3 Stations East

Organizational Smackdown Update

nobody@vox.com(Paul) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:44:36 -0600

Back in December I started to evaluate the way I collect and store information. Some of it frustrated me, some of it worked fine but all in all I felt I needed a better system.

It's been a couple of months now, so I thought I'd provide an update for the 6 of you reading this.

RSS

RSS wasn't a big problem for me, or so I thought. Vienna and Google Reader initially teamed up to cover my needs but didn't sync in any way - a small problem that I ignored. I then switched to Google Reader exclusively and liked it, but still missed the convenience of a desktop reader.

Then NetNewsWire 3 came out for free and kinda smooshed Google Reader. I always liked NNW but didn't want to pay for it (cheap!) and Vienna was a strong, free alternative. But NNW 3 had everything I wanted plus - plus! - FTP-based syncing. Thus I was able to solve my syncing problem and enjoy the benefits of a desktop newsreader. Great great solution. Too bad that FTP syncing is going to be deprecated with the next release, dammit.

WSFL

Will Save For Later is what I tag any links from anywhere that I can't read right now, but will need to look at or want to look at in the future. Until a couple of weeks ago I was using the tag in delicious and subscribing to it in NNW. Kinda weird. Then Instapaper came along and solved everything! It's WSFL all the way, and is perfect. A JavaScript bookmarklet lets me save things to Instapaper, and it's always there when I need it. Instapaper is awesome, just awesome.

Calendars

I had decided that it'd be nice to sync up online and offline calendars. Truth of the matter is that I don't use offline calendars hardly at all. Ryan had said once, "I bet you don't need offline calendaring." He was right. Google Calendar marches on solo.

Quick Reminders

Sandy wins pure and simple. I still love the functionality I'd touched on earlier, and the Jott integration is beautiful. I noticed that I haven't set any reminders for myself in the past week or so. Hm.

Undated To Dos

As mentioned in the Quick Reminders post, there's a lot of To Do stuff I need to track. I've divided them up into dated and undated. Undated to dos are akin to "someday" tasks - things which may or may not take a lot of time, but should/could be done at some point and are not time sensitive. Obviously.

My initial plan was to put these into Yojimbo, but I stopped using Yojimbo altogether as it felt like a dead-end to me. Then there was Remember the Milk which was going to house both my dated and undated to dos... and yet, I went cold on RTM quickly. I just stopped using it. I didn't find it to be compelling enough to warrant my time. Feature-wise, it's got everything but something left me feeling weird about it. (Maybe the UI?)

That brought me back to Backpack, of all places. I'm still on the free plan - and will await the next version to decide on paying for it - but I simply popped in a new list on my home page. This is a regular ol' checkbox list. I find it's getting pretty long but it's also a great dumping ground for little things that pop into my head. It's very very useful. Yes, it's online only, but I can deal.

Dated To Dos

So far, no solution. I could use Backpack without any real time sensitivity built-in. I could use Things, which is powerful for me at the day job. But I use neither. I suspect that for this stuff I'll end up using a combo of Backpack and Sandy, or maybe just Sandy. This will take a bit of a leap of faith; I'll need to think of Sandy as a REAL TO DO LIST PROGRAM versus just a handy reminder thing.

Junk Drawer

Yojimbo was acting as my junk drawer. But, again, I wasn't thrilled with it. No solution here either - I'm using a scattering of Stickies and text documents again. Blah.

And there you have it.

For what it's worth, I'm thinking of giving VoodooPad a spin (maybe in place of Backpack?) I've never heard of anyone using it, though.

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Sticky Yojimbo SOHO Notes Focus

nobody@vox.com(Paul) — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 19:08:57 -0600

I know I've talked about this before but now I'm ready to do something about it: I have too many notes and things in too many places. In my head, in Mail, in Stickies, in my Documents folder, in Backpack... too much stuff in too many places. I'd feel a lot better if I had everything in one place.

And yeah, I'm using Backpack but I'm not sure if that's the ultimate solution for me. Price is a factor; I'd rather not pay an annual fee to use software. I'm old-fashioned that way.

I've had the same issue at work with projects and am trying out OmniFocus there, mostly because it allows for due dates and the like. For home I need to track lots of different types of things - including some with due dates. But man, having it scattered is really bothersome.

I downloaded Yojimbo and started working with it but to be honest, it feels immediately like I have to jump through hoops to add stuff. For instance I wanted to add an item in a list of things to buy. I could add just the item's description as a note, but then I wanted to add a formal title and tags. I know, I know, I don't have to - but then I'm not exploiting it properly. Blah. That's an extra step right there. For me it's easier to crack open Stickies and just add a new one there... but then it's over in Stickies, when I probably want it in Backpack.

On top of that after I was using it, I thought, "Man, I forgot about my WSFL links on delicious!" I've got a whole category of public and private links dubbed Will Save For Later - usually videos, which I don't watch at work. I would love to have the ability to bring those into the organizational system. That's a bonus feature but if any one of the programs (online or off) did that, I'd seriously consider it. (It could even be via an RSS update of my delicious, now that I think about it, so long as I could restrict by tag and allow private links.)

