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Do you every make a grocery list that does not contain everything you need? I find it much more effective to create a quick diagram of what groceries, starting with major categories (recipes I want to make, or types of food) and then branching out to ingredients.

This is a quick and dirty grocery diagram. It took me about two minutes.

Here is how I did it.

1) Wrote the word “Buy” in the middle of a sheet of paper and drew a circle around it.
2) Drew a few lines out from the center and labeled them with major categories (“dishes” “produce” “beans”)
3) Drew lines from the end of each of those lines that I gave specific labels (e.g. from dishes a line labelled “salads”)
4) Wrote out ingredients that pertained to those last labels
5) Look over the diagram to see if any new ideas for dishes or ingredients are triggered and add any new items.

Now, go shopping!

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This image is part of 100 Days Envizualized, a project where I upload my visual notes that I create on 100 consecutive days. To check out the other notes, go here

An eBook will be available of all 100 days worth of notes, with annotation, once the 100 days are over. Keep it visual!

Before:

After:

Today’s visual notes show the power of feedback. Specifically from my Mom, Rochelle Cashdan, who is a writer and who also has an excellent visual sense. I am lucky to have someone who has sharp critical faculties who actually cares about me enough to give me detailed feedback.

Mom’s suggestions for improvement were reinforced by visualist extraordinaire, Roy Blumenthal. The main thing they both stressed: clarity.

What changed:

1) Changed the “I” to “You.” It’s not about me, or just me. I want you to be able to connect to this.
2) Got rid of “100 Days envizualized” and added “@” before “jonnygoldstein.” Might as well leverage this image to connect to more people on Twitter.
3) Redrew the “ASS” text to make the “ASS” more legible. That meant I had to change the angle of the leg.
4) Made all text more legible
5) Used bolder color
6) Highlighted selected words by adding white paint behind them

This image is part of 100 Days Envizualized, a project where I upload my visual notes that I create on 100 consecutive days. To check out the other notes, go here.

A book will be available of all 100 days worth of notes, with annotation, once the 100 days are over.

Keep checking back for new visual notes, every day (except weekends and holidays—in those cases I post them once the workweek starts). Until then, keep it visual!

P.S. The images themselves are inspired by Kathy Sierra’s credo of helping her customers kick ass.

Like many, I am very inspired by Kathy Sierra’s work in which she tries to figure out how to make her customers kick ass. I find that this focus on kicking ass is quite useful when trying to figure out whether to do something or not. If that something helps me kick ass (as a friend, relative, business person, etc), then I should do it. If not, I should not.

Everybody has a different set of criteria as to what kicking ass might be. Maybe it means being ethical, maybe it means being healthy, maybe it means trading your time for something that is really worthwhile. Whatever your criteria, I wish you the best in your ass kicking adventures.

(note: this was created using ArtRage, a wonderful program that Roy Blumenthal recommended to me. I feel like it’s going to help me kick some ass out there)

To mark the two week point of my project to post visual notes for 100 days straight, I walked around the office and got nuggets of wisdom from various folks.

Enjoy!

Todays visual notes are from a virtual meeting between Roy Blumenthal, Dean Meyers, and Jonny Goldstein. We talked about the business of visual thinking and facilitated our conversation with over twenty sketchnotes.

We used DimDim, a free web conferencing service that includes a whiteboard.

We used Skype for the Audio, which seemed to work better than the built in audio that comes with DimDim.

For drawing inputs Dean and I used Wacom tablets and Roy used a tablet PC.

Roy and Dean are smart, creative, and savvy dudes.

Here are selected screen grabs:

RSVP here for VizThink Philly 2

Topic: Get Framed….at the Storyboard-O-Rama

VizThinker Julia Pellicciaro will do a quick storyboarding demo, and then we’ll make our own and share them with each other.

Storyboards are poweful tools for planning and pitching projects. They are can also stand alone as potent communication devices.

Afterwards if you care for drinks and pierogies, hungry and thirsty VizThinkers will stroll over to Sugar Mom’s.

When: 6:30-8PM, Weds, May 27

Where: Philly Independence Branch Library (In the meeting room)

18 S. 7th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
(7th Street between Market & Chestnut)
Closest “El” stop: 8th street

RSVP here for VizThink Philly 2

Here are my visual notes to help me guide my actions today. The big one (in my mind if not on the notes), plan an outline for a Visual Thinking Bootcamp I want to run in Philly sometime soon.

The May 27 part of the notes refer to the upcoming VizThink Philly 2 meeting. We’ll be creating storyboards. Come get framed with us if you are in the area.