My favorite-est apps, 2015 style

Being in academic medicine often equals juggling multiple projects and responsibilities at a time, and I have come to rely heavily on a small suite of apps to keep me doing what I need to do and going where I need to go. I'm frequently on the prowl for whatever is latest and greatest in that arena, so I thought I'd share a few of my recent and not-so-recent finds in the spirit of New Year's life (re)organization.

Evernote
I had been a casual Evernote user for much of 2014, but it was only toward the end of the year that I made the time to really learn how to optimize this app. The 2-3 hour investment has paid off nicely; I am enjoying the ability to keep items, notes, and clips related to multiple work and non-work projects neatly filed and organized away. I recommend using Evernote for a few weeks to get familiar with the bases, but then don't wait as long as I did to explore its richer functionality; there are lots of useful articles on the Evernote website as well as free e-books (no worries - they're short!) worth checking out to learn more.

CloudMagic
Toward the end of 2014 I was getting fed up with the default iOS Mail app. It wasn't syncing well with my Gmail, not to mention that the gestures just felt more and more clunky. My work institution uses Outlook, and I had to play with several apps before identifying one that worked equally well with both Outlook and Gmail - here 'tis. I'm still learning some of this app's features, but I really like its "cards" feature that lets me quickly send something to Evernote or Pocket.

Timeful
I am just getting to know Timeful, but I think that we will be BFFs before long. Timeful is like my own personal assistant - I tell it what I need to get done and how long it will take, and Timeful suggests where in my schedule I can plan to do it. Again, with several different projects within my residency faculty position going on simultaneously, Timeful is helping me budget my time wisely and ensure that what needs to get done has a set time to get it done. Maybe not everyone needs that much micro-organization, but I am learning that, without it, I struggle to stay on task.

Pocket Informant
PI (not to be confused with "Pocket" as mentioned above) has been my go-to calendar and to-do app for a few years, and every time I look to see if anything better has come along I realize just how good PI is. I like the seamless integration between calendar and to-do lists, as well as the highly sophisticated way you can personalize both. PI integrates my Outlook and Google calendars seamlessly and lets me organize my to-do lists to my OCD-heart's content.

Any great apps you'd like to share?

Inbox zero: look out, 2015!

It's been a while again.
I know you're shocked. ;)

I'm not usually a New Year's resolution type, but I took advantage of some down time at the end of 2014 to take inventory of my current projects and responsibilities, along with trying to figure out where I'm losing time to inefficiencies (Muda, you lean followers might say).

Part of my regaining equilibrium has involved taming the almighty e-mail inbox. I am not normally prone to clutter; my work e-mail inbox is typically quite tidy, as is my electronic health record inbox. But something about my personal Gmail just got too overwhelming, and for the last couple of years I have just let things pile up. I've lost one too many important messages lately, though, so this past weekend I resolved to tackle the great beast and gain control.

Using Gmail's search function, I created tags to identify and sort everything important. After moving all of those messages into their new folders, I unsubscribed to at least a dozen e-mail feeds that I hadn't made time for in ages and knew I wouldn't miss. I created searches again for each of these and deleted them all en mass. Ditto for searches including the terms "reservation" and "confirmation" (all for events in the past - why was I keeping these?).

After setting up some filters for messages I wanted to archive but not necessarily review immediately (bank statements, etc), I was more than 1/2 way through my 1K+ messages. I scrolled through the rest, sorting out a few things here and there to keep, and voila! 19 messages left. I will create tasks in Pocket Informant for those new messages and then get them archived.

I know that taming my e-mail won't solve everything. But it has helped me to regain a sense of control. Now I am confident that what will come into my inbox is important and won't get lost.

So bring it on, 2015. I'll be ready.