I've been thinking of making quality of life changes for myself and applying it to my general PC experiences. I realized there was a variety problems that I had persisted too long due to my negligence. Some of these problems were that I had too many unorganized eBooks, sticky notes, and unwanted algorithm-suggested newsfeeds! So I decided to slap myself in the face and set up to get these silly problems out of the way! I hunted around for solutions and found a lot of useful software to help me.
Calibre (An eBook Software)
To solve eBook mess, I had discovered a program called Calibre developed by Kovid Goyal! It is a very useful program that lets me organize and tag my eBooks. This makes finding my books much more easier. It even comes with a built-in eBook viewer! At first I was a little overwhelmed but after I had watched the tutorials that were provided on their website. It had all the things I needed to know! So now all my books are super organized :D Finding and reading the books have become less of a hassle now. There seems to be a lot nice features on this program as well like sharing books, adjusting the interface, file conversion, adding newsfeeds and many more! Since this is also Windows software, I can keep the program pinned on my taskbar for easier access.
Notebook (A Notemaking and Journal Software)
Previously, I used the Sticky Notes program that my Windows PC had already provided. However, I couldn't organize them very well and they were all over the place. To solve my sticky notes mess, I had installed a program called Notebook developed by Zoho. It is very useful in keeping all of my notes organized. I can create sections to put together relevant notes in the right places. It even lets me group notes together! I manually transferred all my sticky notes and organized them into this program and now everything is all nice and tidy! I'll probably use this for writing study notes as well.
Inoreader (A Web-Based RSS Feed & News Reader)
So lately, I've been getting a lot of unwanted newsfeeds from Google, Youtube, Twitter, and other places. With algorithms playing a big part of the internet now, it has negatively impacted my mental health that it continues to suggest me unwanted and stressful newsfeeds. I have many criticisms against algorithms but that leaves for another story. I decided to distance away myself from these platforms but I still need something I could scroll through on my free time. So I have decided to fix this problem and start using RSS feeds to help improve a better internet reading experience. The reader I decided with was Inoreader! Not only can I add newsfeeds, I can also add Youtube channels as well! Everything is organized, in a chronological order, and with less unwanted news. I also got an RSS feed tracker program for my desktop that can integrate my InoReader account. Everything I want and need is in one place. I am very satisfied with this.
Some bonus programs I'd like to mention that I had installed along the way are Microsoft To Do (for task management) and Libre Office (for office suite essentials). To be honest, you can probably do a lot of this on the web nowadays without needing to install anything. But to be honest with you, I'm not really into that. I am more into desktop-based software for anytime there is the opportunity. It's much more comforting for me than dealing with all my cluttered web browser tabs.
Anyways that's enough of my rambling. Just wanted to express my appreciation for the programs that I found while scavenging around. Now I feel like my PC experience will be better!