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Today I got into work and pulled up my browser to start the day. It struck me how much I rely on my iGoogle start page, and Google products in general, to handle my digital world. I decided to start a series on using Google effectively, and I’m starting with the iGoogle start page to essentially introduce the major applications that I’ve been using before addressing each one individually.
A quick note on arranging your start page. I look at it as having three levels, or rows, for holding widgets (information). Then I put them in order of highest priority to lowest priority.
Level One: Things I need to see right away. If I only have a second to glance at the page and need to know what’s going on – what widgets would give me access to that? In my top level I have:
- Gmail: I can see if I have any new messages and quickly see if there are any that I have to read right away
- Google Calendar: Do I have any upcoming appointments?
- GQueues: My to-do list- is there anything overdue or due today?
- Countdown (optional): I also have a countdown widget on the top counting down to my next vacation…and when my boyfriend will be out of the army. These things have a high priority simply because watching those numbers get smaller each day makes me smile.
- Gchat: This is actually located on the sidebar, but it’s the chat application from Google where I can talk to my friends
Level Two: These are things that I want to look at when I have a little bit more time to browse and take in information.
- Google Reader: All the blogs and news sources that I follow to keep up to date on things going on in my industry as well as personal interests of mine.
- Google Calendar Details: A little bit below the top level I have a detailed list of all my appointments.
- Weather: I have the weather for my hometown at the top, followed my boyfriend’s hometown, followed by my family’s. Also conveniently happens to be the places I end up in most often.
- Google Docs: I use Google docs to share documents at work sometimes as well as a place to digitally store personal information.
Level Three: Other things that I think are interesting and helpful.
- Quotes of The Day: Three randomly selected quotes.
- Google Translate: Quick translator in case I need one.
- Google Latitude: You can sign up to broadcast your GPS location from your phone to your friends, and vice versa. Don’t really use it that much and neither do my friends so it goes at the bottom.
- “Someday” To Do Widget: This one wasn’t expanded so you can’t see it, but it’s a list of future goals.
Design: I use the Dynamic Dots theme, it’s fun because the dots change color throughout the day so every time I check back it’s a little bit different. But you can customize the theme to reflect your personality or change it up for inspiration.
So that’s my homepage and list of priorities. What does yours look like? Do you use Google or something else?
Also, let me know if you think this Google series will be helpful. You’ll be able to access the full series under the Google tag in the future (don’t worry, I’ll link to it in each post from the series.)
This tip is from Katie Van Domelen
Katie created the {un}chaotic out of a love of all things organized and tidy. She's lived at home, in the dorms, with roommates and is finally all on her own. Her posts share everything she's learned along the way.
Katie has written 33 tips.
