The Art Of Yojimbo
Sometimes, when floating about on the world wide web, you come across those little article that make you think a bit differently about something you do or how you manage something. A few weeks ago I came across such an article over at boagworld.com . It’s all about managing you ideas.
I don’t know about you, but I get a lot of ideas. During the day when walking into town, or to a meeting. During the evening when watching a Film or TV show. Sometimes these ideas are something that I need to act on now, other times these ideas are the sort of thing I want to hold onto, and other times still I have to communicate this idea for them to have any use.
I had historically tired to archive these ideas and thoughts inside my head. Inside Notebooks (in an untidy scrawl no one could read – lion) and sometimes inside notes on my laptop computer. I did this in such a way that I hadn’t really noticed that I was doing it. Anyone who knows me personally will know that I am the type of guy who always has a useless fact for any occasion and I am sure they would agree, I did use to store some strange stuff. But, I didn’t realise this was what I was doing. At least not until reading Paul’s article.
Paul’s article made it clear to me I had to find another way. In his article he talks about a piece of software for the Mac called yojimbo. Yojimbo is basically a database plugged into a pretty interface. It allows you to record notes, ideas, password and the like while tagging them for later sort ability at the same time.
To me, the key to this applications usefulness is the ability to tag, label and sort these items. This introduced the reviewing element into my “Idea Flow�. This sorting fettling, thinking about and sometimes deleting of notes has given me the power to make use of my ideas in a far more constructive way. I have been able to act when I needed to, and I have been able to develop ideas when they required it. With a new school year looming next week I have found a way to make the art of yojimbo work for me. Could you?