PIM tools - a help or hindrance (Thing 14)

Personal Information Management (PIM) was certainly not a term I’d met before encountering Thing 14. I certainly didn’t think of the actions involved needing specialist study for organisation of information. It’s just something I do without thinking really – creating and saving files, researching new topics, leaving tabs on the IPad left open to come back to (23 before starting this section) – hmmm, perhaps there is room for improvement in how I deal with some aspects of information handling both at home and work. But do I need further new online tools for this or simply be a more organised person with the systems I already use and have available to me? With a great deal of interest, I explored all the suggested PIM tools recommended in Thing 14.

Evernote – a notebook creator and sharer, tools to clip articles and whole web pages, ability to add  photos and links to individual notes and sharing capabilities too. Goodness, what a tool. I created a few notes and added links etc and was impressed with the formatting tools in the note section, so you could start turning your notes into more formal pieces of work. I also found the web clipper a boon, especially as it gave several options others didn’t (like Pocket) to save article, simplified web page or the whole web page or take a screen shot. A very useful piece of kit I think, especially for a particular purpose. If you were prepared to do everything on a laptop or IPad rather than paper this could be really useful for a university course. Or perhaps doing lots of research for a project or multiple or even for holiday planning. I can see its uses and positives though how you export and print off the notes and books I have yet to find – though that rather defeats the object of the software. Would I use this? Possibly for a large project or online course, but as the site if block at work I certainly will not be using there where use of Onenote and the Onedrive are greatly encouraged. But I do like the ability to clip a whole web page useful, and with the clipper icon on the Google chrome window now, that becomes a very easy option indeed. And for someone who leaves windows open to come back to often for months, so I don’t lose the place, the clipping function is a revelation. So maybe, just maybe this will be useful to me.

Feedly. I had registered for a RSS site earlier on in this course and have rarely darkened its website since. Revisiting an RSS site in this case Feedly, I’m reminded though of what I have missed out on – the ability to see updates on multiple blogs or sites all on one screen and access them from there. While loving the blog I have created, I’m not really into following a whole number of other peoples. Yet I could see this being useful for work if I had a class posting their book reviews or creative work all on blogs for the reasons above. While I appreciate the uses of this tool, I don’t yet have the interest or the blogs to follow to make regular revisiting of Feedly worthwhile at the present – I just don’t need this area of my information life organised.

Remember the Milk (RTM). I’m not sure I want to. Yet another new account to log into took me to a   glorified online task manager and list maker. All straight forward to use though the display of the to do things seemed a bit small to me – glad I was viewing on my laptop. I created a couple of tags actually I can see the use of if you have such a hectic life you need to find appointments relating to your holidays or forthcoming concerts, and the email reminder I set for an appointment did promptly arrive the next day. If you used this for both work and home planning it would allow you to log in and check you’re not affecting another appointment, though that would be a huge commitment of time to inputting data and for me work stays at work.  I feel for me using this would  require me to have a much more exciting life to create enough content to put in it to make proper use of it than I do at present. And it would have to be an all or nothing approach to RTM and ignore any other device on your phone, tablet, email system what may offer to the same thing. Perhaps if I were forward planning for a large project at work this could prove useful especially the reminders. Call be old fashioned, but I’d rather make proper use of my paper diary at the moment at home, and my outlook calendar at work.

Pocket. Just another web clipping service? Yes, it is, and doesn’t offer the choices that Evernote does with its clipping facility. Yet I have become a convert to this piece of software on the pad and PC. What grabbed me first was the simplicity – it’s there to perform one task and not get tied up with multiple task options like Evernote. Once I had some items clipped into the programme I thought the tile display was very clear and accessible and to be taken again to the original copy. If there I a downside with this it is around the how it saves one information from websites. Occasionally it didn’t save it all though the go to original page option kept me happy.  I just need to remember this is for more articles, and videos, not for saving a whole or complex website. I can see using this for both personal and work use being incredibly useful. Already my 23 open tabs on the Ipad are now clipped and just 4 are left open today.  I can clip recipes, holiday information, interesting news articles, articles people email me links for at work in seconds and while web browsing to go back to later. I also found the ‘Explore’ option very interesting and a useful way of finding related articles to topics I’m interested in and related. This has already started the process of tidying up my personal information at home and will help at work too as articles, pictures and links can now be clipped away straightway, rather then hanging around my desk top, email system waiting to be read or printed out and put somewhere to be read later and lost.  I can now read these items at a time and place that suites me and I know where they are too.

Having tried all the four PIM tools, I can say that while I personally don’t have a need as yet for most of them, I can appreciate the usefulness of them in the right situation or right need arose. Evernote and Pocket are the two I have found agreeable as they offer me something I find very useful in dealing with an information management situation – what to do with articles, recipes etc on my IPad other than keep the tab open till I’m ready to read it whether on the IPad or PC. The web clipping service of these tools, especially Pocket, meet this personal need. And using PIM tools really comes down to personal situation and need. There is no point having them just for the sake of it unless they are working for you, to deal with a specific information need. 

My notepad and diary are quite safe for now.