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The Getting Things Done workshop at TCUK15

At the TCUK15 conference this year, John Kearney and I gave a workshop covering some techniques for “Getting Things Done” as well as general productivity tips. All of this was aimed at helping our technical communicator peers get all the things done.

Prior to the conference, we sent out some optional homework.

  1. You can start by looking at Karen’s TCUK14 slides. Note the link on the last slide that goes to a bigger reference list on her website.
  2. That brings us to the second homework item: Reading about the science behind GTD.
  3. Think about a project (or the pile of stuff you need to do) that you can bring to the workshop. Having a real-life example to work with is ideal. You can bring it on an electronic device or in a notebook or just a few sheets of paper.
  4. Consider bringing a “GTD tool” with you to the workshop. A notebook and a pen is just fine. If you are bringing an electronic device, try downloading Evernote or OneNote. Both are free and very popular to use for organising tasks. We’ll use them to demonstrate GTD principles, but it’ll be up to you to find what tool or method works best for you. After all, you are the one getting things done! By the way, if you are already using a tool that you rather like, bring it along for a show-and-tell during the workshop.

The workshop slides are on SlideShare, which will please those of you who have asked for them. The rest of this blog post is the raw (and very long) script that we put together for structuring the workshop. It grew from our discussions and planning sessions on Skype, Google Docs, and Twitter DMs! Thank goodness for technology when two speakers live in two different countries! By the way, the script is not verbatim.

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Getting at the core of UX – UX Camp CPH 2015

I was quite eager to hear the opening keynote for Day 2 of UX Camp CPH. Ida Aalen had flown down from Netlife Research in Norway to talk about the Core Model and share experiences in using it at the Norwegian Cancer Society, Telenor, and the Norwegian Blind Society. I really loved Thomas’ talk the previous evening, but I think this talk topped it with its case studies, storytelling, and examples. UX in action. I do think Ida and her team grasped the idea of believing that Thomas had preached. The quality of the presentation and of the content was proof of that. If you hear about a conference where Ida is speaking, just go! And follow her on Twitter: @IdaAa. I’m a fan! (This blog post covers only the opening keynote on Day 2. I felt it was important enough to give it its own blog post, and breaking…

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The language of inclusion on a form

While surfing Twitter, I was drawn to this article because of its title: “Disability-smart customer service: handling difficult situations“. I clicked the link to get to the article, but I didn’t read it. I happened to scroll at the same time and ended up at the registration form section of the page. The form really caught my attention. After the usual name and email fields on the form, I saw a text box labelled “Adjustments”. Inside the box, placeholder text stated: Please tell us if you require any adjustments for this event e.g. dietary, access, assistance, alternative formats, interpreters or disabled parking I think using the term adjustments and the language of the placeholder text is neutral. This could be far less stigmatising than the label of “Disabilities”, “Accessibility”, or “Special Needs”, and much more inclusive. The article is on the Business Disability Forum website. The event for this registration…

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