Fun with Google Voice Transcriptions
I love this service, have been using it ever since the early Grand Central days, and I really hope my Google Voice number is the one and only final phone number. Among many other benefits, I no longer have to check voicemail, take note of actions required and return the call – it all comes [...]
Starting with a Virtual Assistant
Starting this week I’m going to be experimenting with a virtual assistant to help me and Chess Media Group get tasks done. Over the past few months I’ve spent far too much time on tasks that can easily be delegated to someone else such as email, basic research, information gathering, and document creation. I’ll admit [...]
Is the iPad a big iPod or is it the new Newton?
The first thing I’ve got to say is the title of this post was supplied in a tweet from Alan Patrick (@freecloud), but it perfectly encapsulates the controversy going on in the geek world around the new Apple tablet device announced on Wednesday. Is it going to be as successful and “game changing” like the [...]
Successful presentations? – go back to basics
Some of us of a certain age come from a time when presentations weren’t created directly on the PC (or Mac) with PowerPoint (or Keynote), or with cool new online tools like Prezi. Back then before laptop PCs and low cost flash drives, if there was plenty of money in the marketing budget, and the [...]
Productivity Hacks: Voicemail, Folders & To-Do’s
I recently wrote a post about avoiding the “Deferred Life Plan” and some related thoughts about personal productivity that came from Tim Ferriss’s book, The Four Hour Workweek. I would love to say that I’m the productivity guru. Unfortunately my wife reads my blog and she’d log in and add comments to dispel this rumor [...]
Productivity, Getting Things Done and Mixed messages
I received an auto email response from a friend just the other day. Said friend’s response went thus; Thankyou for your email. I read my emails daily at 8,11 and 3pm. If your email requires urgent attention please phone me on XXXXXXX I had a chuckle when I received it. It seemed a typical reaction [...]
The Productivity Boom
If you’ve been watching the economic numbers as of late, you might have noticed a trend: Productivity is surging and unemployment continues to be a huge, dragging factor. On twitter the other day, I started referring to it as the “jobless recovery” (and I’m not the first). To that end, some thoughts — and why [...]
Google Reader Gets Improvements, but Offline is Ignored Again
Whenever a Google product gets updates, tiny or big, there’s a chorus of praise … which is OK, after all everyone needs link-bait, but what about some critical thinking? Today’s big new is additional social sharing and “mark as read” controls – they are all useful, you can read the details from any of the [...]
Gmail Finally Ends the Folder vs. Label War – What’s Next? Find the Answer Here.
Bear with me for this somewhat long post, ‘cause I am not only discussing the sweeping changes Gmail made today, but in the end will also tell you what they are going to do next year – or perhaps after that. Gmail Changes The Gmail label changes announced today and to be released to accounts [...]
The Future Of Project Management Is Collaboration
For most of us, work is a series of projects. We’re always drawing up plans (some more formal than others) and trying to carry them out, usually as part of a team. So if project management is so core to our professional lives, why is it so difficult to find great project management tools? Historically, [...]
Gmail Migration Tools Attack Inertia
A few years ago a software recruiter told me how he deleted job applications sent from a Hotmail account: after all, how could an applicant claim to be technology-savvy and still be using hotmail? Seriously. While Yahoo was by far not as bad as Hotmail, there was a stigma attached to using the free webmail [...]
Mohammed, the Mountain and Zoho Gadgets
If the mountain will not come to Mohammed, Mohammed will go to the mountain Legend says when the Founder of Islam was asked to give proof of his teaching, he ordered Mount Safa to come to him. When the mountain did not comply, Mohammed went to to the mountain, raised his hands and thanked God [...]
Gmail’s Multiple Inbox is Really Multi-Pane Views, But I am Back to Classic
Gmail Labs is out with a new feature: multiple inboxes. Except that it’s not. Multiple inboxes, that is. Think about it: that would defy logic – unless we’re talking about handling multiple email accounts, which is clearly not the case here. TechCrunch has it right 2 , calling the new feature multi-pane viewing. That’s exactly [...]
Gmail Themes as Productivity Tools?
OK, this may be a bit of a stretch, but I really think the newly released themes for Gmail do more than appeal to our senses. They actually have a very practical application: differentiating between multiple Gmail accounts. I have branded (Google Apps, using my own domain) accounts for business and personal use, and a [...]
