When I purchased my Palm Pre, I purchased a Touchstone charger for it.  I love the Touchstone and its whole concept.  When I am working in my home office, I just lay my Palm Pre on the “puck” and wah-lah, it is charging.  If I answer the phone while the Pre is on the puck, it automatically answers like a speaker phone.  If I pick the Pre up off the puck, it automatically takes it off speaker phone.  It really functions as a great business office phone.  (Being “built for business” is an important point and one I am chomping at the bit to write about in my next post.)  Yet, the Touchstone has had some issues.

When you purchase the Touchstone, you have to replace the back cover of the Palm Pre with the Touchstone back cover.  (As a side note, Verizon’s Palm Pre Plus comes with the Touchstone cover I believe.)  It is similar to the original back cover, accept instead of being a smooth, glossy surface, it is more rubberized.  I think this is for two reasons.  One, I think the rubberized surface helps the Pre sit on the puck.  Two, the cover has the metal antenna (for lack of better words) inside for the inductive charger.  I am figuring it gets a little warm in there, so, they had to make the plastic thicker.  In any event, I unfortunately have had three issues over time with the Touchstone:

• My first Touchstone (or the back cover) “buzzed” or “hummed” ever so slightly after the Palm Pre was fully charged.  In my Zen like home office, this was not good.  After surfing the net some, I saw that other people reported this and, some, said that swapping it out for another unit made the problem go away.  I swapped mine out and, sure enough, the hum was gone.  However, there was another disruption in the Zen river rock.
• With my 2nd Touchstone Cover attached, I began to notice that as I “thumbed” on the keyboard, the unit “creaked.”  Related, it just did not feel as solid as it did before.  I was on the road for a week and swapped my cover back to the original cover (as I was not taking the Touchstone on the trip with me), and, wow(!), I immediately noticed how much more solid the unit felt.  After my trip, I swapped back to the Touchstone cover and I was in church taking notes.  I (and others) noted how “creaky” and loud it was.  So, I called Palm and kudos to their customer service; they said, “no problem, we will send you another one” which I had in a matter of days.
• My 3rd cover is much more solid and quiet than my other Touchstone cover.  However, sigh, the charging on the puck is intermittent.  It keeps going in and out of charging mode, “duh-dunking” every time.   Frustrating?  Yes.  Yet, again, kudos to Palm.  Customer service was apologetic and did not give me any hassles; another one is on its way.  I am optimistic that I will be back in “river rock on a pedestal” soon.  Also, I am optimistic about Palm.  See my next post about that thought.

The Albuquerque Marriott

I felt very compelled to write this quick post about keeping your dreams and desires in sight throughout your life.

I am on the road for work this week.  I generally stay in Marriott’s lower end hotels when I am traveling for work in order to save the company money.  I do this as usually* they are consistent, including their beds, which I have generally good luck sleeping on.  On this trip, because I am speaking at a conference tomorrow and I have been on the road the whole week, I chose to stay at a full service Marriott tonight in order to assure a good night’s sleep.

As I came in to the building and got into my room, I was overcome with a wave of feelings – happiness, comfort, excitement, a feeling of “you are back” or “you have arrived.”  I had forgotten how much I love staying in a really nice Marriott; why I use to love to travel for work (as, at another job, the nicer Marriott’s were the norm).  I told myself that I need to remember to keep my desires more in focus and work on satisfying them more often when I can.  It is so easy to get wrapped up in day to day life, day after day, and forget to treat yourself; to enjoy life.

Enjoying life is so important as life is ticking away.  This might include making sure you focus on your children, your religion or your hobbies.  Related, I was pleased tonight to see that my daughter is taking time out of her busy life to get back to one thing she enjoys (and wants to build a passion about), and that is her blog about her dog.  If you enjoy dogs, check it out; take some time out for you.

* Unfortunately, post 9/11, Marriott seems to have lost their edge and desire to really be “the best” and I have had consistency problems with them.  However, the Townplace Suites I have been staying at, and fortunately tonight’s full service Marriott in Albuquerque, seem to be up to par.

I'm building a passion for photography. Not quite the same passion as I'm talking about here however.

I am under the weather today and it is no fun at all, especially for two reasons.  One, I have to get on a plane tomorrow and travel for work for the week.  This is no fun at all when you feel like your Fiancé ran you over with her diesel truck… twice… forward and backwards.  Two, I decided to stay home from church this morning.  I need to rest and not feel rushed as I still need to pack for the trip, and, honor my Fiancé for Valentine’s Day.  So, to put some church into my life today, I wanted to write about the series we have been going over at church as I think it is a great concept for personal productivity.

