We tend to start using a new application, learn just enough to be reasonably functional, then stop exploring its real power and possibilities. When we need to do something, our natural tendency is to try to do it in the same fashion we always have rather than checking to see if there's a better, more efficient way. Sometimes the answer to our pressing need is already there, sitting, waiting patiently at our fingertips.
For example, I spend a huge number of my waking hours surfing the internet. I frequently hapen across information, photos, or articles that I want to comment about on one of my weblogs.
Recently most of my attention has been focused on my robotics weblog, Robots Dreams, and the information I find and want to recycle comes literally from sources all over the internet, and all over the world, in a dozen different languages.
It's tough to keep track of all that information in a way that makes it easy to retrieve, review, and recycle. I've tried using several different web-based applications. My favorite, at least so far, has been Backback, but even with all of it's functionality and flexibility, I still haven't been satisfied.
For lack of a better solution, I turned to the one application that I always have ready and easily available on any computer I happen to be using - Gmail. I would copy and paste urls and text into a new email, then send it to myself.
That worked reasonably well, though given the large number of emails I receive daily (around 200), older note-mails (the phrase I use to refer to this technique) would quickly find their way lower and lower in the inbox list, sometimes disappearing from my awareness, especially if they happened to drop off the first page of the listing.
Thankfully, I'm also a podcast addict. I use podcasts to fill in what would otherwise be dead time when I'm on the morning bus to the office, cycling to the store, or walking our two dogs late at night. My personal iPod is loaded with a real mixture of podcasts across a wide range of eclectic interests.
Although the quality, and noise level, of The Gillmor Gang varies quite a bit, and seems to have gotten much worse in recent months, I remain addicted to the program. The most recent podcast(s) featured Jason Calacanis from Weblogs, Inc., and since I'm a big Engadget fan, I took the time to listen to each segment multiple times.
Calacanis it turns out is a Gmail devotee and uses it extensively. That really struck a sympathetic cord with Steve Gillmor, who is so pro-Google that he is often accused of being on their payroll. Listening to their Gmail discussion, and hearing how Calacanis puts it to use, really opened my eyes.
The immediate solution to my 'note-mail' problem is to save the information in Gmail not as a finished and sent e-mail, but rather to save it as a draft. Sounds simple enough, but for me it was definitely a 'DUH - why didn't I think of that...' moment. It turns out to work great, is easily searchable, and easily categorized.
Now I'm going to proactively search for other new and creative ways to put Gmail to good use.
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