Google’s Customized Home Page
Sorry for the delay in posting this. Statistically, most of you should be reading this on Tuesday, even though it was posted on Monday (for me).
We have all been given the advice that we need to write lists down. Some of us have followed the advice, and some of us haven’t. Of those who have, some of us have made it a habit, and some of us haven’t. Well, this post is for those who have made list-writing a habit, or are working on making it a habit. It is also targeted at those who are on the computer for most of the day, such as programmers, pro bloggers, or people with no life, like myself. It especially comes in handy for people who are often at different computers throughout the day.
The tool? To-do lists on Google’s customized home page. They’re quick to implement, and easy to use. They also go with you wherever you can log into Google. Unfortunately, they don’t work offline, but if you have a very fancy phone and a cellular plan that gives you unlimited internet connectivity, then you really could have the list anywhere. (If you have a phone that is that fancy, though, then why bother with the high expenses of the cell plan? Just use the built-in to-do list and task scheduler.)
Now, you may be wondering what is so special about Google’s to-do lists. Really, nothing unusual… They’re just lists of things that you enter, and you can remove any item whenever you want. You can also give them different priorities, with the standard high, medium, and low flags.
The beauty comes in when you want to keep track of different lists. You can have as many different lists as you want, although it takes a little bit of back-tracking to do this. Personally, I have five different lists, keeping track of my long term goals, medium range goals, short term goals, weekly tasks, and a list of daily items. For instance, I have three goals on my long term goals; to make Trina (my wife) wondrously happy, to bring peace to everybody, and to popularize my grandfather’s art. My medium range goals are things that I plan on working on for more than a few months, to graduate college, start a business, and work on different habits that form the core of my character. Short term goals are items that may take a couple of months, such as passing a certain class, or reaching a certain number of readers. Of course, weekly and daily tasks change on the day and week, with items being added nightly and being removed nearly hourly on the daily list, and items being removed daily and being added on the weekend on the weekly list.
To add a task, first you need an account with Google. Fortunately, this is free, and Google doesn’t send spam. Once you have an account, go to google.com, and view your customized home page. Chances are, there will be a few news items, and other sundry oddities… Keep the ones that you want and remove the others. From here, click on the link to “Add Stuff,” and enter “To-do list” into the search bar. When you click on the “Search Homepage Content” button, the to-do list at the top is the one that I personally use (it looks cleaner, and you can change its color scheme). Once you have added it, click the link to go “Back to homepage” and repeat the process for each list that you want to add.
Now comes the fun part… the customization. On each list, click on the down arrow icon, and select “Edit settings.” Give it a different name, depending on what the list is for, and select its color, and you’re done. To add items, simply click in the text box and start typing. When you’re done describing the item, hit enter, and the items appears below. To change its priority, click on the priority flag twice, and select the priority that you want. To remove it, click on the “X” icon… It doesn’t warn you that the item will be removed, so only click that icon if you don’t want to see it any more. 
It really is a simple, easy tool that lets you keep multiple lists on the same page. With Google’s mastery of AJAX, the list responds as quickly as if you were running a personal management program on your own computer, but you can access the information no matter where you go. It truly is a great tool, and I recommend it to anyone who spends a lot of their time on many different computers.
I’ve got to try this out. Thnx!
It has been a couple of days… Any luck with the lists, Sania?
I’m thinking of making two more lists, one for Pros and one for Cons, and when I have a choice to make, using that as a handy way to make my decision. It isn’t exactly a “to-do” list, but I can also prioritize the pros and cons by how much they’d affect me.