Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with organizer

Non-cavernous pill organizers

Commander Rachek — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:03:21 -0800

I've recently started a very-long-term daily medication. I'd like to keep the pills in some sort of daily/weekly organizer. All of the pill boxes in the drug store are of the gigantic, multiple-horse-pill, large-print variety -- much larger than what I want or need. Where can I buy/how can I make a pill box that holds just one small pill for each day? I'm a college student who moves around a fair bit, so something that can withstand being kicked around in a backpack or duffel bag would be nice, too.

IAF National Leadership Training?

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:12:14 -0800

Has anyone here participated in (or know someone who has participated in) the Industrial Area Foundation's National Leadership Training? I'm being sent to attend a 7-day IAF National Leadership Training session by a community organizing group in my region, and I haven't been able to find much info online, either official or anecdotal.

I've done research on the IAF in general, read Alinsky, Obama, etc., but I'd love to hear from recent IAF training alum about what was or wasn't useful, who else attends, what they wish they had known going in, and other advice on how to maximize the experience. Because I'm being sponsored for a large chunk of change (especially for an NPO in this economy) I'm anxious to have something to show for this experience.

Throwaway email: saulalinskylives@gmail.com

Where is that annual productivity calendar?

pinkbungalow — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:31:54 -0800

I'm looking for a printable calendar template. A while ago I saw one on a productivity blog somewhere but darn... didn't bookmark. The one I saw was a non-traditional yearly (monthly?) planner type. It may have been an excel template or similar. It was a vertical calendar that looked sort of like a list, not the traditional rectangular month with boxes. I need to put more than one month on a page. Even a printable pdf will work - I don't need downloadable software or anything. I'll be using it for staff scheduling and planning ad campaigns. It doesn't have to have a lot of space to write, just enough room for a first name. The ability to print quarterly per page or 6 months per page would be ideal. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I could create one in excel but the one I remember was already in a great format. thanks!

Voice-activated portable personal organizer

mumstheword — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:35:36 -0800

Looking for voice-activated/voice-recognition personal organizer/time management portable device for person who does best with audio rather written prompts/reminders. Is there by chance an add-on for a 4-gig Ipod (which she has and uses a lot) that will do this? If not, what hand-held reasonably-priced (under $100) device (intuitive, not complicated...preferably managed w/ voice-recognition/activated software) that you can recommend. This is not for a very busy business-person, but for a person w/ a learning disability with strong verbal skills but poor written skills/comprehension to simply manage everyday life...memos, appointments, etc.

Muji Chronotebook To Sweden?

avocade — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:59:04 -0800

Where can I order a Muji Chronotebook and ship it to Sweden? It seems like this wonderful creation is either out of stock, non-existent or simply "too precious to ship," as I got the impression when calling the NYC Muji store. Please help, I'm deeehehesperate.

http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2008/04/muji_chronotebo.php

organize my pack

Zed_Lopez — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:26:39 -0800

Pen/small item organizer insert for backpack exterior pocket? I'm considering a new backpack (as in I have it and have to decide whether to return it.) Most things about it are good, but it lacks the bunch of pockets for pens and other things that I've come to rely on. The exterior pocket is about 11"x12" -- anyone know of an organizer insert that would fit that space?

Searching old questions, I already saw Tom Bihn's Freudian Slip. It's too big, but that's the sort of thing I'm looking for.

Photo organizing software that renames as I drag photos into order?

SethLeonard — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:03:07 -0800

I am in the process of scanning about 1,500 photos from my life (thank you Epson auto feeder) and am now tasked with organizing them into a useful digital library. The order is almost completely random, and while I can organize them by subject into folders, what I really need is a program that will let me drag and drop thumbnails into the order that I want them and then rename the files so that they remain in that order. Does anyone know of such a software program or have any other suggestions for doing this? And I'm on a Mac (Leopard), but have Parallels if need be. Thanks! Seth

film directory organizing software

beerbajay — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:58:43 -0800

Movie organizing software for directories of film files/subs/etc? I want to add extended metadata (year, director, country, original title, watched?) to each film I have stored. Currently I have everything in nicely named directories, like:
/movies/Title (Original title) (Director, year)/

But this isn't that useful since sometimes I would like to sort/view by director or year or country. Each film has minimally a video file, sometimes subtitle file(s), sometimes cover scans.

I have a copy of J River Media Center, but it doesn't appear to be able to catalog directories as a single unit, but instead only catalogs the individual files, which (a) breaks up the "package" for each film (b) sometimes produces multiple records for the same film if the film has been split into two sections.

I don't need or want any fancy interface; I don't need IMDB data; I don't need cast, crew, etc; I don't need a ratings system; I don't need covers or screenshots; I would be totally satisfied with some extended metadata for each directory that I could show in Explorer.

So, what software can do this for me? I'm on Windows XP, but would be interested in hearing about things that'll work on linux as well.

