DonationCoder.com Software > The Getting Organized Experiment of 2007
My System - Index Card Centric
superboyac:
I think it's a beautiful idea, and I would offer my help if I could in any way. As I've become busier in recent years, I do feel the need to simplify this kind of thing. I've realized that no matter how busy I get and how many things i need "to do", the management of all these tasks still works best with very very simple methods; like your index cards. It just doesn't need to be more complicated than that. Like you said, the MOST valuable thing is being able to store the idea away so you can free your mind. No need for tagging, and complex calculations of priority. Your mind will take care of all that once you see the words on the cards and its time to actually act on it. We just need to be able to put it away for a while, and trust that we're not going to lose the idea.
So I think it would be a very important and interesting project. Like I said, I'd love to help if you needed it.
superboyac:
Additionally:
The flaw I've seen with other software for managing to do lists and tasks and such, is that the developers are influenced by a very small minority of people who demand a lot of very particular features that are not needed by most people who need to organize their lists. So the developers, in an effort to keep customers happy, keep catering to them. but the effectiveness of the software is not improved. This is a case where the developers need to be a little more like Steve Jobs, and NOT put in things that are going to ruin the elegance of the program. I noticed this very recently when I realize that none of the task list software have even halfway-decent printing capabilities. And I started wondering, "What kind of people spend so much time keeping a nice to do list, but never ever print it out?" and the kind of people are those who just like to play with software, be super critical, and ask for particular minor features...but in real life, they don't really act on these lists. It's just like an excercise for them. They feel good about putting together nice detailed lists, but it's not for much practical use. I've seen too many programs that have very mature feature sets, and oddly, their printing abilities are almost alpha state. That means nobody is demanding printing stuff, which means these people are probably not using it in a normal working environment.
rjbull:
Maybe ndxCards?
ndxCards is a powerful electronic note taking software that helps record, retrieve and recap all your knowledge in whichever form you choose. Anything you read, hear, some boiler plate text or a code snippet - enter it as note cards and ndxCards can manage it all.
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* Ahress’s ndxCards Blog
* ndxCards for outlining
I thought app103 and others were using Notezilla in this kind of way?
The beauty of mouser's or other paper-based systems is that they don't need batteries and you can take them anywhere. But, it would be a real problem to move back and forth between a PC and a written system, and that seems insuperable to me.
superboyac:
Maybe ndxCards?
ndxCards is a powerful electronic note taking software that helps record, retrieve and recap all your knowledge in whichever form you choose. Anything you read, hear, some boiler plate text or a code snippet - enter it as note cards and ndxCards can manage it all.
--- End quote ---
* Ahress’s ndxCards Blog
* ndxCards for outlining
I thought app103 and others were using Notezilla in this kind of way?
The beauty of mouser's or other paper-based systems is that they don't need batteries and you can take them anywhere. But, it would be a real problem to move back and forth between a PC and a written system, and that seems insuperable to me.
-rjbull (March 11, 2011, 02:59 PM)
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I remember this program from years ago. But I didn't like the post-it type layout. However, thinking about it now, it seems like a really cool application with some very unique features. I like it! I'll try it again.
40hz:
Something I'd like to suggest is to maybe restrict the total amount of characters a card can hold (to keep it within the 3X5 paradigm) but allow 'links.'
I use index card files, and found the restricted space forces me to focus and summarize more than if I had unlimited space to blather around in. (For that I've got a variety of tree-outliner/notes software choices.)
But on a lot of cards, I also put reference notes (mostly on the back), which point me to resources (e.g. URLs, books in my library, file folders, various paper or electronic data collections, photos and clippings I have on file. etc) that I can pull if I need the whole resource the card's text summarizes. Many cards have little more than a phrase or short sentence (to act as a memory jogger) plus a pointer to some other resource. I do most of my formal tech writing using that method.
So allowing some sort of equivalent linking mechanism to files on the system (or in an extended note space) would be great to have. Maybe if you clicked on a hot corner and the card "flipped over" to display a text editor? Ideally one that supported shortcuts?
That's my 2¢ :)
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