Two Lifesaving Productivity Tools

Nothing excites me more than being able to streamline my day to get more done effectively. Often through college I found getting organized difficult; to often I found myself missing meetings, forgetting important pieces of information, I had to find something that worked for me.

Back then it was the simple Moleskine, both ruled and unruled and their calendar. These tools I carried with me everywhere. I used an Outlook calendar to transcribe my writing then print out and carry it with me as a visual aid when planning my time.

I actually became pretty successful and it made the last three years of college so much easier.

Today as a professional I've learned to keep to my handy Moleskines, but I've also expanded to use digital tools. By doing this I have found that I could leave everything I use behind, but as long as there was a computer with a connection I still could view my information.

Today two of the most effective productivity tools I use are Jott, a versatile way of transcribing messages to myself and others over the phone, and secondly, Evernote, an online "binder" where you can clip pieces of information taken from online, or via your phone. I have learned to utilize these tools to keep both myself and my contacts informed of my schedule. Let's look into this further.

Jott
I first heard about Jott last year and thought it would be an interesting thing to try out. I shared it with my coworker who said that she had no use for it, and felt it was something she would never remember to use to begin with. Not to be swayed I got an account and adjusted my settings and put it on speed dial on my cell phone. Jott captures what you say on the phone and transcribes it to an email or text message, and can also attach the original audio recording. Spelling is not always dead on, but more often than not I am amazed at how exact it can be.

Now that I have an account with Jott I call when an idea comes to me, or when I wanted to remember someone's information and I did not have a pen. It came in handy for shopping lists; I could check Jott later when I was at the store and have my list waiting for me. Gone where the days of forgetting.

Since then Jott has added functionality that lets you post to your Blog, your Twitter account, and even send items directly to your Outlook. This increased functionality just made Jott better and more effective.

If you're not using Jott, why not?

If you need more convincing, check out these articles:

Making Voicemail More Like Email
Killer App For Cell Phones: Jott
Jott Integrates with More Networks From Your Mobile

Evernote
I recently reviewed Evernote, thanks to @SuzeMuse, who graciously shared an invite with me. I played around with Evernote and at first I thought it was redundant because if I wanted to save information from my computer I only had to bookmark it. Well in experimenting with Evernote it became more obvious to me that I was thinking too narrowly. Not only can I save pieces of information, photos, and other links, the caveat is, I can save only what I want, as opposed to having to scour a web page later for what I liked about it. On top of that using my phone to send directly to Evernote, I can take photos of signs, napkin notes, events, people, ideas, art, etc, and send it directly to Evernote where I can process it later.

Evernote lets you set up labels to categorize your "clippings." You can choose for the clippings to be private or public, but sharing opens up a whole new world of searching and finding exactly what you need. Evernote is both a web app and a desktop app, but no matter what, one syncs with the other and you have access to your clippings anywhere you go.

Already I've used it to capture information from fliers, brochures, and menus. I have decided to no longer take these aforementioned papers home, just a quick photo and I can save that information inside Evernote and know what I want before I even leave the house.

Evernote has been in the news as well. Here are a few articles:

Evernote Offers Backup for Your Brain
Extend Your Brain with Evernote

Check out Lifehacker for an article on how to combine Jott and Evernote for effective productivity.

What tools do you use in a day that make you more effective? I'd like to hear how people capture their ideas, words, and sights!

Photo Credit, Paul Worthington