Fresh Focus……

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Fresh Focus… is a blog about my life experiences….whether it be at home, work, methodologies for Getting Things Done (GTD), life organization or productivity you can always count on the material to be new and fresh!

There are some pages that I am proud of, and would like to direct your attention:

• My Hand Designed GTD Templates
• Free GTD Downloads that I have come across on the web
• My Reviews
• My Love for all things Google

Having owned a computer since 1998, I’ve been online and tinkering with computers quite awhile. Yes, I’m one of the rare female “geek” species! I’ve discovered a great many things on the web, and hold a vast amount of knowledge about a broad scope of things. We own our own computer troubleshooting/repair service, dealing with things from software installs to building customized systems from scratch. Feel free to email me about any computer issues you may be having, and I can point you the right direction to solve your issue. I’ve recently been introduced to GTD via the Productivity In Context blog and have found Stephen Smith to be a great resource as well as a true friend. Subscribing to quite a few GTD blogs, I get great ideas from all of them that I read. Again, feel free to contact me using the Contact page and I will help you in any way that I can! Nice to meet you and I hope you enjoy your stay! Please don’t forget to visit our sponsors, and to stay up-to-date with my thoughts and posts, feel free to subscribe to my RSS feed.

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de·ter·mi·na·tion

1 a: a judicial decision settling and ending a controversy b: the resolving of a question by argument or reasoning2archaic : termination3 a: the act of deciding definitely and firmly; also : the result of such an act of decision b: firm or fixed intention to achieve a desired end <a woman of great courage and determination>4: a fixing or finding of the position, magnitude, value, or character of something: as a: the act, process, or result of an accurate measurement b: an identification of the taxonomic position of a plant or animal 5 a: the definition of a concept in logic by its essential constituents b: the addition of a differentia to a concept to limit its denotation6: direction or tendency to a certain end : impulsion7: the fixation of the destiny of undifferentiated embryonic tissue

Let’s take a look at definition 3, shall we?

We are definitive on things in our daily lives, more than we know. In the morning, we decide to get up, decide what coffee to order at our favorite coffee shop, and decide what to wear. We get paid at our jobs for making decisions: deciding to help a customer, deciding what action to take for an issue, and deciding what to eat for lunch.

So, we are determined to do what we must do in our daily lives. What if our determination spilled over into things that weren’t quite so automatic, but could be? For instance, what if, just by our thoughts alone, we could be determine to have enough wealth in our lives? I don’t mean just monetary wealth, but wealth of family, friends and health too. If our determination to do these things was as automatic as the items listed above, we sure would be a wealthy society.

But instead, some people choose to be determined to have misery in their lives, ill health, poverty, and other maladies.  When we are original dealt these lessons, yes, it may be the case that we had no control over these. But where the determination comes in is in overcoming these obstacles. It takes a great deal more energy to overcome an obstacle than it does to allow it, and not let it win. We all can do it, everyday, in our daily lives. We cannot let the momentum of obstacles stand in the way of our determination to make our lives positive and healthy. Everyday, we must make a concentrated and conscious effort to apply our determination to all the good things we have and need in life: and to hell with the bad!

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Although I’ve mentioned before my love affair with Microsoft OneNote, it is worth doing another article, with a bit more explanation on how they can really help you organize for productivity and organization.

Please click on the pictures for an explanation of the different areas on OneNote.

Firstly, you will create a top level category, which is called a “Notebook” (clever, eh?). Notebooks can have pages, but you can break this down into a hierarchy that is more efficient.

Notebook can have children (don’t ask me about the birds & the bees of Notebook, because you really don’t want me to go there!). These children are called “Sections”. Each Section can have pages as well. You can also create Section Groups, which will hold multiple Sections (like the spiral bound notebooks that have the dividers that are folders). Sections and Section Groups can have pages, too, so if you want to provide an outline of a Section or Section Group, you can use that page to do so. Or if you want to post un-filed tidbits of information there, it’s great for that too.

Each different category in OneNote can be colorized to whatever color you desire, and each page can have it’s own templates. Included in the base install are Academic, Blank, Business, Decorative and Planner templates. There are well over 100 installed templates, with many more available at MS Office online. I choose decorative templates, because I’m an eye candy whore and love to look at aesthetically pleasing things. Different templates can be chosen for each different page, so you’ll never get bored of your Notebooks.

• Microsoft OneNote is great for adaptation into GTD. If you click on the picture over there, you can see how there can be different Notebooks (for instance: Home, Work, Personal) with different Section for each project. Within the Sections come your GTD familiars:@Next Action
  @Action
  @Someday/Maybe
  @Waiting On
  @Finished

You can create as many projects as you like as well as however many pages that you need. This NoteBook has just gone on sale for the low price of $9.99. Look at the bottom of that page and click on the image for a larger view. This NoteBook is fully customizable: templates can be changed, pages can be added and you can add as many Projects as you need. I hope that you find it as useful as I!

In the next post, I’ll go into detail on how you can use OneNote to share NoteBooks over networks and on multiple computers as well as

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1: to bring about (a result) by effort <have much to accomplish today>
2: to bring to completion : fulfill <we can accomplish the job in an hour>
3: to succeed in reaching (a stage in a progression) <would starve before accomplishing half the distance — W. H. Hudson died 1922>
4archaic a: to equip thoroughly b: perfect

Yep, that sums it up! That’s what it means to accomplish something. But so many of us take that for granted….

You see the word perfect up there? That does me perfect and in without flaw, that means the act of doing something completely. When you accomplish something, you indeed do that. Assure to give the true power to this word that is intended.

It’s not a word to be taken lightly: if you have made an accomplishment, whether it be:

• Finishing a task
• Starting a task
• Helping someone else with a task

be proud of it. Shout it from the highest roof tops and down into the lowest valleys. While others may not recognize your accomplishments, you must ALWAYS recognize them! Toot your own horn! Where do you think motivation comes from? From keeping yourself on task and getting things accomplished. Look at your completed list everyday, or sit back in your lounger at night and review them mentally.

But always, always keep them in the front of your mind. When you are accomplishing things, you are growing, learning and doing. That, my friend, is the art of living.

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