23 tips for getting organized, streamlining your online time, managing your media and more
PC World - Technology was supposed to make our lives easier -- so why does it seem to do the opposite? If living in a perpetual state of tech overload has you frazzled, here are some solutions for you.
The enlightening tips in this story will show you how to conserve time and effort, eliminate headaches, clean up your workspace, secure your PC and your data, and manage your media. The path to the ultimate state of 21st-century Zen starts right here, right now.
Get organized
If your daily life is hectic, start calming it down by organizing your workspace. Whether you need to neaten up your PC desktop or the actual top of your desk, here are some simple things you can do to make things tidy, searchable, and in sync.
Manage multiple e-mail accounts in the Gmail interface
Effort: Minimal
Cost: Free
Most folks have accumulated a handful of e-mail addresses that they are not prepared to stop checking altogether. If you're a Gmail user, Google's e-mail app is particularly adept at consolidating several e-mail addresses so that you don't have to log in to five different accounts every day.
You can either set up your other accounts to forward all incoming mail to your Gmail account or use Gmail's "Get mail from other accounts" feature to automatically import every message you receive to your centralized inbox. Gmail even permits you to use it to send e-mail on behalf of your other, non-Gmail addresses.
If you prefer to do things the Microsoft way, Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail offers much of the same functionality as Gmail, but in an interface that's the spitting image of Outlook.
Use Google sync tools to manage PCs and phones
Effort: Moderate
Cost: Free
If you have a smartphone, a desktop PC, and a laptop or netbook, that amounts to at least three different places where you might want to add an appointment to your calendar, edit your contacts, or access an important file without worrying about keeping all your data in sync.
Google to the rescue again: If you're managing your days in Google Calendar and keeping track of your contacts in Google's Contacts application, Google Mobile Sync provides two-way, wireless synchronization of your calendar and contacts.
Microsoft Outlook users should check out Google Calendar Sync for the same two-way calendar sync.
Finally, if syncing up a folder's worth of files is important to you, look at Dropbox, a free service that syncs up to 2GB of data between any number of computers, the Internet, and even your iPhone or iPod Touch.
Find any file on your PC with desktop search
Effort: Moderate
Cost: Free
Even if you have organized every last file on your PC, you're still bound to lose something in the digital haystack every now and again. You could go the obvious desktop-search route with Google Desktop, or if you're running Vista you can just use the built-in Instant Search functionality.
But I'm going to stray from the beaten path a little and suggest Everything, a free, no-nonsense desktop search app that finds files on your desktop as you type, with lightning speed.
Scan paper and unclutter your home office
Effort: Initially high, minimal over time
Cost: $350 (at press time)
Your home office is a haven for all your pet projects and personal finances, but it's useless if you can't find anything under a giant stack of papers. To remedy that, take a two-step approach: Toss out all the junk, and then scan and file or shred the rest.
An intelligent sheet-fed scanner such as the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 can handle large stacks of paper in a range of sizes and turn any text on a page into a searchable PDF file on your PC. Just gather up all the papers that are multiplying on your desk, toss them into the scanner, and press the scan button.
The next time you need to find a particular receipt or invoice, for instance, simply search your computer (see previous tip). You get the surface of your desk back, and you may never have to rummage through a creaky file cabinet again.
Untangle your cables
Effort: Moderate
Cost: $10
Have you followed the tip above to clear away paper clutter? Great. Your desk would look perfect now if not for the ugly cables running from every gadget you own to its respective power supply. IKEA sells an inexpensive cord basket that's ideal for hiding your cables. Just screw it in, unplug your gear, and put everything back together one cord at a time, tucking each cable into the basket.
Similarly, you can set up a charging station for your cell phone, MP3 player, and other gadgets, either by using your own ingenuity or by purchasing a dedicated product like the Kingston Charging Valet.
Streamline your online experience
If you have more online accounts than you can track, these tools will put you back in control. With the help of these tips for Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites, you can keep passwords secure, control your networks from a single interface, get one number for all your phones, and more.
