In this next interview, we asked people: What gadgets do you use on a regular basis and how do they help you work more effectively? (940) There was variety in the answers, but I thought it was interesting how many people feel a timer is one of their most important gadgets for getting more done.
1) Timer to keep me focused and learn how much time things really take.
2) Digital Voice Recorder to record all the inspirations I get while driving.
3) Notebooks and pens EVERYWHERE so if I get distracted from what I’m doing I can write down the distracting thoughts and get back to focusing.
4) DVR / TIVO – I never watch live TV and I record all the educational shows related to my work after work hours and I get to watch them realy quickly!
Ariane Benefit from Neat & Simple Living (rss)
A timer is something most people don’t think about. I really like having a count down timer. That way if I have a task I’m putting off, I’ll commit to working on it for 15 minutes and then stopping if I don’t feel like continuing. The timer helps give me momentum to get started on a task. Often it is just the initial start that is holding me back.
My best productivity device that I carry with me is my iPhone, but I suppose any PDA would work. It’s great to have comprehensive information of all my contacts avaliable with me at any time. The best thing about it though, is that I have something productive to do at all times, so when I’m stuck in line or on the subway, I can choose to spend my time wisely. Although I do not subscribe to a wireless email plan, I do sync my email accounts whenever I come within range of a WiFi hotspot. I check and sort my emails through IMAP and then sync them back when possible. The notes feature is great for jotting down thoughts on the go. I sync my Calendar with my Google Calendar to keep me organized on the go. I also have a couple other applications such as iStudy which lets me memorize things on the go. The combination of these things lets me do most of my organizing in idle time, which is perfect for me.
Of course, not everything is work. When I want to relax I can listen to some music, watch a movie, read an e-book, or browse Wikipedia offline. All in all though, having a PDA or iPhone is a great way to harness lost minutes or hours each day from waiting in line or commuting and putting them towards something useful.
The ability to sort through email while waiting for someone can really save a lot of time. I’ve seen a lot of mobile email devices that don’t sync both ways. You can delete an email off of your laptop, but it stays on your phone. This is an important feature to look for when you are picking out a phone or PDA.
I rely on three key gadgets to get through each day:
• MacBook: My MacBook is my life. Every important document you can think of is on this computer, from business files, accounting records, pictures, music and anything else you can think of. I’ve been using this particular MacBook since December ’06 and I’ve been thinking of upgrading to a new MacBook Pro, but that may have to wait a little while.
How does it help me work more effectively? Simply put, it allows me to work. I’ve only ever worked on a Mac – and when I’m forced to sit at a PC, I just feel unnatural about the whole experience. So I guess I should just say that my MacBook helps me work. Period.
• iPod Touch: Never had an iPod before I bought this sweet little machine last November. Since I bought it, though, I dropped my Blackberry plan, simply because I can now access my email pretty easily through WiFi. So the iPod Touch helps me stay in touch – simply and easily.
• Cell phone: right now I’m carrying a small Sony Ericsson phone, which I like. My cell number is essentially my business line, so there’s no way I could move without my cell. The phone itself is a nice piece of equipment, it’s light and extremely comfortable.
Mark Goren from Transmission Content + Creative (rss)
I think it is interesting how two people have mentioned that the ability to carry their email with them–even without live over-the-cellphone network syncing is still a great benefit. I use a Blackberry, but the cost really ads up once you get all the necessary services turned on.
I like to evaluate technology before I invest in it. For example, if it is new software, I use an evaluation version and commit to integrating it into my life for a week and then make a decision at the end of that period. With hardware, I tend to take reviews from friends and family very seriously because I often don’t have the ability to test-drive new hardware.
The most challenging part about productivity and organization software is that you you have to not only commit to using it but it also has to fit into your personal organization system. The best thing that I have done this year is to separate my organization software from my email program. This forces me to live outside my email, and only use my email as a communication conduit instead of a task list, calendar, etc. all built into one. Most importantly, separating the two has given me the ability to do more, instead of scrolling up and down my email finding my next task to handle.
