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I have a prize to anyone who an tell me what this is and guess why I have it.

This will eventually land on my other site, MacMBA.com

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This is a short writeup of how I use ICal.

The first two calendars are what David Allen calls hard calenders, they are places I need to be at certain times. This is what you expect from a calendar. I use spanningsynch (it is still in beta, but if you go to the blog you can sign up) to synchronize these two with gcal calenders.
The first one, Entourage, also synchs with my Blackberry. I don’t actually use Entourage anymore, but it syncs with that too, and is my default calendar for all of these synchronizations. (Most sync programs require a default, because it needs a place to dump items from say, the blackberry, which can only handle one calendar.)

The second calendar, Gret and Ted is generally like the first, except it is also a shared Google calendar. This calendar is where both my wife and I plan our social lives or anything that impacts both of us. Again, it syncs with ICal, so its accessible on my computer or from any computer.

The next four calendars are made into a group so I can turn them all on and off at once. Each of my classes has its own calendar with the due date for all of its assignments. Each also has its own color, to make it easier to track. Turning the group off lets me concentrate on other scheduling, but I don’t need to do it often.

The other calendars are all generated by KGTD. The GTD system works in contexts, the idea being that the things you need to do may require a specific mental state or physical location. I can’t clean my apartment from the library, and there are times when I’ve got a great flow for writing, and others where I would do well to clean or to study. KGTD synchronizes each of my contexts with the calendar of the same name. Again, by clicking or unclicking the checkbox, I can make all the to-do’s for that calendar disappear or reappear. This lets me block out things I can’t do at the time. I may make groups for some of these, so I can show or hide them at once. Merlin Mann used to recommend this, but I agree with his later point that needing to do that may be a sign that you have too many contexts. I may consolidate some of my contexts, like handwrite, which is used for thank you notes for interviews and gifts and email into one category. Writing is actually for writing blog posts and articles, so it’s a different context altogether.

This is a short writeup of how I use ICal.

The first two calendars are what David Allen calls hard calenders, they are places I need to be at certain times. This is what you expect from a calendar. I use spanningsynch (it is still in beta, but if you go to the blog you can sign up) to synchronize these two with gcal calenders.
The first one, Entourage, also synchs with my Blackberry. I don’t actually use Entourage anymore, but it syncs with that too, and is my default calendar for all of these synchronizations. (Most sync programs require a default, because it needs a place to dump items from say, the blackberry, which can only handle one calendar.)

The second calendar, Gret and Ted is generally like the first, except it is also a shared Google calendar. This calendar is where both my wife and I plan our social lives or anything that impacts both of us. Again, it syncs with ICal, so its accessible on my computer or from any computer.

The next four calendars are made into a group so I can turn them all on and off at once. Each of my classes has its own calendar with the due date for all of its assignments. Each also has its own color, to make it easier to track. Turning the group off lets me concentrate on other scheduling, but I don’t need to do it often.

The other calendars are all generated by KGTD. The GTD system works in contexts, the idea being that the things you need to do may require a specific mental state or physical location. I can’t clean my apartment from the library, and there are times when I’ve got a great flow for writing, and others where I would do well to clean or to study. KGTD synchronizes each of my contexts with the calendar of the same name. Again, by clicking or unclicking the checkbox, I can make all the to-do’s for that calendar disappear or reappear. This lets me block out things I can’t do at the time. I may make groups for some of these, so I can show or hide them at once. Merlin Mann used to recommend this, but I agree with his later point that needing to do that may be a sign that you have too many contexts. I may consolidate some of my contexts, like handwrite, which is used for thank you notes for interviews and gifts and email into one category. Writing is actually for writing blog posts and articles, so it’s a different context altogether.

One of the things I noticed during the campaign is the use of action words and verb tenses. Business communication is always focused on action words and trying to increase the urgency and importance of your speech by cutting out extraneous information. This is a change from my past as an English major. I did notice a major correlation between the verbs people chose and the message they sent.

People who wanted to put forth a platform of ideas tended to use strong phrases and say I will. As an example, one candidate started with As President, I will work… and then outlined the plan that he has in mind.

Candidates who want you to get to know them used if phrases. Generally, people who started with if elected tended to spend more time telling about themselves and how open to ideas they are, and less time developing plans.

Likewise, the first group of people tended not to have topic sentences in their platforms or speeches and instead went for the “grab” to pull you into their candidacy. The second group had more pleasantries and superlatives.

In the contested positions, everyone who was more in the first group won. Even when two platforms for the same election started with asking verbs, the one that went straight to ideas beat the one that went to experience first. This was, according to the grapevine, the hardest of the two to decide between because everyone really liked both.

Overall, I think we had a really great group of candidates and people trusted that they could all get the job done. Given this background, it seems like reminding people of your past experiences didn’t help as much as outlining what you planned to do. There was a certain mindset that all of the candidates had enough of a background to get things done, the difference would only come in what they did with their background.

I think this can be extrapolated to the job searching process. Too many resumes, cover letters and interviews focus on the details of what has been done before. I think employers would rather hear what you’re going to be able to do for them. The stories about past performance aren’t impressive on their own, but rather are an opportunity to show that you have the skill base needed and recognize that this is the right time to use it. There is an important difference between how you’ve done something similar before, and how you’ve done something similar before that means you can get results now.