Best ebook library management tool?

thedaniel — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 02:37:24 -0800

What is the best ebook library management software you mefites can recommend? I've googled about a bit and found some things that didn't look too promising or were not available on either of my platforms of choice. What I'd like is a total library management solution, similar to what iTunes or Amarok does for music. I have a Linux workstation as well as a Mac, so I would like suggestions for non-Windows tools only, unless the tool is so superior that it's worth the hassle getting it working with Wine or somesuch.

Help me find some organizing software!

tomble — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:43:36 -0800

Looking to organise myself with an outlook style time management program. I'm trying to get organised in my work, and I'm looking for software that can keep track of scheduled events, to do lists, contacts, possible tracking sales leads, etc.

There seems to be quite a bit of software out there to do this, and I've tried some basic ones like Sunbird, but I want something a bit more substantial. I don't have the time to try too many out though so a recommendation seems the way to go.

It needs to run on XP, I don't mind paying for it if it's good, synchronising between work and home would be nice, multi user over a network would also be good but isn't entirely necessary. Any other suggestions about what I can use it for are welcome!

Seeking compact professional looseleaf binder

alms — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:57:21 -0800

Where can I buy an attractive, compact loose-leaf binder that uses standard lined or graphed paper? I want something I can carry around with me that is suitable for business settings, does not contain proprietary personal organizer sheets, is not as thick as the Manhattan Yellow Pages, and is not outrageously overpriced. Something like this would be pretty good, but I can't for the life of me find simple lined or graph paper to put into it.

The Levenger Circa products are ok (they are compact and the sheets of paper can be moved around and replaced), but I'd prefer leather or vinyl to open-backed cardboard and the paper refills are proprietary and outrageously expensive.

This place seems to have small standard loose-leaf binders I could use if I didn't care about looking professional (which I do).

DYI Planner has all sorts of tips if I wanted to make something myself with duct tape, a paper cutter, and a three-hole punch. But I don't. I want to buy something.

What I really want is a simple padfolio, but with a 1/2 inch three-ring binder in place of a pad of paper. Is that such an odd thing to want? I'm amazed that I can't find this anywhere.

Oh, preferred size is on the order of 6 x 9 inches.

I need a replacement organizer for school.

internet!Hannah — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 16:13:11 -0800

I am looking for a new academic planner, but I have some picky requirements. Can anyone help? The past two semesters of school I've been using this amazing planner I got for Christmas last year to keep organized in my classes. It really ended up helping me stay organized since I am both taking a ton of difficult courses, and in the school ROTC and band. Unfortunately, when I went to reorder the planner around a month ago, I was informed it was discontinued, and that it had "no recommended replacement". My planner was an At-A-Glance Cambridge planner that was essentially a full-sized version of this. (This one is way too small to be of any use, though.)

Now, here's where things get tricky. I've been trying to find a replacement, but what made my last planner so awesome is apparently really hard to find. You see, what made my planner so useful was that the second page of each week had a copious "To-Do" section and a "Notes" section, which is how I ultimately organized all of my work (assignments listed under the to-do section, with assignment details under the notes, etc). You can see this same organization in the smaller example above.

However, when shopping for a new planner, I haven't been able to find anything even remotely similar. I've gone to all the brick-and-mortar office supplies places and been googling my little heart away, to no avail. The closest thing I've been able to find is this one but the weekly notes section still isn't big enough to be quite what I need, and the large monthly notes section doesn't quite compensate. Not to mention it's a July-June planner (though I'm starting to care less and less about that).

So, can anyone help me out? To sum it all up, I'd like a full size weekly/monthly planner with a large notes and to-do section (or something equivalent) for each week. School starts in two weeks and I'm getting desperate.

Recommend me a good contact manager for phone numbers and names?

jacobean — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:41:56 -0800

I'm looking for a "lite" contact manager for my PC? I am tired of losing scraps of paper with temporary phone numbers on them...I do not want to enter them into my Outlook contacts manager. Is there any no "bells and whistles" application out there that I can quickly tap in the details into my PC? Even better would be an application that syncs with a Palm device?

I need professional help. Really.

jacquilynne — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 17:36:04 -0800

Can you recommend a home organizer in Toronto? I have a 'gift certificate' from my mother that entitles me to hire someone to come in and help organize my house - helping me sort and toss and design better storage and whatever else. The 'gift certificate' though, is just a promise that she will pay for it if I find someone to do it.

Does anyone have any recommendations of services they've used? I've got the Professional Organizers of Canada weblink so I've got a list of all of them, but I'd like to know if anybody has used any of them in particular.

The ultimate goal would be for me to be able to have people over to my house without needing 3 days notice to clean up the mess first. As a side note, I really, really, really hate phones, so if there's a website I can reach them at, all the better.