So. That said, I need to track:

stuff to buy for myself
stuff to buy for others
projects around the house
online projects
dates to replace little things (Brita filter, etc.)
cost comparisons for food items (mostly stores v. Costco)
receipts
houses and condos
UPS/FedEx tracking numbers
BONUS: YouTube videos
BONUS: delicious links

Some of this sounds like a super bookmark tool, one that doesn't force me to use something like realtor.com's lame lame "Save this!" feature. And, a lot of these can be distilled down to Safari links, really.

Features I need:

Offline access. If I'm on a plane or on the train, I don't want to be tethered to the web.
Online access. Likewise, if I think of something at work I'd like to tell my machine at home about it with zero fuss and, if possible, zero extra cost.
Searchable via Spotlight and/or QuickSilver (latter preferred)
Optional due dates on items
Non-crappy interface
Reasonably priced (up to US$40)
Ability to link stuff would be nice (ie, do X then Y)
Sure would be nice to have simple math or (!) spreadsheet functionality on board, so I don't have to farm it out to Numbers... but this is a big big stretch.
Quick, easy way to get information in - don't make me fuss with tags and titles and stuff.

Sounds like I need a computer!

So, anyway, Yojimbo looks like a close-but-no-cigar. I'm going to download SOHO Notes and try that too. Anyone have any thoughts on this stuff?

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Mission: Desk Organization

nobody@vox.com(Paul) — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 18:50:12 -0600

My desk was a mess.

Really, it wasn't a big deal. The area I used the most - the surface - was fairly clean and somewhat organized. Somewhat. But the storage area of the desk was a total mess and was, frankly, embarrassing. A few weeks ago I started looking into making my desk less of a mess and more of a... uhm... less... messy.

My two main sources were The Container Store and CB2. The biggest restrictions I had were budget (not much) and the fact that my desk is black. I'm not crazy about it anymore but, frankly, a lot of that was due to the lack of organization. But with that restriction in place I decided to play Roger Black and go with three main colors: white, black, and red. The computer, iPod, keyboard, and mouse were already white of course. Red would bring a little warmth and (hopefully!) style to the party.

From Trash... to Flash! er, Not Flash!

The main point of concentration was the storage itself. Here's a quick before and after shot. In the before, you can see that it was, uh, messy. The open mesh storage bins (also from The Container Store) were a little dated and not really my style anymore but, most importantly, not doing a good job. From the bottom shelf I usually needed printer paper, so I just left it on top of other things. From the top shelf I only occasionally needed a CD-R. And there was a third short shelf at the top - removed in the before shot - that was only about 2" tall and could hold paper and assorted stuff. That's where I put almost everything without thinking.

Drawer

The solutions were closed storage and a sliding drawer, which is what really got me excited. No, really: I'd finally have a closed, neat place for all sorts of knick-knacks and stuff. I bought a narrow elfa drawer ($11), the sliding guides ($8), and a plastic organizer that fit perfectly inside ($7). It took me about 10 minutes to install - dead simple. I like elfa's stuff overall as it's great quality and stands up to a lot of abuse. I was impressed that the plastic organizer was a perfect fit. Oh, and I had to go with the narrow elfa drawers because my desk thingamajig is only 15" wide.

Closed storage was a really tough decision. I originally wanted these hot red boxes from CB2 but they weren't quite big enough for paper! Bummer. They had a luminous quality, great texture and just looked nice. After considering an open canvas bin and white paper boxes I settled on the stowaway bins ($8 each). They're deep, have lids, and look good - but are not admittedly knockouts. I might dress these up in the future with red pulls or labels.

Cayman Plate

The top of the desk was, again, not a huge problem. The biggest issue I had was that my desk had become my "throw stuff out of my pockets" place. Wallet, Metra pass, badge for work... all that stuff would just sit on the corner of my desk. I got inspired at CB2 and picked up my only red item, a plate! They had a desk on display with matte black plates holding envelopes and the like. I got the Cayman dessert plate ($4), which was the perfect size for my stuff. As Jeani put it, "You're still just throwing stuff on the desk, but this elevates it."

Palette Mug

Finally, my ugly pencil holder from IKEA needed to go. It was a translucent white plastic and just looked sterile and uninspired. I wanted to go red here too, but at CB2 I started entertaining the option of getting a cool mug to use as a pencil holder. Plus, I wouldn't need nearly as many at hand with the elfa drawer. I chose the Palette Mug ($3) because it looked great, and has a very interesting shape. The red was too phony red (compared with the jewel-like quality of the Cayman plate), so I went with black and white.

The end result is a cleaner look with just a little color. I want to definitely bring in more red and try to do away with a couple of ugly things that remain: namely, my non-white Firewire and USB cables (oh, the problems of living in a first world country!) and the hideous, faux aluminum silver FireWire hard drive housing. But sheesh, try to find a non-ugly one. This is easily my next big challenge, because almost every FireWire enclosure I've seen is hideous or dripping with ugly-ass text ("HARD DRIVE ULTRA" et al.) A red enclosure would be lovely!

So that's it. I took care of most of my desk's problems. It took me only a day, and about $70. Not too shabby!

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