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All of us productivity nerds have our tools of choice. Some instinctively reach for a stack of index cards, others for a PDA or Pocket PC. I’m here to tell you that your regular, everyday cell phone can probably be just as effective as any other swiss army knife out there.
It’s all about taking your phones built-in features and combining them with some terribly powerful websites/services available today. And your phone doesn’t have to be anything fancy - this ain’t just for you iPhone/Treo folk, oh no. I’m talking to those of us with normal, average-joe-type cell phones - usually the kind that comes free with a new contract.
Most of these services require only the ability to send and receive text messages (and, obviously, phone calls). Ready?
- Pinger - One of the web’s best kept secrets, in my opinion. Have you ever needed to tell someone something, but didn’t want to have an actual conversation (for whatever reason)? Maybe your brother-in-law is a motormouth and you just want to let him know that his collector set of Harry Potter shotglasses has arrived, whatever. This (free) service lets you record and send voicemail messages directly from your phone. You can even configure it to save the recipient’s name so you can just speak it to Pinger. Very cool stuff, indeed.
- Jott - I’ve mentioned this one before, but it’s worth bringing up a again. Say you’re driving to the office and you remember that you need to put on matching socks once you arrive - just give Jott a ring, leave a message for yourself that will then be transcribed and sent to your inbox. Nifty? Yep.
- 30boxes - I won’t belabor my undying love for 30boxes since most of you are probably already aware of it (and if you aren’t, trust me - it kicks some serious ass). But did you know that you can add calendar events (using the “onebox” input method - natural language processing, baby) from your cell phone? Now, it has to be able to send and receive actual email (something almost any modern phone can do out of the box, unless the carrier sucks), but it’s as easy as you think. Put something like “Lunch tomorrow at 12pm with Mayor” into the subject line and fire away. Moments later, it will have magically appeared on your 30boxes calendar and you will be in complete control of your destiny.
- Self-messaging - Leaving voicemail for oneself is a lost art, popularized before the days of the ever-pervasive cell phone. There are pantloads of free voicemail services out there, many of them free!
- Stikkit - Anybody who reads this blog with any regularity knows what a big fan I am of Stikkit. But can you really use it from your cell phone? Why, yes you can (again, with the priviso that your cell phone supports email). Under your Stikkit settings, there’s an email address that you can send stuff to. Anything sent to that box will be made into it’s own new Stikkit for later review. Simply tag the text with “@phone” or “@messages” and start sending your shouldn’t-be-mental notes off while on the go!
- Google SMS - As somebody in the previous post’s comments pointed out, Google SMS is one of the most indispensable cell phone tools I can imagine. You essentially get a whole slew of Google tools (including dictionary, currency conversion, weather, phone book, etc.) at your fingertips. No joke, I use this at least once or twice a day, sometimes a whole lot more.
I know I’ve barely scratched the surface, but these are just some of the tools you can utilized directly from your cell phone to help make you a productivity ninja while you’re at the opera or whatever.
Technorati Tags: cell phone, mobile, productivity, jott, 30boxes, stikkit, google, sms
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12 Responses to “Transform Your Cell Phone into a Productivity Juggernaut”
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One topic worth placing into these types of blogs that are very informative is whether or not these companies you are referring people to are selling your registration information to other companies. I notice with certain sites you will be informed upfront during the process. Is there a way to include this info for us Mr Kelly? Maybe a 4 pull 28 gram cafe breve with whip extra hot, no lid to go?…heh. Good to see you are writing!
Cafe breve AND whip?? you my friend are a crazy man..
Thanks for the post crammed full of informative gems. I shall be making my phone do much more now. Only thing I can ask is that most bloggers only think of one market — the USA. What about Europe, and other large mobile phone markets?
dont forget twitter!! you can now use it with remember the milk and google calendar.
dont forget twitter! you can use it with remember the milk and google calendar.
[...] Transform Your Cell Phone into a Productivity Juggernaut [...]
Check out PingMe - it’s an interactive reminder service that can send messages to your mobile. You can create Pings remotely, reschedule pings on the fly (built in procrastination!), tag for contextual lists, make recurring or pestering reminders, and share pings with other users. It also has short hand time codes for SMS users to so you can write “2d” instead of “two days from now” or “d28″ instead of August 28 2007. (disclosure: I’m a PingMe developer)
I am brand new to the GTD system.I have even yet to implement anything,but I am SO looking forward to getting things going!Im just organizing my place,work and home,and I am so much hoping that GTD system is going to help keep things that way!I just had to make note how awsome I find Jott to be.I spend a lot of time in my truck,and walking aroud a job site in a given day.To leave a ‘thought’ on Jott,come home at the end of the day,and find them waiting for me to process is simply astonishing.I have lived my personal and professional life retarded up until the past 2 weeks….I can only imagine the changes that wait in the future….
You have been tagged for The Personal Development List. (See my site for details), I would love for you to participate.
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You can even ping or track the cellphone using this service http://www.cysecurity.co.uk/html/security_shop.html
[...] Cranking Widgets Blog: Personal and professional productivity with technology Transform Your Cell Phone into a Productivity Juggernaut Prepare to Be Very Jealous of My Killer GTD Setup Can Tivo Save Your [...]