Organizing Your Life Using a Computer – 12 Tips

Budgeting

To help keep you from overspending, why not devise a budget with the help of your computer. A number of programs will keep track of your spending, your cash flow, and payments due. There are a number of software programs that will take care of this task and although entering all your records is time consuming, it only has to be done once and the program will begin to save you time and money. Two of the most popular programs are Microsoft Money and Quicken; both fairly easy to learn. These financial programs update automatically when you pay a bill, remind you when a payment is due, and are simple to keep up to date.

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Cooking

Not sure what to feed the vegetarians in your group, or how to feed a large number of people?

You could go on the internet and do a search, using keywords that are as specific as possible. From food companies to people posting their favourite recipes, you will find a number of ideas online.

Another choice is to purchase one of the many cooking software programs available. Mine is called MasterCook, but many well-known cookbooks produce software that can do all of the following for you: * Search for low fat, low sodium, low calorie, or low cost recipes, * Insert pantry ingredients and get suggested recipes, * Plan menus on a calendar and the needed shopping list will be created as well, * Change the number of servings and the food measurements will change too, * Cooking tips and video demonstrations, * Nutrition information and cost analysis features, * Your own recipes can be added, favourites grouped, and everything can be printed in your own cook book.

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Email

Utilize folders and subfolders as you would in a paper environment. Create a system and stick with it, purging on a routine basis and reducing document clutter.

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Exercise Log

Often people resolve to begin a fitness routine, but have a hard time continuing. To help your motivation, why not create an exercise log? Using your favourite word processing program, insert a table. You will need a row for each day you plan to exercise and a row for your titles. As for columns, the first one will be for the names of the days, the second for the start time, then finish time, total length of time for the exercise, and a final column for comments (such as distance, etc.) for a total of five columns. Decorate with a border if you like and your log is ready for you to write each day’s accomplishment. Be sure to give yourself a reward at the end of the week!

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Family Album

Type questions to ask and the answers. Use cut and paste to make a  story and create a family book. Include clip art, your own photos and articles about the past that you find on the internet. There is also software available to help you make a family album.

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Fuse Box Symbols

My husband recently had what I thought was an ingenious idea. We have an old fuse box and whenever we blow a fuse, it’s difficult to read which fuse belongs to which room. So he made a computer drawing of each fuse and the corresponding label. Now he simply checks the drawing and then counts over to the correct fuse.

1. Open the “Paint” program that comes in Windows (usually in Accessories).
2.  Using the various shapes, draw each of the fuses side by side.
   Hint: draw one fuse, {Copy}, and {Paste} until you have enough. Copy once and you can paste as often as you need to.
3. Next, draw a straight line from each fuse and label it using the text icon.
4. {Save} and {Print}.

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Grocery Lists

Type a standard grocery list, save it, and each week print a copy and check off the items you need to purchase. Type the list to correspond with the store’s aisles and you will quickly finish shopping.

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Menus or Recipe Cards

e.g. Type Supper Menu and the Date at the top of page (use index cards for recipes). Type list of foods you are including. Edit, Select All and center your menu. Add comments if you like. Make fancier with a different font and a border.

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 Phone Lists

• Type the words “Name, Last Name, Phone, Street, City, Province, Postal Code and Email” without typing the commas.
• Press tab between each and keep it all on one line.
• Highlight the whole row and choose insert table. Word will turn the text into a single row table.
• Put cursor under this row and select insert rows from table menu.
• Type in number of rows.
• Put cursor in first row and choose select row from the table menu and click bold.
• Add the info to your columns. You can then use the sort feature in the table menu.

You could also make a list and put a small photo of each person next to their corresponding phone number and name. That way if there is an emergency and a neighbor calls a family member, they have an idea of who the person is. Also, it helps children who are too young to read identify which number they are calling. They see the photo of “Uncle Tim”, along with his number.

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Reading Lists

Maintain a reading list where you can jot down new titles, or old ones that have been recommended to you by friends and colleagues. Utilize the online bookstores.

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Stationary and Thank You Notes

Type name, address, phone, etc. with a nice font, centre it and put a border above and below.

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 Vacation packing

Compose a packing checklist, print off and follow it. This method helps everyone pack their own things without wondering what they forgot. If you go somewhere regularly, like camping, you can pack everything needed in no time.

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