Paper still winning

[Claudia Volkman]

MobileMe for reference and project support, .

Could you elaborate on how you use MobileMe for reference and project support? Your digital system sounds very similar to mine - except for this. (I too flip back and forth periodically from digital to paper - sometimes, as Barb says later in this thread, it keeps things fresh, but other times it's just fiddling and a big distraction).

Thanks!
Claudia

 

[sriggs]

Could you elaborate on how you use MobileMe for reference and project support?

Since the sync issues with iDisk seem to be fixed in Snow Leopard, I sync my iDisk and place project support material and reference material in my iDisk > Documents folder.

I have a General Reference folder, a Read-Review folder and a Project Support folder. I just throw stuff in the General Reference folder and rely on search and good document naming to find it again. Each project that needs it, gets a folder in the Project Support folder. I use iWork documents or txt or RTF (only file types the iPod can display).

The whole reason I do all this is so:
1- I can use the iDisk client on my iPod touch to get to my files when I'm mobile. It works well. I can't edit the documents but at least I can get to them if I need them. I still have a wish that Apple will turn out iWork apps for iPod.
2- I get an online and local backup of my files without any effort. I have a TimeMachine backup to a network drive at home of the files that are also on my iDisk. I feel pretty safe regarding my data with this setup.

 

[rdgeorge]

Omnifocus can use Mobileme to sync all of the Projects, NA's etc to multiple devices.

iWorks applications are available for the iPad (sold separately for around $10 each). OS 4 is supposed to support multi-tasking on an iPad. It is supposed to be out Fall 2010.

rdgeorge

 

[PimJansens]

Paper is still winning, try the pile-file

I only print a small percentage of documents I receive, but nevertheless these printed documents play an important role. E.g.: Meeting notes and agenda's , contracts, reports, project planning schedules, etc. Paper documents are often easy to: take with you, make notes on or to study from.

After printing you have to make a decision for piling or putting effort into filing the documents. Both approaches have their pros and cons. After reading some studies about piling and filing strategies, I experimented with a hybrid system called the pile-file. I was so enthusiastic about this method that I made a YouTube film about it: [video]http://www.youtube.com/robsprotips#p/a/u/1/H5tnm8Xj1d0[/video]

http://www.robsprotips.com/
http://www.youtube.com/robsprotips

 

[Layla]

After printing you have to make a decision for piling or putting effort into filing the documents. Both approaches have their pros and cons. After reading some studies about piling and filing strategies, I experimented with a hybrid system called the pile-file. I was so enthusiastic about this method that I made a YouTube film about it: [video]http://www.youtube.com/robsprotips#p/a/u/1/H5tnm8Xj1d0[/video]

http://www.robsprotips.com/
http://www.youtube.com/robsprotips

Very interesting!! (I have now a slightly different system, as the binder didn't work for me, I may use some of your tips though! eg I like double-tagging a piece of paper for 2 different things, etc!)

I think I'm a filer-piler too, just a slightly different one! Good to find a name and some scientific info for this!

 

[bkim316]

Paper

It seems like people here who use and love paper really love it. I see a lot of people struggling to find a digital system but usually people wi paper systems seem to have it down.

I just can't personally. Paper is my enemy in many ways. It gets lost or misfiled or is unreadable, no backup possibility, space considerations.

Advantages I see though are ease of implementation, the processing on paper is just so much easier, and you can create any format you want, never crashes, and mainly you can concentrate on the system and not the tool. Also you don't have to go by another's viewpoint of gtd. So customization.

They both have pros and cons.

 

[TesTeq]

Gets lost? Unreadable? No backup? Space?

I just can't personally. Paper is my enemy in many ways. It gets lost or misfiled or is unreadable, no backup possibility, space considerations.

Paper gets lost or you are losing it? Bits get lost very often too!

Paper is unreadable? I think it is more readable in bright sun than LCD screen.

No backup? I can use my digital camera to backup any piece of paper.

Space considerations? Index cards or Moleskine are smaller and lighter than iPad.

 

[Oogiem]

Paper gets lost or you are losing it? Bits get lost very often too!

Paper is unreadable? I think it is more readable in bright sun than LCD screen.

No backup? I can use my digital camera to backup any piece of paper.

Space considerations? Index cards or Moleskine are smaller and lighter than iPad.

For me I would agree with all the points about paper gets lost, is unreadable, hard to backup and takes up space. It's unreadable because my handwriting is terrible on a good day and worse than vague hen scratches when I am stressed or in a hurry. In bright sunlight I can always shade my iPod but paper blows away or gets eaten by curious sheep. Backup is tedious and time consuming. I have my data backing up hourly to a server and monthly to a CD and safe so no worries there. My belt pouch with all my tools is still smaller than a lot of notebooks. I don't carry an iPad but I do use an iPod touch for my GTD system.

