[rogercbryan]

How do you stay organized?

Lately as I take on more and more and bigger projects I’m beginning to feel the strain of staying organized. This doesn’t mean keeping meetings and such as I do fine with that. I also have no problem meeting deadlines for proposals. Here is where I’m having problems:

Computer Files: I have a PC at work, another one at home and a laptop for traveling. I do most of my primary business work and work, most of my web based business from home, and most of my travel work is loaded on a memory stick not saved to my laptop. The problem I’m running into is that I have 160GB hard drive at home where I store all my site files. I have a network drive at work where I store year’s worth of business files.

I never know when I’ll have time to work on what nor do I know when I’m going to get an email that I need to respond to and what information I’ll need access to in order to respond to it.

Is there a (reliable) service where I can store all my information at once place? I’ve tried goto my PC and I hated it (to slow). I’ve also tried shared network drives on my corporate servers (I don’t want to keep my personal business on a server with my primary business)

Any ideas?

Accounting: I use QB for my primary business and I have zero problems. I use a separate version on QB for my personal (secondary businesses) and have little problems. I use Quicken for my personal finances yet I do not keep up with it. I have to keep my primary and secondary businesses separate for legal reasons. The problem is I’m eight months into a huge project and I’ve mixed personal expenses with secondary business expenses. I have a mess on my hands. The reality is that my personal expenses and secondary business expenses are one in the same (for the most part).

Do any of you use software that can easily track multiple bank and credit card accounts and then allow you to separate those expenses into different categories (business / personal)? I’m sick of falling behind and using hand written or excel reports. This also plays into recording income properly. My CPA was not happy with all the envelopes or receipts he got this year.

Any ideas?

Help me get organized!!!! ahhhhhhhhh

[RLorenzen]

I had the same problem once, so I definitely know where you're coming from. You accumulate so many files for so many different projects it seems almost impossible to keep track of them all and it feels like all different projects are flying all over the place and you just want one central, organized solution.

I recommend those portable flash drives. What's great about them is I can buy separate drivers for all different projects and tasks. I can use these drivers on any computer and they fit in a pocket or briefcase, so I can take them anywhere. Just stick labels on each driver so you know which drivers go to which projects, etc. and it makes everything a lot easier to find and transfer between computers.

Of course, you can also keep backups directly on your computers, but the flash is a great solution to having all of your files no matter where you are or what computer you're on.

[DU3LZ]

I have three computers at my house. A Gaming PC, Work Laptop, and a Design PC. I have OCD, so I have all my files neatly in detailed folders. I bought a 500GB Western Digital My Book External Hard Drive ($99.99) and I have loved every second of it.

I can create slots on the Hard Drive for certain folders. I have a folder that equally spreads the memory for each computer I use. The drive is no bigger than the palm of your hand and is very mobile...

If you are looking to organize your computer files, I wouls start with that, as the space on it never seems to dimish. I have had it for 2 years and I still have 428GB left on the drive.

[rogercbryan]

Originally Posted by RLorenzen

I had the same problem once, so I definitely know where you're coming from. You accumulate so many files for so many different projects it seems almost impossible to keep track of them all and it feels like all different projects are flying all over the place and you just want one central, organized solution.

I recommend those portable flash drives. What's great about them is I can buy separate drivers for all different projects and tasks. I can use these drivers on any computer and they fit in a pocket or briefcase, so I can take them anywhere. Just stick labels on each driver so you know which drivers go to which projects, etc. and it makes everything a lot easier to find and transfer between computers.

Not a bad idea.... I would still like to see if there is something more internet based so I don't have to worry about loosing my case of memory drives.. or being at work when my drives are at home. Have you ever used an online storage service? I know storage is so cheap these days...

[RLorenzen]

Originally Posted by rogercbryan

Not a bad idea.... I would still like to see if there is something more internet based so I don't have to worry about loosing my case of memory drives.. or being at work when my drives are at home. Have you ever used an online storage service? I know storage is so cheap these days...

I've never looked into it, but if you find a good service, let me know....I would be interested in trying that out too. Like you said, after a while the flash drives start to accumulate and then it may not be so efficient anymore....

I'm going to do some poking around google to look for online storage sites.