It seems like one New Year’s Resolution that we all aspire to is getting organized. Changes in technology can often make it hard to feel on top of everything, but here are 10 online tools or apps to actually make your life feel MORE organized. The first week of January is a great time to check out some of these tools and see which ones might work for you! Most of these have a free level, and also offer a paid level with more features.
1. Artkive
What to do with all of your kids’ accumulating artwork and mementos? Artkive may be the answer. Artkive is an app and online tool for capturing and storing images of your child’s creativity, artwork, and awards/certificates. There is no fee to use Artkive until you reach 40 images in your account. Once you have more than 40 images, you will be prompted to select a membership plan that works best for you.
2. Asana
Asana is a free workflow and productivity tool. Perhaps most useful in project management and team collaboration for work or volunteer projects, Asana might also be a good way to get kids familiar with organizational tools. Older children are often assigned group projects in school, and a tool like Asana can let them create task lists and progress updates for school group projects.
3. Cozi
Cozi is an exceptional, award-winning, free family organizer. Primarily it combines the calendars of all family member into one easy-to-read format, including syncing with parents’ work calendars through Outlook. It has a repeat feature so that when you enter a time/day that repeats every week, like soccer practice or piano lessons, you just click to add it week after week. You can also store recipes and make shopping lists, and you can share quick stories and photos in the family Journal.
4. Evernote
Evernote is a free organizational app that lets you take notes, create lists, organize ideas in notebooks, lets you clip articles to keep and read later, and much more at the paid levels. I like it primarily for taking notes in “notebooks” and I love the Clipper. I can clip an article when I am scanning through my newsfeed or sites, and keep it to read later when I have more time. You can access your Evernote account from two devices and any web browser.
5. Google Drive
This online cloud storage tool lets everyone with an account store 15 GB on Google Drive for free; you can purchase more storage space if you need it. It is a good place to upload photos, and then share via a link you can email to someone else. Google Drive should be adequate for storing the average family’s important documents (for example, real estate papers or wills) where you can view them easily while the original may be stored in a safe deposit box.
6. Lose it!
Lose it! is a free app that tracks weight loss and calories, tracks steps and exercise, and connects with Apple Health and Google Fit. Lose it! also lets you participate in public challenges, groups, and social media. Participating in community-style features is sometimes the key to successful weight loss!
7. My Med Schedule
This is a free medicine scheduler/tracker. It sends alerts to take scheduled medicines by text or email, which can make adhering to your medication schedule more successful. It can also generate a printed list of your medications.
8. Spendee
Fun and colorful budget tracker that has some great features at the free level, including cross-device sync (once you register an account), personalized categories, multiple currencies, export, and budget.
9. Toggl
Toggle is a free time tracker that shows you how long it takes to do a task online, and to see how much time you log on any site. Sometimes the key to being more efficient and productive is seeing where you are spending your time, and this tool helps you to do that.
10. Writemonkey
Not an organizing tool, but it can help you be more productive. Writemonkey is a no-cost distraction-free writing tool, with a simple screen that is “text only” to eliminate distractions while you are writing. There is a small information bar at the bottom that shows the time and the word count as you work. I love it.
What apps or online tools keep you organized? Are there any you couldn’t live without? Please share your favorites in the comments below and tell us what you love about it!
We use Wunderlist.com app all the time for grocery lists. The list(s) can be shared, so our Target, etc list can have both of us adding to it, and the app works really well and it’s easy to mark off those items.
Thanks for sharing! That sounds super-convenient and worth checking out!
I like using Taco. It’s an extension that collects tasks and to-dos from other apps and tools:
https://www.actitime.com/productivity-tools/productivity-chrome-extensions.php
Thank you for sharing! That’s how so many great tools get discovered – I will be checking it out!