Personal Productivity Websites

[Kooky]

The screws are shockingly rusty.

[Burbage]

The screws are shockingly rusty.

Replace them? They should be a fairly standard screw.

[Kooky]

Hmm, bit wary of tinkering with a microwave but they are outside.

Back to the plot - I did look at that Ikea site and marvel at some people's creativity and thinking outside of the box.

[Bender]

Happy today - I've been doing a huge clearout of paper at home, and have just taken an enormous pile of old paperwork (bank statements and the like) to work, dumped it onto the copier, pressed a few buttons and scanned the lot to PDF files. A huge stack of A4 fits onto one CD!

Next stop: the shredder. Awesome!

[Burbage]

Then you can use the shredded paper as mulch on your garden.

[Morrolan]

or as pillow stuffing...

[Fat Bob]

A label maker? PDFing your statements?

The first is just anal. Stop cooking so many different things and shoving it in your freezer. Cook what you need for that week and always include some fresh veg prepared on day of eating.

The second is only useful if you have access to a large auto feeder scanner. We've got one at work combined with the photocopier. Due to the photocopier being asleep all the time, the warm up times are long (2-5 mins) for printing. Or PDF, walk to your desktop and print. And most banks and telcos in Singapore already give you these things online in PDF form. Some of them have even stopped sending me paper. THAT really reduces the work indeed.

[Bender]

A label maker? PDFing your statements? The first is just anal.

You call that anal? You don't know anal. Or do you, and you don't want to admit it?
Seriously though, I think of it as 'efficient' and yes, maybe a bit anal. I can live with that if it means less work.

The second is only useful if you have access to a large auto feeder scanner. We've got one at work combined with the photocopier.

I've used the one at work. However, you can get very compact desktop scanners that autofeed and scan both sides of the document at once. Fujitsu and Canon make them, there are probably others. And yeah, scanning documents is probably a bit anal too, but I reckon that having an electronic copy is good insurance in the event of a disaster.

[Burbage]

I think buying a labelling gun is anal when masking tape and a black marker does just as good a job.

[cromasaig]

I have folders upon folders of statements in cupboards, attics and storage units across the UK, and I can honestly say I've never had to refer to them. I wonder why I bother keeping them. If I needed the information, the bank would reprint them for me. Of course I'd have to know which one I wanted, I guess. But I've never been asked for proof of purchase for an insurance claim. Maybe because I haven't made many claims, but I've just never had to prove I owned something.

I keep photographs online of the few things of significant value I own, but they're irreplaceable anyway.

[canuck]

label makers are just another device killing the planet, lots of wasted resources.. all that plastic and metals dug out of the earth, and burnt fossil fuels to create something so utterly pointless..

and I am with Croma, statements spread far and wide, but I am now saving the planet, my canadian bank only sends me an online statement, and yeah I don't really read those either.

when will you ever refer to an old bill from SP? or the phone company? why make plastic cds to put in cupboards when you will never look at them, then you pass away, and the world gets to keep your statements for ever on CD sitting in a landfill never rotting away.

I stopped buying blank CDS, DVDs, don't need it, I have thumb drives, people can erase them and reuse them, I have a binder and keep statements for a couple of years then recycle them.

What is your carbon foot print, seriously?

[Lili Von Shtupp]

The best thing I ever did was make high quality scans of all birth certs, passport pages, visas, ICs, marriage cert, degrees, government letters, critical financial statements, etc. Made my life so much easier to have electronic files at my fingertips. But you'll never see me doing this with bills and common statements.

I' ve been trying to go paperless but a couple of firms still insist on sending paper. I think I am also still stuck in liking the paper reminder with all info right there, just tear open the envelope.

I agree about the thumb drive - ugh all those CDs, ROMs some more! Terrible things, they were.

My file cabinet is culled yearly - I only keep what I have to by law. The rest gets shredded - buh-bye!

Now, what to do with the never-ending accumulation of papers that crowds me out of my own desk?

[cromasaig]

Now, what to do with the never-ending accumulation of papers that crowds me out of my own desk?

Throw a tablecloth over it, balance the laptop on top and start again. Not so much a workplace, more a paper club sandwich.

[Bender]

What is your carbon foot print, seriously?

Let's see... we:

• believe in hard data, have monitored our household energy & water consumption for years (excel junkie here) and, per head, use far less than the average Australian;
• are nett exporters of (solar) energy to the grid;
• use rainwater;
• use only energy/water efficient appliances, but admit to having a clothes dryer which we plan to replace with this when it dies;
• use public transport and walk to get to work;
• have a single 4 cylinder diesel car (hard to go without one here), and generally keep cars for 8+ years;
• recycle used CDs via collection at work;
• grow lentils and mung beans (not really, but we do grow veggies);
• blah
• blah
• blah
• etc.

Thumb drives, like all previous storage technologies, will eventually be outmoded and could end up in landfill.



What's yours?

(edit: typos & formatting)

[Lili Von Shtupp]

Footprint schmootprint. Don't people wipe their feet anymore?

[canuck]

low, don't buy useless gadgets that take up energy to produce and ship to singapore

well except pretty shoes from the U.S. I leave lovely footprints

[Fat Bob]

Thumb drives? Why bother keeping the statements on something that can fail?

Zip them, email to two different online email addresses that are kept open by accessing them via Windows Live mail or other such program. I use hotmail and gmail. Only if the net goes does it all go. But if the net is going then think they'll be no need for originals or reprints.

[Bender]

Cannot pass up on another opportunity to be shot down in flames, so here's another website, The Family Handyman, brought to you by Reader's Digest. Lots of useful stuff!

[Possum]

Don't the labels come off in the freezer?

[Bender]

Don't the labels come off in the freezer?

Nope.

[Pinklepurr]

Hey Bender, I love my label maker too...masking tape does not do the same job, and it falls off in the freezer Poss but my label maker labels don't!

[Burbage]

I store a lot of stuff in the freezer at work and the best way I've found to do it is with plastic tags that you can write on in pencil. You just put them into the bag or box with whatever you're storing or you attach them using a twist of wire. Failsafe.

[daffodil]

What crazy, on the edge lives you lead !

[Lichtgestalt]

I bought a film (photo) scanner not so long ago so all old pictures are now digitalized and used to scare everybody in them