As I mentioned in last Saturday’s post, I’ve been setting up a new organization system for myself. I used to be very organized (I am a Virgo, after all ;-)) but for that past 2 to 3 years, I’ve been struggling with keeping track of what needs to be done, or if I know what needs to be done, where the heck I put the items I needed to work on the task.
Since this started during the time that Bruce’s health deteriorated, and then really got bad while he was in hospice, I didn’t beat myself up about it as I knew it was a result of stress and grief. But now, 2+ years later, I’m still having problems so it was time to admit that it’s also due to an aging brain, and find a solution.
First I tried updating and revising systems I’d used before and they helped, but not completely. So, I invested in a Circa Notebook (which I still use and love) and it works great for current projects/ideas, but once I moved something out of the notebook, it may as well have been recycled as filed. I tried setting up new folders in Outlook to organize email, but most often things just stayed in the inbox because if I moved them to a folder, I wouldn’t remember which one . I tried revamping both physical paper files and all the computer ones to make it easier to find things.
All of these things helped, but what was frustrating me were the times I knew I had the information somewhere, but could not remember where (for example, my inbox was overflowing with so many emails I could rarely find the one I needed). I was spending too much time looking for things. I joked to myself, one day, that I needed a way to Google my brain! I also wanted to find a way to reduce the amount of paper that I deal with at the store (and at home) not only to be more green but because filing is always the last item on the to-do list meaning it rarely gets done (and thus compounding the ‘where did I put it’ problem).
And I think I’ve found an application that seems to be working for me….Microsoft’s OneNote. Now, I’m not one to generally promote their products (I seriously dislike Word for example) but OneNote is blowing me away. It allows you set up Notebooks that you can then create sections in and each section can have multiple pages. You can ‘print’ to OneNote and then make notes right on the ‘print out’. Anytime you copy something into a section, it automatically adds a “pasted from <URL>”.
But the BEST parts for me are the search function and the tags. The search is very fast and lists all pages that include what you searched on. The tags let you mark items and then you can search for just tagged items. I don’t have to remember anything more than I put it into a notebook in OneNote! And my reward for all those days of setting up OneNote: peace of mind that I’ll be able to find things when I need them and………..
an empty inbox!
Until next time…….
Nice!