First, sorry for the late post.
Rodney Gibbs, studio head of Foundation 9 Austin studio Fizz Factor, gave a talk titled ‘Lifehacking for Producers’, the goal of which was to define and find useful systems for capturing ideas and acting on them or filing them away for future use.
First, he went through a few comments on things to do to make emailing more efficient. As all of us know, emailing can take way too much time.
- turn email and/or email alerts off
- filter like crazy – use folders etc.
- process emails in batches – do 30 minute email checking/responding spurts every 2 hours, and use other systems (phone, IM) for realtime conversations
- only touch an email once – delete it, respond to it now, archive it for informational purposes, hold it for later review or followup
- consume email ASAP - don’t let it “spoil”
Rodney then moved on to other applications that can make life easier:
Google Desktop, Quicksilver and Launchy – simple keystroke-based application launchers
Anagram - contact capture
Remember the Milk and Tada List – task lists with filters and web-based functionality
For the iPhone, task list apps include Omnifocus and Things – and the GPS on the iPhone can tell you when you’re close to somewhere you need to complete a task. (This feels a bit like a real-life quest log to me)
Text substitution apps were another tip, so you can type a small string and the computer automatically changes it into a larger string, even a paragraph – good for bulk emails which don’t need much text changed - Text Expander was the one app name I caught.
Evernote is a Flickr clone with text recognition – so you can take pictures of whiteboards or business cards and make them searchable
Tripit is an app for flight and travel coordination
Jott is a voice-to-text app so you can call in emails, status updates, and schedule items.
Twitter integrates w other applications so you can update your status on many sites simultaneously with your cellphone.
Rodney then moved on to Firefox extensions:
Read it Later – pretty self-explanatory, but gives a handy dropdown menu of recently read items instead of having to go into Favorites or History.
Ubiquity adds a command line to Firefox to allow you to quickly navigate the web and access functionality. (With search, users type what they want to find. With Ubiquity, they type what they want to do.)
Search shortcuts – on searchable sites, you can bookmark sites in Firefox you search on a lot and make shortcuts easily such as “goog search item goes here”
Rodney then moved on to hardware:
Bluelounge Charging Station – Universal charger compatible with 1500 devices
iPhone – the Tricorder is here! :p
eBeam Whiteboard - make any whiteboard web-enabled
Optima Pocket Projector – small projector for easy presentations nearly anywhere
There were a few more things at the end of the presentation as Rodney asked the audience for tips too:
Getting Things Done (book) , author’s site
43folders.com – how to find the time and attention to do your best creative work
inboxzero.com – the skills, tools, and attitude needed to empty your email inbox and keep it that way
Take Back Your Life (book) – how to use Outlook effectively.
yammer.com – Twitter for internal corporate use
highrise – web based crm (contact tracking)
mail2web.com – private Exchange server
getdropbox.com – file versioning with desktop sync
plaxo – business social network and online address book
delicious.com – social bookmarking
