Thing #13: Online productivity tools

The start page I chose was iGoogle. I have to say, I like it. The only thing stopping me, I think, from making it my personal home page is that I have been using My Yahoo forever -- I'm guessing five years -- and it's very familiar to me.

And I'm actually using an older version of My Yahoo. They recently unrolled a new format with widgets. I tried it for a while, and I know it has big pluses, with feeds, updates, etc. But it somehow wasn't pleasant for me to look at -- not as easy on the eyes. Plus my home computer is on the older side, too, so I think it doesn't have the wherewithal to interface as easily as it could. So I changed back to the old "tried and true."

I set up an iGoogle calendar, which I found very easy to use. I tried out the Quick Add feature where you can just type "dinner with Jane at 6 pm today," and indeed the event popped onto the calendar in the right spot. Cool!

I tried Ta Da List, which was well timed because I have a ton of errands and chores to do today after work. I had written out a list earlier today on an actual Post-It note, which I have in my pocket. So I wrote down all these things on Ta Da list to try it out. It looks very nice, the layout, and gives peace of mind since it's so nice and orderly looking. I also used the option to e-mail it to myself. I like Ta Da List, although I may very well just use pen and paper (or Post-It.) Have to think about this.

All in all, I really like these tools. Even though I don't know how many of them I'll use (and at the moment I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of them), I like knowing they're "out there" on the free Web (something I did not know before!)