If you browse the Web with any frequency, you are well-acquainted with the problem of organizing the digital ephemera that can pile up on your desktop like laundry after a vacation.

Or you may have experienced the forehead-thumping frustration of trying to recall a certain memorable wine, but when you are ready to buy it, the name turns out to be less than memorable.

If you could capture all of those scraps of information from the Web and the wine labels or business cards that you snapped with your camera phone, and have all of it searchable in one place, wouldn't life be a bit easier?

Then, take a look at Evernote, a Web site that can help organize all of life's Post-it notes on your desktop and cell phone.

Evernote has a Web clipping feature that lets you highlight and save info from any site to your account. You can then tag it with keywords and search for it later. You can also take a picture with your cell phone, attach keywords and send it to your account. A mobile Web client lets you access your accumulated information even when you are on the road.

Here are some of the tasks you can accomplish with Evernote: compare products from different sites side-by-side, list the books you want to remember to read, jot down the movies you want to order, save a map to a new store or snap pictures of that hard-to-find restaurant with the great adobo.

Evernote calls itself "your external brain," which is not an inaccurate description for the things it can do. It's clearly in better working order than my internal brain.

Evernote has an iPhone app that I'll be downloading as part of a review of the new 3G phone next week. Some reviewers say the iPhone app has editing limitations, but we'll check it out.

Now, if Evernote could only do the laundry...

Disclosure: Folks, Gannett has taken a stake in Cozi, per an announcement on June 19. I was unaware that the company would do this when I wrote this review. Still, please be aware of this development and take it into account. Cheers, Sandee

If organizing your family, soccer team or even your business unit involves multiple calls and e-mail messages, stop and reassess.

You are driving yourself needlessly crazy; there are enough legitimate reasons for slipping into insanity without you piling on, postage stamp prices being one. So get a grip, willya? Here's how.

Many businesses use software calendars like Microsoft Outlook, and that's fine if it's installed across the company. But for less structured groups, say your extended family or small businesses, the Web is fast sprouting calendar tools that are free, portable and extremely easy to use.

I've been playing with two online calendars, Cozi and 30 Boxes, both of which have a lot going for them as slayers of disorder.

Cozi is aimed at families, so if you are looking for a way to get family members' schedules, doctors' appointments, football practices and church events into one application, this may be your solution. What's cool about Cozi is its easy-to-use features for coordinating family calendars, building shopping lists, uploading photos, and writing travel journals. Kids can use this, and so can non-techie grandparents.

With Cozi, you can send the family calendar, shopping lists and notes to your cell phone or to the mobile phones of anyone in your family so everyone can stay in sync.

If you need your spouse to pick up kumquats, engine oil and your Xanax prescription, just zip it to his/her cell. Trying to schedule a doctor's appointment, but don't know if the kid's piano lesson will conflict? Check the calendar on your cell. You can easily transfer ingredients from recipes in Cozi to your shopping list and shoot it to your mobile phone.

Cozi has been adding more functionality, such as a way to sync with Outlook. I haven't tested this, but you can also download a Windows version of the application if you prefer not to be on the Web, which is more often an affliction of the old and unhip, I'm sad to say, but who am I to criticize?

What's not so cool about Cozi is that its features are limited; it is aimed at families, afterall. For a more robust organizational tool that emphasizes social networking, take a look at 30 Boxes, which I'll review next week.

BTW, look for an extra blog entry Monday when the new iPhone announcement from Apple is expected.

It’s decidedly ungeeklike to prefer paper over PDAs.  I’m pretty sure that the geek squad will break down your door and drag you away if you are a declared geek who is unveiled as a closet paper lover.

So, hey, come on down and haul me to the dungeons as I’ve developed an abiding fondness for the latest revision of PocketMod, a little Web application that creates small, portable booklets for organizing your chaotic life.

You create the booklet by clicking and dragging the kinds of pages that you want into your PocketMod and printing it out. Apply a bit of fancy folding akin to origami and, voila! You have a portable, recyclable planner that slips into your pocket or purse.

The pages you choose can be daily, week or monthly calendars; lists for shopping, tasks or contacts; a food diary; mini reads from Time or Wired magazine (or a custom RSS feed); and games like Sudoku.

I especially like a page called Franklin’s virtues based on Benjamin Franklin’s attempt to live by 13 virtues, among them temperance and patience. I know I could never check off all of these virtues seven days a week. Even one day for any single virtue would be a stretch. Nevertheless, this list is a good thing to carry around as a daily reminder, particularly after one has, for example, yelled at a customer on the phone. (You know who you are, and I deeply apologize. But my mother has nothing to do with the site redesign.)

Take the PocketMod for a spin and let me know what you think. Have you been sticking by your New Year’s resolution to stay organized?