If your life is anything like mine, things seem to be getting increasingly complicated. As more and more "tasks" pile up, it becomes easy for an occasional "to do" to slip through the cracks. Sometimes, it's no big deal - like forgetting to pick up tomato sauce at the grocery store when you were just there. Other times, however, forgetting an important task turns into a real mess.

Some experts suggest we solve the problem by "simplifying" our lives, keeping fewer tasks on the plate. Sounds like a plan - just not my plan: lots of irons in the fire keeps life interesting and lively. For me, and perhaps for you, that's just the way it is.

In this month's newsletter, I offer you an alternative plan - a little "technical help" from two tools I recommend to help your life run smoothly.

Clearing out the cobwebs: Technical resources for getting better organized

If you could toss all of your current "to do" tasks into various buckets, what would those buckets be called? Most people categorize the tasks they need to keep straight. If you haven't already, first figure out what buckets will hold the tasks in your life. At the simplest level, you could call your buckets "personal," "business," and "other." I find it helpful to create a new category, or bucket, for each of the various projects I'm working on.

What to do with those categories? Just to be clear, I have no relationship with the products I'm about to discuss. And although I'm a Mac user, I recognize that the best products don't rely on just one platform.

At the top of my list is Evernote, a fantastic cross-platform tool for keeping projects and tasks organized. When connected to the Internet, Evernote, with free, dedicated applications for each platform, as well as an excellent, generic web interface, seamlessly keeps your PC, Mac, iPhone, Blackberry and other platforms in sync.

Evernote allows you to keep organized notes on different projects. You can also drag various files (pdf, Word, Excel, etc.) into the application; in just a minute or two, those files are available on all the platforms you use. Evernote's capabilities go much farther; if you're interested, it's worth a trip to their website. Basic usage is free. A premium account, which allows you to save more data and more file types, costs $5.00 per month.

Another excellent cross-platform application is Jott. Available for PC, Mac and many phones (including the iPhone), Jott lets you quickly "jot down" short notes by category. Its voice recognition capability actually works, so you can easily use your phone to speak your Jott rather than writing it. The server, in turn, quickly translates your spoken Jott into text.

Jott also allows you to save any note as a reminder alarm. Once set, receive either an e-mail or a text message at the designated time. The alarm feature is very useful - set it for 20 minutes past the end of your shift to get a reminder to pick up that tomato sauce while you're at the grocery store. Jott costs $3.95 per month, with "pay as you go" or yearly discount plans also available. Plus, try it for one week, free.

While an abundance of other applications for organizing tasks and projects exists, many are specific to one platform. Evernote and Jott provide extra utility in that when you make an entry on your phone, PC, Mac or work computer, that entry is immediately available on all other platforms.

In my view, the key to a less frenetic life is not less life - it's more organization. So get yourself sufficiently organized, put a process in place that works for you, and then use that process consistently and productively. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a plan to me!