Being Organized & My Favorite Technology

I am convinced that being organized is one of the most important things I can do for myself and the girls. I am less stressed and irritable when things are not so chaotic. I’m not too overly concerned with the house being perfect, I just want things to be easy to find when we need them. I don’t want to promise things that I will not be able to do by overscheduling us, and I want to make sure Eva has all the tools necessary to do her homework and not have to rush. I am amazed at how much homework she has this year! It’s not easy making sure she has her library book on the right day, her popcorn money, her snack, her field trip slips, etc. So, I think being organized is the key to my success as a single working mom. I have a few tools that I use to help me stay organized that I would like to share:

www.rememberthemilk.com

This is the best site I’ve found to manage my to do lists. The site allows me to add tags to my tasks for more sorting, and I’ve added home and work tasks so I have everything in one place. I even added a birthdays list and a grocery list, and Eva’s spelling lists and homework due dates. Everyday, I receive an email reminder containing all of my tasks that are due for that particular day. I can even add an app to my cell phone which will sync with this site. I haven’t done that yet, but I’m going to very soon. Which brings me to my next tool……



I LOVE my new phone. I have an iPod Touch and loved it so much that I’ve been waiting for my contract to expire with Sprint so I could get an iPhone. But someone at work told me about this little beauty, and I’ve never been so in love with a phone as I am with this one. Plus, Sprint lets me call any mobile # for free, so I’m on a plan that costs me less than $70 per month and that makes me love it even more. It connects Bluetooth to my car, it has all of the apps that Apple has, unlimited text & data, plus it has the girls TV shows on-demand, so we plug it into the car speakers and they both can listen to it while they watch, and (my favorite) it never drops calls. I just absolutely love it. I can’t wait to put the Remember The Milk app on it.

I also use Google Reader to combine my favorite websites into a one-stop to catch up on all of my news and blogs. I usually sign-in right after I check my email in the morning. I also love Facebook for one thing, and one thing only: I can catch up on my family’s whereabouts, injuries, travels, etc. without having to call everyone all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I love talking on the phone, but I have very limited time after work to spend with the girls, so FB is a great way for me to feel connected and not spend too much time on the phone.

YouTube – I love YouTube because I created a playlist of all my favorite praise & worship songs. Many of them are PPT presentations set to the songs that have the lyrics play while the song plays. We have a laptop on the kitchen counter and Eva loves to watch while I make dinner and we dance around the kitchen.

There is one thing that I learned when we drove to Tennessee for our white water rafting trip, and that is I need a GPS. It’s one of those devices, like a cell phone, that you just can’t live without once you’ve had one. Well, I don’t have one….yet. My car came with one year of On-Star, so when that’s up, I’m getting one. I just found out the other day that if I spend a little more, I can get a GPS that you can use for hiking, and your car too. Well, we’re addicted to letterboxing (www.letterboxing.org) and I get nervous walking around in the woods with the girls, so I think we may get one of those.