I’m very “type-A” and efficiency-obsessed person. Just ask anyone who has worked for me. They love it. Okay, not really. To support this personality type I have invested a lot of time researching productivity tools that help me shave precious time off of my myriad daily tasks or that help me be more effective in how I operate. I will start with computer (PC) apps, and will cover iPhone/iPad apps in my next blog. My favorite apps, in no particular order:
X1 Search: www.x1.com - Email and computer search – Free to try, $49 to buy.
I simply can’t live without this. It is the most powerful and most usable email and file search I have found. With all due respect to Google Desktop Search and Xobni, X1 simply blows them out of the water when it comes to both power and usability. If you have anything like my email workload, hundreds in and 60 to 80 out every day, with tens of thousands of archived emails, you don’t know how much you need this tool! In fact, it’s so useful I went back a bit to use MSOutlook 32 bit because X1 does not work on the slightly faster 64 bit Outlook (an annoying drawback of X1, but they tell me they have 64 bit compatibility in the works).
Roboform: www.roboform.com - Password manager – Free to try, $10 1st year, $20/yr annually
I have hundreds of passwords to manage. I want to make my passwords unique and powerful,but I would never be able to remember them all without a tool like this. With Roboform, you create one mega master password and that gives you and only you access to any number of site-specific passwords. You can access Roboform from most devices – PCs, Macs, iPhone and Android and your passwords automatically sync amongst them all in real time. For me, with a PC at work, Macs at home and iPhones for the family, it’s a life saver. We only remember that one mega-password and the program does the rest. It will quickly and easily log you in to any site you have saved on it – like bookmarks, but it logs you in at the same time as it takes you to the site.
Roboform also keeps identity information for automatically filling out forms. I just click a button and the tool fills it out online forms for me, including things like credit card numberss. I have a personal profile (home address, home phone, personal credit card etc.) and a work profile, so I can use whichever I need instantly. You can also create notes with text (e.g. lists of bank accounts) and access them as easily as anything else on the platform. It all is very secure with 256 bit AES encryption.
Box.net: www.box.net - Cloud file storage – Free for personal account, $15/user/month for multi-user businesses
How many times have you sent a co-worker a file as an email attachment only to have them send you back the next update, and so on? How many times have you wanted to access your files from anywhere? Well, this is one of those things that you don’t fully appreciate until you experience it. Turns out that my company shares files, either for reference or for ongoing work and versioning, all the time. Box.net (and its twin, Dropbox), allow you to put your files – all your files – in the “cloud”, where you can get them any time from anywhere (with an internet connection), and where you can easily share files with anyone, and have them share with you.
You know that “My Documents” area on your PC? The “home base” of all your computer’s files can instead be your Box.net directory. In fact, you can assign your Box “home” directory to be your My Documents, and not change a thing you do, with all of your user files both on your hard drive as well as synchronized in real-time out to the cloud. When you update a shared file, a co-worker (or many) will instantly get the update, and vice versa, without doing anything. It just happens automatically.
A great side benefit of this real-time cloud storage came when I recently switched laptops. I simply installed the sync software on my new laptop, put in my password (they have very strong security), and the files just synchronized onto my new computer. It was the easiest laptop transition I have ever made.
Tripit: http://www.tripit.com/ - Travel itinerary manager – Free
TripIt organizes travel plans into an itinerary that has all of your trip details in one place. Simply forward confirmation emails to [email protected] and TripIt will automatically build an itinerary for your trip that you can access anytime, either online or from a mobile device. No matter who it is from, any airline, hotel or car rental place I have used, it recognizes the information and automatically loads it into your itinerary: times, flight numbers, confirmation numbers and all. It is very cool and very smart. For instance, if you forward it your airline confirmation and your hotel confirmation, it automatically inserts directions from the airport to your hotel into the itinerary, so you can see that on your phone.
The app also gives you flight updates and, with the paid version, can quickly give you alternate travel suggestions, track your mileage programs and more. This is very handy for the frequent traveler.
Skype: www.skype.com - Video, telecom & Instant Messaging – Free (which I still can’t believe)
I have kids and we don’t like being apart. However, I travel a lot for work, and having free, surprisingly high quality video-conferencing is de rigueur. Even with slow connections the video is decent and the voice is great. If you ever want to see someone you are talking to you should get Skype.
Ever Instant Message (IM)? Everyone at our company is on Skype whenever they are online at work and even if we are in the same physical office it is frequently easier to just IM each other brief messages. It’s quicker and easier than email for both the asker and the askee. And, if they are remote workers you can see their face when you speak to them which is a very nice thing.
Windows 7: www.microsoft.com - PC operating system - $120 - $220 depending on version
I’m going to make this simple: if you haven’t upgraded to Windows 7, do it now. It’s the OS that Microsoft should have built a decade ago. Being both a Mac and Windows user, I can tell you that from my perspective Windows 7 is the best OS on the planet right now. Oh, I can hear the howls from the Mac folks already, but I really like this OS. It is very stable, very easy to use, and far more intuitive than anything else that has come out of Redmond. So it has the Mac-like ease-of-use, with the power and flexibility of Windows. They really pulled it off.
And a shout out to the Snipping Tool in Windows 7 (and Vista). I was really happy to see this included, finally, in the Windows OS. Just go to your start menu and type “snipping tool” into the search box there. I pin it to my start menu so it’s always handy. It’s a drop dead simple, full or partial screen-capture tool which makes it easy to grab screen snippets and use them in presentations or send them along in an email. You used to have to pay money for annoying applications that do this.
Expensify: www.expensify.com - Corporate expense reporting - $5/subscriber/month
Like any company, we travel and our employees spend money. Expensify puts our expense
Google Docs: docs.google.com – Productivity and Collaboration Apps (spreadsheets, docs, etc.) – Free
Yup, it’s free and you can connect a pretty large company with it and share all sorts of spreadsheets and documents in real time. We use it to collaborate on complex shared docs and it makes it very simple to do so. It’s fun seeing everyone’s highlighted cursors making changes in four different spots on a spreadsheet at once. And it’s simply great at that task.
To be sure, it’s not an Excel replacement. It is nowhere near powerful enough for your typical
Google Apps but found it not quite ready for prime time – lots of parts, but not a compelling enough whole yet.
Verizon Wireless USB Modem: www.verizonwireless.com – Wireless Modem - $50 - $80 plus $60/month data plan
Not cheap, but these devices are indispensable for a traveler. You cannot count on having connectivity in an airport, restaurant or any place other than your house and office. And when my home or work network is down this device has saved me many times. Go with Verizon for unmatched national coverage, and get 4G because it’s extremely fast where they have 4G coverage (only major cities currently). I use this all the time when I am on the road. A 4G mobile hotspot is also a great solution (mifi). They are bigger, but you can have an insta-network to share with friends and co-workers which can come in handy. And the hotspot will work with devices that don’t have a USB port, such as your phone or iPad.
ALSO SEE:
Has anyone used Expensify for T&E tracking and reporting?
Which accounting software is most useful and easiest for SMBs to use?
Has Anyone Tried Google Enterprise?