[Dark Age Iron Savior]

Hi. It may not be showing, but I'm kind of a mess right now. I've got dozens of projects online and off that I could start working on at a moments notice, but which I can never settle on which to do. I've never been very good at time management skills like prioritization, careful time allocation or flexible scheduling, so it all seems kind of futile right now. Making myself effective lists and schedules in notebooks and planners is something I've been taught how to do several times over, but it's never stuck. And I really can't see myself using one of those special electronic thingies, especially since I'm the kind of person who has a high chance of losing it/breaking it/losing it then sitting on it and breaking it.

So I was thinking, you guys are a pretty well-versed lot, maybe you could, you know, point me the way of some great (free?!) personal organizational/scheduling software for Win XP, stuff that allows me to map out my day, organize my tasks, tap into my true potential, etcetra. I'm not expecting anything life-changing, but even something that runs in the background and says "okay, you've been doing x for ten minutes, now it's time to do y for twenty minutes" would be good, just so I can realize how badly I'm wasting my time.

One conclusion I've come to: something that's just text likely won't cut it. I feel like I need something really graphical (I realize that doesn't actually mean anything, but you know what I mean, right?), something that....ugh, I'm having a hard time describing it. I'm envisioning something like a cross between a flow chart and a story web, something that allows me to map out the things I want to do and how they relate to one another, then take the ones I want to work with and put them into a more linear design.

....anyways, please, make some suggestions.
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[Wilkes]

I heard some really positive things about google calender and it's integration with other google apps.

though I've never tried it because this mess of a life of mine can't even keep a to-do list to task.

[Balzac]

iGoogle in general is pretty awesome. It's reminds me of those shitty spy ware taskbars my dad's laptop is overrun with; only non intrusive, easy on the eyes and well...actually useful!

Grab Google Calender and the "to-do list" tab. Then maybe throw in Gmail, a weather tab, and either CNN or BBC news. But don't bother with Google maps as it's kind of gimped and you'll end up having to visit the actual site anyway.

[internisus]

http://todoist.com/

[Gin]

just get a white board and some markers.