Are you sitting comfortably?
Hi, Life Balance is a great program. I do think it is a difficult program to use at first. The reason it is difficult at first is because we try to use it as a time-management program like other time-management programs. Life Balance isn't quite like time-management programs, and it does a different job. So we can spend a lot of time trying to work out how to make LB do what we expect time-management software to do. Then we may get frustrated by it all. I know I did.
Then I realised what Life Balance can actually achieve. When I did, I stopped trying to make it a time manager and let it be what it really is.
Since then, I have become, well, more relaxed. My wife says I have got my fun back.
To clarify to myself how LB would work I wrote a story. It is longish, and I wasn't sure if it would be helpful to anyone else. If you are interested, I will be happy to make it available to you.
Through writing the story I learned a few rules that make using LB easier, and I developed a skill which I use every time I use LB.
In the story, LB becomes a character, a personal assistant, and begins to sort out a very mixed up life.
If interested, reply to this post and I'll work some way to make the story available.
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
Hi
I would say, if it's a couple of pages, that's probably OK to post. If it is much longer, you could post it as an attachment.
Cheers
KeithC
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
Good idea, thanks Keith. I didn't type it when I wrote it, so I will do that and attach it. I hadn't realised you could do that.
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
I would love to see the story. I'm still haveing trouble getting into using LB on a regular basis. Lots of starts and stops. Anything that could help would be great.
-Steven
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
We'd like to see it too!
Jean
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
I apologise for this taking so long, very busy at the moment, but will get it online by end next week.
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
I have typed up the Encounter with LB story, but cannot upload it here because it exceeds the limit. I will think about what to do about that! Sorry.
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
zip it?
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
Hi :-)
I'd certainly be interested to read your story. Would you consider submitting it for The Meadow?
I know precisely what you mean when you said that it was difficult to use LB at first. A while back, the light went on in my head and I discovered the novel way in which LB becomes your Time Assistant, rather than your Time Manager. So I suggested to one of my colleagues that he should try it. He's a bright guy, but he expected - and so wanted - LB to react like a conventional time management program; he just got irritated and couldn't get on with the LB concept. I shall keep on giving him opportunities to see that LB is different - and that it also works wonders for harassed hacks like me. I am so serene now!
Still - isn't it just a little scary to realise that one is handing over one's karma to a computer program?? I'd say that it makes it all the more important that we should have frequent, safe back-ups of our files.
Andy
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
Hi again, I have uploaded a portion of the story and will add others later if that is ok.
Remember that everyone uses LB in different ways, and this was written for myself. Still I hope you like it and some of the thoughts make you think even better ones.
I said there is a trick I use each time I use LB now. The trick is a kind of conversation...
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
The file I uploaded does open, but the formatting then goes awol. I have uploaded a zipped file I hope u can use in Word.
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
Here is part two of the story. Again it is a zipped Word file. Thank you for the positive comments, I hope you like the final part.
It was fun to write.
edd
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
I just finished part 2. A wonderful story! Thanks for sharing it with us!
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
Edd
love it, I've been doing this for a few uears now and I never got the bit about consequences before. Brilliant. Being a Brit, I don't normally go for the folksy story stuff, always seems a bit twee to me, but this one really works.
Well done!
Jean - we must get this on the meadow!
Cheers
KeithC
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
I think for some people the time manager approach is exactly how they process their work, so LB might not work well for them. Tools like Datebook and Agendus are fantastic if icons and links and shuffling things round on a screen is your way into the world. For me, a program that does the shuffling for me and keeps a nice uncluttered view of what's next is heaven. And that's LB.
I would love to submit the story to the meadow... if I knew how.
:)
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
edd,
This is really good.
This would be perfect to hand to someone who is struggling to determine what is really important.
Please post the rest of it.
fayez.
>I think for some people the time manager approach is exactly
>how they process their work, so LB might not work well for
>them. Tools like Datebook and Agendus are fantastic if icons
>and links and shuffling things round on a screen is your way
>into the world. For me, a program that does the shuffling for
>me and keeps a nice uncluttered view of what's next is heaven.
>And that's LB.
>
>I would love to submit the story to the meadow... if I knew
>how.
>:)
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
I really enjoyed the story - it's well written and and thought-provoking. I like the idea of LB being like a personal assistant who helps you to think about and manage all the things you want and need to do, but doesn't order you around. I can't wait to read the rest of it.
George
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
Thanks for the comments. I'll post the remainder later this week.
edd
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
Hi,
I've been saving this for a time when I could enjoy it - and now I can't open it. Any chance you could send a simple text file to the help desk?
I am the help desk, but I also work with the Meadow - there are a lot of my essays and book reviews and illustrations in the Meadow.
If the text file is bigger than 2M the help desk will reject it. Let me know and I'll figure out a better way to send it.
I really look forward to reading your story!!
Jean
Yay! I got it open! More later.....
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
Hi!
Catherine and I read Part I this afternoon and are eagerly awaiting Part II!!!
What a charming and accurate story about meeting LB for the first time!
Jean the Mamma Llama
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
I'd be interested in reading the story.
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
I would love to read the story too! I'd encourage you to submit it to The Meadow--it's a wonderful venue.
Let us know how best to access it!
Hmm. Brain just fired up--by any chance do you have a wiki? Maybe you could post it there??
Thanks for sharing!
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
I finally got around to reading both parts of this. It's excellent!
I have been going back and forth between LB and other systems, but I keep returning here because the approach of LB seems so logical. I've always believed that if I could just get the knack of it, I would be so much more in control of my day and much less prone to procrastination.
The approach described in your story makes perfect sense. I've never though of importance of tasks in terms of consequences, but when I read it, I truly had on of those "Doh!" moments.
Time to re-install LB on my E2. Thanks for that.
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
What a wonderful story!
It is written much in the style of one of my favorite authors, Richard Bach, ALA "Jonathan Livingston Seagull", "Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah", Etc.
I'd venture that that is why many people, myself included, are having such a hard time acclimating to Life Balance. It resembles time management systems we tried to adapt to, but it's different from them in so many ways.
I'm starting to see now that using LB requires a shift in perceptions, to not see the world as linear in terms of fitting in as much as we can within 24 hours, but to prioritize things by what is important. Kind of another take on the Covey method and others.
Thanks for the parable!
Ron
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
Hi there,
I think I read the beginning of this story a while back... if it is the one I am thinking of...
I would love to be able to read the finished version, if you can send it to the support desk, I can get it from there.
As Kris mentioned, we may be able to post it to the Meadow, or figure out some other way to make it more widely available from here too. Some initial guidance from one customer to another customer is often really effective, and a lot of fun too! :-)
Thanks so much for finding such creative ways to be helpful to the whole Life Balance user community!
:-)
Best wishes,
--Catherine--*
Catherine E. White
President
www.llamagraphics.com
Creators of Life Balance software
for Palm OS, Macintosh and Windows.
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
A big thank you for this story. I have been struggling with LB for over a week now. I read thru Ratz GTD setup and still didn't get it. This has been very helpfull in getting the big picture.
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
I would love to see your story.
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
This is a nice and very useful story, thank you very much!
RE: Are you sitting comfortably?
Wonderful story.
It really made me go back and think about my top level goals. I created 2 new ones, renamed a few to something much clearer and now have a good life balance outline. It can always use tweaking but it's a good system.
Thanks for the story!