Hooked on Google Docs

I’ve used Google Docs for a while now, and I’ve found it to be a nice alternative to Word and Excel.  But I didn’t REALLY start using Google Docs until this past week, and I’m hooked.

Google Docs has solved a few different problems for me.  First, I’m terrible at keeping things organized on my computer.  I like saving things to the desktop so I can see them, but soon enough I have waaay to many desktop icons to actually find anything.  With Google Docs everything is stored for me in my Google Docs account.  Sure I still have to create folders if I want to keep things easy and manageable, but even if I don’t categorize them it’s still easy to find everything in my “All Items” list.

Second, I no longer have to email files to myself.  I used to work on a file on my work computer, and then if I wanted to have it at home I would save it to my desktop and then email it to myself so I could open it at home.  I know I could use services like Dropbox or Box.net, both of which I’ve used before, but I find Google Docs to be infinitely easier and it’s free.

Aside from the benefits of keeping myself better organized, it’s helped me visualize my goals and become more productive.  In the past I’ve tried to keep to-do lists on services like Vitalist and ActionComplete, and I’m still experimenting with Remember the Milk.  But then I wanted to use weekly trackers like Joe’s Goals for my workouts and David Seah’s various productivity tools like the Emergent Task Timer.  I’ve even tried Daytum for capturing data after the fact so that I can see whether or not I’m following through on my goals.  You can tell that’s getting pretty overwhelming.  It took way too much time to log in to all of these sites and maintain all of this information.  With Google Docs I can customize everything to my liking and still be able to log in from any computer (and even my Droid).

So far I’ve created two major Google Docs spreadsheets to keep me on track with my goals:

1. Weekly Workouts – where I’ve added fields for miles run, various workouts at the gym, and exercises that I do at home like pushups, pullups, etc.  It’s quite easy to go and enter a value, and I can see my progress as compared to my goals each week

2. Weekly Personal Goals – where I’ve listed my main projects that I’d like to get done during the week and also a list of things that I’d like to do each day such as write a blog post, read for at least half an hour, and develop new business ideas.

Overall, what I’m trying to accomplish is more focus on the things that I want to get done.  Since I’m a data geek, and I like being able to see progress in spreadsheet format, this is working well for me so far.  Plus I can add ideas on things I’m working on at Sigma, the Orr Fellowship, and any other projects I’m working on.  One of those projects that’s coming soon is a new online store for pure skincare products called Repurify.  Working on this has really opened my eyes to some of the harmful chemicals we may be putting on our bodies each day with synthetic personal care products.