Personal Information Management (Thing 14)

"Remember if it’s free you are the product".

In saying that it's nice to get back to the Rudai 23 Course, the break was welcome but it's good to continue.

My first thoughts on this Thing are that the title is misleading.  The title suggested to me that the task would be all about managing my PERSONAL information on-line but it’s not.  Thing 14 is really an extension of Thing 12 - Collaboration (my thing 12 here) except this time you are using different programs to organise your personal life (rather than “managing” your online presence which is an essential modern life skill).

Evernote

I’ve set up an Evernote account and created a basic to-do-list covering the tasks I need to complete for the WexWorlds pub quiz league. I created a Notebook titled: Pub Quiz League;

And in that created 6 notes for the different tasks I need to complete in the next few days, namely:

1. Choose dates and venues

2. Write promo text for Twitter, Facebook and website

3. Update website with last quiz

4. Write newspaper article

5. Contact radio to do interview and prepare notes

6. Design table tents, posters and flyers

But, for me, this is all a waste of time.  Before I created these notes and notebook I wrote the list down in a notebook.  You know with pen and paper. If I need the list digitally I simply take a photo on my phone.  The time it took me to create all of this on Evernote, I would have had some of the tasks complete. Also the to-do-list for organising an event is normally similar, after you have done a few you know what you are doing.

I know sharing a project on Evernote/Trello is good when there are several people collaborating but for personal organisation there are already plenty of tools, particularly on your Smartphone that does the job just as well. For example when I am going grocery shopping my husband texts me what we need.

Feedly

I won’t be using Feedly. I already keep an eye on Twitter, Facebook and my Reading List in Blogger for interesting stuff to read (I am following 41 blogs). I’m actually fed-up of Stephen’s Lighthouse blog because there are too many articles on it so am thinking of unfollowing it, but I’ll give it a while longer as some of the stuff is really good. 

Remember The Milk

I tried out rememberthemilk.com. It’s really easy to use and you can sign in with either a Google or Facebook account. When you create a list it’s really easy to assign it to someone. I set up a reminder to buy beer and then assigned it to myself with my work email. If you have more complex tasks to complete this might be good but a simple text message or Facebook message to someone is handier for simple tasks.

GetPocket.

On my iPad there is a read later function.  Basically, you can save a webpage to your iPad for viewing later, this is especially handy if you will be out of WiFi coverage and know you want to read a long article. The iPad actually downloads the full article to your device for reading at a later stage. See how to do this if you have an iPad HERE.  However, I had to try it out. So, I signed in with my Google account and was prompted to install the app on my phone. GetPocket/Google even knows what type of phone I own but I skipped this step. I “Pocketed” my blog to test the app. It was really easy to use but I don’t see the point. Bookmarks and history in Google does the same job. I removed my Getpocket account.

Conclusion.

Remember if it’s free you are the product.

I’m not in favour of increasing the number of sources I’m getting information from. Neither am I interesting in trying to get these programs to work together better. I am already drowning in content and programs so I am going to use what I have between my Smart phone, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email and blog reading list. I’m definite in my decision not to use any of the suggested programs, i.e. Feedly, Remberthemilk or GetPocket. In fact we should be reducing the number of programs and applications we are reliant on.  Still nothing wrong with pen and paper. Maybe it’s an age thing! I just don’t want my life complicated with 3 more programs keeping tabs on me and enabling Google and Facebook track my every movement and record everything I do.

Fini

John The Captain Ryan