Context
This post is the first in a series focusing on managing and finding content and information. It provides a context for the remaining posts and a justification for a few systems that I will describe.
Bit Hoarding
Hoarding is built into our genes. We have an innate compulsion to acquire more of everything. 10,000 years ago this was a useful trait. Our ancestors would gather as much food and fresh water as they could carry.
I've written about Hazel before. It is the more successful big brother of Apple's Folder Actions. Here's an example from Practically Efficient of integrating with Hazel for automatic file organization. What I particularly like about this example is the use of TextExpander to quickly rename files with the date and triggers needed for Hazel. This trick is being added to my list of every expanding time saving shortcuts.
I bought into the Simplenote world from the moment I read John Gruber rave about it. Since then I have relied heavily on the Simplenote platform for both personal and professional note taking and list making. The beauty of Simplenote lies in its unique restriction to plain text. I have been tempted by the luxuriousness that is Evernote. However, after a brief project to extract all of my notes from Evernote into a file structure that would outlive the hosted service, I realized that there was safety in simplicity.
Dropbox (referral link) is the service that Mobile Me should have been. Apple really missed the mark with MobileMe especially in the file syncing arena. Innovation does not tolerate a vacuum or even a partial suck. Dropbox filled that void nicely and the ubiquitous integration with iOS apps has made it indispensable. That's one reason I am a happy paying customer.
If I pay for a service, it's usually because I am deriving significant value from it.
OmniFocus from Windows
There's no doubt that OmniFocus by the Omni Group is the quintessential mac app. It's elegant, easy to use and simply makes work easier. It has nearly solved the digital ubiquitous capture problem. It's an iPhone app, it's an iPad app, it's desktop app, it's a whipped topping. Unfortunately it is not a windows app (yet).I spend most of my work hours on a Windows machine. I have developed a couple of rountines that allow me to integrate OmniFocus with my workflow on Windows.
It's an interesting dichotomy. As screens get larger and resolutions higher, screen real-estate gets more valuable. There's been a dramatic uptick in the number of native OS features on both Mac and Windows to provide tools for maximizing a workspace. Windows has window snapping. OSX has Spaces. Recently there has also been a variety of new utility applications for OSX that provide some additional assistance in moving and resizing your workspace windows.
I've been using Pinboard.in as a bookmark service since before it was cool. I mostly use it because I never had a desire to share my bookmarks with the world. It always felt akin to sharing all of my post-it notes with the world.
Here are just a few ways to get your Pinboard service baked into your everyday workflow.
Setup the "send to" service for Google Reader
This is a great way to quickly add interesting things to Pinboard but keep them out of your primary inbox.
I was quick to complain about the iPhones lack of note syncing. I’m still hopeful that Apple will come through with a patch to implement it.
In the meantime I think I have pretty good work around. If you don’t have an IMAP email account (like .Mac) then you can skip this post.
When I want to make a note, I just create a draft email. I leave the recipient address blank but add a subject title.
I tend to listen to Podcasts (one of the best is MacBreak Weekly) while I work. But when my wife starts talking to me from the other room, I have to stop what I’m doing to navigate to iTunes just to click Pause. It finally reached a level of annoyance that made me fired up Script Editor and throw together a little script to do it for me. This is just about as simple an Apple Script as you can get:
The quickest way to reduce office clutter is to get rid of paper. The stuff spreads onto every available flat surface and into every open container in the office. New paper is delivered to my house everyday by the mailman whether I want it or not. Even if you opt-out of junk mail, you are still going to get credit card offers from companies that you have a business relationship with.
