An Unwanted HouseCleaning

Tuesday night before going to bed, I told my computer to do a type of system check, where it is supposed to check the hard drive for errors. The next day I pressed a wrong button and reformatted the hard drive.

Wednesday, Thursday and part of Friday I tried recovering files to no avail.

So Scott, where did you back stuff up? Uh, nowhere. 5 years of goodies that I'd transferred from one computer to another....gone.

So Friday morning I pulled out my previous laptop and discovered that sure enough, I wiped most of it clean, except for work emails.

And since January of this year I have been sending BCC's to a backup email account, "Just In Case".

So, it's the equivalent of a fire, computer-style. I will scour old emails and computers at work and rebuild work files.

And follow through with my back-up plan that I planned on doing.

Help staying organized

No, that is not my office.

However...

When I worked in Detroit, I worked with 10 to 30 clients at the most at any one time.

These days I need to manage 300 to 500 leads, prospects, clients and contacts.

In Detroit, I used a very simple "Week-at-a-Glance" appointment book and a couple of lists.

These days I have moved to internet and computer based planners and programs.

If you go to my home page at WWW.ScLoHo.Net, there are links to a bunch of stuff.

There's a link to online office helpers that I use,

And there's a link to more online office helpers that I are currently not using, but they may be what you are looking for.

And if you want more options, Kim Komando has a list for you to check out:

Free tools help you manage your life (Click here) We all wish we had more time to spend with family and friends. I can’t add more hours to the day. But I can help you make the most of the time that you do have. My recent column will tell you about great free software that will help you manage your time.

How to create a free virtual office

Please check out the update regarding Microsoft Office here.

In my continuing desire to stay organized, productive and take advantage of technology, I have been trying different systems that are internet based and free. You can click on the links and see them for yourself.

First of all, I have settled on Zoho to manage my appointments and to do lists using the Zoho Planner. There are a lot of on line tools that Zoho offers and I may play with more of them as time goes by. It appears that Zoho offers many of the same features that Google also offers, but I like the layout of the Zoho planner.







Other online organization tools that you might prefer are listed here.






I also am moving to online storage for audio files of radio shows, and other non-sensitive paperwork that I don't need access to on a continuous basis. First I tried DropBoks, then I discovered Xdrive, which I prefer because it appears to be faster and offer more storage organization. Xdrive is an AOL service, and gives 5 GB free storage. Xdrive is a little more complicated to set up, but once you do, it is easy to use. DropBoks is a simpler system if that's what you prefer.




When I bought my latest laptop, which is the only computer I use for work and personal use, it came with Windows Vista Home Premium which I like. I did not buy the Microsoft Office suite, instead I have Open Office which is free and compatible with all my Microsoft Office documents that I created in Excel, Word, and Powerpoint. (Google and Zoho have online substitutes, but I do not always have internet access). Please check out the update regarding Microsoft Office here.







I use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer, and Thunderbird instead of Microsoft's Outlook for email. And what started out as a backup to my Favorites and Bookmarks, is Del.icio.us which saves your bookmarks on line.





Finally, I want to mention that I need to edit audio files at times and there is a free program that I have been using for the past year, Audacity.





Check these out and increase your productivity without spending a dime!