A "hard-drive-less" office
I've been making a focused effort to make my office not only "paperless", but also, "hard-drive-less". In other words, my goal is to have almost all of my systems and data reside on the Internet rather than on my hard drive. I say "almost all" because I don't think it's quite possible to do this 100%. For example, I have software which has to live on my hard drive; - Dreamweaver and Fireworks are the main culprits. But as long as I own the licenses and have the CDs and/or rights to the programs, I don't even have to depend completely on my hard drive for them. And I still have some paper files, although I've reduced them by about 2/3.
The following are some of the main programs and services which are allowing me to do this. Quite a few of them are Google-provided; whether or not I should be nervous about trusting so much to Google is a question I'm not going to delve into here, although I have to acknowledge that it's a fair question.
1. GMail - by far the smartest, most convenient, easiest, keeps-me-most-organized email program I've ever used. I've used quite a few, and email is important to me. Its nearly flawless spam-filtering system, "tags", and searchability are just a few of the things I love about it. And I was able to access my email on computers all over Mexico in less than 30 seconds.
2. Google Docs. I use it for information, not for documents that have to look perfect - but I have piles of information to keep track of, and the search function makes finding anything almost instantaneous.
3. Google Calendar. I didn't even really believe that I was going to be able to give up my paper calendar, but I actually have. And my paper calendar never emailed me reminders about upcoming appointments and events!
4. Online banking.
5. Highrise by 37 Signals, a wonderful contact manager where I know keep all of my personal and business contact information. Amazingly, for less than 250 contacts, it's free! Although I can see the wisdom of that business model, since after getting familiar with it I've already signed a client up with the paid version.
6. Backpack and Basecamp, also by 37 Signals. I'm still in the process of choosing between these two intranet-like applications for my own business and for a client's business. I really like both.
7. QuickBooks Online. Good old QuickBooks, but resides online and is accessible anywhere. It's not cheap, but bookkeeping is too important to skimp on, in my opinion.
The following are some of the main programs and services which are allowing me to do this. Quite a few of them are Google-provided; whether or not I should be nervous about trusting so much to Google is a question I'm not going to delve into here, although I have to acknowledge that it's a fair question.
1. GMail - by far the smartest, most convenient, easiest, keeps-me-most-organized email program I've ever used. I've used quite a few, and email is important to me. Its nearly flawless spam-filtering system, "tags", and searchability are just a few of the things I love about it. And I was able to access my email on computers all over Mexico in less than 30 seconds.
2. Google Docs. I use it for information, not for documents that have to look perfect - but I have piles of information to keep track of, and the search function makes finding anything almost instantaneous.
3. Google Calendar. I didn't even really believe that I was going to be able to give up my paper calendar, but I actually have. And my paper calendar never emailed me reminders about upcoming appointments and events!
4. Online banking.
5. Highrise by 37 Signals, a wonderful contact manager where I know keep all of my personal and business contact information. Amazingly, for less than 250 contacts, it's free! Although I can see the wisdom of that business model, since after getting familiar with it I've already signed a client up with the paid version.
6. Backpack and Basecamp, also by 37 Signals. I'm still in the process of choosing between these two intranet-like applications for my own business and for a client's business. I really like both.
7. QuickBooks Online. Good old QuickBooks, but resides online and is accessible anywhere. It's not cheap, but bookkeeping is too important to skimp on, in my opinion.
posted by Patty Ayers at
11:36 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home