dougbelshaw:

Continuing my roll of referencing the SAMR model in everything I write: http://j.mp/oU3U0o

I might start…

Google Docs really does kick arse for collaborative writing! Our team have been asked to contribute a book chapter to the upcoming ‘Digital Information Review’ so we decided to use Google Docs to make a start.

We actually decided that it would be useful to do this in the same room so we booked out a meeting room and set away. The discussion feature within Google Docs is fantastic but we felt being in a room together would help us focus and just add to the dynamics of what we were doing.

It certainly did. We had a synopsis of what we should be writing about and so all chose an area we were comfortable with and had taken a lead on in the past. It took us approx. 90 minutes to write 3,000 words at a decent standard. Given this was something our team were quite worried about, in that we had quite a tight turn around for it, this felt like a huge weight off our shoulders.

The fact that we were working together at the same time actually made it quite fun too. We could see edits others were making, examples of what we were all writing, things people weren’t happy with and therefore making the page jump up on down by deleting content. I really recommend small teams giving it a go.

Next steps are for one person to lead on reviewing the content and ensuring there’s a consistent style used throughout. Slight tangent but the service I work for are beginning to use The Guardian’s style guide which is extremely useful! Anyway, top marks to Google Docs - collaboration at it’s best :-)

So I’m looking into the use of Pomodora after an excellent presentation by Andrew Male with whom I’ve started a dialogue with about project management methodologies.

So far I’ve read through the cheat sheet and downloaded the book for later reading. I’ve downloaded focus booster on my PC and Macbook to time each Pomodora. I’ve also installed TaskPaper on my MacBook to maintain a list of activities. I’m still a bit unsure whether I’ll have to buy a license for that but based on first impressions I’d be happy to pay $30.

The good thing about TaskPaper is it’s simplicity and intuitiveness. I’ve grouped activities based on projects I’m working on. Everything I identify as a ‘to do today’ activity I’ve tagged with a date (american format for sorting purposes). Once an activity is complete I add a tag which highlights how many Pomodoras it’s taken me.

So far I’ve completed 2 activities and 3 unplanned activities. In the long run this should help me to estimate the time it takes to complete future activities. For now I’m effectively prioritising tasks and I actually feel much more motivated. Lets see how I get on.