Noguchi System Update

A reader has asked whether I am still using the Noguchi filing system. The answer is “Yes”, but only for those documents which don’t fit easily into a conventional filing system. For these I find it a godsend.

Just to illustrate the difference, here are the most recently used file titles in my conventional system (for how I organize that, see File for Success):

• Personal Documents (where I keep my passport, educational certificates, etc)
• Pensions (a hot subject at the moment as I am within four months of my 65th birthday!)
• Wines (always a popular subject!)
• Receipt Vouchers - Volume II (business vouchers)
• Cars (all the documents, repair vouchers etc, for our two cars) 

I wouldn’t dare trust the contents of these files to the Noguchi system - I need them not only to be complete but to be in the right order within the file.

After using the Noguchi system for a bit over a month I have 48 envelopes. It never takes me more than a few seconds to find a document. Here are the most recently used:

• Latest copy of a charity magazine
• A letter from one of my pension providers (needs careful reading and consideration before being filed permanently)
• A proposal from a financial adviser
• Latest parish newsletter
• Personal credit card vouchers for current month
  
• New “Terms and Conditions” for my bank

Basically these are all the type of things which used to lie around because I couldn’t decide which file they should go in, or because I needed to read them in detail before filing them. Now the answer is easy: “Put them in Noguchi”. Result: they don’t lie around any more and can be easily found.

Further articles on Filing 

Noguchi Filing System

A remark today by a reader in my Discussion Forum reminded me of something which had intrigued me in the past but which I had never followed up. This is the Noguchi Filing System. I was intrigued by it because it is in some ways similar to the filing system which I use myself and often recommend, though I developed this before I had heard of Noguchi.

In both systems the idea is that files are put on a shelf rather than in a filing cabinet, and the most recently used file is always replaced at the left end of the shelf so that files are in the order they were last used. This results in much faster retrieval of files because the most used files are always to be found towards the left of the shelf.

Where the systems differ is that I keep papers in fairly conventional subject files, while Noguchi suggests opening a folder (actually a cut-down large envelope) for every document.

I was very interested to know how this would work in practice. It is one of those counter-intuitive systems which can only be judged by trying it out.

So having armed myself with a large number of C4 envelopes, I started filing the Noguchi way this afternoon. And actually my first impression is that it works quite well, especially with the type of document one never quite knows what to do with. 

Looking at my shelf, from the left I now have the following documents each filed in its own envelope with a description written down the right hand edge, where I can see it easily:

• A leaflet giving changes to my bank’s standard tariff
• A pamphlet from my bank giving “important information” about my business account
• A pamphlet giving the Terms & Conditions for my business bank account
• My list of commonly used phone numbers
• A newspaper article about “Discretionary Portfolio Management”
• The latest copy of my Parish Magazine
• The latest weekly “pew sheet” from my church

Since I’ve only just filed these, they are not yet in “last-used” order, but I feel that I am now in control of them and can retrieve them easily. As you will have seen, none of these are the sort of thing which fits easily into a conventional file (which is the reason why they were lying around in the first place!) So far then, a definite improvement.

Tiinker: Tailormade News Stories

Today I’ve been playing with a website Tiinker which has been in Beta by invitation for some time but has just been released to the public. It aims to provide you with news articles which are tailored to your tastes. It doesn’t do this by asking you for the type of story you want, but by getting you to give its stories a thumbs up or a thumbs down. This way it learns what you like and what you don’t.

The interface is simple and easy and I found after very little use that it was already getting to know me quite well. The quality of the stories seems quite high too. So I recommend it for anyone who wants to keep up with the world in general or any subjects in particular.

A word of warning: set yourself a time limit for using this site - it can be quite addictive. (Just as well I didn’t have anything very important to do today!)

Google Notes v. Diigo

I wrote on November 22nd that Diigo was a really useful program, which I was finding worked very well. Since then I’ve been using it a lot and have found it invaluable.

Its main disadvantage is that sometimes it slows right down and becomes difficult to access - it’s only an occasional problem though.

However a couple of people commented that they found Google Notes just as good and faster to use. So I’m going to have a go at Google Notes myself to see how they compare.

