I use excel. I know what you mean about organization, I do love it. :)

I've been working to build a household manual for quite sometime now....of course, it'll never be "done", but it is constructed in such a manner that I could theoretically leave someone else with it and know (considering he/she had integrity, focus, etc.), that the household would be run per my Owner's desires for whatever time period I was absent.

Sections of the manual include:

Chores schedule
Instructions for specific chores
Special cleaning tricks
Take-out menus for local restaurants
Contact information for services we use
Contact information for people we meet
Calendar
Shopping Lists
....and I'm sure there are plenty of things I'm not remembering at this moment....


Of course, Sir-the-geek has been talking about building me a database for it all, but perhaps I can talk him into letting me try to bug-test for you instead ;)

I use a Franklin Covey day planner. I still have the old paper kind that I carry around with me. I like being able to flip open to a month and see the whole month all at once. I like the system FC uses to prioritize daily activites and it makes it easy to reschedule things that did not get accomplished in one day. For me, being able to take the system with me wherever I go is very important because I never know when I'm going to need it.

I also really like the daily words of encouragement and inspiration! ;)

at work, i use Excel for nearly everything. i also am learning to use more of the features of Outlook for time management - tasks, calendar, etc.

for personal organization, i have a day planner (an old fashioned paper one) that fits in my purse or bag. i also use Google's documents and calendar from time to time, since my partner and i can share them and view the same ones rather than each having our own.

for mental organization and preparation, i use www.mind42.com - it's a mind-mapping program that creates an outline for you, for anything from cleaning the house room by room to writing a book chapter by chapter. it's definitely one of the most helpful resources i've found in some time.

i'm also a big list maker - to-do lists give me a sense of accomplishment; i'll draw a small triangle before each item so i can check each one off when i've completed it . knowing that i've made progress is important in helping me to maintain my stride, especially when tackling projects with many time-consuming tasks. if i feel like i'm not getting anywhere, i'll move to another part of the list, do several quick tasks, and check them all off. it's a mind trick, but it works for me :) along the same lines, i like to use index cards rather than full-sized paper for these lists; even if there are ten cards, using one at a time makes the list seem less daunting than having a letter-sized sheet, covered front and back, with things that need to be done.