
Remember all of those resolutions you made on January 1st? How’re you doing with them?
It hasn’t even been a week since 2016 started so we’re hoping that all that resolve hasn’t fallen by the wayside. But, if it has, we’ve got some great ideas to help you pull yourself together and get organized!
First thing’s first. Let’s make a list. A To Do list. And, while you could put pen to paper, there’s an app for that so why not try Todoist? Although it probably won’t revolutionize your daily habits, it is free (there is a premium upgrade available), it has a really clean layout and, in addition to giving you a visual of all of your tasks, you get rewarded for your efforts! The more tasks you complete, the more karma rewards you earn. And who can’t use a little extra good karma? Bonus, you can keep it on all of your devices and carry it with you wherever you go.
If you truly can’t find the time to write it all down, just ask Alexa to do it for you. Alexa, or Amazon Echo, is a bluetooth device that can not only play music, give you weather and traffic reports and tell your 6 year old a knock knock joke on demand, but can also create a to do list/shopping list all by hands free voice command.
Once you’ve got all of your tasks organized, a time management app like Toggl can help you see where you’ve been spending your time. Set the timer and type in a description of what you’re working on. At any given time you can pull reports – daily, weekly and monthly – so you can figure out which tasks are the biggest time sucks. A plus with this app is that it also works on mobile, web and desktop devices.
Weren’t you planning on moving a bit more this year? Endomondo, “the personal trainer in your pocket”, has offered up a special challenge for 2016. Run 1000km in 365 days, track it on the app, inspire and be inspired by others while doing it, and you could win some pretty cool prizes. Running not your thing? MapMyFitness offers apps that track walking, hiking and biking too.
Let’s say you’ve gotten yourself organized, and you are really ready to get to work. But, you probably have to deal with other people, right? At least some of the time. So, file sharing might be an issue for you. Using Dropbox makes it simple to create folders and share file locations. If you want to be able to edit a document at the same time as the rest of your team, however, Google Drive might be a better option.
Goodbudget (formerly EEBA) uses the time tested envelope budgeting system to help you designate portions of your monthly income to specific expenses. And, because the app syncs between mobile devices and the web, you and your family members never have to be surprised by an unexpected expense.
And if you just wish that you could automate all of those small tasks, try IFTTT (If this then that). There are tons of recipes already available but it’s fairly simple to create a new one to suit your particular needs.
We think you’re off to a great start. Before you get too focused on work, though, go ahead and take a few minutes to browse our board. We even threw in some non-techsy tools for organization too, just in case you want to organize things old school style!