The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss - Latest Comments in How to Never Forget Anything Again

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Andrew — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:25:10 -0000

I've recently released a similar program capable of tracking virtually any personal and data (the url is assigned to my name above). It is build on the concept of sections, items and properties; you might wish to include it into your review.

Best wishes,

Andrew

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Adel Antado — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 15:02:44 -0000

I use an At-a-Glance paper calendar with daily vertical lines. Then I mastered the unbreakable habit of:

1. jotting down in an available time/date every thing I must do or go to with file numbers, phonenumbers, addresses and the like that is relevant to the activity.

2. looking at my calendar every day to see what I had to do and then do it.

The advantage is that this method will survive a computer crash or palm pilot failure and the activites to be accomplished are always on time (usually finished early). Moreover, I can't over book and, most importantly, I don't have to remember anything. All I have to do is look at my calendar.

Sorry about not using the latest innovation and software to replace something which only requires discipline and habit.

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Joseph B — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:55:18 -0000

I can't believe nobody's mentioned Ultra Recall. Sounds like Evernote won't support a full GTD because it's not an unlimited crosslinking database. That's why you need separate to-do list apps.

I went with individual task items in UR for a while but switched over to a daypage system. Cut and paste into each next day, summarize as you go and review periodically. Then you can link out into task or project items if it expands. Works for me, plus it's easy to capture your accomplishments at the end of the week.

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Ralph Bassfeld — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:41:30 -0000

The archive and search method is the one I use for email, but I make it one step simpler. I keep all my emails in my inbox and use spotlight on my Mac to search them. Mail.app allows me to create search folders which are automatically updated with emails based on definded search criteria. In this way, all my emails are also available on my iPhone as well. As a backup, I forward all emails to my gmail account.

Things on the iPhone is a great on-the-go to-do list which syncs with my Mac. Don't need anything else.

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Joe — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 21:24:50 -0000

Sweet!!!

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Jonathan — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 21:17:34 -0000

Try infoaxe. With infoaxe every page that you see on the Web gets added to your personal web memory and is now searchable. So you no longer need to bookmark/email links to yourself to remember a page.

you can also access your web memory across multiple machines/browsers.

Its a search engine for your personal slice of the web.

disclaimer - am a founder of infoaxe.

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

sjobeck — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:06:02 -0000

I second the mention of reQall (www.requall.com), which is awesome, especially using it from both iPhone & Jabber.

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Murphy — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:04:38 -0000

I've read all the comments here and Leos system and I honestly think mine is FAR better than all of them.

I use a simple text file application on my iPhone called Magipad and I organize my to do list on it by context.

If something comes up I need to do I just type it in.
My calendar is in a text file.
Your systems sound really, really complicated to me.
Even pen and paper is alot more complicated because you can't easily edit lists and notes and the notepads take up a lot of space.

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Thanksgiving Recipes — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:29:37 -0000

i use tip one, make a note immediately, most of the time. it seems to help

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Michael Long — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:01:44 -0000

JLibbey, on the one hand, it's true that if I lose my iPhone I've lost an expensive device I'll have to replace... on the other, it's my PHONE, which I'll have to replace anyway! (grin)

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

JLibbey — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:42:51 -0000

I'm with Wendy and Seamus - the simpler, the better. Plus, if I lose a paper to do list I haven't lost an expensive device that I'll have to remember to replace!

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Andrew Macdonald — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:33:15 -0000

Hi Leo,

Windows users may like to try TaskMerlin. Regarding the critical habits you mention, it's quick to add notes, and has a fast search capability. It also integrates with Outlook e-mail. To apply GTD within TaskMerlin, see http://www.taskmerlin.com/g... .

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Don Shetterly — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 11:34:57 -0000

Great post! I didn't even realize some of this existed. If you're like me and have a zillion ideas coming through your mind every second, it is important to find an organized place to put them. I deal with many different projects at the same time and my mind is extremely creative so there is a lot to keep up with! Trying to do this with paper just doesn't work. I'd never keep up with it. My memory is overtaxed anyway plus with some physical limitations that I have, remembering just doesn't work for me! That's what my iphone and laptop are for!

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Walt Ribeiro — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:18:26 -0000

Great post Tim! Glad to catch up with you at Blogworld. I agree that Gmail is fantastic, and I also agree with most of the hlist here. Stay well and I'll keep reading.

