Mastering Your Life

OK, I admit it, that is an overstatement. However about 8 years ago Phil Reiter showed me  Time and Chaos, and I switched my contact management software to it. I have never regretted the move. This is a very clean, fast, solid and simple program that manages all my contacts (I have over 1,000), all my tasks (todo list), and all my appointments (including birthdays anniversaries, even when to change my furnace filter!). It also has memos which I use for some pricing information and to track accounting items that need to get posted. I purchase a lot of things on the Internet and rather than printing out each receipt, I just make a memo under "Accounting to Post", which I put into Quicken the next time I pay bills.

The first thing I do when I get into the office each morning is open Time and Chaos to see what appointments are coming, and what tasks need to get done. Its recurring tasks alert me about things I need to do every month or two or whatever time period there is.

Why do I like it?

• It is small and very fast.
• It is very easy to use and intuitive.
• It is very solid. I've never lost any data.
• It is inexpensive

About a year ago I added the Legal Billing module for my accounts receivable. For a simple one or two person operation, this is much easier than Timeslips. A little later, I replaced Thunderbird, which is a great E-mail program, with Chaos Software's integrated Email program. The e-mail program isn't quite as full featured as Thunderbird, but it is very good and reliable. Again small, fast and solid. This integrates all my E-mail with my contacts, appointments and tasks. If I drag an email over to the Tasks button, it sets up a to-do for me. If I drag it to my calendar, it sets up an appointment. When I open a contact, I can review all appointments, tasks, and emails for that contact.

I have a modem in my computer which allows Intellect (that is what they call Time and Chaos with the E-mail module) to dial the phone for me. I find this a great help, as it is difficult to get all ten numbers right every time! If you miss just one number, making you 90% right, you still  are wrong. I just point to the phone number I want to dial and click. It dials the number for me. It never dials wrong.

I also use their ChaosHost service to synchronize my netbook with my office computer. They can also synchronize with most smartphones. It also allows you to log onto the web and access your data from anywhere, including adding information.

With Email the program costs $60, without E-mail it is $50. The Legal billing  module is $40. You can test drive it for free for 21 days. It comes automatically network aware and you just purchase one program for each user. If you have more than one computer you still need to purchase only 1 license, because the license is for each user, not each computer, so my license is good for both my desk computer and my netbook. It can even be run off a USB drive for portable use.

I am a expert in this software, so I can provide excellent support for it. If this seems like something you could use, give me a call and I'll demonstrate it for you remotely if you like.