I'm not an organized person. I mean, I'm really not organized. I have "could be useful" emails by the thousands in my inboxes. Most of my documents are completely unsorted, with helpful names like "brain5.txt". There'd be no point in me getting a nice desk as I'd never see it under piles of books, papers, unwashed coffee cups and long-forgotten forms anyway.
It's not just general messiness either. I tend to forget about seminars and meetings unless I get reminded, and I neglect administrative deadlines as a matter of course. I can never remember passwords, so I write them down - but then I forget where. Worse, I recently completely missed a submission deadline (not the one I've been working on), which is not just inconvenient, but fairly serious.
Last week I got the idea that I should try some kind of computer scheduling program. I looked around a bit and found one that's gotten a lot of good word of mouth. Simple and straightforward to use, and integrates nicely with my other desktop tools.
So I try to install it, but get a message to the effect that GTG can't be updated because it's already running. It turns out I already had this idea in January. I'd downloaded an earlier version, started it - and forgotten all about it. I found it open behind some ongoing blog entries, a forgotten instance of Octave and a couple of open PDF files.
It's not just general messiness either. I tend to forget about seminars and meetings unless I get reminded, and I neglect administrative deadlines as a matter of course. I can never remember passwords, so I write them down - but then I forget where. Worse, I recently completely missed a submission deadline (not the one I've been working on), which is not just inconvenient, but fairly serious.
Last week I got the idea that I should try some kind of computer scheduling program. I looked around a bit and found one that's gotten a lot of good word of mouth. Simple and straightforward to use, and integrates nicely with my other desktop tools.
So I try to install it, but get a message to the effect that GTG can't be updated because it's already running. It turns out I already had this idea in January. I'd downloaded an earlier version, started it - and forgotten all about it. I found it open behind some ongoing blog entries, a forgotten instance of Octave and a couple of open PDF files.
So much for that bright idea.
Dear Janne,
ReplyDeleteonce upon a long time ago, whilst we were still sharing rooms i Lund, you offered to become my secretary. I was running a study, a fairly messy one, and needed help to structure it. I cannnot really remember the reason, if any, I gave for turning you down - or could it have been because you simultaneously offered to come to work in a very short skirt and stilettos? Anyway, I wonder how the study would have worked out with your organization! And if your ankles would have survived the stilettos.
Petra
Having me as your secretary or assistant would have been a disaster. Especially as, between you and me you're the organized one :)
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the link - but unfortunately it seems to be not working? Does anybody here at janneinosaka.blogspot.com have a mirror or another source?
Thanks,
Mark
I should have mentioned the full tool name of course: it's Getting Things Gnome! (yes, with the exclamation mark).
ReplyDeleteHere's the site: Getting Things Gnome