Reminders: Setting up Tasks

I will be honest. If there is anything I want to do or have to do in a day it is on my to-do list. I do this so that I do not forget to accomplish the important things, but at the same time I do not forget to enjoy myself. Last post I discussed how I like to view the items on my list, and today I will be going over how I add an item to my list.


To add an item, tap the plus sign in the top right corner of the initital list view or date view screen. In the screen that comes up (shown above) you will be able to give the task a title, set reminders and repeats, choose the list you want the task to be added to, and add priorities and notes. I use all of these fields except for priority. For reminders, I like to be alerted when I need to do the task. You can come up with a great comprehensive list of things you want or need to do, but if you do not add reminders to them, they will sit on the list forever. Even if you actively check your list, it is difficult to remember every time you want to do something.

Know what your schedule is for the day, then look at the tasks you want to do in between the events on your schedule. Make sure to allow traveling time between tasks. For example, if you cannot start your laundry until you get home, estimate the time you will be home based on when you will leave school/work and then set your reminder for that time you expect to be back. I also make sure to leave myself a little time to settle in when I get home before I let my phone start bossing me around :) This might take a little bit of practice, but every time you set another one up you will learn what works best for you. And of course, things always come up, so do not feel bad about changing your reminders after the fact. You cannot anticipate everything that will happen in your day.

In the next two posts I will go over what the notifications look like for the reminders you do set up for your tasks and how to use the GPS locator in your reminders. Hope you are having fun setting up your task list!

Reminders: Using Your iPhone for To-Do Lists

For this week’s posts I had originally planned on talking about the to-do list program (Toodledo) that I have been using on my phone for about a year, but with the release of iOS5 and the preinstalled Reminders program, I have switched to using it and I am very pleased! I will be walking through how I use this program and some of the great notification features. Like all of the to-do list programs I have used, however, this program has definite room for improvement.

The great thing about this program is that the interface is well organized and it is easy to view your tasks, but even better, it is very easy to set reminders for those tasks. I find that if I do not have a reminder set for the time I will need to see the task, I always forget to check the to-do list before it is too late. This means I end up having to postpone the task to another date. And who wants to do tomorrow what you can do today? I would rather knock off most of my to-do list items than have the tasks hanging ominously over my head until the next available time I have to take care of them. That will just mean less time for me to do things I want to do; instead I am stuck doing what I have to do.


When you open the program it automatically opens to List view which just shows you all the tasks you have saved to your lists in the order you added them. You can have multiples lists, and at this point I have a list called Reminders and another one called Homework that I only use to remind myself of items that are class related but not due so that I would not be using my calendar to remind myself of them already.


I do not like to view my tasks in “list view” though, so I immediately select the Date view tab at the top so that the program shows me today’s tasks. From there I can scroll through by day to see what I have to do. Unfortunately, the day is not organized by the times you set to complete the tasks, but at least in a day view it is easier to tell when you planned on doing what.


If you have this program hopefully you will give it a try. I will be posting throughout this week about setting up reminders, setting up your notification settings, and how to use the location feature of the program. Stay tuned!

Spinach Calzones

Ingredients:

1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 box (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach thawed
15 oz part-skim Ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 oz shredded Mozzarella cheese
1 lb pizza dough

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.


2. Melt butter in a pan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic to the butter and cook until soft. Crush oregano between your hands into the pan. Remove the pan from the burner and set aside.


3. Squeeze as much liquid as you can from the spinach and chop it into smaller pieces.


4. In a bowl combine the onion mixture, spinach, ricotta, parmesan, and mozzarella cheese.


5. Cut the dough into 12 equal pieces on lightly floured surface. Stretch each piece into a 5 inch with your hands.


6. For each calzone, scoop up a ball of the mixture and place it on one side of the dough. Lightly brush the edges of the unfilled side with water, fold over the filling and press lightly to seal. Gently roll up the edges and pinch them together. Make several prick marks with a fork on the top of each calzone.


7. Place the calzones on an ungreased baking sheet (I lined mine with foil for easy clean-up). Bake for 10-15 minutes at 375 until the calzones are light brown. Remove them from the oven and let them stand for 5 minutes before serving. (If you are planning to freeze the calzones, let them come to room temperature before freezing.)

These calzones are great for those who like to cook ahead to have a freezer full of easy meals. These calzones lasted very well in the freezer and reheat well too. I like to make a lot of them and save them in individual baggies so that I can grab them for an easy, quick lunch. They are also really fun to make with friends because you get flour all over the place when you put the filling in the pieces of dough.

