Monday, June 16, 2008

Information Overload to Overlord

Part 4 of a 10-part series on spending LESS time administrating your life and more time LIVING it!

The Challenge

There is more information generated in the U.S. in one day than any of us could digest in our lifetimes. And sometimes that's what our inbox feels like. I've experienced that myself. I felt inundated by good or even great tips, hints, techniques, learnings, that I couldn't keep up. I also got information from other sources: the web, pictures on my cell phone, etc. Note to mention my own ideas!

How do you organize all those different kinds of information? I tried Word documents, wiki pages, etc., and none of it was satisfactory. And then I tripped on the answer.

The Solution—Evernote

Evernote is amazing. It's a program you install on your computer (Windows, Mac, iPhone, etc.) where you can put just about anything, and then organize it.

Get an email with a great marketing idea? Highlight the pertinent paragraph and click the "Add to Evernote" button. It will become an entry in your Evernote notebook (of which you can have several) that contains the header information of the email and the paragraph you just highlighted. You can then add tags of your own design (marketing, great idea, etc.). You can even click a link that will open the original email!

Same thing on the web: I've been doing home renovations and was having a challenge with the trim in one of the bedrooms. I found a GREAT online tutorial for installing trim. I highlighted the whole thing—pictures and all—and copied it into Evernote. It was saved perfectly, as well as a link to the web page where I found it.

Now comes the really valuable (ok, and fun) part: click into the search box and start typing. As you type, Evernote highlights words in every entry that match what you're typing as you type it, and filters out any entries that don't have that word! Thus, if you have 3,000 entries and only one with the word "didgeridoo," probably by the time you type "didg" you'll be looking at that one lone note. Evernote has indexed all of the information in your entries. Excellent!

Oh, but wait, cuz there's something even cooler: I was shopping for doors for the closet in said bedroom. I took pictures with my cell phone of the signs with the prices. I came home and pasted them into Evernote. That picture has words in it, right? Evernote reads the text in pictures and indexes them, too! So, if I took six pictures of signs, I can just type the word "door" and it will filter down to include those entries. Or "pine," etc.

If that weren't enough, you can sync your notebook to your mobile device and have access to it there as well! As well as adding entries on your phone (pictures, words), and sync it back to your computer. You can also make notebooks public and sync them to the web. Then you can share them with friends or colleagues. You can do the same type of search on the web of entering words and filtering those entries that have them.

How else could you use Evernote? How about ideas for blog entries, marketing ideas, capturing whiteboards of meetings on your phone, having all of your 'ideas' available to you, both at home and at work, going paperless by taking pictures of all of those scraps and notes on your desk, organizing recipes, research, tracking books you want, gifts to by, and on and on.

And organizing them all with tags. Takes my breath away!

Evernote is officially in Beta, so you'll need to "register" to try it. Don't worry—it's free.

Your Next Steps

  • Learn more about Evernote.
  • Go to Register to test Evernote Beta and get a response in a day or so.
  • Have questions? Leave them in the comments below and I'll answer them in a future blog entry
  • Have other technology that makes your life easier? Please leave me a comment—I'd love to learn more tips and tricks, and may share it here in the future!

Next issue: schedule meetings with multiple people looking at multiple possible meeting dates and times...

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

What a Knob

There are a number of basic truths that I've learned while working on my house. Here's one.

I've learned that to be most successful, it's best that one has experience in doing this type of work.

I don't.

Next-best is having a level of intelligence to figure things out and think ahead.

I've learned time and time again that I'm often a moron about this stuff.

Next-next-best is to have high standards for the work.

Oh, this I have. And it's a blessing and a curse. Quite often my standards surpass my ability to meet them, and I end up frustrated or re-working things ad nauseum and still not reaching the level of quality I want.

Next3-best is to be stubborn.

OK, now we're getting somewhere. I have this in spades.

Let's look at tonight. What's on the agenda? Touch up the paint in the third bedroom and finish painting the door and install it. I'm touching up the paint, and I'm noticing that there a funny smudges of paint appearing on the floor. Huh? I cleaned those up last night. ? They're so flat that almost look like-- Oh. I stepped on paint on the drop cloth and I'm walking around the room. Take off shoes. Scrape up paint.

