Scarlet Umbrella|Adventures in Mobile Technology

I am going to let you in on a deep dark secret: I still use a paper agenda. I know it’s shocking. I’m a self-professed tablet freak and typical technophile. However, I still need my paper agenda.

I have tried to get rid of a paper agenda several times. Among the tools in my mobile arsenal have been the Palm Tungsten E, the HP Jornada 728, and several web-based applications.

I love the ease of electronic todo lists but until inking tasks becomes as nontrivial as jotting down a note in a paper agenda, I really am tied to an paper agenda. I currently use a Franklin Covey agenda with the Simplicity planning pages.

I like the Simplicity planning pages because they do not have specific blocked off appointment times. I very rarely have appointments so appointment pages were always a waste of paper for me.

While Franklin Covey makes nice templates, they can get expensive. for the true paper agenda aficionado, the first stop in setting up a planner should be diyplanner.com. I currently use several templates from the classic kit and the DIY/GTD Teacher Kit
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franklin covey, hp jornada 728, lifehacks, luddite, palm tungsten e, productivity, technophile

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Brian Eng and Jeff Cohen of Luckymonk are working on an application that will allow direct ink support for the popular online collaboration software, Basecamp.  They have a video of the upcoming application at their site.  Great work, guys!!

ink, software, tablet, tablet+pc, tabletpc

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Since I’m stuck at home with a lovely case of bronchitis on a major U.S. holiday (Memorial Day), here are some interesting bits for today:

After scouring various fora, I have come to the conclusion that my hardware issue with my TC1000 is a somewhat common issue due to a loose connection between the power input and the motherboard. The best recommendation (from Tablet PC Buzz) I have found is to get a docking station which feeds power into the system from a different socket. The other solutions seem to be paying for another motherboard or soldering the thing myself.

James Kendrick has a hands-on video review of OneNote Mobile. I’ve been excited about OneNote Mobile since I have heard about it although since it was designed for smartphones it doesn’t have ink support. I’m a fan of the OneNote team so hopefully they will find a way to add this feature. Some features I am excited about are the ability to easily add pictures and record audio messages on the fly.

Also, most readers of my blog have probably figured out that I think that OneNote is the greatest thing since sliced bread so if you want to get on the OneNote bandwagon and have more limited funds, Alienware is offering OneNote for $79.98.

Wridea seems to be an interesting online project management software. The core component seems to be “ideas” which can be organized into categories and pages. Pages can collect related ideas with different categories. I’m currently having fun playing around with it.

Finally, online battleship. The best use of Ajax EVER!!!!!

tablet+pc, tablet, OneNote, Web+2.0, Ajax, productivity, games

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I came to the tablet PC environment from being a hardcore Mac person for several years.  I used (and still use) Entourage on my Mac as one of my primary inboxes.  One of the features I missed when going from using Entourage to Outlook was the Project Center.  Entourage tends to get knocked (unjustifiably) by hardcore Mac users when the folks at Microsoft have done a very nice job of putting together a piece of software that isn’t just an Outlook clone but also has some unique features of its own including the Project Center.  The Project Center is a nice way of organizing all documents associated with a project including emails, Word files, Excel documents, etc.  When going to Outlook, I missed a way of organizing all my project information. Since I work on long-term projects, keeping track of the tasks associated with each project is very important to me in terms of keeping organized. I could keep track of the documents by setting up a folder but I missed a way to keep track of my to-dos by project.  I thought of creating project categories but since I also keep each task in a category and organize my task bar by category, organizing my project tasks by category would have ended up messing up my task bar.  I found a nice hack on the David Allen GTD forums about organizing project tasks by treating projects as contacts.  I setup each project as a contact, and since Outlook can keep track of tasks associated with a contact, I now have a way of organizing my tasks by projects.

