Are you forever forgetting appointments, birthdays, things to do, to walk the dog, your dentists appointments, exams, etc.?

Well, you'll know that using post-it notes is often a very disorganized affair - they get torn, lost and, before long, your desk looks like a sea of yellow sticky paper. PNotes basically allows you to write virtual post-it notes on your desktop rather than plastering them around your working environment.

PNotes is a beautifully designed and presented program which gives you an authentic sticky note feel. PNotes not only act as a visual reminder but can also be set to alert you when an appointment is near, at a time you configure.

Another really useful feature of PNotes is the ability to join groups by choice, which allows you to create, modify, delete and relocate groups by simple clicking or dragging-and-drop. You can change the group for each note written simply by dragging it to the group of your choice. Whatsmore, you can even customise the look with some pretty cool skins and even create your own with PNSkinCreator (although this has to be installed separately) so sticky yellow post it notes will never look the same again.

PNotes has recently been updated to add a much needed search and replace tool which helps you find those notes that have expired or you'd like to change using keywords. You can set the notes to appear randomly in a different colors each time you post them and you can also select whether you want your most recently created post it note to appear on top or not.

PNotes is a clever and highly useful program that will have sticky note fans reaching for their wastepaper bin and converting to this far more organized method instead.

Download PNotes 4.01 in Softonic

Freebie Notes is an easy-to-use reminder for Windows. With Freebie Notes you can create notes displaying on your desktop. Your notes can be displayed immediately after creation or in the certain moments of time. You can create notes of custom sizes and colors and set different types for your notes.

Freebie Notes features: unlimited number of notes, notes autosaving, notes database editor, fast notes displaying time setting (Quick alarm settings). Note displaying can be accompanied by standard windows sound alarms or users' sounds in wav format. The most important note can be declared as VIP-note displaying with a blink and sound accompaniment. The application has a nice convenient interface.

Download Freebie Notes 3.21 in Softonic

EssentialPIM Portable (both Free and Pro) is U3 compliant and works straight from your removable media, whether it's a USB flash drive, compact flash card, or even a good old floppy.

Benefits:

• Plug and run EPIM. All your settings are stored on the removable media
• All your data is saved in one single *.epim file, which can be stored on the same removable medium
• All data is strongly encrypted. The portable edition uses industry standard Rijndael, 128 bit key (same as the desktop edition)
• No traces are left whatsoever on the system you are using
• Directories for backup and temp files can be setup on your home computer

Technical differences from the desktop version:

• All settings are stored only on the removable drive
• *.ini and *.epim files are stored in the Portable EPIM'S program folder by default
• Optional autorun of Portable EPIM can be selected when the removable media is inserted
• Automatic association/dissociation with Portable EPIM's *.epim files on any PC
• Creating shortcuts to Portable EPIM from within the program on any PC

Download EssentialPIM Portable Free 2.71 in Softonic

One thing there's never too much of in my opinion is organisational software to help scattered brains keep their life in order.

Task Coach is a simple open source task manager which helps you manage personal and to-do tasks and lists in an easy to use and intuitive way. The developer claims that Task Coach grew out of his frustration that well-known task managers, such as those provided with Outlook or Lotus Notes, do not provide facilities for composite tasks. The point being, tasks and to-do lists consist of several activities and most organizers only allow for one entry.

Task Coach enables you to create, edit and delete tasks and sub tasks meaning it's much more easy to see where and why certain tasks have to be done as they link to one main, master task. Tasks in Task Coach can be labeled with a subject, description, priority, start date, due date, a completion date and an optional reminder. They can also be viewed as a list or as a tree and sorted by attributes, e.g. subject, budget, budget left, due date, etc. For those working to a time schedule, Task Coach also allow you to track time spent on certain jobs or tasks.

As useful as Task Coach is however, you can't help feeling you spend more time tinkering and fiddling with the number of fields to fill in in Task Coach than anything else.

As far as easy to use task schedulers go Task Coach is one of the more user friendly and intelligent out there although maybe it's a little over the top for most people's needs.

Download Task Coach 0.70.1 in Softonic

They say the key to beat procrastination is managing your time properly, and FruitfulTime TaskManager can help you with that.

FruitfulTime TaskManager is a lightweight, effective task manager that helps you organize your tasks in a more productive way and thus make the most of your time. With FruitfulTime TaskManager you always have your tasks at sight, which makes it easier to track their progress and prioritize certain projects over others.

Tasks in FruitfulTime TaskManager are organized by tags. You can add as many customized tabs as you want and also create subtasks to any task. The program also features a built-in notes tool, a basic contacts list and a reminder tool that makes sure you don't forget any significant date or miss an important event again.

That said, it's worth bearing in mind that FruitfulTime TaskManager is the "lite" version of a more complete task manager, so you may find it a bit basic in terms of its tools and configuration options. But if you only need the standard stuff – that is, basic task managing tools - FruitfulTime TaskManager may be perfect for you.

FruitfulTime TaskManager is a basic, lightweight task manager that helps you track all your tasks in a more efficient way.

Download FruitfulTime TaskManager Free Edition 1.0.5.0 in Softonic

Tudumo is an excellent tool to organize all sorts of tasks, from business meetings in your company to final papers for your university courses. It's similar to other task agendas, in the sense that it displays the task list on the main interface and uses icons to distinguish them. However, it has some unique features that make it a great app to optimize time management and improve productivity.

Among these special features, you'll find the possibility to organize tasks by tags instead of typical categories such as "Personal", "Work" or "Urgent". With tags, you can create as many categories as you want and then search through your pending tasks much more easily.

Notes (referred as "Actions" in Tudumo) can have a brief description, plus starting and ending dates. The program also enables you to divide the list with headings to make it clearer. It's a bit tricky to learn, but fortunately there are some sample notes that work as a tutorial on how to create and edit notes. Tudumo can also print your task list on paper and supports some basic customization.

Apparently the program will be free while it's in beta, so you'd better hurry up to grab your copy now!

Organize all your tasks with Tudumo and make the most of your time

Download Tudumo 1.0.0.275 in Softonic

PrestoNotes is a freeware tool for Windows that lets you write little memos and stick them on your screen. The notes may be accessed through the control panel, or through a simple context menu sitting in the Windows toolbar. So, you can show or hide a note with only 2 mouse clicks!

PrestoNotes is totally multilingual thanks to the addition of language files. English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, Polish and Swedish languages are included in the installation package, but you can easily create and add a new language for the program. Illustrated help notes are also included in the program.

Take a look at what PrestoNotes features:

• Customize notes in detail: background, text color, transparency, font, position, size, etc.
• Always on top of other windows, or not
• Possibility to open or save in an external file (.txt)
• Add an automatic reminder to any note
• Trigger one or more actions when a reminder is activated

Download PrestoNotes 4.80 in Softonic

I must admit it: unless somebody is constantly on me, reminding me all the upcoming important events and tasks, I tend to forget my term paper's due date, the doctor's appointment date or even my mom's birthday. So if you're anything like me, you're going to like Note Mania.

This easy note application is more than just a digital post-it pad to jot things down. It's a complete personal information manager where you can store all the important dates, events, tasks and other data you can't miss. As the program supports note scheduling, you can use set reminders for yourself and also mark certain notes as recurrent events, turning Note Mania into a comprehensive calendar tool to schedule both your personal and professional lives. Notes are displayed as individual floating windows, listed on the program's main interface and also arranged on Note Mania's embedded calendar.

Besides its handy functionality, another outstanding feature in Note Mania is its support for customization. Notes can be personalized in many ways: paper color, text color, font face, size and event transparency level. Also, these settings can be applied globally or to each individual note. The program's calendar, however, uses your Windows wallpaper as background decoration and cannot be customized in any way.

With Note Mania you'll organize your tasks in a more productive way won't lose track of any important date or event in your life again.

Download Note Mania 1.3 in Softonic

I've started using a notes organizer only recently, and I can already see all its advantages when it comes to managing tasks, deadlines and meetings.

You can also make the most of your time with ErgoNotes, a handy note organizer you can use for all kinds of purposes: handle shopping lists, jot down interesting topics for future blog posts, set reminders for yourself, organize ideas for brainstorming sessions... pretty much anything you can think of.

ErgoNote organizes notes in a tree-like structure which makes them easier to handle. The program also features an embedded search tool to find notes, a wide collection of icons to identify each note, an encrypting tool and support for alarms, though this last feature only works if you name your tasks following an "alarm node pattern" I was unable to find anywhere – not even in the program's documentation.

What's more, if you have a Pocket PC you can use the Pocket version of ErgoNotes on it as well, synchronizing data between your desktop and your device and making the program even more useful.

With ErgoNotes you can organize your life in a more productive way, especially if you also have a Pocket PC and sync data between your desktop and your device.

Download ErgoNotes 1.12 in Softonic

Although I'm not the type of person who forgets appointments, like my flatmate, I do find it difficult to remember 'important' dates of public celebrations, birthdays and anniversarys for example. Having a program that reminds us of all these significant days can be really vital!

QReminder is free and lets you set many options for the notes you write. You can view them in an editor to have a quick glance of all your reminders and you can create a textbox post-it on top of the screen, to write reminders on the fly. The clear and simple design is what you need when you have too many messy notes. The good thing is that after writing there is no need to press any save button. The program automatically saves changes and new entries.

The downside is that you can't set to be alerted on something before the day of the event. That forces you to write entries with a prior date so to be alerted in time. How absurd, considering you write reminders exactly to know in advance when you have to buy presents or to write cards. Moreover, the program bar stays always on top and if you right-click on it, no menu appears to close it. I had to use the Ctrl+alt+canc task manager tool!

QReminder lets you write notes and reminders in a simple way and it can be useful to have an idea of all you have to do, but the reminder function is greatly limited as you cannot be reminded of an event before the date in which it is due.

Download QReminder 1.0 in Softonic

This practical application allows you to quickly and easily take control of your notes, favorites, and events. Notes are presented in a clear, and easy-to-read manner, meaning that you can stay on top of what you´re doing at all times.

MakeNotes is great for noting down memories and ideas, then referring back to them at any time. The interface is highly customizable and you can even create your own skins for the application using a standard graphics package.

Download MakeNotes 0.4 b in Softonic

Conceptual maps or mindmaps are a great way to organize ideas and improve workflow when you're involved in a complex task or a team project.

With Cayra you can now create those concept maps in a very clear, well-structured way. Unlike other expensive mindmapping utilities, Cayra is an open-source tool that won't cost you a cent: on the downside, this means that it's not as complete as other similar apps. Nevertheless, the program includes all the tools and functions you need to create conceptual maps with nodes, links and categories, all with different colors and very attractive animation effects.

Maps can be saved in the program's proprietary format, which you can then open and browse with Cayra itself, or as images (JPG and BMP) which you can open with any third-party image viewer.

In spite of being a little basic when compared to other more complete mindmapping tools, Cayra is still a great tool to create your own conceptual maps and improve your work organization and productivity.

Download Cayra 0.9.5 in Softonic

My only experience of school timetables was getting one on the first morning of term, putting it into my pocket then losing it on the football field at lunchtime. If only I'd realised how much work goes into planning all those lessons and classrooms over the week for the whole school, I maybe would've taken more care. FET is a piece of software designed to aid the process of organising teachers, students and rooms in an educational establishment to produce timetables that make the best use of the resources available and ensure that nothing clashes.

This program is certainly not a personal schedule planning application, but rather an administrative tool for those working within the educational system. Perhaps it's understandable then that the interface is a bit of a beast to operate. There are many options here for organising and planning timetables, but learning how to access them all takes a lot of time. In fact, you might even need to schedule a timetable for studying FET.

Download FET 5.5 in Softonic

Chandler is an open source organizer which lets you create and save notes and organize them in your calendar.

Although at first I found the interface a little cluttered, it really seems to have everything you need. The quick entry section at the top, which you could mistake for a search bar, lets you create notes quickly. Detail on your notes is shown on the right side of the interface. Chandler also displays a calendar, which you can browse through to see notes for each day.

In place of tags, Chandler has what it calls collections. These work more or less the same way, however I've found them to be slightly less flexible.

Chandler allows you to easily import and export information, mostly as CSV files and you can share your notes with others, by using the Chandler Server and Hub Sharing Service.

One of the best features of Chandler is that you can customize it with any sort of plugins found on the website.

Despite a slightly cluttered interface, Chandler is a solid open source note taker and organizer.