Now to the door. I've already gone through the whole thing of stripping the old paint, during which I gouged the door in a few places. To fix the gouges? Wood filler. Great! It's dry, I sanded, here we go. I paint the door white... and it bleeds through. Second layer--bleeds through. Third layer--bleeds through (remember the deal about being stubborn?). Finally I checked with Josh, "Did you prime it?" Uh, no; I didn't know I needed to. So last night I primed both sides. *sigh* ok.

Tonight. I paint the last coat with the color I want. Great. It's covered. It's done. Great. I install the new strike plate I bought. Doesn't match the other hardware, but whatever--it looks good. At least it's not painted over like it was (all the hardware: strike plates, hinges, etc. were all painted over! They looked like crap!). I'm replacing it all.

Next step: install the new door knob. OK, think now, Jay. Do this right so you don't have to redo it. I have pretty good spatial skills, so this shouldn't be a big deal. I imagine the door. I imagine standing at the door in the room. OK, this is right. I get out the door knob. Oh look, it comes with its own strike plate! *sigh* OK, well the other ones I bought can go to the Re-Store...

I've never installed a door knob before, although getting the old one off was a b****. It was the old kind with the cover plate, and I ended up using a straight-headed screwdriver, which took forever.

I read the instructions. Easy enough. Put in the thing, add the knobs (think, Jay: lock goes on the inside. Check!). Then put in the screws. What the-- How do you easily screw in screws on a doorknob?! Answer: there is no easy way. I even tried Google searches. Nothing. I even bought one of those angled screwdriver things, and it was a pain. I was simultaneously stripping the screw head and scratching the knob with it.

I seem to notice repeatedly that it's never the big things that slow me down. It's always the little, piddliest s***** things that hang me up.

I finally ended up--you guess it--using a straight screwdriver and coming in at an angle. Whew. ok. Done. The screw is a bit stripped, but I'll never have to take it off, so who cares (you're smart enough to see where this is headed; smarter than me, obviously).

Next, the hinges. I bought these nice hinges that match the knobs. They have square corners instead of rounded ones, so I screw them in, then use a utility knife to mark the parts I have to carve out. I thought that was pretty smart, actually. I like doing these kinds of things empirically. It worked well. I need to fix some of the paint, but so be it. I installed both hinges on the door. Great.

Next, let's install the door. I take it in to the room and-- Wait. Why is the knob so high? Oh, cuz I'm a jackass is why--when I was visualizing the door I had it upside-down. That means I (!#$%*$#$%) installed the door knob with the lock out! (^%^#$%~#$!#$!) OK, deal with that in a second. First get empirical again: put the door on the jamb, and take a scraper and hammer it at the edges to mark where I need to trim.

Next is the knob, but I need another success first. A little one will do. I take off the shiny brass strike plate and put on the matching one. yeah. a success. far out.

Now take off the door knob (forever), switch it around and install it again (forever and a day). OK, time I'll never get back in this lifetime, but the knob is right now.

Then take off the door and trim the wood. Put the door back on. Hm. The paint isn't perfect. Maybe a light sanding, but NOT TONIGHT.

Apart from that, just the shelf and rod in the closet and closet doors. although the opening is 3-1/8" larger than the standard door size. I'll get frustrated with that tomorrow...

Monday, June 09, 2008

Today's Quote

Yeah, four blog entries in one day, but this one is a quickie. I had a bit of a conflict today, and I came up with this quote:

It's not only a great idea to pick one's battles, sometimes it's even best to let the war go as well.

Water Levels Rising, Captain!

Parte Un

While I don't mind water, what my house does with it pisses me off.

I have a couple of big trees over my house; they are forever depositing crap onto my roof that, therefore, ends up in my gutters.

Now, these are new gutters that I had installed after I (yeah, myself with friends) reroofed the house. The guys who installed the gutters and downspouts have an ingenious method for installing the downspouts in such a way that they are SURE to trap every leave, helicopter or dust mote, thereby clogging my gutters. They cut an "X" in the gutter, bend the four flaps created down and out (but not to 90 degrees), then secure the downspout by screwing a 1.5" nail IN so that there are now SIX sharp objects available for trapping debris.

WTF?

It literally takes about 5 leaves for the whole thing to come to a screeching halt. With huge trees over my house, how often do you think that happens? Yes, less than a day.

The gutters I had when I bought this house were rusty--even rusted through on the front (CLUE IN JAY). I had new ones installed, and thought that they were using extra-large downspouts. Imagine my dismay when I'm laying in bed one morning during a gentle rain, hearing the rain slosh over the sides of the gutter and pouring onto the deck. @#$%@#$!

