As a mom, I’m always looking for ways to make all the detail tasks of motherhood more efficient. One trick I’ve learned is to create a bookmarks folder in Firefox (or other tabbed browser of your choice) full of the sites that help me lead my daily life. I’m not talking about the sites I read for general interest (which I typically view via the Bloglines feed aggregator), or my geeky Web tools (HTML guides and such), or my discussion lists (like L-moms), but rather the practical, local sites that help me plan my day and get mom-and-home things done. I can then right-click the folder, select “Open in Tabs,” and voilà! A nice set of pages I can CTRL-Tab through as needed. Here’s what’s in my list right now:
- My PBwiki, which I use as a freeform to-do list and scratch pad.
- Gmail, because e-mail is life, or at least sustenance for it.
- A local newspaper site that lists school cancellations and delays. (My son’s not in school yet, but many of his playgroups follow the school schedule.) (Cancellations.com is a searchable, national (U. S.) site for cancellations, but I don’t have too much experience with it.)
- My local library’s catalog page, so I can quickly renew all my son’s books.
- The Meetup.com page for my mom’s group, so I can see what events are coming up and if there’s anything that needs an RSVP.
- The National Weather Service site. (This has fewer annoying ads than some of the commercial weather sites.)
I also have bookmark folders for my discussion groups and other fun sites, but the above gives me a good, useful “control panel” for my day. Anyone else do anything similar? What’s on your list?