The Action Machine is a piece of down loadable software that you can program in your tasks – and then lovely large visual timers to each task or project you assign.   The beauty of this program for those things you tend to procrastinate around – you can set a short timer – and make a commitment to do at least that amount of time.   10 Minutes is usually enough to get me started on something I have been putting off.

The second cool thing about this piece of software – is if you have any illusion about how much time things take you to accomplish…. you can set up the timers – and really find out – just how much time you have been spending on things.    How much time does it really take to get thru all of those emails?     What would happen if you allowed yourself 30minutes?  Would you move on to other things.

I like this program idea.  It’s a great way to create some structure around time.

You can do the same thing with paper, and yet…there is something alluring about using the visual aids of timers.  There is also the small piece about “giving yourself permission”  to call a day  – a day.   When there is always more to do – this is one way to use a tool to help you limit the size of your plate for the day.

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• Listen to recordings Faster… well almost

FasterAudio

I listen to 10-15 hours of audio a week on average – not including the email I listen to using another one of my favorite tools … TextAloud.   When a fellow coach -mentioned I could easily save 20minutes on every 1 hour of recordings that I was listening to – I was really excited.  If I could reclaim 20 minutes x5 recordings a day – that is 1 hour regained where I can be focusing my mind elsewhere.

If you are someone who lives as if time were money… did you know … if you earn 100,000 a year, 1 hour not wasted each day could save you around 4200.00 in a year?  That was enough for me to lay out  the 65.00 to have a easy-peasy way to convert my mp3 and wav files to be faster.

I think there are those that offer this service for no cost… a quick Google Search give me a number of links to similar tools – but they didn’t seem to have the “easy-peasy” factor going for them.   I found the investment well worth it – when you count in the audio files they included on how to increase your listening speed skill set.

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• Using Multiple Timers

I have been using Jott.com now since February of 2009  – and every day I am finding ways to make the system work well for me.   One of the things I have discovered is that when I am working at my desk – it is faster for me to use a JOTT EXPRESS  a Outlook add-in to quickly add tasks to my Outlook tasks and Calendars as well as a number of other places such as Smart Sheets.    When I am away from my desk – I use Jott.com and call in my tasks and appointments.   My new process when I am working at my desk I use Jott Express to capture the task or appointment.   By usiing Jott Express I don’t need to interrupt my work flow in order to capture my idea, thought, action step, meeting or what ever.  It’s fast.

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• Jott.com If You Like to Talk-it-Out
• Freemind – an Open Source Mind Mapping Tool
• Intention Statements – Free Software Tool to Program Your Mind

On Wiggio, you can share and edit files, manage a group calendar, poll your group, post links, set up conference calls, chat online and send mass text, voice and email messages to your group members. Each group member can define how they want to keep informed of group activity. For a complete overview of what your group can do on Wiggio, click on the following video:

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• Using SmartSheet for Team Collaboration

When I am away from my laptop – and I remember a task for a project component or I am making an appointment with someone – I just call it in to Jott – and it sends a message to MS Outlook .  It creates a prompt the task or Calendar entry. -  I get a chance to edit it for additional details.  I have found this a great way to be productive while I am sitting waiting for appointments .  I have even used it while I am standing in line at Costco!

The web-based software uses voice to text technology to convert what I am saying into text.  For the most part – the conversion has been “spot-on” in its translation – and the few times – it is not exactly as I had said it – it is pretty darn close – close enough for me to a quick edit for it.

The real test for me will be in a couple of weeks while I am on the road travelling.  I can already see how this is going to save me even more time.

One of the functions that I have not tested out is the voice-to-twitter function.  I must admit  – it sounds appealing – and yet my trust factor is still building for this function.  I am looking forward to doing a little experimentation when I have time.

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• Jott Express – Use it with Jott
• Freemind – an Open Source Mind Mapping Tool
• Intention Statements – Free Software Tool to Program Your Mind

The best part of this – is that I can now – run a sequence of checking emails, membership sites, and blogs in an order from my Speed Dial page. It’s quick, it’s efficient – and more than anything else – it gives me a visual map of where I am going to.

T he Product: Speed Dial for Firefox 2.0

The Marketing Blurb: "With Speed Dial, you can easily access your most used websites"

The Product Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4810

My Experience: Super Duper!

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• Read Blogs of Interest with A News Feed Reader
• Fill in your Log-name and Passwords with Ease

Here are some online sources of Virtual Assistants:

www.getfriday.com -Overseas assistance – lower cost
www.ivaa.org – virtual Assistant Networking Association
www.virtualassitanceu.com – you can submit a request for proposal and receive info from many different VA’s in training.
www.vacertification.com

Google " Virtual Assistant Training" and you will get a few options – and your biggest assistance would to be to ask for a referral from someone. The very best way to find an excellent VA is to ask for and get referrals.

Expect to pay 30-60/hr and to commit to a retainer for Virtual Assistants.

Here are a couple of Virtual Assistants I have been referred to:’
Virtual Accurracy
http://www.victoriabusinesssolutions.com/
www.assistu.com
deborahc@vascorp.com or her phone number is 905-474-0955.
Peggy Murrah. peggy@onepagewebdesign.com

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• Virtual Assistants 2 – Social Media

The Marketing Blurb: "The great thing about Reader, is it lets you follow sites more effeciently than you could just by visiting them directly"

What it is: A free feed (rss) reader

What it does: provides a central reading place for all the newsfeeds you are interested in. A nice drag and drop function lets you easily organize folders and move feeds between folders and well as re-order thing sup and down your list. One of the nice functions of this reader is that there is no software to install

Product link: Google Reader

My Experience: I have used NewsGator and for longest time now Bloglines for my online feed reader. What is different about Google’s reader frankly is that it seems easier to read – and anything that makes my life easier – I am all over it.

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• Using Speed Dial Tools – Get it Done Faster!
• Fill in your Log-name and Passwords with Ease

The Marketing Blurb:“Empowering users to construct, navigate, share and criticize knowledge models represented as concept maps”

Software, self-hosted, no cost if for personal use.

The Product Link:http://cmap.ihmc.us/download/

What it does: Among a lot of other things – CMAP tools is a wonderful product to use when you need to create a concept map of a series of directional steps. Any planning activity that requires a series of forward moving steps is handled quite nicely by this program. You can also do a lot of other things with this program – Have a look at their home page where you can find details about functionality and different versions that are available.

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