The Clutter Diet Blog

Organize Your Web Favorites & Get There Quick!

I have been enjoying creating some customer service training videos recently for my company, and I realized that I could also make some fun stuff for my readers and Clutter Diet members!

Today I am featuring a lesson on how to make handy buttons on your Internet Explorer toolbar that allow you one-click access to your most frequently used websites.

Because of the resolution of the video clip I made, it doesn't work well on YouTube, so I have just hosted it myself on my server. Click here to play the lesson (it's a Windows Media file, works with Windows Media Player and many other common players). (URL is: http://www.clutterdiet.com/video/linkstoolbar.wmv)

I would love to hear about how you liked it! Enjoy!

It Was Lost and Now It's Found

If you have a cluttered environment (or if you have teenagers) it can be easy to lose things in your home.  Many people now have dispensed with land lines in their homes and rely only on a cellular phone. So what happens if you lose your cell phone in your house and you don't have another phone to call yourself from to hear the ring and find it?

The answer: You can go to PhoneMyPhone.com and call yourself from their website, enabling you to hear the ringing and locate your phone. There are other uses... You can even schedule a time for it to call you, providing a great excuse to, as they put it on their home page, "end a sucky date early." I am sure you readers can think of all kinds of scenarios in which you could use a well-placed phone call to rescue you from something... a meeting, etc. Could be a great time management tool!  (A better tool is to learn to say NO when you need to)

Here is another product used for finding things in your house:  The Loc8tor. (photo here from Loc8tor's website) You put Loc8tor tags on your keys, your remote controls, your iPod, even your pet. Then you use the locating device to lead you to the lost item with increasingly louder sounds indicating your search is bringing you closer to the item.

The trick is not losing the locating device...

Shredding: Not Just for Papers

I have a client who receives large amounts of highly confidential information in CD and DVD format. She uploads the information to her own hard drive, but then she cannot just throw the CD in the trashcan.

Have you ever tried breaking a CD? It shatters and splinters and it's kind of dangerous. It's easy to cut yourself or get a shard of plastic in your eye ("You'll put your eye out!"  LOL)

Just wanted you to know there are such things as "media shredders." They mince up the CDs into tiny, shiny bits. If this is a common need of yours, it might be worth it to add this piece of equipment to your office. Some better paper shredders also have this capability, so if you are purchasing one, definitely look for this feature. Have you thought about the vulnerability of your digital media?

National Clean Out Your Computer Day 2/12/08

Yes, it's National Clean Out Your Computer Day on Tuesday of this week! It's a great day to take a few minutes to streamline your virtual workspace. Here are my top five pointers:

• I don't believe in spending too much time deleting old files. Memory space is cheap, certainly cheaper than the value of your time! If there are obvious things, then yes, delete them... but don't open up everything and examine it to decide whether to keep it, etc. If it's old and in your way, archive it to a DVD or move it to a folder where it won't be distracting.
• I do believe in keeping a clear desktop. Delete unnecessary shortcut icons and add shortcuts that are really useful to you. I love using the "Quick Launch" toolbar in XP, which puts frequently used icons where you can always see them. Click here or click this thumbnail screenshot for instructions on how to use the Quick Launch toolbar. If you use Quick Launch for a shortcut, you can delete that shortcut off the desktop, keeping it much less cluttered.
• Clean out your "My Documents" folder, creating new subfolders as needed to match up with your current projects and business structure.
• Make sure you have a great backup system in place. I like www.carbonite.com and friends of mine also like www.mozy.com. Read about how Carbonite saved my hiney last fall.
• Take a moment to check on running important utilities like spyware scans, virus scans, and defragmenting. This can really save you some heartache and even make your PC run better.

Go forth and make your computer lighter and your day better! Enjoy!

Organize Your Book Collection-Virtually

Book lovers take heed! Since at Christmas time we often talk about a few of our "favorite things," I wanted to share this website with you where I have spent way too much time playing. (logo screenshot from their site)

You can organize your book collection at www.goodreads.com, where you can also give reviews to your books, share your book "shelves" with friends, and capture books you want to read next. One question we get often is where to capture that type of information... this is a great place for those future reads to have a home so you won't forget what someone recommended to you.

You can create your own "shelves," which are just categories of books, and your books can reside in more than one category. I cannot tell you that this is a truly productive use of your time, because you still have to organize your books physically. But if you are a book lover, this is a very enjoyable way to spend a few hours on a rainy or snowy afternoon, and you can get some great ideas for books to read from looking at others' shelves and reviews. Hopefully you have some time off this holiday season and you can spend some time on GoodReads browsing and commenting!  Enjoy!

Cooler than Cool- Google SMS

Did you know that you can get tons of information sent to you instantly on your cell phone by text messaging Google? I am absolutely blown away by this free service! And you do NOT have to have a web browser on your phone.

You just send a text message to 466453 (spells Google on your keypad) for the information you want. No more calling 411! Just text "Starbucks 78746" to find the closest Starbucks to a certain zip code. Here are the things you can find out:

Phone Numbers and Addresses: Type something you want with the zip code, like "pizza 78704" or a person's name or business name with the zip code or city.
Weather:  Type "weather austin" (substituting your city of choice)
Dictionary: Type "define akimbo" (put in the word you want instead of akimbo- which I think is just a cool and interesting word)
Sports: Type "score red sox" (put in your team of choice)
Movie Listings: Type "movies 78746" (substituting your zip code)
Calculator: Type something like "1 US pint in liters"
Directions: Type "(origin address) to (destination address or zip code)"

There are so many more things it does, you'll have to visit their Google Mobile web page that tells about it all, including stocks, airline flights, translations... I could have used this so many times! What a boon to all of us who have ever been out stranded somewhere without the information we need! You will be amazed.