 From my understanding, Outlook 2007 is going to have some cool features for organizing projects so this hack may very well be obsolete in the future.  However, if you are going to stay with Outlook 2003 for a while, I have found this to be a nice way of organizing my projects.

technorati tags: GTD, Outlook, tablet+PC, hacks, Entourage

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 My eight-week challenge has come and gone.  In this series of posts, I would like to discuss what I’ve gained from the challenge in terms of how the tablet pc can be used as a tool to make working on personal and professional projects easier.  I acknowledge that everyone has unique circumstances but I think that the tablet PC is a versatile enough tool that most everyone can find a use for it in some aspect of their life.  In this first post, I will give an introduction into my work environment and the hardware (a Compaq TC1000) I used for the project. 

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If you notice the sidebar, I’ve added several links to Tablet PC sites I have been reading on the side. I’ve been somewhat envious of the Tablet PC crowd for some time now. Of course that’s no secret considering how much I’ve begged Apple to come out with a tablet. I just don’t think that’s part of Steve Jobs’s plan right now, but I still have hopes.

I’ve been hearing enough about Tablet PCs to decide to get one to try out. I managed to score a HP Compaq TC 1000 off of EBay. It’s not new, but it does have several features that I like. The first is that it’s small. It has a 10″ screen and weighs about three pounds. I can fit it in my purse and carry it around with me. It’s a convertible but the keyboard can also be removed so that it becomes a true slate.

I’ve been reading about Eric Mack’s and Tracy Hooten’s
eight-week paperless challenge. In it, they try using their Tablet PCs as replacements for using paper and books in their work. I’ve decided to start my own eight-week challenge to explore the benefits and drawbacks of a Tablet PC. I’m going to be blogging the experience but I thought that I would first do an introductory post on my version of the challenge.

The first step I made was to determine how paperless I could go. I’m a graduate student in Chemistry. I’m far enough along in my academic career that I don’t have any classes and my work is basically a job. Fortunately, I don’t have to go through the difficulty of scanning in my text books. Most of my research papers are available online and I can scan in the older ones without any problems. Due to patent laws and the nature of the scientific process, I do have to maintain a paper lab notebook. So I won’t be able to be completely paperless (and I doubt that putting a Tablet on a lab bench is a good idea).

My other job (the one I don’t get paid for yet) is writing. I’ve decided to keep my story notes that I have scribbled around in various places as they are for now until I can weed out what is something that would be useful to have in digital form. I am planning on digitizing some parts of my books on writing- particularly the fill in charts on characters, story lines, etc.- because this is an area where the tablet PC shines.

I’ve decided to use Microsoft OneNote and Journal for my notetaking and project notes. I am using PDF Annotator to markup my research articles. I also have Tablet Enhancements for Outlook 2.0 which allows you to ink contacts, tasks, notes directly in Outlook. Right now I’m still looking into useful software for my tablet so any suggestions from other tablet enthusiasts are welcome.
Tablet PC, productivity

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In Part One of my series on getting back on the GTD wagon, I wrote about the importance of having a good todo list and how that has helped me improve my productivity. In this second part, I want to discuss the importance of having a trusted system and maintaining a trusted system. Your trusted system is where you keep your inputs. This can be a physical system such as an inbox, a Moleskine, a hipster PDA or it can be a digital system such as GTD TiddlyWiki, Backpack, a PDA, emacs planner mode, etc. My problem is that I kept switching between tools looking for the “perfect” system. The problem with this is that I never stayed with a system long enough to become familiar with it. For a system to work, it has to be second nature to use it. This goes back to the idea of not having to stop and think about what you are doing that I mentioned in Part One. So I’ve gone back to the basics- Outlook on my PC and Entourage on my Mac. It’s not necessarily as cool and geeky as I would like but it works. I’ve also been working on merging my digital and physical inboxes by getting a tablet PC which I will be blogging about in future posts.

