sfp101: Stress-Free Productivity

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Friday Hot Links 10-10-08

Published October 10th, 2008 in Uncategorized. Comments

Some People Will Eat Anything– But does it taste like Chicken?

ANIMAL rights groups are up in arms over an annual festival in Peru that serves up hundreds of fried CATS to locals.

They believe that eating cat burgers – and fried cat legs and tails – can cure bronchial disease.

It is also believed that feline meat serves as an aphrodisiac.

This Weeks Links

A late adopter’s productivity experiment with Twitter, plus some 140 word humor- Matthew Cornell
- I’d like to give you the IdeaMatt perspective on how this tool can be used productively, and hopefully get a chuckle out of you too.
Remember The Milk GTD Extension- userscripts.org
- The script source includes instructions on that implementation as well as some basic settings that let you configure some fonts and colors to your taste.
GTD for my coworkers- Brent Ozar
- I’ve wanted to write this for a couple of years, and I finally banged it out on a flight.
GTD Flylady = My GTD System- My Journey to Eliminate Debt
- I love Getting Things Done. over the weekend I’ve been working on getting my office system s up and running and I’m really pleased with the result! Because of my change to self employment recently, I had the contents of three different offices all sitting in my home office waiting to be sorted. There was a lot of duplication of files and paperwork and I needed to set up a office system that suits me and my husband (who is turning out to be a great secretary!
Delegating Tasks -The Art of Letting Go to Get More Done- The Vertabase Blog
- Letting go can be hard at first. We sometimes feel like the tasks or projects in front of us our are babies or our special challenge to overcome.
How a Smartphone can help your business and increase productivity- Time tracking blog
- With the wide variety of applications now available for smartphones, there’s something for every type of user out there, and this really got me to thinking about mobile productivity.
Time Management Tips and Tricks- The Small Biz Consultant
- Before you can use some time management strategies in your schedule, there are a few key principles you have to understand first.
i am productivity (and so can you!- The Cranking Widgets Blog
- I’ve been interested in getting as much done as possible with the least amount of effort for as long as I can remember.
GTD: I Need an Intervention- carolstimmel.net
- I admit it; I’m an addict. An addict that is wildly hooked on the process of Getting Things Done (GTD), even though it is wrecking my life and my relationships with others. I even went to mecca (San Francisco) and saw the man - David Allen - in person. It was so religious.

Have a great weekend….

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Evernote Updates Web Support for Chrome

Published October 1st, 2008 in Uncategorized. Comments

Google Chrome users take note– Evernote has improved is support of Chrome in their web application.

Mmmm. Chrome-y.
The latest Evernote Web release has significantly improved handling of Google’s new beta browser, Chrome. Please keep in mind that Chrome is in beta, so we can’t promise flawless support. Nevertheless, if you’re a Chrome user, you should now have a much more pleasant experience.

Not an Evernote user? Well its time to create an account…

Friday Hot Links 9-26

Published September 27th, 2008 in Computers, Goals, Links, Plans, Productivity, Technology and Thoughts. Comments

How a YouTube User Got Things Done - Part One

This Weeks Links

Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” Ads Made on a Mac- Cult of mac

12 quick tips for boosting your happiness and productivity at work- The Happiness Project

The Big Man goes without eating for hours and hours at a time, so once, trying to be helpful, I bought him a big bag of granola to keep in his desk.

Simple Task Management on the iPhone With ToDo- Smoking Apples

There are labels to denote which list the tasks belong to, and they can easily be deleted by swiping across them, just as you would an email or SMS on your iPhone.

You May Be Suffering From Email Addiction- Get the Nut

It is, therefore, little wonder why so many of us ignore the advice of productivity gurus like David Allen, Tim Ferriss, and Scott Allen, who suggest that we should only check our email once or twice a day.

GTD Cafe: How Physical Space Impacts Productivity- Productivity in Context

If you feel good about a space in which you spend 8-10 hours a day, chances are you’ll get more done.

…To see how your space can improve so that you can get more done and leave at a reasonable hour, check out these resources

Two productivity tricks- Movin’ on up

Use Cool Timer to boost productivity and get things done- Download Squad

I like to set a timer for a certain amount of time when doing chores like cleaning the kitchen or working on tasks I don’t enjoy as much.

Why I Went Back to a Digital Organizer- Tools for Thought

Rewriting lists from scratch was just irritating enough to make me want to get the exercise over with a soon a possible, mechanically copying the items from the previous list that weren’t crossed out, and in my haste I would gloss over some that really needed further examination.

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Propel your Presentations with Sliderocket

Published September 24th, 2008 in Computers, Google, Productivity, Reviews and Technology. Comments

We have a new entry in the on-line presentation/meeting arena this week– Sliderocket has entered public beta. Let me tell you, this is one slick application. The folks at sliderocket have really put the esthetic goodness of Flash to work in this app; it’s gorgeous.