Download Chandler 1.0 in Softonic

Enhanced desktop notes that; persist windows sessions, give you control of the look and feel, allow you to save and open notes, provides special notes that provide updated information, drag text to and from any application, and even email the notes or just a selection of the note. Notes on your desktop have never been easier and with Note-It you get all the power you will ever need in note application.

Download Note-It 4.4.0.2 in Softonic

FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping software written in Java. The recent development has turned it into a high productivity tool.

So you want to write a completely new metaphysics? Why don't you use FreeMind? You have a tool at hand that remarkably resembles the tray slips of Robert Pirsig, described in his sequel to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance called Lila. Do you want to refactor your essays in a similar way you would refactor software? Or do you want to keep personal knowledge base, which is easy to manage? Why don't you try FreeMind? Do you want to prioritize, know where you are, where you've been and where you are heading, as Stephen Covey would advise you? Have you tried FreeMind to keep track of all the things that are needed for that?

Download FreeMind 0.9.0 Beta 15 in Softonic

Digital post-it notes are probably one of the handiest inventions in software. They're environmental-friendly and they save you the inevitable note clutter on your desk.

Knot is a good example of a fully featured virtual sticky note app. It enables you to create as many notes as you need and have them on your desktop to remind you of important dates, tasks and events. Notes can have different background and text colors, font types and sizes, and you can create a standard configuration for your notes or let Knot change color randomly for each note. Simply write anything you need and double click on the note's title bar to minimize it.

The program features a complete manager that allows you to configure its behavior, as well as handling notes in batches. You can even export notes to a TXT file or send them over the network to another PC.

Although Knot seems quite a highly functional tool, it also lacks some options that we can find in other similar programs. For instance, Knot doesn't mark URLs or email addresses as clickable web links, nor does it offer support for alarms. Hopefully the developer will take note of this and improve Knot in future versions.

Knot is a fully featured sticky note application that enables you to remember important events without cluttering up your desktop.

Download Knot 2.04 Beta in Softonic

Crawler Notes is a useful post-it notepad that reminds you of any important event, meeting or task without wasting real paper or having post-it notes cluttering your desk.

The program is best utilized when used with the online notes available at Crawler.com and Crawler Email. Doing this means that you can access your notes wherever you go - just simply upload your notes to your webmail and then download it to another computer with Crawler Toolbar installed. Crawler Notes also operates very discreetly as you can can make it invisible by toggling it's appearance with a hotkey which you can define in the settings tab. To create a note, you can also define a hotkey which allows to write a note or you can also paste data directly from the Clipboard into the newly created note. Each note can be customized individual with different colours and parameters. I also liked the fact that you can search by keyword for notes you have made as it's easy to lose track once you've made several notes. However, I couldn't find any way of instructing the program to alert me when an appointment or meeting is due although in fairness, it's not supposed to be a personal organiser like Outlook.

A handy little tool which will help you stay organised whilst also save the environment a little..

Download Crawler Notes in Softonic

MiniMinder is a slick date reminder program which gives an attractive daily countdown to any upcoming events which you've chosen to track. The program is designed to be small and unobtrusive, but how you size it and where you put it is entirely up to you.

If you're the type of computer user who starts up their computer every day, MiniMinder is there for you with your reminders each time you reach the desktop. If you're the type of user whose computer is always on, MiniMinder can be minimized (the orange button) to the System Tray, where it uses the absolute minimum of system resources. When the new day arrives, so will your helpful reminder, displaying itself until you send it back to the tray.

Download MiniMinder 7.31 in Softonic

Easy To-Do Lite is a Task Manager for easy handling, which includes the functions necessary to record, organize and plan all your tasks.

Basically the program allows you to create new tasks identifying common fields, titles, descriptions, priority task types, grades, sources, resource requirements, start dates, end dates and delivery or project completion time. In addition, the program allows you to schedule messages and link them to all kinds of files such as images, text documents or web pages, The program is highly customisable allowing you to create your own filters or categories, launch search tasks, organize tasks by fields, customize functions listed in the toolbar and other possibilities such as changing fonts or changing the working environment. Note that some options are only available in the professional version which requires an upgrade to use.

When it comes to organising, you need a tool which makes life easier not harder and Easy To-Do Lite does exactly that.

Download Easy To-Do Lite 2.0.0 in Softonic