000-02 Harvard Business School
• 2002-03 Goldman, Sachs & Co. (Money Manager)
• 2003-04 FitDeck, Inc. (Founder and President), Certified Personal Trainer, EMT

I Get Seat 1A ... What's In 25F?

The title of this blog is a not-so-oblique reference to the time I spend in airplanes and the travel I do as part of my work. Here's a tool that's been indispensable to me in said work-life: SeatGuru.com. Descriptions of every seat, on every aircraft, of every major airline in the world. Use it before you book your seat assignment, and if it's been booked for you, use it to see if you should change.

Seat 25F on a US Airways 757-200?

A limited recline, avoid if possible.

The site also offers descriptions of power port access, audio and video service, links to current in-flight movies, and more.

Must-Have Headphones

For a while now I've been searching for just the right travel headphones. I take my iPod on the road, using it primarily while exercising and while on airplanes. As a result, I've been looking for something that can cancel noise but also work well while running. For a while my solution was no solution, using my iPod's ear buds while running and a set of Sennheiser noise canceling headphones while on flights.

Now, thanks to my best friend and sound engineer Tony Korologos, I've found the solution: The Er-6i Isolator Earphones from Etymotic Research. Tony has a full review here at the Apple Blog, but suffice to say that I love them. The sound quality is incredible ... you'll instantly hear things you've never heard before ... I'm able to keep the iPod at a much lower volume than with the ear buds or Sennheisers, and when the music is playing they nearly cancel all noise around you. Great for when you're in the gym and don't want to hear CNN or the grunts behind you; even better when you're in seat 1A and want to work, sleep, or relax.

They're a bit lacking in the low-end, but you can adjust the EQ for this (I've found that the "Hip Hop" EQ setting on my iPod best boosts the low end while still suiting my tastes). It also takes some time to get used to the feeling of something in your ear canal, and I find I have to remove them every hour or so on long flights or they can get uncomfortable, but this decreases over time. Something I love: they are extremely small and light (I've never purchased the Bose noise canceling phones simply because they are so large). Highly recommended, and worth the price.

MindManager

About a month ago I posted on CommLog about MindManager, a "mind mapping" software app from MindJet. I wrote then that it was:

... an absolutely wonderful mind-mapping tool by MindJet that I’ve been using under trial. It’s a winner, especially if you’re a visual thinker, and if you’ve not yet been party to its tools, check it out.

I've been using it for a month now, and I've been so impressed that I've paid the licensing fee. In that time it's become an invaluable tool. I use it to plan projects, to brainstorm, and to design content. I've also started using it for meeting agendas, and to replace flip charts in tracking meeting or facilitation content--I just throw the map up on the LCD screen, and capture and organize participant content in real-time. I can then immediately export the content to MS Word or PowerPoint, and send the whole thing to participants the same day (or even better, put it on a jump drive and pass it around ... MindManager will even "pack" the map and any associated files as a web page that users can use to "click through" what they've produced).

Another surprise use: project organization. I can easily create a map with the structure of a project, and because MindManager works with hyperlinks, drag and drop key files, folders, email addresses, and web sites directly into the map. I can then use the map as a nexus for the project, making changes, adding content, creating tasks, and updating files as I go. (Click on this image to see a larger version of a map I've used to manage a coaching for teams project we recently completed.)

It's really a wonderful tool; download a trial and see for yourself. And while there are competitors out there--some of which are cheaper (MindManager is as expensive as MS Office products), and some of which are open source and free--I've been very pleased with MindManager's support, templates, easy of use, and interface with the Microsoft suite.

Highly recommended (and you might want to check out MindJet's blog as well).