Goal for the Summer: Get My Digital Life Organized

I love the computer, the web, and tech gadgets.  I love to read and try out anything that has branded itself 'the latest' in technology.  For the most part, this is a fun hobby for me.  However, there is one downside that is really starting to get to me...my digital life is chaos.  I have stuff all over the digital place and it is driving me crazy.  So much so I can't even get into a routine to write this blog on a somewhat regular schedule.  Oh, I research all sorts of topics for the blog, but it is so scattered that when it comes to writing a post I get this overwhelmed with where to start.

• I have bookmarks filed on Stumble Upon, Delicious, Foxmarks. 
• I have Internet articles and blog posts starred in Google Reader, Google Notebook, and Read It Later. 
• I have notes in Evernote, Google Notebook, Web Notes, and MS One Note. 
• I have stacks of documents, magazine articles, etc to be scanned and uploaded.
• I share photos on Facebook, Myfamily, Flickr, and Picasa and have photo book projects started in Mixbooks and Mpix.
• I have boxes of photos and negatives from before the digital camera age that need to be scanned and digitized.
• I have video recordings of the kids' sitting on mini dvds waiting to be uploaded, edited, and shared with family.
• I have early home videos sitting on Sony tapes that need to be converted to DVD so we can show them to the kids.
• I received a Flip Mino Video recorder for Mother's Day that I haven't unboxed because it represents one more digital media that I need to figure out what to do with.

I'll stop with the list now before I hyperventilate.

Instead I will focus on the recent success I have had streamlining my task list and calendar.  Deep breath...I can do these same with the list above....I think.

Organization Hack: Greeting Cards That Are Thoughtful Not Tardy

My digital organization includes keeping family and friends' birthdays, anniversaries, and special events on my Google calendar with each event set to repeat each year. This, of course, reminds me to make a call or send an email. But, I still like to send greetings the old fashion way (snail mail) as well. But, how many times has something come up and I just didn't get the card sent out on time?...well, lots. Somewhere between my calendar reminder and my shopping list, card buying was falling through the cracks. Well, I vowed that 2009 I would do better. After sending a 'late' belated card to my friend KP (it was really late) in January, I set into action.

First, after looking through the rest of 2009, I made a list of cards I would need for the upcoming year:

• Birthdays categorized by gender and then by 'close friends', 'family', 'children'.
• Upcoming anniversaries, and special events (graduations, baptisms, weddings, etc.)
• General cards I wanted to have on hand - sympathy, belated birthday, congratulations, get well, kids' birthday party cards, etc.

Second, I headed out to shop. Now, buying a year's worth of cards is not an inexpensive task. However, I am lucky to have a 'dollar' type store that has really cute cards. So I started there. What the heck, I know none of my 15 nieces and nephews will care about where the card came from...it's the jack inside that matters.  So I figured why not be sensible about it?  I did go to Target for an additional selection to complete my list.

Now, I obviously couldn't get seasonal holiday cards (Easter, Mother's Day, etc.) in advance. But it's not too hard to remember to get those cards given that we all get smacked with commercial reminders of each holiday upon entering any big box retailer.

So, I brought my huge sack of cards home and tried to figure out where to put them. I knew if they weren't organized, they'll just sit in some drawer...another good idea that didn't get implemented.

So I organized them in the pictured portable file case under the following sections:

• Upcoming 'this month'- cards pulled from other sections that need to be sent out in a given month.
• Female Birthday
• Male Birthday
• Belated Birthday
• Kid's Birthday
• Anniversary/Misc Holiday
• Sympathy/Get Well
• Special Occasion
• Blank

In the front pocket I also put the list of cards I have yet to buy. For a few folks, I just didn't find the 'perfect' card. But, this list is small in comparison to those already accounted for.

Well, since I just started this system I can't quite comment on its effectiveness. But, I feel much more prepared. Hopefully my effort won't be lost somewhere between this file case and mail box. Now if you are one of my RLFs (real life friends) please be gentle with the mockery if in fact your card is a wee bit late.  You can see that I am trying :)