Looking to do a better job of managing your finances? You might want to check out Mint.com. Mint is a FREE web-based platform that pulls all of your financial information into one secure location, so that you can always have a clear picture of where your money stands. The service connects to pretty much every U.S. banking financial institution with internet banking capability. That means you can import data from your bank, credit cards, loans, and retirement accounts in a snap.

There are way too many features to review them all here, but here are a few that stand out for me:

1. Mint tracks and automatically categorizes expenses. Ever notice how your bank statements display often hard-to-decipher abbreviations for debit and credit transactions? Well, Mint changes the transaction to plain English (e.g. “Target” instead of “POS TGT”), then files it under the proper category (e.g.”Shopping).

2. Mint has over 20 types of alerts, including bill reminders, over-budget warnings, and low-balance notifications. My personal favorites? The notice every time my credit card is hit with a finance charge (how’s that for motivation to get to a zero balance?) and the stern warnings for excessive spending in any one category (eat out one too many times, and Mint WILL let you know).

3. Mint calculates your average spending in any category to help you easily create a budget based on your usual spending habits. It also helps you plan ahead by showing how much you can save by cutting back in any one category. Talk about artificial intelligence.

You might be wondering how safe all of your confidential data is. Not to worry. Mint.com has instituted bank-grade security measures. So, you’re just as protected as you would be when logging into your checking or credit accounts. Give it a whirl and let me know what you think!

As you probably can tell by now, I’m all about staying on track in whatever I do. As I take on more and more projects, I’ve been looking for an efficient way to manage them all and keep myself on or ahead of schedule…which led me to my latest Real Life Resource: Freedcamp. Freedcamp is a free online project management platform that provides users with all the necessary tools to remain productive and efficient, including milestones, to-do lists, time tracking, and file storage. Don’t let the “free” label fool you. Freedcamp is robust, more robust, in fact, than some of the paid options out there.

The platform has a lot to offer, but some of  my favorite features are:

1. The ability to give several people access and full administrative rights to a project. So, if you’re working with a group, collaboration is seamless.

2. A dashboard which gives you a high-level view of all of your projects.

3. Email and SMS notifications which allow you to receive updates in real time. You can also reply directly from your email inbox.

4. A group “wall” where team members can post messages for everyone to see.

And guess what? It’s all secure with 256-bit encryption. If you’re someone who has a lot you want to accomplish but finds it difficult to stay organized, give Freedcamp a whirl and let me know what you think!

Remember when I promised that this site would be one part practicality? Well, I am working on offering tools that will ensure that my fellow twenty-sixers are not only inspired, but also producing real results. With that being said, welcome to the “Real Life Resource” segment! I think the name speaks for itself. Every Wednesday, we’ll take a step back from all the motivational talk and take a look at one tool to help us be more productive, efficient and…well, extraordinary.

Because we dream so big and work so hard, twenty-sixers are often juggling many responsibilities at any given time. And frankly, it can be difficult to keep things organized. In my quest to better manage all of my projects,  I came across a Real Life Resource which has literally helped me do more in less time. It’s called Evernote, and like the website says, it helps me remember everything. This is one of my favorite programs of all time. It is literally an electronic notebook or binder. It’s like a Trapper Keeper for the 21st Century (Remember that little velcroed contraption from the 80’s? LOVED it!).

You can capture anything (photos, documents, notes, etc.) in one place and organize with tags, keywords, and the like. I create separate notebooks for each project or plan I’m working on, and  simply drop every related document into it. So,when I’m ready to get to work, I don’t waste valuable time trying to gather a bunch of random materials that I’ve collected over a period of days, or worse, weeks. My favorite feature is probably the “web clipper.” It is a button you can install in your web browser. If you’re on a web page that you’d like to reference again later, you just click the web clipper button and the actual page is captured and added to the notebook that you choose. This is especially great if you’re web surfing or researching for inspiration. A few clicks and you can have a stack of information to review later without ever breaking your flow, printing anything, or using those cluttered bookmarks.

Other bonus features – a search box to quickly find things, a security encryption feature to lock confidential information, and the ability to search handwritten text that has been scanned to your computer. You can even forward emails directly to one of your Evernote notebooks without ever leaving your inbox! Lastly, you can access your stuff from ANYWHERE – the web, your computer program, or a phone app. So, while helping you stay organized, it also acts like a backup service for all of your “stuff.” Win-Win. While there is a paid version of this program, I find the free one serves all my needs. It is very easy to set up, although it may take some time to initially organize all of your documents.

Let me know in the comments section how Evernote might help you work smarter. If you have any questions about how I use the program, feel free to mention those too.