Since its Flash based, it looks great on all three primary platforms; Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It seems to performe equally well in Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer, making it a true cross platform solution.

Sliderocket is an all-in-one browser based environment for editing, creation, and display of presentations. The strong suit from my limited testing is the slide creation. The user interface is extremely functional and provides nearly all the features you would expect in a standalone product. It’s easy to change themes and layouts, and add various types of media. Through the Library, assets such as Flash components, video, and images can be effortlessly inserted into presentations.

As with sophisticated standalone solutions users can insert tables, charts, and shapes. Sliderocket will even import Google spreadsheets. Transmissions, no problem- users can quickly create amazing 3D and 2D transmissions like the newest versions of PowerPoint and Keynote.

I unfortunately found the PowerPoint import much less impressive than the editing and creation. Some of the elements in the twenty-three slide presentation I imported did not translate properly, and images developed 3D borders. Most of sliderockets competitors that I have tested performed much better in this area. I should be able to upload a standard PowerPoint presentation and display it without any additional modifications.

Presentations can be shared publically or privately.

Private viewing is accomplished through a confidential URL and/or password mailed to participants. Users can also track viewing statistics of presentations.

Aside from simply providing a link to files, sliderocket can be used to facilitate on-line meetings similar to products like WebEx. Participants are invited to the meeting and the chair directs the display of the presentation.

Since it is a Flash application, participants do not need to download and install any additional client software. This is a nice feature since asking customers to download software not certified by their IT departments can be challenging.

You can signup for a beta account at the sliderocket website.

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Friday Hot Links 9-19-8

Published September 19th, 2008 in Computers, Health, Links, Productivity, Reviews, Technology, Thoughts and Uncategorized. Comments

This weeks productivity tool

Pair up your Pocket Moleskine with their Retro 51 Tornado Elite

These are tiny pens and pencils measuring 3 3/8″

The Elite ballpoint and its pencil counterpart are very handy. With it’s small size (3 3/8 inch length) it is easy to carry with you in your purse or pocket. Choose from a variety of colors to find the Elite that best suits you. All Elite pencils come with 1.1mm lead and an extra tube of lead.

A little humor for your Friday

I’m not sure what to make of this video, but it is funny

New Poll: What is your favorite note taking application?

This Weeks Links

>> A creative solution to workgroup GTD “Getting things done with Jott- David Abrahms

I just read this post “Getting things done in the enterprise” which points out that there are a lot of tools available for assisting individuals maintain GTD methodology and one that David Allen uses is Jott (turn your words into actions) which is perfect for the mobile travelling person who on the road a lot.

>> GTD With The iPhone- virtualadrian

I can get my E-Mail 24/7/365 from work and my personal account, and if you’re like me you have to control an urge to respond to some flamers until you get in the office and not wreck your personal time… but you can just take some Fukitol ( the joke ) and chill.

>> iPhone Task Management with Task2Gather- iFones.com

Task2Gather stands out from all other task managers with its hierarchic structure: every single task can be divided into several sub-tasks, and these sub-tasks can be divided further without limit.

>> How to Kickstart a Low-Productivity Day- lifehacker

That formula may not take a long time to finish, but at the end, you’ll feel brand new and be able to tackle the toughest tasks you have around you with more energy.

>> Lifehacker’s Gina Trapani: Her Top 3 Productivity Tips and Much More- Zenhabits

But, whenever I get an email reminder from myself to do something I would’ve forgotten about had I not set it up, whenever someone says “thanks for getting back to me so quickly,” whenever I see progress on my personal projects … these are the times when I realize (again) that better habits and overall mindfulness works.

>> Are You a Procrastinator?- Healthycare

Most likely, we are unduly beating ourselves up for being procrastinators when the real problem is that we live in a world that is loaded with deadlines.

>> GTD for Parents - Navigating Deadlines and Diapers- IttyBiz

He has a site specifically for beginning photography tips for your family at ShootTheBaby.com, as well as BoxOfficeBaby.com, a site where you can order incredibly unique children’s birthday party invitations and birth announcements.

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Mikogo Officially Announces Skype Integration

Published September 19th, 2008 in Productivity, Reviews, Technology, Thoughts and Uncategorized. Comments

Mikogo is a FREE Screen Sharing application for Windows that makes it easy for geographically separated teams to collaborate. Documents, applications, and presentations can be displayed on a common canvas.

With the “Switch Presenter” feature participants can take turns leading the activity.

For a product overview please read my previous post “Collaboration with Mikogo Desktop Sharing“.

This morning Mikogo sent out a Press Release officially announcing integration with Skype Extra.

Thanks to the Skype Partnership, Mikogo provides a way for users to incorporate free screen sharing within a Skype conference call. Together, Mikogo and Skype provide the perfect Web conferencing solution, complete with Internet calls, screen sharing, instant chat, and video. And at no cost!

