3 Google Tools to Keep You Organized

Online productivity/organization tools are awesome. They require no hard disk space nor significant CPU usage (observe how long it takes to open a program on your computer versus the time it takes to click a bookmark icon in your web browser, let alone your computer's lag time while having open multiple programs...). If you're worried about security, web services such as Google allow you to manually change the "http://" in your address bar to "https://" enabling you to navigate any Google service securely. Because of that, and because of how successfully Google is growing and improving their services, I use Google for almost all of my organizational needs.

Here are my three favorite Google services for organizational purposes:

Google Calendar. The Ajax-powered interface of Google Calendar enables you to add new calendar items, drag & drop, and edit event dates with speed and ease. Colored calender labels, which can be personalized from a palette of colors, help to keep your events and dates organized. SMS alerts are also an option. Using Google Calendar ensures that you have access to your schedule from any computer or web-enabled phone.


Google Notebook. When I began using Google Notebook and installed the Firefox addon, I concluded that using pen & paper was more practical and stopped using the service. When I began delving deeper into affiliate marketing (one of my income streams), I was trying to digest as much information as possible on the subject. It got to the point where I didn't know how to aggregate the best information I was finding from different blogs and sources. Using the Google Notebook browser extension, you are able to highlight text and pictures from any website and paste them all into Google Notebook and then file them by subject. Google Notebook is a handy study tool!

Google Reader. Do you follow many blogs each day? I certainly hope that you are using a feed reader! By subscribing to various blog feeds, you can view everyone's updates all in one place, which saves a lot of browsing time. My favorite reader is Google Reader, where I have all my favorite feeds categorized into folders by subject. You can also enable Sharing for your favorite feeds to share your subscriptions with friends.


Although I'm a fiend for customization (layouts, icons, everything), Google's universal minimalistic design doesn't hurt. I find that it keeps me focused and it is great for when you are sneaking away from your office work duties to read your favorite blog feeds.