Getting Things Done with Google Personalized Start Page
Article Highlights
• Google personalized start page can serve as your business nerve center
• One screen for email, calendar, tasks, news and more
Earlier in the week I wrote about using Google as my “ADR practice management hub.” There’s one last Google service that really makes all the others function in a nerve-center fashion: Google Personalized Start Page.
My Personalized Start Page acts as my web browser homepage and serves as the hub for all the key information I want at a glance: Upcoming appointments (with alarms I can set to remind me), new email, my tasks and goals for the day (with items prioritized top to bottom), and “sticky” notes with details on projects or other tasks. It’s the first page that loads when I boot my computer and stays open throughout the business day.
And because this hub is Google-based, it’s free and easy to set up if you want to use it too. Since it lives on the web instead of on your computer’s hard drive, you can view it from any computer, anywhere there’s an Internet connection. Should your main computer have a bad day, week or month, you can still gain access to all your critical information via another. And you can even add additional resources, like the weather forecast, maps to places you’re traveling, and news from your favorite online media outlets. One page, one program, everything you need for the day ahead.
There are two Google start page options, both free and both functionally about the same:
- Option 1: Google Homepage is available with or without a Google account (though much of what I’ll be describing here will be unavailable without the free Google account). This is the simplest of the two options.
- Option 2: Google Apps, which I’ve mentioned previously in this series, allows you to brand your Personalized Start Page and integrate the features with your web domain. There’s a little more involved in setting this up, since you’ll need to be able to verify you own the domain you’re trying to link to the Google apps. This is the option I use.
For more on Google start pages, try these:
- How to Set Up a Google Personalized Homepage
- Google Personalized Home for Mobiles
- How to Use Google Apps Start Page in Businesses with Employees
Copyright © 2007 by Tammy Lenski. All rights reserved.
Article Series
- The Google-Powered Office
- Getting Things Done with Remember the Milk
- Video Shows How to Get Things Done with Google Apps
- Getting Things Done with Google Docs and Spreadsheets
- Getting Things Done with Google Personalized Start Page
- Getting Things Done with Google Calendar
- Getting Things Done with Google Gmail
Making Mediation Your Day Job: How to Market Your ADR Business Using Mediation Principles You Already Know
Hello, I´d like to ask how you was able to get remember the milk gadget on your company homepage. I know how it works in public version, but in version for domain, i wasnt able to figure out what to do. I tried add custom section, but there it became too confused for me. It would be almost ultimate solution to have RTM included in homepage for my people. But.. I spend half hour on it, and without detailed help, i cant do it. Nice article anyway, thanks and if you could, help me to solve this little problem.m
Hi, Martin -
When I set it up on the domain version I recall that it required something different of me than the widget for the public version of Google homepage…and I can’t recall what that difference was! I’ve wracked my brain and can’t recall what I did…sorry.
If you haven’t already, I recommend you contact the folks at Remember the Milk and ask for help…when I’ve contacted them in the past with tech questions, they’ve been very responsive and provided excellent guidance. I’m guessing they’ll help you get that working in no time.
Good luck with it! And if I recall what I did, I’ll drop you an email.
Tammy