Google Homepage has been around for quite some time now and I’ve been using it for most of it. Last month I figured out that using it as a productivity tool, instead of just using it to waste time reading the last Digg headlines or watching random movies from YouTube, may be a good idea. So first of all I threw away all those time wasters, or better, I banned them into a separate Tab. So now I have 3 Tabs:

• Work
• Admin
• Time Wasting

So first of all we need to decide what we is usefull and what isn’t, obviously the YouTube Widget and the Digg Widget aren’t fit for the Work Tab, because they distract and don’t help working. Also an overkill of 5-6 todo lists are unnecessary, best thing would be to have a todo list for things that can be done regardless of time, think of it as a bucket where you throw in the idea that just popped into your head so you can get back to it once you finished what you are currently doing (remember: multitasking is bad ). RememberTheMilk has done the trick for me, and also their module allows me to add, edit and complete tasks without leaving the Homepage, which is really important.

Next we need something to keep track of appointments, they are no todos, and are fixed in time, so what better than a nice Calendar Widget, I personally prefer to just see the next upcoming appointments instead of having a calendar and then having to click on items to see what they are. So the tool of choice is Google Calendar MarkII Magic which again allows you to add new appointments without having to leave the Homepage, and when you click on an item the details are shown in a balloon. Another usefull feature is that it allows you to display all of your Google Calendar Calendars, all in a one widget.

So now that we have taken care of the Tasks and Appointments, we can move on to other issues. Sometimes an idea jumps into mind, an idea for a project, or anything that can’t really be described as a task, so that you have to take a note of it, maybe elaborate it later. What could be better than Google Notebook? It takes close to no time at all to write down two lines, no need to organize it, just write what comes to your mind, and you can safely forget about it until you finished what you are working on, because you will later be able to restart exactly where you left it. So the Google Notebook Widget is an absolute must

Since Gmail has replaced my Desktop client I keep track of all of my Inboxes aggregated using the Gmail Gadget. This actually depends on how big your daily mail traffic is, if it isn’t too high, like mine, it is perfectly ok to have it, because it won’t distract you too much, otherwise you probably better not add it to your homepage, as it can become really distracting when every minute or so new messages come in.

And finally, being a student, I’m always a bit short of cash, so it’s best to keep track of my expenses, so I just added the ClearCheckbook Widget. Nothing fancy here, it just displays the current contents of my accounts, can be depressing sometimes :p

So putting it all together we have the following Homepage:

1. RememberTheMilk
2. Google Calendar MarkII Magic
3. Google Notebook
4. Gmail Gadget
5. ClearCheckbook

So this is my Homepage, what about yours?