Wer aufhört, besser werden zu wollen, hört auf, gut zu sein.
(Those who stop trying to advance, stop being good.)
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
Personal Information Management (PIM) can be understood in a narrower sense (Calendar, Todos, Contacs) or in a very broad sense which I do prefer: it is the art of organizing yourself and your data.
I don't even limit PIM to digital data. I've started loving PIM before I was aware of its existence: I was the one in school who was designing and optimizing his Filofax paper sheets, who knew why the previous twenty marks (and their average) were not optimal, when a teacher is going to ask me to summarize the previous lecture by maintaining statistics, and so forth.
So I am an organizer freak and I am proud of it.
For a couple of years I was lucky do be able to do basic research on PIM topics and I wrote my PhD thesis I am very proud of.
In my spare time, I optimize my personal workflows, write little helper tools, help others to work more efficient, look for the best tools out there, have more fun with the tools we have to use, learn from the experience of others, give talks about PIM. This is what I love, this is what I do for fun.
Since a couple of years, I teach PIM in a lecture at the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences. My students are surprised, how inefficient they were doing even «common» things like handling email, managing files like photographs on your computer, or searching for information. It is so rewarding to see students realizing how much improvement is possible with some background-knowledge and a few hints here or there.
I hereby claim that I am able to save you at least twenty minutes of your computer time a day just by looking over your shoulder and suggesting more advanced tools, better methods, and efficient workflows. Multiply this with your computer-life and you get a small glimpse what it is possible. However, it's still your decision if you want to use this extra-time to get more stuff done or if you want to enjoy more spare time instead. ;-)
Most important articles:
- Organize Your Life With Org-Mode
- The Desktop Metaphor: Once Awesome, Now Hindrance
- What software am I using for what
- In case you wonder about my current software choices for my personal requirements.
- Efficiently managing files
- A cool concept I developed to manage files such as photographs via tags.
- Mit dem Traktor pendeln (German)
- Über Engstirnigkeit bei der Benutzung von Computern als Werkzeug.
You might also check out my articles on emacs, privacy, quantified self, security, and surveillance.
All articles tagged with pim (sorted by last update, oldest on top):
- Enable remote URL opening from screen to Firefox at OS X
- Wilde Artefakte in Testbild von Lenovo/IBM
- Optimizing Outlook: Teil 1, das Vorhaben
- Nostalgie: Meine IT-System-Historie
- (m)ein optimales IT-Setup, der vierte Versuch
- Mythos: schnelles Windows
- WTWN: Vollintegriertes Tagging für Dateien (Update1)
- Zahlen in Verzeichnisnamen sind böse
- Optimizing Outlook/Email: Teil 2, Fazit
- WTWN: Ablaufdatum für alle Daten
- PalmOS ist tot. Lang lebe PalmOS!
- How I am using Firefox
- Vancouver: PIM09 - erster Tag
- GTD: Task Management With Android Software Apps
- PIM: Action method as task management
- Agendus is coming to WebOS and Android
- GTD using Doit.im (Web + Android)
- Org-mode
- Label-dependencies with Google Mail
- It's Good Enough
- Mit dem Traktor pendeln
- Microsoft OneNote
- Den Computer halbwegs sicher betreiben
- Podcast über Open Science mit mir
- Darum Life-Logging
- Textbausteine/Snippets als praktisches Helferlein im Alltag
- What Do People Use to Get Stuff Done?
- git: post-commit hook for determining large number of deleted lines in Org-mode
- Emacs Chat with Sacha Chua
- What App am I Using for What and How?
- Per-contact FROM-email Addresses for Users Of mutt and org-contacts.el
- Grazer Linuxtage: Was willst du von mir sehen und was ich von dir sehen möchte
- Meine Vorträge auf den Grazer Linuxtagen 2015
- Web Browser Keywords
- Productivity Expert Tips: Apple, UI, Teaching PIM, Updates
- Mobile Capturing of Tasks Using a Hipster PDA
- Managing web bookmarks with Org-mode
- Reference Management with Org-mode
- Outlook: Keep Appointments You're Not Attending on Your Calendar
- Emacs: Use Different Search Methods Depending on Number of Lines
- Emacs: Quick Access to Agenda on Android
- Digitizing All Your Paper Stuff
- Todo Management on Paper
- Thinking About a notmuch-based Email Setup
- Outlook: Adding Preparation/Postprocessing/Travel Time to an Appointment
- You Can't Control Your Data in the Cloud
- Fast Opening of Memacs Indexed Files
- Smart Pens
- How to Use This Blog Efficiently
- Choosing the Wrong Mobile Messenger Might Inprison You
- Addicted to Your Mobile Phone or the Internet? Make it Stop
- Evolutional Steps of Computer Systems
- gThumb for Managing Photographs
- My Dependencies on the Cloud
- Twitter Lent
- Mediocrity
- A CEO's Guide to Emacs
- Logical Disjunct Categories Don't Work
- Digitale Selbstverteidigung in Zeiten der Cloud
- My Emacs Configuration In Org-mode
- How To Read Magazines Efficiently
- org-du: Visualizing Org-mode Heading Sizes
- Org-Mode As a Rabbit Hole: Agenda Tasks Piling Up
- The LaTeX Fetish. Or: Choose Your Tools Wisely
- Filetags now features tagtrees as well
- Think About Switching to An US International Keyboard Layout
- Essential Keyboard Shortcuts
- PhD Students: Add a Reference to Your Future PhD into Papers
- Tod dem CAPS LOCK!
- People Describing Their Hardware/Software Setup
- Wissensverwaltung auf Papier und digital
- External Links to Outlook Emails Get Broken When Emails Are Moved
- Organize Your Life With Org-Mode
- Advanced Usage of Dependencies Between Tasks Using Org-mode
- My Personal Emacs History
- How to Let Your Colleagues See Your Calendar
- Staying Functional When Dealing With Frequent Interruptions
- A Reasonable Secure Environment for Reading Potentially Harmful Emails
- OneNote Will Be Discontinued, Evernote Will Follow Some Day - Switch to Something Much Better
- My Hardware Setup
- Optimize Your (Multi-Language) Keyboard Setup, vim, dotfiles, and More
- My Emacs Key Binding Strategy
- My Folder Hierarchy
- Managing Digital Files (e.g., Photographs) in Files and Folders
- The Desktop Metaphor: Once Awesome, Now Hindrance