Setting Up Your Calendar

Today, I will explain how I have set up my calendar in my iPhone 4, but it is also an explanation of how my regular calendar is set up. If you are using a BlackBerry it is very similar to the iPhone, and these suggestions transfer easily. I used to have a BlackBerry, so if you have any specific issues feel free to post a comment below, and I will try to get back to you will a solution.

It is simple to sync your calendars from your computer to your phone. Calendars saved on Outlook or iCal can be set up to sync whenever you connect your phone to your computer. You can also set up your Google Calendar to sync with your phone, and you do not need to attach your phone to your computer to keep that calendar up to date. If you have the latest software update (iOS5), you can also sync your Outlook or iCal calendars without a wire.

The calendar on the iPhone 4 now has a list view (top left) with a list of your calendar items by date, a day view (top right) that shows events on one day, a month view (bottom) that shows the month with the days selectable from there, and now there is a week view if you rotate the phone to landscape view.



The calendar displays each of your calendars together in one, so if you have separate calendars like I do they will appear together. For example, I keep a calendar in Outlook and another on Google. One of them is my regular schedule (classes, homework, appointments, work, etc) and the other is online because it has my charity group's events. As you can see from the week view (shown below), my regular schedule is in green (the colors are customizable) and the volunteer schedule is in purple. Also, you can see how I record when I have assignments due.



As I mentioned in my last post, I do use an assignment program (inClass) to stay on top of assignments, but I also use my regular calendar as well so that on any given day I can see the classes and other appointments I have with any homework or assignments right next to the day and time they are due or should be done by if they are not handed in assignments. I specifically put "DUE" as the first word if it is something to be handed in. I also capitalize tests so that they stand out (shown below). As you can see, the week view is not an appropriate way to view individual calendar items, but I do use it to see the available or "free" time in my schedule.



For more tricks to organizing your time, stick around for next week's posts on setting up to-do lists on your smartphone! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them as a comment below.

Amazing Apps for Increased Productivity, Organization and Fun

Hello again! I apologize for the long hiatus, but I had other priorities (graduate school and job searching) that caused me to put my blog on the back burner. Luckily, I now have a full-time position lined up and can spend more time doing what I love: organizing!

I promised a while back to go through the apps in my (then) new iPhone 4. This is a list of my favorites and why. These apps are probably not all available on BlackBerry or Android. Also, note that the apps are divided into categories, and those are the folders I keep them in on my phone screen. Some of these programs are standard and cannot be removed even if you do not want them. All of these are free downloads unless I have mentioned otherwise. Oh, and yes, the background picture is the newest addition to our family, Bailey, our little Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy!


Outside of folders:

Phone - The calling function of the phone has speed dials, recent calls, contacts, keypad and voicemail.
ToodleDo - The best to-do list program I have found so far. Apple just came out with the Reminders app, but it does not have enough organizing options for me to switch to it. ToodleDo is extremely customizable and I can get exactly what I need from it in terms of view, reminders, dates, notes, etc. This program cost $1.99 when my wonderful boyfriend gifted it to me :)
Mail - The email program where you can connect personal and enterprise email accounts to receive and send messages.
Messages - The texting program to send SMS and MMS messages to other cell phone users.
Calendar - The calendar uses your Outlook, iCal, and Google Calendars to show you any and all schedules you have saved on your computer or online. This program is great because you can see all of your appointments in a list or for the day or month, and now if you change the orientation of the phone you can see week view! This addition has made scheduling much easier.
Safari - The internet browser. My mom really appreciates that I have this when she needs a research question answered on the go!

School:

inClass - This is a great app to organize your coursework. I have all of my assignments entered into it because it sends you reminders about upcoming assignments and it also uses a calendar to show you all of your coursework for the semester. You can also save notes to particular classes containing text, voice, photos or other file types. It is also a great way to store syllabus information in an organized fashion because you can add class details for all the classes you add and also add teachers and their details.
Grades 2 - This is a grade calculator that uses your previous GPA data to calculate overall GPA while allowing you to track current grades for your classes in a more detailed format. Add each class and the different syllabus items with their weights along with their due dates. Once you receive a grade for an assignment, add the grade to the program and it tells you how you are doing in the class!

