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The beta-test of my new organizer is going very well, and I have most of the layout settled, as well as the tabs for the various sections of the organizer itself. Your comments and emails have been very helpful in this experiment, and I thank you.

I have noticed that several of you use different digital applications, which I have been resisting as I did not want to learn to use a new system. Also, many of these digital apps have a load of features that I do not (or can not) use. What I need is something simple, portable, and searchable. After one of my readers pointed to this post at 43folders, I have decided to give TiddlyWiki a spin.

Update: I just read this post of Mark’s at Productivity 501, where he talks about integration. This is exactly what I am working to achive - an integrated system with low levels of duplicated effort. The “wiki on a stick” will allow me to capture Project-related information wherever I am, and it can be tagged, archived, and searched! No more shuffling through multiple notebooks and binders and file folders looking for that scrap of paper that I need.

GTD TiddlyWiki

First I looked at the GTD-centric version here, which I downloaded onto a USB flash drive. After loading in my next actions and some other notes, I decided that I did not like the GUI, just too dark and hard to look at. Plus there was some “clunkiness”, and I was looking for some of the updated features mentioned at the TiddlyWiki homepage. They are not supported.

TiddlyWiki Standard

This version of TiddlyWiki, while not specifically for GTD, has quite a few more features and tools, and has recently been updated to version 2.2. The most recent blog post from Jeremy Ruston:

Release 2.2 brings a solid set of NewFeatures to help many of the different groups of people who use TiddlyWiki:

* For people using TiddlyWiki to publish information, this release brings a new BackstageArea user interface that makes it easier to customise TiddlyWiki to give a great experience for readers while still having easy access to the authoring tools when they’re appropriate
* For people using TiddlyWiki as a personal tool, this release offers the beginnings of support for spreading tiddlers across multiple files, greatly increasing the overall storage capacity
* For people using TiddlyWiki as a collaboration tool, this release includes properly defined hooks for ServerConnectivity, enabling ServerSide adaptations to be added cleanly

This release lays the groundwork for some exciting new abilities in the future. These include stripping the core code back down to a minikernel, migrating much of the existing functionality to plugins that can then be omitted if not required, greatly reducing the overall size of the TiddlyWiki file.

This is the fourth revision to the original release 2.2 of TiddlyWiki. Over the last few weeks the Community has helped to find and fix about a dozen issues. Users are now advised to upgrade existing TiddlyWiki documents, exercising caution if using third-party Plugins extensively.

I have not yet added any plug-ins, but it looks like there may be some that will come in handy.

How Will I Use It?

I have decided that I will use the TiddlyWiki to track support materials for the Projects that I am working on and as the searchable index for my Paper Archive Project. (This last is scheduled for later in July or August)

The inspiration for utilizing TiddlyWiki for this purpose came from this Comment at the 43folders thread:

…using a TiddlyWiki as a way to organize all my information for a study program I’m taking — all my essays, resources, study questions, book reports, unfinished assignments, next steps, etc. Several people have turned in wiki versions of their “final journal” in this course, and I understand why — it’s one of the only ways to keep the massive amount of small assignments in any sort of practical, organized system

I have the same situation, large numbers of small notes, each consisting of short lists and tid-bits of information. My @Projects section in my organizer is filling up rapidly with notes, requiring the addition of several sheets of additional paper and stuffing-up the organizer. Now I can transfer these notes to the wiki on the flash drive, freeing up space in the organizer, which is designed to be a very simple tool - a capture device (errata), a control center for my hard-landscape (the calendar), and lists of my immediate Next Actions.

The TiddlyWiki will be the home for @Project context notes, @Waiting For list, drafts of reviews and posts, my @Contact list, and eventually the Archive Index. Since it is stored on the USB flash drive I can carry it back and forth from home to the meatspace job and continue to do this work. I also installed the USB versions of Firefox and Thunderbird, which has been configured to retrieve all of my e-mail accounts.

I am looking forward to incorporating this digital application into the beta-test of the organizer, and I welcome your Comments if you have had any experience with using it.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/5g5yon. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen