Mail Tags

Another recent discovery I am trying out is MailTags. Truly a great program that allows you to "tag" your mail messages and add keywords to them. Great concept, however I am just now testing it out, and time will tell if I stick to this idea or not. It would be nice to start using them on a fresh project, and as I am in the middle of a few projects right now makes it somewhat difficult to go back and organize. Supposedly it works with Blacktree's Quicksilver (I haven't tried yet) as well as Smart folders within Mail.app (I have tried and is very cool). It also integrates with iCal, which is a nice addition. A nicety to consider for version 2.0 would be to be able to specify which calendar they show up on, as I have different calendars for different projects within iCal. Anyway if you are looking for an easy way within mail to start organizing your projects, this one might be for you.

Getting Things Done: The Book

I just finished the book, Getting Things Done, by David Allen. I have to say that it is a very good book, a lot of it is common sense. However I like the specific examples on how to better organize yourself. David sites specifics that a lot of other books and websites lack. Hopefully I can follow through with the methods it teaches. My first task is to set aside a day or two and get it all organized. Which was my first wrong thought, I thought, in order to get something done, I had to organize it. Well the book teaches that is only the start. The other big thing that I took from GTD is that it's okay to organize it and not do it right then and there. Anyway even if I don't follow through 100% (which is also okay according to the book), it seems as though I definitely pulled some items away from this book that I will use a ton. This book has definitely changed the way that I look at things when approaching projects and even designs. For those of you tired of the chaos that has become this digital world, I would definitely give Getting Things Done a read through.

Getting Things Done with Sidenote

After many freelance projects, wedding stuff to get ready for, class teachings, and a full time job that is suddenly overwhelming, I decided to get organized. I should say that I have never claimed to be great at organization. So now that I am 28, I decided, maybe I should start working with a system.

I'm a big user of sticky notes, whether I doodle something or write some meaningfull content on them they have always enjoyed them. I was even using the digital stickies for a while. The problem with stickies though is the difficulty managing them. So I found a nifty little program called Sidenote: Stickies on steroids.Pardon the tagline, as I added that. It's pretty slick, as it captures the stickies spirit in a multidocument, scrolling, easy to manage, conveniently stored away manner. It pops out of either the left or the right of the screen, and has many hotkey features. It also works well with dual monitors.

I tried Sidenote a few months ago, but hadn't put it to full use until I recently started reading "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. If you haven't had a chance to check it out, you should at least give it a quick look through. Or check out Merlin Mann's site: 43 Folders. He has a podcast, and numerous other tips and tricks to get you going on get things done. So far I feel more organized. I made different "Next Actions" notes, Project notes, and a Tickler file. It has helped me push it out of my mind and onto something tangible in a convenient easy to manage way. The important thing is following through with your list of items and reducing the amount of "clutter" in your bucket. These two items working together has worked surprisingly well thus far. I'm hoping to stick with it, no pun intended, okay maybe a slight one.