Things have been a bit hectic for me the past month or so. I’ve found myself slipping further and further behind, even though I’m working harder and harder. It’s been really frustrating that I haven’t been able to catch up. That got me to thinking about how I am managing my work and how work flows through my office. What I found was that, of all things, I have too much technology. 😛 When a work item hits my desk, it can come in many forms, but more importantly, it could live on my Tungsten T, my Alphasmart, my laptop, or my desktop. More often than not, it winds up in more than one place. Clearly, I had to get a handle on my workflow and at the same time, find some new tools to help me manage everything.
The first problem I had to tackle was the fact that I had copies of work everywhere. Instead of haphazardly dragging and dropping files onto my laptop, I decided to replicate much of the structure of my desktop and my server all on my laptop. Granted, I can’t take everything, but I could easily manage my most critical information if it were duplicated on my laptop. BeyondCompare
What this app does is compare directories and provide you with tools to keep them up-to-date. What I was able to do was copy a client folder, for example, and then save the “session.” After working out of the office I could return and do a quick “refresh” and then copy only those files that had changed. I can’t begin to tell you what a time saver this has been. I am now able to keep my Trillian, Palm and E-mail directories completely in sync with my desktop. Also, since it only copies those files that have changed, or been updated, it is a much faster process. In the past, I would move my E-mail to my laptop and then find myself tied to my laptop because the time it took to copy things back was enormous. It would literally take 20 – 30 minutes to copy the entire directory over. Now, it takes just a few minutes because I only have to copy the changed files. BeyondCompare has become a lifesaver. I can now easily go back and forth between my desktop and laptop almost seamlessly. My data and programs are always up-to-date at the click of a button or two.