I love organizing. I am one of those weirdos who relishes every opportunity to visit Office Max and Staples. If my stapler’s not consistently at a 90 degree angle, I can sense it from 10 miles away and won’t get anything done till it’s corrected.
Over the years I’ve found a few resources which have helped me bring order to the chaos of life, ministry, and leadership. Hopefully these tools will be helpful to you too:
Remember the Milk
Great service. I talk more about it here, but in a nutshell RTM helps you remember everything (including the milk). It includes functionality to allow you to group tasks by roles, context, projects; pretty much every conceivable way. It has recurring tasks so you don’t have to keep entering the same tasks in again and again. It’ll send you text reminders to your phone and email. I use this every day to keep tabs on all my projects and tasks.
Evernote
I use Evernote to keep track of all my ideas. Simply create a notebook (ie Gift Ideas, Leadership Development, Parenting Tips, etc.) and create a note for each idea that fits in that topic. Evernote is also great because you can upload pictures, video, and audio files to it. I’ll often take snapshots of items my wife likes while we’re shopping and file them under my Gift Ideas notebook. The, whenever I need an idea of something to buy I’ve got a stockpile of things I know she’ll love.
Google docs, calendar, and iGoogle
Google is slowly taking over the world, and I’m OK with it. Google Docs is basically Microsoft Word online for free. With it you never have to worry about forgetting a document on another device because it’s accessible to you from anywhere. Same with Google Calendar. iGoogle is cool because you can create a homepage where all your favorite websites (Remember the Milk, Evernote, Google Calendar & Docs, Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, the News, etc.) are all stored one easy to use page. It keeps everything clear and together for easy access and retrieval.
Of course my favorite aspect of each of these services is their price: $0. They work on all platforms, they’re mobile, they integrate together, and are super easy to use. Check them out if you’re interested in becoming more coordinated in your task management or are ready to get your black belt in organizational ninjitsu.
What resources have you found that have helped you become more organized?
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Jeff McClung 