I’m a huge fan of productivity tools and software, I’m always trying out new programs, and methods I read about online. I can see how the choices can be overwhelming for someone looking to find a good software. My goal in this post is to pretty much summarize what I think are the most useful and best productivity tools. Everyone is different in how they remain organized and may find some of these tools more useful than others. I am going to mention some tools that I think most people already use, or have heard of before.
I’m going to start off with a quick disclaimer, as much as I love computers and technology, I have a tendency to prefer old school methods of organization, I think that the computer has made it a lot easier to remain organized in some areas, and complicated it in others.
3×5 Notecards
These standard note cards are easy to carry around, they fit in your pocket, in your dashboard, in your wallet if you fold them in half, and can be extremely useful. I like to keep 2 in my wallet, and 3-4 in my shirt/coat pockets, as well as a whole pack of a 100 in my glove box. I find these useful for writing down interesting things I hear, or in those situations where someone mentions something, and you swear that you will check it out when you get home but forget. I’ve used these in tons of situations, writing down assignments in class that I forget otherwise, the names of movies that, seem interesting after I see the trailer, phone numbers, to-do lists, you name it. The standard 3×5 index card is by far one of the best tools for productivity. I usually end up buying them in large quantities from Amazon [link].
Evernote
I like to think of evernote as my virtual notecards, it has the ability to clip portions of webpages, audio clips, and pictures, you can also scan materials and the built in OCR software will convert the text. It syncs everything between my phone, computer, and web account. I can access my notes from anywhere just by logging into the website. I also love the desktop client, and the firefox extension which makes it a breeze to clip portions of websites into “notebooks”. When ever I’m writing a paper for school, or a blog post, I just start a notebook with the title, and as I do my research I clip interesting tid bits straight into my notebook. This way when I sit down to work on the paper everything is right there ready to go. It also gives me the ability to tag, email and print my notes; the tagging feature is especially useful, in the event there is overlapping material in various papers, you can just pull up all the material you have for that tag and use it in another paper.
PB Wiki
PB wiki, helps in outlining long papers, you can create folders and put various pages in there. I also use it to help plan events that may be farther away such as the MCAT, I don’t need the various reference materials, and study tips that I see referenced all of the web, right away, but I can make a page titled MCAT in my work space and place all those materials in there, for future reference. It’s also a great tool for drafts of papers, I can write a paper make a page for it and give editor access to some friends and have them edit it. I also use it for to-do lists, and to list unscheduled events, and to help plan events for various student organizations I’m part of.
Thunderbird/Gmail/Google Apps
If you have multiple email accounts and need to keep them organized Thunderbird is a great tool, I sync my personal Gmail account to Thunderbird, using IMAP, and my school account, as well as my marfeen.com email accounts are all synced into Thunderbird. Instead of using a email solution that is coupled with a hosting provider, I edited my MX records in Namecheap‘s freeDNS service, and use google apps hosted solution for my marfeen.com email address. This gives me all the benefits of gmail, without a @gmail.com email address. All 4 of my email accounts, are synced with Thunderbird as well as my google calendar and contacts. I have 4 add-ons that enable me to do all of this, Google Contacts, Lightning, MinimizeToTray, and Provider for Google Calendar.
Google Calendar
Google calendar, which is synced with thunderbird, give me SMS and emails when events are coming up, plus it is a great tool for scheduling appointments, meetings, and keeping track of assignments, exams and other important events. This is probably one of the most useful tools I have come across. The layout and interface are easy to use, the quickadd tool makes adding new events a breeze, and the format in which events are displayed is easy to understand and not very overwhelming, like some other calendar apps.
Google Reader
Google reader lets me have all the blogs I read in one place, it gives me the ability to add the feeds from all 20 blogs I read. This way I don’t waste hours looking all over the web, I check 3-4 times a day in my reader and read the new postings, going to the blogs to make comments, if I choose. This has save hours, that I would usually spend wandering the internet. This little application alone save me tons of time everyday.
Notebook
A notebook is a great tool for keeping lists, plans, drafts, notes, and bunches of other things. When I go to the library to research a subject for a paper, I prefer using a notebook to keep notes, rather than keeping note on my computer. There are various notebooks for various occasions, going from small memo pads, all the way up to bigger full size notebooks. I tend to prefer something in the middle, like a business notebook. I use mine all the time to keep track of stray thoughts, at the end of the day, I can sit down, pop it open and have everything there in front of me.
Have a great week and stay productive.
Photo Credits: Slimninja via [Flickr]
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