 

[harringg]

Paper is unreadable? I think it is more readable in bright sun than LCD screen.

Paper may be more readable, but my handwritting can be un-legible. I've been told I write like a doctor, now only if I got paid like one. LOL

No backup? I can use my digital camera to backup any piece of paper.

That's a great bit of advice! I do routinely scan important reference documents, shred the originals, and even OCR them for fast searching (and have a rigorous back up system), but I often have loose scraps of paper lying around with notes that I'll "get back to" and I could just as easily take a photo with my camera an not have to worry about losing them.

p.s. Do the Instant Subscriptions not work on these forums? I've subscribed to several threads and never get an email even though there is an update. I have to come to the boards to see if there are any. I don't have a spam filter on the account these go to, so it's not getting trapped there.

 

[Andrewrdavidson]

I like using paper for all the reasons people have said -it's easy and you feel more of a connection to the content. When I started with GTD (a long time ago) paper was the only way for me to go and I used a Filofax organiser and lots of lined paper. Worked for me.

I toyed with Moleskines (using a variety of set ups) but I didn't like the permanence of the pages. The ability to just take out organiser pages trumped it.

Because of the dominance of email in my work I moved to Outlook and used it for a few years. The main advantage of using Outlook tasks for me was the ability to very quickly drop emails and thoughts into the system. That's still an advantage that's hard to beat in my view.

The disadvantage of the system for me was that my employer won't allow me to sync up outlook with my iPhone and so I had to have two systems - one for personal and one for work.

In order to get more consistency with tasks I now use Omnifocus on my iPhone for everything. I also used a small notepad when I don't have time to get something into the Omnifocus in-box. Omnifocus is great in many respects and does allow me to get a wider overview of both personal and work areas. The big downsides are no link to Outlook and email and no back up (I have no Mac at the moment). Work have given me a Blackberry and so I also have my Outlook email with me at all times and so this plus my iPhone is sufficient to keep everything with me at all times. Not ideal but it works.

I'm not planning a change any time soon having listened to Augusto's discussion of tools and toys!

Andrew

 

[rdgeorge]

Andrew:

I love good paper and good pens. To me they are wonderful for capture, brainstorming and notes. There is something Z-word-that-cannot-be-spoken-like about capturing a new idea on a clean, blank piece of good paper, using a good pen.

At my workplace, Outlook is used for e-mail. I cannot synch to it because it is on a Citrix server. I used to run a separate copy of Outlook on my Thinkpad, set up according to the GTD guideline paper, until I discovered Omnifocus. I now use an iPad and and iTouch with Mobileme. I keep a wireless keyboard and charger at the office.

When you have waited the requisite six months, you might consider this. You could do it without having a Mac at home. Everything would be backed up in the clouds, and your iPhone would be up to date all the time with your lists. Regarding e-mail, you could forward e-mail that you want to process to your iPhone or an iPad (assuming you have WiFi at your workplace).

rdgeorge

 

[Andrewrdavidson]

rdgeorge

Thanks for your comments. We use Citrix too hence part of the problem

I completely agree with you about paper and great pen. I like cheap fountain pens because I don't worry about losing them but they have a fluidity that you don't get with many other pens. And they are cheap!

Andrew

 

[JohnV474]

Paper gets lost or you are losing it? Bits get lost very often too!

Paper is unreadable? I think it is more readable in bright sun than LCD screen.

No backup? I can use my digital camera to backup any piece of paper.

Space considerations? Index cards or Moleskine are smaller and lighter than iPad.

Give us a break, guy. The message that you replied to was only expressing a preference ("for me personaly [sic])."

There are times when digital is less readable than paper, as you said. There are also many times when paper is less readable than digital, such as virtually anything that is handwritten.

When it comes to space, index cards and Moleskine MAY be smaller than iPad. It depends on how many index cards and which Moleskine notebooks you mean. As the user moves beyond basic list functionality, paper cannot compete with digital storage when it comes to size. It is very easy to carry dozens of bankers boxes' worth of paper files on something smaller than a pen, let alone a stack of index cards.

Computer data can get lost, you're right. However, the effort required to virtually eliminate the risk of data loss is exponentially less than that required to do so with paper.

There is also some irony in your arguing for reasons why paper is better than digital, and yet use a digital camera backup solution as part of your argument.

If you care to know, I am not a proponent of using either paper or digital to the exclusion of the other. There are advantages to both, depending on the circumstances. If I need/want very large amounts of information readily available, nothing can beat digital storage. On the other hand, most of the time paper beats digital for quick capture, as I can get out my UCT and pen and start writing within two seconds of having the thought.

Just a few thoughts.
JohnV474

 

[TesTeq]

The irony.

There is also some irony in your arguing for reasons why paper is better than digital, and yet use a digital camera backup solution as part of your argument.

The same irony exists if the digital tools user prints out something on paper. It is a violation of the rules too.