Put Multiple Organization Tools Into One

There are so many communication and organization tools available today. Which ones do you use? When it comes to this type of programs most users think about email, instant messenger, a scheduler and internet telephony with Skype.

It can be a hard task to add all different data, like appointments, notes, tasks and contacts into a single tool and don’t lose the overview. This often results into several tools, one for its own type of data. This way of organization may result in a higher level of confusion. When your different tools aren’t synced with each other, you need to ask yourself which program is holding the information you currently need.

Does it take too long for you to find a contact’s address, email or phone number. How long does it take to find a meeting slot for you and three other people? These are typical situations where a lack of functions and interoperability between your different tools make your daily work harder as it needs to be. It’s still common to use MS Excel for organization, but Excel is definitive the wrong software for this job. Excel is great when it comes to calculating with formulas, but it should be the last option for organization.

There are a lot of free and commercial tools available which only have been created to make your workflow smarter and support you with your daily work. These applications are called Personal Information Managers (PIMs) and will put your organization on a new level.

Some PIMs are able to create a network which enables you to share information with others. Finding a free meeting time becomes a one click action, contacting others, too. When it comes to PIMs most users think about Microsoft Outlook. As Outlook offers the richest set of functions, it’s also the most expensive one. Some cheaper alternatives and especially designed for individuals or small companies are Pimero, iCal or Do-Organizer.

Gerard Schwabe is senior project manager at soft-evolution, an innovative provider of team management software Pimero.