Well it turns out there is a great visual way to do that too and while there are lots of great ones around the net (wikipedia’s timeline page is a good place to start) but I like timelines.info

Timeline

* I like the beginning part of this TED talk by Parag Khanna where he sketches out how much the map of our world changed over the 20th century.  Did you know that in 1945 there were only 100 countries?  Now there are ~200 (the exact number is apparently debatable).

Using it as a journal

I’ve already begun using it as a personal journal – recording anything from how often I use the health club, to personal feelings or ideas that I wish to jot down somewhere.

It works by simply creating a new “event” as an individual journal entry. The events are automatically date and time stamped, so you always know when you wrote something. And, obviously, since it’s a calendar – the events are organized by “day,” keeping a chronological archive of all entries ever written.

The event name is the journal entry headline, and you can use the description part of the event as the body of the journal entry.

via Matt Thommes / Using Google Calendar for other purposes.

I read “I made the switch because SugarSync, in every way, shape, and form, is superior to DropBox,” and looked at Sugarsync’s feature comparison which shows several advantages for Sugarsync.

Why I still prefer Dropbox after giving Sugarsync a whirl:
- transfer speeds are significantly slower than dropbox
- while it is nice to be able to put more than one folder on to the cloud, the “magic briefcase” of files available everyone is still limited to one folder (it would be more compelling if you could “tag” files/folders to be available locally on all devices versus having to move it in to a special folder)
- the simplicity of dropbox lends itself to someone (ehem me) not wanting to pay for the premium accounts (i.e. if I’m limited to 2GB anyway, I’m likely to keep just putting good old “My Documents” on the cloud)
- Sugarsync’s iphone app didn’t impress me.. the music streaming didn’t seem to work and I have faith that Dropbox’s recently announced app will be superior (especially the ability to tag files as “favourites” and have them available locally)

More links:
Sugarsync vs Dropbox: The Battle Of The Cloud Storage Titans
SugarSync Vs DropBox : File synchronization war is on!

Solution? Create a specific calendar just for reminders (or anything else you’d like to have SMS’d to you). You it toggle it on/off when you look at your calendar so the reminders don’t clutter your calendar. Works for recurring reminders and all that jazz.

a time management method that can be used for any kind of task. For many people, time is an enemy. The anxiety triggered by “the ticking clock”, especially when a deadline is involved, leads to ineffective work and study habits which in turn lead to procrastination.

The aim of the Pomodoro Technique is to use time as a valuable ally in accomplishing what we want to do in the way we want to do it, and to enable us to continually improve the way we work or study.

Well not only can a desktop timer be a good idea for professionals tracking time spent on projects, they can be used for just about anything, including making yourself get up every so often. I think about 25-35 minutes is a realistic interval.

Since I started using it the other major benefit I have noticed is that I regularly question my productivity. If the timer goes off and I haven’t accomplished much (or not on my highest priorities), I have an “Oh crap” moment to get myself in line.

I use this extremely simple timer for windows.

A few good articles:
Productivity Tip: How to use a digital timer to get things done
The Power of 48 Minutes
Boosting Productivity With a Timer