Saturday, July 21, 2007

My current productivity tool set

Quick overview of my current software tools for GTD and personal productivity
  • MyLifeOrganized
    Inbox, list of next actions, tasks with a due date
  • Outlook
    email: inbox, reference files (folders are structured by clients and projects)
    calendar: appointments (meetings), deadlines/milestone dates
  • WikidPad
    everything :-)
    lists, notes, articles, ...
  • FreeMind
    used for brainstorming, project planning, ...
    the results are transferred to WikidPad
  • tag2find
    new tool for me (I use it for 1 week now), with this tool you are able to tag files in your filesystem (i think it only works with NTFS) - if you use it consequently it's better than a desktop search (btw: I use Microsoft Desktop Search, 'cause I had to install it for my Outlook 2007, before I had Google Desktop Search installed)
  • PersonalBrain
    also new, PersonalBrain 4 was released a few days ago and I give it a try again, since they also have a free version of it now
  • del.icio.us
    bookmarks - I think everyone knows del.icio.us by now
  • FreeCommander
    my file manager
  • Launchy
    I can't remember the last time I used the "normal" Windows start-up menu ;-)
  • AutoHotKey
    used for text substitutions, some scripts for managing startup procedures and tagging
  • GoogleReader
    RSS feed reader (I subscribed about 250 feeds)
  • KeePass
    Password manager - I will never ever use a week password again ;-)
  • ... to be continued

Miro

I just installed Miro - and I have to admit I became instantly a fan of this tool.
Not because of the tool itself (it's just to buggy, e.g. I get an XML-error when trying to edit the options so I'm unable to change them) but because I realized just how much there is to watch and learn out there.
The first channels I added are Google Videos (engEDU), TED, 2 channels with film trailers and the German Tagesschau
My favorite features in the moment are
- background downloading of new videos
- old videos are automatically deleted (days to keep are configured per feed)
- integrated search engine for YouTube, Google Video...

I know that there are similar tools out there but I will stay with Miro for a while.