Working Effectively with Legacy Brains
Sometimes, I think of myself as one of those nutty professors who are good at focusing on the task at hand, but who are so absent-minded that they can't even remember to feed the cat. Once I recognized this as a problem, I did what any programmer would do, I tried to find ways in which the computer could aid me!
Here's my list of tools that I find essential for staying organized.
1. Todoist (www.todoist.com)
This was a life changer for me. I think this web application is inspired by David Allen's Getting Things Done. I have added a few projects, such as "Work related", "Private", "Things lent", "Things borrowed" and so on. As soon as I commit myself to anything, or I can't sleep because I have to remember to do something, I put it in on my todoist.
It's quick and easy to use. If I need to remember to get a hair cut in three days, I just add "haircut" and then type +3 in the deadline field. As soon as I put something into my todoist, I find that I stop worrying about it, which declutters my brain.
2. Delicious (http://delicious.com)
While Delicious is called "social bookmarking", I only use it for my own purposes. As soon as I visit a web page which I think has a remote possibility of being useful in the future, I bookmark it on Delicious. I have a Firefox plugin that makes this even faster than adding a native bookmark. The trick here is to choose good tags, a skill which is developed over time.
Having used this for a few years now, I sometimes need to find a web page that explained how to work around a bug or something similar, which I remember I read about more than a year ago. While most people would have to spend a substantial amount of time trying to find that exact page again, it usually only takes me a few seconds to find it. Even if I'm not on my own computer, I can just go to my Delicious page (www.delicious.com/yorkish) and do a quick search.
3. Google Calendar (www.google.com/calendar)
While Todoist is excellent for adding stuff to do, when it comes to appointments and scheduling, Google Calendar is my choice. What makes this really useful for me are the free SMS reminders. There's also a mobile interface so that I can check my schedule when I'm on the go.
4. Gmail (www.gmail.com)
This is another no brainer. I have not seen any other email client that gives me as a user such power. Again, the real benefit comes when you have used it for some time and start looking for old emails. A great tip is to learn some of the special syntax for searching, suchas as from:name, to:name and has:attachment. There are also some keyboard shortcuts (http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6594) that will speed things up. I mostly use "j" and "k" for going forward and backward when reading my mail.
Another great tip here is to apply the "zero inbox" principle, which demands that you empty your inbox on a regular basis. If you have not done this, you are likely to have thousands of emails in your inbox. Just click, "Select: All" and you will be prompted if you want to "Select all 12608 conversations in All Mail". Click that link and then click "Archive". Now your inbox is clean! After that, when you go through your emails, just star the emails that require an action. When you're finished, click "Select: Unstarred" and then "Archive". Now, your inbox only contains emails that require an action.
5. Google Reader (www.google.com/reader)
The only reason I mention Google Reader here is that I have met too many people who state that they "read blogs". When I ask which reader they use, I usually get a blank stare in response. Repeatedly going to people's blogs, just to check if they have posted something new, does not make a lot of sense. Just use Google Reader (or whatever other reader you find useful) and save that time for something better!
6. Joes Goals (http://www.joesgoals.com/)
This tip is for people who have bad self discipline, like myself. I have added a few goals, such as "exercise" and a few negative goals, such as "smoking". While I can't say that I have exercised as much as I should, at least I do get a small reward when I log in and click that green checkmark. Also, by the end of the year, I could generate a report that told me how many times I exercised in the year.
7. Morning Coffee (https://addons.mozilla.org/sv-SE/firefox/addon/2677)
This is a Firefox plugin that ties all the above together. While reading this, you might have asked yourself: "this is all great, but how do I remember to go to all these sites, when I can't even remember to feed the cat?". The answer is Morning Coffee. The plugin will let you customize a number of tabs that should pop up when you click the little coffee cup icon. So, every morning when I have my coffee, I click the cup and I get my email, calendar, reader and todoist. I found it important to organize the tabs so that I got the Todoist to the very left, so that was the first that I saw, before I got side tracked by the reader.. : )
8. Picasa (www.picasa.com)
While this has nothing to do with Getting Things Done, it is a great time saver. Almost everyone has a digital camera these days but almost no one seems to know how to organize their photos once they have them on the computer. Picasa is a great program for doing just that and it's free!
I usually import all my photos in one go. I then go through the photos and select the ones that are related and click "Move to new folder" and type the name of the event. Picasa shows you a column to the left with all your albums on a timeline. By now, I can go back several years in time and pretty much use it to remember what I did on most weekends. :)
As a bonus tip, Picasa has a web albums feature, which gives you a few hundred megabytes for free. I have uploaded plenty of albums, and I still have free storage space. This is by far the best method I know for sharing my photos with people.
Oh, and the web album has the coolest face recognition feature, which lets you tag faces and then Picasa guesses the subsequent faces. It's pretty darn cool!
That's it! I hope you like these tips and feel free to add your own tips in the comments.
