I have finally gotten my system down. What system am I talking about? My system to organize every minute of my life, by using my Email, my calendar, and my to do list. This system works great for me, and it will probably work for you too. So give it a try!

Email

Lets start with the first, and probably most important, part to my system, and that is my Email. I use the best web based email client out there, and that is Gmail. Now having a gmail email address for a business is not that professional. Lucky for me, Google has a thing called Gmail for your domain. This allows me to use the great Gmail interface, while having a projectdesigns.org email address. I also have a personal email address for non-work related things. The key to being efficient with email is to have it all go to one spot, it is a pain to check to or even three different emails. So I have set my personal email account to forward all messages to my work one. In my work account I have a label called personal which is where all those forwarded messages go. Gmail also lets you add an account, so I would be able to reply to a personal message, with my personal email address, even though I’m in my work account. You can add many accounts as you want in the settings. So now all my email (work and personal) is going to one place.

Calendar

I have struggled to fine a good, simple, easy-to-use calendar for a while now. I found that software is no good cause it takes too long to start up. Even Scrybe which is a very well designed calendar, didn’t work for me, it took to long to sign in. I want a calendar that I can just check really quickly and that is easy and simple. Well Google Calendar does just that. The calendar itself is not as good as Scrybe, but the link to Google calendar is in my email. So it is really quick to check my calendar. I have found that this is the only way I use a calendar if I can get to it really quickly. So the second part to my system it Google Calendar which can be accessed right from my Email.

To-Do List

Email just does not cut it as a to-do list, so I found a to-do list app that works really well, and is very easy and clean. It is called Todoist, and it is a simple to-do list app that has a lot of hidden gems. It allows you to setup your to do list however you want, you can just have a simple list, or complex tree of categorized lists if you want. The best part is that this has a Firefox extension for Gmail (if you don’t use Firefox there is a bookmarklet too) that puts a button in Gmail that lets add emails to your to-do list. This really comes in handy because often I get tasks and things I have to get done in emails.

Final Words

The biggest problem I have with trying to use applications to organize my life is that I end up not checking them. So I found a way to force my self to. I have all three of these sites my homepage, they open up in three tabs when ever I get on the Internet, so I am constantly seeing them, and consequently I am constantly using too. To make your homepage be multiple sites, bookmark all three of these sites. Then create a new folder in your bookmarks, and put these three site into it. Now when you set your homepage in the options select the folder instead of a individual site. I know this works in Firefox, not sure about any other browsers. Well that is my system in a nutshell. So far it is working better then anything else I have tried. Let me know how you organize your life.