The fact is, humans have been organizing and cataloging the world for a long, long time.

Google’s goal is to catalog the whole Internet.

In 18th century, Denis Diderot wanted to collect all of the world’s knowledge in his Encyclopédia .

Philosophers have been creating systems using which they wanted to comprehend the whole world.

And even before that, agrarian societies have been organizing the land into fields and pastures.

But why is that?

Why do we value order over chaos? Why is it SO OBVIOUS to us that dividing a land into several fields is far better than just randomly growing crops?

Well, let’s see. This is the Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs – I’m sure you’ve already seen it:

Here’s the thing -

Being organized provides you with SAFETY.

Living a disorganized life is very stressful, as you never know if there is any danger waiting for you (unpaid bills, disappointed friends, forgotten appointments, or even loss of income or home).

Security, stability, freedom from fear – that all sounds like something that being organized can give you.

But being organized also gives you SELF-ESTEEM.

Among other things, having self-esteem means that you just know you can deal with whatever life throws at you.

When you are organized, you are more in control. You are the master of your life. Achievement is easier for you. You know you can deal with things, since you know what there is to be dealt with in the first place.

And once you fulfill your self-esteem needs, SELF-ACTUALIZATION becomes an important need for you as well. This is where your express your creativity and talents. This is where you find purpose and fulfillment.

The Maslow’s pyramid is hierarchical.

When you don’t have SAFETY, it means that one of your most basic indeed is not being met. This lack will constantly occupy your attention. In other words, when you are disorganized, you just don’t feel completely stable, secure and free from fear.

It’s similar with your SELF-ESTEEM needs. When disorganized, it’s just difficult to feel like a master of your life and attain achievement, respect and recognition.

When these important needs are not met, your highest needs of SELF-ACTUALIZATION (creativity, fulfillment, purpose) can’t be fully expressed and met either, since you are preoccupied with your unmet lower needs.

I think the conclusion is clear -

Being organized is a basic human need. When it’s not met, you simply can’t live to your full potential – and you might not even want to, as you will be preoccupied with mere “survival” in the complex modern world.

Related Posts:

• 3 easy techniques to instantly stop procrastinating
• Endless to-do list
• 10 Benefits Of Being Organized: From Chaos To Freedom
• Mind Collected – new software launched!
• 30-second check: Do you get the maximum from Swift To-Do List?
• Is your to-do list impossible to finish?

Is being organized a basic human need? is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Advantages of task database encryption

The obvious advantage is security. If you encrypt your database, no one without the password can open it, or get the data from it in any way. This is the only way to have truly secure to-do lists and secure notes.

The longer password you choose, the safer it is. Best are so called “password phrases” – long passwords that are easy to remember. For example, a short sentence with some strange word in it works great as a password. Long passwords are nearly impossible to bypass, as the attacker has to use brute force to try all imaginable combinations, and that takes extremely long time for strong passwords.

To ensure maximum security, make sure that you fully exit Swift To-Do List 7 using File – Exit or lock Windows when you are leaving your computer.

Great thing about Swift To-Do List 7 is that it allows you to remove the encryption if you decide you no longer want to protect your database. However, you need to know the password in order to remove it, of course. You can remove the encryption in Options, Encryption.

Disadvantages of task database encryption

There are also some disadvantages of encrypting your database:

1. You have to enter the password every time you open the database.
2. If you forget your password, you can not retrieve it. Your database is lost.
3. It makes some operations a bit slower (around 10-40%), but you will usually never notice this.

How to encrypt your database step by step

Go to Options (eg. using File – Options), and go to the Encryption tab. Click the Encrypt button. This will open a dialog that allows you to set the password. Enter the password twice as instructed, and click OK. And that’s it!

Once is your database encrypted, a dialog like this will appear every time you open the database, asking for password:

Related Posts:

• Is your to-do list impossible to finish?
• What’s New in Swift To-Do List 7.46
• What’s new in Swift To-Do List 7.11: Colors!
• Swift To-Do List 7.10 released: Embedded file attachments, attach emails to tasks, and more
• How to print or export a single task
• How to paste plain text in notes

How to protect your tasks and notes with encryption is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog