9 tech tools for living simply
While technology can be a great addition to our daily lives, it can also be a huge distraction and consume way too much time if we’re not using it properly. But by putting smart tools to use, you can definitely cut down on a lot of your frustrations.
A number of these tools are centered around cloud computing, which by it’s very nature is a time saver and a way to simplify your life. It allows accessing the same information over multiple computers with nothing more than a web browser.
So here’s the list of nine tools I use on a daily basis to help simplify my life. They’re not all inclusive by any means but it’s what I’ve found to help me throughout the day.
- Launchy – Launchy is a free utility for Windows and Linux computers, designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager. I installed this a week ago at the suggestion of Leo Baubata and haven’t looked back. Now there’s no hunting menus for my programs. Just simply launch Launchy with the default “ALT+Spacebar”, quickly type the app in the pop-up window and I’m done. My website, computer folder or web bookmarks load instantly.
- Google Calendar – This is my go to calendar everyday. It’s free, available on any web browser, syncs to my BlackBerry calendar and also gives me alerts/reminders via e-mail and SMS text. It’s also great for sharing schedules and calendars with others — including over the web. I’ve started using Google Calendar to build calendars for work that are then published on our Intranet sites. Not only does it make publishing (and updating) a calendar a breeze, it looks sharp too.
- GMail – It took me a while to come around to GMail — but now I’m sold on it. I was always a fan of Thunderbird (Mozilla’s open source e-mail application), but I eventually came around to GMail and haven’t looked back. The user interface is great. The ads are minimal (at most). The search is amazing. Spam blocking is great. And if nothing else, I love the fact that I can keep my regular email and domains and use them within GMail. And like Google Calendar, I also love the ability to access all my e-mail from anywhere in the world with a simply web browser.
- Flickr (pro account) – If you do any digital photography or want to share photos with others, Flickr’s the best of the best in my book. And the pro account makes it even better — giving you unlimited storage and sharing of your photos. My wife and I have both had pro accounts ($25 a year per account) since we were married. We love the community we’ve found on Flickr as well and we love that you can customize who can and can’t see or download your photos We also love Flickr groups to allow multiple users an easy platform for sharing photos from various organizations and events.
- RSS feeds – This has got to be my number one way for finding and consuming information. If you’re unfamiliar with RSS, take a couple minutes and watch Common Craft’s great explanation video. RSS essentially brings blogs and websites to you — rather than you needing to visit each and every website to find the latest information. I personally subscribe to 300 or so news sources/blogs and by using Google Reader (yes another Google product) I can scroll all these blogs rather quickly with their keyboard shortcuts. If you’re reading more than a few blogs or news sources, you’ll save LOADS of time by subscribing to RSS feeds in a reader of your choice.
And while you’re at it, be sure and subscribe to our RSS feed as well.
- Using a Wiki for collaboration – One of the most frustrating things about e-mail is how horrible it is to collaborate with a team or group on something. Someone will send an e-mail out to a group, someone else will reply by using an entirely new thread, someone else will bring new people in and so on and so forth and within minutes you can lose track of the entire conversation.
Instead, by putting the entire team on a Wiki (think Wikipedia), like PBWorks, you can keep the entire conversation in one place with everyone seeing exactly how the work and conversation carried on. Google Wave may offer a great place for this type of collaboration in the future, but for now it hasn’t been as widely adopted or accessible for me to make the switch.
- Short lists on Twitter/Facebook – This is another great time saver for me. While I may follow many many people on Twitter and Facebook, there are really only a select number of folks I have time to get to know and keep tabs on with real consistency.
Enter Twitter and Facebook lists.
With both, I can group the folks I follow by my interest level (yes selfish I know). It enables me to follow loads of people, which I can check in on when time allows me, or simply do a quick read of the people I’m closest too, or those of a particular grouping — like Laundry Love, or my faith community or people I’ve met through particular events like The Idea Camp). I’ve also integrated my Twitter lists into Tweetdeck to organize my lists and searches in easily searchable columns — makes things much simpler.
To make a list/group of friends on Facebook, simply click the “Friends” tab on the top blue bar and then “Create New List.” The new list of friends will show up in on the left hand side of your home page.
To create a new list on Twitter, simply look for “lists” under the search box on the right hand side of your Twitter page and then click “New List.”
- Google Contacts sync – If you have a smartphone of any kind be sure you’re using some sort of contact sync between your phone and your computer. Google’s Contact sync has been an absolute savior for me — numerous times. Whether it was replacing an old phone, or losing contacts when upgrading my phone’s software, with a few clicks on the phone all my contacts were quickly restored. I personally stick with Google Contacts because it syncs with my phone, GMail and Google Voice.
According to their site, Google Sync works with BlackBerry, iPhone, Nokia S60, SyncML and Windows based phones but I would imagine there’s a tool out there for Android as well. And even if you don’t choose Google Sync — there are a number of other options out there as well. So regardless of which one you choose — pick one and next time you upgrade your phone, you’ll be glad you did!
- Delicious/web bookmarking – As someone who uses several different browsers throughout the day and may use different computers as well, Delicious bookmarking has been such a time saver for me. Rather than bookmarking links and articles in one browser, I can bookmark and then view those bookmarks anywhere with a web browser. This is great when I’m wanting to find an article I read three months back about hybrid cars, or finding links to recommended music or software. And with the Delicious add-on for Firefox, my browser bookmarks are synced directly to the site, making bookmarking and accessing those bookmarks even faster.
Of course there are many other tools to use for bookmarking but Delicious is the one for me.
So that’s my list.
What about you? What tech tools help you live simply? What tools could you not live without? What tools would you use in place of mine?
Let us know in the comments below…
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