Staying Organized–My FREE Online Helpers

I have been asked over the years how I stay organized as a homeschool mom, wife, and now work at home mom too. I have a lot of different resources that I use, and many of them can be found online for FREE. Below are just a few that I enjoy using to keep my life and home running smoothly. I’ve become rather dependent on them, especially lately with all of the traveling we’ve been doing while my husband works out of town.Being so busy doesn’t have to equal chaotic!

Here are just a few of my favorites:


Cozi is a wonderful online organizational helper. I really like the Shopping List Feature and the To Do List Features. I am nothing without my lists! They help me to remember the many things I would otherwise forget. There is also a Calendar that you can add events to, and receive reminders via email and/or text messages. You don’t have to use the mobile features to use Cozi, but they are a great plus to have! You can access your shopping lists via text message, and Cozi also has an iPhone/iPod Touch app so that you can access your lists on the go!
 



Another tool I’ve found that I really like is the Windows Live Calendar. I like how I can add events, get email reminders, and view my calendar by the day, week, month, and agenda. There’s also a To Do Feature that I use as well for important reminders. I can set them up to send me an email reminder too. I can include Birthdays and U.S. Holidays as well. I have this calendar set as my home page whenever I log onto the Internet so I can see what I have going on for that particular day, week, etc. It really has helped me a lot this summer.

Some other FREE online helpers and tips that help me stay organized and sane:

• Paperless billing: not only am I saving on paper waste, but I can access my bills online, and receive emails when they are available.
• Online Bill Payment: I pay almost all of my bills online. It saves me money on postage, and I don’t have to worry about writing a check. It’s convenient, and simple.
• Online banking: I receive all of my statements via email, and I also have access to my accounts online so I can keep up with expenses, check my balance, etc.
• Unsubscribe from junk mail: Even though I inadvertently sign up for these emails when I join a company’s site for one reason or another, I don’t want to waste time deleting tons of emails from them every day. In most email newsletters and ads there are instructions, usually somewhere near the bottom on how to “remove” or “unsubscribe”. I have cut down significantly on the amount of junk mail I receive, and now I have more time to read and respond to the important emails.
• Email all in one place: I receive all of my email through Windows Live Mail on my computer. I used to check each website that I had for each and every email account that I use. Now I have it set up all in one place which makes it much more organized and easier for me to reply and save important messages.
• Folders for email: I save all my important emails in folders that I create so I can easily find them later.
• Google Bookmarks: I use Google Bookmarks to save everything that I want to save online. That way, I never lose my bookmarks if I change computers, and I still have access to them wherever I happen to be online.
• Email to myself: I email things that I might want to save to look at later to myself so that when I have more time, I can check them out. If not for this, there are many things that I would forget about!
• Separate Usernames: I have my own laptop, but my children share a computer. I have them set up with their own usernames on that computer so that I can set time limits on their computer time, and monitor them online. I can block certain websites if I’d like too, or download kids’ only browsers for them to use. I can share files with them also through Homegroup on our computers, which is a feature I really enjoy. We can share photos, documents, videos, and basically anything that’s available on our computers to share!
• Sparkpeople: I use Sparkpeople to track my nutrition and fitness. It’s a FREE health site, with tons of information and FREE tools to use to help you lead a healthy lifestyle.

I’m sure there are tons more that I can think of, but that’s all for now…if you have any that you’d like to tell ME about, please share in the Comments Section below! And, if you have the iPhone or iPod touch, stay tuned…because coming soon…I’ll be sharing my favorite iPod Touch apps that keep me organized too.

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