New Organization System
Every time there's a change in my life, I usually have to make some kind of change to my organization system. Here are some of its past iterations:
As I head into school leadership, I need to have a vastly more complex system than I'm using now. It needs to be computer-based (even though I'm a paper-and-pen kind of gal), and it needs to sync to my phone, so that I always have it with me.
A couple months ago, Matt pointed out the most awesome system that was already on my computer: OneNote. I love it! It's basically a computerized version of how I would organize myself if I could still use a good ol' fashioned binder. It has tabs and pages; you can copy and paste from other Word documents; you can create tables. (It does fancier stuff, too, but I was content with being able to organize my information within tabs. For example, I had a general tab for "Management" and then separate pages for every person I manage. That way, I had a centralized place to keep track of our meeting notes and things to follow-up about.).
And then my computer collapsed and I purchased a Mac. And now OneNote is gone. Oy! I have tried everything. I tried doing this weird installation thing to trick my Mac into running OneNote, and it worked! But not as well as the original. It's too clunky and it malfunctions right when I need it to work.
There's a promising Mac version coming soon, but it's "read only" right now.
There's other software that might do the trick for $49. But it doesn't seem to have a corresponding iPhone app.
I know lots of people who swear by Evernote, but it just doesn't organize information in the way I need it to.
Remember the Milk looked promising but, again, I'm looking for general categories (that I can name myself) that can be clicked on to reveal new categories that can be clicked on to reveal notes/lists.
It seems like my best bet (until Notebook comes out) is Growly Notes. It's not ideal because it doesn't interface with my iPhone, but it seems like the best I can do for now. Or maybe I'll stick with my clunky, shady version of OneNote, since it syncs with my phone.
Argh. I'm definitely not able to check off this item on my List of Ways to Organize My Life.
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Quick list of potential alternatives -
Outline (it sounds like you have used this, and it is really more of a reader)
Curio (has an accompanying iPhone app)
Circus ponies notebook (I've never used this. I don't know if it has an app. It appears very geared towards brainstorming)
Soho notes (you can sync this with iCal. All of it can be synched to your phone)
They might be useless, but I thought I'd mention them just in case. Good luck.
Thanks, Anthropolochic! I will check these out!
I've been using workflowy.com free!
That's really amazing, Allison!
Is there a way to get the outline of everything to show up in the lefthand column?
Hmm... you might look into Evernote more closely. I use OneNote but a lot of colleagues at work use Evernote and they seem to have the same functionality that I do. My boss has management tabs just like you were describing you had in OneNote.
Have you tried AnyDo? It's an amazing to-do app -- also has a calendar app that integrates with it now.
I really like Wunderlist and Trello. (For different things.) Both offer free plans and have iPhone apps!
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