Webupon

In the first article in this series, I explained that there is an increasing reliance by American business people (and busy families) on web-based services.

It would be absurd to believe that the days of us heaving around physical organizers are not numbered. And it’s equally preposterous to think that any one web-based service (or company) could reliably, effectively, and adequately serve the growing organizational, planning, and digital needs of the business professional or busy family today. It is probably best, then, to choose web-based services that do only one thing (and do it really well) for each category that we need covered in our online organizers.

Today’s guide delves into what I believe are the “must-haves” – essential services that should be included in everyone’s repertoire of online services, regardless of whether they are a busy, overbooked real-estate agent or a frazzled, overworked soccer mom. There are four services on my list of must-haves, starting off with what I believe to be the most important of all:

1. Calendar/Scheduler

   The cornerstone of any personal organizational system is a way to manage your time. An online calendar should be able to keep track of your time in a way that makes sense to you so that, at a glance, you know what’s coming and how best to manage your day, your week, and your life. It should also be able to alert you via e-mail or cell phone text-message prior to events and to remind you of important tasks and allow for collaboration with other people on your team or in your family to set meetings and view schedules.

   My personal favorite in this category is Google Calendar (calendar.google.com) because of its strong collaborative features, beautiful easy-to-read design, the ability to create and combine multiple calendars, and feature-rich alerts – plus, it’s free. But there are many more online calendars out there that may suit you or your situation better. For a few other ideas in this category, just Google “online calendar”.

2. Web-Based E-Mail

   Communication by e-mail is fast supplanting more traditional forms. Many non-critical tasks that you would normally perform by phone can be handled with more leisure via e-mail and with less room for mistakes because what transpired in the conversation is right in front of you in black and white.

   For best results from your e-mail, you need a web-based solution that doesn’t tie you to one computer and gives you powerful options for managing your communications. You should choose a web-based service that has plenty of storage space for your e-mails, can pull e-mail from multiple accounts (work, personal, etc.), has a strong search function, a sleek and intuitive design, a strong interface for filtering and sorting incoming mail, and preferably one that does not append advertisements onto the end of every e-mail you send out.

   In this web mail category, Google once again shines. Their free GMail service (Gmail.com) does everything a web mail service should do and more. As an alternative, your ISP usually provides web mail of some sort to you and your family members at no charge – some of these are actually quite good.

   Other good, free, possibilities in this category include Yahoo! (mail.yahoo.com), MSN Hotmail (hotmail.com), and AOL (webmail.aol.com), or simply Google “webmail” for more choices.

3. Stand-Alone Contact Manager/Address Book

   Often, a very basic contact manager is included with your web mail service, but often these “address books” fall short of being able to supply a robust solution to your contact and addressing needs. Plus, if you ever want to or must change e-mail addresses, the fuss involved in exporting an important your web mail’s address book can be a nightmare, not to mention that all fields may not be imported/translated to your new provider.

   A good online, stand-alone address book should save multiple physical addresses per contact, allow multiple phone numbers and e-mail addresses, be sortable, searchable, allow the creation of categories for your contacts, and store other important information such as birthdays, anniversaries, and notes.

   I, personally, use a stand-alone service for this part of my web organizer that does not require me to be logged into my webmail to use: Yahoo! Address book is my personal pick in this category. Although it isn’t as pretty as the slick “Web 2.0” interfaces that are popular right now, it’s functional, fast, free, allows multiple physical as well as e-mail addresses, allows you to create user-defined fields, and has contact printing, searching, and sorting, as well as the all-important Birthday, Anniversary, and “Notes” fields.

   Plus, clicking on an e-mail address in the address book automatically opens Yahoo! Web mail for sending an e-mail to that contact. Other contenders in this category include Plaxo (Plaxo.com) and Zexer (Zexer.com).

4. To-Do/Shopping/List manager

   Everyone has lists of things that need to be done, projects to be worked on, shopping lists to fulfill, even subtasks on other tasks that need to be completed. Rather than carrying around a pocket full of scraps of paper, a robust online service should be used that allows for multiple lists, subtasks if needed, easy organization, mobile access (it’s a great convenience to be able to pull up your shopping list on your cell phone when you’re at the store), and easy options for printing when needed. It should also be fully collaborative if desired so that multiple people can add, cross off, and modify lists when needed.

   I currently use a by-invitation-only service for my to-do lists, but my favorite for shopping lists is a new free service called Knotler (Knotler.com), which allows multiple users to be collaborating on a list at the same time and also has a mobile-phone version of the site for accessing your list while away from your computer. As for every-day type lists, popular choices are Tadalist (Tadalist.com), Remember the Milk (Rememberthemilk.com), and Todoist (Todoist.com). Choices for to-do lists abound, however, so you might want to try some out for a while until you find one that fits your lifestyle and tastes. Just Google “online to-do list”.

These four categories are the essentials. These are the services should have a prominent, separate, and easily accessible location in your “Favorites” folder, on your desktop, or on your links bar to give you fast, easy access to all parts of your busy life.

In the next and final article in this series, we’ll explore some more services that are highly recommended but may not be needed by everyone in every situation…these are the “optional” recommendations for your online organizer. Until then, check out the services listed here and give them a try. You just might be the next to convert to a completely web-based lifestyle.