3 Free Tech Tools You Need to Use

The internet is full of tools that can make your life easier. Here are 3 of my favorites. If you have not heard of these, please give them a look. They can empower you in ways you would never have imagined.

LinkedIn - If you work for a living, you should use LinkedIn. Plain and simple. LinkedIn is a social networking site that caters to business professionals. It is primarily used as a way to keep tabs on connections new and old, but has countless other applications. From personal branding to market research, to finding a job, to sales support, to ad-hoc help desk, the site’s usefulness grows daily. In 2004 the site had about 500 thousand users. As of 2008 it is estimated to have 21 million. How is that for growth? While there is a paid version of the site that adds functionality, you can do most of what you would need to in the free version. Creating a profile is easy and can be done pretty quickly. This one is a must.

Jott - What if you could call a phone number, speak, and have your words emailed to you in both transcribed text and audio form? What if you could do this for free? You can. Jott offers you the ability to send transcribed voice mail messages to yourself and others at no cost. This one is great for when you have those “great idea” or “damn I better not forget that” moments but don’t the ability to immediately write it down. I put Jott in my speed dial, and with the touch of one key, I can leave myself a message. Within minutes I get an email in my inbox capturing my message. The quality of the transcription is actually very good. Having used this hundreds of times, I can only think of one time that I actually had to play back the audio to understand what my message was. All you need to do to sign up for the service is to go to the site, enter your phone number, enter your email address, and viola - Jott at will. This service has come in handy for me more times than I can count. It is so simple, but so powerful at the same time.

Goog411 - Google on your phone. I am not talking about looking things up on an iPhone or Blackberry, I am talking about calling your search in and having it read back to you over the phone. Need Pizza in Dayton, Ohio? Call 1-800-Goog411 and have the Google search done for you for free. They will even connect you directly or email you a google map right to your chosen destination. It is so simple. This one is perfect for those in sales and other fields with lots of windshield time. Not sure exactly where that customer is? Goog411 can save the day. Need to grab some lunch or find a tow truck? Goog411. Again, this is free. This one is also embedded in my speed dial and used regularly.

These are 3 of my favorite freebies. What 3 free tech tools can’t you live without?

The March Madness Myth

I recently read in the Dayton Business Journal that according to a recent study conducted by a Chicago based consulting firm, March Madness costs companies$1.7 Billion. Really? Does anyone really believe this to be the case. I don’t. I suppose if we all still worked on assembly lines, and then spent the day mindlessly consuming basketball instead of building widgets, this would perhaps be accurate. However, the assumption that we are still a mindless drones who would otherwise come to work, not talk about life with co-workers, and otherwise not have fun at work seems dated and flawed to me. Is March Madness a distraction? Potentially. Is it any more of a time waster than the 500 meetings you may have to sit through? Doubtful. Does it give employees something to talk about, share with one another, and potentially connect on level deeper than a shared source for a paycheck. Absolutely. March Madness, Brackets, and the fun that surrounds them are perfect for conversation - not just between employees but with Clients and strangers too. March Madness is an opportunity to connect. I wonder if that study considers just how many sales reps led off appointments this week with the question “how did your brackets hold up the weekend?” That question generally sparks discussion which builds rapport and potentially trust. People buy from people they know, like, and trust. Do the math. Is this part of the non-productive time cited in the study? For 16 days March Madness very effectively replaces discussion of “the weather,” at a time when the weather is actually interesting. Sure, people might be less productive in cranking out widgets while their favorite team or alma matter is on the court, but I want to see the study that shows how much business is helped, not hindered, by March Madness. What do you think? Is March Madness good or bad for businesses?

