Self-Productivity|How to not forget everything?
Does it ever happen, you see a new website and want to remember it but don’t want to bookmark it. You have an idea while lying in your bed at 11.59 PM and can't write down because you don't want to leave the bed? You want to remove a contact but still want to have it stored somewhere just in case you need it in future?
You can write everything in your note pad or mobile notes. But you still fear not opening that app for years or it will lose the data once you uninstall or your phone is stolen, right? Not necessarily, you can always sync it to cloud. But wait, what if u are somewhere you don't have access to your phone or very slow internet connection?
The best idea, in that case, would be Google Doc !!!?
It would take ages to roll down to the last page and type something when eventually you will have a pile of text written day after day. What about login? Will you log in from friends’ mobile just to type one sentence? You need something quick still flexible.
What would be the solution which will keep neat, searchable and timestamp of the data automatically?
The most optimal answer is Google Forms.
I have created a google form named “Data Dump”
Data Dump is my second brain. It loads super quick and with a low internet connection and on anyone’s mobile or laptop. Boom!
Every time I have a thought, I just put a genre of what I want to write in the Genre field and type the idea into the Data field. It is not limited to thoughts only. Once you start using it, you get a whole new bunch of things dumped there. I dump my temporary ids, some catchy new website/application I saw from the train window and lots of other stuff.
How do the responses look like?
I can just filer anything via search option. I want to know about all the business ideas I ever thought, just go and filter the genre column with “Business Ideas”.
It's just a super brain that has dumped all the data from all the time. It's only me who sees it. Just a small life hack with free tools costs nothing but improves my efficiency tremendously.
Last thing: How to remember the URL of the form?
You can use custom URL shortener services like tinyurl.com or tiny.cc. I use the later one, and its for free. E.g. tiny.cc/myform and it will redirect you to your form.
Try it and you may find the same! It worked for me. I hope it will work for you too.
