Tracking Your Life...11 "Apps" to Help You Out

I am always trying to find more efficient ways to do things; and trying to keep my life organized and on-track is always challenging, given my schedule. So, I thought I would share some awesome "apps" that allow me to track everything. I quote "apps" because almost all of them have a web-based and mobile application access, which makes life even better; because once in a while you just don't want to be on a small phone or tablet screen.

1. Evernote
• Quite simply, this is a notebook to store anything you can think of; scrap book, create To-Do Lists, projects for work or personal, etc.
• Alternative to Microsoft OneNote
• Available on virtually every platform
• You can pay extra to be able to have offline usage and some other great features
2. Mint.com
• When it comes to personal finance, Mint does everything stand-alone software does, but it's a website or mobile application instead of something you are forced to install on a computer
• Syncs with almost every financial institution for tracking loans, income, expenses, bill reminders, budget planning, and tons more
• Did I mention you pay NOTHING for it? Yep, awesome!
3. Wegmans
• Chances are you don't even know Wegmans. They are a grocery chain and their app ties seemlessly with their website.
• Grocery list building from all products available from store you set as your local store
• Tells you location in the store of the items on your list
• Can add recipes ingredients from their awesome recipe section to your shopping list
• Can view history of purchases to track spending, what you buy, or to compile new shopping lists quicker
• NOTE: If you shop at a grocery chain, see if they have an app that is similar
4. My Fitness Pal
• Whether you are trying to lose weight or just trying to stay healthy, it's important to know what you eat and recommended by most nutritionists, doctors, and specialists. MFP, as it's commonly called, can track all of that
• It has one of the largest food and drink databases I have come across, and although not all data is always 100% accurate, people can update the incorrect items with the correct information if they want
• You can also track any fitness you do
• Many external fitness sites and tools can automatically sync with MFP, allowing even easier tracking of fitness and activities
5. CardStar
• Did you forget your 10lb keychain at home with all of the different membership and store cards? Don't worry, you can use CardStar to input all of those pesky cards...ranging from an LA Fitness membership card to a GNC rewards card
• CardStar has a huge database of existing services, so usually you just find the name of the company, group, etc. and then input or scan your card
• If the rewards program isn't in CardStar's database, no worries, you can manually input it
• Also, a few updates ago they beefed up security, which is a really nice piece-of-mind
6. Waze
• No website, since this is a GPS app
• However, this is hands-down the best GPS app I have ever used; and although Google has bought Waze, Google's map app for iPhone still isn't that great
• It updates with alerts as people report them, so if Waze sees that there are a lot of slowdowns or an accident that pops up in your route, it doesn't need to wait for it to be reported to the local highway administration, it gets updated immediately by other users, then can automatically re-route you
• This really is a must-have for driving almost anywhere
• NOTE: Google's map program is still the best for walking around a city and finding things
7. Google Drive
• With some recent updates, you not only gain access to all of your Google Drive files, but you can now edit and create as well
• If you keep all of your document on Drive, then this app is a must!
• NOTE: SkyDrive people, unless you have a Windows Phone, forget the editing unless you get another app such as Office2 or CloudOn
8. OpenTable
• OpenTable is basically a restaurant finder and reservation scheduler tool
• Okay, not every place to eat will show up in here...just the ones who sign up with OpenTable
• However, it's great to find somewhere to eat when you are out, and you get rewards and can make an instant reservation...Perfect!
9. Wall Street Journal (WSJ)
• All the news
• Yes, for all of the goodies and articles, you need to pay, but comparing the quality of writing and journalism to other free news sources, you typically don't need to worry about a poorly written and/or researched article in here
• And I personally have no patience or time to weed out the junk articles...no offense to apps or services similar to Google News
10. Chrome
• Sorry Safari, Opera, and million other browser options
• I love the Chrome browser...syncing across all devices I have is awesome...not only that, but Chrome has a great feel to it
• NOTE: With iOS 7 coming out soon, I may end up changing this back to Safari, but we shall see
11. EasilyDo
• No website, but apps on iOS and Android
• If you are busy, and tend to forget things, even when you enter them in your calendar, then you NEED this app
• It basically acts as your personal assistant, and it will automatically send birthday wishes and presents to people via Facebook, or will track a shipment for an order you just, and much more
• Various functions include:
• Location-based items such as Direction to Home and Work, Local Weather and Alerts
• Facebook birthdays, RSVPs, Important Posts, Popular Posts, Daily Top Photos, Tagged Photos of you, Friends' Profile Pictures
• Email (ties into your email service) - boarding passes, hotels, restaurants, events, invitations, job changes, contact information, package tracking, bill pay reminders, receipts, expired deals cleanup, old calendar emails cleanup
• Calendar (ties into your calendar) - Next Calendar Event reminder
• Contacts (ties to your contacts) - Duplicate Contacts Cleanup
• Extras - Free App of the Week, Free iTunes Single of the Week (for iPhone)
• And they are always adding more features!!!
• NOTE: If you are a privacy nut, you don't want this app, it invades everything...HOWEVER, the privacy policy states they will not use any of the information other than for the functions of the app...this still means they can get your non-personal stuff and use it, as most apps do anyway

The Cloud and Your Business

So, one of my hot-buttons is the term Cloud Computing. Currently, I can't really think of a more incorrectly used term in computing, although I am sure there are a few others...like Agile, Virtualization....sorry, I digress. Those are topics for another day.

