Hack Your Life With A Private Wiki Notebook, Getting Things Done, And Other Systems

Hack Your Life with a Private Wiki Notebook: Mash Up "Getting Things Done" and Other Systems

See also newer/related: My Digital Gardening Process.

Why do I want to write this?

  • Spread the word that, esp in uncertain times, everyone needs a NoteBook.
  • Spread the word that a Private Wiki is the best kind of NoteBook.
  • Get EverNote to become a Wiki!
  • Help people get up and running.
  • Encourage the spread of WikiEngines that make this easy.

Intro:

  • Many people associate wikis with Wikipedia, but Wikipedia is really more of an exception. There are many thousands of wiki spaces in existence. Many of them are restricted to a specific group of people. Many business project teams use wikis as a way to accumulate plans and progress notes. Many classrooms use wikis for group projects, or for individual student or teacher notebooks.
  • But you can also create your own private wiki: nobody else will be able to read it or change it. I've been doing this for over a decade, and I think it's the best type of Notebook to keep. Using a wiki the right way gives you the best chance to refine and connect your thoughts over time, and connect your daily issues to big themes and choices in your life.
  • This also allows you to follow multiple systems of self-improvement, such as "Getting Things Done". You can use multiple systems at the same time and connect their commonalities, or switch across systems over time without forgetting everything you learned. And so you can evolve your own personal style of life management that takes the pieces of multiple systems that work best for you.
  • So half this book will pitch the general process I believe in, and half will lay out a specific process you can immediately follow to start making progress.

Key Chapters

Notes on the packaged EBook version:

  • This book was written in a wiki. Specifically, as part of my WikiLog which covers many unrelated topics.
  • Each "chapter" in this ebook was a "page" in that wiki.
  • The main thrust of this book is a very Thin Book, fewer than a dozen chapters.
  • But these main chapters link to roughly to 100 supporting pages. Those pages can link further away!
  • But I didn't want to include all 15k of my WikiLog pages in this ebook, so you'll find some links that go to pages in my online WikiLog. And of course there are other links to other pages around the web. I've made the in-book links green, since those are the most-convenient to follow; the other links are blue.
  • Also, at the bottom of every chapter I've included an "(Online version of page)" link, which gives you a place to post comments/questions.
  • Don't feel bad if you don't end up reading every page in this book. Read the main flow of chapters and follow any links that interest you. Then you might want to scan the Table of Contents to see if anything else catches your fancy. No pressure!
  • 2013-09-30-JonesPrivateWikiNotebookDialogue

About the Author - Bill Seitz


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