Dropbox is an excellent utility for syncing files, sharing files and backing up files. With a free account, you get 2GB of free storage.
It is possible to get this free account up to 5.25GB. Following the rules set by Dropbox, you need to refer a number of people, getting 250MB each time someone starts using it. I did this, but some people failed to use my link and others didn't install. I really needed as much space as possible, so I went about trying to cheat the system. I succeeded, and here's how (the text assumes you may have a few referrals already)...
Make sure you've made yourself a "Dropbox Guru" by checking the 5 or 6 tasks on the web interface. You should get an extra 250MB for this (and probably already have).
Work out how many lots of referrals (in 250MB chunks) you need to take you to 5.25GB. Let's say you need x...
Set up x trashmail accounts that will forward 1 message for 1 day
Send a referral to each of these trashmail accounts from your regular Dropbox login
Check the referrals page on the web interface of your regular Dropbox login - all the trashmail accounts should show "invited" or something like that
Sign out of your regular Dropbox account online
Set up an account and password for each of your x trashmail accounts, ensuring to use the referral links that got forwarded to your normal email from trashmail. Suggest making the password the same for each one to save your grey cells
You should now be able to log back into your regular account and check you referral status. All the trashmail accounts should now show "account created" or similar.
Run VirtualBox and load up the Ubuntu ISO. Follow instructions here from the ever dependable Lifehacker
As Ubuntu loads, be sure just to run from the ISO - you don't want to install it
Open Firefox in the Virtual Ubuntu
Navigate to and download the Ubuntu version of Dropbox (strangely it is a 2 step process: you download the file from the web and install, then go into Applications then Internet and click on Dropbox to complete)
Choose the Dropbox prompt "I already have an account" and sign in with your first trashmail account
As soon as it has signed in, your master computer (i.e. not the virtual machine should show you a notification that your storage has increased)
Close the Ubuntu virtual machine window
Delete the virtual machine on the VirtualBox management window
Start again for the next trashmail account with steps 11 to 18 (it is important to delete the Ubuntu virtual machine and start again as Dropbox knows it's the same install)
Once you've done this x times, you should have maxed out your Dropbox account at 5.25GB. You can then uninstall VirtualBox if you like
Slightly evil, I know - but if it gets you using the service and recommending it (which I do), then it's all for the best...
I've tried a lot of things over the years to try and keep organised. To be honest, I'm a bit of a hard sell as I can quickly tire of a system if it's not easy to access and easy to use. I started with paper and found that I didn't always carry a notebook and pencil with me. I tried using my laptop, but again, it's not something I always had with me.
Only recently (the last 3 or 4 years) have cellphones become powerful enough and sufficiently user-friendly to take on an organizational role. The good thing for me is that I carry my phone everywhere, so long as I'm wearing something with a pocket. I plumped for an iPhone as it really is the canine's cahones. The App Store really was the icing on the cake.
I set about trying a bit of everything until I found a system that really worked for me. This took a while, but I was very strict with my criteria, having been through a number of failures:
I needed to have an offline to do list on my iPhone
It needed to sync to the Internet for total backup
Ideally it would sync to an application on my laptop for offline bulk entry
It would also sync to a web-app that was easy to use, anywhere
Items would need dates, categories, tags, importance and notes
Tasks that had specific times or dates would show up on my calendar
I wanted the ability to add tasks verbally
It needed to cost very little, or be free
My current system covers most of these, but not all - there's still room for improvement. Here is a diagram of how it all works, and I will explain each piece of software and numbered step below:
Toodledo The system really revolves around this excellent todo list web application. I only hit upon it after finding out that my iPhone app of choice synced with this and Remember the Milk. I tried out RTM, but found that you got more for your money (i.e. free) from Toodledo. The interface wasn't as pretty, but I rarely actually use the website itself - I do it all on my iPhone and synchronise.
Toodledo has lots and lots of features and ticks all the boxes in terms of functionality. I really don't have any gripes with it, especially since it is completely free. You can pay for some advanced features, but they're just dressing and not needed, in my opinion.
Essentially, Toodledo acts as my todo hub. Everything passes through it and I can trust it as a constant backup of all my task and notes information.
Appigo Todo Toodledo does have its own iPhone application, but, my favourite is Todo by Appigo.
It's not free (it's £5.99 in the UK), but I think it's worth the money. They have provided a lovely clean interface and do updates every now and then that add lots of functionality. They made an update a couple of weeks ago that allowed nested tasks and checklist tasks, without compromising the simple and easy to understand interface.
Synchronisation (1) can be done to RTM or Toodledo. you simply press a button each time you want to sync (or make it automatic). This is great, because you have a constant backup and can recover your data in seconds if something goes awry.
I would add, that pretty much all my task population and editing is done directly on my iPhone, so the user-friendliness of this app is perfect for me.
UPDATE: Check out this screencast if you are interested in Appigo Todo's functionality and interface:
Appigo Notebook I found that I was also keeping some records that weren't really tasks. Lists of things to buy or present ideas. Measurements or other data to remember. These did not suit a todo list, but i did want them available and backed up. I useed to jot them down in the iPhone notepad, but this wasn't that secure. I then tried the service called Zenbe Lists and was impressed for a while. However, it wasn't very fast and seemed a little clunky to me.
I then saw that Appigo released a notebook and decided to buy it for £2.99. It was worth it and now my todo list and notes are consolidated, since both apps sync to Toodledo (2). This is great for backup, but also means that where I have lots of text to enter into a note, I can do it quicker by accessing the notes portion of Toodledo and doing it there.
Phone numbers also show up automatically on the iPhone version - I have found it great for doing research on my laptop for suppliers or trades persons and then calling them from my iPhone after a quick sync.
