I have a major problem with the information flood. My head keeps on spinning out new ideas every day. I can’t even manage getting a grip on the subject at hand; I’m already looking on to something new.
The exhaustive amount of content that’s pouring in from the web, email and social media is killing my mind and thinking. I’m unable to stay focused on anything in particular for a long period of time. Feels like there’s always something else around the corner waiting for me.
I’m used to storing some of the most interesting stuff I come up while surfing. Some people call it bookmarking. At first I only had like a few bookmarks. Life was good and internet simple. But I kept on finding more and more stuff. Finally, I had over a fifty bookmarks in a non-hierarchical fashion and the whole idea of a bookmark lost it’s meaning. As if I’d needed bookmarks for my bookmarks.
Bookmarks from Hell – Keeping a monthly collection
“It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.” – Aristotle
This year I started categorizing all my bookmarks by topic, using bookmark sub-folders. A system which I thought out to be a good practice back then. However, this always lead into the same situation where I had a huge pile of bookmarks in a folder, but not a single clue when or why I had bookmarked them in the first place. And it would only going to get worse over time.
So I started creating a monthly folder for my bookmarks. It effectively takes away the hassle of picking the right topic for a bookmark and it’s also more fun to actually see which sites were of great importance on the given time period.
I’m certain there are probably dozens of software designed for keeping your bookmarks organized. But I wanted an easy way to keep my mind focused without having to perform any manual sorting. I have absolutely no idea if my new system is of any good. But at least it’s something new and something new can always bring up something new.
This June I came up with twenty-nine bookmarks. The next month, July, there are already 81 bookmarks! Maybe I’ll just have to rethink this once more.
Organizing yourself: Google Keep vs Microsoft OneNote vs Evernote
I need advanced digital tools to keep up with information flow. I used Google Keep for a while – And I still do. It is simple and easy-to-use even on a smart phone, but I find it to be even too simple.
The company where I work currently use Microsoft Office 365 which includes Microsoft OneNote. I’ve heard a lot of good commentary about this particular software from my customers. So I finally thought I’d give it a try. My requirement was that it would work on my Android phone. Well, it turns out that I might still keep on using Google Keep with my phone because it’s so damn simple. But OneNote definitely has the tools I need for my normal PC day-to-day use.
There is also software called Evernote, which is yet to be tested. You can read an article comparing all three digital notebook software here. And there is more comparing discussion about OneNote and Evernote going on here.
However, these programs do not solve my problem with the bookmarks. I’ll just have to dig in more deeper into the problem. Maybe I’ll also change my email client. Mailbird looks real promising. Stay tuned for more!
