Comments for sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/post/getting-organized-in-the-google-era

Comment #3494

2013-05-28T12:16:34Z

I'm not touching my e-mail system, which is actually working for the first time in ... about forever. I may tweak the filters a bit and make better use of tagging, but generally I'm happy with it.

What I expect to use my new insights for is my Firefox bookmarks, which are a mess. I have 'way more than I need, since it's often (though unintuitively) more efficient to do a new Google search each time than find the appropriate bookmark. I'm hoping to find the time and energy to do a radical pruning, and use more tagging than folders with the remainder. The trouble with folders—though I'm not giving them up altogether—is that a bookmark often falls into more than one category, so either I have multiple copies of the same thing, in different folders, or I waste time trying to find where I put it.

What I really want a tag-and-filter system for, however, is my genealogy files. Windows 7 allows it to some extent, but it looks awkward, and doesn't work for all the important file types.

Comment #3493

2013-05-24T20:22:27Z

Except for obvious spam, he does keep every e-mail.

Comment #3492

2013-05-24T20:08:16Z

Easy answer first: no, Google's storage is not free and unlimited. Unless, perhaps, you're the former CIO—he doesn't say. I get the feeling he'd be happy to pay for more, and could afford it. I told you he lives in a different world. (Examples coming, Janet.) The free storage available from Dropbox, Norton Zone, and Google combined would not be enough to enable me to keep everything in the cloud. But I do use it for some things as online backup, transfer, and ability to access it from someone else's computer.

Comment #3491

2013-05-24T19:15:20Z

Is Google's storage really free? I know for Picasa, which I believe is a Google product, there is a limit (unless your pictures are under 800x800 pixels). I ran out of space, and rather than paying for more, I reduce the image size to under 800 to add to my blog. (This explains some of the delay in posting because of the hassle of editing my pics).

Photos can obviously take up a lot of space. Are there no restrictions on other files?

Sarah

Comment #3490

2013-05-24T18:10:08Z

Also, if you pile and search, how do you know when to delete something? Just because we can have more and more space doesn't mean we should keep every photo and every email, despite what Google advertises. There's plenty of room in our house for dust, but that doesn't mean I want it piling up forever. What will your children do with your pile when you're gone? Sorry, I'm still not buying it . . .

Comment #3489

2013-05-24T15:46:43Z

The email with a "+" doesn't always get accepted - we used that in the "olden days" with our cmu addresses.

Jon just got a Google Play to replace his phone, and there really are some amazing and helpful features, if you don't mind the Big Brother aspect. (Ex.: It sees on your calendar you're visiting Chicago, so it displays the weather and time for Chicago, plus the time for home.)

I do like the "search rather than file correctly" idea as long as it truly is searchable.

Comment #3488

2013-05-24T11:53:50Z

Now I've thought of a better example. If all your electronic stuff is in a searchable pile, how can you answer a question like "can you come to dinner Friday night?"" You can look at your calendar, but how can you see at a glance all that is on your plate and whether you can afford the time out for dinner? Or what about "can you take on this project?"? Do you just guess by how stressed your are or just go with what excites you? One of the best blessings of GTD is that I can see at a glance all I have going on today, this week, this month and this year, whether they have a calander date or not, plus I can see all my dreams for the future, too, so it's much easier to answer the question of whether I should add something else or not!

Comment #3487

2013-05-24T11:43:59Z

I'm curious for an example of how your worlds are different.

The idea that search is powerful is an important one, but different types of information needs to be organized in different ways. Some can be piled and searched for, but others are better organized in another way. I suppose I could tag things as "ASAP" as opposed to having a folder for it, but having the top action folders at the top of gmail means I click through them rather than thinking about what I need to search for and deal with. I guess most other examples of where another type of organization is needed is in my physical world, which he would mostly digitize anyway, but with a shared computer, no smart phone, and kids and guests needing information, too, it doesn't make the best sense to have everything electronic. I suppose if a smart phone is a given, that leaves me out of it from the start! I need physical recipes to cook from and grocery lists to shop from, and all of that could go digital on a smart phone. But I would break it or loose in the first week . . .