Thing 13 - Online productivity tools

I entered some events in the calendar on Yahoo. Rather than create more accounts, I thought I would explore tools I already “have.” Yahoo Calendar is easily accessed from My Yahoo and was very similar to the electronic calendar (part of our email service) we use in our school library to schedule classes. Compared to the video I watched about Scrybe, Yahoo Calendar is much more cumbersome. I don’t really want to create an account with Scrybe so I’ll stick with what I’m familiar with. (Do you detect overload here?)

I like that search feature on Backpack. I have a personalized page with all my online tools in one place and then there are so many of them that I need to search my page for what I need! That seems a little ironic.

Backpack and Scrybe both seem to offer a lot to keep you organized as do all the nifty tools introduced in this Thing. The objection I have to all of them is that it is assumed that you are always at a computer. Yes, there are features to help you integrate your life offline such as the synchronizing feature and the ability to print a neat little fold-up piece. Most of the time, my to-do items come up when I’m talking with people, not when I’m at a computer. I can jot a note on a paper, but I don’t carry a palm pilot. When I go home, the family computer is used first for homework by my teenagers. There are plenty of times I wouldn’t effectively have access to a computer or these tools. And if I have to note them all on paper, or carry them in my head until I can list them electronically, then I don’t see how that helps very much.

The tool I am most excited about is the converter. We are encountering many students who have the new Microsoft Office product Vista and are not able to read their files at school. I am anxious to see if this can help. I had a use for a pdf conversion just the day before I found out about this Thing. I tried it on Zanzar and was not pleased: the document had random capital letters when converted from a pdf. I do want to test it again though when I have a need for it.

I know I do not work in the most organized or productive way and I am maybe being negative because I find it difficult to change. As life moves on, I will in all likelihood adopt some of these tools. They say it takes three weeks to form a new habit and that a large change is easier than a small one. Maybe I need to make a resolution and just start out the new quarter at school with an electronic calendar.