One can draw up huge comparison lists between different programs, but the real test for me is which one do I end up using?

Qlockwork

Yesterday I downloaded an interesting program called Qlockwork, which keeps a record of everything that you do on your computer. It's a useful way to see the reality of how you are spending your time.

The picture above shows the last hour of work for me yesterday. First I was doing some work on my blog, followed by a gap while I nipped to the shops for something, then a bit more on the blog, a short session with QA-Coach, and finally backing up my computer. My computer was switched off at exactly 6 o'clock in accordance with my new Structuring the Day rules.

I just ran the program and it did all this by itself. I haven't even glanced at the instructions yet. There's loads more one can do with it, so I will be exploring its capabilities over the next few days.

Can I improve on the "No S" diet?

After nearly two months of the “No S” Diet I find myself only a pound under the weight I started at. At the start of the diet, I experienced a rapid weight loss of 7 lbs, followed by a long plateau. This then gave way to a gradual increase in weight again. During all this time I have kept pretty closely to both the letter and the spirit of the diet. So it doesn’t seem to be working for me. Do I give it up, or start adjusting it to see if I can make it work?

Needless to say, as an inveterate “improver” of other people’s ideas, I am going to try and make it work better for me. In many ways I like the diet. It is easy to keep to, and the principles are sensible. I think the problem lies (for me) in the special days and weekends in which the diet doesn’t apply. I have a fairly high level of socialising at weekends, which is only going to get worse (from the diet point of view) as Christmas approaches. So can I manage the seemingly impossible - to have an effective diet while at the same time not depriving myself unnecessarily?

I think I can. Anyway, I’m going to give it a good try.

One of the weight loss methods I had considerable success with about 20 years ago was to keep myself to a steady rate of loss of 1 lb per week (which is the best rate for health purposes). Unfortunately I can’t remember what book I got it from or who the author was - if anyone recognises it I will be happy to credit him (yes, I do remember it was a him). [Afternote: John Wilson has identified the book as Total Fitness in 30 Minutes a Day by Lawrence E.Morehouse and Leonard Gross] The idea was to draw a graph of one’s current target weight and plot one’s actual weight against it. If you were above the target weight, you ate less. If you were below the target weight, you ate more. It was simple but effective, and I got right down to my target weight. Unfortunately that’s where I stopped and I gradually put it back on again. However my idea now is to combine it with the No S diet and add a few of my own ideas. So here’s my plan:-

The aim is to lose 1 lb per week. In order to do that I weighed myself for the first time this morning (Monday). That is the initial weight. I will then be weighing myself every morning. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the target weight is half a pound less than the initial weight. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and the following Monday the target weight is one pound less than the initial weight. Then on the following Tuesday the target weight drops by half a pound again, and so on.

My aim each day is to be exactly on the target weight, neither above nor below it. Each day I am above the target weight I add one rule; each day I am on the target weight I keep the same set of rules; each day I am below the target weight I can take one rule off.

The rules are (in order of application):

No seconds [Afternote: defined as no second helpings]
No snacks (three meals a day only)
No sweets
Small helpings
Single course only [new rule]
Skip one meal
Skip two meals
Skip all meals (aaagh!)

What I hope is that I will find a combination of rules which will allow me to lose weight steadily with a minimum of suffering.

I am also hoping that skipping meals will be a deterrent rather than something that actually has to be done!

I want to emphasize that this is something I am trying out, not something that I am recommending. You are welcome to try it out with me, but if it doesn’t work don’t blame me! However I think it has a nice balance of carrot and stick.

Day One
I weighed myself this morning to establish my baseline (B). Tomorrow my target is (B - 1/2) lb. For today I have no rules to keep to. Great! Where’s that choccy cake?

Update on Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 10:57 by Mark Forster

Having bought a new set of bathroom scales, I am now decreasing my target weight in increments of a quarter pound instead of half a pound. That means that the target weight decreases four times a week instead of twice. Otherwise the method remains exactly the same.

Note Taking Software Progress Report

Here’s an update on the note-taking programs I have been trying out.