Notes:

Dragon Dictation - This records your voice and converts it to text. I really like to use this when brainstorming so that I can say my thoughts instead of trying to keep up with them by typing. It is not perfect, but it learns as you go.
CamScanner - This allows you to take a picture of a document and reshape it to look as if you scanned it flat (it removes the angle you took the picture). This is handy when you need to copy someone's notes but do not want to make them wait. This way you can just snap a picture, reshape, and hand them back their notebook.
Voice Memos - An audio recorder that can record long segments of audio. Great for lecture classes that do not have many notes written on the board. Also great for recording long meetings that you might need to reference comments from later. Never use recordings of others without their permission though! I only use these for my own reference when I know that I will need to go back over someone's explanation afterwards.

Social:

Facebook - If you use Facebook this is a decent app to stay up to date. Personally I am not crazy about Facebook, but I have some notifications set up to alert me about personal messages and posts to my wall so that I do not miss anyone trying to contact me on Facebook rather than emailing.
Viber - This application allows you to call others who have the program no matter where they are in the world with no international calling charges. This is great for those with friends or family overseas. This program also has text message capabilities.
Skype - This app allows you to use the video chat program through your phone. This means that you can use your phone to video chat with anyone using Skype no matter if they are on their phone or their computer.
HeyTell - This app allows you to send voice messages easily to others who use the program.
WhatsApp - This program is another useful tool for travelers because it allows you to send text, photo and video messages free anywhere in the world using an internet connection. When I bought this program to use with my boyfriend when he was overseas in Hong Kong it cost me $1.99. Definitely worth the price.

Location:

Google Maps - This app allows you to use your current GPS location to search your area map or get directions. I cannot tell you how many times I use this program in a week, but it has definitely saved me on numerous occasions. Cannot recommend this enough! If you are using it for directions, you have the option of getting directions by car, public transportation, or for walking. It also uses the addresses you have saved to your contacts so you do not have to type them out every time.
Tip Calculator - This tip calculator allowed you to adjust the tip percentage and number of people splitting the bill easily. If you eat out in groups often like we do, I would recommend this app.
Light - This app uses the flash in the iPhone 4 camera as a flashlight. This has been very useful on the occasions where I have found myself in the dark! It also will signal SOS if you are having an emergency.

Entertainment:

Netflix - If you have Netflix, you can watch the online streaming movies on your phone! This is a great program when you are stuck somewhere waiting.
Kindle - Kindle allows you to read books on your phone. There are many free books and they download straight to your phone.
YouTube - Just like Netflix, YouTube videos are a great way to pass the time when you are stuck waiting around.
Pandora - Pandora is a music service that uses songs or artists you like to play channels of music related to those songs or artists. I use this more than the iPod function of my phone.
SoundHound - This amazing app allows you to find song information by either allowing the program to listen to the actual track or you can even sing the song to find it!

Games:

Monopoly - If you like Monopoly, this is a very cute, interactive version. I believe it cost me $0.99.
Tiny Tower - This game is surprisingly addictive. I currently have 45 floors and 80 bitizens. Check out the Bitbook if you download this app: it is adorable.
Temple Run - This running game has fun goals, achievements and skills to unlock.
Sudoku - A great game to keep your mind sharp :)
Angry Birds - This was also gifted to me from my boyfriend. Very addictive. You throw birds towards fortresses built by pigs that stole eggs from the birds. Costs around $0.99.
RacePenguin - Very silly game where you guide a penguin over slopes to avoid getting eaten by a polar bear.
Family Feud - Play the famous TV game show on your phone! Unfortunately, it is very difficult to play without connecting it to your Facebook account.
Scrabble Free - Play Scrabble against a friend or random opponent.

Tracking:

Closet - I have my entire wardrobe saved in this app. It allows you to save each item into a category and add them to outfits also separated into categories. Very customizable and comes with a calendar function that allows you to save outfits to specific dates. Also has a packing list function.
YOGA Free - This app has a prepared yoga program with a picture of each move as you go with calming music playing along. You can also design your own program using the catalog of poses.
Passwords - This app saves your passwords in one place so that you do not need to have them lying around on a piece of paper. Allows you to save everything organized alphabetically so you will never forget them. Saves so much time when trying to remember your different logins. It also will generate random passwords for you.

Well that is the list! I know it is rather extensive, but they are the ones I recommend to my friends. Hope you enjoy them too.

A Series of Unfortunate Events (Not the Lemony Snicket Version!)

