This new cloud computing and “app culture” is exciting, but I’m finding it more difficult than ever to stay organized and on top of things. In the past, I just had my personal planner in “good old-fashioned paper” and my desktop and laptop computers for working on files, and it worked pretty well. Now, there is the addition of web apps, a smartphone and tablet devices like the iPad. The list keeps growing! How do I stay organized across these multiple platforms?
Ivan: This is a typical case of “disorganizitus” and “platform non-integrate phobia.” I am seeing a lot more cases of this, some really serious where patients have had a complete information breakdown, losing all their data when synching their iPhone. In other cases I have seen a hard drive crash lead to hospitalization after realizing how many years of work had just been lost.
Luckily there are some excellent medications that will keep this dangerous condition at bay. The two I would recommend starting off with are Evernote (www.evernote.com) and Instapaper (www.instapaper.com).
Cyri: Evernote is my personal favourite. Its slogan, “remember everything,” is a good description. You can very easily add in all your tasks, notes and even take pictures of meeting notes and business cards. Evernote makes it simple to tag up your information so it’s easy to access and search. The best part is that you can synch it so that you can use it just as easily from a computer, smartphone or other device.
Ivan: I like how it’s easy to record ideas from your head and capture them in Evernote. It’s also very cool how you can search words that are stored within images, like business cards you have taken a picture of or whiteboard notes. You just have to make sure you don’t forget to write the note in Evernote.
Cyri: I heard an excellent presentation on time management by Greg Campeau (www.campeaulearning.com) at a recent Vancouver event.
He said there are four essentials you need to have accessible at all times to stay organized:
1) a calendar;
2) a place to write notes;
3) a contacts database; and
4) project lists.
Evernote enables integration between your computers and your phone so you don’t need multiple lists, calendars, contacts databases and notes. It really does simplify your life.
Ivan: I like Instapaper, the “save and read later” app. I’m constantly needing to surf the web for research projects I’m working on, but when I find something good, I don’t often have time to read the article right away. With Instapaper, I get a “read later” button I can add to my browsers. When I click on this, Instapaper saves to a format that can be read anywhere, on my computer, paper if I want to print it out, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch or the Kindle.
Ivan: These medications should help you overcome disorganizitus. Commit to the tools for at least one month to see true transformation. If you pick the right tools and are disciplined enough to use them consistently, you’ll have more of your most valuable resource: time.
Cyri: We just gave you some of the initial tools to get organized. There are some other important aspects of this condition that we will soon cover, such as cross-platform backup and work collaboration services.
Instapaper is free to get started with and has a premium subscription option. Evernote also has a free option and a premium subscription option at $5 per month or $45 per year – a great value.
Ivan: The generic medication is really just “personal organization.” Other alternatives include Pinboard (www.pinboard.in), Microsoft OneNote (office.microsoft.com/en-ca/onenote) and Springpad (www.springpadit.com).
Cyri: Try out a few tools and then stick to one main one and possibly a few more for specialized tasks.
HHHHH
Cyri Jones teaches entrepreneurship, project management and information technology at BCIT and Capilano University and is the co-founder of ZedPress.com, a lifelong learning publishing platform and social network. He blogs at 24posts.com. Ivan Surjanovic is a marketing faculty at Capilano University and CEO of iPower Lab. He blogs at whereispuck.com and at bizpharmacy.com.
