Mindful Ink     Life, Living and Productivity

One of the strange differences between Mac and Windows software is the prevalence of personal information managers on the Mac. DevonThink, Tinderbox, Yojimbo, Soho Notes, yada yada yada. And all of them do more or less the same thing, though occasionally in very different ways. For many college students, such software offers a great resource if only they knew about it and how to use it.

My favorite of these these is Curio. It has a decent price point and huge feature set - and, quite frankly, I believe it to be just about the best piece of software on the Mac. The other of these programs I use regularly is Yojimbo, but not as often - Yojimbo is where I keep random scraps of info I want to keep. I used to use it all the time, but if you are syncing it with .mac (and honestly, this syncing is the primary reason I use it) it takes a billion years to load and often freezes up (and their support, quite frankly, is poor.) But, I keep serial numbers and recipes and handy resources I want to make sure I have if the website in question ever goes down.

Curio I’m absolutely in love with, but never quite feel like I’m maximizing its usage. And while the developers have a nice demo file with it, and finally a good manual, and even some “usage scenarios” on their website - I feel they really drop the ball when it comes to publicizing their product. It really is one of the most innovative and solid pieces of Mac software out there, but hardly anyone knows about it.And even then, what to do with it? As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big advocate of community with software. Some forums, a blog, a file repository - they can do a lot to increase the power and value of software. Curio drops the ball here completely. Things like reusable custom page templates and a place for people to share them would go a very long way, but neither exists. Unfortunately, the product is not popular enough to warrant a secondary site to do this - it’d have to be Zengobi (the makers of Curio) for this to work.

One of the strongest aspects of Mac software, and the Mac world in general, is community - and Zengobi, and so many other software companies fail to harness this vital resource. Still, if you use a Mac - do yourself and take a look at Curio.

For now, here’s a couple of things:

• The whiteboard I used to prepare a paper/presentation over Yeats last year: Click here.
• A note taking template I created in Curio, I’ve turned it into a printable pdf for anyone to use: Note Template

Well, the good news is I have a fancy Mont Blanc pen (for those of you not wanting to follow a link, it’s a 200+ pen.)

Yeah, there’s more to it than that. Essentially, I had heard from a reliable source, that such pens were worth it. I could hardly believe it. I mean, don’t get me wrong - some things are worth a lot more than you would normally think, and if you value it like that, you tend to take better care of it (as opposed to the dozen G2’s I’ve lost this year). That being said, there is no bloody way I’m paying that much for a pen. I hate writing by hand.

But, still, I was curious. I had stumbled upon this a few months back, and it tickled my brain, and I tracked it down. I picked up some Mont Blanc refills, and a G2 Pro pen - did the minor surgery and voila - a 200 dollar pen for 15 bucks.

However, in general, I was not impressed. It’s definately a rollerball, and feels really nice FOR a rollerball, but I am so used to the gelpoint’s on G2’s that it felt rough in comparision. It just didn’t really do anything for me at all. If you’re not a big fan of G2’s, perhaps it’ll be a better experience for you. I leave it in your hands. Personally, I stuck the original ink back in.

I’ve been on a productivity kick lately, fiendishly attempting to cobble together some system to help me deal with the mountain of work I’m dealing with these days. Of course, spending all this time on such things, I’m just further behind. But, I think I’ve gotten it down (finally!).

The big shift is the use of a hipster PDA. Essentially, it’s a stack of index cards with some sort of fastener. Sounds pretty hi-tech, huh? Well, yes. I mean, I’m certainly up on hi-tech - I’ve got my pocketPC phone, my ipod, macbook, etc… and I use them all together quite deftly, but here’s where it falls apart: imputing new info on the run. When I’m at my desk I need no particular elaborate organization, I can check out GradeFix to check out my assignments, iCal for my schedule, and KinklessGTD for my next actions on everything else. And my phone is great for accessing that existing information as well, but it’s not so good when it comes to inputing new info. Adding a phone number, making a note, etc.. not that fast. And while I do not need things to be hi-tech, I do need them to be fast. So, today I put together a HipsterPDA and I’m quite happy with the results. I’m going to make myself use it for the next month and see how it goes.
Now, for the freebies. I find that imputing info onto a computer to be a pain in the butt when reading, and I’m not big on notebooks - I’ve created some index card templates for the express purpose of reading research.

Reading Note Cards
There’s some philosophy specific stuff in there as well, but most of it’s pretty general.

A special pet peeve of mine (besides the term ‘pet peeve’) is running across information I should have known a long time ago, and more importantly, should have been taught. One of those things is “how to read a book.” Now, obviously, I know how to read. I read a lot, and I remember most of it, and it’s been a great asset to me. But no one ever gave me the details, and a little organization goes a long way. Anyway, I got this elusive information from a classic book on the subject, “How to Read a Book”. As I took copious notes, I made a little page to keep around until I internalize the information. You can grab there here as well. The book is quite good - much of it bears skimming if you’re familiar with reading at all, but lots of good nuggets.

Booknotes Page

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