Log Events at Work

This one gets very good reviews:

http://taskcoach.org/

Thanks for all the help.  That's more than I want really.  I need something that lives in my system try that allows me to super quickly, log something that has already happened.  I'm not trying to manage new tasks but rather provide a searchable place to more easily recall things that have already been done.

Evernote is free and intended for this sort of application.  It is targeted for mobile devices, but will work on a desktop as well.

You could also use Excel.  You can keep always keep a spreadsheet window open.
Excel gives you a very searchable data base.

There are techniques here for generating timestamps in Excel
       http://www.mcgimpsey.com/excel/timestamp.html

So you your looking for an all in one tool  to run a live monitor of all windows events that automatically updates itself with a time stamp and runs on your taskbar?
You already have windows event viewer and know how complex it is.
Do you have logging enabled?
You could add a shortcut from windows event viewer and pin it to your taskbar.
then use the refresh to update, it includes time and date.
 
Maybe this
Splunk lets you search, alert, report and monitor all your logs from one location in real time
Splunk indexes all your IT data including custom application logs and multi-line logs across virtual and non-virtual environments without the need for custom parsers or connectors. Troubleshoot application outages, investigate security incidents and demonstrate compliance in minutes, not hours or days.
http://www.youtube.com/user/splunkvideos
gfi events manager
http://www.gfi.com/eventsmanager#overview