Peace of Mind Organizing

How I'm using Springpad

24 February 2014

For the last three months, I’ve been using (and enjoying) Springpad, the personal-organizer app. I’ve accessed it daily, either from my desktop, iPad or iPhone (often all three in the course of day). I wanted to share here how I’m using it and why I like it so much.

Task management
I’ve long wanted to use an electronic task-managment system, but was never able to stick with one—until Springpad. I started out using their built-in Tasks notebook, but switched over the the Ninja Task Manager notebook in January. (That’s it pictured above.) Ninja Task Manager is one of the custom notebooks that they launched in January, in partnership with a dozen or so organizing experts, including me.

What I love about the Ninja Task Manager is the ability to mark any task with a heart so that it appears on the Today tab. That means I can scan a master list and segregate those tasks I want to focus on today. Love it. (This custom notebook actually comes with a $1.99 price tag. It’s so worth it, in my opinion.)

Shopping lists
I have a Shopping Lists notebook that allows me to keep a running list of regularly purchased items, by store. I can enter the items as specific products, if I want, and see pictures of the items. (I can even scan the UPC code of an item in my pantry to make adding it to my list really easy.) If my husband were on board, we could share the notebook and add to it separately, so whoever’s at the store has an up-to-date list.

Keeping track of books
Last year I started keeping a list of the books I read. I read mostly fiction, and my Kindle has made it convenient for me to read a whole lot of books. With Springpad, I enter a book I want to read and it draws the description (including cover photo) from Amazon. I can mark it “Want” or “Read” and I can see all my books, just the ones I want, or just the ones I’ve read. I tag the read ones with the year, so I can easily keep track of how many books I’ve read in a year. (So far, I’ve read eight in 2014.) I can go right from a book entry in the My Books notebook on Springpad to Amazon to purchase it with just a touch (or click).

Keeping track of movies
When I hear about a movie I want to watch, I add it to my My Movies notebook. When the movie becomes available on DVD or at Netflix, I’m notified, within Springpad. How cool is that?

• Keeping track of all sorts of other stuff*
  I have notebooks for individual clients so I can keep track of time and tasks, for blog posts ideas, for apps to check out, for recipes and for wines I like, among many others. The wine notebook is cool, because it shows the label of the wine (which is how I remember wine) and gives info about the wine.

Family history research
One of the two custom notebooks I created with Springpad is the Family History Organizer. Within that notebook is a simple Research Tracker that I have found immensely helpful. I also keep track of research tasks in that notebook.

Connecting with people
I have a few public notebooks that any Springpad user can see and follow that allow me to share information that I find valuable. Right now, those notebooks are on topics I get a lot of questions about, like professional organizer training and working with a professional organizer.

I always have my phone with me, so I always have Springpad with me. I am really benefitting from it and I suspect the benefits will grow as I get to know it better.

If you’re intrigued, I encourage you to check it out!

Tagged with: family history research, genealogy, springpad, task management

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