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Finding Information on the Fly
Power Trip · June 6, 2004

Locating information on a laptop PC can be a pain. But tracking it down while you're on the road — between sales meetings, on a plane or at a client's office — can double the suffering, to hear businesspeople like John Mangiagli talk about it.

Mangiagli, a senior technical service engineer for a machine-parts company in Painted Post, N.Y., frequently struggles to pinpoint the location of a file or e-mail while he's away on business. "But there are rules you have to follow, and if you know them, it can make finding the data relatively painless," he says.

There is much agony in finding information on the fly, to be sure. According a 2001 survey by IDC, the typical worker spends about 2½ hours per day, or roughly 30% of the workday, searching for data. Yet half of all computer users abandon their search because they're unable to find what they're looking for.

Why? You don't need a poll to tell you that. Organizing files and documents is a chore, and without the proper system, you can have data spread out all over your PC. Same goes for e-mails. At this time, even the most popular brand of computer operating systems doesn't reward a disorganized mind.

If you're working in an office and using your familiar desktop, you might know where everything is. But make the switch to a Tablet PC, PDA or laptop — in other words, go mobile — and you've potentially got a world of trouble.

Here are five strategies to help you find what you're looking for, quickly, while you're away.

Come up with your own filing system — and stick to it. That's Mangiagli's advice. He likes to create folders based on projects, and subtopics for applications related to the project, with Microsoft Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint files. "Each application has a subdivision by topic," so that you can find the application you need quickly rather than hunting through one large folder, he says. I've found this works well on my PC with files, which are organized by year, month and week. But when I work with audio files — say, I'm putting together a story for National Public Radio — I follow Mangiagli's tip and subdivide folders by the type of sound file (either a WAV or an MP3 file, for instance).

Why bother filing when you can just run a "search"? Because when you're on the road and in a rush, you sometimes hastily name your files (in Word, it defaults to the first few words in your file when you don't make a selection). That way, if you forget what you called your file you can still find it.

Spiff up your searches with a third-party application. Douglas Jensen, a Boston computer scientist, favors a program called X1, which conducts lightning-quick searches of all your files and e-mails. "It's the fastest program I've found," he says. I've been using an application called Nelson Email Organizer (NEO), which I primarily harness for its quick searches of e-mail (it uses indexing to ensure very fast searches). However, I've also tested X1 and Jensen is right; it's really fast.

Having a third-party application can significantly decrease the amount of time you spend looking for data, but be careful not to rely on it too much. A "search" function is like a spell checker — it can help a lot, but if you lean on it too heavily, you can neglect your other organizational strategies (such as giving your files sensible names) and never find what you're looking for.

Tailor the way you file information to the device you're carrying. I've talked up the laptop because for small businesses, it's still far and away the most popular mobile computing device. But how about a PDA? Or a Tablet PC? Bonnie Sherman, a travel counselor in San Diego, bookmarks important travel Web sites on her handheld when she goes on the road. "I put the links in my Palm Pilot under 'cities,'" she says. "I'll have the convention and visitors bureau link, some favorite hotels, restaurants, dates and magazine names of articles to get information."

Don't try to apply a one-size-fits-all strategy to filing your information (or organizing it, for that matter). Every device, every operating system has an ideal way of storing data so that it can be more effectively found. Find the one that works for you.

Don't forget: Synch up and back up. The two biggest mistakes businesspeople make when they travel is forgetting to bring their laptops up-to-date with their desktops, and so they end up not saving their work, says Ann Westerheim, an organizational consultant in Westford, Mass. "If you're not backing up, you're putting your business at risk. Your laptop could easily be lost, stolen, or damaged. Think of the impact to your business of losing everything and being shut down while you recover? If you're not synching, then you're not getting the most from your technology and you're wasting a lot of time looking for things," she adds.

Don't even try to remember to do both of these things before you leave the office. The best way to remember to synch and back up data is to instruct your PCs and PDAs to do so automatically.

Use what you've got in Windows XP. David Gelernter, professor of computer science at Yale University, likes Windows XP's indexer. "It's tremendously powerful if it's treated right," he says. "It makes it possible for me to run software that preemptively indexes every single document, e-mail and every other chunk of information that arrives on my machine; if preemptive indexing goes on all the time, the index tables are always ready and standing by when I need to search my cyberpool." Gelernter says (and I agree with him) that it's one of the most underused features of Windows XP.

How do you use indexing? In Windows XP, go to "Start" and then "Search." In options, you can tweak your indexing options to take advantage of this function. As I've already mentioned, there are a number of other applications that can supplement the search process further. But consider using what you've got before you go shopping.

These strategies — from organizing information to finding it — will not only raise your productivity on the road. They'll also lower your stress levels. Once I adopted a better filing system and installed a "search" application specifically designed for e-mail, I cut my response time to queries from clients by at least half. That, in turn, allowed me to spend less time rummaging through old folders and more time writing.

Christopher Elliott is a travel journalist and commentator. All e-mailed responses may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.

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