When it comes to managing my life, particularly if I’m way from my computer, if I can skip or speed up a step I’m more likely to stay on top of things. Google Calendar allows me to quickly add events through my phone through SMS.  I simply scroll to Google in my contact list and choose the option to send an SMS, type my appointment and hit send. Google texts back that the appointment was received. I also use it to send my self to-dos and notes that I don’t want to forget.

To set up the mobile option with Google Calendar:

1. Visit your Google Calendar online.
2. Click on the “Settings” option.
3. Click on “Mobile Set up”
4. Check to see if your Carrier is supported.
5. Enter your country and phone number, and then click “Send Verification Code”
6. You’ll receive a message back with a verification number. Enter that number in the “Verification Code” field on in the mobile settings on your calendar. (If you don’t receive the code, you can request it again through the Mobile Set up in the Settings.)
7. Click “Finish Set-up”.

To send a text of a new appointment:

1. Add Google Calendar’s SMS number to your contacts 48368
2. Send a text to the SMS number. Enter the appointment, date and time for example “Dinner 3/4 8pm” or “Soccer Saturday 10am”
3. Google Calendar will text back that it received the appointment.

Appointments I made through Text (SMS)

You can also have Google Calendar text your appointments to you. To receive the next item on your appointment schedule text “next” (without the quotes) to 48368.  Text “day” to get the day’s appointments or “nday” to get tomorrow’s schedule.

Tired of wasting time sitting on hold? LucyPhone can help. In three easy steps you can contact the company you need to talk to and let LucyPhone sit on hold.

LucyPhone from Decogram Corporation on Vimeo.

1) Call the company through LucyPhone. It will call you first and then connect you to the company.

2) Use the company’s phone menu as you usually would to find the right department. If you’re put on hold, press **.

3) When an agent come on, LucyPhone calls you back immediately.

To learn more, or use the service, visit LucyPhone.com

I’m organizationally challenged, which causes problems because I’m also a multi-business entrepreneur. I’m always on the hunt for the perfect planner system that fits how I work. My preference is to see the whole week at a glance and have all my to-dos (personal and professional) listed along side any appointments. I don’t want to have to turn pages to manage my day because I’m more likely to not turn the page and therefore miss something. The problem has been that I’ve never found just the right planner.

If you’re having the same problem, visit DIYPlanner which has tons of different planner styles…for free. These planner templates are created by DIYPlanner or its members and uploaded for anyone to use. Planners come in a variety sizes depending on your needs.

The site also offers articles and other resources related to planning. The best way to find the actual planner templates is to click on “DIYPlanner.com” or “Time Management” in the left hand side bar. But do take some time to read the articles and other information. There is an itneractive community there with lots of great tips and ideas.

To learn more, visit DIYPLanner.com

Timebridge is offer a free resource that makes it easy for people see your availability and schedule time with you.  The great thing about this resource is that it doesn’t reveal the details of your schedule, only the times that you’re “available” or “busy”.  Further is works with Outlook, Google Calendar, and iCal to synchronize your free/busy availability.

For an additional fee, Timebridge’s Meet With Me also provides a meeting room, web or phone conferencing, and text message reminders to those involved in the meeting.

To learn more, visit TimeBridge.

These days, it seems no one leaves home without their cellphone. As work-at-home professionals, we have so much going on in our daily lives, that it’s easy to use our cell phones as our primary organizational tool. Unfortunately, many cellphones have features that never get used at all. We’re going to show you seven simple ways a cellphone can help you keep your work-at-home job more organized.

*Set unique ringtones for each major contact*

Know who’s calling without looking at the phone. For each major contact, such as clients, your spouse, child’s school or daycare, doctors, co-workers, etc. set a different ringtone. Whatever you choose to use is up to you; just make sure you can keep track of who’s who with the ringtones you set. You can grab free ringtones pay for real music ringtones or make your own. If you have an iPhone, sync iTunes with your contacts.

*Use your address book*

For contacts you use frequently but don’t receive calls from, such as the local pizza delivery company, the salon, and the pharmacy, keep them in the address book. This will save you time, because you won’t have to look them up in the phone book or remember their phone numbers. To keep things organized, you can create groups in the address book, too. You can even take the advice from our first tip one step further and customize a ringtone for each group, in case the pizza place has to call you back. Learn more on how to setup groups for BlackBerry, iPhone, LG Shine, and HTC Ringo Mobile software.

*Use your calendar to keep track of appointments*

Take time to place appointments in your cellphone or web-hosed calendar like Google Calendar. This way, you can glance at the calendar each day to get an idea of what needs to be done and when. Your phone will send you a reminder about the appointment at a time you choose, usually all the way up to 15 minutes before the appointment. This is especially helpful for work-at-home parents who have multiple appointments and people to account for. Set your reminders with enough time to get to each appointment though, because getting a reminder 15 minutes before you’re supposed to be in the doctor’s office isn’t always enough time to make the drive.

*Use your alarm feature*

Set alarms on the phone to get up in the morning, to remember to take medication, or to remember to get dinner out of the oven. Many cellphones have the ability to store more than one alarm and to choose a repeat frequency such as: Everyday, Monday through Friday, Once, or Never. When setting up the alarms, be sure to choose the frequency that works best for you, or expect to be bothered the following day when it’s no longer applicable.