One of the biggest reasons I love my church is that Dr. Tom Anderson’s sermons are very life oriented and very practical.  In his current series, New Year. New You, he talks about what he feels are the things you need to do to have your best year ever:

Passion

You have to develop a deep passion about what you do.  It cannot be to just like it or tolerate it.  You have to have a burning desire and enjoyment for it.  “It” is work, your soul mate, your children.   If you wake up in the morning excited and ready to go, then you have passion.

Service

Using my words, now you have to take that passion and execute on it.  “Life without motion is dead” (another thought from Dr. Tom).  With the fire in the engine, now go out and do something with it.

Dominion

As you are out executing, you have to have the attitude of “I Am” or “I Can.”  You have to have a 100% attitude that you can succeed and not let anything get in the way of it, including letting any doubt enter your mind.

Commitment

Speaking of doubt, you have to commit to keep pushing forward regardless.  No wishy-washiness here.  You have to keep being committed even when you do not want to be.  (See this post for more ideas to help in this area.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A big thank you to Dr. Tom for bringing this to my life and a big thank you to you for spending some time with me this Sunday morning.  Now on to conquer the week, regardless of how I’m feeling!

Mychael Hyatt - Courtesy of www.MichaelHyatt.com

Michael Hyatt, who – to me – is an amazing guy on several levels, wrote two blog entries recently on delegation.  Though I am a very spiritual person, I know some are not, and the title and content of the first blog entry may turn you off.  However, I encourage you to stick with it anyway as they are great tips for personal productivity.

What The Bible Says About Leadership And Delegation

How Do You Delegate If You Don’T Have A Staff?

Thanks for the tip, Gary – this makes the Pre even better as a business productivity tool!

Eons ago, I wrote about how excited I was to get a Palm Pre.  Well, with finances, being busy and just being comfortable with my Palm Treo in the way, I didn’t do it, till now.  I’m really glad I did.  Here is a mini (well, as “mini” as I get) review of my first impressions:

Built for Business

I love how the Palm Pre lets me, a business professional, be more effective.

• The screen is incredible.  Graphics are beautiful and easy on the eyes.  Text, despite the small screen and form factor, are easy to read and work with. 
  • I thought that Copy / Paste was going to be weird & awkward, however, it works great – kudos to Palm on coming up with an intuitive way to do this.

• While you are focusing on the task at hand:
  • I love being able to have other items quickly at hand.  For example, it is fantastic that I can be in an IM and quickly jump to my calendar to look something up with the “slide of a card.”
  • I REALLY LOVE that if something “happens” while I’m doing something, you are not rudely interrupted like other phones (iPhone included) with a popup.  The Pre simply displays a quick notification at the bottom of the screen which does not interrupt what you are doing.  You can either ignore it (which after a few seconds the notification full text goes away and an icon stays at the bottom of the screen so you can act on it later), or, tap on it and act on it then.
    • Again, being a multitasking operating system, whatever you were working on is simply put to the side, allowing you to quickly resume it after you are done.

 Call Quality is INCREDIBLE

• This is the best sounding phone I have ever heard.  When you are on a call, it’s DARN CLOSE to the quality of a land line.
• I have yet to drop a call.  And, I’m in a low signal area.  My old Palm Treo was challenged all the time at keeping the call quality reasonable, let alone not dropping the call.

The feel

• This phone feels great in your hand.  I was always intrigued by Palm’s “river rock” persona for the phone – and they hit a bull’s-eye with this one.  I love holding and working with this phone.
• I looked at the Droid and used my daughter’s for about two hours.  My hand hurt after that; with the bulkiness and sharp corners.  The Palm Pre, on the other hand, is a joy.

I even love the Task List

• This has been hammered and taunted by many on the web.  But, just like the “river rock,” this simple task list has a great feel to it.
• It opens with a Moleskin cover listing all of your lists (perfect for GTD).
• Going into a list, it gives you a great punch list of what your next actions are.  And, is very easy to work with via Palm Pre’s touches and gestures.

I love the concept of the Touchstone!

• Being that I work out of a home office, the Touchstone is a perfect companion.  I can quickly set the Palm Pre down to keep it topped off.  I can quickly answer the phone just by picking it up.
• A Negative: After the Palm is “full,” there is a slight hum / buzz.  I found several reports about this on the web.  Very disappointing as it sure is anti-Zen!
• Update: Sprint swapped my Touchstone and charging cover and the buzz seems to be gone.

Synergy

I love the Synergy database; I have it tying together three sources and it does it flawlessly!