So, fine, I went up and cleaned them out. Oh, and those sharp corners and screws? Of course I cut myself. Once.

So they were full again this weekend. We didn't have time before church, so afterward we came back and I got up on the roof (don't worry, I have a great ladder) and cleaned them out. That was around noon. I then worked at Josh's during the day getting stuff out of his basement so that he can clean and paint. I get home at 5:30 and they're full again! @#$%@#$%@#$! So, in the pouring rain I went up again and cleaned out the few little leaves that were blocking. *Sigh*

My brother Jim, who's an engineer and genius to boot, put pieces of screen over his gutters so that water would flow in and debris would stay on top. I think that would work for leaves, but I'm not sure about the smaller stuff. I'm going to give it a shot. I've heard that Gutter Helmets are useless with trees above the house. I'm also going to go back and do it right (as with so many other things in this house) by removing the downspouts, bending out the "X" pieces at a full 90 degrees, and reattaching the downspouts with a little bolt with the ROUNDED END on the inside. Would that be so freaking difficult?

If anyone else has a great, even easy, suggestion for me that works great, I'll buy you lunch. I'm not kidding.

Parte Deux

After I clean out the gutters and have just finished making the window frame square in the third bedroom (another correction of past sins...), I get a frantic call from Josh: his basement is filling with water and he's pretty upset. He has two basement rooms, one newer than the other. The new, smaller laundry room gets water in it that he needs to shopvac out when the water table is high. Well, last night the big room was filling. Luckily he has his stuff elevated.

When I get to his house I find the basement with inches of water in it. I brought my two water pumps. We worked for several hours, me pumping and bailing water, and him patching as much of the wall as he could with Quickcrete. However, with the water table that high, it's not a winning battle. The back yards in this block are all lower than the fronts and there was a small ocean in them. Josh's neighbor Bill usually pumps out the lake to the street with a huge pump he has, but even Bill's garage had stuff floating in it. An amazing amount of water.

We knocked off at Midnight after I printed several different sets of instructions for installing a sump pump. Josh purchased two today and will jerry rig them for now until he can get them installed correctly. He was so grateful that I dropped everything and came over.

Hey, that's why I'm here.

Hm. I guess that kinda puts my gutters into perspective...

Flipped

Given: I have a great memory for some things: language, syntax, numbers.

Given: I have a horrible memory for some things: anything related to history such as dates, times, places; what I had for lunch yesterday; where I put my keys; etc.

Therefore: I like systems. A lot.

When I was a kid I'd misplace things and get really frustrated a lot. I discovered that if I did things in consistent ways, I wouldn't lose my stuff. Further, if I took steps so that I couldn't help but use the system, I'd be much better off.

Here's an example: if I need to remember to take something to work, leave it on the counter, under my keys (of course, I always leave my keys on the counter).

Another: Since I have a flexible work schedule, I set all work reminders to the previous workday (24 hours during the week, the previous Friday if on Monday), so that I will remember to be in to work for a morning meeting.

Well, here's another system I have: when I'm done with, say, a jar of vitamins in the bathroom, I turn it upside down and put it on the shelf in front of me. This is my signal to get more.

Well, imagine my surprise the other night when, in low light, I find that my toothpaste (Mentadent--it has its own little stand) is upside-down! How odd... And later I see the kleenex on the toilet is upside-down. How odd... [Warning: I'm kinda slow.] Sunday morning I hear an odd noise in the bathroom, and see my little piggy bank is upside down; Josh says he's playing with it. That morning while getting ready, I realize that EVERYTHING on my bathroom counter that doesn't have an impossibly high center of gravity when turned upside-down is flipped! Yes, Josh has been surreptitiously flipping everything in my bathroom. I laughed and laughed--first at his thinking to do that, second at how long it took me to clue in. And I'm thinking about the time I'll be at his house alone, and will flip everything in his fridge, kitchen cabinets, bathrooms, etc...

Josh doesn't "waste time" on the internet, so he'll never read this. So please don't tell him.

Find it Now - Google Desktop

Part 3 of a 10-part series on spending LESS time administrating your life and more time LIVING it!

The Challenge

I'm sure you've had this experience just like I have: I got an email... about that thing... from that guy... where is it? Is it in the marketing folder? Nope. Events? Nope. Where IS it?

It can be very frustrating to not be able to find things on the computer: an email, a link to a website, a document. Have you ever thought, "When I look for something on the internet, I use Google. Wouldn't it be nice if I could do that on my own computer?"

