How do you stay organized and productive?
In work and in life, many of us are plugged in and multitasking across multiple electronic devices (smartphones, computers, tablets). It’s become unnervingly easy to spin out of control and lose track of project to-do lists, emails and calendar events. If things aren’t synced across all devices and platforms, you could lose your grip, miss appointments or fall out of favor with co-workers. With people collaborating online more and more each day, you need the rights tools to get the job done.
It’s remarkable how quickly productivity tools can become indispensable, such as Google Docs and Google Reader. Box is really useful for transferring huge media files among collaborators.
[via Lifehacker]
Writing tools
Book Finder: A one-stop ecommerce search engine that searches over 125 million books for sale — new, used, rare, out-of-print, and textbooks. Save your time and money by searching every major catalog online, find out which booksellers are offering the best prices and selection. When you find a book you like, you can buy it directly from the original seller; BookFinder never charges a markup. If you are one of those poor students who struggles for money, this site is for you. You can compare prices that are offered by different sellers and pick up the cheapest item.
MynoteIT: A fantastic new social search learning tool. It is useful for both high school and college students. MynoteIT allows to take and store your notes online, edit and revise notes with peers, look-up and define words with your Workspace Utilities. You can share notes with your friends and groups. With MynoteIT you can keep track of what you have to do, and what you’ve done, and be sure that you’ll never forget about homework or a quiz.
Ottobib: With Ottobib the process of making a bibliography becomes faster and easier. This webpage allows the reader to see the books, their covers, links to Amazon or other online references.
Google Docs: Google Docs & Spreadsheets is a free web-based word processing and spreadsheet program that keeps documents current and lets the people you choose update files from their own computers. You can, for example, coordinate your student group’s homework assignments, access your family to-do list from work or home, or collaborate with remote colleagues on a new business plan.
Google Docs & Spreadsheets allows you to import your existing documents and spreadsheets, or to create new ones from scratch. You can edit your documents from anywhere. Google Docs & Spreadsheets accepts most popular file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, etc. Besides, you can publish your documents and spreadsheets online with one click, as normal-looking web pages, without having to learn anything new.
Zoho Show: Zoho allows you to create and share presentations online. It possesses a number of benefits. You can access, import and edit presentations from anywhere. It allows to share your presentations with your friends and colleagues both in private or make it public for all. Check out for other benefits.
SpellJax: Not sure about spelling of some of the words? Check your spelling online with SpellJax, an Ajax-powered spell checker.
Organization
Remember The Milk: you can manage tasks quickly and easily, receive reminders via email, SMS, and and instant messenger (AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Skype and Yahoo! are all supported), use the map to see where your tasks are located in the real world, share, send and publish tasks and lists with your colleagues.
Tada List: Ta-da is the Web’s easiest to-do list tool. Make lists for yourself and share them with others. With Ta-da Lists you can, for instance, you can easily keep track of homework assignmnts, agenda for the weekly meeting, famous quotes you don’t want to forget, people to invite to the party, and many more.
Planzo: online calendar that makes planning your day simple and easy. It keeps you connected to events and things to do. It lets you share your events just about anywhere, get a daily digest and receive text message reminders.
Messaging
Meebo: a Website for instant messaging from absolutely anywhere. Whether you are at home, on campus, at work, hop over Meebo on any computer to get access to every major messaging service – AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, and Jabber. No download or installs required.
Campfire: a web-based group chat tool that lets you set up password-protected chat rooms in just seconds. Invite your colleagues to chat, collaborate, and make decisions. Link to a room on your intranet for internal communications. It’s elegant and easy. You don’t need to download, install, or configure anything (no IT department required!). All you need is a modern web browser and an internet connection.
Information
Wikipedia: Of course, Wikipedia is not a tool, and, perhaps it is too popular to mention it. Nevertheless, it will be of great help, if you have to do a term paper. Wikipedia is an indispensable source to get basic information, or at least guidelines for your paper. Besides, you can find links to other sites that discuss the topic of your term paper.
CNET Online Courses : free online lessons and tutorials on a variety of topics you might need. The team of experts will answer your questions in a 24/7 online classroom.
SparkNotes: Free online study guides on a wide variety of subjects, such as Literature, History, Economics, Physics, Chemistry, and others. A super-fast college search engine will tell you about colleges you want to know about. SparkNotes will help you to write an excellent application essay.
Favorites
Google Reader: This tool will help you keep track of your favorite websites. Google Reader constantly checks your favorite news sites and blogs for new content. Whether a site updates daily or monthly, you can be sure that you won’t miss a thing. It works even on any mobile phone browser. Whether you’re waiting in line or riding the train, Google Reader keeps you connected.
Del.icio.us: It is a collection of favorites. It will be of great help when you need to keep links to your favorite articles, blogs, music, reviews, recipes, and more, and access them from any computer on the web. With the help of this tool the process of conducting a research, writing an article or dissertation becomes easier. Use del.icio.us to keep track of all the source materials and commentary that you find online.
Storage
Xdrive: Xdrive can offer you a secure storage for files. Back up your valuable files – your music, photos and more – automatically. You can conveniently access all your files from anywhere. It allows you easily share your files with friends, colleagues, and family. Get 5GB for Free! Xdrive goes beyond the Web to give you the tools you need, so you can more efficiently complete the tasks you do the most. You can download free desktop software and integrate Xdrive seamlessly with your computer — just like an external hard drive!
Box: Is available for individuals, business, and enterprises. It allows to send large documents, presentations, and zip files to contacts. You can even edit your Word and Excel files directly on our web site. If you have a website, you can host your photos on Box. There are no bandwidth limits.
Discussion board
ProBoards This is a free, hosted online discussion board tool, which allows one student to create a question-and-answer board for his/her project site, without having to install or manage a PHP or Perl application. You can go ahead and create your own forum for free.
Mapping tools
Mindomo Mindomo is a versatile Web-based mind mapping tool, delivering the capabilities of desktop mind mapping software in a Web browser – with no complex software to install or maintain. With the help of this tool you can create, edit mind maps, and share them with your colleagues or your friends.
Gliffy – easy, free, and fun way to draw and share diagrams on the web. You can diagram in your web browser, and there’s no need to download additional software. It allows to add collaborators to your work and watch it grow . Create many types of diagrams such as Flowcharts, UI wireframes, Floor plans, Network diagrams, UML diagrams, or any other simple drawing or diagram.
Chris Wofford
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