March Madness to cost companies $1.7B - Dayton Business Journal:

Productivity, Commuting, and Cincinnati Metro

Why would I ride the bus? Why would anyone with a working automobile choose to ride the bus for that matter. The automobile offers freedom, flexibility, and autonomy - not to mention music, news, heat, and comfort. Public transit authorities have tried “save the air” as a marketing message, but that is too big a problem to sufficiently motivate most of us. It is just too tough to see an immediate impact - which is necessary to get people to change their habits. The “save money” approach has been tried too, but even gas prices over $3.00 have not been sufficient to make the save money argument very effective. The hit at the gas pump just does not resonate as a reason to give up driving. What makes this really interesting is that if you ask people what they think about the morning drive through traffic, most will say it is awful. Still we are creatures of habit. So what would be sufficient motivation for irresponsible, gas guzzling, suburbanites like me to hop on a bus? Well, Cincinnati Metro may have the answer to that question - Time. Specifically Cincinnati Metro is experimenting with adding wireless internet to buses. What that means is that I could use that new found time to get things done. What that means is that although I might add 10 to 15 minutes to my door to door time, I can recoup double or triple that in productive time. This could be a great opportunity to check email, read the news, and get prepared to deal with the real “to-do’s” that the day presents as soon as I walk through the door of the office. I am a little reluctant to sacrifice the autonomy of having my car parked a few hundred yards from the office in exchange for this extra productive time, but none the less I am very intrigued by the idea of having that extra time to focus on something that is not driving. Time is indeed the most precious commodity we have - and it is growing ever more scarce. It might be nice to give up the dance of brake pedal and gas pedal that is driven by the brake lights in my windshield for the beauty of my MacBook. It would definitely be nice to eliminate some of the work that pervades into home life by doing it on the way home in the evening. I can’t say for sure that this will work. Heck, I am not even sure if I have been sufficiently convinced yet. I do know that this idea got my attention and now at the very least I am seriously thinking about riding the bus. The fact that public transit got my attention should indicate that Cincinnati Metro is on to something. If they could put a mobile Starbucks on that bus, it would be a done deal.

As an aside, riding the bus would have the added benefit of keeping me from having to stare at those ghastly ads for the “Bodies” exhibit, which adorn the back of the Metro buses I am stuck behind every day. Regardless of the value of the exhibit, dead people staring at me down I 75 is an awful way to start the day. They don’t have those pictures on the inside of the bus do they?

Cincinnati Metro to debut wi-fi on Kings Island bus - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

Save Time, Do More: Jott.com

Recently, I discovered that it’s possible to post to my blog from Jott.com. If you are not familiar with Jott.com, well…it is one of the most amazing and useful services that you can find. Jott offers free voice to text translation. So when you are in your car and think of that great idea, simply call Jott, leave a message, and voila - you get an email with both a text transcription of your message as well as the original audio. Now for safety and convenience, I recommend putting it in your speed dial - mine is in speed dial 9. (Goog411, the other most amazing phone tool I know of, is speed dial 4.) Well, as I stated above, Jott can not only send you an email message, but you can also use it to send messages to others and post directly to Google Calendar, Wordpress Blogs, Toodledo, Remember the Milk, Twitter, and numerous other web tools. Jott is one of the rare productivity tools that actually might make you more productive. What tools will you use to make 2008 your most productive year yet?

Improve Your Productivity with Toodledo

I am a huge fan of David Allen and his GTD (Getting Things Done) system. Sadly, in the 2 years since I first read his book I have spent countless hours looking for a tool to help me keep track of all the various things I want to accomplish. Not really what he, or I, had in mind for productivity. From pocket Moleskine notebooks and cahiers, to excel, to google docs, to Outlook, to Outlook 2007, then Remember the Milk, pocket mod, hipster GTD and blah blah blah. Finally, I found a tool that works for me. Toodledo.com This web based tool allows for the normal to do lists, contexts, gcal integration, email reminders, integrates with jott.com, and will even print out a pocket to do list. The feature I like most is the ability to filter and sort based on multiple variables. So for example, it is very easy to view only the calls I need to make to specific clients on a given day. I can see family members that require email. You get the idea. If you are looking to get more organized in 2008, give toodledo a try. What are your methods for organizing life?

Toodledo :: A to-do list to organize your tasks