Better Living Through Technology: SpringPad

It sounds like Pinterest, but it's not. It's not even really social. It's a great tool for keeping your projects and lists organized, making notes on the progress of each, keeping clippings and links related to them. What is it? It's SpringPad.

So, yeah, like Pinterest, I might save a link to a how-to article on, say, a wall treatment, like paint glazing. With SpringPad, I can also save links to color combinations and make a shopping list. Pinterest is for dreaming, for getting inspired; SpringPad is for planning.

You create a notebook for each of your topics. Some of mine are Home Projects, Lists, and Possible Stores/Galleries. In the latter, I keep the contact information and some representative images for stores that I plan to approach for the spring season. I can also keep notes on what I send them and when, and who I spoke with. Later I can keep inventory lists, invoices, and details of other communications. I can print form SpringPad, also. I expect, eventually, to keep glaze recipes there with images of results, and notes on firing.

Incidentally my most useful notebook is called "Things I Could Be Doing." Since I have a tendency to gravitate to the computer when I am not immediately occupied, it's helpful to have my browser open up to a page of suggestions for a more productive way to spend my idle moments. It's a list of quick things that might be a better use of my time than just clicking around: yoga is among them, as is a list of 5-minute cleaning projects, flossing my teeth, and even writing a blog post.

It's not entirely intuitive, so it took me a little while to warm up to it. I created an account months ago, but I just started to use it regularly last week. I find it a great replacement for the spiral-bound notebooks I am always buying and losing: I can't lose it, and because I have my browser set to open to that page, it's not out-of-sight, out-of-mind.

Update: I have the beginnings of the glaze notebook here. I will continue to add to it recipes and as much information as I have about glazes. My hope is to create a handy reference for myself and hopefully a resource for other potters.