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So, You’re Not Using Jott?
I spend a good deal of time in the car every day. Not as much as some, but it’s typically somewhere around 90 minutes round trip on a given work day. And being one of those people whose brain is pretty much always going, I tend to have many thoughts and ideas during that time. It’s easy for my mind to wander around during what amounts to 75% of my “alone time” and I obviously can’t be scrawling notes down whilst operating a motor vehicle. Enter Jott…
If you’ve never heard of it, whoa nelly are you in for a treat. Essentially, it uses your cell phone as a gateway to all manner of applications, websites and services. Some of the more notable mentions are your Wordpress blog, Sandy (my secretary), Twitter and Remember the Milk - all accessible from your cell phone. Oh, and let’s not forget that you can import your entire address book and email/text virtually anybody directly from your phone. Intrigued?
Transform Your Cell Phone into a Productivity Juggernaut
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?
Merlin Mann Drops some Knowledge at The Google
Everybody’s favorite productivity guru/wordsmith gave a Tech Talk at the Googleplex on getting your inbox to zero. If you’re a 43f reader, this will likely be a rehashing of some older material, but still worth the time. If you’ve never heard of this man(n), you’re in for a treat.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
Positively Gigantic GMail Resource Collection
Let’s face it - GMail is pretty much the coolest webmail application in existence. It’s simple design and slick interface (not to mention it’s unparalleled search capabilities) make it a pure joy with which to work.
Having said that, there’s something to be said for standing on the shoulders of giants, so to speak. A great many talented hackers and designers have created and extended GMail into even more of a powerhouse than the vanilla version. The Free Geek has put together a rather exhaustive list of all of the different add-ons and skins available for GMail, some of which I wasn’t even familiar with (and I’m a complete Google fanboy, in case you were wondering)…
Meet My New Secretary
In my eternal pursuit of the “mind like water”, I’ve noticed certain aspects of my productive life are, how shall I say, somewhat lacking. As much as I like to think I have a handle on my responsibilities and obligations, sometimes things fall through the cracks (and we all know what a no-no that is). So, having come to terms with my fallibility, I’ve made an executive decision…
I’ve gone ahead and gotten myself a secretary.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Sir! Aren’t you a lowly programmer with a budding family and a tight budget? How can you afford such an expense?!”. Well, yes, that’s true. I’m not exactly rolling in it right now, certainly, but it doesn’t matter because my new secretary costs me nothing. In fact, she’s not even a real person (just a technicality, really). Folks, meet Sandy…
How to Construct the Perfect Email Subject Line
How many times have you received an email with a subject line that said something like “Question” or “FYI”? Or, worse yet, had no subject at all? For all the millions of email messages that traverse the Internet every day, the ability to effectively formulate an indicative subject message seems to be fairly unimportant to most people. A quick skim of the last 100 or so email messages you’ve received will likely support my claims.
It is because of this seemingly global issue of email subject apathy that I give you this (what I consider to be) definitive guide to creating the perfect email subject.
8 Habits of Highly Ineffective Emailing
Of all the possible uses for a computer, email is probably the most pervasive (perhaps second only to regular web browsing). From Bill Gates to your Aunt Betsy, everybody’s got an email account these days, possibly multiple accounts. It takes very little effort or know-how to get an email address, and there are literally hundreds of free web-based email services available. It’s easy as pie to send a message halfway around the world in a matter of seconds. That kind of thing is pretty incredible, if you really think about it.
But, alas, many bad habits have crept into the world of email over the years. So many in fact, that (if you ask me) there are things you can do to so badly sour your recipient to your message - they’ll never read the whole thing (or maybe even delete it without ever opening it). Honestly, I’ve deleted many, many emails simply because of infractions like these. Read on for what not to do when sending an email…
Hacking GMail: Make it Your Digital Junk Drawer
In my eternal pursuit of total organization, I’m often faced with the task of filing/saving truly miscellaneous information that I may not need later, but had a hell of a time coming across to begin with. You discover some oddball fact that you’ve wondered about for years (and are happy to finally know), but the future usefulness of this data is, well, questionable at best.
Taming Your Inbox at Work
Let me start off by saying that my job (programmer) requires me to use email fairly regularly. It’s how I’m notified of bugs, feature requests, new projects, etc. So I really can’t ignore my email inbox completely, but I certainly do try. Here’s my approach:
