Getting Organized with Online Resources
Don’t I know how chaotic life can get; even when you’re single (ah, memories). Add a spouse and kids to the mix and life usually gets even more complicated (don’t remind me). Between your iPhone, Blackberry, Palm Pilot, or even an archaic organizer book, keeping everyone’s schedules on track can be tricky. Thankfully there are some excellent new (free) online services that are making busy people’s lives a whole lot more organized.
> Take Twine.com for example; they help you “tie it all together.” Twine provides one place for you to do everything. You can easily aggregate emails, bookmarks, documents, contacts, photos, videos, and more. The site actually understands the information you input and organizes all your stuff automatically. Once you load all the information you want to organize, Twine applies a semantic analysis to it that creates tags for each document or video or photo. It automatically generates smart tags and connects them together. There is also a social element. If you share a Twine with others, each piece of content that someone brings into that online space is associated with that person. It allows you to safely share information and knowledge with friends, colleagues, groups, and teams. It’s really easy to search and browse everything and everyone you know, about anything, in one place. It’s still in beta, but it’s easy to sign up to get an invitation to check it out.
If you have trouble keeping track of all your email, instant messaging, and social network accounts, then it’s to get your lines of communication straight. Moving from one interface to another can be so time-consuming. Fuser.com, an aggregate beta site, can help you organize all your accounts in one place. The site allows you to manage all your email and social networking messages in one interface. Simplify your digital lifestyle by just giving them access to your email and social networking accounts, Fuser then organizes your messages from all those accounts in one place. Not only can you view messages from all your accounts in one location, but can also reply to them as you would a normal webmail account.
Those sites are all well and good for organizing your digital life, but your real life can be a little trickier. Check out RememberTheMilk.com, which allows you to manage your daily tasks using the Internet! Now you can handle your life anywhere you are (especially if you happen to have a Blackberry or iPod). If you don’t have a snazzy new phone, then you can always add Remember the Milk as an application right on your Google browser. It lets you set dates easily, as well as receive reminders via email, SMS, Instant Messenger, etc. It’s a really flexible service that allows you to organize the tasks and reminders anyway you want. Use a map to see where your tasks are located in relation to each other, for the best time optimization.
So stop with the damn post-its all over the fridge and get organized online, for everyone’s sake.
