Thing 13 - Organizational Tools

I spend a lot of mind-fixating, puppy-dog-ignoring, housekeeping-eschewing time on the Internet each day. I have to Make. Myself. Get. Away. From. The Darn. Machine. every now and then. I realize it’s probably an addiction, and one I’m not going to give up on soon. But, realizing that about myself, I have also tried to organize my surfing habits so I can access the information I am looking for quickly, so I’m not clicking all over the place and getting side-tracked. Sounds pathetic, but I have found some effective tools to help in my pursuit of Intertubing Moderation. My aggregator (Google Reader) and iGoogle are the most effective tools in my arsenal.

iGoogle is great because I’ve grouped the things I like to look at right on my homepage: weather, Reader link, a countdown to specific events, a to-do list, my gmail account, etc. Firefox also helps me keep organized with its very effective and user-friendly add-ons. I log on to all my email accounts and favorite blogs with one click. I use several Firefox add-ons: Clipmarks, Notebook, Foxmarks, Veoh Video Downloader, and IE Filter.

Google Reader helps me feed my geeky need for political information. I can whip through hundreds of news stories in (for me) a short amount of time. Del.icio.us is going to be pretty handy because I can tag stories easily. I’m forever sifting through starred stories on Reader to find something I’m looking for (which, even though I know I can tag stories, is still easier on Del.icio.us).

Below is a shot of my iGoogle page. You’ll notice there are 29 days until spring break (come on…that’s important stuff!), it’s about -4º, my to-do list is caught up, and I’ve answered all of my gmail. Time for mindless surfing.

Comments from the Thing 13 blog prompts

I like the online calendars that were linked from the 23 Things blog, but it's hard to beat a good ol' Exchange calendar, which syncs with my iPaq. If I were to pick an online shared calendar to use, though, it would probably be Google Calendar. It's got a clean design, and it's very user-friendly.

I have an online to-dolist on my iGoogle page, but I don't use it very often, unless I'm working on specific projects. The only list I usually make consistently is for groceries, and I still find it easier to use old technology (pencil and paper) and maintain the list on my refrigerator. I tend to use the online to-do list at the beginning of the school year when I'm swamped with things to remember.

Okay, Zamzar? Cool beans. I'm not stuck without a translator often, but I was last week, trying to get an Appleworks doc translated to MS Word. (Nuts - there is no translator for that one!) But, the fact that it includes a Works and Wordperfect translator, and you can convert to pdf, and all of the audio translators...this is really good stuff. I wish I had known about this site earlier. I have use CutePdf quite a bit, and have been happy with that. I've noticed that on occasion, the free pdf makers make smaller documents than Acrobat!

Backpack makes me jittery. I'm not obsessive about planning and listing, and it feels overwhelming, just going through the example pages. I do like the product comparison features with pictures. For those who need this much order in their lives, this site has it all. I'm afraid I'd get stressed out just trying to keep up...heh heh. I'm impressed that I am able to keep up with my calendar and iGoogle page.

I'm amazed by all the organizational tools available on the web. For those who live and breath by a schedule, these are some impressive resources.