the Noboard. Say goodbye to the bindings. When you’re shredding, you ‘think’ that you’re lifting your heels and toes to surf the powder, but actually you’re putting downward pressure on the board. Say goodbye to the bindings.
The video below tells it better…
White Plains, N.Y., March 31, 2008 - The USTA announced today that Martin Vaughan from Lafayette High School in Lexington, Ky. is being honored as a high school tennis coach who maintains a “no-cut” policy for their high school tennis team.
A no-cut policy ensures that every student who wishes to play is welcomed as a member of the team. “No-cut tennis programs are keeping with the objectives of the USTA to continue to grow the game of tennis,” said Kirk Anderson, the USTA’s Director of Recreational Coaches and Programs. “We know that students who make their high school tennis team end up playing more tennis and staying in the game longer. We hope that by honoring these individuals we can inspire more coaches to run no-cut programs.”
“I am excited about our team of 24 girls,” said Vaughan in a phone interview on Thursday. He went on to add, “I chose not to cut players simply based on ability, however there are other criteria that must be met to become a Lafayette General: good grades, attendance to matches and practices, and a drive to improve their game are all essential.”
The USTA recognizes Coach Vaughan for his efforts. A letter was sent to Principal Michael McKenzie, as well as a care package to Vaughan with a 3×5 foot USTA banner, press release, and baseball cap. Good luck this year!
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In the column to your right (unless you are in your computer, staring out) I have posted a link called Virtual Hard Drive. This is just as the link describes. It’s a hard drive in cyberspace that I own and operate through dot mac. Feel free to click on the link to the right or on the little globe above. Inside you may find anything - music, photos, short movies… just stuff I thought I’d share. Enjoy.
-M
Productivity
I was an early Stephen Covey fan, tauting the leather organizer from his institution. This organizer was more of an organism, as it lived and breathed and evolved. I had started with the standard suggested format based on the 7 Habits. At the epicenter of this structure was a mission statement, from which various roles in my life floated to the top. The macro view of this first things first paradigm could be seen in my mind as a four-square: Social, Emotional, Physical and Spiritual. Closer in the concepts take on flesh with categories like family, friends, finances, seeker, community, fitness, and ’someday’. The category ‘Seeker’ perhaps needs clarification. This is all things spiritual, which is a broad statement, I know. It includes personal practices like prayer or study of the Word, as well as social practices like serving at Church or a soup kitchen. Aspects of my life could easily fall into more than one category but usually a primary idea surfaces that indicates where it really needs to be.
Not long ago the Mac culture picked up on David Allen’s 2002 book, Getting Things Done. The book had a slow start and only in the last year has it reached a tipping point. With this new and fresh look at productivity came a host of softwares to digitize the concepts of delegation, deferment, and doing. Of leading an effective life.
Digital v Paper
This is a relatively new debate - since 1984 actually when it became possible to carry around a megabyte in your pocket. I first ventured into digital organization in 1998 with the new Palm Pilot. It lasted a month - maybe two. The Pilot simply could not keep up with the pace of my thoughts or ideas. Sure, it could remember a birthday and ring a bell, but it held no sway over pen and paper when it came to capturing ideas or brainstorming. Once I realized I was doing both digital and paper, I just dropped digital.
Since I got my free Macbook Pro from joshclark.com a year ago, I have found myself flirting again with digital productivity. I’ve realized I’ll always carry a journal, but I have room for my Mac in my timbuk2 as well.
Based on years of fine tuning and my OCD obsession with productivity, here is a current snapshot of where I’m at.
An item comes into my life. A bill, an email, a request from a high school coach, a Republican asking me to link arms in the face of inevitable change. This is an input. A phone call, a middle finger from an angry driver, a student loan forbearance…you get the idea.
Before anything happens with this item, I decide if it makes it into one of the primary quadrants. That is, is the item serving any purpose that I’m interested in? Can it fit, even in the smallest way, into my mission statement? If not, I do nothing. Well, I may regretfully deny a request if said request was thoughtful or otherwise respectful, but if not then it was probably noise. While this may sound a little selfish or egocentric, consider your own mission statement. You consider it the core of who you are and why you are here, and it probably involves trying to make the World a little better than how you found it. Now consider that you can go about that task effectively, that is, heading in close to a straight line towards your goals, or ineffectively; all over the map, getting nothing done. Saying no to certain inputs keeps you in a straighter line, thereby doing more good.
If the input makes the cut, I consider whether I can take care of the item (email, phone call, a request) in under 5 minutes. If so, I do it right then and there. This is David Allen’s simple revelation. If the item requires more time - a report or budget, painting the great room, building a deck, getting a Masters degree - then the item follows this data flow:
iGTD is a free software that organizes your inputs. You’ll notice on the right that there’s nothing. That’s because right now I have nothing pending - nothing hanging out there in the open airwaves causing me to be distracted. On the left you’ll notice my contexts. That’s just another way of saying the roles in my life. Again, I arrived at these by writing mission statements.
The long term projects get broken into intelligent steps toward the goal. The smaller items, such as prepare for a meeting, may require only 3 or 4 ‘to dos’ in any sequential order. Naturally items fall into two categories of ‘Due on this date’ and no specific, time sensitivity. The Calendar in this software is taking everything in and preparing to share it with other programs.
Where we go from here I will share in Part II.
Hi. My name is Marty Vaughan. I am an educator in Lexington, Kentucky. This is my perspective. Check out my site at http://www.martinrayvaughan.com/.
Well what do you know! My blogger account is now linked here as well.
Productivity Tools and thoughts by Marty Vaughan. This section of martinrayvaughan.com is for Marty's quick reference.
