Category Archives: productivity

I received a couple of comments on my post about Yojimbo putting forth Journler as a more feature rich and free alternative. I can’t argue against either of those points – It is a great app with an amazing feature set for the price (did I mention it was free). In any case, OK Scarfone has a great write up of how she has implemented GTD using Journler. I am pretty happy with my system but it might help others who are searching.

Do you ever have the need to create a quick little list or have a note, quote or piece of text that does not yet have a home? For instance, there are little text clippings that I like to keep in Yojimbo but, because I am on my Unbuntu box or otherwise at a computer but away from my main system, have to park them somewhere. Then there are the weekends when Bethany and I need to pound out a quick list of things we want to accomplish for that time – I just want to type it up, arrange it, print it out and take it with us. I think I have come up with a useful little Backpack hack that will solve these situations – The “Scratch” Page.

Here is the idea, create a page called “Scratch” and then give yourself permission to throw anything on there that wont fit anywhere else. This is not a place to keep these items. It is just a temporary parking space for those quick lists, text snippets and random files and images. And, just like a real scratch page, I delete them when I am done with them.

If you are one that finds yourself taking a lot of written notes, there are some pretty good tips at The Potential Blog. Although geared towards students, there are some real gems there for anyone. Here is my favorite:

“One of my favourite tricks is the use of square brackets ([ ]). If you get lost, bored or come up with an idea which could win you a Nobel Prize then stick it in square brackets. This works for stuff like “[I’m lost], “[NOTE: reread chapter 4]”, “[See lecture notes for quote]”, “[I don’t get this bit]”. This way your lecture notes will make more sense when you re-read them.“

The rest of the blog is worth checking out as well especially for students.

[via: Lifehacker]