Get Organized & Be Productive

There are so many tools available to help you with your projects that even if i knew of a large number of them there’d be a larger number I’d missed. That’s the crazy nature of productivity and the surrounding elements that have sprang up to support it, they add new methods near daily.

With that in mind, I have assembled a list of tools that most would agree are enough to get you on your way as far as organizing your projects.

Project Management

Google

Yeah, Google. Unless you live under a rock you well aware of the power of google, but many may not know of just how deep that power extends. Google has a slew of tools and features that tie together to create quite a robust project management system. I’m not joking when I say that you could run a business from google alone.

Here are the key components you’ll need to get a project in shape using google’s tools.

• Gmail account – If you’re using anything but gmail for your mail you’re behind the times.
• Google Docs – With your Gmail account you can sign up for access to google documents and gain access to google’s answer to Office Suite. Create and share documents with others with little difficulty.
• Google Tasks / Calendar - set up tasks for yourself in (Gmail) and share them if needed with the calendar’s connectivity to the tasks feature.
• Google Talk - While this neat little IM service is readily available in your Gmail inbox, you can download it separate for more features. Also as a cool feature, you can sen SMS text messages to anyone in the US.

Base Camp

This is an online  project management system that is available both free and for pay, as expected, the free set up is limited as far as the thing.  Free set up includes: 1 project, unlimited users, but no file sharing.  They also have Basic, Plus, Premium, Max packages that offer levels of productivity and and security as well as the ability to manage multiple projects.

You can  sign up for the free set up  here referrer: blax

File Sharing

The easiest way is to have a domain and hosting and setting up a folder to transfer your files via FTP (File Transfer Protocol) which if you’ve been around on the ‘net as a power user for a while you’ll be familiar with. If you aren’t, Google is your friend.

As far as programs go, you’ll have plenty of options, from fileZilla, to believe it or not, your web browser. Experiment until you find what works best for you.

If you’re not an FTP sort of person there are file sharing options for you, that range from free to paid such as SendSpace & YouSendIt, but of course  research is always recommended.

These are your online options, if your files are physical, snail mail is your best course of action, FedEx, USPS, UPS etc. all have solutions to help you.

Communication

Again, another category with an insane amount of options.

• Google Talk - While this neat little IM service is readily available in your Gmail inbox, you can download it separate for more features. Also as a cool feature, you can sen SMS text messages to anyone in the US.
• AIM – AOL Instant messenger, we all know AOL itself sucks, but the messenger is still pretty decent.
• Windows Live Messenger – Microsoft’s instant messenger, still going strong.
• Yahoo Instant Messenger – Another popular choice.
• SKYPE – Many people enjoy this one, it allows you to make free calls among other things. Sadly, it doesn’t like any of my computers.
• ICQ – still around, this one.
• Trillian – This one is useful if you have multiple accounts on the other major networks, you can access them and communicate without having so many programs running.
• Digsby – I currently use this one, why? I can keep track of my instant message accounts, email, and social networks all in one, including twitter. My one gripe: I requires you to install extra (often unnecessary & unwanted) programs, but they can be removed through the add / remove programs feature and it works just fine.

This should be enough to get you well organized, the next time I talk tools, it’ll be about the actual production process, this list could very well be as long as the previous.