Ten Tech Solutions To Improve Your Productivity

August 13, 2008 · Comments

machine Social media takes up a good deal of time. Between reading blogs, visiting Twitter to check in with people, trips to Facebook and other social networks, the old tasks like keeping up with email and the like can be daunting. I’ve compiled a list of technology solutions that I thought might help you out. We can certainly add more ideas to the comments section.

Ten Tech Solutions To Improve Your Productivity

  1. Get a system. I’m listening to Stever Robbins, who just put together You Are Not Your Inbox, an audio program that will help you manage your email.
  2. Get a proxy. Try out Jared Goralnick’s Away Find. It helps you with a sort of virtual message manager.
  3. Practice keeping your inbox at zero. (I’ve explained how I tamed my inbox before.)
  4. Learn shortcuts. Here are keyboard shortcuts for Firefox, Safari, IE7, Gmail, Google Reader, and I’m sure you can find more.
  5. Cut down on your browsing. Lifehacker (and Julien Smith) pointed out Freedom, a Mac application. I’m sure there’s a PC version. See also Rescue Time
  6. Use computer shortcuts and launches. For Macs, it’s Quicksilver . For Windows, I found 10 Quicksilver alternatives listed here. (Disclaimer: I’m not good with Quicksilver. I use Spotlight still).
  7. Don’t read blogs directly from the website. At least not first. Start in a good feed reader. I prefer Google Reader. It’s fast, has keyboard shortcuts, and is flexible in letting me bookmark, share, and email posts that I find useful.
  8. Find extra time and use it. One way is to use Jott on your phone to send brief messages, to leave yourself reminders, and to take notes for future use.
  9. Set up text replacement. This lets you type a few letters and get back several words easily. For Macs, use TextExpander. For Windows, try Texter.
  10. Keep good notes. I’m enamored with EverNote. I’ve used it to outline documents, plan conference content, store small lists of email addresses, and even tried the optical recognition feature for photos. It’s worth checking out.

You probably have several other productivity applications to suggest. We can put together quite a list in the comments, if that works for you. What are you doing to stay more productive?

Photo credit, Freshwater2006

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  • KimberyAnna
    Hey Chris - I was literally having this conversation via email (ugh!) with some colleagues this evening. Trying to convince them of improving our processes so the emails stop piling up. It's an ongoing challenge, but a fun one as we all learn new tools and ways of working. And, I share your love of Evernote, especially now that it's on my iPhone!

    Our first realization during our productivity effort is that not every tool works for every person. We all work differently, and though there is always room for improvement, there will always be styles and levels of comfort which cannot, and perhaps should not, be changed.

    My additions to your list would include: 11) Meebo.com (IM aggregator) as we do not have a corporate standard internally and have clients on all kinds of networks to boot; 12) Skype for obvious reasons, not the least of which is the cost, and it helps me from having to talk to dreaded voicemail; 13) using the sidebar feature for add-ons in Firefox - it allows me to toggle between Twitter, Wizz RSS Reader and Delicious effortlessly; finally 14) MindMeister.com which is a mindmap web app that has, among many other features, full integration with Skype.

    I hope these are helpful!
  • Ana Lorena Hart
    Thank you for the list. I use Digsby to preview activity in my email accounts, IM, and Twitter. It saves me time because I don't have to open, sign in, etc., to know what is in my inbox.
    Saludos, :)
    Ana.
  • I've been using NotePad++ lately to store to do lists. It's a bit crude, but I find it handy and when I want to brainstorm something I can branch off an item to a new file and rattle of some ideas quickly. Thanks for sharing- I hadn't heard of Evernote before.
  • For outlook users, my massive time savers are

    SHIFT+CTRL+K for a new task

    CTRL Q for marking something read in the preview pane

    SHIFT+CTRL+V for swatting a read email away to a folder. This is a lot easier and can be done without a mouse if you use the same folder for all emails and rely on something like sorting or Xobni to retrieve mails.
  • Thank you for the link to AwayFind! And I second the recommendation to Stever's audio program!

