How do you keep your life together? What’s your “system”?
This year I have made a pledge to be uber organized (although I do every year). This includes taking diligent notes and maintaining a calender. I decided to take a new approach keeping my life together on a laptop instead of traditional pen and paper. Here’s “my system”:
My “system”:
Ubuntu
First I got an old hand-me-down laptop, wiped it clean, and installed Ubuntu.
Why Ubuntu? Well, first of all, it’s cooler. But the main reason I opted to switch was because of the simplicity and cleanliness of the operating system. I didn’t need much, just an OS that would do exactly what I wanted without a whole lot of background processes. Plus, I am a complete Nazi about having complete control over my computer. In Ubuntu you can change and tinker with everything.
There are also certain aspects of Ubuntu that I think make work easier, namely the “workspace” feature that essentially gives you four desktops to switch between.
Open Office
I then made directories for each class in a directory named “School”. When I sit down for a lecture I open Open Office’s Writer and create a document. (I’d show you a screen shot, but I’m still messing with getting Ubuntu and my USB wireless adapter to play nice).
By using Open Office, I assure that I will always be able to open up my document on any computer. Because if it comes down to it, I can always download Open Office.
Sunbird
Sunbird is Mozilla’s foray into the standalone calender market. While it’s only in version .3, the build seems stable enough to use for me. I put all of my homework, classes, and work schedule in here.
Back it up!
Once a week or so I load my “School” directory onto a USB flash drive. Just in case my computer tanks.
What to do:
It’s nothing complicated, but it is definitely the most organized I have ever been. Although it has only been a week, we’ll see how it goes.
I know there are more organized people out there. Are you one of them? How do you keep your stuff together? Similar to Blog Herald’s How I Blog series, I think we should share how we organize our workload. Who knows, maybe we’ll all pick up a trick or two.
Shoot an email to scblanda@gmail.com detailing how you organize yourself and the tools/programs you use. I’ll post as many as I can. If you would like, include a picture of your workspace and website to be linked.
[tags]Sunbird, Open Office, ubuntu[/tags]
September 3rd, 2006 at 1:16 am
When it comes to computer organization I am working to find a good fit:
http://ryankellett.com/blog/?p=586
As for organizing the hard-copy way, I keep a Moleskin calendar where I list all my non-recurring appointments and to-dos. The Moleskin can take a beating but is reliable and easy to use.
September 3rd, 2006 at 5:42 pm
[…] By: Sean Blanda « How do you keep your life together? What’s your “system”? […]
September 3rd, 2006 at 5:45 pm
That campusp productivity pack may be just what im looking for…
Sounds sad but I lose my Moleskin at random times.
September 10th, 2006 at 8:38 pm
[…] The following is the second entry in our What’s your “system†series by Rahual Gaitonde. If you’d like to be featured, send an email, link to your website, and a picture (If you’d like) to scblanda@gmail.com. […]
September 14th, 2006 at 12:28 am
[…] The following is the third entry in our What’s your “system†series by Bryan Villarin. If you’d like to be featured, send an email, link to your website, and a picture (If you’d like) to scblanda@gmail.com. I will be ending the series Friday so get those submissions in! […]
September 14th, 2006 at 6:48 pm
[…] Over at College V2, Sean has an ongoing series called What’s Your System, where various people talk about how they stay organized. I have already posted some things on Productivity, but I figure I can talk about what I do. […]
September 17th, 2006 at 10:09 pm
[…] The following is the forth and final entry in our What’s your “system†series by Joe Casabona. Joe also designed this site. I rely heavily on my Treo 650 Smartphone. It is a Palm based phone that comes with all the standard Palm software: Calendar, Tasks, Memo Pad and Contacts. The calendar is the most important of the 4. All of my appointments and major assignments are in it. Everything is color coordinated and has a reminder for it. […]
September 26th, 2006 at 11:58 pm
[…] However that is also the downside as well. I have no Internet connection on my laptop while I’m in class, so this service can’t do much for me. But to be honest, this made me reassess My system and made me consider putting up the bucks for a wireless card. […]
September 27th, 2006 at 3:48 pm
I’m pretty sure that you can back up/sync your sunbird calendar as an iCal file or similar and then load it back up using other programs like Outlook, Google Calendar, and most web based calendar systems. Also, if you use OO Writer’s “equation editor” and save as .doc, the formatting will be messed up if opened in Word. To keep the formatting the same, I export my documents to pdf before printing and handing them in. Another option would be to use LaTeX(and compile to pdf) for documents that need to be handed in.