This weekend while the snow blanketed Richmond once again, I sat down and began my taxes. In the mists of this I had to break the news to myself, I was not as organized as I had thought I was. Well, let me rephrase that, I had been very organized, but somewhere in October, I fell off the wagon. My goal this week, is to get back to being organized.
Below are my top 5 favorite (and free) sites to get organized:
1.) FlyLady: If you don’t know about this site and about FlyLady, get ready to have your life be transformed. From a clean kitchen sink, your life will be cleaned and organized in 15 minutes, a swoosh and a swipe, and zones. Without FlyLady, I would be lost. This is the foundation of great organization, small parts with a central focus!
2.) Google Calender: I use this from work to personal to even posting on my website (see my events page). You can be certain that if it doesn’t make it to my google calender, I won’t get it done. I set tasks per day and enjoy seeing them get crossed off. I set reminders from everything to give the dogs their flea medication to sales appointment. Even better my husband can subscribe and see when I will be busy or really when he will be busy!
3.) Google Voice: How can you go wrong with something that calls as many phone numbers as you wish! I have it call my land line and my cell phone so I can always be reached with one number. What makes google voice even better it sends you an email with your voice mail. Keeps all of my messages, personal and business, in one simple and easy to use place.
4.) Mint.com: I just found about this site yesterday (I am not kidding). It keeps ALL of your banking in one place. And yes, it is FREE. It does have ads, but I can trade that off for being able to log into one place and see my retirement, saving, credit cards and checking all at once. Even better, it sends emails to remind me of payments and low balances. Also, it integrates with PayPal. This makes it a perfect place for personal finance management but seems to be pretty good for a small business as well.
5.) Highrise: Ok, this is more for sales and business contacts but I think it has a lot of personal uses. (and yes it is free up to 250 contacts). At Highrise, you can track your contact, make notes and set reminders. It will email you your daily task. And you can connect it to your google calender!
(See how my dog Princess Buttercup helped. She is CEO, Canine Executive Officer)
I would love to hear more ideas, what are your favorite organizational tools?
