keeping information organised

[hawkal]

How do you keep things you learn of from say personal interests or personal development well organised? When it comes to personal development I try to find the "action" in the article, for example something that I could add to a routine to make whatever part of that article was related to better. Of course this doesn't work all the time though because some articles provide advice and not always "actions".

How do you keep the information that you feel important organised?

[Calisto]

hawkal,

Funny I started this thinking 'that's easy'. But it isn't that simple trying to explaining your system to someone so I hope this makes sense. Personally I have a file folder on my computer (and a back up copy on disc - I have a habit of killing computers) called 'Personal & Spiritual Growth' and inside this folder I have about fifty folders titled 'Health & Fitness', 'Articles', 'Poetry', 'Ideas & Suggestions', 'Meditation & Visualisation' etc. When I take a copy of an article or poetry or anything else that has a title I save it using the title. But with some bits of information this isn't so easy, therefore I take the first four or five words from the first line of whatever I want to save, save it with this as the title and save it to appropriate folder. Even if I don't know what to title it I know in which folder to look for it. Hopefully someone will come along with a better solution and we can both get better organised.

[Alison Jenkins]

I have a file where I put paper copies of things that are important or sayings. Some of them are also on the computer but I have to say it is this file I turn to when I want to find something.

Really impt quotes I will put on a sticky note by my computer to remind me

Alison

[Ree]

When something first interests me I put it on a flash drive. Then later I choose what I want to keep and it goes onto a CD. (Actually I use a DVD Ram because it's more convenient.)

I print out articles that I want to read over and over or study, and these I keep in a three-ring binder, which travels well. My binder has been to many states and on the Appalachian Trail for a two-day hike

[Keith]

I'm beginning to think that keeping PD resources organised is a mistake. They tend to just build up, clutter my life and not get used.

I'm beginning to suspect that it's far better to search out the resources once you have a specific goal in mind. That way you identify and pull out key information from the resources, rather than them just being a vague repository of data.

[Calisto]

Keith,

That sounds good but I take it you haven't been chatting or posting to a form and one piece would help things make so much more sense if only you could find it on Google.

At least in a titled folder on computer I only need to put in search the title or a few words of what I'm trying to find and there it is.

Maybe it's a woman thing, gathering all these 'interesting' pieces.

[Ree]

Originally Posted by Calisto

Maybe it's a woman thing, gathering all these 'interesting' pieces.

That's funny! I never thought of it that way, but you may be right

[Brad Isaac]

Originally Posted by hawkal

How do you keep things you learn of from say personal interests or personal development well organised? When it comes to personal development I try to find the "action" in the article, for example something that I could add to a routine to make whatever part of that article was related to better. Of course this doesn't work all the time though because some articles provide advice and not always "actions".

How do you keep the information that you feel important organised?

Personally I use Evernote. (A Single Place For All Your Notes! | EverNote Corporation)

You can scan in handwritten notes, click to pull in websites, clip quotes, clip full articles and auto categorize your stuff. Since it can fit on a memory card, it's portable. I'd recommend giving it a try for what you are wanting to do.

I am not affiliated with them, just a fan.

[Adrian]

I write everything down in lists (for example, time management tips would go under a "Time Management" list), which I then store in a folder entitled "Personal Development - Tips and Tricks". I find writing things down causes me to remember them more so than typing them up on the computer, and I like being able to take the folder anywhere I go to review the lists.