Evernote is definitely the clear winner so far. For ease of use it is far the best, and therefore it’s the one I go to naturally. I’ve been exploring what I can do with it and it’s impressing me more and more.

Of the other programs, Tiddlywiki is very interesting, but just that little bit too difficult to use. It’s one great advantage over Evernote is that you can easily arrange the information you retrieve into the order you want. Evernote’s hyperlink function is a bit less flexible than Tiddlywiki’s, but not so much that the ease of use of the rest of the program doesn’t give it the advantage.

Online programs may be great for sharing information, but are just too slow and cumbersome for individual use even with a high speed connection. So that rules out Backpack and Stikkit. I was able to produce a very pretty page with Backpack, but it took me a long time and I feel no incentive to go back and keep it up to date. As for Stikkit, I usually reckon myself pretty good at getting into a new program but so far I have no idea how this is supposed to work. I’ve visited the site three times and still haven’t been able to fathom out even the basic step of how to enter information. For a program which claims to be extremely intuitive and easy to use that can’t be a good sign!

Update on Friday, December 12, 2008 at 11:05 by Mark Forster

It’s just been announced that Stikkit is being discontinued on December 19th.

Note Taking Software

Evernote is still proving its worth, but there are some limitations of the program which I find irritating. I've decided therefore to try out various other note taking programs at the same time. I will judge the winner on the purely pragmatic grounds of which program I find I actually end up using.

The programs which I have on my list at the moment are:

• Evernote (off-line)
• Tiddlywiki (off-line)
• Stikkit (on-line)
• Backpack (on-line)

If you have a favourite program which you would like to see added to this, please put it in the comments section. I can't promise to use it, but I will have a look to see if it's suitable.

"No S Diet" Report

I weighed myself this morning and found that I had lost 7 lbs in all. This is exactly the same as when I weighed myself last a couple of weeks ago. To be fair, I had an exceptionally heavy weekend at the end of last week - with a wedding, a family lunch party and two visits to a restaurant with friends. Since they all were on "S Days" the rules didn't apply.  My life isn't usually anything like as social as that, so I don't normally go mad at weekends. If it hadn't been for that exceptional two days I might well have lost another one or two pounds.

Excuses of course are what dieting is all about - but the great thing about this diet is that I don't have to feel guilty about last weekend because I had in fact stuck to the rules.

My original intention was not to weigh myself until the month was up. If I'd kept to that intention, I would have been delighted that I'd lost 7 lbs in a month. As it is the delight is muted by the knowledge that all the loss happened at the start.

This is not intended to be a quickie diet. It is there for the long-term so I intend to stick to it. I've found it easy to keep to, and the results so far have been good. I'll do some follow-up reports to show how I get on.

You can read all about the "No S Diet" at www.nosdiet.com

"No S Diet" Update

Two weeks and two days into the "No S Diet", how am I doing?

Firstly, I have had no problem at all in keeping to the diet. I've never felt hungry and I've never felt deprived. I've enjoyed the weekend breaks from the diet without going overboard. So in terms of how easy it is to keep to, so far 10 out of 10.

I know I said at the beginning that I wasn't going to weigh myself for a month (when will I learn not to make promises I can't keep?), but I couldn't resist taking a look this morning (hence this blog entry) and I had lost seven pounds!

As far as I'm concerned that's another 10 out of 10.

This is very definitely not a starvation diet, so I feel quite confident that I can continue. I expect the weight loss will slow down a bit now, but I am happy just so long as it continues downwards.

Road Test: Journaling (Revisited)

I first wrote about journaling quite a few years ago, and there is a description of it in my first book “Get Everything Done and Still Have Time to Play” (2000). What I wrote then was:

“My own experience of writing like this for a period of about eight months, during which I hardly missed a day, was quite incredible. I described it at the time as like having a new brain. My mind became full of ideas, which seemed to bounce off each other. I became much more energetic and problems of procrastination fell away of their own accord. Although for various reasons I now write in my journal far more sporadically, I remain convinced that the practice left me with a permanently raised intelligence and far more self-awareness.”

In spite of the benefits I had received from journaling, I didn’t succeed in re-establishing it as a regular feature of my life for years. Then finally on 26 August this year I decided that I was going to adopt a “No Option” attitude to it. Since then I haven’t missed a day.

