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I totally agree with DDiva. I'm lost without my schedule/note book. I've tried just random lists and I also tried a PDA. Personally, nothing beats a pen and notebook. Plus, it's great to go back and look at way in the future. Since I date my notes, I could look back to see exactly when we started to use our new business logo or when we saw our lawyer. It can be really useful.

The truth is it depends on how technical of a person you are. Online organization may help you. It may not. The option of doing all paperless online type of management is much more expensive than buying a notebook to carry around with you. Online organization does exist though. With my company we have a Microsoft Exchange server and have experimented with a few contact managers and so on.

Right now I have my appointments, contacts, and task list set in my cell phone. Which syncs over the Internet with our server constently. That server also syncs with my Laptop, my desktop at the office, and my home computer. When I enter a new contact or appointment on any of the devices it syncs with the server and then all my devices sync with it. If everything is on and conected it takes usually less then a minute, but sometimes up to 3. If I am in an are where my cell phone doesn't work and I don't have my laptop, I can go to a web site and check everything as well. Now everyone in my office has a similar set up on the server and we can invite attends to appointments or share contacts and so on. My secretary in the office can put a tentative appointment into the server for me and it updates on my phone. It askes if I would like to attend. I can send back yes, no, tentative or reschedule, a whole number of options. The best part of it all is that my phone reminds me of when I have an appointment in 15 mins (which that setting can be changed too).

If you are looking for something like that, it is great. Usually bigger companies have an infrastructure set up like this. If you are an individual it may not be cost effective.

The best way is to find a company that will host and maintain the server for you and then you just set up your devices. Pretty much any computer will work, but not all cell phones are compatible. You need either a windows mobile phone, a treo, a black barry device or an iPhone. These types of phones have note taking options as well. Windows Mobile actually comes with a mobile version of office including word, excel, onenote and powerpoint. You can sync as many devices to an account you want. Most companies that host the way I am talking about charge per account, not per device or anything like that. I think we pay $12.95 a month per account (we use Hasbrooke Internet Services) we have 5 active acounts right now for 5 people. If you have a big number of accounts they will bill you a lot diffrent. Then you need to have a data package with your phone carrier. I highly reccomend an unlimited data package. That cost between $40-$70 a month on your phone bill depending on a lot of factors.

That sounds like it will get you started, there are a lot of online options for sales, and other things that you can add on later as you start to go more towards a paperless and more tech based process.

Oh one other thing we did and depending on how your business is structured it may help you. We use vonage for our main phones in the office. (there are a lot of other companies that do this too not just vonage). But before we had a main office or a secretary. We had a vonage line. We had it set up so that when someone left a message on the office line, It email us through the exchnge server (so it went to my cell phone, if my laptop was on it, and my home computer). We knew someone had called, vonage had an option too that attached a sound file to the email of the message. That ment no matter where we were, I got that email in roughfully 2-3 mins listen to it and was able to return a phone call if needed. Even though I was out shopping with my kids, or was in business meeting 3 states away. My company could have a quick, educated, and desicive responce.

Hope that helps you decide if you want to go that route or not. Sometimes a notebook is just as good of an option. It really depends on what type of person you are and what you are doing. If you have any questions I'll be happy to post back more thoughts, because it has really worked for us. I was the same way with notes everywhere, some got washed or lost by other means. I never seem to have the one I needed with me when I needed it. Now it is all fixed through setups like what I discribed.

Good Luck

That's all true.

My cell cost about $450.
I have laptop.

We pay about $50 a month per phone to ATT for unlimited data package. (with the one we have I can tether my laptop to my phone and go online one my laptop through the phone).

Then we pay about $12.95 per account on an exchange server through an external host.

So inital cost especially if you don't have a higher end cell phone or a laptop could be $1000-$3000

Then about $65 with tax and everything extra a month to the cell phone provider, and to the external server host.

That is assuming you already have internet connection at your home an/or office. Which most people already do.

Thats why I stated very clearly several place some times a small notebook and pen can be more beneficial to a person, because there are people that works better for.

For me and my company this setup is awesome and helps out tons. For some people who don't take advantage of all the features and so on, it will not be cost effective.

But that is a decision that you will have to make for you and your company.

This is reccomended more for the more tech savvy group, who usually already have a laptop, and higher end cell phone.

I think DomainDiva will agree with me on that for sure.

I hope all this helps.

I'm a "sticky note" junkie. I love technology, and have implemented multi-million dollar work management systems for clients -- yet simple and low-tech works best for organizing my time. For me, the key to making sticky notes an organized "system" is to routinely gather them all up at the end of the day and do something appropriate with each of them -- e.g., a note about a meeting goes in my calendar, a phone number I jotted down goes in my contact file and address book, a new task I conceived goes in a project plan, and anything I can do before I quit for the day gets done then and the note is discarded. I have a clear Mylar envelope bound into my calendar, and that's where I stuff notes with "good ideas" and other odds and ends. I go through that envelope at the end of the week and either take some kind of action on the note or trash it.

LOL Rex. Too funny. Let me know when you get that one to work........I
have been a business owner for 12 years and I still can't get her to
work with or for me.

LUCKIEST -

Go to www.rememberthemilk.com and you can use this great little free program that will let you make as many to-do lists as you want. Heck, you can even make a "Wife" list of all the to-do's that she has for you. I have been using this program for a while now and love it.

Hope this helps!

Aaron