Peace of Mind Organizing

Oldies but goodies

31 March 2008

I like sharing new websites and shortcuts for making life a little easier. But there are some older sites that you may not know about that I’d like to share. These are sites I use regularly to make my life easier and more enjoyable. I hope you will too.

• Tiny URL. If you a giant web address you want to email to someone, it can be problematic. A URL that spans more than one line sometimes isn’t clickable. That’s where tinyURL saves the day. It converts any URL want to a small one (with, say, a total of 25 characters).

• Bug Me Not. Sometimes I want to read an article on a newspaper’s website, but they require me to register and give them all sorts of personal information. No thanks. If you’re like me and you resist registering, you can go to Bug Me Not and enter the website you’re trying to gain access to (say, www.washingtonpost.com). They’ll give you a username and password that’s been donated by another user. And you’re in.

• Retail Me Not. From our friends at Bug Me Not comes a website with instant discounts on shopping websites. Enter, for example, anntaylor.com and you’ll get a list of coupon codes for Ann Taylor, supplied by other users. Even better, you can sign up for email alerts from Retail Me Not for your favorite stores. Never miss a discount.

• Google Maps. In my opinion, Google Maps blows Mapquest right out of the water. Not only do its maps look great, you can get satellite views and, in some cities, street-level views. In my experience, the directions are very good. Here in St. Louis, we had a major highway closure (for an extended period of time) and Google Maps was right on it. From the first day, its routes bypassed the closed highway.

• Pandora. Pandora is a place to listen to music, free of charge. It’s like having a radio station whose fabulous DJ cares only about you and the music you like. You start by entering the name of a song that you love. It then makes suggestions for other songs you might love. You get to listen to those songs, give each a thumbs-up or thumbs-down and create your very own radio station of music you love. Pandora rocks.

• Ravelry. If you’re not knitter or a crocheter, skip this entry. But if you are, and if you’re not yet a member of Ravelry, go there. Now. Register for the waiting list and respond immediately when you get your invitation (it’s currently in beta testing mode). Trust me on this. I think of Ravelry as a social-networking site for knitters. But it’s more than that. It’s also an organizing tool for all things knitting. It’s a place to find inspiration and assistance and community and it’s just wonderful.

If any of these sites are new to you, I urge you to give them a try. You won’t be sorry!

Tagged with: knitting, productivity, ravelry, time management, websites

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