office items i still use
even though i have a computer in front of me
first off, i wanna say, i still do print out emails i get and keep faxes. every single day, faxes come through, snail mail, e-mails on events or stories i must cover come to my desk. therefore i use the first thing on my list:
1. paper racks
explanation: i have two big ones on my desk as you can see. everything has a home because everything needs a home. there’s just no way it can all be on my computer. no way. a computer will never never replace a notepad when you’re on a story. unless you have it attched to your hands and arms and body a la a harmonica stand. i need a place for all my notebooks.
2. calculator
exaplanation: i often have to use a calculator to figure out tax impacts on voters during election time when tax levies are proposed. or house assessments, or whatever. i find a nice calculator works so much better than the calculator on my phone or on my computer.
what other office items does the scrabbled use that you just won’t replace with an ipod app or something on your computer or phone?
Comments
You print out emails!? WHY?! I totally do not understand that.
I honestly do not have any desk supplies. Not one. In fact, the more stark and bare my desk is, the happier I am. If I could find a way to drink coffee from a dashboard app, I would. I’ve got the same pens in my pen holder thingy that I’ve had since college and they’re all mostly full of ink still.
I know some things are preference — you could certainly make a case for the calculator. But printing things that you’d rather read on paper than on a screen? That’s just wrong.
Well, I push e-mail/online assignments in class, but I still use paper, so I have pens, paper clips, etc. getting used on my desk.
well let’s put it this way. i cover seven towns in gloucester county, and i’m transitioning over to a new beat. i was just named the political and the county reporter for my paper. until we hire a new person, i’m doing all this stuff. so i have folders in my inbox where i move emails in there so everything is categorized.
i print out emails with story information on them so i have all the quotes in front of me, all the people involved, numbers, addresses, times, etc. now, don’t get me wrong, i don’t print out EVERY e-mail. but i hvae a nice system that if there’s something in my top paper rack, that’s something that needs to be done asap. and it goes down in descending order.
i’d rather have a gift card to staples than one to anywhere else.
I still dont’ understand why you’d need to print the email to have that information. It was just on your screen before you printed it. You already had that information and in a digital copy/pasteable, archivable, cross-referencable, backupable format.
A paper rack as a to-do list is horrible. At the very least, you’d be better off with a rememberthemilk account, and at best, you should be on basecamp.
C’mon, you’re living in the future. Get with it. Your rack system is dinosaurs.
My desk it cluttered with so much junk, but i handle all the mailing and contests for my company. I do keep a notepad by me all day though, I find it much more productive to scribble out notes by hand than on the computer.
Matthew said:I find it much more productive to scribble out notes by hand than on the computer.
Listen dummy, I’ve heard of and used stickies on my computer before. I’m still more productive writing notes on a piece of paper than on the computer.
i still use notepads & sketchbooks. no computer program will make me leave behind sketchbooks anytime soon, and i can still write ideas down on notepads when i’m out & about faster than i can type them on my phone. there is no “loading” time for pen & paper.
Can’t really say there’s any loading time for phone/mac stickies, either. They’re just there. And I can definitely phone/keyboard type faster than I can write with a pen.
Funny you should mention sketchbooks, though. Just read this article concerning the iPad: http://uxmag.com/design/ideate-a-digital-sketchbook
Matt, pad/paper notes aren’t copy/pasteable. If you leave your pad at home, you can’t access it. You can’t “uncheck” a crossed off item on a pad of paper. you can’t group and regroup and cross-categorize items on a pad of paper. You can’t set timelines or attach descriptions.
Paper is dead. The future is now.
here is no goddamn way i will ever use a web site like “remember the milk.” i’m in the business of writing things down. plus, i just bought phillies stickies.
and here is why:
when i go to a school budget meeting, where the board will VOTE on a school budget for people to vote on at the end of this month, i need a shit load of stuff.
i need last year’s tax numbers, last year’s articles on cuts, this year’s state chart on the reduction in state aid, etc.
remember the milk my ass.
Christina, that’s why I said Basecamp is ideal. You are in the business of information, not “writing things down.” Do you really think that a stack of papers is the best way to manage information? You can’t grep a stack of papers for tax records. You can’t google search for a politican’s file. You can to scan. With your eyes. Fuck that.
Computer were built to store, index, and reference information. What you are describing is exactly what portable computing was invented. But you’re letting some luddite, hip-kid notion of “the way I like things” get in the way of “the way I should be doing things.” There’s always a better way.
now, a part of me agrees with you, however, in my business, if others don’t subscribe to this same notion, it makes my job harder.
at an old job i had, i used to get faxes emailed to that that were sent to my desk. that was brilliant! now, a fax comes in, it’s an event i gotta go to, i put it in my file, i add it to my calendar, i know i gotta go there.
i don’t want to turn everything that comes on my desk into electronic information.
other things i like are highlighters and staplers. thank you.
i will check out basecamp.
John said:
Matt, pad/paper notes aren’t copy/pasteable. If you leave your pad at home, you can’t access it. You can’t “uncheck” a crossed off item on a pad of paper. you can’t group and regroup and cross-categorize items on a pad of paper. You can’t set timelines or attach descriptions.
