Chandler The Note-to-Self Organizer is a free GTD app running on Linux, Windows and Mac. The most important features are calendar, task and note management, multiple contexts; it allows collaborating and it can work both as desktop and web application.

I’ve started using Chandler few days ago. I didn’t expect to keep using it all the time as I don’t feel that I currently need such application. Simple ToDo lists that I keep on my Netvibes pages are pretty enough for me to stay well organized. However checking and testing such apps is always an interesting experience and can inspire or bring some fresh ideas on topics like planning and productivity.

First I went into short tour. It took less than 3 minutes and a woman voice introduced me into basics features. Right after the movie I felt I can start using it and so I did. But if you want to learn more, I suggest you go to Get Started section.

The very first thing I like about Chandler is its Quick Entry Bar. It allows entering notes, reminders, ideas and searching as well. Another feature I love is that notes can be easily starred, put on calendar as event or send via e-mail. Three basic statuses for all items are Now, Later and Done. I’m pretty sure it is enough and as simple as it should be.

More advanced features that took my attention are interesting possibilities to collaborate (via e-mail, on website, grant access to collection without sign-up, subscription with iCal or Google) and backup on Chandler Hub account.

It is worth at least trying Chandler for some time. I will give it one more week to help me stayed organized. Then I will decide if I really need it and it is useful enough for me. Chandler may fit your needs and expectations, and especially if you are a GTD ninja don’t hesitate and give it a shot.

Now I can set my task “Write a Chandler Review” as Done.

The Path to the Pegasus Letter is the winner of my Entrecard Contest I run in May. As a price, there was 1000 EC, 125×125 banner spot on my blog for 1 month and blog review. Credits and banner spot are already delivered, now it is time for a review.

What it is about?

If you are a new visitor to The Path to the Pegasus Letter, you might be confused for a while by not knowing the subject of the blog. I didn’t find any about page and there is no simple tagline explaining what this blog is about. Anyway, when you start reading any of the posts for a while, you will get sure this blog concerns investing, finances and money – few of my favorite topics.

User Experience

The blog has two sidebars, left and right, mostly filled with ads. Personally, I prefer sidebars only on the right side, but it is a matter of taste. The most useful things there are Blog Archives and, if you are an Entrecard user, Entrecard plugin.

What I definitely like is a big, clear space for main content – posts, especially a lot of posts right there on The Path to the Pegasus Letter are long. There are no ads within posts which is another advantage concerning posts reading.

On the other side I really miss an easy access to labels and some kind of ’top post’ or ‘best of’ page. These things are usually the first pages I visit on any new blog I read and can really help to find out if the content is interesting for me.

Content is King

Here is exactly how this blog snuck into my RSS reader. A quality content presented in an interesting style. Ok, maybe typography is not exactly the way I like it, but this paragraph is not about that. I mean a writing style. I really do enjoy reading such posts, especially when they provide value. And posts on The Path to the Pegasus Letter definitely do this job. Maybe I can’t always agree in 100% with author’s opinion, but this only stimulates me to deeper my knowledge about finances and stock market and it also provides an additional perspective to the topic.

Summary

If you are interested in stock market and finances, you should give it a try. Of course, not everybody would find this blog interesting and useful, but somehow it made a way to my group of investing blogs I read regularly. Maybe The Path to the Pegasus Letter will also fit to you. Enjoy.

This post is written by my brother, Dominik Wrzesniewski.

Social Psychology – is it for me?

Definite majority of us live among other people. Our life is inevitably tight with lives of other people. We live with partners, meet other people in the offices, on the street or just meet some nicknames on the web, but there’s usually also a human being behind it. That is why our presence here in this world is connected with meeting other people. We can build these relations in many ways, more or less effective. What can help us much in that is social psychology. Social psychology is the division of psychology concerned with individual’s behavior in social situations. It answers questions like: how and why people tend to behave in that or another way in various situations with other people. During my study of psychology I came across a valuable book I would like to strongly recommend to you. This book names Social Psychology by E. Aronson, T.D. Wilson and R.M. Akert.

The book is a fantastic journey through social psychology that begins with brief definition of useful psychology terms, just to help you in easy understanding of the subject. Later on starts the presentation of basic rules and phenomena of social psychology such as: cognitive process in social conditions, conformism, group processes, human’s attitudes, aggression behaviors, prejudice, interpersonal attractiveness and many others. I’m sure all most important areas are respectively covered in consecutive chapters.

I like the two things about this book. First of all, reading it, you will have a great opportunity to reflect your personal life experiences with scientific attitude. It often takes a form of small discoveries when you say to yourself: ‘Wow! I know it that it is like that but I didn’t think it works smoothly in that way and could do more for me!’ or ‘I didn’t know it comes from that!’ Once you have more knowledge and awareness about something, you can better use it. The second thing is the result of how the book is written. I like the smoothness and lightness of the style it is written. Although the book is an academy book its language is very easy, topics are well illustrated with many examples and a touch of sense of humor makes that reading is a real pleasure.

I am totally sure that anyone can learn a lot of inspiring, useful and applicable things form Social Psychology by E. Aronson, T.D. Wilson and R.M. Akert.