My buddy Gene told me about a cool tool that is very helpful with time boxing. The tool is called "TimeLeft" and it is a very versatile tool for creating countdown timers, activity timers, and things like that. When you install it, it creates a "Happy New Year" countdown timer by default, and you can create your own timers. You can also customize the appearance of the timers, so you can tell them apart on sight - they just hover over your Windows desktop so you can glance at them to see the status (it's not as distracting as it sounds.
Useful countdowns
Countdown timers can be quite useful. For example, I created a countdown timer to help me keep track of how many shopping days remained for me to get my Christmas gifts delivered on time. I am currently tracking the time left until I have to turn in PowerPoint slides for a project at work. Yes, I often just set reminders in Outlook, but for some high-priority projects the countdown is just what I need to remind me to focus on the project.
Time boxing
You can create one or more general purpose timers with TimeLeft, and each timer has a pause and a reset icon on it so you can restart the countdown. This is useful for time boxing and GTD (create a 2-minute timer like the one David Allen recommends), so you can keep projects or sub-projects from taking more time than you intend.
Timeleft is very cool -- way better than I thought it would be from Gene's simple description -- but its amazingly simple, yet customizable, interface is powerful. On the site, you can see the plethora of features included in TimeLeft.
Try it, and I think you'll like it (Windows only - sorry Mac folks). There is a free version and a pay version, with the main difference being that the free version limits the number of timers you can use at any given time.
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I just read the sad news about the passing of one of my favorite friends and personalities in tech, GTD, and just being an all around neat guy - Marc Orchant. I never met Marc in the flesh, but he touched my life in a lot of ways. He was funny, smart, kind, and supportive.
We talked a lot on email, and followed each others blogs regularly. He helped me get mirrored on OfficeZealot a long time ago. I took Marc's Microsoft Outlook online course. But most of all, I just liked Marc and loved his energy and perspective.
I miss you, Marc. My thoughts and prayers to Marc's family.
You can read a wonderful tribute to Marc on bub.blicio.us, which is where this picture came from (photographer: Brian Solis).
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I was chatting with a friend of mine about data backup this week and he mentioned he'd seen my previous write-up about Mozy, which I use (and love) for data backup at home. What he didn't realize was that Mozy is only $4.95 per month for UNLIMITED data backup (he thought you had to pay based on the data volume). It's a good deal and very reliable.
By the way - I got a notification from Mozy the other day with two pieces of good news:
To get the 10% discount, click this link, then use the codes for December on the signup page: DECEMBER gets you 10% off of an annual subscription to Mozy, and DECEMBERY gets you 10% off of a 2-year Mozy subscription (which is already cheaper on a per-year cost basis).
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If you're looking for a new way to track RSS feeds on your mobile phone, take a look at Plusmo. What's a "Plusmo" you ask? Plusmo is a free service that lets you run cool mobile widgets on your phone. Mobile widgets are tiny apps that offer a much better mobile experience for a specific purpose. There are over 20,000 widgets on Plusmo, most of them created by users.
I discovered it because someone is using it to read my RSS feed, and it showed up in Feedburner's report this month as an "Uncommon use" for my feed. Naturally, I was curious so I tried it out and I really like it. You can use Plusmo to "widgetize" any RSS feed (blogs, news feeds, etc.), as well as use existing widgets. One thing I like: it syncs the content to your device so you can read it when you aren't online (like on an airplane) - that helps me use my time more effectively.
What can I monitor?
To give you an idea of what you can monitor with Plusmo, you can subscribe to local weather & traffic, news headlines, comic strips, sports, and loads of other widgets. Plusmo installs an app on your phone that manages displaying and synchronization of content, and it allows you to easily add, remove, and tweak widgets.
Plusmo supports all J2ME MIDP 2.0 and MIDP 1.0 enabled mobile phones, RIM/Blackberry devices, Windows Mobile Smart phones and Pocket PC enables PDAs. Currently, it only supports AT&T / Cingular and Sprint as carriers, but they are adding new carriers and supported devices all the time - you can see the current list of Plusmo's supported devices on their site (the list of carriers is on their FAQ page).
To install, the easiest way is to point your phone's browser at http://plusmo.com and follow the instructions. You can also sign up via their site, which will use your choice of SMS or email to send an install link to your phone.
Read MoreI've been using a Blackberry with a full keyboard for quite a while, and have always been frustrated about dialing letters or words since the Blackberry doesn't have any kind of indicator what letters go with which numbers. For example, when I want to dial by name on a company phone system, I have resorted to doing the mapping in my head: something like "Let's see...ABC is 2, DEF is 3... dangit!"
Well, I just found out there is a much easier way: When you have to dial by name, wait for the prompt and simply press and hold down the "Alt" key on the Blackberry and use the keyboard to type the name you are trying to dial. The Blackberry will automagically send the right tone to match what you've typed. Awesome time saver.
When dialing 1-800-Whatever, the same technique applies - just punch that into the dialing field in the Blackberry's phone screen, and it will do the math for you.
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Bonus feature:
If you work for a company that uses a main number with an automated menu where you can dial individual extensions, try this. Type an extension into the phone screen (such as "x123") and the Blackberry will prompt you to set up your phone for automatic enterprise dialing.
After this is set up, you can simply type the extension number for anyone in your company into your Blackberry. The Blackberry will then dial your main number, pause for the specified number of seconds, then punch in the extension number. |
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