Organizational Advice

[Stink Hook]

Greetings all,

I could really use some help with organization. Here's what I've got going on:

I have a new job as the IT Specialist (the only IT guy) for a small company that is moving two locations and a sister company at the end of the year. I'm a fairly new home owner as well as the father of a two year old. I have heaps of responsibilities and projects at both home and work. On top of that I am also making the switch from a long time Windows user to Linux at home. I use XP and Vista *shivers* at work and Ubuntu 7.04 on my laptop at home. I need some kind of solution to stay organized and also be able to work on both platforms. I am thinking that OpenOffice will be wonderful for this. Currently I have a 2GB USB flash drive loaded with portable apps and all of my files for work and play. I use Office 2007 at work and all of my files are saved in the new XML format for Office (ex: .docx instead of .doc and .xlsx instead of .xls), which causes a problem with OpenOffice.

I'm looking for:
1) cross-platform apps, portable apps, and PIM software
2) advice, links to tutorials, book recommendations, or anything about organization that has really helped you

I'm looking for any kind of advice really. Do you use a spreadsheet for tasks? Do you use a database for projects? Do you use any sort or program to jot out diagrams (such as Visio from Microsoft) or flow charts? I am not opposed to non-digital suggestions either, I just prefer to keep my USB drive with me. Do you fill your desk with sticky notes?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am thoroughly pleased with the open source community that revolves around Ubuntu and I hope that we can all learn something here.

Thank you,
Stink Hook

[reclusivemonkey]

You'll get a lot of software suggestions I imagine, but I will give you some more generic advice;

Use text. It will work on any platform and is quick/simple to use and futureproof.

Use a "hipster PDA". There are times when all your technology will fail, and this will be a godsend. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/hipsterpda/

43 Folders is a great resource for organising yourself, although its pretty much all Mac orientated. The Wiki is probably the best place to start;

http://wiki.43folders.com/index.php/Main_Page

And although you are probably aware of it, lifehacker is another good site. http://lifehacker.com/

Personally, I would be completely lost without remind;

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=401502&highlight=remind

[Tundro Walker]

Basic organization starts with what brain side you are...

Left-brained folks are cliche'ly typecast as technical & organized. They usually get along great with schedules, pocket planners, etc. If you're a left-sider, then using a pocket planner can really help.

Right-brained folks are cliche'ly typecast as creative but disorganized. They will struggle when using a pocket planner, and will usually give up on it. Instead, they work better with the "scratch of paper" method. IE: everytime you have something to do, you grab a scratch of paper and write it down. Add your scrap into your scrap pile. Then, when you're working (or focusing on projects), you can easily move your scraps around, add notes to them, etc. When you finish a task, you toss the scrap out.

ReclusiveMonkey's idea for a reminder program is also priceless advice. Folks have so much crap to remember these days that it's easier to have something remind you sometimes. At home, I don't use a reminder program (which is probably why I waste the whole weekend not doing anything, then complaining on Monday when I haven't done my laundry, etc). But at work, I use MS Outlook calendar to remind me of all kinds of crap...when to get a haircut, when to check/change the oil, when holidays are showing up (and if it's a Monday holiday, I put a Friday reminder so I won't accidentally come to work on Monday), etc.

A tip I picked up from "Ask Joel", you can use your email program as a project management tool. Much like the "scrap of paper" method, you just keep an email for each project (or a folder for each). I keep an email in my inbox for each action item I'm responsible for. If it's a small project, and I correspond with others on it, I'll CC myself, so I get an updated note about the project, and I'll delete the old message (since I always include the history in each email). when I'm done with the project, the email gets tossed in the "done" folder (or the whole project folder, if it was a large project). This method regularly keeps my inbox down to 5-10 emails at max, which amazes other folks, who have 100's of emails in their inbox, most of it crap, or redundant emails of stuff they responded to but didn't bother to delete.

[cub]

I'm looking for any kind of advice really. Do you use a spreadsheet for tasks? Do you use a database for projects? Do you use any sort or program to jot out diagrams (such as Visio from Microsoft) or flow charts? I am not opposed to non-digital suggestions either, I just prefer to keep my USB drive with me. Do you fill your desk with sticky notes?

I used to mix Windows and Ubuntu on my home and work computers and I used Open Office. I also use Freemind for my mindmapping which runs on both. Gimp for graphics.

Nowadays I only use Ubuntu. I've started to use Dia as a replacement for Visio. It works but it's not the same.

I mainly use spreadsheets for my project plans and task lists, but is looking for a great software to replace it. So far I have tested loads both on Windows and Linux, but always revert to good old spreadsheets.

I've just started to use Tomboy for my smaller tasklists and sticky-note-like-app.

[Stink Hook]

reclusivemonkey:
Lol, I actually thought that the "hipster PDA" was a digital PDA that I never heard of, oh man, you got me. Thank you for the resources. I've actually never checked out lifehacker.com, but I will look through it.

Tundro Walker:
Thank you for the advice. I am, or at least was, total right brained. My wife is the complete opposite and it has slowly made me into a bit more organized of a person. I've tried lots of personal organizers and each one has about one month's worth filled in and then gathers dust. I'll be trying to take notes in a small notebook or make a "hipster." It will be a nice compromise between organized and messy. I will also keep your email advice in mind, those reminders can be a life saver. The only problem is that I'm usually running around the building like a chicken with my head cut off and wont see a reminder until it's too late. I think I need a phone that syncs with exchange.

cub:
Thank you so much for the advice. I will definitely be checking out Dia and Freemind. I thought OpenOffice Draw looked promising but I couldn't find it in Synaptic (although I didn't try too hard).



Thanks for all the advice people, I definitely appreciate it and I would love to hear more form others. It saves a lot of time to learn from the trials and tribulations of others.

:D LP&CG

[cub]

cub:
Thank you so much for the advice. I will definitely be checking out Dia and Freemind. I thought OpenOffice Draw looked promising but I couldn't find it in Synaptic (although I didn't try too hard).
Hey, that's true! I didn't know I missed OpenOffice Draw until I read this. I used it a lot while in Windows but forgot about it after my transfer to Ubuntu.

Anyway, I did a search and noted that I already had it installed. In Synaptics: openoffice-draw
But it wasn't in any of my menus. I looked in System - Preferences - Menu Layout and found it hidden in the Graphics menu. Checked the box and voila, it's in my menu.

[Stink Hook]

cub:
I too found that it was hidden in my Graphics menu after a bit more searching, thanks for the tip though. Strange that they didn't include that as a checked item by default, don't you think? I really enjoy it.