The Great Paperless Experiment

I’m on day three of my great paperless experiment. Yes, this week I decided to see if I could live with just my online to do lists. I have several different ones, just as I did with my paper lists. One for general items. My calendar for scheduled items. And another for writing tasks. But all my electronic ones sync to my phone, which means I never leave home without them.

So far, so good, but it does feel strange to see blank pages staring at me from the notebooks that sit open beside my chair. And my computer/online lists aren’t perfect in the same way my written lists weren’t perfect: I still can’t manage them all in one place. But it’s close. In the end, I think it will come down to whether or not I can give up the actual act of writing things down when the week comes to its conclusion. For now, I’m not making any permanent decisions, but at some point I’ll have to either buy a new paper calendar notebook or not. We shall see. . .

Two New Loves

I’m in love—with two new-to-me web applications.

Of course I run the risk of all my readers rolling their eyes and saying, “Duh.” I’m usually the last one to jump on any bandwagon because frankly, if everyone is talking about something, I tend to ignore it completely. (I’m just rebellious that way.)

So here goes.


Google Reader

Thanks to my friend Patti Lacy for alerting me to this free aspect of Google. In Google Reader I can follow a ton of blogs and actually keep up with them! I even put the “subscribe” button on my bookmark bar in my browser. Now anytime I read an interesting new blog, I just hit my “subscribe” bookmark and it adds it to my Google Reader.

How does this help me read all these blogs I’ve subscribed to? First, by not cluttering up my email so that I just hit delete! No, now I go to Google Reader (bookmarked) in my web browser and scroll through the new posts. It marks each of them read as I pass it. Then poof! The “read” ones are gone. Still doesn’t mean I “read” every single post of every single blog, but it is there when I want it and doesn’t stress me out.

           

TeuxDeux

Thanks to Marti Pieper for singing the praises of this “To Do” list program. If you been around here for any length of time, you know I live by lists. I’ve kept them on paper for years. But sometimes I need my lists when I’m on the go. Enter TeuxDeux.

Their web-based application is free. Just sign up! But the really great thing is that for a mere $3 you can buy the iphone app as well. And they sync! And it is super easy to use! While I’m still keeping paper lists as a backup at the moment, I can feel the paperless transition coming now. Check it out: www.teuxdeux.com. It’s awesome!

So there you have it. My two new loves. Because of course I love anything that makes my life run just a bit more smoothly!