Sticky Notes - unsophisticated technology!

My computer was upgraded last week and I am now getting to grips with the Windows 7 operating system. I'm sure that there is plenty of sophisticated functionality and work-flow enhancement that I should be excited about, but instead I have to tell you about my new favourite thing.... Sticky Notes! Sticky Notes are virtual Post-it notes that you 'write' (type) and leave on your (computer's) desktop. It comes as no surprise to me to learn that the Post-it note, although invented in the late 70s, made it big in the 80s. Yet another element of 80s culture (I've already confessed to leotards, leg-warmers and dance movies in my post on Thing 8) with which I feel a deep affinity! In all seriousness, ignore anyone who tells you Sticky Notes are just a silly gimmick (that's you, long-suffering colleague). If, like me, you are forever scribbling down lists and things to do on scraps of paper (or genuine Post-it notes) which float around your desk and are in danger of being swept off or buried at any moment, then Sticky Notes may be just the ticket. I wrote a couple last night to remind myself of some things I need to do today, and sure enough I'd forgotten all about these things until I saw the Sticky Notes on my computer desktop when I logged on this morning!

On a more philosophical level, I've been trying to work out why it is that I like Sticky Notes so much. There are many ways in which I could have harnessed computer, mobile phone and web technology to remind me about the things I have written on the notes (for example by setting reminders in Microsoft Schedule+, or an online calendar, or my phone). However, the key for me here is that the Sticky Note replicates almost exactly the unsophisticated and very visual in-your-face way in which I do things outside my computer (i.e. scrawling on Post-its or scrap paper), and it's more efficient (won't blow away or fall off the desk etc.). It suits the way my mind works. Sometimes technology can be too sophisticated. I think the Sticky Note is a perfect example of the effectiveness of keeping it simple (so there, long-suffering colleague!)

Thing 8 - Google calendar vs. my 80s lifestyle

My diary...

I don't have a lot to say about Google calendar. It was easy to set up and seems easy to use, but I currently have no use for it. At work us staff members use Microsoft Schedule+ to record, for our own and each other's benefit, appointments and activities. There are at present no plans for any kind of public facing calendar (one step at a time - we barely have a website at the moment!), but I can definitely see that Google calendar would be a strong candidate if there were. As for personal use - well, outside work I'm still living in the 80s. Not only do I spend a lot of time in a leotard and leg-warmers and watching movies like Flashdance, Dirty Dancing, and Footloose, I don't even have a computer at home, let alone internet access; and my mobile phone, although not the size of a brick, is definitely not internet enabled. Instead, I organise my life in a good old-fashioned paperback diary. I did briefly think about using Google calendar as a sort of back-up, in case I lose the hard copy, but therein probably lies the path to mix-ups, double-bookings, or complete no-shows, because I put an event in one and not the other, etc. etc. So I'm going to stick with the paperback. Which reminds me, in a few weeks time (or maybe already - I've not been into Paperchase recently) I need to make a date to trawl the shops for next (academic) year's diary, an exercise which I find ridiculously fun. Now, where's my diary...