I got to know David Seah‘s work while I was surfing in search of ‘time tracking’ info. I did not know exactly what, but I felt that my productivity system had become a bit stale, clunky maybe.
Seah’s creative forms had nothing to do with what I was looking for, but they turned to be exactly what I needed. What I like in Seah’s forms is not only the intelligent and beautiful layout, but also the application of a type of information technology (the form) to original new fields.
Emerging Task Planner - Click on the image to see detail
One usually associates ‘forms’ with nasty chores, like doing one’s taxes; with stuff repeated ad nauseam, like, you know, name-gender-address-age.
The repetition of those worn out patterns leads you to believe that forms cannot be creative, that there is something inherently ugly about them, and, well, that they are something that is better to run away from as soon as you can.
But enter David Seah. Suddenly the same old device is used in a cool way, to discuss serious, methodically, one’s own productivity. With instructions so simple to use and so appealing that, before you notice, you have filled the first field and are asking for more information about YOURSELF, about your work patterns. All executed with the rigor and taste that seemed formerly reserved for the corporate world.
I see David’s products as part of a nice wave of DIY in the best sense of the word; people looking for good ways to do things for other people, bringing back technology for particular using. I know Seah is not a big GTD fan, but to me his forms are somewhat in the same wavelength of David Allen’s insistence on getting oneself a labeler, of taking one’s stuff that serious. The ‘ancient stance’, that this kind of creators are helping to demolish, would go like this:
“…but of course it has a great design; it is part of a company project. This other thing here? Oh, this lousy paper and this felt-tip pen with almost no ink will do. It is only my life, after all.”
Obviously, such stance is no longer sustainable, mostly when information has become so easy to access to. We are visual animals; visual elements are one of the most persuasive ways to get a human encouraged, moved, influenced or inspired;
Concrete Goals Tracker - Click on the image to see detail
it is about time that we start to use visual elements to our advantage, not only to the Acme corp of the day’s (not meaning an opposition here: it is fair that any company uses any sensory mean to spread the news about its product; but ONLY as long as single individuals have that same possibility in their arsenal too).
So thanks David Seah for one more step in the contribution to the democratization of technology. The Emergent Task Planner, the Compact Calendar and the Concrete Goals Tracker are already an essential part of my organization; they also make my corkboard nicer to look at, so I come around there more often, as by chance, to see ‘what’s cooking’. And that, my friends, is productivity of the best kind.
David Seah’s forms have been around the web for a while but, if you haven’t seen them yet, do yourself a favor and check them out. They are available as free PDF downloads, and also as convenient pre-printed packs. Your workflow and your inspiration will thank you.
Related posts:
Focus The Steve Jobs Way
The Speed Of Technology And The Speed Of The World
Learn from others’ mistakes: my GTD leaks
Flowing with the workflow
The deeper the channel, the greater the flow
