First, The Angry Medic has wandered across our field of vision briefly, and I’ll just warn you that it’s best if you don’t have a mouthful of coffee when you read this post. Heh heh.
Second, lifehack.org (I love this site; it has random tips for just about everything, and often there’s something that I can use) posted Taking Notes That Work, which is worth a read if you’re a student. I’m working on my second college degree, but I still thought it had a few helpful reminders. I do get caught up in scribbling madly in class because, well, you really DO never know what will appear on nursing school exams.
Third, I gotta put in a vegetarian plug and link to this ABC story regarding a new study from the Lancet. Turns out, surprise!, that being a vegetarian is good for the environment! We hippy-types have been mumbling this for a long time, but I’m thrilled that the Lancet is on board. Go veg! Be healthy! Prevent cows from farting away our atmosphere!
OK, I’m going to stop numbering my list. I do have some geekery. I don’t know how this happened, but I JUST NOW discovered 30boxes, which kick’s Gcal’s and Airset’s butts. Well, maybe not Airset, depending on what you’re using it for. There is much Web 2.0 hype associated with it, so if you are in to having buddies who investigate your schedule, you’ll be in hog heaven. No one is interested in my schedule, so I’m simply impressed with the ability to tag and color-code events, have repeating intervals that make sense, have important events appear starred, and change text colors. One thing that bugged me about Google is that it’s all the same color unless you use multiple calendars: exams and assignments don’t leap out with eye-popping color to scream “HEY!” And it’s got the functionality of Gcal (that I used, anyway), too. You can add events via SMS (yes, you can, and easily; I don’t know why people are whining all over the Web that 30boxes lacks this vital capacity) and get reminders via the method of your choice. It’s got a leg up on Gcal in that you can Jott events directly to your calendar, too. (I love Jott.) At first blush the to-do list seems relatively nonfunctional set up against Remember the Milk, Gubb, and their ilk, but it’s actually useful if you give it a go because of the ability to tag, drag and drop, and star/bold items. I was cranky at first because there is no repeating event capacity, but then I discovered you can make those by checking and unchecking items (did the laundry? Check. It appears on the bottom of your screen. Got dirty laundry? Uncheck. It moves back up.) Finally, their mobile version works just fabaroo on my phone in a usable way. Oh, and it can sync with Palm easily over Airset. No sweat.
Interestingly with all that, I continue to largely use good old index cards for much of my day-to-day organization. I like electronic to-do lists for things that repeat and things I know I’m gonna have to do, so I can’t see doing without them (same with electronic calendars…don’t like re-entering things and having scratch-out marks). Still, I’m finding that notecards are easier for one-off things, plus I can have a card for each project and keep it WITH the project. YMMV. I found a wicked cool vinyl index card holder with pen carrier at Office Depot for a few dollars: blank cards inside and spaces for two cards on each outside edge. Very skinny and useful. I also got a Fischer Space Pen while I was there. WELL, I like working crossword puzzles in bed! You have to write upside down to do that!
–NNR (Twitter! http://twitter.com/notratched)
Re: tagged, color-coded, prioritizable, sensible-interval-repeatable calendars: yeah, old news to iCal users.
/snotty
Nice lil post about 30 boxes. GREAT app for GTD’s ESPECIALLY with Jott. Those two work out just dandy like peas and carrots! And with Jott’s new Jott Links feature, the 30boxes/Jott mash up is even easier and much smoother.