Only fools don’t use tools - pt.2
August 21st, 2007 | by ScottIt appears that you're new here, if you like what you read, please subscribe to the news feed or sign up for the Leap eTips news and updates email list. Thank you for visiting :)
Yesterday I wrote about several of the widgets and add-ons for the FireFox browser that I employ to assist me in my daily tasks and help improve my productivity. Today I’m going to expand on that to mention a few web based tools that I also use.
Most of these are generally referred to as Web 2.0 applications, but then there are some who argue that Web 2.0 is a fictitious marketing phrase and doesn’t actually have definitive meaning. I’m not going to enter that debate, personally I think it’s a waste of time. In my mind, you can call these web site based applications anything you like, but if they help you conduct business or achieve what ever your online goals are more efficiently they’re a plus to me.
As I’ve mentioned here before, I do a lot of reading from news sites and blogs every day. I have to in order to stay abreast of what’s going on in the fields and genres that my various sites cover. So, one really great tool that I use for helping me to keep all of my daily reading requirements organized is bloglines.com
Bloglines lets you scan the latest headlines of countless RSS feeds all in one location, then you can go ahead and read the actual stories that you need to from there. Sure, any news feed reader lets you do this, but since I’m also mobile quite often, with Bloglines I can access my favorite feeds on a moment’s notice from anywhere in the world, using a computer or even my cellphone. That’s handy for scanning headlines while in traffic between meetings or events.
Another cool online tool, and I actually mentioned it yesterday but it’s worth noting again, is Google Notebook. We all keep lots of notes, I make dozens per day, and with Google Notebook again, I have access to my notes at anytime and from anywhere.
The final tool I’ll mention today is del.icio.us — if you don’t have an account there, why not? Sure, it’s just another “bookmarks” site, so what makes it special from the rest? Mainly, the ability to save your bookmarks online and have them accessible anytime, from anywhere. But also, because it isn’t going to disappear anytime soon like many bookmarking sites have, so you don’t have to worry about losing your stored bookmarks (though you should also always have a local backup of everything!). There’s also a lot of neat tools on del.icio.us that most folks seem to ignore or skip over that can be used to help save you time and give you easy instant access from anywhere that I would encourage you to explore.
As you’ve probably noticed, there’s an underlying theme to the tools I’ve mentioned today and yesterday. Actually, there’s two underlying themes. First, is that tools should make things easier and improve my productivity. And second, is I like tools that provide easy and unrestricted access to the exact data I need.
One of the biggest problems I can remember from early on in my online business was those times when I’d meet with somebody, or just be out of my office and I’d need a specific URL or note that was sitting on my desktop rather than in my hands. Sure, Google was a life saver in several of those instances, but having to search for something a possible client or customer asks about isn’t really the impression you want to make.
Having the information available anytime, from anywhere, and especially when only a cellphone is needed to retrieve it rather than even a laptop is both a time, and image saver for me.
A quick note of warning: while I’m big on having data available to me online from anywhere, a little common sense is still required. Just because some of these services provide “private” settings and secure access, you still shouldn’t use them to store sensitive information like financial records, passwords or anything else that you wouldn’t want others getting their hands on. Private and/or secure online doesn’t necessarily mean truly private and secure, so be prudent in what data you keep stored online, but aside from that utilize these and similar services that can make you life and work easier.
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