Help me organize my pictures. Without Picasa.

niles — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 14:30:46 -0800

I like Picasa, but I really like open source. Like digiKam, only on Windows. Can you help? Ok, so now that I have a decent camera, I am once again putting my "I'm not OCD but I am on TV" organizational skills to use with my pictures. I have used Picasa in the past, and it's great. Two problems: They seem to have removed tagging (yeah, I know you can do it online), and it's closed source. I really don't like the whole "locked in" thing, so I'd like a (free) open source program. As far as I can tell, digiKam is what I want, but it only works on KDE, and it's not worth me setting up a linux box.

Here's what I'm looking for:

Can import pictures directly from a memory card and/or folder
I can create albums containing any picture (rather like iTunes playlists)
Can organize/display pictures by date
Supports tagging
Picasa isn't supposed to be used commercially. Yeah, no one will ever know, but I could be doing some commercial / freelance stuff. Commercial usage would be nice.

Is there anything like this that is FOSS, and runs on Windows (xp)?

I realize that I have just about described Picasa, but I don't want to completely sell my soul to teh Google. Not yet, at least.

Keynote for the Web

Jimbob — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 05:04:29 -0800

In the last 24 hours I've discovered Keynote (no, not that Keynote) and it's pretty much revolutionized the way I organise my information and do my work. Is there a web-based equivalent? The basic form of Keynote is:

(a) A tabbed interface - each tab is a "note".
(b) Within each tab you can set up a "tree".
(c) Each node on the tree is an RTF text document.
(d) It's all movable, searchable, exportable.

Somehow this format is incredibly intuitive - it makes much more sense to me than all the other "mind mapping" or Wiki style of information management software. I can put a different project in each tab, and under each tab set up nodes and sub-nodes for a things to do list, copies of correspondence, things to remember, research data, analysis, lists, you name it.

But it would be killer if I could keep all my information online in a form that is accessible from anywhere. Now days the web seems full of "Online AJAX to-do lists" - any ideas about something more like Keynote?

Photo organizing software (PC) for my mom

einarorn — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 05:26:40 -0800

Photo organizing software (PC) for my mom Alright, I'm going to teach my mom how to organize photos on her PC. She currently doesn't use any program to organize them, but rather just puts them in folders inside My pictures without even re-naming them. Of course it's impossible for her to find photos now, since she has hundreds of them.

I use iPhoto on the Mac and am looking for something similarily easy for my mom's PC. What I basically want her to be able to do is the following: Change name of photos, organize into albums, remove red eyes, add tags (for single or multiple photos), and export to Flickr.

This of course has to be as easy as possible. Any ideas? The program doesn't have to be free, the important thing is that it's easy enough so she'll use it.

Help me organize all these factoids!

nyterrant — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 12:06:46 -0800

I need a good way to organize - or, barring that, sift through - the many small but important factoids that I encounter on a daily basis. In my job, I frequently come across many small, unrelated and useful pieces of information. One example might be, "Company Y expects worldwide shipments of widget X to fall by Z per cent next year." Another might be completely unrelated, such as "Such and such business A is thought to be interested in buying a stake in company B."

I usually don't use this information right away, but I like to keep it because it often comes in handy at a later time. Right now, my MO is to make a note on a piece of paper, and promptly lose it in the shuffle of paperwork on my desk. This frequently leads to frantic searching for said factoid, and much unwanted stress.

What I'm looking for is a piece of software or other service that will allow me to enter these factoids as I find them, then save them and search for them whenever I need them. That way, instead of rifling through my desk to find out about company Y's expecations for the Z market next year, I could just type "Company Y" and "Z widget" into a search field and boom, there it is.

Does anyone know of a service out there that does this?

Good organisation software for OS X?

docgonzo — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 16:20:26 -0800

Help me replace iCal. I'm using iCal but it is not a perfect fit: Yes, I'm picky, but a number of things -- no recurring tasks, for example; and slow response even without tons of data -- has me looking for a replacement. Any suggestions? What's out there for OS X? Are any of the Ajax-thingies mature enough yet?

Am I asking too much of iCal?

NewGear — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 18:24:49 -0800

[OSX FILTER] I want to print on index cards, but indirectly. Help me figure out how to print to a PDF sized at 3"x5". Okay, so I've decided to follow the crowd (or at least a segment of the crowd) and start using a variation of the Hipster PDA. I want to print out my daily, weekly, and monthly calendars from iCal onto 3x5 index cards. I'd like to use OSX's "save as PDF" function to print the files as PDFs, then take them to work where I can print them to my heart's content for free. The problem is, when I try to print them, the month header and the little colour-coded guide to the different calendar types take up most of the card, and the actual meat of the information, the calendar itself, is all crammed into a space the height of a centimeter, and is run-together and worthless.

Currently, I'm creating a custom paper size of 3"x5" in Page Setup, turning off the "Print To-Do Lists" and "Print Mini-Months" options in the Print Dialog under "iCal", and then saving them as PDF. I'm running OSX 10.3.9, and iCal 1.5.5.

Is there any hope of getting iCal to print nice, clean calendars (monthly, weekly, and daily) onto 3x5 index cards, or am I SOL with iCal and need to migrate to some other program? I was so hoping this would be easy...