Life Could Be Easier with a recipe

IFTTT (If This Then That) provides a dead-simple solution to dealing with our silos of personal information. It's a service that exchanges information to, from, and between apps based on certain triggers that you control. 

Think of all the online tools you use -- Twitter, Wordpress, Evernote, Facebook, RSS readers, Google Apps, Pocket. Think of all the other pieces of information about you and your environment -- time, date, weather, location. IFTTT connects those tools and information through "if-X-then-Y" statements that you customize.

I use it to link my most-used apps: Twitter, Newsblur (my RSS reader), and Evernote. I'm a huge Evernote user -- it's installed on all of my devices, and is my dumping ground and reference point for notes, thoughts, drafts, and lists. If I save a link or blog post on Twitter or Newblur, I want to be able to find it in Evernote without having to jump between apps.

IFTTT lets me set up certain triggers that initiate an action in another application. For example, if I favorite a tweet, then Evernote creates a new note with the text of the tweet/link to the blog post.

I found some library-themed examples (known as "recipes") from the IFTTT community:

If your Android device is in a specific location (the library), then silence your Android device.

If you receive an email reminder about overdue library books, then send a text message with the email text.

Once you create an account on IFTTT, check out which apps, or "channels," they support. Browse the channels, and browse the recipes. If you see a recipe you want to use, authorize IFTTT to access the associated channels.

That's living the IFTTT lifestyle!

Other random recipes I use:

• At work, I get an email anytime someone on Instagram tags a photo of #walterlibrary, so I can log in and engage with them. It's an easy alternative to spending time every day looking for new pictures! 
• At home, I get a text message when the International Space Station is passing over the park near my house.
• To prepare for the day, I set up iOS notifications when the temperature drops below a certain threshold or when rain is in the forecast.
• For my own amusement, I save new gifs on Giphy, based on a keyword search, in an Evernote note.

Take a quick look at their "about" page for a rundown on how it works. Happy IFTTT-ing!

Do you love making lists? Then check out WorkFlowy!

 What is WorkFlowy?

• An online app for organizing notes, making lists, brainstorming ideas, group projects, and more.

• Create items and sub-lists that collapse and expand.

• Tag items for follow up using the # or @ symbol.

• Share lists with team members and give them editing rights (or not).

• Keyboard shortcuts appear on the left hand side of your WorkFlowy document.

• Create a free account at https://workflowy.com/

Check out this super short demo!

Here is a screenshot of my WorkFlowy document.

How much does this cost?

• The  free version allows you to create 1000 WorkFlowy items per month.  If you tell people about WorkFlowy you get 250 more monthly items.

• WorkFlowy Pro gets you unlimited items and other fun stuff. 
•  It costs $4.99 per month or $49 per year.  

• For more details check out the WorkFlowy Blog: http://blog.workflowy.com/

Coordinate Meeting Dates & Times via Doodle

Need help scheduling meetings with colleagues in and out of the University of Minnesota? Need to get general availability for big groups of people?  Doodle, a meeting coordination tool, will make your life easier. Instead of wasting time with email, texts, and phone calls, point your colleagues and friends to a Doodle poll and let them tell you when they're available.

Within institutions, we are often able to view the calendars of our colleagues, but when we are scheduling across institutions or personal relationships, we may not have access to calendars. A lot of time may be wasted emailing, texting, or calling friends and colleagues to find a date and time that will work for the majority of people.

Easy steps to coordinate a meeting via Doodle 

1. Create an account at Doodle.com. Registration is required for creating Doodle polls, but it is not necessary for those participating in the polls.
2.  Click on Schedule an Event. Here you'll list a title, location, and description for your event. The location and description are optional. 
   
3. Choose calendar date options.
   
4. Select time options. On this page you'll also be able to configure the time-zone.  
   
5. Next you'll be able to change the settings on your poll. Instead of asking meeting attendees to list a simple Yes/No availability, they could instead select Yes-No-Ifneedbe.  You could also have settings reflect confidential participation.
6. You would then be ready to send your Doodle poll link to potential meeting attendees.  This could be done by entering email addresses into the Doodle platform or by copying and sharing the Doodle Pool participation link that is available after you create the poll. The administrator of the poll will receive email alerts when people participate in the poll.

This video created by Doodle helps explain how Doodle works:

Free vs. Premium

There are three versions of Doodle-- Individual (free), Private for Professionals (Premium), and Business for Teams (Premium) . The Premium versions of Doodle has additional features (outside of those listed above), and you are able to have a custom subdomain with the team version. For both the private professional and business team subscriptions, there are calendar integration options that currently do not exist with the free version. The cost is $29 for a Private for Professionals subscription and $69 for Business for Teams. There are advertisements in the free version of Doodle, but the Premium versions are free of advertisements.  More information is available on this topic is available here: https://doodle.com/premium?pricing=monthly. Doodle is accessible on mobile devices via the web version as well as a Doodle-App for iPhones and iPads.  The app is $2.99. The author of this blog post has no direct experience with the premium versions of Doodle or the app.

Doodle also has a blog: http://en.blog.doodle.com/. Check the blog for updates on Doodle features.

Make it Work!

How can you strike a balance between actually getting work done, and staying current on new software options that might improve your ability to get that work done?

You need to know what you want, understand the context in which you work and commit to solutions even if they're imperfect. This won't guarantee a perfect outcome, but it should get you past the obstacles.

Think workflow over software.

With the demise of Google Reader and task manager Astrid, each of which had features not fully replicated with existing tools, I still needed software for current awareness and task management. Now I just do it via Twitter and “send to email” for long reads. Similarly, I’ve moved on to other task managers.

Do you need a special purpose tool?

If it didn’t give me a stomach ache to have more than one screen’s worth of email in my inbox, I’d just use Stars to denote any email that implied one or more tasks and then send myself a bazillion emails of tasks. For small or short-term projects I sometimes create tasks or notes as comments in a Google Doc. You can also create special purpose Google Calendars.

Know what you want!

I drew the task manager I want. It doesn't exist. But now I exactly what I need versus what I'd like. For example, I need the most intrusive reminder system possible or I’ll get sidetracked. For me, this means BusyCal.

Workarounds are fine!

I put my reading in Evernote, but because it doesn’t connect to any citation managers, I need to create proper citations in citation manager software later. This is needlessly complicated and risky if the source is a standard web page. I could read, annotate, and create citations all at once in say, Zotero, but, I don’t know, I just don’t like reading in Zotero. So Evernote and a work-around it is.

Don’t try to force yourself into a solution that won’t work for you.

I know from experience that just leaving a tab open isn’t enough to get me to look at it. In a day or two I stop seeing it at all. This is ultimately why I stopped using an RSS reader. I used to be an avid user of Google Reader, but after Google closed it down, I never could get into the habit of checking Feedly even though I left the tab open.

Do commit to a solution that gets you what you need.

You’ll be developing a new habit and like any new habit, it will feel forced for a while. But, if you’ve made a reasonable choice based on a realistic assessment of how you work, then it should become routine very quickly. If not, re-assess and try again.

But not at the start of Fall or Spring Semester.

Resist the impulse to suddenly do things differently when facing a very busy semester. The time to try to make changes to your habits is Winter or Spring Break, or Summer Term. There always ends up being more you meant to get done than you anticipated, so you’ll have plenty of tasks to manage, but the reduced numbers of meetings, classes and user interactions lowers the stakes while you’re developing the new habits.