I have always had this feeling that too much tech just ruins you. That is true on one side. But there are amazing ways in which one can use technology to get things done. After all, everyone is busy and looking for effective ways to manage time. There are issues with organizing, scheduling, prioritizing and so on. Productive people normally tend to create to-do lists and having an organized schedule. Not to mention, even creating such things can be messy or time consuming if one is not using the right approach. Here is where technology comes into rescue. I will quickly sum up 6 things following which one can use technology for good, for organization and for productivity.
1. To start with I will just link to lifehack.org where I found an amazing post (actually two posts) on Android applications that help you to get things done. This has 12 or more ways in which technology is useful to you.
2. If you want to organize things in a more creative and appealing manner, you can use the the mindmap developer at Mind42.com. It is free! You can create mindmaps which includes text and pictures. You can attach to-do list to the maps, or can even link to websites. If you need a pictorial mindmap to easily remember things and to motivate yourself, that is possible too.
3. Google calendar is one of the most useful calendar applications online. It is basically an online calendar that lets you to schedule your tasks for the year. You can set reminders in the form of pop up windows or emails so that you will be reminded of an important meeting or a deadline in advance. You can also use your calendar offline. Just click on the offline link on the top right of your calendar and you will be prompted to install Gears, an opensource application that lets you access your calendar offline.
4. Email management consumes a lot of time and energy, even more, if not managed properly, dealing with emails can be time consuming and will be a threat to your productivity. Microsoft Outlook is one of the excellent email management solutions. With Office, your outlook is a handy solution for you to deal with emails. You can tag or flag emails with priorities which is one of the ever-sought features of busy people; they tend to forget to reply to important meetings. In addition, you can schedule tasks, announce meetings and so on. Just check out their website for details.
5. Remember the milk is another great organizer for you. It is not just a calendar or a to-do list, it has even more great features. You just have to try it out since there are lots to say, you will surely like it.
6. If you are browsing the web always for business and having multiple tabs opened, you sure will miss out certain relevant and useful information or pages. For this, you should have things bookmarked in nice and clean manner so that you can go back and use them when you need them. You could use Delicious for this purpose. For fast and easy bookmarking you could install an addon to your browser or you could also bookmark from your website or blog, which makes things handy. Whenever you find an interesting topic to blog about, a list of hotels to choose from for your meeting, a must read article about time management, an excellent study resource etc. you can simply bookmark it and neatly organize it with tags. You can sign in to your account at a scheduled time to read all your bookmarks or do things with them.
Any more suggestions?
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Article by JaneSheeba
+Jane is the founder of Problogging Success. She is an expert blogger, consultant, freelance writer and blog designer. Don't forget to get your hands on two FREE Ebooks she offers.
Jane has written 270 awesome posts for Problogging Success.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Good post..I always think one should use the technology to manage time and productivity and ofcourse should make sure it wont eat up most of our time. I’m using some of the products you are referring to..thanks for the android app info bcz I’m planning for a android mob.
You could have mentioned about some tools like
1) news aggregator(Google reader is best)
)
2) plugin apps for twitter n facebook (not a day will pass without spending some time on these sites
The above extensions are already in Chrome browser..
And you are doing a nice work..jst started reading the articles here..
Regards,
Ramesh
Thanks for the encouraging words Ramesh. And, I am also gonna get an Android phone in a couple of days
1 more addition I want to suggest is Evernote.
Its online version is awesome. We can access from anywhere.
Google docs are also helpful in many matters.
I’ve been using Dragon Dictation whenever i blog through my iPad or iPhone. It’s not an application that would help you manage your time but it would help you save time which is essential in time management. Through Dragon Dictation, you can speak to your device and it would automatically convert it to text. You just then need to copy the text and paste it to your blog. It’s much more faster than typing it in the touchscreen keypad and you can now spend the rest of the time in more productive task.
Jane, thank you for this insightful article. The technology we enjoy today has brought a lot advantages in our daily lives. It has improved the way we communicate, the way we move from one place to another, and others. Literally, the benefits are countless.
In my life, it is evident on the way I do business meetings and manage time. I use my smartphone and my laptop to manage my schedule through the different applications.
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