5 Ways to Become More Organized on the Computer

The whole idea to being organized is to give yourself more time to do other things. Relax, be with your family, shop, clean, work on a hobby, go on vacation, there are a number of things people would rather be doing than sorting through paper work or juggling schedules. That's why organizational tools are so necessary in today's jam packed, over-scheduled world.

Calendars are great, especially on the computer (they don't fall off the wall that way, and you can erase/delete/modify with no scribbles). Many folks have Microsoft Outlook, which provides a great little calendar combined with, of course, email and contacts. However, for those folks who don't own Outlook, it can be costly.

If simple yet effective and cost efficient is more your speed, try Mozilla's Sunbird. Sunbird is a free calendar (no email, because more than likely, those who don't have Outlook use web based email, and therefore aren't in need of Mozilla's version of email such as Thunderbird). You can create multiple calendars which is good for keeping personal and work life separate. You can also publish a calendar online to share with family and friends (your own website is required for this feature).

ReminderFox is an add-on to Mozilla's Firefox. To edit your calendar, simply hover the mouse over the small icon in the corner of Firefox. This gives you a view of the day's agenda. From here you may add reminders, lists and even tasks. And, as is true to its name, you can have notifications displayed for future appointments.

Leave it to Google to figure out how to better help the public perform its research. Google Notebooks is a fun, simple way to save data and images you come across while researching the web. After installing Notebooks, it's a matter of highlighting images and/or text, right clicking and "save in notebook" and your notebook is soon filling with all the information you need for that term paper.

Jott is perfect for busy people. With Jott, you can literally phone in messages and reminders to yourself. Sending messages to other individuals and groups of people is easy with Jott. They receive a text message and an email of the information you phoned in. Once the time comes, you will receive your own messages and reminders via text message and email. Jott offers a free version of their service, but is ad supported. From there they offer "Jott" at $3.95 monthly and "Jott Pro" at $12.95 monthly (with two free months per year). Jott Pro may just be the solution for folks who think more quickly than they write, and whose "great ideas" vanish seconds after conception.

Sticky Pad offers virtual notes for your computer. They look just like the Sticky Notes we've stuck to the refrigerator, the car dashboard, the computer monitor, our children's foreheads. They come in different colors and can be categorized by color as well. They can be set to appear on the computer screen, like a regular reminder. You can even email Sticky Pad notes to others. Nearly everything about Sticky Pad is modifiable from the size of the notes to the font style and size. Sticky Pad is free to use. Which is good news for us in need of re-organizing.