TO-DO LIST The free smartphone app EasilyDo is like having a personal assistant at your fingertips.

Forget Me Not
My Go-To Organizational Apps

As the director of a busy eye center, it can be hard to stay on top of everything, from e-mail to paperwork to regulatory deadlines. Luckily, I've found some programs and apps that help keep it all straight:

• EasilyDo. This free app for Apple and Android devices is like having a personal assistant. It organizes my busy life in several ways. It recognizes potential new contacts in my e-mails, updates my address book and removes duplicates or outdated e-mail addresses, retrieves my digital boarding passes when I travel, saves digital receipts and sends me reminders of my schedule.

If I get an e-mail that requires follow up, EasilyDo lets me know that action is required on my part. If I get busy and don't respond to the reminders right away, it will alert me of the pending items. The app even reminds me of birthdays, lets me know about upcoming weather and notifies me of e-mail attachments that I may want to save to my computer. Like other apps, it has paid features, but I only use the free options.

• Outlook Calendar. I'm sure this isn't a new program for most people, but I use it for more than jotting down appointments. The calendar also ensures my facility meets timely regulatory requirements. I go through the calendar year and add reminders for all of our quarterly drills. After I input those dates, EasilyDo can then flash notices on my phone as I approach the deadline.
PAPER'SAVER You can use Dropbox's free app to access your facility's policies on your mobile devices, anytime, anywhere.
• Dropbox. You may be using this cloud-based storage system to house your photos, but I find it's also great for your facility's document retention and maintenance. I used to hate having to recreate policies, forms and documents because they were saved on a different computer or another server. Now, I can access the files anywhere, share them with others and find a file just by searching for a keyword. I even have the Dropbox app downloaded to my iPad, so if I'm not in "work mode" I can still share or retrieve documents whenever I have Wi-Fi.

Leslie Mattson, RN, BSHM
ascrubslife.com
Macon, Ga.
[email protected]