Divide and Conquer

The easiest way to organize your music, besides listing it by artist name, album or song title, is to create playlists in iTunes and on your iPod. Think of this playlist as a mix tape in you iPod—a collection of songs by theme.

Creating a new playlist in iTunes (File>New Playlist) is easy: Select and drag the music you want from your library into the playlist (it will duplicate the songs, not move them) and then sync it to your iPod. Unfortunately, you can only have one playlist on the iPod shuffle, though you can change it as frequently as you like.   

Here are some play list ideas to get you started:

• Name each playlist (i.e., happy, melancholy, running, party, etc.) and find songs that fit those moods or activities.
• Rate songs on your iPod. Click the select wheel on your iPod until you see a screen with five circles. Use the touch wheel to mark how many stars you would give that particular song. Sync your iPod with iTunes and then go to File>New Smart Playlist. Tell iTunes to select songs of a certain rating and those songs will be pulled into a new playlist.
• Try searching your iTunes library for various terms, like “blue” or “live”—whatever comes to mind. Place all the songs that come up into a playlist and sync to your iPod for a great anytime playlist.
• Use your “On-The-Go” playlist on the iPod itself. On your iPod Classic, press and hold down the center button on a song selection until it flashes, indicating it has been added to your On-The-Go playlist. If you have an iPod Touch, touch Playlists, then On-The-Go. Find the music you want to add, highlight it and touch Done.