November 2014 Summaries

As an avid reader, the author sought to find a system for organizing notes from books for easy reference later on. They explored various methods, including creating an index with abbreviations, using notecards and a commonplace book, visual note-taking, exporting highlights from e-readers, and storing notes in apps like Evernote. Each method has its benefits, such as annotating physical texts quickly and easily, waiting for a week to ruminate on ideas before copying them, and organizing notes with tags or notebooks. The author also discussed the importance of sharing book notes and highlights online, making it easy to share with others, and the potential to use apps like Zapier to automate tasks. Ultimately, setting up a system for organizing and cataloguing what you read allows you to reflect back on the information later and get the most out of your library.

Most people's productivity habits are based on guesswork, but it's possible to find your peak productive environment by tracking how you spend your time. RescueTime is a tool that tracks where you spend your time and provides data on your productivity, allowing you to see when you're most productive, what activities are distracting you the most, and how different variables affect your output. By using RescueTime, you can identify your current peak hours, conduct experiments to optimize them, and make data-driven decisions about your work environment and schedule. For example, an experiment might involve working from a coffee shop for a week to see if it boosts productivity. By tracking your time and productivity, you can find the most productive times of day and environments that work best for you.

Conspiracy Santa`, a team-based gift-giving tradition, was created as an alternative to Secret Santa due to the challenges of coordinating remote teams. The idea involves having the entire team collaborate on selecting a gift for one teammate through email threads, with everyone sharing ideas and ultimately voting on a final gift. This approach fosters collaboration, insight into teammates' interests, and rewarding experiences. While there were some initial issues, such as complicated threads and non-physical gifts, the experiment was deemed successful and is being repeated this year with tweaks to improve its execution. The Conspiracy Santa process involves setting a spending limit, collecting participant information, using email threads to coordinate, throwing out facts about the target person, narrowing down gift ideas through voting, and finally sharing the results with the recipient.

Traveling can be a stressful event, but numerous apps are now available to help alleviate these issues. Apps such as Kayak and Hipmunk offer easy-to-use booking tools, while Hipmunk's agony factor feature helps users find flights with fewer stops and shorter durations. Priceline's Name Your Own Price option allows users to bid on travel without specifying the exact hotel, airline, or rental car company. ITA Matrix is a powerful airfare search engine that allows users to tweak their searches for optimal results. SkyScanner offers flexible booking options, including searching by month or year, while Airfarewatchdog provides email alerts for cheap flights. SeatGuru helps users find comfortable seats on long-haul flights, and HotelTonight offers last-minute hotel reservations. Airbnb is a great option for unique experiences, and using award miles can be made easier with apps like ExpertFlyer, AwardWallet, and UsingMiles. Packing apps such as PackPoint and Packing Pro help users create personalized packing lists, while TripIt and TripCase provide powerful trip tracking features. Expensify makes logging business expenses a breeze. With so many options available, travelers can find the best app to suit their needs and make traveling less stressful.

A simple text file can be a useful tool for productivity, offering flexibility and simplicity. Writing in a single text file every day can help cultivate a daily writing habit, while using Todo.txt syntax can create a customizable to-do list. A "done" list or "anti-todo list" allows users to review their progress at the end of each day, providing a sense of satisfaction and helping track productivity over time. Computer scientist Cal Newport uses a text file to plan his week, experimenting with different formats until finding what works best. A plain text journal can also be used, without the features of dedicated journalling apps. Additionally, a simple text file can be used to store ideas, keep track of feature requests, and organize tasks into folders on the desktop. Various tools are available to make working with plain text easy, including Folding Text, nvALT, Editorial, iTextEditors, and Draft. The beauty of plain text is its flexibility, making it a viable alternative to modern to-do apps.

You've just completed your first app audit, a thorough review of the apps you use to clean up unnecessary ones, improve security, and boost productivity. You've started using a password manager to securely store and generate strong passwords for all your accounts. Two-factor authentication has been enabled on sensitive apps like email, file management tools, and social media platforms to add an extra layer of protection. Offline access has been set up for key apps like Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Gmail, allowing you to work efficiently even without an internet connection. You've also maximized your app efficiency by setting up multiple Chrome users, using the Omnibox for quick searches inside apps, assessing your app usage with RescueTime, connecting and automating your apps with Zapier, and adding custom steps tailored to your specific needs. With these changes, you're now better equipped to tackle the ever-changing landscape of software tools and apps, ensuring a more streamlined and secure workflow.