I figured I would spend a little time to show some of the tricks I have been working on in order to get myself more organized, and more productive in my work, my prepping, and my personal life.
I’m a big fan of Evernote. This program allows you to make notebooks and pages to keep stuff together. These notebooks are synchronized online, allowing you to have access to updated notes across platforms. I have it installed on my work PC, my personal computer, and my smartphone. Because it uses an external server to sync, I am careful of what I put in there, but for 99% of what I use it for it’s a brilliant piece of software.
I use it for several things. First, I keep track of all the web sites and hard-to-remember commands I use as a computer professional. I have a page where I keep track of what web articles I would like to read later, although I might start using another program ReadItLater for that. I have a Woodworking notebook where I put screenshots of project ideas, and various tips on finishing, tool restoration tips, etc. Another notebook has funny images I’ve collected.
There is a security hole I would be careful of. The data is not encrypted on the server, so if the server is hacked or subpenaed, your data is free for the world to see. The session between the client and the server is SSL encrypted, so man-in-the-middle attacks are not a big threat. I would be careful about what you store on the server, and take backups regularly. Just because the data is not on your computer means the people are backing it up and protecting it properly on their end. I do not store accounts and passwords for my bank, mail accounts, or this blog on Evernote, my phone, or in e-mail. Other accounts, like my login to a gaming forum is kept in shorthand. If you use my password scheme (here is the linky) then you can use this shorthand for accounts that are not super-critical. Use the first letter of the password syllable as a refresher. Keep the password syllables in memory, and never commit them to paper or any digital document to keep yourself secure. Also, don’t use the same password syllables for super important sites on your angieslist account or your online subscription to the newspaper.
This is more work-related, but I have started following a zero-inbox policy. This google talk goes over the whole thing in detail, and is worth viewing. The idea is to only check your e-mail on a set schedule, and process everything in your e-mail right then or there. If it is a small task then do it right then and there. If it’s a larger task, then schedule it. Otherwise delegate it to a minion, or trash it. I will be the first to admit this is really, really hard to do. As an IT professional I get between 100 and 200 e-mails a day during the week, and most people want a response right then and there. It is hard to resist the siren’s call, when Outlook has that little popup in the corner begging for attention.
Another thing I do, although not related to organization, is to let the phone go to voicemail when I am focusing on a task. Let it go to VM and deal with it later when your free to be interrupted. So hard to do.
I’ve looked at the “getting things done” system. It’s pretty famous and a few google searches should give you the gory details. I don’t think that will work for me, but I am going to steal the idea for checklists. I’m playing around with a few ideas that might work for me, but the gist of it is this: make a list of stuff you need to do, then do it. Sounds simple, but if it was that easy I wouldn’t be so disorganized.
I started on Thursday, and broght home a short list of stuff I had to get done before I studied for an hour then slacked off for the rest of the night. I did the same for Friday, and I have to say I’m pleased with what I accomplished. For the weekend, I picked a few larger tasks, with a lot of smaller ones and got most of them done. I’m working out the strategy and will update later on.
This Evernote is awesome for these lists. Make a notebook called “stuff to do” and add every item you want to do on it.if you tag these notes with tags for heir function then you can search and organize by these tags. I currently have the following tags: PREPS, HOME MAINTENANCE, WOODWORKING, WORK, CERTIFICATION, and FUN. If you include an estimite of how long it will take then when you make your list for the night or the weekend, then you can tailor your list for how much time you have. By using the “Saved Searches” function in Evernote you can have dynamically created lists… pretty handy. Eventually, I want to organize these to-do lists by importance, and urgency. This way I do the tasks that are most important and urgent first.
This is not the end-all one-size fits all solution for everyone. Heck, some people are naturally organized, but I’m not. As I make improvements I’ll share them so you get some ideas for your own use.
Tags: mental preparation, organization