Guess what: You can.

The Solution: Google Desktop

What Google search does on the web, Google Desktop does on your computer: it goes through all the files on your computer (you can customize the directories) and emails on your system, as well as pages you view on the internet, and indexes them.

The next time you want to find something, you hit ctrl-ctrl, and a "Quick Search Box" appears in the middle of your screen. Type the words you're looking for, and as you type a dropdown list dynamically updates with each new word you type. Hit the button, and a browser window opens and shows you the results of the search, just look Google for the web.



An example of the Quick Search Box (click on it for a larger view).

You can also refine the search: emails only, graphics, documents, and within each of these, even finer granularity. For emails, all those TO me, FROM me, or to or from any of the individuals who are listed with any of the emails that match your search.


An example of results in the browser (click on it for a larger view).

There is even more to Google Desktop, including Google Gadgets and Sidebar. I don't use these much, although others might find them enjoyable.

I do have one warning: If you have a HUGE amount of emails and documents (and I mean huge: I have 700 MB of emails), Google Desktop may slow down computer performance. So, YMMV (your mileage may vary) and proceed at your own risk.

That said, I've never had problems with Google Desktop. Google makes great products—easy to install, intuitive to use. And yes, it's available for Mac and Linux.

I no longer worry about not being able to find things, as long as I can remember a fairly unique combination of words contained in the document, email or web page. This is a great way to turbo-boost your tech life!

Your Next Steps


Next issue: A truly amazing way to organize specific information on your computer, even words in graphic images, to quickly find it, then share it on the web with others!

Monday, June 02, 2008

Free Your Mind - Jott

This is a copy of a blog I keep on BigLife.


Part 2 of a 10-part series on spending LESS time administrating your life and more time LIVING it!

The quote "Free your mind" comes from the movie The Matrix, when Morpheus wants Neo to let go of the limitations of his beliefs to see new possibilities.

While this column may not allow you to stop bullets or leap hundreds of yards, I believe it will show you new possibilities that you can attain quickly to spend less time adminstrating and more time living your life.

The Challenge

The title of this entry is quite literal. I used to carry so much junk around in my head: groceries I needed, errands to run, dates to remember, and a bunch of other to-dos. Given that my memory isn't all that great to begin with, it took a lot of energy, and wasted a bunch of "RAM" that I could be using for more creative endeavors.

So I started using systems: I started keeping a calendar in Outlook, grocery lists and to-do lists on paper. That helped. And there were still way too many things I kept in my head.

Or, worse yet, I'd be driving my 17- to 20-minute commute to work and remember, "oh yeah, gotta get the car serviced... oh yeah, gotta email Beth... Oh yeah, I need milk..." and a thousand other oh-yeahs.

Listen, the RAM comment may seem like hyperbole, but I mean it. Do you know how much creative energy you spend remembering stuff? I'd be willing to bet it weighs you down more than you think.

What do you do with your oh-yeahs, especially when you're driving? Simply attempt to remember it better—maybe use a mnemonic device? Write it down on one of those pads that's sunction-cupped to your windshield (yikes!)? Leave yourself a voicemail? Record a voice memo on your cell phone?

The Solution: Jott

I no longer do any of those things. I use a free service called Jott to put the information right where it belongs. This is an ultimate "touch it once" method: no longer will you have to write down or record something so that you later have to transfer it to your schedule, to do list, etc. Jott it and be done!

Jott receives your phone call, converts your words into text, and then sends the words where they need to go. No training of the system is required to recognize your voice. Some examples:

