Layne's Lunch

I realize this blog is all over the place.  Maybe someday I'll figure out what I want to be when I grow up.   One of my hobbies is cooking.  Here is my granola recipe.  Eat a cup of this in the morning with some almond milk and you'll feed healthier all day long.   Layne’s (soon to be) Famous Granola 10 cups rolled oats 2 cups of 7 grain cereal 1 cup sunflower seeds 2 cups sliced almonds 1/2 cup flax seed 3 cups flaked coconut 2 cups dried cranberries 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup real maple syrup 1/2 cup honey 1/4 cup molasses 1 cup canola oil 1 tablespoon cinnamon 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon salt (may be omitted if the sunflower seeds are salted)  Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Spray 2 large baking sheets with non-stick spray. Combine the oats, 7 grain, sunflower seeds, almonds, coconut, and flax seed in a large bowl.  Stir together In a sauce pan, combine the sugar, syrup, honey, molasses...

Everyone has their own list of favorite books.  If you do a search for the top 10 leadership books of all time, you get variety of opinions.  To add to the noise on this topic, here are my top 10 business, leadership and productivity books.   How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey Getting Things Done by David Allen Speed of Trust by Stephen M. R. Covey Good to Great by Jim Collins The OZ principle by Hickman, Smith, and Connors What Color is Your Parachute by Richard N. Bolles Winners Never Cheat by Jon M. Huntsman Linchpin by Seth Godin A Message to Garcia by Elbert Hubbard I know I'm missing some significant authors, so I would like to add that you should read what these authors have written as well: - Ken Blanchard - John Maxwell  - Marcus Buckingham - Tom Peters

Here are a few thoughts about hiring.  Having been on both sides of the hiring table over the last five years, I have gathered up the following:   I think everyone would agree that the goal of interviewing people is to find the right person.  Any business owner will say that their people are key to their business.   Unfortunately, everyone is in too much of a hurry.  The interviewee wants to get to work quickly and the interviewer wants to get done with hiring so they can get back to work.    This fact, combined with the current structure of the human resources selection and interview process is NOT to find the right person, but to find the one person that can check the greatest number of boxes on the job description and that will work for the lowest salary. We use degrees, accreditations, licenses, certifications, and this intangible thing we call "experience" to try and find the right fit.  Is this really the best way? Most hiring managers a...

Here are the power tools I use to make Evernote work for GTD. Evernote for Mac (Home) Evernote for Windows (Work) Evernote for iPhone (with me all the time) Evernote Moleskine notebook A really good gel pen.  (My current favorite refill is the Parker Gel refill inside the Gatsby pen I made from Penn State Industries ) Evernote Premium (At first I thought I wouldn't need it, but now that I have it I'm glad I spent the $5 each month. A copy of the GTD workflow taped by my computer The discipline to process every day.

No matter how much we like a piece of software, there is always something else that could be done to improve it.  Here is a short list of what I have come up with in the last few months of using Evernote. I realize that Evernote is not a to-do list manager and that it was not designed to do projects.  However, it would be nice if you could tie two notes together in some kind of relationship. For example, I would like to have the ability to relate one note to another in some other way than with tags.   Again, I know that it isn't project management software, but I would really like to make one note a successor/predecessor of another note.  That way, I would be prompted to look at the next note in the list when you I got done with the first note. In premium, Evernote puts related notes at the bottom of the screen.  However, it would be nice if the user had some control over what notes are related. Reminders are great.  how about recurring reminders? ...

I have been using the Evernote Moleskine Notebook for about 2 months.  Here is my review Things I like: Color,  Come on, who doesn't think the green band and the green page ribbon are cool? Hard Cover.  Great for writing without a desk Paper.  Excellent writing paper.  Slightly off white.  It is thick enough to use a gel pen without bleeding through.   Grid lines.  It gives those of us who don't have a right brain a bit of incentive to be creative rather than follow horizontal lines.   Getting 3 free months of Evernote Premium.  This was a great way to try out Premium.  Also, I got the book on Amazon for about $20.  So, it was a great bargain considering you got the book and the $15 worth of premium Evernote.   Perfect size.  It is almost exactly the same size as my iPad Mini.  So they both fit in my hand very well.   Things I don't like.  OK, there isn't much I don't like about this not...

Thinking about my last dozen posts, I realized that I didn't get you started with the end in mind.  (Covey habit #2) Why would you want to use GTD and put your life in Evernote?   Great question. 1.  This is not for everyone.  If you haven't read GTD, then you won't get it.  If you have used GTD, then you will understand what having a mind like water will do for your life. 2.  Your mind is great at deciding and thinking.  It is not good at storing information.  I ascribe the the limited brain cell theory.  If you use up brain cells storing, then you can't use them for thinking.   3.  If you have a system and everything is in your system, then you don't have to think about the system, you can get things done instead.   Why Evernote?  I am not a huge Evernote fan nor am I an expert on Evernote.  I consider it a tool just like the rest of the tools in my tool chest in the garage.  I don't fret al...