GTD, software

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Like a lot of geeks I have drunk the GTD kool-aid. GTD is excellent in that it helps chronic procrastinators like me actually get things done. Before I adopted GTD my problem was that I would get caught up in the overwhelming anxiety of a project (e.g. ” I have to do this, then I have to do this…, oh, and don’t forget I have to do this…”) that I would have all these chaotic thoughts floating through my head and I would spend all my time worrying and not *doing.*

But, as usual, life happened, and I fell off the wagon and into my previous state of chaos. Like any system, GTD only works if you maintain the system. I tolerated the chaos for a little while before getting exasperated and decided to get back on the wagon and *stay* on the wagon. So lately, I’ve been reviewing GTD and where I was going wrong in applying the system and trying to fix my own system. Luckily, Merlin Mann reposted his http://www.43folders.com/2006/02/14/make-5/">series on building a better todo list right as I was getting started on reworking my own system.

One of the big ideas I got from Merlin Mann was the importance of phrasing your task in the form of “verb the noun with the object.” In martial arts, there is the concept of “mind like water” which used to describe a constant state of readiness. One way to visualize this is to imagine a still pond. Any movement would be visible on the surface: for example, a pebble being thrown on the water. Similary, with a clear mind, a martial artist can see an opponent’s attack. The martial artist responds to the attack with the appropriate amound of force to defend against the attack. In GTD, this can be applied to being ready to handle any task. But you can’t respond instantaneously, if you have to think about what the task requires. You have to optimize your todo list to help keep your mind clear. As an example , I have a tendency to phrase my todo list so that it is a list of nouns- e.g.:

@Errands

• cleaners
• cake stuff

@Lab

meeting

You get the point. When I write down these tasks, it is obvious what I mean, but when I return to the task later, I have to stop and think about what I need to do for each item on the list. A better way to write the list would be:

@Errands

Pick up clothes from cleaners

Buy cake ingredients at grocery store:

• cake mix
• vegetable oil
• eggs
• icing

@Lab

Review recent experiment notes for meeting with boss

This way you don’t have to waste valuable momentum by pausing to reorient yourself each time you approach a task on your todo list. This is especially important if you have a big project which requires a lot of effort. In this case, it is critical to keep a list of next actions so you don’t fall into the I need to think this over some more trap. Here’s a hint- if your immediate response is. “I’m not sure how to approach this project. I’ll think this over some more while I surf the internet.”, you know your todo list isn’t up to par.

GTD, todo list

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Protopage is a cool personal start page based on AJAX. Okay, I know that AJAX is the topic du jour right now along with Web 2.0, but it really is a nice personalized webpage. Among the features I really like is the ability to add sticky notes. Sticky notes are my bestest friends in the world. Of course you also have the ability to include rss feeds, bookmarks, and make your page public or private. Protopage definitely addresses a need of mine to be able to access all my critical things at multiple computers without having to switch from webapp to webapp. I keep a list of next actions along with some of my favorite bookmarks. Very cool.

web, software, AJAX, GTD

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Meet the Life Hackers

I just finished reading the New York Times article on Life Hackers.  Among the interesting finds:  some of the most productive people use the most simple solutions to keep track of things e.g. living out of a giant text file or emailing themselves reminders.  This seems to be counter-intuitive initially.  However, it does make surprising sense.  Why spend so much time learning complicated software when you can search through a text file?  Why spend money for a Palm when you can email yourself a file?  The rate-limiting step to simplification in my case is that I love gadgets and software.  Adopting Planner was a compromise for me.  It’s customizable so I can play around with it but it outputs simple common file formats so I don’t have to worry about compatibility. 

The article also goes into how we humans are coping with the growing distractions in our lives and some possible tools for increasing productivity.  A study was also discussed which indicates that workers seem to be more productive using larger moniters. Workers were asked to perform a task using a basic 15″ moniter and on a computer with a large moniter with a 42″ screen.  The results were that people were able to complete the tasks at least 10% more quickly using the larger moniter and some completed the tasks up to 44 % quicker than the workers with small screens.

I can give my own anecdotal support to this.  At my lab, I work on dual-screen moniters.  Coming home to a single-screen 15″ laptop was painful.  Virtual desktops help but there is something to be said for being able to view multiple files at the same time and cross-reference.  I have finally bought a 19″ moniter to supplement my 12″ Powerbook, and I am loving it.

productivity, life hacks, emacs

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