------- Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine ------- Vol 1, Issue 21 I love this time of year. We had a big snowstorm the other day so the whole world is looking like a Winter Wonderland. I have to keep aware of what I'm doing or I'll occasionally find myself staring out the window and humming Christmas carols under my breath. I guess that's not too much of a problem except that the end of the year always seems to be filled with things, both big and small, which need to get done. Of course, to get them done, I have to remember them in the first place. That's where the topic for this issue comes in. I'm taking a break from the discussion on Web presence to talk about one of the tools that I've found to be of use: Remember the Milk. ---------------------------------------------------------------- In This Issue... ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article: Remembering to Remember 2. Blog Posts 3. Shameless Self-Promotion 4. The Fine Print ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article: Remembering to Remember ---------------------------------------------------------------- Ever since I got my first Franklin Day Planner, I've loved to create "to do" lists. There was just something about putting that little "check" next to a task that gave me a real boost. I used my Planner for several years with varying degrees of success. It was a bit bulky and I didn't particularly like having to purchase refills every year, but it did what I needed. Then I moved up to the electronic world with one of the earlier Palm Pilots. Much better, but I was continually running into problems with synchronizing with my computers. It didn't like the fact that I had a home computer and one at work -- both of which I used with my "to do" lists. Now, I've found a tool that seems to have eliminated most of the disadvantages of my earlier methods. It's a web-based service called "Remember the Milk" (http://rememberthemilk.com) and, if you like keeping lists as much as I do, you might want to check it out. Of course, it has all of the features you would expect from a list maintenance program. You can enter tasks, assign priorities, and set due dates. You can mark tasks as complete, postpone them until another day, even set items up to repeat on a regular basis. Nothing too surprising in all of that. Where I think RTM really shines is all of the extras that they've built in. First off, they have put some serious effort into getting their service to work well on a number of other systems. You can add your RTM tasks as a calendar in Google Calendar. You can email new tasks directly to RTM and have them show up in your list. Most importantly for me is that they've gone to great pains to make this work for handheld devices. I can call up my "to do" list on my cell phone's web browser while I'm out and about. I can share my list items with others. I can attach them to lists for work, study, or personal tasks. I can tag the entries with my own categorization methods. One neat feature allows me to attach activities to specific locations and then view those activities overlaid on a Google map of the area. It sure makes running my errands much more efficient -- no doubling back because I forgot to do something clear across town. The more I've worked with the RTM service, the more impressed I've been with how much thought has gone into making this a really useful tool for getting things done. I think I've only scratched the surface of the possibilities. I hope you'll check it out and let me know what you think. Copyright 2007, Greg Peters ---------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Blog Posts ---------------------------------------------------------------- Links to posts on the "Clearing Up the Confusion" Blog from the last year: Sunday, December 02, 2007 -- Make It Clear http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2007/12/make-it-clear.html Sunday, November 11, 2007 -- Fun Phone Tricks http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2007/11/fun-phone-tricks.html ---------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Shameless Self-Promotion ---------------------------------------------------------------- The "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-Zine is a production of Greg Peters, owner, chief cook, and bottlewasher of Cyber Data Solutions. CDS has been helping website designers develop better web presence for their clients for more than a decade. Visit us on the Web at www.cyberdatasolns.com to see how we can help your webmaster. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 4. The Fine Print ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: You can subscribe to the "Clearing Up The Confusion" E-zine at: http://www.cyberdatasolns.com/ezine Questions: If you have any questions, concerns or comments regarding the Clearing Up the Confusion E-zine, please email Greg Peters at: gpeters@cyberdatasolns.com This content may be forwarded in full, with copyright and contact information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not for-profit format. If any other use is desired, permission in writing from Greg Peters is required, with notification to the original author. We never send the "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-zine uninvited, and we NEVER share, sell or rent our mailing list to anyone. Your privacy is safe with us.