In some of my posts I have been describing how I use Evernote as my GTD cockpit. Another part of my trusted daily GTD system is my Dropbox account. Some time ago I made a separation between general reference files and what I call documents at work.

The general reference files on my computer do have their own directory structure. There is a basic three folder approach. Work related files, my own private related files and a knowledgebase directory. I don’t have a lot of subdirectories, I am on a Mac and completely trust Spotlight to find whatever file I need based on a couple of words from the original document. The work and private related files are mostly project related and are from projects that are already finished. Time Machine and Mozy make sure that data is replicated on an external disk and on the Internet.

For work at hand I use a free Dropbox account. The basic idea is that you can store 2 GB of files in your Dropbox and you can access that data through the Web on every computer that has Internet access. But the real power lies in the desktop clients, currently for Mac and Windows. When you install Dropbox on the client you will have a folder set up on your local computer. Any file you drop in that directory gets automatically synced to your online storage. You can attach more that one computer to one Dropbox account so files are replicated on the different computers. You don’t have to be online to be able to access the files.

I have Dropbox installed on my iBook G4 for when I am on the road. At home I have it installed on our Intel iMac. I can work on all project and other related files from both computers and know that I have the most up to date version of the file. Because Dropbox has an excellent iPhone enabled web interface I also can view my files from my iPhone. When working on a client computer or a public computer I have access to all my files through the Dropbox webinterface.

Dropbox also has the ability to roll back revisions of documents. So you can even revert back to files in case something went wrong. Even if you delete files from your Dropbox you can restore them in the Web Interface. I have been using it for months now with no problems so far.

In this screenshot you see the directories I have in my Dropbox account. The @Home and @Work folders hold files for projects I currently work on as well as other context related files.

Read&Review holds files (mostly pdf files) I want to read when time permits. The Reference folder holds reference documents I want to have at hand always. The photos folder is for well photos and the public folder is for sharing files with others.

Dropbox gives you two options when you want to sign up: the free account gives you 2 GB of storage and the $99 dollar a year (or $9,99 a month) paid subscription gives you 50 GB of storage.

But here is a catch for you. They have started a referral program. If you sign up for a free account using this link you will get an extra 256 MB of storage free. I will also get an extra 256 MB of storage. I have found so far that 2 GB of free storage is enough for my use of Dropbox in the GTD workflow I have setup. But having some more space won’t hurt

I regularly purge my Dropbox by archiving project related files from projects already finished.

So if you want to give Dropbox a try, here is a good change!

Due to a job change I had to switch from OSX to Windows XP. On the internet you can find info for switchers from Windows to OSX . You can find info on that path here and here.

To be honest, after 6 years OSX it is ….. well, hard. I will not go into Windows bashing because I can get the work done. A system is a system and not the Holy Grail. David Allen has taught me the basic ingredients of a good system to stay productive. I now think switching to paper will keep me as productive as I was on my Powerbook. It isn’t the system that makes you productive but some key elements like getting everything out of your head and maintaining a good set of lists. This will help you use your head for new ventures and opens up creativity.

Pondering on what makes it so hard brought me to this conclusion: the main thing that bothers me is the complexity of Windows. Windows has just too many options, toolbars, buttons, menu items and possibilities. The sad thing is that I don’t use most of them. And frankly I guess not a single person has never used all of them.

So here is a golden tip for all you Windows users: strip as much functionality as you can. I did it: eliminate toolbars, uncheck extra features and look for ways to make using Windows just simpler. And learn as much shortcut keys as you can. I just invested an afternoon to get this sorted. And it really pays off.

I would like to point to two utilities that really helped me the last weeks: fingertips, a time saver like Quicksilver for the Mac and Virtual Desktop Manager, a Microsoft Windows XP PowerToy.

If you have any tips on using Windows more effectively, let me know in the comments!

Sometimes you don’t see things that have been there all along. I remember one of our boys screaming because he couldn’t find a toy that was right in front of him.I was wondering why Word didn’t have a simple way of opening the three, four files you are currently working on. Well, on OSX in Word 2004 there is a Work menu item that does just this. Never saw it before, now I use it everyday!

It is different from recent files because I open more word documents that are attached to emails but I don’t work on them. Now I have an easy way of accessing the files I am working on. It made my day

P.S. Not sure if the Windows version has it.