Three Pieces of Software I Use (Almost) Daily
There are three programs that I’ve found quite helpful recently, and I thought I’d share them in case they’ll help someone else.
Journler: One is a program for Mac’s called Journler. If you have a Mac I highly recommend it. You can set it up to be your todo list, your journal, or to take notes on all the projects you may be managing. It’s highly customizable, so you can pretty much set it up to be whatever system you want to use. There are also people who have configured it to work with Getting Things Done principles.
Zoho: Another is a web-based software suite called Zoho. It’s a competitor to Google, but with much more business-orientated instead of consumer-orientated products. They have equivalents to Google spreadsheets, Google docs, and even one-up Google by having a project management system, a todo list (called Planner), a database creator, and more. Unfortunately, it takes a bit more to get used to as it’s not as consumer friendly, but it’s some really useful webware. It’s worth noting that I’ve moved away from most of Zoho’s products of late (in favor of Journler for todo lists and project management), but I still am a big fan of Zoho Creator, the database creator.
GTDInbox: Finally, if you use Firefox 3 (which I now recommend: check out here), there’s an add-on for Gmail called GTDInbox. It solves the problem of the inbox by allowing you to tag things “Action”, “Waiting On” and “Finished”. You can click on the “Action” button, and it shows you only the emails you’ve tagged that you need to do something about, or “waiting on” and it shows you what you are waiting on people to reply to, and “finished” which is when an email conversation is done, but you may want to reference it later. You can also organize emails by context and project, in true GTD fashion. It’s pretty slick.
I hope these help someone. Or at very least provide a fun way to procrastinate a couple hours by checking them out while the work keeps piling up.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Abe : Thanks for using Zoho and writing about us! We will try to make the Zoho services more consumer friendly (though businesses are the perfect fit).
June 27th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Hey Abe,
great tips. Just downloading Journler. Adding the GTD plugin as well. Im a Zoho fan as well. love their CRM package and invoicing tools. I noticed you like their PM tool as well. Iv checked out the Zoho PM tool but i wasnt too impressed. Like you said, in some of their products the interface is lacking. I use Deskaway and its brilliant particularly because of the interface. helps me integrate my business better and be in more control - do take a look.
PS - have u seen the Better Gmail Plugin for Firefox? Also since ur a blogger i suggest Scribefire.