Keeping stuff organized can be such a time sink, whether it comes to storing all my things at home, or keeping track of the tons of information I keep on my computer, or more recently, "in the cloud" to be accessed by computer.
I really do store a lot of digital material:
The challenge is organizing all this stuff so I can easily find it! Here's what I am doing these days:
Evernote is what I have been moving to for storing most of the above. Its tagging and notebook systems, plus a really robust search capability, make it hard to lose anything. And it's easy to use. It is the best for clipping whole web pages or parts of pages, such as a picture, and saving along with a reference URL. Much better than just saving a bookmark. When I was looking for a new computer, I clipped lots of pictures along with descriptions and prices, so I could go back and flip through to compare without revisiting every website. (Evernote automatically saves the URLs, so you can go back, you just don't have to.)
I use the free version, and have never come near to exceeding my monthly upload limit. There is no limit on how much storage you can accumulate. It's a really, really good product.
Gmail is my favorite e-mail system, and I'm not the only one - it's hugely popular. It's fine to use web-based, but you can download to another e-mail client such as Outlook. It's pretty easy to use, reliable, and Google gives you 10 gigabytes (GB) of free storage (that's a lot!) so you can archive everything forever. I recently learned how to send selected e-mail to Evernote using a funny little free service called If This Then That (IfTTT). Alternatively, I just clip and save the body of the an e-mail to Evernote.
Google Calendar is my all-time favorite calendar. I use it as a web-based application, just like Gmail. I find it super easy to use, and both Gmail and Google calendar work well on my Kindle and even as web-based mobile apps on my clunky old Blackberry.
The important thing for me to be able to integrate these programs as much as possible. As an example, when I get an email about an upcoming book club meeting, with attached discussion questions, I first enter the meeting date in Google Calendar. I can upload the attachment to Evernote, generate a unique URL for it in Evernote (part of the sharing features), and enter the URL in the in the "event description" area of the calendar event popup. I usually also forward the e-mail to Evernote, too. That way, just before the meeting, I no longer have to hunt all over to find the discussion questions. Similarly, if I am planning to do a project of some kind, I can create a calendar reminder, and then attach the URL(s) for any notes, documents (anything web-based, such as Evernote or Google Drive), or web pages I'll want to use or refer to.
[Little known, very useful feature of Google Calendar: copy any URL and paste into the event description section of the calendar, then triple-click the link to open as a web page.]
Other Contenders for cloud storage include Google Drive (of course), which is good, cheap (they give you several GB free storage just for using it), and reliable. The main reason I very much prefer Evernote, though, is the ease of clipping material from the web and adding to Evernote. You can't do that nearly as quickly on Google Drive. I also use Dropbox for some things, such as tranferring photos or other files from my phone to my computer. It gives you 2 GB free storage. Microsoft SkyDrive is good, with a great interface. I keep my lesson plan materials backed up on it. They give you 7 GB of free storage when you sign up, and you also get free access to simple web-based versions of the Office programs Word, Excel, OneNote, and Power Point. There are lots of others, but these are the biggest names, and possibly will be the most reliable over time.
Two caveats I try to remember are, first, that any web/cloud-based storage service can be subject to reliability issues, and could go down for hours, days, even weeks or longer in the event of a natural disaster. Anything you're actively working on should be also kept on your computer. Anything particularly important should be backed up on another server, and for some things you should keep paper/hard copies somewhere safe. Second, security may be an issue for some kinds of information. Anything can be hacked. So use common sense.
That said, I've found paperless cloud storage to be a huge time saver. So long as you have reasonable access to the internet (something faster than dial-up, if anyone still uses that), it's easy to find what you need from any computer, and searching for things is a lot faster than hunting through boxes. The added advantage is that you can access your files from anywhere in the world you have a computer with an internet connection. If your home connection is down, you can take your laptop and go to McDonald's or the library. And you can do it all for free. Well, except for the home internet connection.
