RSS Readers - Feed Me!

I'm not sure how many of you guys read a bunch of different blogs, newspapers, and other sites with regularly updated content, but if you've tried you know that you can spend a huge amount of time just checking the sites to see if they've been updated.

I just wanted to suggest that everyone use an RSS reader to aggregate all the different media sources you check, so that you can have all your content in one place, regularly updated, for easy reading. Conceptually, think of how you can subscribe to Podcasts in iTunes, only instead of audio (and now I guess video) content, you do it with text. It's basically the same thing, and I think most aggregators also handle media files.

I personally use Google Reader to keep up with all the different blogs and news sites I try to follow. It saves me a ton of time. A lot of people like to use Bloglines. I believe Firefox even has an aggregator built into it, though I don't use it. If you want one that isn't web-based... well, there are just so many. I used to use Mozilla Thunderbird, which is also a pretty good email client. There are ton of different RSS feed aggregators out there, and I haven't really done much experimenting. Google Reader works for me, and it's nice because I can access it at any online computer, just like my beloved Gmail. So, sniff around for a good reader that you like. Start subscribing to content, and see how much time you save if you're already surfing around to several of the same sites regularly to check for updated news, sales, deals, gossip, reviews, essays... etc.

(Oh, and if it's not too much trouble, subscribe to my blog, too. The feed link is at the bottom of the page.)

Ubiquitous Notetaking on the Treo and the Blackberry

For anyone who has a Blackberry, or is thinking about switching to a Blackberry, I thought I'd share a recent discovery that convinced me to switch from my Palm Treo 650 to a Blackberry: ideaMatrix.

First a little background: I've been a Palm user since 2000. The Palm operating system was great for what I needed: a reliable calendar and contacts manager - and the games and other entertaining aspects of it didn't hurt either. But, since I launched my law practice, I'm finding that I need more reliable mobile access to my email, and the problem I'm having with the Treo is that it's constantly restarting or locking up.

So I recently I started thinking about switching to a Blackberry, but one thing was keeping me on the Treo: I've been using a journaling application called Daynotez as an all-purpose note-taking database. In fact, it's quite possibly the most used app I have on the Treo. The great thing about Daynotez is that on the Treo, you just launch the app and start typing and it creates a new note entry that is date- and time-stamped. I use the companion desktop app practically every day at work. It's perfect for transcribing voicemail messages, taking notes during calls with clients, writing down important info when I'm on the phone with customer service reps, and just jotting down random information like phone numbers and stuff that I might want to use again later. I rarely lose any information, because it's all in there (if I remember to put it in there), and searching for a particular entry is quick. For any Getting Things Done users, it's basically my Ubiquitous Capture Tool. (For anyone who is still using a Treo, I highly recommend Daynotez, if you couldn't tell already.)

So the thought of switching to a Blackberry and losing one of the most useful tools I have that keeps me sane really had me reconsidering. But after some diligent searching, I found ideaMatrix for the Blackberry, which looks to be a really excellent note-taking and information-organizing tool. It doesn't have a desktop companion (which would make it perfect) but it does have what some might consider to be a better alternative: it synchronizes over-the-air to a server, where your notes database is accessible via a web-based client. Now that web-based software (like Google Apps) seem to be taking over, I suppose this may be better than only being able to access my notes from a single computer that has the desktop software installed. My only concern is not having keyboard shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts are very important to me.

So the switch to the Blackberry is imminent. I'll post any other discoveries that might be useful once I actually start using the new smart phone.

a quick aside on ubiquitous capture...

If you've bothered to read this far, I applaud your determination. (Bear with me, I'm a relative noob to blogging and brevity is not one of my strengths, but I'm working on it.) I also wanted to mention quickly the benefits of having a tool like Daynotez or Ideamatrix or a mini-notepad or even just a bunch of notecards clipped together with you all the time to jot down random thoughts and bits of information. Anyone who has read Getting Things Done by David Allen knows that one of the things he emphasizes is getting all the random thoughts out of your head, into a system that you trust you'll come back to later, so that you don't stress out about potentially forgetting things. This allows you to reach a state of mental clarity and focus on the task at hand. Some people already do this without having to read a book about it or spend countless hours reinforcing the habit. But for the rest of us who have at various times been really scattered, frazzled, overwhelmed by trying to keep everything in our heads, give it a try. For one week, try carrying around a notebook, or notecards, or anything that you can find to jot down any random thought in your head. Try not to hold anything in your head. At the end of each day, take all those thoughts and put them into whatever task-management system you have, and see if you don't maybe feel a little more in control and less like there might be some random commitment or task lurking in your brain somewhere that you've forgotten. When it works, it's like magic.