joshua zerkel skyrocket your productivity with online tools

Skyrocket Your Productivity with Online Tools

Joshua Zerkel, Certified Professional Organizer®

All content copyright 2003-2010 Custom Living Solutions. All rights reserved. May not be duplicated or distributed without permission.

www.customlivingsolutions.com

www.profitableproductivitytips.com

Key areas of productivity



Let’s define “the cloud”

What are online tools?

• Software as a service (SaaS)

• Lives online

• You pay monthly or yearly (if at all)



Pros of going to “the cloud”

Why use online tools?

• Easy setup

• Cross-platform

• No software upgrades or IT needs

• Additional backup

• Usually cheap!



Cons of going to “the cloud”

Why NOT use online tools?

• Need to be connected

• Different UI than desktop software

• Security

• Will this company be around in a year?

• Never “own” software



The parameters for our list:

The rules

• Web-based

• Cross-platform

• Has real utility

• I’ve tried it

• Under $25/month (per user)



How we’ll be looking at our choices

Evaluation criteria

• What it is

• Why you’d want it

• Ways to use it

• Cost



The types of tools and services we’ll be looking at

Our categories

• Scheduling

• Collaboration

• Social Media

• Notes, Ideas, and To-Do Lists

• Paper & Document Management

• Multiple Computers and Backup



Scheduling: TimeTrade

• What it is:

– Online self-scheduling tool

• Why you’d want it:

– You don’t have time to play phone/email tag to set up

appointments

• Ways to use it:

– Let leads self-schedule phone consults

– Clients can self-schedule meetings

• Cost: $30/yr



Scheduling: TimeTrade



Scheduling: Doodle

• What it is:

– Online individual and group scheduling tool


– Because scheduling multiple people can be hair-

pullingly frustrating

• Ways to use it:

– Team meetings without shared calendars

– Client meetings

– VA scheduling for you

• Cost: Free; $29/yr for Premium (ad free, reminders)



Scheduling: Doodle



Collaboration: Basecamp

• What it is:

– Collaboration and project management tool for inside and

outside your company


– To help keep track of all the pieces of working on a large

project – to-do’s, messages, files, milestones, and more

• Ways to use it:

– Manage to-do’s for your team (or just yourself)

– Communicate and centralize changes to a client project

– Share business development and marketing ideas with a

consultant

• Cost:

– $24/month for Basic plan, 15 projects, 5 GB storage



Collaboration: Basecamp



Social Media: Postling

• What it is:

– Central dashboard for keeping up with your profiles


– To sidestep the social-media time suck

• Ways to use it:

– Pre-schedule all your posts for a month

– Track and reply to all comments from one spot

– Have your assistant report back on all your social media

activity

• Cost: Free for basic profile management; $25/month for RSS,

tracking Yelp & CitySearch, reposting items, and web stats



Social Media: Postling



Notes, Ideas & To-Do’s: Evernote

• What it is:

– Online and software-based system for keeping track of notes,

photos, website, ideas, and more


– To get things out of your head an into a searchable system

• Ways to use it:

– Take photos of whiteboards, notes and napkins from

meetings for searching later

– Create a notebook for an upcoming meeting with notes,

research, and related web sites

– Create a shared notebook for each client with websites or

resources they could find useful

• Cost: Free; $45/year for Pro (more storage, sharing, syncs files)



Notes, Ideas & To-Do’s: Evernote



Notes, Ideas & To-Do’s: ReQall

• What it is:

– Voice-to-text memory aid


– So you won’t forget important things while you’re on

the go

• Ways to use it:

– Automatically transcribe client meeting notes

– Send tasks to your VA while on the road

– Create notes or to-do’s for you to handle later

• Cost: Free; $25/year for Pro (Integration w/ other

tools, GPS enabled)



Notes, Ideas & To-Do’s: ReQall



Paper: Shoeboxed

• What it is:

– Receipt & business card scanning and database

service


– To finally get those business cards & receipts

scanned!

• Ways to use it:

– Scan receipts and create reports for bookkeeper

– Get biz cards into your contact manager

– Eliminate (or at least reduce) stored receipts

• Cost: $10/month, 50 scans



Shoeboxed – Getting documents in

You can:

Send mail

Forward email

Snap with

smartphone



Shoeboxed – Analyzing your receipts

Shoeboxed captures:

• Vendor name

• Payment type

• Total expense

• Purchase date

• Auto-categorizes

your items



Shoeboxed – Organizing your stuff

Shoeboxed scans,

data-enters, verifies,

organizes, and

categorizes

everything

Easily search

expenses



Shoeboxed – Creating reports

Easily create:

• Expense reports

• Category reports

• View individual

transactions

• Search and sort

by vendor, date,

etc.

• …and more!



Shoeboxed – Business cards

Shoeboxed captures:

• First Name

• Last Name

• Company

• Phone number(s)

• Email

• Address(es)

You’ll also be able to

view the front and back

of the scanned cards!



Paper: OfficeDrop

• What it is:

– Document scanning and database service


– To reduce paper without scanning

• Ways to use it:

– Create a virtual file cabinet

– Send OfficeDrop all your mail for scanning, then you

can process online later

– Clients can send their documents to OfficeDrop and

you can access them

• Cost: $15/month, 50 pages scanned



OfficeDrop – How it works



OfficeDrop – Getting documents in

You can also:

Email

Scan

Send paper

Sync with QB

Supported doc types: pdf, doc, docx, ppt, xls, xlsx, odt, ods, odg,

odp, txt, rtf, html, tiff, png, gif and jpg



OfficeDrop – Organizing your documents

Organize your way:

Folders

Labels



OfficeDrop – Viewing your documents

Retrieve & collaborate

• Search

• Browse

• Share docs

• Download

• Send to Evernote



Multiple Computers & Backup: Mozy

• What it is:

– Super-simple online backup


– Because it’s essential to backup your data

• Ways to use it:

– Backup just your key files

– Backup everything on your computer

• Cost: Free (2 GB), $5.99/mo (50 GB)



Multiple Computers & Backup: Mozy



Q&A



The Profitable Productivity System

– Filled with tips to help you

manage your paper, space,

time and technology

– 4 CDs plus an interactive

workbook

www.profitableproductivitysystem.com



Special Offers

Email Me!

[email protected]

For access to every tool and app in the presentation,

as well as these special discounts:

OfficeDrop: $10 Off First Month or Bulk Scanning

Postling: 10% Off Postling Premium

joshua zerkel skyrocket your productivity with online tools

Technology

selfscheduling tool

group scheduling tool

scheduling multiple

socialmedia time suck

online individual

social mediaactivity

track of notes

cloud software