*Use the voice recorder to record reminders*

Most new cellphones feature some sort of voice recorder. Use the voice recorder to record reminders like, “We need bread, milk, and eggs from the grocery store,” or “Reminder: Make reservations for dinner on Monday night.” These voice recordings will save to your phone for you to review later. Most phones do not allow for more than 30 seconds of recording time per note, so keep this in mind as you record. If you need something more powerful, consider using a voice-to-text service (see our review of Jott) that syncs with other mobile and web-based apps to become a cloud computing workaholic.

*Use the notepad or text messaging to take notes while out*

While you’re out and about running errands or spending time with family, if an important phone call comes through or you see something you want to remember later, use the notepad, or a draft text message —whichever you prefer— to make note of it. When things slow down a bit and you get time, go through the notes or messages to remember what you noted. This works better than the voice recorder when there are large numbers of people around.

*Keep a to-do list on the notepad*

Remember more than just your appointments. Keep a to-do list each day on your notepad or with a task management app like Remember the Milk. If you need to keep a strict timeline, you can use the calendar to schedule each task of the day. As you accomplish things, cross them off the list. Taking time to setup a to-do list each night will help you see just how much you can get done in a day and significantly improve your time management and make it easier to get things done in the long run.

Whether you use all seven of these tips, or just a few of them, you can be sure you’ll become a more organized work-at-home professional.

About the Author: Caitlin Douglass is a freelance writer that specializes in technology, productivity and mobile news. Caitlin is available for content development at caitlin.douglass [at] gmail.com.

As you know, I’m a productivity nut because I’m organizationally challenged. I’m always look for great resources to keep all my tasks, notes and other materials accessible. SpringPadIt.com is a new web-based notebook site that offers all this and more. Much like Google Notes or OneNote, you can create a variety of notes to organize tasks and projects. It offers a variety of premade templates such as budget tracker and fitness tracker. A clipping feature lets you clip notes or recipes to save in your note book.  Springpadit also lets you flag (for priority), tag (for easy search), and write note on your notes. It offers drag and drop functionality to move your notes and items around for easy access. A big plus for me is that you can see all your tasks in one place across a variety of notes.

Because its a web-based program, you can also access other web-based resources such as restaurants, contacts, and maps. You can share your notes with others (with other users or through Facebook, Twitter and email) and have reminders emailed or texted (sms) to you or one of your contacts.

My only beef with the program is that I haven’t found a gadget to add it to iGoogle, and it doesn’t look like I can text notes into the program from my phone. But for a free service its very robust and easy to use.

Check out SpringPadIt to learn more.

Over at Lifehacker there is a simple script that can help you stay on track with your work projects. The scrip will provide a pop-up every 20 minutes asking you if you’re on task. While such an application could get annoying, if you find that you waste time surfing the net, Twittering, or reading about the latest celebrity gossip, it can help get you refocused on work and thereby improve your productivity.

To learn more or get the script, visit LifeHacker.

The other day I posted how you can set up your Google Calendar to send and receive text (SMS) messages to your cell phone. At the end of the post I indicated that I was still looking for a to-do program that would also allow me to send text messages. And it would be awesome if it integrated with iGoogle and Google Calendar. I still haven’t found the ideal to-do system that allows texting, but I’ve found a handful of other great resources that can help you be more productive through the use of text messaging.

Gubb.net: I’m testing Gubb right now as it’s the only to-do program that I’ve found so far that allows me to text to-dos to my lists. Gubb is free and easy to use. You can create multiple lists and share them with others which is ideal if virtual workers are collaborating. Each list is given its own email which can be used to email or text items to your list or you can pick up the list via your phone by texting “G” or “Get” to your Gubb List. There isn’t a plug-in for Google aps, but you can use the email alert option in Google Calendar to post items to your Gubb list. You just need to forward the alert to your Gubb email.

Remember The Milk: I have been using RTM because it integrates with iGoogle and Google Calendar. While it will text your to-dos to your phone, so far there is no way to text new items to your RTM list. To add to the list while on the road you need to use the mobile version of RTM to log in and add it to your list.

Call Wave: This program will convert your voicemail to text. It doesn’t give you the exact transcription of the voice mail, but you’re able to get the basics of message. Its not free but is have a variety of plans that range from $14.95 to $49.95 per month.

Email by text: Carriers provide SMS delivery of email. Your provider should be able to let you know how to set up your email to forward to selected items to your phone.

To do lists can keep you focused and one task. But if you’re involved in a project that has many steps and to-do’s, it can be difficult to keep track and on target. There are many good online project management programs you can use for a fee, but if you don’t need to coordinate with colleagues, a simple free project management software can help.

Gantt Project Management offers a free easy to use chart-based project management tool.  With the Gantt Project Management tool you can create tree-heirarchies to help track tasks within projects, create dependencies between tasks (complete task A before completing task B), create PDF or HTML reports and exchange data with Microsoft(R) Project(TM) and spreadsheet applications.

The software can not only help keep business and work-related projects in order, but it can be used for personal projects such as home improvement plans.

Visit Gantt Project Software to learn more and download your free copy.

Outsourcing is big business these days. But not everyone can afford or needs a full service virtual assistant to keep them on task. Now you can get help from Sandy. Sandy is a web-based virtual assistant whose most important feature is that she can remind you to do everything from pay your bills to water your plants. She can be used along side your current productivity tools whether its Outlook or Post-It notes. She comes with widgets that can used with other applications such as iGoogle. And she can even send message reminders to your mobile devices.

The nice thing about Sandy is that she’s free and doesn’t require that you download anything. Simply visit the site, sign up and then start asking her to keep track of your important and even not so important tasks.

You can learn more by visiting IWantSandy.com.