For the last 6 months or so, I have been trying to find new ways to make life easier at work and keep training myself with new technologies with minimal searching. There are a few tools that I have been using, but need to get some of the latest and greatest capabilities to get myself more productive than ever. Any tools help better multi-tasking, I’m all for it. So here are a few tools that I have been using lately and found them useful. I do include a few additional options in each categories, tools that I have tried.
Mindmap
Mindmapping is probably one of the best ways to write down notes and thoughts. It allows one to become a freeform thinker and easier to brain dump or brainstorm.
Tool options: Mindjet MindManager, MindMeister
Personally, I like using MindManager. With mindmapping, I can always draft out exactly what I want to say when creating a new powerpoint presentation or document. Make sure the flow will work, then I will covert the map into the document shells, all from the software.
Documents
Everyone knows that Google offers a list apps for document creating and collaboration.
But Zoho is another option. They do provide some additional features under the Business Apps category. For personal productivity, it is worth a try. Features like Zoho Meeting seems promising when collaborating with a friend.
Task List
Nowadays, keeping a good task list is very important. Especially using a task list service which provide mobile access. Remember The Milk is probably one of the better task list services I seen. I like the fact that I can tag a task and add notes in addition to the summary / title. More details with the task itself, the easier to pick it up later on. It has happened before that, write down a note and 5 minutes later, forget what it was by only reading the summary line.
In addition, I can pull the same task list to Google Calendar, BlackBerry, iPhone, Gmail Gadget, or Android phones.
A Good Notebook
Like I said before, mindmap is great for brain storming. But sometimes it is hard to write down notes from other people using mindmap. So keeping a good notebook, either physical or electronic, is good for productivity. For the last couple years, I have been using Google Notebook heavily to Open Source or personal POC projects. However, Google has stopped development on Google Notebook. I use it for many things like keeping bookmarks and write down a few private thoughts and rating on them. Zoho Notebook is an alternative for online users. But sometimes when I am in a meeting or at a coffee shop, I may not have online access. So Microsoft OneNote has become my choice to keep track of information.
If you like to keep using physical notebooks, I strongly recommend those with hard covers. I lost my notes once when someone tip over a cup of hot coffee. Hard covers give you a little bit of advantage when that happen to you. 
A Good Browser
Whichever browser you prefer Firefox, Chrome, IE, or Safari, make sure you get familiar the shortcuts. Also try addons like FireGestures.
Ergonomic and Last Thought
Good keyboard, good mouse, good size monitor and a good chair are the key to success!!! All important!
Personally I always use multiple computers to help multi-tasking to make sure I am always on top of things. For this last topic, my recommendation is to get a laptop or netbook on the side. When you are playing games or writing a list of documents, you can do a quick search on the net or to send a quick IM to a friend/coworker asking a quick question, you don’t have to close the documents. Not to mention the fact that, you can easily get infected by computer virus when surfing on the net. Having a throw-away computer on the side for these type of activities help avoiding problems and troubles if it so happen got infected by some new computer virus. (e.g. losing work and restoring files from backups, etc.)
Having multiple screens works well too, but not all work laptop comes with good video card to handle multiple large screens. A single laptop screen is not exactly the best setting for multi-taskers.
