Desktop organizers

[techbear]

As part of my changes for the new year, I'm looking for a simple date-reminder app and a contacts app, something I can keep phone numbers in. I've never consistently used such tools, but I've always known I should.

So, any suggestions? What do you use to store phone numbers and remind you of birthdays?

And while we're on the subject, what other personal productivity/organizing tools can you recommend?

Thanks!

[Ricardo Vladimiro]

I'm a cellphone + Microsoft Outlook freak. But it really gives me the best organization possible without having me worried with double information everywhere, diferent computers, paper agendas, etc.

Everytime I have some info I have to put for future use I'll do it on the cellphone or on laptop, depending on what I'm doing. When I get near the laptop, I simply plug the cellphone to it and all info get's from here to there. If I'm working and I have appointments Outlook rings a bell, if not the cellphone does.

All contacts are handled neatly between the two, including fax numbers, email addresses, a load of phone numbers, relantionship between people and all that jazz.

I don't know if this works with all cellphones, mine as one of those "cute" Microsoft OS. Outlook has to be the Office one, not the Express.

Hope this helps.

[robleong]

I use my work Blackberry. It has access to my Outlook calendar and my address book. I use it to email, phone, and even surf the web (using a very small screen though).

[tentons]

I tend to use Thunderbird (email client) for this, since mailing address and other contact info fits logically in with email. Being like most people, the path of least resistance is what gets the best results for me, so my advice would be to try and maximize the utility you get out of the apps you already use.

[JiriNovotny]

I use my application Swift To-Do List for my to-do lists (I've hundreds of tasks in many to-do lists there) and I also use lite version of ActionOutline - it's like wordpad + explorer, you have tree on the left and RTF area on the right. I keep my goals, month and year plans, etc. there.

[Mike]

And while we're on the subject, what other personal productivity/organizing tools can you recommend ?
I can recommend two :

The Journal (http://www.davidrm.com/thejournal)

AceText (http://www.acetext.com)

I use them both concurrently, every day, at home and at work, since dec 2004.

[Sega]

I use my application Swift To-Do List for my to-do lists (I've hundreds of tasks in many to-do lists there)
At first, I took your recommendation with a grain of salt because you sell the application, but this looks to be very useful! Maybe not what the author of this thread wants (as he also wants to keep contact information and such), but the simplicity of this application really grabbed me. I may have to pick it up.