My only other negatives (besides the Touchstone comment above):

• It sometimes gets slow.  But, the Zen of the phone makes me very accepting of that.
  • I installed the 1.3.5 update and it seems better.
• I found a bug in the calendar for accepting appointments that are sent from Gmail and accepted by someone from Exchange.  (Palm sent me a Kudos for finding the bug.)
• Battery Life – Many have written that battery life on the Pre is poor.  At first, especially after installing the 1.3.5 operating system, that seemed like a non-issue.  But then I headed out on a trip for work.  I didn’t * think * I was using it more than usual.  I made a few calls, surfed the web some and used the GPS a hair.  I was in a major metropolitan area (Denver).  Yet, by 1:00pm, the phone was dead, which was not a good thing.  I have bought a car charger from Palm.  The cable is short, but, it * is * a USB cable, which I can use to keep the Pre topped off by connecting it to my laptop.

Comfort with my Treo was one of the reasons I delayed getting a Pre.  Yet, many times you have to force yourself over that hump of change, get uncomfortable for a while and finally reach a new level of comfort.  In this case, I am much more comfortable with the Pre; it is a great companion.  And, I’m willing to live with the slight discomfort of the battery issue above as the rest of the benefits of the Pre far outweigh it, especially for a busy business professional like myself.

Question: Are your mobile tools allowing you to have the relaxed productivity you need?

Photo by 'laffy4k' as posted on www.Flickr.com

Buzzzzzzz, buzz-buzz buzzzz!

5:45am and my Palm Treo is buzzing to wake me up for another work day.

I am not a “morning wake up” person.  When my Palm goes off, I am not an “Oh, boy!  I’m ready to go!” person. I generally say “Oy!  I have to get up,” and, very slowly (if I’m lucky) I get out of bed.  Though, I am not a “morning wake up” person, I enjoy being a morning person once I am up as I get much more done and believe it is important for success.  The other morning, I stumbled across something that changed my whole attitude and helped me succeed at getting up.

Instead of saying I have to get up, stated in the future tense, I said to myself, “I am getting up,” as in the present tense.  This one little change sent such a good feeling of energy through me that it made it a TON easier to get up and do what I wanted to do; be that morning person.  I am now working more on applying this to other areas.  For example, instead of saying, “I have to work on that goal,” I will say, “I am working on the goal.”  It just changes the whole ball game.

Question: What can you change to the present tense to help you succeed?

“Being comfortable” is the best theme for the lesson.  As I have written about at least once here, David Allen himself once told me, and I firmly believe that you have to be “comfortable” with your To Do list.  You have to be comfortable with what is on it, the size of it, the importance of things on it and the “do-ability” of things on it (all my words).  When it came to Foresight, I was getting uncomfortable with it as the do-ability was gnawing at me.  I knew with a full time job, with my children and my Fiancé that I did not have the time and resources to devote to Foresight.  One might think the decision seemed easy.  However, there was one item that kept holding me back.

Challenges

You would think with all the above reasons that I would just pull the plug.  However, there were a couple of things holding me back.  The first one was money & debt.  I have a relatively significant amount of debt built up from developing and deploying Foresight.  That debt stares at me every day.  When I started thinking about shutting down Foresight, a little nay-saying voice would say to me, “But you have to keep it going; you have to pay back the debt.”  And, it is that little voice that would keep me basically frozen, which is not a good state.

Action

Lately, my Pastor has talked a lot about a two themes:

• Things must remain in motion, otherwise they stagnate and die.  (For example, think about a stream of water in nature – if it flows, it stays fresh.  If it does not, it stagnates and grows crud.)
• Action is required to make progress in all facets of life.

In thinking about this, I identified that I was not taking action and thus things were stagnating and slowly dying.  I figured action – any action – was better than none.  Does shutting down Foresight help with my debt?  Well, not on the surface; the debt is still there.  But, taking action might help in the long run.

Giving

I’ve always been a generous person.  And, over the past couple of years, I have purposely tried to increase my generosity; to give more and to be a blessing to people.  Being that I use Foresight everyday to keep many projects (27 is today’s count) successfully moving forward, I decided that my success should be one major factor in taking action.  I said, “Foresight is still a great tool as it is.   Let’s let others gain what I gain out of it every day.”  It is my hope that with giving it away, my generosity will be returned by people who find it adds the same value to their lives and choose to make a contribution.  And, in continuing with the giving desire, it is my plan to give away a portion of those proceeds to charity, hopefully keeping motion, in motion, for some time to come.

Closure

So, even though my “action” on the surface may seem like it will not address my severest needs, I have high beliefs that it will.  On top of that, it brings closure to a chapter in my life, makes my To Do list comfortable again and allows me to move forward.

Per my promise, I have posted an un-locked version.  Simply download the current version from the main website and install.

I’ll write more about my decision in the next few days.  In the mean time, you can read more about it here.

Thanks everyone.  I appreciate everyone’s support – this was a fun and good adventure.