Organize Your Life!
 
A great place to start if you want to improve productivity is to get organized.   Many New Year resolutions revolve around this.   Disorganization is usually considered a top productivity killer. and disorganization inside a computer can be as harmful as any kind.   Whether it's electronic files scattered across a network in disarray or stacks of email waiting to be read, disorganization cuts productivity rates in half, if not more.   Organization is not just about how neatly information is filed, but how easily and quickly it can be found and accessed.
 
For this, it's useful to implement a good search and retrieval system that provides instant access to information through multiple search tools for documents, content, and other data.  Files should be easily found through key word and text searches.

Any good document management system maintains electronic files organized. It also provides for quick file retrieval by having built-in search capabilities. The new QuickBooks 2010 comes with a fully integrated Document Management system (check out our own QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions webpage for a description on all that is new in QuickBooks 2010).

But what do you do if you don't have a document management system in place?  Do not be discouraged because there are some free tools available that do a superb job of helping with file search and retrieval.  Among the best is 'Google Desktop'.  It makes searching your computer as easy as searching the web with Google.  It is a desktop search utility that provides full text search of all your files, including Outlook, Word, Excel, PDF documents, and many more--even deleted items!  Google Desktop is no replacement for being organized, but it aids in putting information easily within reach and frees you from having to manually search through your files and folders.

The power of Google Desktop even extends into QuickBooks financial software.  The QuickBooks Search (powered by Google Desktop) makes searching for information within QuickBooks easier and faster by allowing to search for information without having to specify which fields to search.  For instance, you can search for an invoice by customer name, any amount on the invoice, or even a single word in the memo field or a portion of the address.  You can look for any customer or vendor or any transaction by using almost any word in that transaction.  All this with the speed and power of Google.
 
Not being able to locate something in one of your desk drawers could happen.  But with today's available tools there is no excuse for not finding something inside your computer or in your financial software--just 'Google Desktop' it!