I use a ton of web services that require accounts that you log into.  Most of the time these accounts will be specific towards work or play.  An example being Salesforce.com for customer relationship management for work and Netflix.com for renting movies to watch at home.  However, other accounts cross over into both realms.  Evernote.com and Toodledo.com are two perfect examples.

With Evernote, I can manage most of all the files on my home computer, ideas, photos, etc.  It is cloud-based, backs up to my home computer and I can sync the database to my iPhone for instant access to my external brain.  But it is so handy I like to keep all my work data in it too, such as blog ideas, pricing for our services, proposals, etc.  To access and contribute to my work related data at work I obviously have to login, thus also opening up all my personal data on the job.

Toodledo.com is my to-do application of choice.  With it I can manage all of my to-dos, everything from bill pay reminders, home chores to complete, work proposals to complete and grocery lists of things to buy.  I can set long term goals and assign multiple to-dos that I need to complete before reaching those goals.  It really helps to keep me organized and focused on everything I need to get accomplish and it also has an iPhone app so I can take it anywhere.  But again, accessing this via a web browser at work opens up all my personal tasks on the company computer.

Other services, like Google, can get really deep in mixing home and office – Gmail for home, but Google Docs for work?  Running Google Analytics for business website but have all your family photos on Picasa?  Logging into one Google account can open access to all services you are using with Google.

Now mind you, I don’t have anything to hide, but I do appreciate and respect privacy.  I think that is a common trait most people desire to have as well.

The obvious response someone might say is, “just get seperate accounts”.  Sure, but what complexity that adds to the equation.  Also, you can’t install two copies of the same app on an iPhone and I’m not going to carry around two phones.  On top of that, I pay subscription fees for various web services, such as Evernote and Toodledo – while, these subscriptions are affordable, I have no desire to double my expenses.

To me, it would make sense for web application providers to offer some type of two-tiered login: one user name and 2 passwords: the first password opens only the restricted access data (make this your work data you use in the office) and the other password for full access (for when at home).  Users that prefer just a standard account can still use one password and not restrict data.  Data could be restricted by folders, tags, contexts or any other way an application handles data.  This could also be a premium feature for providers to up-sell.   While I’m not looking to increase what I pay for these services, an extra 10% on a subscription cost to get this added functionality is worth it.

How about  keeping one user name and password for an account but use browser cookies to determine if restricted access is allowed.  Maybe when first logging in you get asked if you want restricted data displayed or not on that browser.  A cookie is then stored indicating what access is available until you log out and log back in.  You could still change the level of access in your profile settings, but would need to re-enter your password before the change takes place.

There are already similar uses of this on sites such as Facebook and Flickr, where you can who gets access to your account postings, but it would be good to have the option for the account owner too.

My goal for next year is to not have to worry about coming up with goals.

Seriously, it is kinda fun to plan out your new year, but the typical scenario is we have all these great ideas at the beginning of the year and if we stumble upon those ideas and goals at some point later, say around December 15th, we say “oh yeah, remember that goal – forgot all about it.”

So, I have been reassessing my methods and work flows to actually find a way to “stick to it” the whole year through.  Now days there are so many great online tools to help you with your productivity, some of these, such as Toodledo.com and Evernote.com I have discussed on this blog.  Plus, there’s CRM software, blogging tools, online data storage site, social networking applications, browser add-ons, widget applications and on and on.

We use a really nice online CRM tool called Salesforce.com which covers the bulk of my work and customer related tasks, plus we have some extensive in-house produced management applications that handle a lot of our infrastructure.  While Salesforce is web-based and has task-list management like using Toodledo for the speed of managing to-do lists as well as keeping merged lists of both work and personal tasks to do.  While Salesforce has calendaring built in, I still like merging data with my Google calendar.  And I love the concept of Evernote that lets me collect ideas and random content and store it in one location for future use.

But, it’s a new year and time to shake the tree and see what falls out and what stays.

First off, I’m changing the way I’m setting goals for the year.  In the past it was “I want to make this much in sales”, “I want to have this many new customers”, “I want to build this many relationships”, etc.  Now my approach is more incremental.  I’m looking at laying out my year based on what I need to do today or this week as opposed to this year.  This means a whole lot more little chunks of data that all has to be tracked.

First off, Salesforce and our in-house online managaement applications work great – no changes there other than maybe utilizing some of the additional features it offers that I’m not using yet.  But goal tracking for the year with mobile access from my cell phone and integration of personal non-work goals is the big picture here.

I have been using the free version of Toodledo.com but if I really want to track goals for the year, I explored the paid version (starting at $15/yr).  Running the trial version now.  Funny, but the advanced version just isn’t doing it for me and a great all around tool for handling to-do lists (still the best for that) is just not good for what I’m trying to do.

With Evernote, I have been using the free version too, but it is a very different tool and really not setup for goal tracking.  Ironically though, my need for Evernote is growing so I will be upgrading to the paid subscription ($5/month), just not using it for this task at hand.

I have been researching the internet for other options – I can’t tell you how many other online tools I’ve tried – which explains while I’m still in the process of goal setting for 2009 on the 12th day in January.  But I came across a tool called Springpad that is now starting to really win me over.  It is true life management that has features beyond what I was even looking for.  It is a new Beta application that appears to only have been out about 4 months, but it is already at an amazing feature set.  It syncs with Google Calendar, it has an amazing collection of “notepads” that you can setup on your account to manage anything, you can customize it and you can build your own lists.  Plus there are so many template notepads that it really can be called a life management tool.  I’ve been setting up a map of my goals and activities for 2009 with it and so far I’m impressed and it is the leading application I’ve found to handle my goal-mapping needs.  A Twitter exchange with one of the staff members with Springpad assured me a mobile version of the product is due soon – the only drawback I have been able to find with it.

http://www.springpadit.com

If you are like me you have notes in a million different places, a voice recorder when on the go (that you always forget when you need), a gazillion internet bookmarks, a stack of scribbled note pads and folders in and out of your “My Documents” folder and on 12 different color coded thumb drives.  That is not counting the older CD and DVD backups of your computer’s last hard drive as well as the various external hard drives that are hiding somewhere behind that tangled mess of of network cables.

Now there is one place to put all your ideas where you won’t forget them – Evernote.  Evernote organizes all of you ideas in one central location online so you can access them anywhere.  And when you’re inbetween computer access, you can use your mobile phone to access your Evernote account, take and upload photos, make and upload a new voice memo as well as send a text note.

Organize your ideas into folders, search by keyword tags, convert photos of text documents into searchable text, take snapshots of web pages you want to remember for later, geo-code the information you gather and so much more.  I gather a lot of ideas for work in Evernote.  I tend to also take photos of things using my mobile phone via Evernote, I tag it, give it a description, assign it to a folder – it is then automatically uploaded to my Evernote account where I can access it later.

Give it a try to see if it works for you: www.evernote.com