43 Inboxes

4:06 PM Saturday, April 8, 2006

[Can an ornery cuss be productive?]

While doing research for Jonathan's Coffeeblog, I came across many references to Merlin Mann's superb productivity site, 43 Folders. As I mentioned in another post, I had the good fortune to meet Merlin in person at the last Tinderbox Weekend San Francisco. I learned that 43 was the number of folders needed for a GTD tickler file according to David Allen, comprised of 12 monthly folders and 31 daily folders. The 43 Folders site, with its mystical prime number of 43, has given rise to a whole spate of "43" sites, such as 43 Places, 43 People, and 43 Things.

As I made efforts to implement productivity techniques as described by Merlin, David, and others, I came to the distressing realization that I personally do not have the temperament to implement easily their helpful suggestions. For example, if I actually had a tickler file (see below), I would be very likely to resist doing a task that gets "tickled" any given day, preferring to do something else, anything else, or nothing at all. Why? Because I'm an ornery cuss, that's why. Merlin spoke at Tinderbox Weekend about having a trusted system, a system that works, that a productive person can rely on. Well, why have only one trusted system when you can have, two, three, or even 43 trusted systems? If you stop trusting, say, system #13, there are still 42 others you can trust, maybe. And if you can't trust them, hey, life is not always a bowl of cherries. I know, I know, as soon as you bring in duplication of trusted systems, and anything else, for that matter, you are increasing the chance of overlooking some important task and of increasing rather than decreasing the chaos inside your skull. Unless you are an ornery cuss. Like me.

Perhaps I am the only ornery cuss in the universe who fights his own tickler file, or who would fight it if he had one. But I suspect that, as they say in the extraterrestial research field, we are not alone. So I had decided to start a website. I wouldn't call it "43 Trusted Systems" because that's awkward, but I think, "43 Inboxes" catches the spirit nicely, don't you? Not that I have exactly 43 inboxes, but in at least one of them I will enter a task, "@computer: End Entropy > count your inboxes." Let's see, there's my email which has a smart folder for tasks (anything that says "Do -" in the subject line), several NovaMind mindmaps in constant evolution, various and profuse paper mindmaps, some of which have been faxed and emailed, and last, and definitely not least, at least three (count 'em) three Tinderbox files whose primary raison d'être is to assist me in manifold ways to sharpen my focus on tasks to be done. And many, many more trusted systems. And I actually get things done. At least this blogpost is done. Almost. Anyhow, today I got so gung-ho about the "43 Inboxes" concept that I decided to create a whole new weblog, perhaps using Eastgate's Flint weblog template. Realizing that a whole new weblog is a big project, I decided that I really need a tickler file for each step of the project. I already have the software for project planning, but when I looked for folders at home and in my office to create my new tickler file, I could only find 42. Sure, I could run out to the Office Depot and buy more folders, but instead I said to myself "Screw it." I have a perfectly serviceable weblog, this one, Jonathan's Coffeeblog, and so I will be posting on the topic of 43 Inboxes right here from time to time. Unless I decide that it wasn't such a great idea after all, in which case, I won't. I have other stuff to do including looking in my inboxes every once and a while. BTW, I was born in 1943.

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