There are so many great websites and apps to help us be productive and stay organized. It’s entirely possible to spend all of your time working on researching and optimizing these resources, and it can be pretty overwhelming. However, I’ve found that year after year, I have a few favorites that I always use. These are my go-to tools for keeping life organized and manageable.

Five favorite online tools to help me stay organized:

1. Outlook calendar. It doesn't matter too much which online calendar system you use as long as you can share it with the people in your life. I had to move to Outlook years ago so my husband could copy me on his work travel.

2. Google calendar. This is my favorite online calendar system. I use this to share a calendar with my parents and one with our daughter, and I used to share one with a caregiver/friend of our son's. Google Calendar is so easy to use and very easy to share. The good news for me is that all of my Google calendars are visible from my Outlook calendar account, which helps me stay streamlined for planning.

3. Trello. I absolutely LOVE Trello and can't imagine how I would function without it. I use the free version, and it's been more than adequate for my needs. I use it for to-do lists, goal tracking, vacation planning, and keeping track of all my design projects. My daughter and I share several boards on Trello where we can collaborate on tasks and ideas for the Katie the Creative Lady website and shop.

4. Paprika. This recipe app syncs on all my devices (iPad, iPhone, and MacBook), and I can use it for meal planning, grocery lists, and recipe storage. I love sending a recipe from a website straight to the app. It's also easy to add your own recipes.

5. Pinterest. Yes, this is an organizational tool for me. If something interests or inspires me, I save it to Pinterest. I have twenty public boards, each with multiple sections, and several private boards. It's like a giant filing cabinet for my brain!

Do you have any favorites that aren’t on this list? I’d love to know!