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Last week I explained how to go paperless to reduce your clutter. Part of going paperless is being extremely well organized. That's what I want to discuss today: how to be organized using the technology at your fingertips: Google applications, smartphones, and a few gadgets and ideas.
Google Applications
One of the easiest ways to use technology to organize your life (and keep it that way) is to use your computer. You're on it much of the day anyway, why not put it to work for you? My favorite online tool for organization and sanity? Anything Google. I'm serious. Google offers so many ways to streamline your day, organization is sure to follow.
My favorite of the Google applications is the calendar. The Google Toolbar has a quick-link icon to Google calendar so I can open it easily. Once I'm there I can add things to the calendar, mark them as recurring if necessary, and even color-code the event. The color-coding has been an amazing tool for me as I develop my editorial calendars and keep track of my family activities. In addition to the color-coding, I can choose which events/colors to show at any given time. If the calendar is just too much to look at with all the bleeding colors, I can turn everything off except the things relevant to a specific activity or event. And that's not all! Google Calendar lets you make a To-Do list as well. I love me some lists. The lists keep me sane.
In addition to the fabulous features I've already mentioned, you can share your calendar(s) with others! This is extremely helpful with editorial calendars for blog networks or even if you just want your husband to know what's coming up this week. I know families who share calendars with each other so they can keep track of which activities they can carpool to.
Another Google application I love is iGoogle. It's essentially a customizable home page that is automatically updated with the items you pick. Mine has the latest headlines from The Wall Street Journal and other news sources, my Gmail account (it lists all new mail), my Google calendar (which lists that day's activities and those coming up), my Google reader (listing all the newest feeds for the blogs I subscribe to) and a To-Do List (which allows me to assign urgency to each task--from low to high). iGoogle helps me stay organized because I can peruse everything in one place. It's efficient and I love efficiency.
Smart Phones
Just about everyone has a Blackberry or an iPhone these days. These phones do everything from synching up with your calendars and contacts, to downloading your e-mail and to-do lists. (Yes, they do sync with the Google apps I rave about above.) Twitterer @KellyDiamond tweeted, "I use Google's Calendar Sync to connect my calendar @ work (Outlook) w/ my personal Google calendar. Then I sync that to my iphone."
Smart phones have applications that will keep you organized at the touch of a button. Jennifer Van Grove of Mashable lists 30 iPhone Apps for Organization and Productivity.
Gadgets and Ideas
One of the things my friend Kathy turned me on to was taking pictures of things as a way to de-clutter and organize. When your child builds a great castle out of Legos or brings home a huge folder of art, what do you with it? Instead of hoarding it, take a digital photo of it and make an online scrapbook. Then release yourself of any guilt for throwing away the original. You'll probably see the online version more often than you would if it were housed in a box in your closet.
In a guest post at 5 Minutes for Mom, Katrina reviewed the NeatDesk Desktop Scanner and Digital Filing Cabinet for Mac or PC. I think it's safe to say she loved it:
As great as the NeatReceipts portable scanner was, it took a long time to feed receipts and papers through one at a time. But with the NeatDesk, I can put a whole stack of paper (up to 50 sheets at a time) in the scanner and it'll feed them through, one after another, with no further action on my part.
Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer has shown me the error of my GoodWill ways. I used to just bag it up and drop it off. I threw away the receipt. Who has time to write down all that inventory and keep track of it for the