Sharran Srivatsaa from Vanderbilt OwenBloggers (rss)
The idea of separating your organization software from your email is interesting. Most people are trying to get tighter integration between email, calendar and tasks. I can see the advantage the Sharran is talking about in getting you away from email.
I use the following…
- Treo Smartphone for e-mail and appointments. This helps me remember appointments and is a great contact solution with e-mail. This unit does NOT work well as a phone (3 out of 5 rating)
- Small digital timer for timing my 48 minute singletasking sessions. This little timer rules. I do ONE FOCUSED THING while this counts down.
- Standard Ipod for taking Audio books along in the car or when exercising. Ipod Audio books have enabled me to listen to over 50 books a year when I’m otherwize non-productive (driving etc)
- Ipod Touch for getting e-mail and entertainment when on the go. Wireless internet connection required. A fun addition to my technology collection. Great when you have to wait for long periods of time (jury duty etc)
John Richardson from Success Begins Today (rss)
I have an older iPod that is mounted in the trunk of our car in place of the CD changer. Every once in a while, I will take it out and load it up with audiobooks and podcasts. Since we spend a lot of time on the road this helps make sure we always have somethign educational to listen to while driving.
My Macbook is the hub of everything; I run my business from the road on it and use wireless internet connections wherever I find them to stay connected and keep in touch. I love the Spaces functionality which lets me have several desktops open at once – so I run Windows and Mac concurrrently on different desktops as well as having a “blogging” desktop and a “client” desktop.
An HTC TyTnII cellphone is a great backup for the Macbook as I can access email and use Skype wirelessly on it. I use it frequently to allow me to take breaks from the laptop and go and explore the latest place we’re staying in (currently Thailand) but stay connected to my business at the same time.
Digital camera (Canon Powershot SD700) which I use to ‘scan’ important documents when I travel and store them on my hard drive.
Lea Woodward from Location Independent Living (rss)
The idea of using Skype wirelessly on a cell phone is interesting. Earlier today I was placing some Skype calls over my MacBook Pro using a Sprint EVDO card. It worked surprisingly well, but it looks like we are starting to see a carrier backlash as they try to control what applications you can run on your smart phone in order to protect their voice revenue.
Personally I find Skype to be a huge timesaver. I can search my contacts and click to call. Also since the new version will let you send your cell phone number as the caller ID that shows up, it significantly improves the experience–people don’t ignore your call because of the strange number.
I use my cell phone for organization more than I ever thought I would. I send myself SMS reminders via GoPingMe.com and Google Calendar. Ironically, usually the very act of setting up the reminder makes me remember the task without any help!
Also, if I get an idea, make an appointment, or am assigned a task that I can’t write down, I call my Jott account and speak the information, which is then transcribed to text and sent to my Gmail account, where it is filtered to a special label.
Damian Bariexca from Apace of Change (rss)
That sounds like a pretty nice setup. I haven’t used GoPingMe, but I will check into them.
Only a Treo 700p. It tells me my calendar wherever I go. And I can get email and IM, too.
I used to carry a large Franklin Planner around everywhere with me. It is nice to see how much smaller that functionality has become.
Gadgets are probably the bane of effectiveness!
Just kidding – it’s the user that’s the problem. I use Apple Macs and an iPaq PDA phone to do my day-to-day work, and an external hard drive to store extra stuff and just as a useful item to have when you’re out. This system allows me to get plenty done, wherever I am, though I have my Mac mini and home office set up just the way I like it with an ergonomic mouse and keyboard (you don’t know how great those are until you’re using them every day).
iPods are also great – I have to use my iPod nano at the studios, since the Pro Tools HD system sucks so much power from USB that it won’t run my external hard drive!
http://www.joelfalconer.com from Joel Falconer (rss)
I think that searching for the right gadget can be the bane of effectiveness. Some people become so absorbed with finding the perfect gadget that they forget that it is supposed to save them time. :)
I use a cheap mp3 player, on which I have every lecture from my courses in the current semester of university. It means I don’t have to take notes, and I can revise while I’m walking to work, driving or doing housework. Plus, it isn’t nearly as boring as studying, and having something physical to do at the same time makes it easier for me to concentrate for long periods.
