George's Technology Blog » Organizing

Get Productive – Start Your Day Off Right

admin — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:58:43 +0000

A good friend of mine (that is organized) sent me this link today and I couldn't think of a better way to file it somewhere I can find it than blogging aboutit, so here we go. A good way to have a productive day start it the right way. Although the orignal author's post is written for freelancers,much of it could as easily apply to students, cab drivers or work-at-home freelancers!

Below are Mason Hipp's 5 Easy Ways to Start a Productive Day along with my own comments. If you want to read Mike's original tips along with details added, you'll need to visit his website by clicking the link above.

Get a good night’s sleep
George adds... brain boost
Spend 20 minutes being disciplined
George adds... a productive day will doubtless include discipline
Eat Breakfast
George adds... obvious - fuel your mind and body
Clarify EXACTLY what tasks are productive
George adds... planning makesa difference, so priorities are a must
Get into work mode
George adds... work mode, study mode, whatever applies to your life

Also...

get ready the night before as much as possible such as...
- what you will be wearing
- preparing your breakfast and/or lunch
- make sure you have gassed up your car/truck
check the weather - do you need raingear, get up early to shovel snow?
stay focused on one task at a time

Stardock Fences Invisible Fix

admin — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 06:09:44 +0000

I saw some people in Google talking about their Stardock Fences being invisible as mine were. I could see

Stardock Fences - monitor 1

everything okay after installation, but after rebooting the Fences, and labels became invisible. No border, just windows icons inside of totally invisible fences.

The fix for me was to change my theme back to Windows XP and selecting a wallpaper. I don't know if it works without a wallpaper, but it looks so good with one I'm going to keep it.

Here is the link to read about and download Stardock Fences.

Check out a video and read "Organize your Windows Desktop" on this Organize Gmail and your desktop post.

Organize Your Note with MindRaider

admin — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:08:25 +0000

Often I seek out better ways to organize my life and the information in it. LifeHacker had an article I found today that was of particular interest to me - MindRaider is a free download, works wherever Java does. Their article "MindRaider Organizes and Visualizes Any Note Style" matched a need I've been trying to fill lately, more organization.

MindRaider is a free download, works wherever Java does.

Windows/Mac/Linux: MindRaider wants to be the place you stash all your sudden thoughts, organizational notes, and inter-connected ideas.

- LifeHacker.com

As with many organization/productivity improvements/methods/tips using MindRaider has a learning curve, so be ready to invest some quality time in this information managaement tool to see if it fits your needs.

Download MindRaider Semantic Web Outliner and give it a try.

Google Calendar Gets More “Desktop”

admin — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:53:48 +0000

I was talking to a friend recently about our calendars - he uses Outlook and I use Google Calendar (3 of them) and Mozilla Sunbird. He made a good point, which was that I had too many calendars. I have a Gmail Account for "Work" (some of it), one for "Personal" with my personal email and other my work, plus my wife has one. I also maintain a Sunbird Calendar in case my cable connection goes down I can still see what my personal schedule looks like.

Google Gets More "Desktop"

Enter the new Google Calendar offline mode, in classic Google beta status. Now my Google Calendars are more like traditional desktop calendars, but with Internet accessibility. The new offline accessibility uses Google Gears, and its recommended **not** to do this on a public computer. And because Google are real stand up guys they've included this notice of caution:

To enable offline Calendar access, sign in to Google Calendar and look for the "Offline Beta" link in the upper right-hand corner of your account, next to your username. We've released this early and are still ironing out some kinks, so if you encounter any issues, be sure to let us know.

Now that Google offers offline mode I can get rid of my Sunbird Calendar and free up my desktop's hard drive memory and CPU a little, and focus on getting those 3 Google Calendars sharing with one another. This way no matter where my family can more seamlessly manage our appointments with less confusion.