This morning, as I was driving into work, my car stalled in the middle of the highway. Luckily, I was able to pull over, even though I was in the far lane, and got my car onto the shoulder. The car was still drivable, so I got into work even though I was a bit late. Instead of doing what I had planned for my lunch break, I took the car to a mechanic, and on his way driving me back to work a bee flew through the window and stung me in the face. How do you continue with your day after it starts this badly?

It can be hard to get your act back together after something like this happens to you. So how did my day change after my car broke down?

First off, I had to get into work. It took some time to get to work (longer than I had planned for), and even though my hours happen to be flexible, I didn't get to work at the hour I had intended to. Right off the bat I was running behind schedule. In this circumstance, it was essential to stay calm and focused. If you lose your cool, more things will start going wrong because you are too frazzled to handle it all. Also I had to be more efficient with my time. Instead of taking the time to make my cup of tea and my cup of apple cinnamon oatmeal before I sat down, I got straight to work and waited for a better break.

This all comes back to how to re-prioritize the importance of the tasks for the day. In this case, my work had become more important than my breakfast (although my stomach would beg to differ!), and my car needed to be repaired which was more important than the lunch I had scheduled. I was able to skip that meeting and go get my car checked during lunch. This was a much better solution than having to take time off of work.

Also, you might find that your coworkers are much more understanding of this sort of occurrence if you do not let them happen very often. If you are the type that has an "emergency" every day, they are less likely to be sympathetic when you have a real emergency. When my coworkers heard about my car and bee sting they were very understanding.

This is also a great example of what problems you should throw money at. Car problems happen to be one of the areas I know nothing about, so throwing money at the issue was important for me to do. If not spending the money means that I will be unable to get something very important done off of my list, it is not worth the cost savings.

Always try to think about what you are doing compared to its opportunity cost. What would I have lost out on if I hadn't taken my car to the shop? If I hadn't taken the car in, I would have either had to try to drive it home, therefore risking my life along with everyone else on the road with me, pay to leave it overnight or convince someone to pick me up, thereby wasting precious time just waiting around, or worst case paying for transportation home. In taking lunch off from work and paying for the mechanic I actually saved because the time I lost was small compared to the time and headache I would have had if I had put it off. The car has to get fixed regardless, so figuring out the time for it sooner rather than later was the wisest decision.

So remember when you end up with one of those bad days: Keep calm and be efficient with the time you have. Drop the less important things on your plate to accommodate the more important ones. Take care of things sooner if they will be a lot more difficult when you put them off.

I apologize if anyone was looking for the intended post of the day (using your Smartphone calendar) but I promise I will post that tomorrow! Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches. Stay tuned!

How to Get the Most Out of Your BlackBerry/iPhone/Smartphone

This week is How to Get the Most Out of Your Blackberry/iPhone/Smartphone Week!

Your smartphone can be an amazing productivity tool, or it can be the source of your demise. If you treat your phone like a PS3 by constantly playing games, or if you are always browsing the web, you are wasting the potential of your very clever piece of technology. Smartphones are capable of email, messaging, calendars, tasks lists, word processing, spreadsheets, and many other useful functions. It is your mini computer.

So what did you do when you first got your phone out of the box? You set it up with your voicemail message, added a few applications, and generally fooled around with it trying out all the cool features. My thought is that to fully benefit from your smartphone, you need to devote a solid chunk of time to sit down with it and learn all of its real functions.

If you do not take the time to set up all of the available settings, you run the risk of your phone not alerting you when you need it to, alerting you at the worst possible moment, loosing/deleting your data, or a variety of other very bad situations. Taking the time lets you tailor your customizable device to your particular needs. You are loosing on your investment in the phone if you do not take advantage of this.

Also, most smartphones have forums where people answer each other's questions about the phones. If there is something you think your phone should be capable of doing but you can't figure out how, just type a few keywords into your search engine with the name of your phone and the issue and often times there will be a solution. If you have the idea, don't let it just be "wishful thinking" and take a look.

I was a BlackBerry user before today when I got my new iPhone, so this week I will comment of the capabilities of both. Tomorrow I will explain how I organized the applications on my Blackberry and how I just organized my iPhone apps. Over this week I will also share tips on using your smartphone to-do list and calendar, and I will go over my favorite apps so far. As always, please feel free to comment with any questions or comments! If you are an iPhone user, please leave a comment about your favorite apps that you think I should try.