Glorious Generalist

My new year’s resolution is to use Twitter more often–not to post more often on Twitter, but to actually use it for the reason I signed up for it. My intention was to post articles or sites I was reading that were useful or interesting, but that kind of fell away for two reasons: the first being that once I got an iPod Touch I didn’t have to do everything by cell phone, and second that I started putting more stuff in Delicious and not actually managing to take the next step of setting up a Delicious feed that would show up in Twitter. As I said earlier this year, this is the truly silly aspect of Web 2.0.

2009 was a big year for signing up for new services/tools or learning more about the ones I was already using. Here’s a quick rundown of the new (to me) that were most important in 2009:

1.

I’ve been interested in “Getting Things Done” since 2007 or so, but never quite managed to find a system I really like to use with it. At the beginning of 2009 I was using a Google Presentation to keep track of my long term goals, for which it worked fine (and it still does). For day-to-day tasks I was using a program that worked fine, but was only accessible from my home desktop computer. That was untenable when I was in grad school, and completely unworkable once I started at my current job. Remember the Milk is accessible from everywhere and easy to use, and basically just does exactly what I need it to do. As with all such systems, the set up and maintenance time is not inconsiderable, but if one puts care into the initial setup, a lot of the maintenance takes care of itself. This comes first in the list because without a good reminder tool it’s hard to get anything else done.

2.

I certainly didn’t foresee in the last week of 2008 that I would be knowledgeable about something called “Drupal” in the last week of 2009. This is why it’s just as well that people don’t have premonitory powers. Drupal is a content management framework, and we have been attaching things to that frame since the summer for the Chicago Underground Library. The first part of the site (the library catalog) is nearly done, so I hope to end 2010 with an amazing Drupal website that combines community cataloging, participatory reviewing, and a social network bringing together supporters of small press and independent publishing in the Chicago area. Plus some great web design, of course.

3.

Mint automatically aggregates all your financial accounts into one site, which is just unbelievably useful. It’s not that a spreadsheet and a bit of time couldn’t do the same thing, but Mint takes all the work out of tracking finances, allowing you to focus on larger financial goals. The most obvious consideration for a site like this is security, so I did quite a bit of research about their security measures before signing up. I still keep an Excel spreadsheet to help with a bit of math that Mint doesn’t do (keeping track of a spending plan and savings allocations). But in general, I love being able to see exactly what we spent on what, and making sure that things are on track. The next step will be to see how Mint helps with taxes. I’m thinking at the very least it will remind me of all the accounts for which I need to get paperwork.

A few others

Mobile apps for iPod Touch
Twitter
Delicious
LibGuides