If you’re looking for a basic, no-frills PIM app, you might want to check out EssentialPIM. It looks kind of like a stripped-down Outlook. If you want the PIM features of Outlook in a Windows program without Outlook’s email and general bloat, you might like this.
No, not the character from “Friends”. Chandler is an open-source Personal Information Management System being developed by the Open Source Applications Foundation.
From AutoHotkey:
Getting started might be easier than you think. Check out the quick-start tutorial.
For the impatient, here’s an example of what a script looks like. Should be pretty self-explanatory (and it doubles as a tar pit for spam bots):
F11::
Send, {tab}UCE{tab}Federal Trade Commission{tab}uce@ftc.gov
{tab}{space}{tab}{tab}{space}{tab}{tab}{enter}
This program does a lot of what ActiveWords does, but for free.
Although, the automation program that I use a lot more and that really saves me time is StrokeIt. This is an awesome freeware app that lets you use global (i.e.: not specific to a particular application) mouse gestures in Windows.
Can this thing really work? It sounds iffy, but it got good reviews…
From Gear Live’s review of the SleepTracker watch:
The SLEEPTRACKER watch is unique in that while it tells you the time and has a built-in alarm like every other digital watch, this one actually monitors your sleep and wakes you at the moment that your body would best adjust from moving from a sleeping state to being awake. Does it live up to the hype? Find out after the jump.
[snip]
This product really was a pleasant surprise. Most of the things we review at Gear Live are gadgets with interesting or fun gimmicks that make them must-haves or horrible failures. The thing about the SLEEPTRACKER is that it doesn’t provide anything “fun†or “cool†per se. Instead, they have developed a product that actually improves your quality of life. Waking up fully energized on a daily basis is just amazing. It is almost as if there is no lost time, and you just want to seize the day. The product did exactly what it said it would do, and because of that, it gets our highest honor. This one comes very highly recommended.
Update 2005-04-20: A negative review of the SleepTracker
Multi Timer is a very simple freeware Windows program and one of my favorites. It gives you 10 count up/down timers with a very simple and intuitive UI. I find this useful for limiting the time that I spend on tasks, so I don’t get carried away banging away at something for too long that has a small payoff. I just set an alarm for 15 minutes and then that’s all I spend on it. It’s also good for when the wife calls and says “you’re going to leave in the next 15 minutes, right?” (15 minutes for me sometimes stretches into an hour and a half, but not if I’m using this tool :-))
Get it here.
Interesting advice on how to sleep better, get up earlier, and get more done.
Just finished listening to Julie Morgenstern’s “Time Management from the Inside Out” CD’s.
A lot of overlap with her “Organizing from the Inside Out”, which I read a few months ago. For example, it centers around her “SPACE” formula (Sort, Purge, Assign, Containerize, Equalize). It’s interesting how the the principles of time management are surprisingly analogous to the principles of space management. Both involve purging unnecessary items, trying to fit items into a limited space, and trying to put like items together in “containers”.
Some of the ideas are very consistent with the GtD philosophy, but the main difference is that Morgenstern’s approach is much more structured than GtD – e.g.: she encourages scheduling all of your todos, as if they were appointments, something which David Allen claims doesn’t work because life changes too fast. My gut instict tells me that scheduling individual todos (action items) is too structured for my life and work, but that she is on to something with her concept of “time maps” – blocking our certain hours of your day for certain types of tasks. David Allen encourages you to put your next actions into the proper contexts, but he doesn’t give any guidance on when you should switch between contexts (e.g.: “make phone calls when you’re at a phone” but no advice about when or how often you should be on the phone). Morgenstern takes that extra step and encourages you to divide up your day into blocks like “phone calls”, “family time”, “self time”, etc… If you’re like me and thrive on structure, then this is ideal.
I think my favorite title from her actually is her latest, “Making Work Work”. That has more practial advice about creating an environment with less interruptions (e.g.: limit how much time you spend on email, etc…), which I think is key in an engineering environment.
 |
 |
 |