JB in Frisco

Well I’ve already committed the cardinal sin of blogging. I started a blog and then took 10+ days off.

So, without further ado…. 2007 is all about simplifying life. I won’t get into ‘why’ right now but those that know me hear me discuss the topic relentlessly. It’s beyond obsession. It’s part of my DNA. I’ve taken bits and pieces from all over to build ‘my way’. After two years of serious effort, one thing is certain; the system is constantly evolving.

Here’s an example, currently I keep all my documents (excel, pdf, ppt, & word) on a Dell laptop. When I’m at the office, “My Documents” folder syncs upon connection to the server. Understanding ‘offline docs’ was the beginning of my journey into the world of information organization.

A lifetime of using multiple computers in multiple locations and a fear of losing data created thousands of duplicate files for me. I was simply overwhelmed by how to get my arms around it. The trigger, a five discussion with my IT guy.

By aggregating everything into “My Documents” and setting up for offline syncing, I finally I had a solution to get rid of thousands of unnecessary docs. I had one repository to place all my ‘stuff’. Piles of paper were reduced to an organized albeit expansive (Hooray for GTD!) folder system on my laptop that constantly backed up the most recent changes without creating new files.

However, moving to the Mac platform has created the need to find new alternative solutions. I wish to disengage from Microsoft Exchange. I don’t want to the upkeep, the maintenance, or the lack of control over my data by something I need an expert to assist me with.

Today I checked out the new features in Google Docs; click this link and take a tour.

I must say that I’m impressed. I was primarily curious to see if Gdocs would be a solution for my collaboration needs.

After spending some time with it today, I’m going to make Gdocs my primary storage location for all my  documents. The ability to save in many formats, combined with tagging and archiving, and running in tandem with my other GTD tools (del.icio.us, gmail, greader, gnotebook, backpack) gives me a powerful and flexible platform to become a ‘GTD ninja’. Mind like water.

Still not sure what I’m going to do for a physical backup as it would be nice to have something in the event Google goes down. But for now, I’m going to put my faith in Google to act as my new server.

For 80% – 90% of the stuff I want to keep, Gdocs will be perfect. I’m hoping for an offline feature in the near future (similar to Google Reader) that will allow for offline backup and syncing. So my main task now is to begin moving my files over and figuring out parallel structure so that my tags/labels will match the folders that Gdocs uses.

What a great reason to go thru all my old files and clean out what I no longer need.

One more quick tidbit, while playing around with Gdocs, I discovered Google Maps for mobile and ended up installing it on my Treo700p. This was the most simple install I’ve ever done on the Treo. Treo pulled it down off the web and installed it within two minutes.

I launched, input my home and work addresses and within 15 seconds I had a detailed route, complete with zoom shots of my building. Unfriggin believable!

I can’t wait to utilize this tool in real-time. I’m sure I will feel nostalgic about mapquest and how I no longer need to print directions before meetings. Not.

No mas I say. Less paper. Less stress. Life ‘on-demand’. I love it.