If you are driving yourself nuts trying to keep your bits of information organized, try NotesBrowser. It is a free download from http://www.notesbrowser.com . NotesBrowser lets you categorize, and subcategorize bits of information. It has calendar and reminder functions built in, but I’ve never used those – I just love being able to have a place to stick stuff where I won’t lose it.

  Here are some of the ways I use it:

1. I have a ToDo page, with categorized to-do lists.

2. I have a Notes page where I can keep short bits of info that I use on a frequent basis, including my signature line, and anything else I need frequently.

3. I keep a listing of blog post ideas. I often think of things when I can do nothing about them, or I spend a few minutes brainstorming, after which I’ll write a list of topics for one or more blogs, which go into that list. That way, I’m never without an idea to write about. It helps me pick up on the simple and quickly forgotten ideas that happen through each day.

4. I have a section for my clients, and I can keep notes on their projects, everything from the work required, to a list of extensions installed on their site, to other bits of info I have to remember about each one.

5. I have a section for boilerplate text – for example, I send out almost the same letter to every person I sent a contract to – it has first step instructions, information about the contract, and payment information in it. Saves me time to just modify that each time. I have many other repeated communications in business also, which go there.

6. I keep a section for project ideas. I’m always getting ideas, and this allows me to keep notes, and when I have the time to develop something, or when someone else wants to borrow an idea, I’ve got them written down. They often become quite detailed – which allows me to sort through them and assess them for feasibility and practicality any time I want to launch into something new.

7. I have a section for marketing, where I keep notes on what I’m implementing, the schedule, and where I jot down key figures for comparison for assessments.

8. I have a section for code – snippets of code that I forget how to write if I don’t have a reminder.

9. I keep a section for instructions for various things I do more than once, but not often enough to remember how to do them – for example, when I set up a cart, there is a bit of code that I have to hand edit in a file that is buried in a folder and I can never remember which one it is. So I keep a note on that, as well as the basic code for the edit.

10. I have a section for each of our company divisions, and a sub-section for the websites that drive them, so I can keep planning, completion, and management information. I also have a folder with full documentation for each of these, but Notesbrowser lets me keep track of what I’m working on, before I get it to the point of fully developing it, and to organize the smaller bits that don’t justify a whole document.

(c) Laura Wheeler – Mom to Eight, Firelight Business Enterprises, Inc. http://www.firelightwebstudio.com

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