OmniFocus

Staying Organized: Home

RaeBelle

To follow up to my Staying Organized: Work post, I thought I’d share the items I use to stay organized at home.  Many of the items were also listed in my Work post.  It’s one of pluses of providing so many items of my own for work.  I get use them all the time!

Electronic

  • iPhone – Oh sweet iPhone, how you make my life easier and more fun.  I still have my white 32GB 3GS.  Most of my home organization links to my lovely.  My iPhone is always with me which makes it one of the most important items to help me keep organized no matter where I am.
  • MacBook – My Macbook is about 2.5 years old now.  I bought a MacBook because I hated Microsoft Vista.  OS X was the lesser of 2 evils.  I’m on my MacBook almost every single day.
  • OmniFocus – I use OmniFocus to keep track of all kinds of things.  I have a section devoted to my personal projects so that I can focus in on them when I’m not working.  My bunnies even have their own project.  I use it to remind myself when it’s time to order hay, medicine, and treats for them.  It helps prevent us from running out of anything.  I use OmniFocus on my iPhone & MacBook
  • OmniOutliner – A great list maker!  I use it track things I’d like for gifts and my monthly expenses.  This could only be better if there was an iPhone app for it.  If I’m using OmniOutliner, I need more than one column.
  • SplashID – I’ve been using SplashID from my Palm OS days and I still feel it was one of the best purchases I’ve ever made!  It keeps my login information easily accessible from my iPhone or MacBook.  Simply great!  I don’t have to remember login information anymore.
  • 1Password – I believe I was first introduced to 1Password through a MacHeist and it’s great.  1Password & SplashID both hold and generate passwords.  But 1Password has one feature that makes it so valuable to me, integration with Firefox & Safari.  This is incredible.  I hate working on machines without the integration.  This makes logging into sites so much easier!  I have 1Password Pro for my iPhone as well and use the copy & paste all the time.
  • iBank – I track all of my expenses using iBank.  I’ve been using it for years and I love it.  I know exactly how much money is in my accounts.  I upgraded to iBank3 so that I can sync with an app on my iPhone.  Now I know exactly how much is in each of my accounts where ever I am.
  • Delicious Library – We have a lot of movies, video games and CD’s in my house and with Delicious Library on my MacBook and iPhone I know exactly what we have and the format.  This has saved us a lot of time and money with possibly rebuying something we already own but haven’t seen in awhile.
  • Notespark – This online and iPhone application is my shopping list lifeline.  I can edit a list from any machine connected to the internet or my iPhone.  Updates made in one place are synced up next time I access the application from the other location.  This makes the additions to the shopping list that I think of right before bed easy to capture!

Analog

  • Moleskine – I keep a Pocket sized Moleskine inside my handbag at all times.  Right now it’s a Pocket Ruled notebook.  I normally use the Pocket Squared, but I’m trying something different.  I jot down little reminders to myself or items to add to a list later.  I’ve gotten very proficient typing on my iPhone but it’s still often faster to add it to my Moleskine.
  • Circa – More wonderful Circa notebooks are used at home to keep me organized.  For home, I normally use the 3×5 size or the Micro PDA.  I’ll either use a leather fold over cover or the regular plastic, it just depends on how I feel.  The 3×5 is getting harder to find from Levenger and I really hope that Levenger doesn’t discontinue either of these sizes since they are so incredibly useful for me.  If they do, I’ll just DIY my own paper so I can continue to use them.
  • Filing Cabinet -  Since I can’t go completely paperless, my filing cabinet is very important to me.  I’ve tried using filing boxes, but they don’t work well for my style.  I just bought a new, small 2 drawer cabinet a few weeks past, and it’s everything I need.  I have room to expand and all of my folders perfectly organized and alphabetized.

All of these items help me feel more organized and in control.  Every item has been tried and tested and is sticking around.  I’m always looking out for other things to see if they’ll enhance my organization and make things easier.

Staying Organized: Work

RaeBelle

I love organizing!  It makes me feel calm and together.  Some of my amused managers and co-workers have even called me hyper organized!  Because I like very specific items I buy my a lot of my own supplies for work, so some of the items cross over between work and home.  I thought I’d share some of the key tools I use to keep my organized for work.

Electronic

  • iPhone – My iPhone is wonderful.  I currently have the white 32GB 3GS.  It’s great.  I have so many apps that make my work life easier, like OmniFocus and SplashID.  It also use my iPhone to listen to podcasts and music to keep me focused while working.  It’s a great little organizational machine for me!
  • OmniFocus – This is like my second brain.  I record all of my to do items in here.  If it’s not in OmniFocus, it’s not getting done.  I’m diligent in recording everything that needs to get done in here.   OmniFocus was designed for the Getting Things Done system from David Allen & Co.  While I don’t strictly adhere to the GTD system, I do follow many of the principles.  OmniFocus is flexible enough allow me follow the portions of the system I chose and still achieve my goals.  I’ve been using it on my MacBook since the beta, and on my iPhone since the app was realized.  It’s a dream.
  • SplashID – My company has not yet fully embraced the concept of a single sign on.  So I have multiple logins & passwords for work.  Additionally I need to access websites outside the company for various purposes.  SplashID gives me one central location to find all my logon IDs and passwords for each site or application.  My iPhone app syncs to my personal MacBook.

Analog

  • Moleskine – I love using a Moleskine to take meeting notes for my short term projects.  They are also great when designing user interfaces.  I tend towards the Large Squared Notebook.  The size is just shy of half letter, which seems to work perfectly for me.  I like squared over ruled or blank.  It helps me keep my notes organized and my sketches aligned.
  • Circa – Levenger, thank you for bringing Circa into my life.  I adore these notebooks!  For work I mostly use the Junior and Letter sizes.  I have a customized Junior notebook that I use for normal meetings.  All my current projects have either a Letter or Junior sized notebook assigned to them.  For some of my projects, I’ll even grab one of my leather foldover notebooks or zip folios.  I’ve found these are great for all day off site meetings.  They really keep me organized.
  • Post-It Notes – My favorite Post-It notes are the Super Sticky ones.  I normally use the canary yellow ones because I’m a bit of a traditionalist and they stand out just enough for me.  I use them to take down super short term notes (like voicemail messages) or add an extra note to some printed pages (like which slides for a presentation I’m doing)
  • Post-It Flags – Post-It flags are awesome!  I don’t know how I got on without them.  I use them in my Moleskine’s and my Circa’s.  I use them when I’m taking notes on something printed, to flag where I have questions or corrections are needed.  There are so many uses for these!  I normally use the small tabs because I don’t write on them.  But I have a large collection of colours for colour coding.

I love these tools that help keep me on time and task.  Each items has made my work life a bit easier and more organized.  I’m always ready to learn about new tools to fit into my system.  If I find any, I’ll be sure to share them.