The Way I Manage Information

S/V Christa
Anchored Rodney Bay
St Lucia Island
Caribbean Sea
14’05.1N/60'57.6W

You can see a graphic of my worklist that I saved as a JPEG for this blog entry. Ever since the early 90’s, when the Coast Guard (thank you Capt Mohn) sent me to Franklin Quest’s (now Franklin Covey) Time Management seminar I have loved to compile and manangae lists. Right up until the day I retired I used my Franklin Covey Day Planner with great success. In fact I still have most of the years saved in paper format that is an archive of what I was doing when over a good number of years.

I now have a hybrid system to keep me on task with all the goals and jobs, parts lists and expectations I have set out for myself. All now are in the electronic format as the paper Day Planner of the old school just does not work on a boat. That is okay because the information revolution has given me plenty of tools to work with.

This organization of information in my opinion is important to the cruising sailor. Managing a boat that is on the move or getting ready to go on the move has a ton of stuff to organize, each is important in its own right.

Just as an example of a small thing that needs yearly attention is the CG Documentation for Christa. Why my former employer wants to renew the doc every year is beyond me, but that is another issue. I know 45 days prior to expiration the CG sends out a renewal notice. How do I remember? That’s right, I dash it down in a list, but wait. I also have an electronic calendar that sends me an email to remind me. So I make a note to email the mail forwarding service to see if it has been received. Okay they have it and ask where to send it? Well now that is a hell of a question. Better get that on a list, consult the calendar and check weather to determine where I may be? Antigua? Does Jolly Harbor have FedEx? Can I stomach the $45 shipping charge to get my documentation? Guess I better because if I don’t get it, the documentation expires holding me up at Customs or causing an international incident at the next port with my expired registration and a vigorous round of ink stamping. What a hassle, but one that is made easier by being proactive. I can think of 100 things I need to be more proactive on, but one of them is not getting things on my worklists. Getting them checked off the list is much more time consuming. In fact here is a shocker. I’ve had on my worklist to mount my oars for the dingy for well over a year. That is right, I have been motoring around in the dingy with no oars for a long long time! What happens if the engine quiets you might say? Good question, ask Janina she’ll tell you first hand. No matter though, it’s on the list. But today I can proudly say with Tom Larson’s assistance 4 holes were drilled in 15 minutes, job complete and task swept away with one keystroke.

And here is my point. Just about everything I jot down on a list eventually gets done. I still have the “Goal Planning Sheet” from 1995 that says “Retire, go sailing.” Done. Maybe I should make a new one with the heading “Get a Job.” Sometimes I’ll assign myself the task of reading the worklist, that way I know right off the bat I can strike something from the list. I’m jazzed straight away.

The graphic is my MindMap. The software I use is free from Freemind. This is what I use to manage all the things I have going on in terms of worklists. I first learned about mindmapping while reading a book by Michael Gelb chronicling the genius of Leonardo da Vinci. Now Leo was a pioneer in the use of mindmaps but certainly not the first. The concept of the mindmap has to do with how the brain processes information. A mindmap looks similar to a brain cell with the root and dendrites branching out in different directions. The knoggin simply will be move efficient when looking at a mindmap as it processes the connection between between seemingly disconnected items.

I use mindmaps for anything that requires advance planning which for me is just about everything. That's how I roll.


Capt Chris