There are many methods of journaling but the one I use is the one described in Julia Cameron’s book “The Artist’s Way”: three pages a day in a spiral-bound A4 lined notebook, written without stopping to think. I’m writing this review to celebrate the completion of my first notebook this time round!

Ideally the writing is done first thing in the morning, which is why Julia Cameron calls it “The Morning Pages”. Although it’s good to do it as the first thing one does, I don’t regard it as essential.

So what has been my experience of starting up again a practice which I found so beneficial six or seven years ago? My excuse for not doing it was that I had already got as much benefit from the practice as I would ever get. Did that prove to be true?

My experiences since 26 August have in fact been exactly the same as I experienced at first:

1. my mind has been noticeably sharper
2. ideas have started to flow again
3. procrastination has vanished

Let’s say a little bit about each of these:

Sharper mind. I have found again that my mind is working much quicker when thinking through ideas. I also have more confidence in being able to think on my feet when needed. Before I tried journaling for the first time, I would often find it difficult to think what to say in meetings or how to reply when asked a direct question. This hasn’t been a problem since, but I have definitely found less mental fog since re-starting. I can usually measure this by the number of times I have to ask myself through the day “What am I trying to do?” because I’ve lost the mental thread.

Flow of ideas. This has been a major change. In fact at one meeting I attended a couple of weeks ago, people were remarking in amazement at the number of ideas that were coming to me in the course of the meeting. I have made major changes in the direction of my business since re-starting journaling - and this blog is just one of the results.

Procrastination. I remember well how when I journaled before, how procrastination suddenly disappeared. I think it was because I got really enthusiastic about all the new ideas I was having. When you’re enthusiastic about something, you can’t wait to see how it works out. Starting journaling again had exactly the same effect this time. I’ve developed loads of techniques to overcome procrastination over the years, but suddenly I found myself not needing the techniques.
In short, the experience of re-visiting journaling has been that it is everything that I remember it being.

I know that many other people swear by journaling, but I also know that some have tried it and not got much out of it. This may well be a matter of individual temperament. However one thing I have found is that it is important to avoid two extremes when writing one’s journal. One extreme is to make it nothing more than a factual list. I have known some people make their journaling into not much more than writing out a to do list. This may be a very useful thing to do, but it is not journaling!

The other extreme is to make it an endless exploration of one’s feelings and emotions. This is very easy to fall into, especially if you are in the middle of a break-up of some sort, but doesn’t really get you very far.

My own experience is that ideally journaling should consist of both facts and emotion, and above all of concepts and ideas. Journaling should be where you wrestle with ideas in the context of your own values and convictions.

And finally, there is some evidence that writing in this sort of way can stave off mental deterioration due to age and even increase one’s life span. I’ll report back on that one in ten or twenty years’ time!

Update on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 6:51 by Mark Forster

For those readers who live in the USA or Canada, the international paper size A4 is the equivalent of the American paper sizes Letter (slightly smaller) and Legal (slightly bigger).

No S Diet: First Weekend

In the "No S" diet I'm allowed a holiday on "S Days", i.e. Saturdays, Sundays and Special Days (such as birthdays). So what was the effect on me of the first weekend?

I had very little trouble keeping to the diet during the first week. Occasionally the Nanny part of me had to give me a sharp reminder "No Seconds!" or "No Snacking!" but most of the time the diet didn't bother me at all. But I was looking forward to the weekend and the chance to have the odd biscuit, cake or chocolate.

The strange thing was that on Saturday I actually felt more like keeping to the diet than not. I almost had to force myself to have a slice of cake at tea time, and it tasted almost unpleasantly sweet. The rest of the weekend I ate much the same as I would have before starting the diet, but found myself looking forward to getting back on the diet.

That seems to indicate that it should be easy to keep to the diet in the long term. That's great, but will it result in weight loss if I do?

My intention was that I wouldn't weigh myself until the first month of the trial was over. But I must admit that I sneaked a peek on Saturday morning and found that I had lost 4 lbs. That's all to the good and was certainly encouraging. But the truth is that virtually any change in eating habits will result in that sort of initial weight loss. What counts is what happens after that first adjustment to the new regime has been made.

