Week 15: Other Productivity Tools

This week, you’ll learn about some cool tools to manage tasks, reminders, and to-do lists. I’ll tell you a little bit about two tools – Remember The Milk and Jott – and give you a chance to play with them in the assignments. In this week’s reminder email, there are some passwords and other information you’ll need to complete this lesson. You might want to dig up the email right now, if you don’t have it handy!

Listen to this week’s podcast and then read the info below. If you have any questions about anything along the way, be sure to contact us —we’re happy to help!

Remember the Milk
Remember the Milk has the features of a traditional to-do list. You can set up multiple lists, sort tasks, set due dates, set priorities, and add notes. You can print a weekly planner of tasks. But what makes Remember the Milk so nifty is its “Web 2.0”-ness:

• Share lists and tasks: If you’re working with a group of people who are all Remember The Milk users, you can share a list and all update it together. You can send tasks to other people (a great way to get rid of the things you really don’t want to do!!)
• Publish lists: …or if you’d like other people who aren’t Remember the Milk users to see a list, you can publish it, and it will be automatically updated when the list changes.
• Tag your tasks: Not only can you divide tasks by lists, you can also tag them to further categorize them. A tag cloud appears to show you which tags have the most tasks.
• Get reminders by email, IM, or text message: No matter what you use to communicate online, you can get task reminders via your preferred method.
• Interact with other web services: Remember the Milk interfaces with many, many other web services. You can see your tasks in Google Calendar, Gmail, or iGoogle. You can set up locations for your tasks and plan the best route via Google Maps.
• Access with your mobile device: Remember the Milk has special versions for Windows Mobile, iPhone, iPod Touch, and other mobile devices (like phones and PDAs).
• Import tasks through email: Your Remember the Milk account has a unique email address. You can email a task to it with the list you want the task to appear on as the subject, and it will automatically appear in your task list.
• The flexibility and features of Remember the Milk let you use it in a way that makes sense for you and fits into your current routine.

Jott
Jott has a very simple purpose: you call a phone number, speak a message, and the message is converted to text and sent somewhere. It’s the “sent somewhere” part where things get interesting…

Using Jott, you can send a message to:

• Your own email address: Let’s say you’re walking down the street, and remember something you have to do that’s important. Call Jott and it will send a message to your email so you don’t lose the thought.
• Someone else’s email address: You can add as many contacts as you would like, so you can Jott friends, family, and co-workers.
• Groups: You can send a Jott to a bunch of people at one time.
• Your blog: Yep, that’s right. You can Jott your blog. You can talk on your phone and your speech will be converted to text and displayed on your blog. You can see how this worked for me here.
• Google Calendar: You can send events right to your calendar from your phone.
• Remember the Milk: What? That’s right!! You can send a task to Remember the Milk right from your phone. (and, if you don’t believe it, you’ll have a chance to try it as an optional assignment in just a minute!!)

So, while the concept is simple, what you can do with it is far from it. Jott is yet another illustration of how these productivity tools can actually make you MORE productive by interacting with other services you use, making it easier to keep everything in one place and to keep organized!

Required assignments:

1.Add a task to the Adventures in Technology sandbox list at Remember The Milk by sending an email.

• Start by beginning a new email message in your usual email application.
• Make the “To” for the email the address included in this week's reminder email.
• Make the subject “Adventures in Technology sandbox” (without the quotes)
• In the body of the message, put your name or pseudonym and a task. It can be an Adventure in Technology-related task, a silly task, or anything you’d like.
• A few seconds after you’ve sent the email, check the list at Remember the Milk to see if your task is there.

2. Blog about Remember the Milk and Jott – would they be helpful for you? What do you think about the interaction between these tools (and others that you’ve learned about)?

Optional assignments:

1. Edit the task you’ve added to the Adventure in Technology sandbox list at Remember The Milk.Change the priority, add a due date, or add some notes.

Here’s how:

a. Log in to Remember the Milk using the username & password that was in the email you received from your library system’s Project Play coordinator.

b. To get started, click on “Tasks” at the top of the screen.

c. Click on your task in the list, and then click on what you’d like to do in the right-hand pane.

d. Once you’re done, visit the published list to see how it’s changed.

2. Use your phone to add a task to our Adventures in Technology sandbox list in Remember the Milk using Jott! (mind-bending, isn’t it??).

Here’s how:

The first thing you’ll need to do is associate your phone number with the Adventures in Technology Jott account:

a. Log into the Jott website using the information included in the email you received from your weekly reminder email.

b. Click “My Account” up in the top right corner.

c. Click “Phone” in the left-hand frame.

d. Click "Add a new phone number" and type your phone number in the box provided.

e. Click “Add”.

f. Call 1-866-JOTT-123 and enter the validation number listed on the webist

Now you can add your item to the Adventures in Technology list in just a couple of steps:

a. When it asks who you would like to Jott, say “Adventures in Technology”.

c. Say what task you would like to show up on the list.

d. After a few minutes, check the Adventures in Technology list to see if your task appears.

Fun extra: 43 Things
Whether you want to write a book, be happy, or travel the world, you’re not alone. Want proof? Check out 43 things, a site where you can make lists of your goals, share them with others, and find people with similar goals. The 43 Things Zeitgeist Goals is a fun place to get started. It shows you most popular goals, new goals, and more.