Dial2Do I was envious of all the folks in the US being able to use Jott for free before it started charging. The great thing was that a couple of options presented themselves that worked in the UK soon after Jott went fee-based.
I tried reQall for a bit, but it was trying to do more than I needed it for. I then found the brilliant Dial2Do - a free service that works just like Jott does and it does the UK.
Using it, I am able to send emails and sms messages, but more importantly, it can populate tasks in Toodledoo directly (3). This means that if I'm out and about, I can simply phone my Dial2Do number and say "Toodledo", then say my todo item. When I next launch the iPhone app, I sync and there it is!
There are lots of other functions you can do with Dial2Do, but I stick to Toodledo and the Email (which I use to send myself the odd piece of information I could forget). I don't use Dial2Do much, because I can often just enter the data directly into the iPhone, but it's a useful option to have in your todo arsenal.
Google Calendar GCal as it is sometimes known is great and I would normally fully adopt it if I was not bound to using Outlook at work. Toodledo recently added the functionality to import your tasks into GCal using the iCal protocol (4):
This means that I can now look at my weekly calendar and see tasks with a date at the top of each day. Tasks with a specific time get placed at the correct point in the day. This is a great way to look at the week ahead - you can see todo items and your schedule all in one place. Now, if only I could get that into Outlook...
Microsoft Outlook As you may well know, Google Calendar Sync allows you to synchronise your Outlook calendar and your GCal (5). This is great as a backup and also so that you can see your calendar online wherever you are. However, there are a couple of drawbacks (or opportunities for Google to work on, if you like).
GCal can only sync with the default Outlook calendar
GCal can only sync the main calendar in GCal, not iCal imports
This means that I can't (for the moment) get my Toodledo tasks into my Outlook calendar, which is a real bummer. I'm sure they'll sort this at some point, but right now, I'll just have to make do.
Furthermore, I keep two calendars active in my Outlook mailbox. One records my forward plan and the other records what I actually did. I find this useful for retrospectively finding out when things happened (e.g. tax returns). Only one of these syncs to GCal.
Before I move on, I would like to give a nod to Chromatic Dragon's utility ToodledoSync which allows you to sync from Toodledo (and hence from your iPhone) to Outlook's tasks. I used this for a good while, but then decided to stop as I was not using the tasks function in Outlook much. It works really well, and if you need this option, this is the solution.
iPhone Calendar Of course, all this syncs back to my iPhone from Outlook (6). In a perfect world, my todos would be in Appigo Todo, Toodledo, GCal, Outlook calendar and my iPhone calendar. The only thing stopping this is being able to sync iCals in GCal to Outlook. It does manage to sync my two Outlook calendars, though, presenting them in different colours, which is really nice.
So, I'm almost there - just waiting on technology. I'd be interested to see what anyone has to add on this and if I've missing any utilities that can fill the gaps. I'm sure there might be other solutions out there that do the same things in slightly different ways, but I find this one works well for me and has cost less than a tenner (so $15ish). I have definitely become more organised because of it and find that after a little bit of setting up categories, tags, folders and whatnot, every piece of information has its own place.
Sometimes a project can seem too daunting to even know where to start. The GTD principle requires you to break down your work into discreet tasks in the form of a brain dump and then pick them off one by one in the order they need to be done in (rather ironically, I started reading GTD, but never finished!).
However, what happens if you are starting a project that you have absolutely no idea about where to start and how to get going? If you used the GTD principle you would simply have a first task called 'research' and there's no way you could jot down anymore.
I have found that on projects like this, the best way to get going is to just do something (JDS?). The idea behind this is that by simply doing something, whether it's right or wrong, your road ahead will start to unravel before your eyes. If you were to try and plan the whole thing up front you would enter what I call 'paralysis by analysis'.
I have seen many a project get stumped at inception, simply because there is no experience in the area or the scope is so wide that there are many different routes to take. By starting with something simple in whatever direction, you will quickly discover something else and whether you are heading in the right direction.
Admittedly, this is not the sort of thing you can apply easily to the corporate workplace, but for personal projects it is a real winner. I am always entering new projects that I have no idea about. Sometimes detailed planning and analysis will tell you something, but not everything and you find you lack your own experience base. By getting your teeth into an actual task, you may find that you learn more about the project than you would have any other way.
You have to be open to the fact that the actual task you have performed may well turn out to be a wasted activity on a particular route. But in the broader scope you may find that the route to your goal is much clearer as a consequence and the resource you applied to get there was far less than analysing the project in its entirety.
As an example, when moving back to the UK after 3 years in West Africa, we knew where 'work' was going to be. We knew we wanted to live somewhere more rural than before, but the area we could choose from was so large and varied that deciding on a specific location to buy was a near impossible and tremendously daunting task. We also had a time constraint to work to.
In the early planning stages, the project was in dire risk of stagnating, due to the infinite complexity of researching and looking at every town and village in a particular commuting radius. We would have to ascertain the house prices, amenities, shopping, supermarkets, drive time, etc - the list went on. It seemed too much to take on.
However, we decided that we should just start looking at properties somewhere, regardless of whether that would actually be a useful allocation of our time. This actually kick started us as it quickly gave us an appreciation of absolutely everything in a short space of time and we quickly became experts in evaluating a district/town/village for suitability. In effect, by just doing something (which at the time seemed way too early and a huge waste of planning time). You might call this market research, but it was more like 'let's pretend this is what we're doing and see what happens'.
I'm not advocating this for every single project out there, but if you are stuck and don't know where to start, this may be a way of getting past that particular road block. We have applied it to many personal projects since and found it to be very effective when the scope is fuzzy and broad.
Just do something - sit down and explore the Internet, get out and look at something real, write down what you think, talk to someone, draw something, fire off some emails. Just don't do nothing. You may find that the answer comes looking for you…
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