I thought for sure the one thing that would nag me about the iPhone when I finally got one was its lack of a to-do list app. To my surprise though (and maybe it makes sense, as I’ll explain), now that I have an iPhone I haven’t felt the need for a to-do app at all. It’s an egregious omission for most people to be sure, but for me it’s turned out to be a non-issue. To understand why, I need to provide some context.  read more »

Although the first priority in ubiquitous capture is getting it down, the red-headed stepchild trailing in at number two is providing context. And I don’t mean the GTD kind of contexts, but the kind of context that minimally explains what this information means, where and when you collected it, why it matters, or anything else that will help you find a meaningful place for it in your life later on.

Example? Sure. Here’s one from my real and recent world. Index card with one word on it:

Once

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I Want Sandy is an email-based, automated personal assistant created by Rael Dornfest and values of n, makers of Stikkit. I’ve been messing around with her (in a totally platonic way) since Cory Doctorow mentioned it last week, and it’s really slick.  read more »

I wanted to piggyback off Merlin’s post about paper yesterday because, A) I thought it was spot-on, and B) he scooped about 90% of what I wanted to write today. Nonetheless, he nailed something that sent me into a tizzy of note scribbling and bedtime brainstorming, about paper’s sweet spot:

Still, for thinking, capture, and live collaboration, paper is one of the best friends you’ll ever have. And as long as we use it properly, it’s going to continue to enhance the creation of all downstream media.

This struck such a nerve because lately, I’ve become increasingly aware of how paper plays that role in my work. Like I said before, I’m the last person you should be listening to for advice on personal systems, but no matter what shape or form of digital doodads I’m using to hold my stuff, I always have some paper handy when I really want to get busy. Lately, it’s been a Moleskine notebook, but it could be index cards, Post-It notes, or some good old fashioned college-ruled; it doesn’t matter. My best work always comes out of sitting in front of the word processor with a pen and paper right next to me, ready for brainstorming, ad hoc project planning, and straight-up doodling.  read more »

The fate of human memory

Clive Thompson writes on a phenomenon I think about constantly: if you really do start entrusting all your ephemeral memory work to external systems, might your wetware start to atrophy?

Apparently, yes:  read more »

Even the most diligent among us can’t always remember to pocket a pen and paper everywhere we go (or, shhh!, won’t admit that sometimes we just don’t want to), but of course that’s always when our best ideas hit us. Last night when I was walking my dog, I’m convinced I came up with the answer to global warming, but before I got home to write it down, I had a conversation with a neighbor, checked my mail, and watered the plants, so I might as well have been thinking about the lyrics to “Sussudio” for all I could remember. And try as I might, I couldn’t bring it back.  read more »

Scott Underwood from IDEO was kind enough to invite me down to their Palo Alto HQ for a tour of the renowned design group (they designed Apple’s first mouse!) and to participate with him in one of the company’s internal “Know How” talks. It was very informal (and — because this was during my recent “100-year sinus infection” — I was completely high on cold medicine).  read more »