search for single repository

Posted by Jack Crawford
Nov 2, 2008 at 02:56 AM

Interesting topic (the main game I guess) and thought provoking comments.

It’s disappointing about UR but that is the bleeding edge world of software. While I own a licence I haven’t used UR since a particularly nasty experience with Kinook. I’m afraid that I can’t say any more in an open forum.

My observations FWIW:

I agree with the comments that a single PIM repository is not necessarily a good thing or a realistic expectation. After a great many painful experiences backing the wrong software horse and even operating systems (I wasted half a life on OS/2), I’ve lately realised that it is all about contexts.

CONTEXT 1
Is it a work context or personal hobby context? I’m in the first context and I simply don’t have the time to be moving data into a central repository no matter how easy it is. I have tried it many times, most recently with OneNote, and as soon as work pressures build, I stop moving emails, file links etc into the central PIM.

My work system has to be totally automated and in my face most of the time for me to maintain the discipline. Also the benefits have to justify the effort. You soon realise that if the effort involved in maintaining and interrogating the central repository does not consistently help you directly, you fall off the wagon. Sometimes it happens subliminally, without you even being aware that you have stopped doing it, before it is too late. You then feel guilty about your failure to be “productive”.

CONTEXT 2
So what system should you use? What’s been working for me lately (spectacularly so, to my great surprise) is that the system I use is rooted in the context in which I operate most of the time. Specifically, do you operate in a world driven by email, or project management, or creative writing, or web research etc etc?

I’m currently in a world in which most of my tasks and projects are driven by email. After years of trying to move data out of email systems, I now use Outlook “properly” using Clear Context and the Michael Linenberger system. It’s like a load has been lifted off my shoulders. My productivity has increased and I’m no longer worried about maintaining “the system”. It looks after itself and I can concentrate on the things that matter. I still use OneNote - but more creatively for drafts, meeting preparations and so forth - not as a catch-all repository. I’m also keeping an eye on InfoQube which seems to be progressing very well.

By inference, if I was writer or a researcher I would be using alternative tools that work better in those contexts.

In summary it’s horses for courses. Use what works best for you and your world - and don’t get too distracted about the latest you-beaut all in one solution that seems to promise the world but is unlikely to deliver.

Jack