How do you organize your entire business (and life)??

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HustlinHard

HustlinHard

(M)ad Man
Oct 31, 2007
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Vancouver
Okay so basically for the past few days I've been on sort of a reinstall and rearrange everything mission. I've completely reinstalled windows, tried to organize all my files and folders by groups/labels, etc.. in attempt to make tracking everything much easier. But one thing I notice, is as things grow, it becomes much harder to track and keep everything organized without having to flip through a multitude of folders.

So my question is, how do some of you guys keep track of everything? Do you have come centralized software where you input all your important login info, project tracking/planning, etc.. (ie. MS project, or Mind Mapping software)? Or do you have some other secretive methods to prevent the inevitable chaos from occurring several weeks/months after a cleanup?

I want to make things as productive and efficient as possible, so I'm all ears guys!
 


Well, the business is all tracked on legal pads that I keep at my desk, living room, and car. Along with a multitude of pens so any ideas I can write them down. All of my sites are foldered nicely as well as any templates or other graphics.

As far as life organization, not even close. I just roll with it.

My porn is quite well organized though! :p
 
depends what it is. usually i just have a bunch of word and excel files but i have a shitload of folders so i know where everything is, and a to-do list organized by topic and importance
 
Ideas go into Evernote.
Logins go into Roboform.
All projects, files, code are stored on the home server (which is backed up nightly).
Larger projects are mapped out to keep track of what needs to be done.

On the todo list is adding version control for my code and accounting software to keep track of finances.
 
Stanley said:
Ideas go into Evernote.
Logins go into Roboform.
All projects, files, code are stored on the home server (which is backed up nightly).
Larger projects are mapped out to keep track of what needs to be done.

On the todo list is adding version control for my code and accounting software to keep track of finances.
Click to expand...

what do you use for mapping out the projects? This seems to be what I'm most concerned about. I have switched from Gantt Proj, to MS Project, to various Mind Mapping software in order to have a nice organized system to plan/keep track of all my projects. Something that is powerful and can track many aspects of the project, but at the same time user-friendly. I found that MS Project may have some,or most, of these options, I don't know because I didn't use it long enough. The problem I had was that it wasn't user friendly and efficient, I ended up wasting more time setting everything up in the project, than I did actually executing the tasks.

It could be that I didn't give the software a proper chance, but I'm not sure. So if you, or anyone else, have a quick, efficient, all-in-one, way (or as close as you can get to it) to do these tasks, let me know!

Thanks for the replies


PS. Evernote ROCKS!

PSS. Just checked Treepad, looks like a nice addition
 
Evernote + Mindjet Mindmanager + Excel + Roboform = pretty organized.

I'm thinking of either adding a Basecamp subscription or going with one of the open source collaboration web scripts. Collabtive looks good.
 
dayminder planner for daily, weekly, and monthly scheduling.
couple of moleskine notebooks for capturing thoughts and making lists.
dropbox for keeping all my working files centralized and sync'd wherever i am.

mindmapping software is great for simplifying complex plans or ideas, but for day to day stuff i personally don't use it very often. it's great for creating overall blueprints for business and life, which only need to be reviewed occasionally. execution is another matter... that's where weekly task lists work great. nothing fancy needed for that - txt file, notebook, piece of paper, etc.
 
Backpack and Basecamp from 37 Signals. Also physical notepad. I've been really impressed with the 37 signals stuff... real easy to use, free to use on a limited basis and subscriptions are cheap... worth it.
 
I got a dry erase board the other day. I use it to summarize my days in letters that are in conjunction with what I did (a=AM, w= workout etc..) it's more than enough motivation for me to get going when the letters don't show up for a day or two. Also has a little "to do" section which I've been using.

I jot down ideas in a notebook, and random stuff to keep track of in a notepad... nothing beats pen & paper IMO.
 
I started keeping track of projects in the Outlook calendar years ago. I use the monthly view and can see at a glance were I am in a project and what I'm working on and when. I can also see notes to myself and if I want to can sync it all to my Palm.

It also helps that the information is stored in case I need it again in the future. It's not complex, but short notes area all I need to organize my days and all detailed notes are kept as txt files in client folders.

All files are arranged in folders according to year, client, etc... and it's all on the external hard drive. I realize that my world is a bit different as a service provider, but thought I'd jump in a bit anyhow.
 
Outlook for calendar, tasks, and contacts.
Contacts and calendar sync to iPhone.
Outlook tasks sync to Toodledo.com which syncs to Toodledo iPhone app.
Evernote is used for ideas and syncs to iPhone app.
All files are stored in the cloud using Dropbox, available on any computer or iPhone.
 
Keep a daily todo list for EVERYTHING, and check it often.
Organize bookmarks into folders for all important websites/ideas/news/stats/LPs/forums everything.
Organize projects into folders.
Separate business & personal expenses into separate accounts, makes life easier.

if it takes less than 2 minutes to do, do it immediately - live by it.
 
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