Fresh Focus On Productivity!™

Welcome back!

That’s the motto of Dial2Do, a free voice-to-text service that lets you make a phone call to record reminders and send email and text messages. Since I often think of things I need to do or tell someone while I’m away from my desk or out of the office, this has become one of my most frequently used productivity tools.

You can use it with a cell phone or land line as long as caller ID is enabled (so they can recognize your incoming call).

After you’ve registered for a free account (it only takes a couple of minutes) you’ll need to add the contact information for the folks you want to email or text. You can do this manually or import from Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo, or Jajah.  You’re “limited” to 100 names.

Now you’re ready to use the service.  Just call the dial2Do number.  Tell them what you want to do and record your message.

When they answer they’ll ask you “what would you like to do?”

If you say “reminder” they’ll send you an email with the details.

If you say “email” they’ll ask for the contact name.  They’ll send that person an email with your recorded message.

Here’s the part I really love, since I’m “all thumbs” when it comes to texting.  If you say “text” they’ll ask for the contact name.  They’ll send that person a text (SMS) message that says what you recorded.

You won’t have to fumble with your phone, abbreviate every other word, or take your eyes off the road while driving.  Use your wireless headset with voice control and you can happily practice safe texting.  Shhh…don’t tell my granddaughter this trick…she thinks I finally figured out how to master the tiny keyboard on my cell phone.

I’ve discovered one small glitch with the texting capability and that’s the fact that the recipient can’t reply to the message since it comes from Dial2Do and not the sender’s phone number. So tell folks up front that they’ll have to send you a new message when you text them this way.

With just a little more setup work, you can configure your Dial2Do account to perform a few more amazing tricks like

• listen to your email
• hear your local weather
• add appointments to your Google calendar
• post to your Twitter, FriendFeed, or HelloTxt account
• listen to your favorite news feeds
• post to your Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, or LiveJournal blog
• add a note to your Evernote notebook

All with a simple phone call.  Easy.  Handsfree.  All you have to do is talk.

Typing is so 20th century.  I’m almost ready to put my pencils up for sale on Craigslist.
____________________________
Sheryl is a CPA, author, teacher, and consultant who helps new business owners with their choice of business structure and teaches them how to manage their finances and maximize their tax deductions.  She’s the founder of the Business Startup Success Club, author of “Save $100’s in Taxes With a Home Office Deduction ” and frequently writes about free software and services and productivity tips on her blog at SherylSchuff.com.

__________________________________________________________


You've read the series, now get the E-Book! Special EXTRA material not included in the blog series, plus three FREE templates!! Templates included are Time Management Matrix, Goal worksheet, and The Completion Journal. Only $24.99 for the book!


__________________________________________________________

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Want to take a peek into David Allen’s office? So did I. I found this video on YouTube and thought that you might enjoy it too. Take a look inside David’s life!

__________________________________________________________


You've read the series, now get the E-Book! Special EXTRA material not included in the blog series, plus three FREE templates!! Templates included are Time Management Matrix, Goal worksheet, and The Completion Journal. Only $24.99 for the book!


__________________________________________________________

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Guest Post by Tejas Patel

GTD – Getting Things Done. I have been following GTD wagon for quite some time now and I have unknowingly dropped off the wagon many times. Upon thinking the main reason, it is the because I was not religious and disciplined about getting weekly review done. I am very much self motivated these days when it comes to weekly GTD review.

Although I have read David Allen’s "Getting Things Done" book once and understand the underlying concept, I have modified my GTD system to suit me and above all to make me productive while enjoying the process of GTD. But I follow the principles of which weekly review is one. I get juiced up and I get an enjoyment in doing my reviews which I schedule normally on a weekend. The weekly review leaves me with a clear head and with a feeling of satisfaction and calmness. GTD process is reviewed here .

I can break down the ‘Joy’ factor into following three factors:

1. Keeping me on track with my projects: – Without weekly reviews, I would not be religiously reviewing my projects every week. With reviews, I know what I have done so far and what I need to do next to get it moving in the right direction. I schedule the next appropriate action. I work of multiple projects simultaneously and what I do is with weekly review, I decide which projects I will be focusing on coming week and schedule things where applicable and put some dates in the Calendar.
2. Feeling of Accomplishment: – Being ambitious about getting the work done, it gives me a feeling of accomplishment every week when I see all the tasks I have completed (during the week) which are taking me closer to the project completion.This normally gives me a extra boost to get more things completed in the coming week and to improve on my ways of getting the tasks completed.
3. Overview of what’s coming next week: – While I am setting up the tasks for my projects for the coming week, I also put entries in my Calendar and/or in my RTM project list of dates when I am going to work on the task. This gives me a direction and sets up my work load. Upon finishing the review process, I know exactly what all tasks I am going to work on in the coming week and what needs to be done.

So knowing that my projects are on track or knowing what I can do to get them on track and having a clarity about my next week gives me a clear direction. For me ‘Clear Expectations’ + ‘Execution’ = ‘Awesome Results’. And getting closer to those ‘Awesome Results’ with a much more clear picture of the end gives me a great joy. Because of weekly review, I can schedule things that are more important to me rather than just working on most urgent tasks.

What joy do you get out of your GTD review?
___________________________________________
Tejas Patel is an information addict and works as a Training consultant in Melbourne, Australia. GTD follower and a avid social network participant and can be found on his blog at http://www.itejas.com or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/tejaaa

__________________________________________________________


You've read the series, now get the E-Book! Special EXTRA material not included in the blog series, plus three FREE templates!! Templates included are Time Management Matrix, Goal worksheet, and The Completion Journal. Only $24.99 for the book!


__________________________________________________________

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I’ve only had time to read this in short bursts and am on page 28, but take a look at all the page flags that I have for things that I want to review:

Yes, you can see about fifteen flags already. So that means I want to revisit and re-ponder half of the book already! This book is REALLY FREAKIN’ GOOD. 

From what I’ve read so far, Making It All Work goes in depth into the thought process and psyche as to why GTD can and does work. I read the review from the Publishers Weekly that is on the Amazon site, and have to say that the reviewer that did the review either didn’t really read the whole book, or had their head up their ass.

This book tells the “WHY” of GTD and WHY it works the way that it does, due to factors of how our brains and minds operate (or don’t). Granted, if you want to learn GTD this isn’t the book with which to do that, but this IS the book that tells you why it works and helps you to see further within your psyche. I am a big WHY person and have a lot smoother time being able to cement things in my brain when I know the “why” of it.

It puts me at a conundrum though as to which to read first. Either could be first, but I think reading Getting Things Done first is the better way to go, because David Allen refers to so many things from GTD.

Regardless, this book is a great read and I highly recommend it to anyone. It has spurred lots of thoughts for post to publish on FFOP, so it will be exciting to see how the posts progress the further I get into the book.

Have you purchased it yet or started to read it? What are your thoughts? Tell me in the comments!

__________________________________________________________


You've read the series, now get the E-Book! Special EXTRA material not included in the blog series, plus three FREE templates!! Templates included are Time Management Matrix, Goal worksheet, and The Completion Journal. Only $24.99 for the book!


__________________________________________________________

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!