I really do store a lot of digital material:
- E-mail, of course
- Contact information for everybody I've ever interacted with
- Document files for lesson plans and handouts for my ESL classes and tutoring
- Student information, including scanned intake forms, pictures, scanned writing samples
- Scanned PDF files of books and instructional and product manuals
- Scans of out-of-print books and collections of worksheets for teaching use
- Photos I take, and those I download from Facebook and e-mail, mostly of my family
- MP3 files of recorded books, podcasts, and radio programs I want to listen to
- More MP3 files of music and language course instructional materials
- Recipes
- Knitting and crochet patterns and pattern books in PDF form
- My financial recordkeeping system, based on Google Spreadsheets
- Scans and web clips of all kinds of financial information, including receipts, records of online payment and purchases, and tax forms
- Documents I want to be able to later download and read on my Kindle
- All kinds of lists, including to-dos, reminders, birthdays, and books to-read and already read
- Clips from the internet of all sorts of things that I want to remember or purchase, and may want to find again "some day"
- Calendar items
The challenge is organizing all this stuff so I can easily find it! Here's what I am doing these days:
Evernote is what I have been moving to for storing most of the above. Its tagging and notebook systems, plus a really robust search capability, make it hard to lose anything. And it's easy to use. It is the best for clipping whole web pages or parts of pages, such as a picture, and saving along with a reference URL. Much better than just saving a bookmark. When I was looking for a new computer, I clipped lots of pictures along with descriptions and prices, so I could go back and flip through to compare without revisiting every website. (Evernote automatically saves the URLs, so you can go back, you just don't have to.)
I use the free version, and have never come near to exceeding my monthly upload limit. There is no limit on how much storage you can accumulate. It's a really, really good product.
Gmail is my favorite e-mail system, and I'm not the only one - it's hugely popular. It's fine to use web-based, but you can download to another e-mail client such as Outlook. It's pretty easy to use, reliable, and Google gives you 10 gigabytes (GB) of free storage (that's a lot!) so you can archive everything forever. I recently learned how to send selected e-mail to Evernote using a funny little free service called If This Then That (IfTTT). Alternatively, I just clip and save the body of the an e-mail to Evernote.
Google Calendar is my all-time favorite calendar. I use it as a web-based application, just like Gmail. I find it super easy to use, and both Gmail and Google calendar work well on my Kindle and even as web-based mobile apps on my clunky old Blackberry.
The important thing for me to be able to integrate these programs as much as possible. As an example, when I get an email about an upcoming book club meeting, with attached discussion questions, I first enter the meeting date in Google Calendar. I can upload the attachment to Evernote, generate a unique URL for it in Evernote (part of the sharing features), and enter the URL in the in the "event description" area of the calendar event popup. I usually also forward the e-mail to Evernote, too. That way, just before the meeting, I no longer have to hunt all over to find the discussion questions. Similarly, if I am planning to do a project of some kind, I can create a calendar reminder, and then attach the URL(s) for any notes, documents (anything web-based, such as Evernote or Google Drive), or web pages I'll want to use or refer to.
[Little known, very useful feature of Google Calendar: copy any URL and paste into the event description section of the calendar, then triple-click the link to open as a web page.]
Other Contenders for cloud storage include Google Drive (of course), which is good, cheap (they give you several GB free storage just for using it), and reliable. The main reason I very much prefer Evernote, though, is the ease of clipping material from the web and adding to Evernote. You can't do that nearly as quickly on Google Drive. I also use Dropbox for some things, such as tranferring photos or other files from my phone to my computer. It gives you 2 GB free storage. Microsoft SkyDrive is good, with a great interface. I keep my lesson plan materials backed up on it. They give you 7 GB of free storage when you sign up, and you also get free access to simple web-based versions of the Office programs Word, Excel, OneNote, and Power Point. There are lots of others, but these are the biggest names, and possibly will be the most reliable over time.
Two caveats I try to remember are, first, that any web/cloud-based storage service can be subject to reliability issues, and could go down for hours, days, even weeks or longer in the event of a natural disaster. Anything you're actively working on should be also kept on your computer. Anything particularly important should be backed up on another server, and for some things you should keep paper/hard copies somewhere safe. Second, security may be an issue for some kinds of information. Anything can be hacked. So use common sense.
That said, I've found paperless cloud storage to be a huge time saver. So long as you have reasonable access to the internet (something faster than dial-up, if anyone still uses that), it's easy to find what you need from any computer, and searching for things is a lot faster than hunting through boxes. The added advantage is that you can access your files from anywhere in the world you have a computer with an internet connection. If your home connection is down, you can take your laptop and go to McDonald's or the library. And you can do it all for free. Well, except for the home internet connection.
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