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Ditch Your Planners: Try These Advanced Organization Techniques

Organization techniques have become very advanced over the last several years. No longer do you have to carry around a fat planner, stuffed to the gills with post-it notes, bills, stamps, and other papers. Now you can streamline your life with the help of online tools, smart phones, and even virtual assistants.

You don’t have to be Bill Gates to take advantage of these advancements in organization techniques. You can be a small-business owner or even just an over-wrought mom. Here are just a few of the many advanced organization techniques available to you:

Apps

Smart phones and tablets have made doing business on the go easy and convenient. The thousands of apps that are now available for them have made it even easier.

There are apps to help you manage and organize every part of your life. You can find apps for counting calories or recording your workouts to monitor your weight-loss efforts. There are apps to monitor your cycle to chart peak ovulation to get pregnant. Apps can help you manage your money, plan your grocery shopping, keep track of your family’s schedule, and monitor your to-do list.

There is not a single area of your life for which an app has not been made to help.

Software

You can turn your home into a well-oiled machine with the right software to help you keep track of it all.

Products like Quicken can help you manage your home or business finances. Home organization software can help you manage your schedule, your to-do lists, and your shopping. There are even software packages to help you create databases of your information, such as lists of your belonging for insurance purposes, health information for your medical records, or personal information about your children for preservation.

Websites

Google does it all. Not only can you use the search giant to find what you need on the web, but you can also use it to organize your information.

iGoogle is your personalized Google portal, allowing you to choose the widgets you want to customize your experience. You can include calendars, to-do lists, scheduling assistants, planners, shopping lists, money helpers, and much more.

Every time you log in to search, you can also check in on what you need to do for the day, the week, or even the month.

Cloud Sharing

You don’t have to be tied to your computer or your smart phone or your tablet in order to access your data. Cloud sharing has made it possible to send your information into the cloud and retrieve it on any device.

Services like Google docs, Evernote, and Dropbox make it easy for you to not only share information with others, but also to access your information wherever you are so that you don’t have to worry about backing up data to bring with you or to lose productivity by forgetting your gig stick.

These services make it easier for you to collaborate on projects, work on projects during moments of down time when you are out running other errands, or get information you need when you are away from home.

Virtual Assistants

Of course, one of the easiest ways to stay organized is to hire a personal assistant to help keep you on track and to ease your workload. You don’t have to be wealthy or to start a business to have your own staff. Virtual assistants can fit any budget and can help you from anywhere in the world.

You can use a virtual assistant to help you manage your online presence, send and receive e-mail, set up a blog, and much more. Of course, if you do run a home business, there are many more ways that a virtual assistant can help.

Have you taken advantage of any of these advanced organizational tools? How have they helped make your life easier? Tell us in the comments!

Guest Post by Dana Vicktor who  is the senior researcher and writer for duedatecalculator.org. Her most recent accomplishments include graduating from Ohio State University with a degree in communications and sociology. Her current focus for the site involves first signs of pregnancy and free pregnancy test.