The Power of One

As Three Dog Night explains in the lyrics of their 1969 hit, one can be the loneliest number. Sometimes, there is power in the masses, meaning a group makes more impact that just one; however, when it comes to certain organizing tools, one can be a very powerful number. It can be very important to "practice the power of one". Here are a few examples:

- One Calendar... Whether it's paper or electronic, a single planner enables tracking all commitments (personal and professional) in one place, making it less likely that appointments will be forgotten or that you will double-book yourself.

- One To-Do List... Are you jotting down reminders on multiple sheets of paper, in various different notebooks or via sticky notes posted all around your office? If so, how many of those actually get completed?!? Keeping all the action items needing your attention in one place makes it more likely they'll get completed and aids in prioritizing.

- One "Data Dump"... Our brains get filled with more and more information each day; keeping them in one place ensures meeting notes, ideas, phone messages, inspirations and the like are not lost and are easily accessible, regardless of whether that one place is the paper option of a spiral notebook or an electronic option, like Evernote or OneNote.

- One Address Book... For contacts' names, phone numbers, emails and snail mail addresses as well as any notes related to that connection, keeping everyone's information centralized within one system makes it easier to keep contacts' data up-to-date and to access those details quickly whenever they are needed.

Are any of these areas in which you can streamline? And, if you have ideas for other items that are more powerful when you have just one of them, please share those in the Comments section below.

Totally Terrific Tech Tools

When it comes to computers and what goes with them, I help clients tame technological needs daily, speaking Mac and PC as well as iPhone, Blackberry, Android and much more, but the available options are virtually endless for electronic tools that make life easier and help obtain optimum performance day-to-day. Here are just a few that I find most helpful:

- Customer Relationship Management Tool... While there are tons of options, like SalesForce, ACT!, Zoho, GoldMine and Kyliptix's KiBS, I find that BatchBook provides the best option for the most different industries, allowing you to create and sync contacts, invoices, eBlasts and communication logs online.

- Electronic Password Keeper... When not using a printed list, I prefer RoboForm for storing my online usernames and associated passwords, but other great options are Password Safe, SplashID and KeePass.

- Online Backup Service... To automatically backup everything on my computer with a service that encrypts my files during backup and storage, I rely on Mozy, but Carbonite offers a good alternative, too.

- Scheduling Application... While I prefer using Doodle, it is also easy to schedule meetings or gatherings with groups of people using TimeBridge, Tungle.me or Meeting Wizard.

- Keyboard Macro Program... Although Macs come with all sorts of shortcuts built in, there are options like ActiveWords (which I prefer) or AutoHotKey that enable PC-users to associate select words with Substitute Text, Launch a Program, Open Document, Navigate to Internet Site, Send Email, Open Folder or Scripting.

- Online File Sharing... To share or sync files between computers, especially when email just can't handle those really big files, I rely on Dropbox, but Live Mesh, Syncplicity, SugarSync and SparkleShare work, too.

- Task Management Solution... While I prefer Outlook since it can combine email and calendar in the same tool as my tasks, other great options include Producteev, Toodledo, Remember the Milk and TadaList.

- "Remember Everything" Tool... To save images, text, audio and video somewhere I can access anywhere (including desktop, smart phone or Internet) through a quick search of keyword, tag or included text, I rely on Evernote, but OneNote offers an alternative that many others utilize, too... Evernote is such a fantastic tool!

Since these are just the tip of the iceberg for available tech tools, I'd love to hear what you like, too... What electronic tools do you use to make life easier?