  • Email: Above I remembered I needed to send an email to Beth. I would call her, but I need to make two other calls while I drive, and Beth likes to talk (I do, too; just not right now!) I call Jott via the speed dial on my cell phone (using my Bluetooth headset for safety!), say Beth's name, confirm, then speak what I want her to read: "Hi Beth. Would you like to meet at Monty's—M-O-N-T-Y-apostrophe-S—Blue Plate for lunch on Thursday at noon? Let me know. Thanks!" Beth gets an email with these words, and Monty's will be spelled correctly. If the transcription wasn't perfect, she can click the link to listen to my original audio message.
  • Email a Group! On the Jott site you upload all of your contacts, or define them on the site. You can then arrange them into as many different groups as you like, each with as many members as you want. When Josh and I went on vacation to Palm Springs in February, I remembered on the way to the airport that I had forgotten to email everyone when I was leaving and returning, which is my custom. I called Jott: "Family members... Yes... Hi all: Josh and I are getting on a plane in an hour for Palm Springs. We'll be gone until the twenty-sixth. I'll post some blog entries of the fun stuff while we're there. Enjoy the snow!" An email was sent to all of my siblings (I'm the youngest of seven) and my parents.
  • Update your schedule: In Part 1 of this series. I talked about keeping a schedule in Google Calendar. Check this out: I call my mechanic to make an appointment for maintenance on Thursday at 8 am. I don't want to simply remember this, so I call Jott: "Google Calendar... Car maintenance Thursday at 8 am." That's it! Jott allows links to more than 20 different online services, including Google Calendar. When I go to look at my calendar, there will be a one-hour appointment Thursday at 8 with "Car maintenance" as the subject. How cool is that!
  • Other Online Services: of the 20+ services to which Jott connects, there are several online to-do lists, including Remember the Milk. So I Jott: "Remember the milk... yes... Buy a gallon of milk." and it appears on my to-do list.
  • Blog! This one may seem silly, yet it actually works well: I have Jott hooked up to my Blogger account. Officially you can record up to a 30-second Jott, although i've gone for up to a minute and not be cut off (yet I have been cut off before). When in Palm Springs I used Jott twice to make blog entries. See the last three entries on the bottom of this page. Once again, Jott puts a link in the blog entry so that readers can hear the initial recording if something is unclear.
  • Remind yourself: I'm going through my day and I want to remember before leaving work to run an errand on my way home. I don't want to put it in a to-do list, I just want a reminder. Jott to the rescue: "MYSELF... Stop at Home Depot and get more varnish... [do you want a reminder?] Yes [what date?] today [what time?] 4:50 [am or pm?] pm [setting reminder for today at 4:50 pm. Is this correct] Yes... [Jott sent]" Between 4:35 and 4:50, Jott will send a text message to my cell phone with the reminder. It's like having my own secretary!

Every time you Jott, Jott sends you an email to confirm the Jott. This gives you an opportunity to confirm the transcription, and the email even contains a confidence level of the transcription (high, medium or low). If it got something wrong (and it does sometimes; it's not perfect), you can then correct it if necessary by sending another email, etc. And I almost never need to do this.
I've covered the highlights of Jott, and there's more. Go to www.jott.com to learn more and sign up for your free account. Oh yeah, free? Yes, they are officially in Beta. I'm guessing at some point there will be a fee, and for now, I'm lovin' it for free.

Once you use Jott, email me and I'll send you my trick for Jotting in loud places like restaurants with 95% accuracy!

Your Next Steps

  • Learn more about Jott and how it works.
  • Go to http://www.jott.com/ and sign up for a free account.
  • Have questions? Leave them in the comments below and I'll answer them in a future blog entry.
  • Have other technology that makes your life easier? Please leave me a comment—I'd love to learn more tips and tricks, and may share it here in the future.


Next issue: find that one email from that one guy about that one thing...

Flying

I had a flying dream last night. I love flying dreams.

When I was younger I began to have these dreams, but they started oddly. At first I'd dream that I could just spread my arms and put my head back and I'd begin floating up. But I'd often be stopped by power lines or something. As time went on I was actually more and more successful at flying. I also had dreams as a kid where I could breathe under water, but those are much more rare.

Several years ago I was doing intense personal work. During that time I had flying dreams pretty consistently. I've never really known their significance: are they a wish to be free? Are they a representation of being free? Dunno.

Last night's dream was interesting. Where sometimes the flying isn't completely reliable, last night it was. I tend to fly about head height in my dreams--going too high (over 100') can feel dangerous. Well, last night I was flying at head height (that would be about 5'10" for me), and it occurred to me I was being silly--I could get there faster if I flew higher instead of following the sidewalk. : ) After all, that's what Superman does, right?

So I did. Although (and here comes some random dream-noise, I'm convinced), I ended up flying inside this VERY TALL building that was an exclusive club. Why did they have doors 40' feet high? Dunno. The 'bouncer' guy didn't want me entering, and he somehow grabbed onto my legs. I told him he'd better let go as I could fly higher and it would be dangerous. He wouldn't let go until I left the building.

Back outside, I then flew higher to get there quicker. But, just like using Google Maps with satellite-only view, I had a hard time telling where I was, so I went back down to street level. : )

Is this a grand metaphor for my life? Who knows.