Skip to main content

2 absurdly simple tips to simplify and organize your life in 2016

Happy New Year! I’m Patrick Norton from TekThing, and I’m here on Digital Trends today with some mobile apps to help you get organized in the new year!

First up … don’t set yourself up for failure. If your inbox is overflowing, your garage is the place where useful things go to get lost, or you just want all your family photos organized … pick one problem at a time, put together a plan, and take it a step at a time.

Simplifying your life with Google’s Inbox

I’m a huge fan of Google’s Inbox by Gmail app for email. You can download it for Android or iOS. It brings some of the best features of Gmail, and adds even more features I use constantly on my phone.

Like Gmail’s Web app, Inbox sorts the bulk of your email into ‘Bundles.’ There’s a tab at the top of your inbox labeled Promotions, full of the weekly — or if you’re really unfortunate, daily — ads from websites, stores, and online services. Purchases and Trips each get their own bundle, and you can create bundles for anything you like … school emails, that group of friends that emails you those cat GIFs … you get the idea.

The newest and most important mail in each bundle is highlighted. Seeing all seven emails this from that store you bought something from once three years ago should be a strong reminder to look for the word Unsubscribe up near the email address. Click on it and it will ask you “Are you sure you want to stop receiving similar messages from This Store/Website/Whatever …” and if you hit the blue Unsubscribe button … you’ve just removed some future clutter from your inbox. Nice!

Hit the red Plus button on the lower right hand corner of the app and you’ll see a list of the email addresses you use the most often alongside a little blue button with a string tied around a finger inside of it. That’s the Reminder button, and it will put a to-do reminder at the top of your inbox for actions like call, email, text, read, check in … or you can just type in anything you need to do, like change the oil in your car, or call the accountant. Give it a shot! Getting your email under control is a great way to start the new year.

Organizing your life with Trello

Need to organize something bigger than your in box? Check out Trello. Technically Trello is a professional grade project management tool, but it creates big, easy to read visual lists that are great for organizing anything from household chores to your family reunion. I started using it at the office then realized it was just the thing for bigger projects around the house.

You can create a Trello account for free. Then you create a board and name it something like My Truck Project, and inside the board you create lists like Engine, Suspension, Bodywork … you get the idea. Then you add cards to the list, like drain oil, coolant, attach engine hoist, unbolt transmission, loosen engine mounts, attach engine hoist … did you forgot a step or find something new that needs to be done along the way? Just add a new card and drag it to where you want it, in that list or into another. Clicking on a card lets you or anyone you invite to your team to make comments, assign due dates, add attachments. It’s good stuff, and runs on anything with a browser, or you can download an app for Android and iOS.

If you’re looking for something simpler, both Wunderlist and ToDoist are great tools for creating todo lists and managing tasks … and unlike that legal pad you left back on the kitchen table, you can access ’em on your phone, share tasks or lists with your family and friends, and get reminders.

Hopefully one of these tools will help you get organized in the new year … I know they’ve made a huge difference at work and at home for me!

Patrick Norton
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Patrick cohosts TekThing, a video show packed with viewer questions, product reviews, and how-tos. He also works on This Week…
5 things I want to see in the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and S Pen stylus on its screen.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is definitely one of the best smartphones on the market right now, no doubt about that. You get incredible performance with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, plenty of RAM and storage, a whopping 200MP camera, two telephoto lenses for 3x and 5x optical zoom, S Pen integration, and more. It’s certainly an impressive package.

But it’s not perfect. In fact, some weaknesses could be improved in the next version, the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Here’s what I hope to see next year.
A new design
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (left) and Galaxy S23 Ultra Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Read more
The Galaxy S24 just got a big camera update. Here’s what’s new
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra in Titanium Orange and in Titanium Silver.

Samsung Galaxy S24 owners just received some great news. Samsung recently released an April software update that addresses various camera issues. Unfortunately, this update is only available in South Korea, but according to information posted on the Samsung Korea forum, it is expected to be released in other regions soon.

Firmware version S928NKSU1AXCA is almost 800MB in size. It includes improvements for lowlight images and image colors in Samsung's Expert RAW app, improved text clarity when zooming in photo mode, and support for 480 x 480 resolution when recording Instant Slow-Mo videos. The Galaxy S24 update for April builds on the improvements from the previous February release, which included enhanced zoom, portrait mode, night mode, and rear camera video capture capabilities.

Read more
Apple just announced the dates for WWDC 2024
WWDC 2024 banner.

Apple has just announced the dates for its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024. WWDC will take place from June 10 through June 14, 2024. A special event will be held at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, on June 10, and we expect to see the reveal of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, watchOS 11, tvOS 18, macOS 15, and visionOS 2.

WWDC will be free for all developers online. Developers will be able to access a variety of online sessions and labs that will showcase the latest advancements in software across all of Apple’s hardware.

Read more