Shelley Brown Richmond Public Library

Useful online tools

If you do a lot of web surfing, and want to have a place to store all your notes, then check out Google Notebook www.google.com/notebook. This is a beta service that you’ll have to register for, but registration means that you will be able to access Google Notebook from any computer that has an Internet connection. You can make bookmarks of Internet sites, clippings from web pages, add comments and see other people’s Notebooks. To use the last two features, you must use the full-page view. Google Notebook could come in handy when you’re shopping online or planning your next vacation.

Google Calendar www.google.com/googlecalendar/overview.html is a great tool for those who want to synchronize their office and home calendars online. If you use Microsoft Outlook, then you can send events from Outlook to your Google Calendar, which means your information will be accessible from any computer. Google Calendar is also searchable, and if you have a Gmail account, you can automatically add social invitations you receive via email to your Google Calendar from right inside your email account. You can even receive event reminders to your mobile phone, and share your calendar with your friends to keep track of birthdays and holidays.

Of course, these types of organizing tools are not very helpful if you don’t manage your time effectively, and www.mindtools.com/pages/main/newMN_HTE.htm can help you do just that. This site is information-rich, and includes tips on time, stress, and information management. You are certain to find some valuable advice here that will help you improve your time management skills and increase your productivity.

If procrastination is a problem for you (and who doesn’t struggle with it?), then try some of the tips on About.com’s page depression.about.com/cs/selfhelp/a/procrastination_2.htm. There are links to articles to help eliminate procrastination and help you understand why people procrastinate and how to stop it.

Information overload can bring with it a host of problems as well: www.managing-information.org.uk/ proposes to help you make better decisions about evaluating and acting on the information in your life. www.infoworld.com/articles/ca/xml/00/01/10/000110caoverload.html has some more background on information overload, and a few tips to help manage things.

Finally, if your financial life needs a bit of fine-tuning, then try credit.about.com/od/managingmoney/ for some tips on how to organize your money. Money management is a topic all on its own, but some of the same principles of good time management will also apply here.

The Internet can be a helpful tool that enables you to be more efficient with your professional and private life. Put some of these tips into practice, and you won’t know what to do with all the extra time you’ve freed up from procrastinating, inefficiency, and disorganized web browsing.

This column and its links can be accessed from the Internet version of the Richmond Review, found on the Richmond Public Library's website at www.yourlibrary.ca.