Google has me organized on line with:
- Gmail-my "work" emails and personal emails all come to the same place. I have a work group, star the emails, and tag them with the type of work. Attachments are easy. Very little spam even with my "public" email.
- Google docs-the spread sheets organize everything and I can highlight things I need to keep track of, notebooks, forms, presentations, and folders to organize it all in
- Google calendar-I can pull up just my internet calender or pull up ALL my calendars merged....birthdays, holidays, wage earning work schedule. I can print out schedules
- iGoogle-personalized with info I want in different folders-work, home, fun. I can have my gmail, calendar, remember the milk (task organizer on gmail calendar), post-it note, and lots more on one page with a picture of my choice at the top. I like the ones that change throughout the day.
- Photos-organizes to view, share, and prepare to store (does NOT store photos)
Google is free and I can access it anywhere there is the internet. It's simple enough that I can figure out how to use it for my organizing.
On my computer I use various folders to organize my work, information, and ideas
I'm very visual so I need paper backup in my face
- I print out orders and stick in folder on my desk (pending, current, pending payment, etc)
- I use a highlighter-different colors to quickly scan at the info I need from the email (article topics, number of words, date received, etc)
- I have a printed out paper of my schedule that usually has hand written edits
- Post-a-notes stuck everywhere. Real important stuff goes on the alarm clock so I see as soon as I wake up and on the bathroom mirror so I am reminded throughout the day. There are many on my desk, folders, and printed out stuff. Once taken care of I can throw them away.
- Paper notebooks that I carry around and write in while I wait in lines, for appointments, etc.
A kitchen timer that is set when I get side tracked. I put it on if I start researching a non-related topic, I allow myself 5 minutes, save the links, and back to the original task.
I'm working hard to reduce excessive wage earning hours. This will add to my time to be organized.
I still make errors and do my best to correct them and compensate for them.