Being a organized webmaster !! Submit your tips

[s2kinteg916]

I feel that just am never organized enough to be real efficient at what i do. Any tips ? Things u do to make things run more smooth ?

[Todd W]

I spend money to become organized.

1- Quickbooks (waiting for `07 version in a couple days myself)
2- Shredder - Get rid of that old **** you have sitting around safely. I suggest cross-cut or confetti
3- Write lil php/mysql programs to keep track of advertisement campaigns or *gasp* you can use access to keep it all 100% local.
4- Clean your desk.
5- Keep a notepad around and always write-down! This will help you from forgetting. I love the PC for everything but I also LOVE to write notes on stick-its, yellow notepads
6- Categorize/organize your My Documents folder order documents in them for business/different sites/categorize.
7- Categorize your MSOutlook I have some folders called.. "writeoffs##YEAR, advertising, campaigns, etc etc"
8- Add "NOTES" to your google homepage it lets you add a note to your homepage to remind yourself of important tasks... i also leave myself notes from other pcs :)

ill think of more

[Mike]

If you want to achieve things in a certain day, write down your goals on paper. It gives me satisfaction ticking everything I've done in a day for some reason, but it does encourage more efficiency.

[Chris]

I hate quickbooks. I tried to use it but it wanted me to use it for everything, very bloated & insidious. Plus it has that DRM that can break your PC.

[demosfen]

2- Shredder - Get rid of that old **** you have sitting around safely. I suggest cross-cut or confetti

You can achieve better results by burning it. You are also saving $$ as it doesn't require initial investment :)

[s2kinteg916]

I cleaned out and reorganized my folders yesterday. So now i have around 3 icons on my desktop and its definately running faster.

I tried quick and supposely that is suppose to be real easy.. I have a hard time managing finances as well. I really need to get something order to manage my income every month and its not much just from alot of companies which confuses me to death.

Gmail has at least made email management alot easier..!!! they sure own..

[Sagewing]

I hate quickbooks. I tried to use it but it wanted me to use it for everything, very bloated & insidious. Plus it has that DRM that can break your PC.

Quickbooks is bloated? How are you managing your books?

[Chris]

I don't have accounts receivables or clients, so that simplifies things.

I have a custom php/mysql app for managing expenses, I have spreedsheets for income and logging tax payments and the like.

What I recall from trying to use Quickbooks, and this was like 4 years ago, was that when trying to enter an expense it wanted me to enter a payment too. Like it wasn't enough for me to just make an expense report it needed me to use it to print out a business check... right.... I paid with a credit card.Oh ya... and before even that I needed to setup who I was paying too, like I needed to make an account in it for office max.

It just wouldn't let me just use it to keep track of income and expenses, it wanted to run my entire business, and it isn't worth the trouble for that.

[Todd W]

As far as I know you can do what you want with QB now easily. I played around with 2005 and setup advertising campaigns/epxenses for each domain... I then lost motivation and stopped using it. Nowdays I write-off a LOT more and need to keep track of all my purchases and expenses (designers, programmers, advertising, vehicle stuf, etc).

Chris I thought you sold swords? Don't you have to keep track of that stuff? I would think QB would be great for that simply import from your eComerce software?

[Chris]

Keep track of it how? Its really not that difficult, I buy them with a business credit card, and get cc processing statements in the mail.

[Westech]

I got frustrated with QB when I tried it for the same reasons as Chris. I may give it another shot at some point. Right now I'm just using an MS Access database to track all income and expenses. It's not overly complicated and it does everything I need. At tax time it's just a matter of printing out a few reports and handing them to an accountant.

[Sagewing]

Getting through the learning curve of quickbooks (or whatever) is usually worthwhile is that it's a way of empowering your CPA to push your tax strategy as far as possible.. I've worked with a lot of small businesses and almost all of them regret not using a formal bookkeeping system,once they get into it.

[michael_gersitz]

Buy Notepads.

Don't save every file to your desktop and be a dummy searching vital minutes for files. Use Folders.

[Cutter]

Well, since this thread got bumped: automate everything. You should be spending your time on growth and doing new deals.

[michael_gersitz]

I didn't even notice i was the one who bumped it.

Well, i thought more about this thread over last night and decided to upgrade my room/office.

Check out my new office pics.. I would think they are more impressive now...

Aight, Attachments aint working to good on this site..

Uploaded it on pixfolder

http://www.pixfolder.com/images/7360.jpg

Just bought the whiteboard for better organization...

[Generalissimo]

Nice to see someone using my image upload site...

That's a cool office, is it easy to use two PCs simultanously - does it help?

[s2kinteg916]

Its dual monitors and its very helpful i was running 3 at one time great for article writing and researching...

[michael_gersitz]

I got a laptop and then a desktop computer. Dual 20' makes it pretty east to do a lot of stuff. I ussally keep IE (yes i like ie) on the right side, notepad, and photoshop on the left.

I try to do all my blog reading and keyword research on my mac since i want to get work done on my pc.

That whiteboard isn't white anymore.

[MaxS]

One of my resolutions is to become more organized this year. Unfortunately, when tax time comes, I'm going to be out of luck. :flare:

[michael_gersitz]

Get a folder, and mark it tax writeoffs... throw your reciepts in there.. Also a folder in outlook doesnt hurt..

[s2kinteg916]

Best way to organize is get rid of unused junk.

[polspoel]

Use http://del.icio.us and use it to collect your niche ideas. The tagging system is excellent for this. You can enable private bookmarks by going to your options screen.

[Todd W]

So I ended up getting QB and it's working great for me. I don't personally use it as Chris said you have to do a lot of *stuff* to get it working how you want. Luckily it's one of those things my girlfriend likes to do and she went to school to become a CPA a while ago so in the end it works out for me.

For me it makes sense because I write-off more than just hosting stuff and my "tax guy" says it will cost me less and be easier on him (duh) if I have it organized in quickbooks. I also do computer repair, build computers, web site design, and overall have clients. So I have a lot more than web expenses and advertising income. It really does hlep keep the books organized.

-Todd

[ses5909]

I've recently started using activeCollab (http://www.activecollab.com) and like how it helps me manage my projects when I have several going on at one time.

[Todd W]

I've recently started using activeCollab (http://www.activecollab.com) and like how it helps me manage my projects when I have several going on at one time.

I have a private forum installed I use for project and company management as well as keeping notes works great :)

[s2kinteg916]

as far as an update to this whole situation... im still in the mist of organizing... its FEB!!!!! im almost ready to start getting real work done =) i been really trying to make my whole life more efficient all the way to web work so i can work at a 105% efficiency... As of right now the future looks promising.. my parents should of taught me this when i was 10 it would of made things easier growing up

[Erin]

Great ideas here. I never thought of getting a white board for home, but that might work.

I actually do something kind of silly, but it really works for me. I keep a business card in my back pocket. When I remember something I need to do in the next few days, I write it down. I also use it to remember what to buy (office supplies, food, etc.). Works for me.