[justanother]

Ever-growing Google Docs text files tell you everything about my life, going back to about 2007. Bank balances, payment schedules, work tasks, personal tasks, items ordered, deliveries expected, and even a couple sentences about how I felt and what happened. As you might expect, there's a simple format that is followed for each day, so that someday I could parse these files into a database of some sort. During meetings, I type non-stop taking notes into this file. If I promise someone something, it goes into the file. Because of this, I can tell you that I did 'x' on Tuesday, March 12th, around 2pm, and for that it is invaluable because if I were to rely on my grey matter for all of this, I would fall flat on my face. If I promised someone something or began a task, it keeps getting rolled over into the next day's notes until it's complete. It is extremely uncommon for things to 'slip through the cracks' as a result.

It doesn't really matter which tool you use, as long as it's predictably formatted and easily searchable. There is simply no way I could deal with the insane demands of life without relying on an external memory. Google Docs is nice because it's highly available and replicates between desktop, macbook, and iphone almost instantly, such that I can leave one device and pick up the next without losing my 'memory'. This is one feature that I find extremely valuable.