Keeping organized and on top of projects is how I keep up with my growing virtual legal assistant business, three boys, a house, a dog and general life, especially with my husband regularly working out of town for weeks at a time.

I stay organized with a number of tools, each with its own purpose. I use Google Calendar a lot, because not only does it help me stay on top of meetings and appointments, but it also lets me share calendars with some clients, which allows us to plan and work together easily. I can access my Google calendar on any computer and even a mobile version on my phone’s web browser – perfect! If you are a student like, Izzie, 1L Poet or No Reins Girl, you may want to have a shared calendar with your study group even!

For keeping track of personal appointments I use both my Google Calendar and a family wall calendar. I used to only use the wall calendar for this, but learned the necessity of having personal appointments in my work calendar thanks to one incredibly frustrating double-booking experience.

In addition to my calendars, I use task lists to help me stay organized and on my game. I use the task list in my email system for a simple daily to-do list and I use the milestones and tasks within my project management system to stay on top of project deadlines. I also use a wall chalkboard for personal to-dos (yup, I like lists!!)

In general, I personally like cloud applications for organization and business management, but having a physical reminder in front of me (like a to-do list on the back of some scrap paper, or my wall chalkboard) is also very helpful.