Favorite Academic Tools

Here at ProfHacker, we write a lot about the tools we use. Some of these are of the “techie” variety, but not all. In this post, I’d like to briefly make note of a few tools that I use on a daily basis (two of them digital, two not) and explain how use them, and invite readers to share some of their own.

• Dropbox. Jason reviewed this service back in September. I can’t imagine working without it. I use it to keep critical files in sync between my home and office machines. It’s also handy in the classroom, as it makes any materials I may need for class readily accessible via the web.
• Google Documents. For many of the reasons Julie mentioned a while back, I gave Google Documents a try with the students in my Political Science writing class last semester. It worked well, and I now use it regularly in all my classes.
• A Rollabind notebook (that I picked up at a local Staples store). Sometimes, I don’t want to lug my laptop along, but I need to take notes. Plain old pen and paper work just fine for that, and I’ve found Rollabind’s junior size (5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″) to be the perfect size for tossing into my backpack. It’s easy to add and remove pages as needed, too.
• A small magnetic whiteboard, positioned just above my desk at work. Though I use Remember the Milk regularly both on my phone and through the web interface, sometimes I forget to check it. I like to have things I’m paranoid about forgetting right in front of my face–literally.

My daily workflow would be much different without each of these tools. What tools do you depend on on a daily basis? Let’s hear about them in the comments.

[The CC-licensed photo in this post is by Flickr user jurvetson.]