Everything in its right place

I once chided my med school roommate for entering dozens of numbers into his landline phone's high-capacity speed-dialer. After programming a few frequently-dialed numbers, I argued, you'll end up wasting more time entering digits than you could ever save through speed-dailing - the effort outweighed the benefit.He had a lengthy response, that appealed to a sense of order and touted the less-tangible benefits of reducing cognitive load. The phone is for calling people. By having people's numbers in the phone, instead of in a half-dozen notepads and desk drawers scattered about the apartment, he could make calls without much fuss. He didn't have to remember whose numbers resided where. He could unburden his mind to focus on other (presumably more involved) tasks.I was still a little skeptical (why not keep a list of numbers by the phone?) but saw his point. And it's colored my organizational decisions ever since - especially since Allen's Getting Things Done places such high priority on reducing the mental stress associated with reminders - to improve clarity, creativity and fulfillment.So for years I've used organizational schemes, mostly centered around smartphone apps like Remember the Milk and Evernote, and email management tools like Mailbox. When I heard about other folks spending substantial amounts of cash for things like OmniFocus, which had a huge instruction manual, I shook my head. It was my roommate's old problem - investing too much in organization, for litt...
Source: Blogborygmi - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Source Type: blogs