They have also posted step-by-step instructions and a “How To” video for installing and using Skype Extra with Mikogo.

With the addition of Skype Extra, you have a comprehensive on-line meeting environment without the exorbitant cost of services such as WebEx. Check it out for your next meeting.

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Get The Best Answer With ZoHo Poll

Published September 16th, 2008 in Notes, Office, Productivity, Reviews, Technology, Thoughts and Writting. Comments

Have you ever wanted to get a consensus on the best day for a family get together, pick the menu items for an office lunch, rate products or services for your blog, or collect feedback from team members? One of the easiest solutions is to setup an on-line poll.

If you’re into scripting and have access to a web server and database, I suppose you could create one from scratch, but this is a little excessive for most folks. The more efficient solution is to use one of several free polling services. ZoHo Poll is one of the most flexible and easy to use solutions.

ZoHo Poll has an automated front end that helps users quickly create public and private polls. One of the first steps is to choose the type of poll to create. You can choose between vote or rate.

Next you will enter a title and description of the poll. Then you add the items you would like rate or vote on. This could be a date, place, song, brand of beer, or just about anything.

Finally, you select whether the poll is public or private and who can see the results as they are gathered. Folks can be directed to ZoHo for the poll, or it can be embedded in your blog or web page. It’s as simple as that.

You can review the result of your poll from ZoHo or export the data to a CSV file.

As a blogger I really like polls because they help me understand what my readers are interested in. With a tool Like ZoHo poll, I can create them quickly and easily– which is important with my schedule.

In concert with this post, I have created a new poll asking users what their favorite note taking software is. Simply click on the link if you would like to see the poll in action.

Have you used on-line polling? What service do you use?

Friday Hot Links 9-12-8

Published September 12th, 2008 in Uncategorized. Comments

This Weeks Productivity Tool

I got to tell you, Post-it® Flag Highlighters rock. They are little gems of efficiency. Post-it flags and a highlighter all in one pocket clip appliance. I generally use the flags more than the highlighter, fortunately flag refills can be purchased separately.

Got a student in the house-do them a favor and pick up a three pack.

A Bear fall from the trees- AP Video

This Weeks Links

>> 4 Useful day-to-day Productivity Tools- Hex Blog

If you have several computers at home, eg. 1 desktop computer, 1 laptop to work on the go, 1 iPhone or iPod Touch, you definitely need your data to be synced across all devices, and nothing does it best like MobileMe.

…Things is now available as a free beta download for your desktop, it’s still undergoing development and once it’s done you’ll have to download the full program at a US$49.

>> I Have GTD Syndrome- Ramon’s Weblog

I had mentioned in my journal I have a tendency to procrastinate sometimes, and I found a parallel with an article which talked about making excuses for things not getting done.

>> Oliver Starr on GTD (getting things done) in 2008 Video- daspark

>> Exploring GTD- MAKING SENSE WITH FACILITATED SYSTEMSI use GTD TiddlyWiki, partly because it’s made for GTD, and partly because it claims to print tiddlers on 3×5 cards (something I haven’t had to do yet).

…I’ve still got too much that’s not in the system, but I’m working to incorporate more of my stuff in the system (or to get rid of it, if I can).

>> From Getting to Done to Getting to Happy (GTD applied to GTH)- Techno Theory

But when I’m really frustrated I’m probably not going to learn Spanish in the car or call prospects at my desk, even if they’re on my lists.

…I just think we have a lot to learn about how to get to back to good, and we ought to do anything in our power to make that easier.

>> GTD: Keeping Things Accessible- Can’t Grok, Won’t Grok

Tasks went straight into RTM, events I needed to be reminded of went straight into Calendar, interesting blog posts for further reading get starred in Reader, good links get saved and tagged in Delicious and any odd bits of knowledge and info went in to Notebook.

…So, I soon found that me needing to keep grabbing the mouse and clicking my shortcut on the Firefox toolbar soon became a bit of a chore (even though this appears like shortcut).

>> Prioritization and Getting Things Done- GTD Times

By building them into your workload on a given day, you’re saying they also have a high priority and that you value them enough to give them a specific, time-determined commitment, but that they aren’t important enough to promise to block out conversations and calls and emails to get them done.

…These are your medium priority tasks- you’re making a judgement that they matter enough to commit to working on them, but not enough to make hard and fast promises in your calendar about when you’ll do them.

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Collaboration with Mikogo Desktop Sharing

Published September 10th, 2008 in Uncategorized. Comments

Mikogo

One of the folks over at Mikogo suggested that I check their product out after they read my post on DimDIm. So, being the curious sort that I am, I gave it the old “Sniffy Sniff” as Gary Vaynerchuk would say.