BrainBuilder

My copy of BrainBuilder arrived yesterday, so I spent an hour or so getting it installed and playing with it. The aim of the program is to increase the sequential processing power of the brain by a series of simple exercises. What is sequential processing capacity? Basically it is the number of digits we can hold in short term memory. For instance if someone says to you "Please call 596-5873", can you remember the seven digits long enough to dial them? The normal digit span for adults is 5-9 digits. According to the program manual those with digit spans of 9 and above are functioning with superior abilities.

Since I have always had a very poor memory for things like telephone numbers and names and have never been able to remember my car registration number, I was interested to find that my rating for most of the exercises was a 5. That could explain a lot!

However it's not just relatively trivial things like memorising telephone numbers that are affected by sequential processing capacity. According to the program's creators, it lies at the basis of most of our thinking processes. Someone who is able to remember and manipulate nine factors at time while thinking through a problem is going to have a considerable advantage over someone who can only manage five.

So in road testing this program I am looking for two main things:

1. Will it succeed in increasing the number of digits I can remember?
2. And if it does succeed, what effect if any will that have on my thinking abilities?

Obviously the answer to Q2. is going to be a lot more subjective than the answer to Q1. However I am so bad at short-term memory that any real improvement should be very noticeable and make a significant difference to my life!

Note: I'm testing the CD version of the program. There's also an on-line version at www.brainbuilder.com which is subscription based and appears to offer more exercises.

Road Tests

After getting my road test of the "No S" Diet under way, there are some more which I want to write about. So a possible list of future roadlists would include:

Morning Pages (Journalling). I have already written about this elsewhere but as I've recently re-started the practice, perhaps it's time for a revisit.

The Dogs of the FTSE/Dow. A method of investing which I've been using over the last year and a half.

Brain Builder (Rocky Mountain Learning Systems). A program which claims to build one's sequential memory which according to the publishers is one of the foundation blocks of thinking. I haven't started on this yet.

And I suppose since I'm calling this category "Road Tests", I could even report on a real car or two!

No S Diet: First Reactions

I've decided that I won't weigh myself again until the month's trial is up, but will soley report on how the diet is going from the point of view of whether and how easily I can keep to it. If I manage to keep to it, then we will be able to see whether it's had any effect on my weight.

The first day has been really easy. I may actually have eaten more than usual because I went out to the local pub for lunch and had a curry. But I successfully resisted having a pud. No cake at tea time. No sweet pud at supper, instead I ate cheese but didn't have any seconds. So not that much different from normal. Oh, and no chocolates in spite of having a box of truffles that someone gave us.

I think this is a good diet from the point of view of ease of use. I can't see myself having any trouble keeping to it, especially if I have to blog about it all the time! That of course is a factor. Keeping oneself to doing something is much easier if one has to stand up in front of the world and say how well one is keeping to it. Constructing a supporting structure can be done by anyone of course. For instance you can report progress back to friends and family. Some people get their weight loss attempts sponsored for a charity, which again gives you a lot of support in keeping to it.

The next posting on this subject will be after the weekend, when I'll report back on what effect the two-day break has on keeping to it.

The No S Diet

I’ve decided to start a new category “Road Tests” in which I try out various projects and products on myself or by myself. The first I want to start with is something called “The No S Diet” which was recommended by Mike Brown in the Readers’ Comments on my No Options article. The diet was invented by Reinhard Engels and you can read all about it at www.nosdiet.com (And by the way one of the great advantages of this new website for me is being able to get feedback and suggestions from readers - it’s a great way for me to learn from you)

Basically it consists of No Snacks, No Sweets and No Seconds. There is also an exception: you don’t follow the diet on “S Days”, which are defined as Saturdays, Sundays and Special Days (i.e. birthdays, Christmas, etc.).

To me this sounds eminently sensible. It’s more a set of guidelines than a diet. So I’m going to try it out and I will report back in one month’s time. If anyone wants to join me, feel free to make your commitment on the Comments.

And no, I have no intention of telling you lot what I weigh now!