{"id":1530,"date":"2013-07-03T19:03:12","date_gmt":"2013-07-04T00:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/?p=1530"},"modified":"2013-07-03T18:48:33","modified_gmt":"2013-07-03T23:48:33","slug":"limiting-your-collection-places-including-technologically","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/2013\/07\/limiting-your-collection-places-including-technologically\/","title":{"rendered":"Limiting Your Collection Places \u2013 Including Technologically"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve heard me say this before: \u201cI love containers\u201d \u2013 all of them: any shape, material, size, etc.\u00a0 I absolutely drool over them.\u00a0 And fight the temptation to bring them all home.\u00a0 It can be a problem.\u00a0 I\u2019ve ended up with large boxes just filled with empty containers \u2013 waiting for the perfect thing to use them for.\u00a0 You could say I have a tendency to \u201choard\u201d them.\u00a0 They are always useful \u2013 at least they have the potential for it.\u00a0 Yet, there\u2019s the point \u2013 potential usefulness.\u00a0 Just because something <em>is<\/em> or <em>can<\/em> be useful does not make it worth using or keeping.\u00a0 Also, \u201cuseful\u201d is subjective \u2013 is it actually useful for you and your life?\u00a0 This applies to technological solutions \u2013 programs and apps \u2013 as well.<\/p>\n<p>How are containers and programs\/apps alike?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They are designed to hold things within them.<\/li>\n<li>They are there in essence to benefit us \u2013 make our lives easier.<\/li>\n<li>It can be too easy to go overboard \u2013 collect different options.<\/li>\n<li>With too many being used it\u2019s all too easy to lose track of where things are.<\/li>\n<li>It can be easy to get the \u201ccontainer\u201d before you\u2019ve identified your specific need.<\/li>\n<li>Neither are the end-all, be-all answer for your stuff.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Recently in my newsletter I mentioned my \u201choarding\u201d of quotes and how I have a great program that contains them well.\u00a0 That didn\u2019t stop me from drooling over programs that were designed for the organization of quotes.\u00a0 My husband cautioned me to avoid them; one of the reasons is that some software can become irrelevant quickly.\u00a0 Yet, there\u2019s a more important reason to avoid collecting programs or apps \u2013 how much do you want to disperse the information you are saving?<\/p>\n<p>Sure, there are programs designed for <em>this<\/em> exact type of information and getting it organized.\u00a0 Then there\u2019s this program for <em>that<\/em> type of information.\u00a0 This can go on ad infinitum probably.\u00a0 And it might be tempting.\u00a0 Yet, then you have to keep track of where your specific information is as well as the data itself.\u00a0 It\u2019s easier when just a few programs can help you maintain and organize various types of information.<\/p>\n<p>The program I use to organize my quotes, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aquaminds.com\/index.jsp\" target=\"_blank\">NoteShare<\/a>, is also used extensively for recipes, craft projects, and other lists.\u00a0 The features of the program fit my needs in more than one context, although I\u2019m contemplating alternatives for my collection of quotes, i.e. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/2011\/04\/note-taking-for-virtually-everything\/\" target=\"_blank\">EverNote<\/a>.\u00a0 With NoteShare, between the ease of adding images and the wonderful ability to expand and collapse entries keeps the various files manageable, the program is quite versatile.<\/p>\n<p>Just as with the extensive options for types of containers, we are now overloaded with choices for containing our information \u2013 both with the devices as well as the software.\u00a0 With all the capabilities of the various devices it can be tempting, as well as inexpensive, to collect software to handle each different types of information we need and want to keep.\u00a0 One of the obvious challenges though is that many programs can overlap in their ability and function \u2013 and then where did you actually store the information?<\/p>\n<p>We need to be thoughtful about what we truly need and make sure it will help us.\u00a0 A container will become cumbersome when we have too much or too little to store within it \u2013 as well as any number of other factors that make them counterproductive to our lives.\u00a0 In fact containerizing isn\u2019t even the right answer sometimes.\u00a0 The options for containing our digital stuff need to be equally deliberate about \u2013 what do you need?\u00a0 How will it help you?\u00a0 Sometimes that means using programs that are extremely versatile, while at other times you have specific needs \u2013 like a photographer using complex photo editing software that would exasperate the rest of us.<\/p>\n<p>The solutions that will work for each of us will not always be obvious.\u00a0 Similar to setting up organizing systems that we think will work well for us that fall flat; finding the right containers \u2013 if containers are even needed for this or that \u2013 might well be a process.\u00a0 I liked EverNote when I started using it, yet didn\u2019t appreciate how versatile it was.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a \u201ccontainer\u201d that I used much while now I\u2019m using it more and more.\u00a0 Our solutions for containing our stuff \u2013 physical or digital \u2013 can evolve.\u00a0 We just want to make sure that we remain mindful about our choices, which will help us from getting overwhelmed with our stuff (again).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Choices abound for containing our stuff \u2013 for both the physical and the digital stuff.  Being deliberate about the tools we choose for organizing these things will only benefit us \u2013 giving us the space to create peace and simplicity all around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,27],"tags":[10,8,19,22,15],"class_list":["post-1530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-organizing","category-technology","tag-behavior","tag-discipline","tag-hoarding","tag-productivity","tag-resources"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7p82c-oG","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1530"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1533,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions\/1533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}