Reduce your online profile to safeguard your privacy
Effort: Moderate
Cost: Free
The Internet is an amazing venue for sharing your life with family and friends, but if you don't pay attention to what you're sharing, it can turn into a privacy nightmare. You can do a lot to protect yourself.
If you're on Facebook, for example, get to know the privacy settings. You can determine what you broadcast to the world, and when used wisely, the settings provide serious control over what details the site exposes. One great option to tweak is the Search setting, which lets you restrict how much information people can see about you before you add them as friends.
If you've tried your hand at a lot of social networks over the years, it's a good idea to go back and delete old, neglected accounts that still show up in your Google results but don't satisfactorily portray the professional demeanor you've worked so hard to cultivate.
Finally, set up a simple nameplate site to take an active role in determining what people see when they dig for dirt on you. One worthy option is a Google Profile, which can give you a leg up in shaping how others perceive you on the Web (though in PC World's tests, it didn't rank as highly in our search results as we had hoped).
Consolidate your online identities with UnHub
Effort: Moderate
Cost: Free
Between your blog, Facebook, Twitter, and -- if you're really popular -- your Wikipedia page, you probably find it tough to give someone a single URL that says "Here's me." The Web site UnHub helps to solve that problem.
The service allows you to create a very simple home page with a persistent profile bar that links to every site that defines you on the Web. No matter which of your pages your buddies visit, yourUnHub profile bar stays on top so that your visitors can easily move on to your next online hangout. Best of all, you don't have to update each of your sites every time you add a new social network to your list.
Update your blog
Effort: Minimal
Cost: Free
It's rare to find a piece of Microsoft software that outperforms the competition where the Internet is involved, but if you love to blog, you can't find a better companion than Windows Live Writer. The handy application plugs into popular blogging platforms such as Blogger and WordPress, streamlining your writing process with a built-in spelling checker, image editing tools, post previews, and more. It also boasts plug-in support for integrating with your Flickr account, with Twitter, and with the popular social news site Digg.
Manage Twitter more effectively
Effort: Minimal
Cost: Free
Everyone is talking about Twitter these days, but despite the service's insane popularity, its chaotic default Web interface doesn't do much to simplify working with it. If you'd like to manage your Twitter experience better, try the free Twitter client TweetDeck. It displays your friends' tweets, corrals your mentions, tracks searches, and has tools for shortening links, posting pictures, and more.
If you want to keep an eye on what the Twittosphere has to say but you don't want to check it constantly, consider signing up with TweetBeep, a service that sends you a daily digest of Twitter posts matching any number of search criteria you select. It's all the tweets without all the distraction.
Use KeePass to secure your passwords
Effort: Moderate
Cost: Free
If you use a different password for every online account you own (as well you should), your head is probably about to explode. More likely, though, you use the same one or two passwords for all those sites, which is a security horror story waiting to happen. To calm your mind and to maintain security, use a password manager.
KeePass Password Safe is a free, open-source password manager that tracks all your Web site passwords, credit card numbers, ID numbers, software registration codes, and other details. It can autofill your user name and password through your browser whenever you visit a site where you have an account.
Perhaps best of all, the tool can autogenerate highly secure random passwords for new accounts, and then remember them for you. All you need to recall is the one password that unlocks KeePass's power.
Unify your phone numbers through Google Voice
Effort: Minimal
Cost: Free (at press time)
Remember the simple days when landlines reigned supreme, and anyone who wanted to get ahold of you had just one number to dial? Today you likely have a personal cell phone, your work cell, and an additional landline at each location. Suddenly, getting in touch has become much more complicated.
With Google's latest offering, Google Voice, that's about to change. The service eliminates the multiple-phone problem by creating one central number that rings all of your phones -- and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Google Voice also supports advanced call-routing rules, transcribes your voicemail, and even forwards a copy of it to your e-mail inbox.
I've been using Google Voice for more than a year (since it was known as Grand Central), but it's currently in closed beta. If you don't want to wait for the Google Voice beta to open, you can significantly boost your voicemail prowess in the meantime with YouMail.
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