Re: Invisible Structures, Organization, Mind Mapping, and Intern Log book

[Sharon Gordon <gordonse@one.net>]

One way to structure this might be to have the log book divided into
sections by type topic.  And then to have a list where the required
skills be signed off on as they are learned/experienced/demonstrated.
And then to have a second section of additional related skills that might not
be required for the certificate, but are helpful to know.  Similarly
there could be a section for useful topics that are not required for the
certificate.  It would help to have some blank space where additional
detailed information could be provided.  It would also help for future jobs
if the intern took before, during, and after pictures as appropriate.  This
could be an additional documentation of experiences as well as an
idea book for future jobs.  This could also be a big help for interns to
look over the lists to make sure they had gotten a chance to learn
about all of the aspects.

I think also it would help to learn about Project Management and Database
software to manage huge projects, or how to do the work with index
cards if the person expects to be doing projects where computers will be
rare.  Also it would help to learn about how to analyze all the
possibilities to help in choosing the projects that would be the
most useful.

Once a person learns about Permaculture, it is easy to see
literally 1000's of things that could be done with a piece of land.
But how can they decide which are best?  What's the best order to
do them in so that Step 5 doesn't undo Step 2?  Is there a step that
could be done now that could save a ton of money in a future step
like starting your own tree nursery?  This might help to keep
Permaculture Eureka from turning into Permaculture Overwhelmed.

Also it helps to learn how to do experiments scientifically and collect
good data to help with future decisions.

Another point that might help is warning people to use their
Permaculture Idealism in a structured way so that it works for them
and avoiding the Permaculture Perfectionism trap which can lead
to a paralysis of worrying that "If I can't do it right, I shouldn't do 
anything."

Along with this, I think it is important to teach people how to set
specific measurable goals.  A goal without some specifics is
really only a dream.

For example:

Dream:  I'd like to live in a house I built myself in a food forest.

Specific goal(using northern hemisphere timing here):
I'd like to live in a 600 square foot strawbale  offgrid home on at least 
20 acres
of land with  year round water by June of 2003.
By March 30 of 2003, I'd like to be growing 20 kinds of fruit, 30 kinds of 
vegetables,
4 kinds of fuel trees, 6 kinds of basket weaving material, 14 food herbs 
and 43 medicinal herbs.  By September  17 of 2003, I'd like to have enough 
firewood cut to season to
last me through the winter of 2004 for heat and cooking.
In October and November of 2003, I will take courses in spinning and weaving.
In spring 2004, I will plant flax, cotton, and 9 kinds of dye plants.

Then a person would need to learn how to break each goal down into
specific steps and choose dates to do those so that all the steps are
done by the date they need to be done by.  If they are done with basic
computer software, it's easy to do them in a word processing program
(or to mind map first, see below).
Then it's easy to insert an additional step.  For index cards, it's also
easy to just stick another card into the stack.  Month and day index
dividers are a big help.  At least two sets of the 1-31 cards and 3-4 years
of monthly cards would be good for starters.  For basic timing software
Microsoft Outlook works very nicely.  The nice thing about it is that you
can code each task into multiple categories so that you can easily
pull up any sort of category you might need at the time.

The key to the specific steps is to keep asking yourself what you need to do
in order to accomplish X.  I find the easiest way to organize is with
a mind mapping chart.  This is where you take a plain sheet of paper or
chalkboard, and put your topic in the center and draw a circle around it.
Then as subtopics come to mind you draw spokes off the circle and
write each subtopic on the end of a different spoke.  Likewise subtopics
can have subsubtopics.  When you get everything down, then you can
go back and organize it in a linear fashion with dates.  It's much easier
than trying to think in traditional linear outline form for most people.

Sharon
gordonse@one.net