I admit I’m the worst at trying to time my presence at events down to the minute if not second.
You gotta have a system. Since I have no assistant, I rely on both technology and the tried and true to stay on the ball. To say there are apps and software out there to help with this would be a major understatement. I’ve tried a lot of them, and this is what I’ve come up with.
I’m no Fortune 500 Exec, so I don’t have millions of dollars on the line for my time. But I am super-busy, with never-ending interruptions, and I seek to have balance in my life between work/life/whatever. And when it comes to my daughter, I drop everything. And within those frameworks exist many other sub-schedules.
Technology certainly is willing to help us manage things. It’s why there are a million apps and programs and methodologies, like Pomodoro, to keep your life in order. Which is great. The catch is though, if you aren’t organized enough to use these tools properly, then you enter a cycle of disorganization.
Organization is a mindset. Some people have it, some don’t. And it’s something that should always be optimized ongoingly. That’s a word I just made up, and it means never-ending incremental improvements.
What I use:
- Siri – I cross her with “Hey Google”
- Zoho Notebooks
- Apple Notes – I’m not an Apple Fanboy, but I’ve managed to accumulate a lot of Apple products, because there’s a lot of integration available.
- Voice memos – These are especially handy when walking or driving and I need to get a thought down
And most importantly, I use Moleskine’s app bundle that is geared towards organization. I love lists. And I had a terrific list-making app that was free (The developer is now wisely charging .99) that was pretty good at taking notes/making lists. But to go Pro, I ended up choosing Moleskine’s ecosystem. I like the UI, the UX, and it’s well-integrated. And I know Moleskine isn’t going to suddenly vanish when they don’t get their funding via venture capitalists. This would be unlikely anyway because Moleskine is known for having solid products that have been around a long time.
And I rely heavily on analog tools because they’re so easy and they work. I always carry around either a notepad and pen or my Field Notes, which is a monogrammed leather-bound cover for a replaceable booklet, and my brass Space Pen. And the booklet is actual Field Notes with dots and a ruler I can exchange out whenever. I jot down notes, draw sketches and ideas out that I have which I know I’d forget otherwise. There’s a problem/solution to note with this: I can’t back up my Field Notes in case I lose my notebook, which will probably happen one day. It’s just life and as we get older we tend to lose things more easily, for a variety of reasons.
But I can take photos, or scan them in, and save them in the cloud that way. There’s the technology available to write on a pad and everything you do is digitized and preserved, but financially I’m not there yet. Plus they’re out of stock. But that’s on the close horizon. As soon as our global supply chain gets fixed perhaps I’ll pick one up. I put myself on the list.
Integration is important to me. I don’t want to hit a dead end because a platform doesn’t accept a certain type of software or app. So I look for future compatibility.
