Last week, I came across an interesting looking app called the FileMaker Campus Productivity Kit (hereby referred to as CPK) thanks to Loshem at TAB. The CPK is a free suite built from the FileMaker database software; being free really suited my testing needs, so I tried it out. Unfortunately, since it’s a run-time and not a full app, it ran clunky and felt like a poorly coded web application instead. It wasn’t really my bag of tea, so to speak.

But the interesting feature list (Manage Contacts, Organize Research and Lecture Notes, Track Group Project Assignments, Coordinate Events, Prioritize To-Do Lists) really piqued my interest in finding another solution that could be so complete. I really had found an alternative before even realizing it, thanks to Merlin Mann of 43Folders fame. It’s a little web app called Stikkit - “little yellow notes that think”. Need I say more? Yes, I think I should.

The slogan really rings true for Stikkit. Besides recording all of your information quickly and easily, Stikkit will find text within your notes and do stuff with it. If you type a name, Stikkit will realize this and create a new ‘peep’ entry for them (Stikkit’s take on the Address Book). Add a phone number beside the name and that is also added to the peep entry. Keywords such as “do” or “make sure” are automatically made into To-Do items. Dates and times are added to the Stikkit calendar for easy access and organization. And this whole experience is much more ‘mac-like’ than what the CPK offered. To show you how Stikkit does everything that the CPK does and more, I’ve created a sample Stikkit, that looks something like this:

First of all, a simple breakdown of what you see:

1. Appointment with George on feb 19 at 1:10 pm - this line is made into the title of the Stikkit as well as a calendar entry (since I added a date and time).
2. Make sure to get good chicken recipes- this line is a To-Do. I can click on it to mark it as done and click again to mark it as To-Do again.
3. George Foreman 345-234-1222 - this line makes a new peep entry with the name George Foreman as well as a fictional phone number. Other information, such as e-mail, skype, birthday, and URL can all be added as well (see this post for more information)
4. Share with masterof_anime@hotmail.com/Remind us all - these lines tell it to share with an old email I have as well as remind me and the older e-mail when this day comes up.
5. @appointments, food - the @ symbol signifies that I’ve started tagging. Tags are very important within Stikkit to organize effectively - some examples will come up later.

How does this compare to the CPK?

Manage Contacts: On the above Stikkit, I added ‘George Foreman’ and a phone number. Stikkit recognizes that this is contact information and automatically makes a new Stikkit for my contact. Any new information I put on this Stikkit or ones in the future will be appended to this peep entry. Something that I can’t do in the CPK but can do with Stikkit is upload my V-Cards from OS X’s Address Book. Great feature!

Peep cards:

Peep page:

You can also tag Peeps cards for your convenience - this is not done automatically though, you’ll have to do it yourself.

Organize Research and Lecture Notes: I’ve tagged the above Stikkit with ‘appointments’ and ‘food’ for easy searching later, which Stikkit offers. Not only will it show me all entries tagged with what I search for, but tell me when I actually stuck them for easy reference.

Track Group Project Assignments & Coordinate Events: I mentioned that I shared the above Stikkit with an old e-mail of mine. While just hearing about that feature is great, seeing is even better. He’s the text that I received from that e-mail:

Howdy,

Yuiichi has passed you a stikkit named “Appointment with George on feb 19 at
1:10 pm.” You’ll find this stikkit on the web at
######################

___STIKKIT STARTS HERE___
Appointment with George on feb 19 at 1:10 pm

Make sure to get good chicken recipes.

George Foreman 345-234-1222

Share with masterof_anime@hotmail.com
Remind us all
___STIKKIT ENDS HERE___

[x] send me email when anyone updates or comments on this stikkit (delete the x
in the box to turn this off)

See you there!

Stikkit: Little yellow notes that think.
http://www.stikkit.com
help@stikkit.com

While that looks like a normal plain text e-mail, it has several cool features. First of all, anything between the ___STIKKIT___ tags that I edit and reply to will change on the actual Stikkit. It also sends me a .ics file so that you can add it to your Calendar application (GCal, iCal, Outlook, etc).

Since I can share my Stikkits with whoever I want, this feature makes for organizing group exercises simple and easy.

Prioritize To-Do Lists: Stikkit allows me to make To-Dos right in my little notes, which are then grouped by ‘done’ and ‘not done’. It’s a simple yet effective way of getting things done. Another thing that can be used in conjunction with this is Tags - you can custom sort your lists by tagging them with things like ‘Next Action’ or ‘Next Week’, however you want to do it. It makes organization simple.

Other things you should know

There are a few more things that I want to mention about Stikkit that are not covered under those sub topics.

Since Stikkit is a web app, you’ll need internet access to create new Stikkits or edit previous ones. Although this isn’t always ideal, there is one way to make sure that your events and To-Dos arelocal as well as online: subscribe-able calendars! To find out how to do this, view this thread. You can also subscribe to your peeps as well.

A bookmarklet is available, so you can add new Stikkits while browsing the web without navigating to the Stikkit webpage. Other ways of adding Stikkits are constantly being thought up - you can view this progress in the forums

Finally, just one more quick feature I’d like to highlight. Keyboard shortcuts! Even though this is a web api, you can use shortcuts such as ctrl + n (alt + n on Windows) to start a new Stikkit. Great stuff!

Stikkit is free, so thats not an excuse to not try it! Go ahead, I dare you.