Organize Anything With SpringPad

A friend of mine is moving for a new job and needed to get a lot organized in a short period of time. She tried a few apps that I’ve suggested on the site, but even my hero app Evernote couldn’t keep up with everything she needed to do. She needed an app that would allow her to make notebooks that could include tasks, people, events, lists, location information, and important links. While I can think of the best apps to handle each of those things individually, I couldn’t think of any that handled them all together. Until we found SpringPad.

SpringPad is a multi-faceted personal organization tool that is designed to help you plan or organize anything. Create custom notebooks for yourself, or share them with others to collaborate. Then, start filling those notebooks up with “springs.”

A spring could be anything, like:

Movies – When I spring a movie title Springpad creates a small icon with the poster of the movie. The app notifies me when the film comes out in theaters (and will help me find showtimes), when it comes out on DVD, and even when it is available on Netflix.

Links – For links, I usually use the “Spring It” feature, a button that lives in the bookmarks bar and allows me to “spring” any website to my SpringPad account. It’s a great way to save articles and videos to watch later.

Recipes – “Spring” a recipe from anywhere and SpringPad creates an icon with an image of the dish and a link to the recipe. SpringPad even takes your recipes and will turn them into a shopping list or suggests the perfect wine pairing for the dish!

Important Lists – This is definitely my favorite use of SpringPad (surprise surprise!) because it allows for really customizable list making. You can save a checklist for travel, groceries, your to-do list, whatever, and then choose whether or not you want the tasks to delete when you complete them or save to use the list again.

Tasks – I have a few different “task” notebooks – one for my old apartment, one for my new apartment, one for my job, etc – in each I save individual tasks with a description and due date. SpringPad will remind me when tasks are due and will let me share tasks with others to collaborate.

Events – The number one complaint I hear about most organizational and to-do list apps is that the calendar function is sub-par. While this isn’t a calendar exactly, SpringPad treats events in the same way the calendar on iPhone does – title your event, set the date and time, even decide if it repeats – SpringPad will remind you when it’s happening.

Products – When I add things I need to buy into SpringPad as “products” instead of making a list, SpringPad will search for that product and tell me where it is available for purchase and if it is on sale. It’s a win – win situation!

Let’s say you were throwing a surprise party and wanted to plan it in SpringPad, you could spring:

• an event with the date and time of the party
• the party’s location
• a checklist of the guest list
• the contact information of the caterer
• a playlist of the music
• links to the perfect gift
• the products needed to make the favors
• recipes for delicious cocktails
• … so much more!

SpringPad uses a Pinterest-style layout with visual icons and allows you to add tags for each spring, making it virtually impossible to lose or forget anything. Like any organizational tool, the more you put into it the more you will get out of it. With SpringPad, create an unlimited number of notebooks to organize every facet of your life.