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Scott Gray Owner, surge technology services

◦ Virtual IT Department for small businesses◦ Work with customers to use technology as a tool

to support their life and business Also a productivity geek and tech geek, and

just a plain geek

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Basic Tools for Efficiency Productivity Basics Tools for Organization Social Aspects of Tools

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Technology = Tools Platform Agnostic

◦ Don’t Care What You Use◦ Web Apps

Generally free Access from any tool Access from Anywhere Offline Concerns

Everything is free. Period. Open Source, when possible

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These are examples, not the only applications available

Google-heavy, but with a healthy dose of fear The most important thing about a productivity

system is that it works for you. Take my thoughts and ideas and modify them for

your own use

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1. Web Browser2. Office Suites3. Productivity

Suites

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Window to the World Everything will happen in your web browser Firefox

◦ Safe◦ Free◦ Fast◦ Multi-Platform◦ Extendible◦ Open Source

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Word Processor/Spreadsheet/Presentations Google Docs

◦ Free◦ Online (web app)◦ Allows collaboration◦ http://docs.google.com

Open Office◦ Free◦ Open Source◦ http://www.openoffice.org

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Mail Calendar Tasks Contacts IM

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Maybe your most important application(?) Gmail

◦ Great way to organize your e-mail http://mail.google.com Aggregate Your E-Mail (decrease your

inboxes)

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Manage Date Based Events http://calendar.google.com

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You will always need a way to manage your lists

Lists may be “things to do”, or “groceries to buy”, or . . .

Remember the Milk (http://www.rmilk.com)◦ Web App◦ Integrates with Google Calendar◦ Computer and Mobile Access

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Use the Contact Manager in Gmail Or Facebook, Plaxo, or LinkedIN

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Multi-Client Is Important Meebo – http://www.meebo.com

◦ Web Based – don’t need to be on a specific machine Pidgin – http://www.pidgin.im

◦ Open Source, free multi-client IM Facebook Chat?

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R eally

S imple

S yndication

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A way to “pull” information from a web site Aggregate “feeds” from various info sources Need an RSS Reader, use Google Reader (

http://reader.google.com) Feed Examples

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Lots of stuff, how do I keep it straight? Make one page to hold it all Netvibes – http://www.netvibes.com

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Your brain can only contain a small number of things. Period. No way around it.

Carry something to write on. Make it easy Write everything down! You will forget it! I use text messages to my e-mail inbox

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A place to put things, physical or not Write the “thing” down, then put it in your inbox Process the inbox

◦ Dump – Throw it away◦ Do – if you can do it in less than two minutes, just do it◦ Defer – put it on your task list◦ Delegate – tell someone else to do it (and track it on your

task list)

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Reduce your inboxes◦ One e-mail inbox – aggregate to one box◦ One physical inbox – “in” tray or even a cardboard box◦ Use RSS to aggregate many different types of info

Websites Facebook feed Twitter feed Event updates Etc. etc.

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Turn off your email notifications Choose times to check your e-mail Process your inbox completely Try for Inbox Zero -

http://www.43folders.com/izero Don’t become a slave to your e-mail

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Use your task list as a tickler file I only want to think about something when I

need to think about something Again, you will not remember things. Put

them on a list

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Productivity Links◦ Inbox Zero - http://www.43folders.com/izero◦ GTD - http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/08/getting-

started-with-getting-things-done◦ 43 Folders - http://www.43folders.com

I’m a productivity geek. Ask me if you have questions on this.

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Online storage is becoming more popular Web apps, available anywhere box.net If you use online storage, keep a backup

somewhere else. Don’t trust it completely.

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Delicious – http://www.delicious.com Tagging Firefox Extension Saving Stuff to Read Saving Stuff for Research

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Freemind – http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Mindomo - http://www.mindomo.com/

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Facebook – lots of uses Podcasts – news, info, fun, education Wikis – storage of info (personal notebook) Blogs

◦ Personal◦ Business

Backup◦ Backup everything◦ If it doesn’t exist in two places, it doesn’t exist

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Google Docs allows collaborating on documents

You can share lists on Remember the Milk You can share delicious bookmarks with

anyone (You can even subscribe to an RSS feed of a

delicious tag) You can share your Google calendar with

anyone

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Tough line between social and overexposed Be aware of what is password protected and

what is not

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http://www.osu.edu/features/2008/socialmedia/

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sharplefthander on most services◦ Delicious◦ Twitter◦ YouTube◦ Flickr◦ Last.fm◦ IM

http://www.sharplefthander.com – Personal blog http://www.surgetechservices.com sgray@surgetechservices.com if you have any

questions

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