Where Should I Keep My Stuff? - DBR 054

Episode 54 of the Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast podcast, hosted by Larry Tribble, Ph.D., titled "Where Should I Keep My Stuff? - DBR 054" was published on November 1, 2024 and runs 50 minutes.

November 1, 2024 ·50m · Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

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Episode Description

I talk about the tool set for the kind of information and attention management that Attention Compass provides.

I get a lot of questions about: I use tool X. What about tool Y? What tools should I use? Most of this revolves around "where should I keep my stuff?"

And we'll talk about that today.

When I say tool, I mean online service, system, database, to keep my stuff. Google Keep, Apple Notes, Clickup, etc.

The information storage tool is a core part of the Attention Compass system. Our information is a primary consumer of our attention in two ways: comprehending it and finding it when we need it. The storage tool is primarily about 'finding'.

It is vitally important that you have a tool, a place. We'll talk about why that is.

And we'll talk about the purpose and properties of a good tool.

So here we'll lay out what the purpose of a tool is, some of the properties that a tool should have. It's not exhaustive, and that way, you'll have a better picture of what's going on.

In general, the tool here is the container and storehouse for our information

We're talking about a tool for personal information management – a storehouse for information. Our storehouses have "containers".
A library (information storehouse) has books (information containers).
Is having a container the ideal? I really can't envision another way to do it.

Container

The container defines what our information can do, and more importantly, defines what we can do with our information.
Container is not a rigorously defined term,
Challenge: medialessness = 'container' as a metaphorical term it's all just electronic, and we can mimic containers – OneNote = electronic paper
(Almost) everything about OneNote to me looked like a piece of paper.
OneNote – an astonishing difference
Back to the container – metaphor from the physical
Now containers are really just metaphorical
The app developer creates the container and creates the metaphor for how you use the container
And that's how information is stored in computer apps

The 'right'container

The 'right' container is pretty murky - we don't know what a fundamental unit of information is (it ain't the bit)
So we have to create our own containerized units of information – examples: a note, a text field in an app, a snippet of audio
The kind of container matters in how we're able to use the tool, and what the tool is able to do.

Another example of container: a calendar appointment

Certain kinds of information goes in there very well.
Other kinds of information doesn't fit well
Can I mangle the container in such a way that it supports storing a chapter of your book?
a Google Calendar calendar event may have different fields than an Outlook calendar calendar event.
Are they both calendar events? Or is one different enough that we need to come up with a different name for it?

Container names don't convey much information

Back in the day, it was easier because the medium defined the properties of the information.
A note in evernote and a note in onenote are different critters, because they have different ways they can interact.

What kinds of containers are best?

The PIM folks give a list of kinds of information that our systems should support. Does a tool have containers that support these four kinds of information well?
You can say, Okay, well, here's why it would be a good Personal Information Management tool, and here's where it would be weak.
People get enamored of a container type and devote themselves to that container type without much thought about Well, is it an effective container? "my tool is the best tool, and it works for me…"
From a pure informational standpoint, there is very little difference between the bits that are stored in a contact record versus the bits that are stored in a calendar container.
I counsel people to not get so married to one app, but really think about what the app does

Also, a system has properties – these are more about the library (storehouse) than the book(s) (containers)

Property is something that applies to all the different container categories equally
Properties that a personal information system needs to have

Security
Data availability
Information management - archiving, backups, etc.

I've discovered some good properties of information that are just now being embodied in tools,

The storage metaphor
The retrieval mechanism
It's fine to store it, but if you can't retrieve it, it's useless
Global Search has its place, but it is not a panacea.

List of four

The personal information management people have four kinds of content that a system needs to handle.
They're not perfect categories. Classification systems – Mendeleev's Table of the Elements
Contact management is about the people in our lives
Calendar information is all about managing our time
Communication management is about interactions with people
Records management = historical data management. This is the blurriest of the categories.
In attention compass we talk about actionable information versus reference information. Maybe a fifth kind?