I am always glad to get tips on new productivity apps, but also a little apprehensive. It’s fun when you can write a positive post on a new piece of software or offer tips for improvement, but there are also those cases where the product just doesn’t cut it– that’s when the fun ends. Fortunately that was not the case with Mikogo.

I think it is a very useful and relatively easy to use application. Mikogo is a desktop sharing application for Windows, and it has one of my favorite characteristics: ohh yaa baby, its FREE.

Some of the things I liked best about the app:

The chair can create his/her own participant ID
The chair can pick which applications and aspects of the environment are shared
Proxy settings are automatically detected
It has Skype integration with “Skype Extra”
Works well in Safari (Windows version)
256-AES end-to-end encryption
Feature rich
Supports up to ten participants
And ohh, did I mention its Free

So, let me give you a quick rundown of the Session features:

Pause Transmission- you can temporarily stop sending data to the participants. The participants continue to see the last data sent until the connection becomes active again.
Switch Presenter- this is pretty slick, you can switch control between the participants so as one presenter completes, control can be moved to the next.
Remote Control- The chair can grand control of his/her keyboard and mouse to a participant.
Send Files- this is similar to the way files are exchanged in IM applications.
Application Selection- Determines what applications are shared with the participants.
Lock Meeting Room- prevents any participants from joining the meeting after being set.

Mikogo makes it easy for geographically separated teams to collaborate. Documents, applications, and presentations can be displayed on a common canvas. With the “Switch Presenter” feature participants can take turns leading the activity.

Now some of the things that I was not so fond of:

Both the presenter and participant are required to download software. This is not a big issue with workgroups, but if you are sharing with customers it can be a real hassle.
The product supports only Windows today. Being an avid Mac user this is kind of annoying, but I found that it worked just fine in VMWare Fusion, and I would assume it would work just as well in Parallels, and VMServer on Linux.
The application should start without anything shared by default. Instead, it starts up with whatever was shared during the previous session. This could become a problematic security issue. If folks don’t check what is shared prior to starting each session, items could be accidently displayed that shouldn’t be.

Overall this is a great application. The price is right, and I think you will be happy with the performance. For more information or to download the application go to the Mikogo website.

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Friday Hot Links 9-5-8

Published September 6th, 2008 in Uncategorized. Comments

Last weekend’s trip to the Connecticut coast was like hitting the reset button. I really needed some downtime, and Mystic with a side order of the Foxwoods MGM was just the ticket.

I am still editing and loading photos onto flickr, but you can take a look at a couple of the video’s.

Mystic Aquarium

Mystic Seaport Museum

This weeks Links

M Nassal

My friendfeed entries

Josh/Cassel killing me...

Sunday at 20:46
Not loving Patriots performace so far :-(

Sunday at 19:50
Looking forward to Patriots game-- less than 2 hours away....

Sunday at 17:30
Yard work done-- time to get out and enjoy the day, and what a nice one it is

Sunday at 12:09
Love that American Carol

Saturday at 19:01
Friday Hot Links 10-10-08.. http://tinyurl.com/3oyd3p

Friday at 19:05
@criana Looks like my dinner only IPA instead of wine-- and it sure hit the spot

Friday at 19:04
Come get your Friday Hot Links http://tinyurl.com/3uy8l6 while they are hot

Friday at 19:03
Friday Hot Links 10-10-08

Friday at 18:53
Fury over cat eating festival | The Sun |News
- Fury over cat eating festival | The Sun |News
Friday at 18:24
[Overwhelmed with tasks-- Check out:] i am productivity (and so can you!) http://tinyurl.com/3pne9f

Friday at 13:33
[Reading] TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS AND TRICKS http://tinyurl.com/4bnmav

Friday at 10:29
@current Do you folks have any data on the number of Twitter participants and transactions in the last Hack the Debate session

Friday at 9:00
More …

sfp101: Stress-Free Productivity

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Friday Hot Links 10-10-08

Some People Will Eat Anything– But does it taste like Chicken?

This Weeks Links

Evernote Updates Web Support for Chrome

Friday Hot Links 9-26

How a YouTube User Got Things Done - Part One

This Weeks Links

Propel your Presentations with Sliderocket

Friday Hot Links 9-19-8

This weeks productivity tool

A little humor for your Friday

New Poll: What is your favorite note taking application?

This Weeks Links

Mikogo Officially Announces Skype Integration

Get The Best Answer With ZoHo Poll

Friday Hot Links 9-12-8

This Weeks Productivity Tool

A Bear fall from the trees- AP Video

Collaboration with Mikogo Desktop Sharing

Some of the things I liked best about the app:

So, let me give you a quick rundown of the Session features:

Now some of the things that I was not so fond of:

Friday Hot Links 9-5-8

Mystic Aquarium

Mystic Seaport Museum

This weeks Links

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