As we move about our day, we might see a blog post we want to revisit, or a video that looks interesting but can’t watch right this second. Maybe we have a cool idea for something but need to table it for later when you can give it more thought. It’s really annoying to forget these ideas or lose track of something you wanted to follow up on, only to remember it at another inopportune moment (like, I dunno, the dentist’s chair, when you can’t really do anything about it and will probably forget again).

Fortunately, we live in a day and age where it’s relatively easy to have a systematic approach to organizing this type of ‘stuff,’ so you can access it whenever and in whatever way that works best for you.

Everyone’s brain works differently, so an efficient way for me to store information may be totally ineffectual for someone like my brother. My brain is best at retrieving information when it’s separated by “type”- (Work related, Fitness, Just for Fun, Decor/DIY/Baking, etc) but that doesn’t mean everyone thinks that way. No matter how your brain works, there are systems you can implement to save and store incoming information online.


Information that Comes from Internet Browsing

This information is typically in link form. Here are a couple ways to save links for later reading:

Pocket

Pocket is a pretty incredible service when it comes to saving online information for later. You can have it on all your devices, so nothing gets lost between phone to desktop browsing and vice versa. And, part of what makes my brain happy is that you can organize the articles you save into different categories, which makes it easier to find again later. As a bonus, you don’t need internet connection to read articles you’ve saved for later. Pocket will also offer recommended reading if you are looking for new material.

pcket

Pinterest

I like using Pinterest for information in the realm of DIY/Baking/Cooking/Anything vaguely creative. You can create different Boards, which are the categories where you’ll save different articles. Like Pocket, the way you choose to organize this information is totally up to you. My Pinterest Boards have names that make sense to me, but maybe not everyone else.

Some websites have pinnable articles/images. If you’re browsing outside of Pinterest, sometimes a little “Save” button will appear (example below), which allows you to pull that into one of your Pinterest boards. As you “pin” things, you can write a little caption that can either explain what the pin is or why you’ve saved it (like “Recipe for Dad’s Birthday cake).

pinterestsave



Information that Comes from Email/Messaging

Sometimes, information comes at you in a way that isn’t browsing the internet/social media. Most people get a lot of incoming information from email- the kind you don’t necessarily need to act on but need to organize anyway.

My “system,” if I can’t deal with the email right away, is to star it or put it in a folder for later. Then it’s a matter of extracting important information and putting it in the right place– if it’s an event, it goes to the calendar, if it’s something I’ll need to follow up on, it goes in Asana (our project management system), and so on. Extracting and organizing information as you read it can really boost your productivity.

Another idea for gathering incoming information is to use a note taking service, like Evernote, have it synced on your phone and desktop, and pull any information from text/email that you need into a note form, where you can add your own annotations. More on that here. 



Other Tips For Creating Your Own Online Information Systems

  • Be consistent. If your system is only applied every two or three times you collect information, it’s not really much of a system. Find something that is a bit of extra work but doesn’t feel like pulling teeth.
  • Do an information clean-up every month or so. Any notes or articles that you no longer need can be removed from wherever you’re storing your information. This keeps your bank of information easy to navigate. After all, your retrieval method should take less time than it did to find the information in the first place, right?
  • The best piece of advice I’ve seen about organizing information? Put it where you look for it. This may sound a bit obvious, but trust me, when you’re hunting for that article you wanted to read and can’t find it in your usual spot(s), it may be time for something different (just think of all the time you save by not digging around for missing links).

Do you have a system for organizing the “I should probably file this for later” type information that wasn’t mentioned above? Tell us about it!



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