David Robertson from The Church of Chris Martin (rss)
Being able to listen to a lecture again is very helpful. I was taking some college classes online and I found a plugin that would let me play the lectures faster or slower. When I understood the material, I would play it faster. If I was having trouble understanding I would slow it down. When reviewing I would speed it up again.
I am a big fan of my Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. Nice high-res screen, great battery life, decent Mozilla based browser w/support for Web 2.0, not to mention open source so plenty of expandability. It is does a great job of filling a void until the next rev of the iPhone comes along.
It is nice to have at a meeting if ones needs to look up something on the web instead of having to do the same with a big, clunky laptop. Seems far less, well, rude. With this, my Levenger Pocket Briefcase and/or Field Notes notebook, I have a connected, pocket sized, total meeting solution.
Patrick Rhone from Patrick Rhone’s Journal (rss)
Of course the trade off is, that a small device that gets you to the internet can help waste time as well. But we are seeing a shift. There is a lot of information that used to require paper, radio, or TV that now is more efficient to lookup on the internet. If I need to know the weather, I just type in weather and the name of my city. If I need to look up a phone number, I just do it on Google. A small device like you described could be very useful for those types of things.
The only real gadget I use is a travel alarm clock with a timer and alarm. I set it for a certain amount of time and then forget about it and what time it is, which allows me to focus that much more Psychic RAM on whatever I’m working on. It’s always visible slightly out of my primary field of view, but I hardly ever look at it, as there’s really no need to worry about the time.
Charlie Gilkey from Productive Flourishing (rss)
I think this is a very effective way to work. It is easier to commit yourself to a particular task when you have a specific amount of time in mind.
Jott.com, in conjunction with my cell phone, lets me send reminders to myself via email and/or text message. It’s especially useful when I’m driving or running errands, and don’t want to fumble around for paper.
Eva Holtz from College Admissions Secrets (rss)
That sounds a lot safer than trying to type yourself a message on your phone keyboard. :)
I find too many gadgets can just get in the way and slow you down. However, if you can find something simple, that does something well, it can be a great boost. Two software gadgets I use are gmail.com and jott.com – gmail for managing all my email accounts and jott for text-to-email phone call notes to myself.
John Koontz from West Coast Shaving
This is a good point. It comes down to having a purpose for each gadget and understanding what you are trying to accomplish. I’v seen people so focused on trying to have a perfect gadget setup that they waste more time than they would have without using their gadget at all.
Thanks for publishing my answer, Mark – for me this was a trip down memory lane. It’s proof of how fast-moving and fickle the gadget industry is! I no longer use an iPaq (I’ve had an iPhone since they came out in Australia) and I swapped the Mac mini and iBook out for an iMac and Macbook Pro. And unfortunately I stopped going to the studios and subsequently lost the old iPod nano somewhere in the house. ;)
Lots of cool suggestions! I’m glad to see the love for the iPod touch. At first, I couldn’t figure out a real use for mine, but since the App Store explosion, I’ve come to depend on it. E-mail, Amazon Kindle, basic functions like address book and calculator, audio for podcasts/audiobooks and plain’ ol music, and of course, GAMES.
My essential gadgets: the iPod touch, the Levenger Pocket Briefcase and, reluctantly, my cell phone (need to upgrade that sucker).
Thanks for the great article, Mark. It’s funny how technology changes. Where I work, we have gone from cell phones back to pagers for our technology staff, due to budget cutbacks. We actually get better response, since the pager can have a text message instead of just going to voice mail on the cell phone.