Dear john, I don’t need any of that. It’s hilarious that accidentally or prematurely crossing something out is a serious problem. Dear god, I might have to write it down again…or get it right the first time! Also, since the notebook I was referring to was for work and I don’t do work in any other place than my office leaving it someplace isn’t a problem. I understand why having everything digital might be useful to some, but it is definitely not for me.
I will show you my OmniFocus desktop sometime. You will be amazed.
the sketch programs on the iphone/ipad/etc. are impressive but still look like shit compared to the real thing. using a tablet & stylus is a little better, but nothing has caught up yet with real art materials and how they interact with each other and i doubt it will anytime soon.
i happily use a combination of technology and traditional means to get my ideas down, but paper in much of the art world is not definitely not dead.
i also use a business card holder. anyone have a really cool business card holder? i will bet mine is THE best.
Agreeing with Mandy. I’ve never encountered anything that can replicate simple art materials for ease/pleasure/quickness of use. Also, it allows people to do it without investing hundreds upon hundreds of dollars into fragile and easily-lost pieces of equipment. I can carry a sketchbook around everywhere. Since my wanderings take me through the city and various other places that aren’t just home or an office, I can keep it in my bag and not worry about the loss if it gets stolen.
What’s that noise? I think it’s 2020 A.D. Cyborg Ultra-Net User John! He’s howling at us for using paper, his twin insectile, vestigial arms flittering out from his bloated slug body like twin wart hairs. His Apple-branded Software Interaction Helmet is covering his face and shooting holographic text messages all over the place, telling us that paper is dead and physical interactions of any sort are no longer necessary! Run! He’s beginning to thrash about inside his Computer Chair Habitation Unit!
Oh, we’re safe over here. It looks like his quivering and atrophied body mass has accidentally slammed down over the twin shunts of his Dual-Use FEED/SHIT tube. If he doesn’t move himself out of that position, he’ll slowly starve to death over a period of weeks.
I mean, even if he could drag himself to the kitchen, it’s not like he owns a can-opener anymore. Can openers are for suckers.
I kid, I kid. Sticky notes are actually kinda cluttery and lose their tacky-stickiness pretty damned quickly.
John said:Paper is dead. The future is now.
I’ll concur with this statement when I can electronically wipe my ass.
Jay said:John said:Paper is dead. The future is now.
I’ll concur with this statement when I can electronically wipe my ass.
end of discussion.
i hope youre haunted by the ghost of johannes gutenberg. and a garlic rope of steve jobs (i don’t even know what that means) won’t save you.
Mandy, at no point did I think we were talking about art. Christina’s talking about office items so I assumed you were using a sketchpad for brainstorming/wireframing/etc etc. I don’t think art mediums CAN die. That would be a ridiculous thing for me to say. We’re also not talking about walking around the city or going places where you might not want to bring expensive things. We’re talking about “the office” in all it’s real and telecommutey forms. In that context, paper/sketchbook/pens/etc is just plain silly.
mandy said:Jay said:John said:Paper is dead. The future is now.
I’ll concur with this statement when I can electronically wipe my ass.
end of discussion.
Hahahahahahaha. So good.
Paris said:mandy said:Jay said:John said:Paper is dead. The future is now.
I’ll concur with this statement when I can electronically wipe my ass.
end of discussion.
Hahahahahahaha. So good.
The motion is passed. Next order of business…
until this is invented of course… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBI8uCKi2lI
I MUST KNOW HOW THE THREE SEASHELLS WORK.
I did use a notebook, mostly because even though I work on a computer all day, it isn’t hooked up to the internet and has every non-essential to TV making program stripped out of it.
That is, until a few weeks ago when I upgraded from my 6 year old free with sign up cell phone to a Blackberry. I tried just using that, putting anything I needed to remember into that and syncing it up, or whatever, but I still liked the notepad. Just by being there, it forces you to acknowledge that it is filled with things that are important to you that must be addressed. A computer or cell phone, by virtue of doing anything you want it to, doesn’t carry the same urgency or seriousness, because even though I could go through my reminders and get important things done, I could also play games, bullshit with other people, and watch porn. I prefer the dedicated device.
That is, until I left it in my pants pocket and put it through the wash. Which made me super happy it wasn’t and iphone or ipad or whatever.
John said:I MUST KNOW HOW THE THREE SEASHELLS WORK.
My guess is one is definitely to wipe your ass, but I’m thinking that’d hurt.
The second is to wipe the shell you use to wipe, kind of scraping it like a cement trowel.
The third is to knock the shit roll off the second seashell.
And that is the exact same thing I came up with when I first saw that movie, so it must be true.
I mean come on: I was 11 when that movie came out, and I’m 27 now.
What that means is my method is simple enough for an 11 year old to intuit, and perfect enough that 16 years later, it still seems the best option.
According to the author, this is actually true: http://www.i-mockery.com/shorts/three-seashells/
I love my Post-It notes to jot down directions via the T to my after-work destinations. Also, I like them to make daily to-do lists, because it’s way more gratifying to cross something off with a pen than to select “strikethrough.”
And I have a combination pencil sharpener/pen holder/eraser holder shaped like a green porcupine.
so, i have the honor of going through two roladex files and converting them to my phone list on my computer. talk about primitive!
here is what i gotta go through
