I just love trading tips with other people on what methods they use to organize their work and their life. Although i think this is a constant struggle i tend to see it as an opportunity for self improvement, and what methods can one use to achieve more efficient ways of getting stuff done.
Hardware
I have 3 computers that i use on a daily basis. One is a Lenovo Thinkpad T430s. It is what i use for my daily work, connected to a VPN and to a Windows Domain. It is an old machine, which i bought refurbished and the battery on a good day might last 30 minutes. Nevertheless, it has been such a dependable machine that even when the inevitable upgrade happens, i might just keep it as a backup. It has a couple of SSDs, 8 GB of ram and not much else. It struggles with a couple of Power BI reports open but can handle a Kali VM, Outlook and a couple of RDP sessions with no issue. It can also run factorio, which is the only game i really need. I got it on a whim, after attending a training session where i was the only one without a company laptop (which i still do not have).
I also have an MSI Dominator 6QD, with 16 GB of ram, an I7 cpu and a Geforce GTX970. This is where i do most studying, researching and writing. It is also my go to machine whenever i might stay away for a few days. It is a heavy laptop and not the most reliable machine but it’s powerful enough for anything that i might think to throw at it.
Finally i have a desktop computer which has been built over the years as a media center / gaming machine. It has 24 GB of ram, a bunch of disks and two Geforce 970GTX. It handles everything that i need except for the most demanding games.
For the laptops if i’m commuting i’ll also have a trackball with me (usually a Logitech M570). At my home i have an assortment of mechanical keyboards, one of them being an IBM Model M which i find myself using more and more. A Razer Deathadder is still going strong despite most mice only lasting me a couple of years. The desktop uses a couple of screens, which i really don’t remember the model but work just fine. I also have a Technics amplifier hooked up to this desktop and a couple of JBL speakers. It is the definition of overkill but i don’t care and can’t really see getting rid of it anytime soon. If i need to have some sort of zoom or teams meeting, i’ll throw on a Razer headset and a generic webcam.
Still in the sound department i have a couple of earbuds that i can connect to my Honor 10 and listen to spotify, youtube or podcasts. I’m also a fan of radio and sometimes i’ll throw a XHDATA D-808 SW Radio in my backpack. I also have a Samsung smartwatch which i use to check notifications and track my (poor) fitness.
I usually have with me at least a fountain pen, a mechanical pencil and a notepad. Currently it’s a TWSBI Eco, an Ohto Super Promecha and a Leuchtterm 1917 bullet journal. For me, writing with a pen and paper is the best way to learn and understand any given subject.
Software
Most of my time is spent inside Power BI, Excel, Word and Outlook. Firefox is my default browser, with Bitwarden for password management. I use Virtualbox to spin up virtual machines for testing and fun. At work i use Windows 10 on workstations and Server 2016 on the VMs that support the users. These are hosted on a cloud with VMWare with our provider.
I try to keep an updated todo list with Todoist and a personal knowledge base with Notion. I’ve been experimenting with Obsidian as a i like the idea of local files and markdown syntax. As most of what i write (including this post) is done inside VSCode i’ve been trying to consolidate most of these things into a single tool. I also have a Habitica account for habits tracking, which i don’t use as much as i should. Most of the stuff at work is organized in several copies of word and excel files, an approach that i hate but have been unable to change.
Onedrive and Google Drive work great for syncing files between different machines. I have a couple of batch files for backups of my photos and development projects that get copied to a network drive. Development projects also live in github and photos get uploaded to google photos.
Todo
I think most of my limitations come from a lack of time and organization and when i’m not working or researching a subject i’m usually trying to improve this. Having a light laptop would also help, but only if it can run Factorio.