    Some other applications that I find very helpful for my productivity include:
    * TimeSnapper - PC Only, keeps track of everything I do by holding onto screenshots of those activities. Similar to RescueTime (PC+Mac) but not only does it offer reporting, it gets me out of a jam every time I accidentally close a window with unfinished data or my computer has trouble, etc. Also makes time sheets a breeze.
    * GotVoice & PhoneTag will transcribe your voicemails

    I have other apps I recommend, but I'm very anxious to see others recommendations as this list will be near and dear to my interests...and probably my sanity (these little tools can help!).
  • Another handy tip for group collaboration is http://ma.gnolia.com/ If you use their Groups function, you can create a private group, and set up tags for projects.
  • Am a big fan of Evernote - I may have found it through you, Chris, actually. It's helped me put my daily personal notes and my ever-growing writing notes together in one place, but usable wherever I happen to be.
  • This jumped out at me "Cut down on your browsing", I wonder if randomness is being equated with productiveness?

    If the only sites you go to are the 'top' ones you might statistically get the 'best' information, but you also run the risk of ending up like one of those politicians who doesn't know how much a gallon of gas is or what a grocery scanner is.

    When you prioritize information in terms of relevant importance and streamline your browsing for maximum effectiveness in terms of 'quality' data you might just miss out on developing trends.

    I suggest that a certain amount of randomness is healthy, not a whole lot, but enough to give yourself a little more room between the parameters of the 'best' and the rest.
  • Thanks for the TextExpander mention! I am also not good with Quicksilver, but I _adore_ LaunchBar from Objective Development. Like TextExpander, I cannot work on a Mac that doesn't have it installed. Very unobtrusive, easy-to-set up, fast, and does a bunch more stuff than launching applications.
  • Chris, on email one small disagreement is that these days, it's easy for email to get stuck in a spam filter. Your newsletters are considered spam by Gmail (I can't control it, other than saying "Not Spam"). So, a "did you receive" follow up 3 days later is sometimes needed in a time-sensitive context. In fact, you don't mention this, but having to scrutinize a list of spams several times a day to find the one jewel (your newsletter) is a bigger waste of time than most of your pet peeves :)

    Not only are we all busy, but unfortunately email is getting less reliable as thousands of managers use thousands of spam blocking techniques.
  • Trish
    Great post. I was kind of bummed when I checked out Freedoms site and found people appalled by this app. I think for me the web is great for reference and information but I'm quickly distracted and lose time especially when I'm not doing the most exciting project -- glossy art books, magazines, libraries, coffee shops and talking to real people can be the inspiration needed to really get my projects going and then going straight to what I need to use notebooks, paper, and then computer -- that whole process is something I just don't do or even feel the same way about when the web is always there to fall back on. Thanks for throwing that unplugging option in your productivity mix – I am always working to streamline my processes but it’s refreshing to see that stepping away from the internet is a valid item on your list.
  • Chris, I find Flock version of Firefox browser to be very helpful. It let's me keep track of my favorite blogs and sites, Facebook and Flickr accounts, email and personal blog. I use it quite a bit for work as well.
  • More great information as usual, thanks Chris!
  • Thanks for pointing out Freedom, what a great app. I'm planning on telling participants of our 'soul tech' workshop (www.sparknw.com) about that one.

    I also find these two very helpful.
    1. For focused writing, no screen clutter, WriteRoom.
    2. For reminders to rest my eyes, stretch my body, take a break, and use the most powerful tools --my brain/imagination --I use Time Out, by Dejal.

    Cheers,
    Leif
  • For what it's worth (and especially for people that need to access .com sites a lot); in IE, just type in the site name and hit CTRL - Return. The www and .com will be added auto.
  • Andrew
    >>What are you doing to stay more productive?

    I'm using this time management tool:

    http://www.timemanagementrocks.com/

    to see how I spend my time.
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