Foot note, the title is stolen from the great book by Michael Feathers called "Working Effectively with Legacy Code", which is the book that has had the greatest impact on my programming. Thanks Michael!
Here's my list of tools that I find essential for staying organized.
1. Todoist (www.todoist.com)
This was a life changer for me. I think this web application is inspired by David Allen's Getting Things Done. I have added a few projects, such as "Work related", "Private", "Things lent", "Things borrowed" and so on. As soon as I commit myself to anything, or I can't sleep because I have to remember to do something, I put it in on my todoist.
It's quick and easy to use. If I need to remember to get a hair cut in three days, I just add "haircut" and then type +3 in the deadline field. As soon as I put something into my todoist, I find that I stop worrying about it, which declutters my brain.
2. Delicious (http://delicious.com)
While Delicious is called "social bookmarking", I only use it for my own purposes. As soon as I visit a web page which I think has a remote possibility of being useful in the future, I bookmark it on Delicious. I have a Firefox plugin that makes this even faster than adding a native bookmark. The trick here is to choose good tags, a skill which is developed over time.
Having used this for a few years now, I sometimes need to find a web page that explained how to work around a bug or something similar, which I remember I read about more than a year ago. While most people would have to spend a substantial amount of time trying to find that exact page again, it usually only takes me a few seconds to find it. Even if I'm not on my own computer, I can just go to my Delicious page (www.delicious.com/yorkish) and do a quick search.
3. Google Calendar (www.google.com/calendar)
While Todoist is excellent for adding stuff to do, when it comes to appointments and scheduling, Google Calendar is my choice. What makes this really useful for me are the free SMS reminders. There's also a mobile interface so that I can check my schedule when I'm on the go.
4. Gmail (www.gmail.com)
This is another no brainer. I have not seen any other email client that gives me as a user such power. Again, the real benefit comes when you have used it for some time and start looking for old emails. A great tip is to learn some of the special syntax for searching, suchas as from:name, to:name and has:attachment. There are also some keyboard shortcuts (http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6594) that will speed things up. I mostly use "j" and "k" for going forward and backward when reading my mail.
Another great tip here is to apply the "zero inbox" principle, which demands that you empty your inbox on a regular basis. If you have not done this, you are likely to have thousands of emails in your inbox. Just click, "Select: All" and you will be prompted if you want to "Select all 12608 conversations in All Mail". Click that link and then click "Archive". Now your inbox is clean! After that, when you go through your emails, just star the emails that require an action. When you're finished, click "Select: Unstarred" and then "Archive". Now, your inbox only contains emails that require an action.
5. Google Reader (www.google.com/reader)
The only reason I mention Google Reader here is that I have met too many people who state that they "read blogs". When I ask which reader they use, I usually get a blank stare in response. Repeatedly going to people's blogs, just to check if they have posted something new, does not make a lot of sense. Just use Google Reader (or whatever other reader you find useful) and save that time for something better!
6. Joes Goals (http://www.joesgoals.com/)
This tip is for people who have bad self discipline, like myself. I have added a few goals, such as "exercise" and a few negative goals, such as "smoking". While I can't say that I have exercised as much as I should, at least I do get a small reward when I log in and click that green checkmark. Also, by the end of the year, I could generate a report that told me how many times I exercised in the year.
7. Morning Coffee (https://addons.mozilla.org/sv-SE/firefox/addon/2677)
This is a Firefox plugin that ties all the above together. While reading this, you might have asked yourself: "this is all great, but how do I remember to go to all these sites, when I can't even remember to feed the cat?". The answer is Morning Coffee. The plugin will let you customize a number of tabs that should pop up when you click the little coffee cup icon. So, every morning when I have my coffee, I click the cup and I get my email, calendar, reader and todoist. I found it important to organize the tabs so that I got the Todoist to the very left, so that was the first that I saw, before I got side tracked by the reader.. : )
8. Picasa (www.picasa.com)
While this has nothing to do with Getting Things Done, it is a great time saver. Almost everyone has a digital camera these days but almost no one seems to know how to organize their photos once they have them on the computer. Picasa is a great program for doing just that and it's free!
I usually import all my photos in one go. I then go through the photos and select the ones that are related and click "Move to new folder" and type the name of the event. Picasa shows you a column to the left with all your albums on a timeline. By now, I can go back several years in time and pretty much use it to remember what I did on most weekends. :)
As a bonus tip, Picasa has a web albums feature, which gives you a few hundred megabytes for free. I have uploaded plenty of albums, and I still have free storage space. This is by far the best method I know for sharing my photos with people.
Oh, and the web album has the coolest face recognition feature, which lets you tag faces and then Picasa guesses the subsequent faces. It's pretty darn cool!
That's it! I hope you like these tips and feel free to add your own tips in the comments.
Foot note, the title is stolen from the great book by Michael Feathers called "Working Effectively with Legacy Code", which is the book that has had the greatest impact on my programming. Thanks Michael!