All of our techs are at sites with regular phones or e-mail, so they can respond in minutes. Simple change… but it saves quite a bit of money and actually works better.
Thanks for including my response! I just have to update one small detail since my original answer: since Jott went to a pay-only model, I’ve started using Dial2Do, a similar, free service that allows you to dictate voice to SMS, email, Twitter, and several other services.
@John – That is very interesting to hear. I was looking for a pager a while back and had trouble finding anyone who still had them. So how does it work? If someone calls the pager number, is there a live person who transcribes the message that gets sent to the pager?
@Damian – Good to know.
@Joel – I got a bit behind on publishing the interviews, so these are a bit dated, but the information is still pretty useful. :) Thanks for participating.
Mark, Thanks for publishing my response! Great article…it’s so interesting to see what other people are using….Am I the last person in the country that doesn’t have a PDA or Blackberry? LOL
Interesting to note how so many people think it’s a good idea to learn while they drive. How about asking yourself this though; are you focussing on the actual task at hand? By which of course, I am referring to driving a motor vehicle which weighs over a ton and is capable of over 100 mph.
As a biker, I am forever facing dangerous drivers who are distracted from what is taking place in front of them by their phones, mp3 players and sat navs. i would strongly suggest that drivers need to re-prioritise their needs; it is to get home safely which paying due care to other road users, and not to catch up on their emails and e-learning while they drive. Any thoughts?
@Toby – I don’t usually listen to lectures while driving around town, but I do play lectures and books on tapes when I’m on a long trip. Most of the time these are on roads that bicycles aren’t allowed on anyway.
Keep in mind that on a long trip, listening to something engaging may keep your mind more alert than just driving hundreds of miles just looking at the road.
@Mark – Sorry, I was referring to a motorcycle. :) In the UK at any rate, it is also legal for us bikers to filter through traffic, however car drivers are forever changing lanes because they’ve spotted a gap, without looking behind themselves.
I have been sideswipped too many times to be convinced that anyone out there is capable of learning while driving; motoring is definitely a single-task rather than a multi-task function.
If your concentration is starting to flag, this is usually due to fatigue, and motorists are advised to pull over in a suitable parking space, stretch their legs, have a nap or cup of coffee if necessary, before recommencing their journey.
Concentration while driving is a skill which has to be developed, though ultimately, if a motorist is physically incapable of maintaining their concentration then I would suggest they seek another form of transport.
@Toby – I agree that if you are actually getting tired, you need to pull over. However, there is also the issue of just getting bored and that is where listening to something can help. As I said I turn the stereo off when I’m going through a busy city or in traffic.
Also keep in mind that there may be a big difference in driving experience between the UK and the US. Wikipedia claims that in the UK, you are 40 to 50 times more likely to die driving a mile on a motorcycle. However, in the US you are only about 3 times more likely to die driving a mile on a motorcycle as another vehicle. I’m guessing that the driving conditions are significantly different for motorcycles to be that much more dangerous over there. Your entire driving experience may be worse than the traffic where I routinely turn the stereo off in the US.
I haven’t ever been to the UK, but I do know that you can travel across your entire country in about 1/3 the time it takes me to go on one of our average trips. Also it is not uncommon to be driving for periods without any other cars within 1/4 of a mile–sometimes there are no other cars in sight.
Everyone is different and I agree with your premise that you shouldn’t do things that are going to impede your driving abilities. However, the times I’m listening to books and lectures I don’t feel it hurts my driving ability in fact I think it helps it. I do not feel that way about talking on the phone while driving.
I hate driving anywhere near motorcycles because I’ve seen too many of them do crazy things on the road. I once watched someone on a motorcycle weaving through heavy Dallas traffic with their front wheel in the air. I don’t have a way of judging how likely a particular person on a motorcycle is to do something dangerous or erratic, so I try to avoid them as much as possible. Drivers of cars do crazy things too, but at least I don’t have to worry about them falling off their cars and directly under my tires.