Find Stuff on Your Hard Drive!

Do you ever look for something in your e-mail or document folders and just can't remember what you called it or where you put it?  You need "desktop search" software... it allows you to quickly do a FULL TEXT SEARCH of your own hard drive and find what you want, even if you can only remember a word or phrase inside the document and not the title. I have tried a bunch of desktop search applications, such as Enfish/Easy Reach, X1, and Google Desktop.  Most of them are really good but they often slow down the machine and cause other issues.  I recently found out that Windows created their own desktop search function, "Windows Desktop."  I am a big fan, because it's simple and easy to use and it doesn't slow things down.   

You can download Windows Desktop by clicking here to choose the version that is best for you.  Click the thumbnails below of these screenshots I took to see more about how it works.  They are screenshots of me searching on my own hard drive for the phrase "Container Store." Try it-- it saves a bunch of time!

 

Being Organized Pays Off for Computer Failures!

As I finish my journey of reconstructing my laptop with a new hard drive, I wanted to share with my readers another proactive tool that helped me tremendously.  As one of my friends who knows a lot about data recovery says, a big chunk of time in recovery is just "thinking time," about what you need to install and in what order, etc.

I periodically take a "snapshot" of my computers with Belarc Advisor.  It is a free download you can install that produces a very helpful printed report whenever you like.  It lists all of the hardware, how much memory I have, all of the important technical specs, and all of the software that is installed.  It even lists the license numbers for most of the software.

I have been reinstalling a lot of software, and having a Belarc report really helped me remember what I had.  I also like Belarc for times when you need to upgrade memory or buy other hardware-- you can take the report to the computer store and avoid looking ignorant when they ask you how many megabytes of RAM you have.

I recommend running a Belarc report every quarter or so, or after you have installed a significant number of new programs.  It has been so great!  I hope this helps somebody.  Remember, it's not IF your hard drive is going to fail, it's WHEN...!  Be prepared! (See my previous "hard drive crash" post for 5 important considerations.)

Sudden Hard Drive Crash!

They say it's not "if" your hard drive will crash, it's "when."  I am living proof that you should be prepared for this at any time!  Today I was working happily on my notebook computer, the new one I just bought in March.  It froze up while I was working, and I thought a simple reboot would fix things.  Upon rebooting, the hard drive was not readable.  I did some diagnostics tests, and sure enough, it was completely gone. 

I have always thought that you would have a little warning when a hard drive was going out-- things would be slower, sluggish, acting strange.  But this was here one second, gone the next! 

I am trying hard not to come unglued about this, so it helps me to note that there are several things to be grateful for about this experience:

1. I am SO GLAD I had everything backed up.  I use Carbonite, which is really inexpensive ($50 per year, unlimited storage) and backs up almost in real time while you are working.  The only data I lost was the newest information I had added to documents I was working on during the crash.  Everything else is all there.  Whew!  I am very impressed with Carbonite. What is your backup status?
2. I still have my old laptop and it works.  I am using it right now.  Do you have a machine accessible for you to use in case of emergencies? 
3. I am now able to take this opportunity to downgrade back to Windows XP.  I was very disappointed with Vista.  My advice is that if you buy a new PC, get one with the power and capability of running Vista, but just get XP loaded on it.  Then someday when Vista is more palatable, you can upgrade to it. 
4. I am still under warranty for the hardware!  I do believe in buying extended warranties for computers.  I was under a year in this case, but I have always been so glad to have 3-year coverage on other machines.  Do you know if your computer is covered?
5. I had all of my passwords preserved in SplashID, which was also backed up.  Also, I had my important Carbonite password written down in a safe place on paper.  Take a moment today to note if all of your passwords and account information would be quickly available to you in this type of situation.  It's a very good idea to have a printout of the most important ones if you use an electronic password keeper.

Take heed, my friends!  This could happen to you!  Are you prepared?

Five Websites I Find Essential in My Work

I've been tagged! My colleague Ariane Benefit from the Neat & Simple Living Blog has tagged me to share 5 of the websites I find useful in my work. It's hard to narrow it down, as you may remember from yesterday that I have over 700 bookmarks! I am trying to strike a balance between what I use for client work and what we use to run our office here. Here's what I came up with:

1. Organize.com: My friends at Organize.com have an amazing selection of products and I like using their site for product research. I often refer our Clutter Diet members to them.
2. Container Store: I use their site for a lot of product research too. As you may remember, I was recently saying that they are pretty much the Organizers' Mecca.
3. US Postal Service's Click & Ship: We ship out a lot of product orders, samples, and other packages here at our office, and we LOVE printing out our postage as needed using this site. We also use their free carrier pickup service all the time. It saves us a ton of time over going to the post office in person. There is a lot more to this-- I wrote a post about this last year around the holidays.
4. (TIE) Thesaurus.com and Visual Thesaurus: Nowadays I spend a lot of my time writing, so I am constantly going to these "thesauri" (I looked that up) to make sure I provide the right nuance to what I am saying. The Visual Thesaurus is quite amazing—you can drag it around and click to expand it, etc. Very fun to play with.
5. Lifehack.org: This year I have been writing as a guest contributor for Lifehack, named one of the top 50 productivity blogs (See a list of the articles I wrote on the bottom left column of my blog page). I read it almost every day and get lots of fresh ideas and insights from it.

Now I have to tag five other people to share their 5 useful websites (let's make a new rule—nobody says normal ones like Google anymore):

1. Susan Sabo: Productivity Café
2. Clyde Lerner: TechMischief
3. Buzz Bruggeman: Buzznovation
4. Stacey Kannenberg: Cedar Valley Publishing
5. Patty Kreamer: Making Life Simple…Again

You're IT!