I am going to cut straight to the point. Have you heard of Google Docs? Zoho? Microsoft Skydrive (formerly OfficeLive)? Accessing your software via the web instead of having it locally? Access to your information and software anywhere in the world without having a system preloaded with it all? Well, for any non-tech out there, this encapsulates "The Cloud." Now, before you tech people start yelling at me about online document storage locations as not really being part of the Cloud, I will yell back at you first. ANY online storage that can be shared and accessed by many is considered a Cloud solution. Yes, there are plenty of online storage sites that are for YOU only, and those are not Cloud solutions. Although, loosely, they are still considered Cloud.

So now that you have an idea of some Cloud services you may be familiar with, here is the rundown on Cloud and why it is AWESOME! First off, Cloud Computing is the sharing of information, software, and resources via the Internet. Many people call it Web or Internet Computing. This allows for on-demand access and dissemination of all company resources to any employee at any place in the world in which there is access to the Internet.

Many people will generally say, "Who cares, what is the benefit to me?" Quite simply, it can save many organizations considerable amounts of resources. Granted there are many companies that need their own setups, systems, etc, but those types of organizations are becoming fewer. Also, many of those companies hire consultants (like me) to help setup their own Cloud solution. As many people are aware, a typical office computing system is as follows: Individual desktops or laptops, the same software on each system with its own license (depending on organization size, may have a bulk license), network storage, share drives, possibly some redundant servers for backups, a VPN or RDP setup for remote access, and any other host of hardware and software items.

With this general office environment in mind, you need to have computing systems that can support everything. This can be very expensive and hardware intensive. Wouldn't it be nice to have terminal setups or bare-bones machines that cost next to nothing? Wouldn't it be nice to stop buying software and not only paying for the user licenses, but dealing with installation and support for those applications? Wouldn't it be nice to not worry about losing your data if the building caught fire? Or a virus infected your network? Ta-dah...the Cloud is your answer. The beauty of Cloud Computing is you can use as much or as little as your organization needs. Some organizations may have certain software that must be housed locally. That is fine, have everything else on the Cloud. Maybe you just want to have file storage or messaging off-site. Cloud. The possibilities are limitless. I will be going into more detail later on some top Cloud solutions.

Collaboration at your fingertips

In business today, being able to collaborate documents across a company or even the world has become much easier. However, to save a company resources, such as time and money, businesses need to collaborate quickly and easily. Therefore, a company needs to find a collaboration tool. Of course, there are many tools out there, some ranging from free to very pricey. They all have the pros and cons, but I wanted to mention two that really stand out for the everyday company, ranging from large to small.

Google Docs

Well, as most people know, Google has a great web-based office suite. The tool is called Google Docs. It allows you to collaborate with spreadsheets and word processing documents. While one user is updating a document, another can be updating as well. Or, while one person is going over a document a group of people can follow along, since there is a built-in chat feature with the document sharing. GDocs also has a "PowerPoint" presentation equivalent, form creator, drawing tool, and now file storage for any document type. For a free online tool such as this, it doesn't get much better. Or does it? I had said no before, but most of Google's latest enhancements has it playing with the big boys now. If you are savvy with HTML, CSS, and the like, you can do everything that you would in Office in Google Docs. Did I mention this is free? Although, if your organization wants to benefit from a SharePoint-esq feel, there is a paid service, which is very afforable to all size organizations.

OfficeLive (Now SkyDrive)

What if you still want free but need to use Microsoft Office? Well, don't worry, since most companies fall into this boat. Microsoft actually offers a document management and collaboration solution for free! And now, you can edit/create Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote documents directly on the web, thanks to the power of Microsoft's 2010 products. Wonderful! A person doesn't even need a Windows Live / Hotmail account to view the documents. However, if they want to edit or work with the documents, they will need an account, which is free as well. OfficeLive, now SkyDrive, acts like a document repository in which you have collaboration abilities. You can have multiple people working in the same document at the same time. You can then edit documents offline or in a full version of Office.

Conclusion

If you had to pick between these two only, it would be a tough call, but still the same end result. If you are on a budget and can't afford Microsoft Office for every person's computer but need something that has a good chunk of the features, then I would use Google Docs. All you need for that is a computer with an Internet connection...or even a Smart Phone. But, if you really need to use Microsoft Office, then I recommend trying out SkyDrive. It has a slight learning curve, but is very dynamic and useful, as well as easy to integrate into your current work environment thanks to Live.