Program of the Day 2 - OneNote

If you think note-taking is just something you only do in school…well, you ought to expand your intellectual horizons, in my opinion. :)

Well, dear reader, perhaps you’re just sick of pen and ink. In which case I would point you towards Microsoft OneNote, your one-stop solution for all the notes you’ll ever need to take offline on the computer.

Notes can consist of text, images, AutoShapes, etc., as you’d expect in word, but it’s a lot freer. You can double-click to type anywhere or choose a pen (I like a calligraphic green one, personally) and draw anywhere.

You can also give it a nice background, with horizontal-rule notebook paper, gridded graph paper, etc. I’m sure there are more options, such as importing a custom background; I just haven’t found them yet.

Also neat are tags. By default, Ctrl+1 adds a checkbox next to an item; you can subsequently click on it to check it off. A tag search allows you to generate a to-do list with ease.

And it autosaves your notebook.

If you have Microsoft Office, consider checking out this oft-overlooked notebook program. You may be pleasantly surprised by the freedom it allows you. :)

Organising my day

The problem (just take a look at my desk)!

In todays frenetic business environment it’s more important than ever to try to organise and plan your day effectively.

Most of us are mobile - we work in several different locations & our clients expect us to be available at all times of the day. Probably most of us too, have to work on more than one device; maybe a desktop, laptop and mobile (some of us have to work on more than one operating system but that’s another story!)

Hardware

Although I work on windows and Linux boxes my primary systems are Mac based so naturally my organisational tools reflect this. I use an iPad, a Mac Pro back at base and a MacBook air for taking stuff to clients and for working remotely. For my phone I use an iPhone 4s.

Mail

 99% of my business is done via email so a reliable service is vital. I use exchange for my business mail and buy the hosting service from Sherweb for $6.95 per month. Uptime is excellent and I don’t have all the hassle of maintaining a server, worrying about certificates etc. It’s a breeze to set up & works well across all platforms and devices although you have to use imap/webmail with Thunderbird and Mail.

Software & applications

Believe you me I’ve tried every conceivable piece of software in an attempt to make me more organised (and I’ve spent plenty of bucks in the process too!). 

One of my favourite utilities is Dropbox - this acts as my repository for files and folders and is compatible with all my kit including, iPad, iPhone, mac, linux, android and windows.

For organising ToDos, writing notes, storing webpages and documents etc.I particularly like the way that OneNote works but of course that’s native to Windows and is not available on the Mac platform. A workaround is to use SkyDrive and then you can access and edit your OneNote file through any compatible browser (like Safari). It doesn’t work through the iPad browser though and you do lose some of the functionality. There is a OneNote iphone/ipad app but it is only available through the US app store (mail me if you want to know how to get round that particular problem!). You can also use MobileNoter but I’ve has mixed success with this. 

There are several OneNote’ish alternatives for the Mac including Curio (expensive but with tons of features -maybe too many?), Evernote (brilliant at cross-platform integration but I’ve never been good at organising the notes), Growly Notes (excellent developer, visually similar to One Note and it’s free!!) and my current fave Circus Ponies Notebook. CP Notebook has a superb indexing system (Multidex), incorporates web clipping, inserting documents, integrates with ical etc. and best of all has a gorgeous version for iPad. The iPad version had some bad press because the developers took ages to get the syncing right (you used to have to do it through iTunes!) but it now integrates seamlessly with Dropbox and is one of my most used applications. There’s no iPhone version but for taking notes on the hoof I use Alfons Schmid Notebooks (A very active developer who responds to problems and suggestions, it syncs really well with Dropbox and there is an iPad version. Something else that’s really useful is that you can also use Markdown with Notebooks and then convert to HTML.

Methodology

So a lot of kit there but how do I use it all! Well you’ve probably read Paul Allen’s book Getting Things Done - my take is a very simplified version:

In My Circus Ponies Notebook I have a ‘Daybook’ page that has:

1. What do I have to do today to keep out of Jail & keep my clients and staff happy - that might mean paying the VAT, uploading some web alterations for a client, finishing an urgent presentation or just paying the wages.

2. What should I do today - stuff that’s not time critical - maybe finish my blog, tidy up a database, finish the accounts.

3. What would I like to do today - this is the best bit and I always try & cross at least one ‘like’ of my list each day; Learn a bit of Java, do a bit of research, try out a new app etc.

4. The day book also contains 2 other sections - Time sheet and charges.

5. I then have a tab (or sub section if you prefer) for Clients and each Client in turn has  subsections for current work - e.g. If I glance at one of our clients, Nielsen, I can see that we have a sub sections for ‘Dec 11 email campaign’, ‘Database Schema’, Italian presentation, and archive (all clients have an archive section). There are other tabs for ‘Projects’ (includes programming, marketing etc.), ‘Reference’,’Scrapbook’ which are all self explanatory.

These lists get added to from various devices throughout the day depending on where I am, with Dropbox as the conduit. Each evening, either before I leave work or at home on my Air I update the lists having checked ical for upcoming events.

Summary

If anyone wants me to do a review on any of the software mentioned above or a ‘How to’ just leave a comment or email me and I’ll see what I can do.

References

Dropbox - www.dropbox.com

OneNote - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/

Evernote - www.evernote.com

Growly Notes - http://growlybird.com/GrowlyBird/Notes.html

Circus Ponies Notebook - http://www.circusponies.com/

David Allen Getting Things Done - http://www.davidco.com/

MobileNoter - http://www.mobilenoter.com

Query:

(and I instantly think of KOTOR. Meatbags, amirite!?)

The real blog is coming later, but as of now I only had one question for the Tumblr-verse.

I’ve been using Microsoft OneNote for all of my writing needs for about the last two years. I’ve only just now realized that this has been a fairly simplistic take on writing a novel.

Does anybody have any hands-on experience with a writing program they really favor?

My office tool box

It’s been one of those days today that was quickly brightened by a supply delivery of my new post it notes.  This got me thinking, what do I really need to work and makes my life better.  After much procrastination I have come up with the following top 9 things:

1. iPhone - honestly use it all the time for work and personal, can’t live without
2. OneNote - Microsoft did something right with this one! Now with iPhone app too!
3. Rulered PostIt notes - Some of the only paper I use, writing out my daily to do lists
4. Coffee - with out it…….. just make sure I don’t go without
5. Skype - I grew up on chat programs (ICQ anyone?) helps answer questions quick and cuts out the long distance calls
6. Excel - Love my big spreadsheets!  So many ways to cut data and make graphs!
7. Red pen - feared as a student, now helps bring out whats really important on all that printed material
8. Facebook - the necessary distraction for my “info-snacking”
9. Visio - Yes another geek program but for a visual person helps make sense of it all!

What are your “makes work easier” things?