I hate to waste time. Maybe that’s why I studied Industrial Engineering. Here are some websites, programs and techniques that help me work and manage my life more efficiently.

I used Calendar Creator for our family calendar for about 12 years until it crashed last fall. I was crushed. Not only did I lose tons of valuable data, but I needed a new program that would allow me to print out our family’s calendar for the refrigerator. I was reluctant to use Google Calendar, but now I’m a convert. I’ve set up a different calendar for each member of our family, plus a calendar for events we all participate in, one for friends’ birthdays, and one for relatives’ birthdays. Each member of the family has access to all the calendars, and can choose which ones to see or not see. It prints out nicely and can be accessed from anywhere. Now to get certain family members to read it online. That’s why I continue to print it out occasionally.

I like to keep up with a fair number of blogs, but I don’t want to take too long to do so. I’ve tried several blog aggregators, but I’m sold on Google Reader. I’ve divided the blogs I read into groups (e.g., Design, People I Know, Technical, Local) and when I click on the shortcut on my toolbar I only see the subject lines of new posts to the blogs I follow. If I don’t want to read any of the posts, I can just click on “Mark All As Read” and they won’t be highlighted next time. If you click on the monkey in the right column of my blog, you can subscribe to my blog on Google Reader.

Freshbooks

My worst case freelancing scenario would be if all 90 or so of my clients decided they need their websites updated the same day. Eeek!! Even though that hasn’t happened yet, I’m constantly updating websites, and it can be hard to keep track of those 3 min. – 3 hour time charges. Freshbooks allows me to click a Start button that starts a clock running to the 1/100th of a minute. If the phone rings while I’m working, I just press Pause. Then Restart, then Log Hours when I’m done. I use it to send out email bills on a regular basis, and clients can even pay via PayPal.

CushyCMS

This website allows me to set up clients to update their own sites. It’s perfect for simple text changes, and I don’t miss being the middleman. I’d rather concentrate on more exciting stuff anyway. Note: It’s not very good at stylesheets, but if the formatting of something gets messed up, I have my clients email me and I fix it in about 30 seconds.

Daily Slurp

The coolest looking website three years ago probably looks outdated now. That’s why I check Daily Slurp each day. It highlights a collection of cool new websites, and allows me to keep up with new design and technical trends. I categorize the sites I like using NetVisualize, and sometimes use that to create thumbnail directories to show clients so that I can find out what they love and hate before I start designing their website. Unfortunately, NetVisualize doesn’t work with the new Google browser, so that’s why I’m mostly sticking with Firefox.

FastFontSet

This simple program allows me to categorize my fonts however I want, and then to see what a line of text would look like in each font. It’s much better than plowing through the million or so fonts I have. Besides the usual serif, sans serif, my categories range from Art Deco to Fun to Girly & Curly.

Of course, there are times when I give myself a break. That’s when I turn to or Etsy. A girl’s gotta have friends and shop every once in awhile!