How do you keep your life together? What’s your “system”?

admin

This year I have made a pledge to be uber organized (although I do every year). This includes taking diligent notes and maintaining a calender. I decided to take a new approach keeping my life together on a laptop instead of traditional pen and paper. Here’s “my system”:

My “system”:

ubuntu.jpgUbuntu

First I got an old hand-me-down laptop, wiped it clean, and installed Ubuntu.

Why Ubuntu? Well, first of all, it’s cooler. But the main reason I opted to switch was because of the simplicity and cleanliness of the operating system. I didn’t need much, just an OS that would do exactly what I wanted without a whole lot of background processes. Plus, I am a complete Nazi about having complete control over my computer. In Ubuntu you can change and tinker with everything.

There are also certain aspects of Ubuntu that I think make work easier, namely the “workspace” feature that essentially gives you four desktops to switch between.

openoffice.bmpOpen Office

I then made directories for each class in a directory named “School”. When I sit down for a lecture I open Open Office’s Writer and create a document. (I’d show you a screen shot, but I’m still messing with getting Ubuntu and my USB wireless adapter to play nice).
By using Open Office, I assure that I will always be able to open up my document on any computer. Because if it comes down to it, I can always download Open Office.

Sunbird-256x256-white.pngSunbird

Sunbird is Mozilla’s foray into the standalone calender market. While it’s only in version .3, the build seems stable enough to use for me. I put all of my homework, classes, and work schedule in here.

Back it up!

Once a week or so I load my “School” directory onto a USB flash drive. Just in case my computer tanks.

What to do:

It’s nothing complicated, but it is definitely the most organized I have ever been. Although it has only been a week, we’ll see how it goes.

I know there are more organized people out there. Are you one of them? How do you keep your stuff together? Similar to Blog Herald’s How I Blog series, I think we should share how we organize our workload. Who knows, maybe we’ll all pick up a trick or two.

Shoot an email to scblanda@gmail.com detailing how you organize yourself and the tools/programs you use. I’ll post as many as I can. If you would like, include a picture of your workspace and website to be linked.

[tags]Sunbird, Open Office, ubuntu[/tags]

9 Responses to “How do you keep your life together? What’s your “system”?”

  1. Ryan Kellett Says:

    When it comes to computer organization I am working to find a good fit:

    http://ryankellett.com/blog/?p=586

    As for organizing the hard-copy way, I keep a Moleskin calendar where I list all my non-recurring appointments and to-dos. The Moleskin can take a beating but is reliable and easy to use.

  2. College v2 - helping you survive college » Blog Archive » Whats your “system”: Duane Brown Says:

    […] By: Sean Blanda « How do you keep your life together? What’s your “system”? […]

  3. Blanda Says:

    That campusp productivity pack may be just what im looking for…

    Sounds sad but I lose my Moleskin at random times.

  4. College v2 - helping you survive college » Blog Archive » What’s your “system”: Rahul Gaitonde Says:

    […] The following is the second entry in our What’s your “system” series by Rahual Gaitonde. If you’d like to be featured, send an email, link to your website, and a picture (If you’d like) to scblanda@gmail.com. […]

  5. College v2 - helping you survive college » Blog Archive » What’s your system: Bryan Villarin Says:

    […] The following is the third entry in our What’s your “system” series by Bryan Villarin. If you’d like to be featured, send an email, link to your website, and a picture (If you’d like) to scblanda@gmail.com. I will be ending the series Friday so get those submissions in! […]

  6. Revenge of the Nerd » Blog Archive » My ‘System’ Says:

    […] Over at College V2, Sean has an ongoing series called What’s Your System, where various people talk about how they stay organized. I have already posted some things on Productivity, but I figure I can talk about what I do. […]

  7. College v2 - helping you survive college » Blog Archive » What’s your system: Joe Casabona Says:

    […] The following is the forth and final entry in our What’s your “system” series by Joe Casabona. Joe also designed this site. I rely heavily on my Treo 650 Smartphone. It is a Palm based phone that comes with all the standard Palm software: Calendar, Tasks, Memo Pad and Contacts. The calendar is the most important of the 4. All of my appointments and major assignments are in it. Everything is color coordinated and has a reminder for it. […]

  8. College v2 - helping you survive college » Blog Archive » mynoteIT: the dream app we have all been waiting for? Says:

    […] However that is also the downside as well. I have no Internet connection on my laptop while I’m in class, so this service can’t do much for me. But to be honest, this made me reassess My system and made me consider putting up the bucks for a wireless card. […]

  9. Brucemagnus Says:

    I’m pretty sure that you can back up/sync your sunbird calendar as an iCal file or similar and then load it back up using other programs like Outlook, Google Calendar, and most web based calendar systems. Also, if you use OO Writer’s “equation editor” and save as .doc, the formatting will be messed up if opened in Word. To keep the formatting the same, I export my documents to pdf before printing and handing them in. Another option would be to use LaTeX(and compile to pdf) for documents that need to be handed in.