Have you ever noticed that sometimes we have too many choices for some things, and not enough of others? Both situations can drive us crazy because with one there is not an ideal choice that meets all of our needs, and with the other we can become so bewildered with the available options that we don’t fully consider the benefits and costs.
A personal example of too many involves email accounts, blog accounts, photo services sites, online documents, calendars, and instant messenger services. I seem to have managed to acquire quite a few of these over the years, including two email accounts with our DSL provider (associated with Yahoo), one work email, one school email (associated with Windows Live/Hotmail), and about five other email accounts including (Windows Live/Hotmail and Google). This list does not include the email addresses that have fallen by the wayside over the years (including Excite, Netscape, Yahoo, MSN and a couple of others). Add to this mix the two photo websites, five document sites, two sync sites, three backup sites, two blogging sites, four messaging sites, and no telling how much else.
To solve the problem of all of these services, I began to try to find ways to combine them so that I can more fully utilize each while also making accessing them easier. I began by linking all of the Hotmail/MSN/windows Live accounts together so that I can keep track of them as a group. Then I linked Facebook and LinkedIn to Windows Live Messenger, and set one Hotmail account as the primary account with the other Windows Live accounts being linked so that I can monitor the inbox for each. Linking them also allowed me to combine all of the Windows Live documents, calendars, etc. into one access point. I also linked the photo accounts, blog accounts, and anything else that I could to the messenger/Hotmail account. As for the Google and Yahoo accounts, I linked all that I could as well, so now I have three broad accounts with linked items in each.
I also stumbled on a great free program called MultiMi (offered by AVG) that allows me to set up all of my email, documents sites, photo sites, video sites, and much more in one application. Now I have one application that displays everyone so that I can have access and be able to use each email or site using just one interface. It even allows the linking of Facebook and LinkedIn as well as other social sites. My only complaint is that I did not find this program BEFORE manually linking everything that I could, though using Windows Live Messenger and linking the associated accounts will be of great benefit. The biggest lesson I learned though is that “CLEAN OUT THE CLUTTER” not only works for the household (my wife Anna is the guru of this phrase), but it also works for software, email accounts, websites, calendars, blog sites, and anything else web-based. So my next job is going to be to cut down on these services that I currently use in order to further simplify my online life.