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Pregnancy — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 10:51:01 -0000

Outlook is a life saver i would forget every meeting at work and i would probably never leave my desk if it wasn't for that program. Great article these seem like some cool alternatives i will check them out

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

xia miaomiao — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 03:11:11 -0000

I hope that you and a friend to pay, but also the hope that you will be able to come to Hangzhou - a really beautiful city to visit

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Money for Veterans — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:46:03 -0000

Great write-up, Leo. Thanks for the Evernote suggestion... that's definitely one to look into.

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

TheBookLady — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:55:05 -0000

I've cobbled together a little system that works well for me:

I use Jott (now Dial2Do since Jott went paid) to call iwantsandy.com . Sandy sends an email with my to-do to my Gmail account. Using the Firefox extension GcalAgenda and some filter tweaks, appointments get automatically added to my Gcalender. And using the RTM gadget for Gmail, tasks get added to my RTM. Both my Gcal and RTM are displayed in my Gmail, or I can go to their websites. Or using Gears I can make them stand-alone on my desktop.

In addition, Sandy compiles a daily agenda for me that I can print out and take, or have texted to me. This is why I don't just send an email to myself using Dial2Do. I want Sandy to go ahead and compile my agenda for me.

I'll have to check out sending things to Evernote. I didn't realize I could do that.

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Occdude — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:49:07 -0000

How about this system. First buy yourself a "telescoping" collapsable pen, a $5.00 date planner and a packet of 5"x3" sticky notes.

Compile to do list on sticky note, paste on front leaf of day planner. Put second sticky note on back leaf for random thoughts, ideas, memos etc. for future organization, this functions just as a "memory bucket". Check off things on front leaf to do list as done, use date planner to record appointments and "bucket memo" for memory aid.

This whole system fits in your back pocket like a check register, costs about 10 bucks, never breaks down or runs out of batteries, gets stolen etc. If you really want to go high tech. get one of those digital voice recorders that attach on your key chain and use that as your "Bucket".

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Occdude — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:31:23 -0000

Iam going to help y'all out here a little bit. Now when I read "4hr workweek" I was real impressed with Tims minimalist approach to maximum output. This post seems to violate this concept.

My method of keeping notes and such involves using 3 impliments and doesnt involve complexities like, batteries, pda's and cellphones all of which add more possiblilities for problems.

First, I have a well inked, collapsable pen that "telescopes" into itself and makes it that much more portable. Second, I have a regular date book, you know the ones with the cute puppies, mountainscapes etc. the cheesier the better, Lastly I have sticky post it notes that I put in the back jacket of the date planner. Now my system is REAL simple. First thing I do in the morning is take my post it note pad and write my to-do list for the day and I post it on the inside leaf of the planner.

Now I take another post it and put it on the inside of the front leaf. This is my "bucket" where if I have random thoughts, need to remember items etc. I just open the planner and jot it down.

End of day, I take "bucket" memo sheet and organise components accordingly. Appointments are jotted down as I make them directly into date planner. To do items are maked off as done.

This whole set-up fits in my back pocket comfortably (easier than a check register). Its highly portable, reliable, simplistic, cheap and extremely effective which makes it more likely it will be used.

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Josh — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:59:15 -0000

My new favorite GTD, task tracking tool is Vitalist. Its clean and simple. I also use Jott in conjunction with Vitalist. These

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Tash — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:34:36 -0000

I use Spanning Sync to make my GCal and iCal talk to each other. Amazing stuff for something so cheap.

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Electric Vagabond — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 09:03:34 -0000

Tim, great little guide. I already use GCal GMail and Evernote so found it very interesting to read. A great tool for those with iPhones is nuevasync. It allows automatic syncing between ur GCal and iPhone calendar. Works unbelievably and incredibly well and you don't even know its doing its job until you realise that thing you just updated in GCal is now on your iPhone or vice versa. Very handy especially when out of coverage areas to have your GCal on your iphone. One of the best features is that GCal automatically sets a 10min reminder that will show up as an alert on your iPhone. So instead of your computer getting bogged down with alerts (or you missing alerts while away from your comp) your iphone will give you them. And you can even change alerts in GCal to 1hour for example and your alerts on your iPhone will come 1 hour prior to the even. Changed the way I organise my life. I'll often also put phone#s or addresses in GCal and then its on my phone next to the event for reference or if I search my calendar.

wooooooh technology rules

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

tzu — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 14:16:18 -0000

great to see you two finally connect- brilliant!
long overdue

moleskin, postITs and HABITs make
it/you work

it's not the brush it's the artist
however, having said that - the right brush helps a lot

Re: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Layla D Smith — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 23:34:53 -0000

Question for Tim-

Not sure how else to get this to him & it is kinda applicable....

Have you heard of InfusionSoft?