Keeping It All Organized

Many moons ago a document was forged, upon which was painstakingly penned a list of all tasks, known and imagined, in order that peace and tranquility might be obtained by those soon to be betrothed.

Translation:  We made a wedding to-do list on Google Docs. 

Why Google Docs?  One word: convenience.  It's super easy to share and edit the list together because it's accessible from anywhere.  Interestingly, Mr. FW doesn't like the "spreadsheet" layout I prefer.  His primary complaints (and I agree with them, just not enough to change anything) are that the list extends beyond the width of the screen and that adding a lot of info into one cell increases the size of all the cells in that row.  So he chooses to maintain a separate Google Doc with all the same info, just in list form. 

I prefer the spreadsheet because I like to color-code the boxes as we're working on things so I can quickly see what's finished (blue), in-progress (yellow), and not yet started (white).  If you're following along closely here, you'll notice that we were kicking ass in January, slowed down but were still active in February, really lost our mojo in March, and were completely helpless in April.  May's been a little better, but not much.  Thank goodness it's so easy to cut and paste tasks to reassign them to a later month.  Not that I ever do that.  Nuh uh...  not me.  (And please don't worry - I pulled these screenshots over a month ago, so some of this actually has happened since then!) 

We also use Google Docs to track all of our budgeting and spending.  Theoretically this is wonderful because either of us could add our expenses to the list.  Practically speaking, I'm the one who updates this list with my own purchases plus the receipts given to me by Mr. FW.  I love that I can access my documents from work or home or anywhere else.  So when I'm on my lunch break and feeling overwhelmed with worry that I didn't account for the $8 glue sticks I bought last week, I can quickly log on and reassure myself that every.little.thing has indeed been tracked.

Speaking of Google organizational tools, I can't neglect to mention Gmail.  I dearly, dearly love it for its labels, folders, archiving, search features, and the ability to Gchat with people in real time.  By my estimation, it is far and away the best email system out there. 

The only other "organization" system I've used is some well-labeled computer folders in which I store inspiration pictures I come across online.  No one else has these folders, right?  :-)  These were a lifesaver during the past few years as we were casually planning the wedding, but now you can see that many of these folders haven't had anything added to them in the past six or seven months (and apparently I haven't thought about wedding makeup since September of 2009!).

At some point I tried to put together a wedding binder so that I could have hard copies of my absolute favorite ideas plus any contracts we'd signed, thinking that I'd take it with me to all my vendor meetings and such.  But it's still sitting on our bookshelf, unused and completely empty.  We have electronic copies of all our contracts, and having inspiration images on the computer alone hasn't been a problem for me.  Given what an internet junkie I am, I guess it makes sense that all my organizational tools are online.  Might not be for everyone, but it works for me!

What kinds of stuff have you needed to organize, and what tools get the job done for you?