Tag Archive for: apps

Track Your Time Challenge

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waiting-410328_640Are you wasting precious minutes of your day without even realizing it? Many complain there aren’t enough hours in a day to get things done but it turns out you could be the problem. Gasp! I know!

The issue may not be the amount of time you have but how you’re utilizing it. Staying focused is really important in order to have a productive day.

Distractions are what keep us from reaching our daily goals. Hey- we’re in a society of instant gratification. Just today I had a few spare seconds and I was instantly checking Twitter mindlessly without really even noticing.

I want to challenge you this week to track down where all your spare minutes go.  Here’s a few ideas of how to track that “busy” time:

  • Moment is an app that will track how much you use your iPhone or iPad throughout the day. You can set daily limits and receive notifications once you go over the allotted time.
  • iDoneThis is another great tool to keep track of your day. The app will email you at the end of the day to ask “What did you get done today?”  Stop, reflect, and write about your day just by hitting “reply.” This also works well if you are managing a group.  The next morning, you’ll receive an overview that shows everyone’s accomplishments from yesterday to kick off your day.
  • Rescue Time A web-based service that tracks how much time you spend on tasks. You can also set limits on how long you check emails or update Facebook.
  • Daily Journal –  Write down every single thing you do for an entire day.  This is similar to a food journal where you write out every meal, snack and drink you consume. With a time tracking journal you write out where all your minutes go.  You could also do this in an Excel sheet or in Evernote. Be honest!  This is not a judging contest – it’s a way to get to know your habits better so you can improve your focus.
  • Toggl I just learned about this one at a conference where I was a guest speaker.  It’s a digital way to track all your time.  It makes it easy to capture everything on the go so you don’t forget.

Now that you know what to do – go track those minutes.  I want to hear where you are wasting most of your time – it may surprise you!  Please leave a comment below, a Facebook message or tweet me @Listproducer.  Good luck!

See How I Detox a To-Do List on TV

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Last week I shared with you the exciting news that I was going to be on The Better Show. If you didn’t have to chance to catch it when it was on TV, here are the clips from the show:

Detox Your To Do List

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There’s a right way and a wrong way to make a list. Watch this clip to make sure your doing it the right way to set yourself up for success.

 

 

Make A List That Works!

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In this clip I show you how to make our lists work for you, not against you. Plus there’s a round-up of gadgets that can help you. Do your best ideas come to you in the shower? Watch this!

 

Appy Listing

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In this clip I give a rundown for the best  apps to keep you organized while you shop and travel.

5 Ways to be Productive While Being Lazy

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Screen Shot 2015-02-23 at 9.26.42 PMYou can be productive and be lazy at the same time.

This sounds crazy, right? But it’s not impossible to get stuff done AND be a couch potato!  It’s true! There are a lot of ways you can be efficient without leaving the couch.

So I’ve put together a list:

1.  Watch a Ted Talk. All you need is access to the Internet. Ted Talks are powerful videos that cover a wide variety of topics. Their goal is to spread ideas and give insight to those who are looking for a deeper understanding of the world. Gain knowledge and spark ideas all from the comfort of your home

2.  Outsource: I’m a huge fan of giving your to-do list to someone else. Take advantage of some of these instant gratification apps so you can relax while your chores get.

  • Wun Wun will deliver you food from a restaurant, supermarket or shop in under and hour, for about 8 bucks.
  • Postmates is similar to Wun Wun, except they charge $5 for delivery. You can get just about anything delivered to you while you watch the latest episode of Girls.
  • Zipments is a bike messenger style currier app that allows you to text or talk to your courier directly.  You can use this to send paperwork, pick up dry cleaning or drop off lunch to your kid’s school. They also do restaurant and store pickups too. It’s also worth comparing these against other couriers such as Shiply, especially if you regularly use couriers for things like motorbike deliveries.
  • Minibar will deliver wine, spirits, beer and mixers to your door. Delivery is free and under an hour in NYC and 2 hours or less in the Hamptons.  A great solution to prep for a party without leaving the house.

3.  Listen to Umano. Sit back, relax, and have your favorite articles read to you. Umano offers a wide selection of content. The more you listen, the more recommendations you will receive. You can also build playlists! Subscribe to the List Producer Umano playlist for free, and use my code to get unlimited listening:  NN8MEZ

4. Use Evernote While You Lounge. This is basically a digital filing cabinet. Strategically organize everything from your grocery lists to your bucket list. You can do this on any device while lounging around the house. If you’ve tried it before and just can’t get into it – trust me…give it a second chance.

5. Exercise! Yup, there’s a lazy way to exercise. I put together a Pinterest board for you to check out.

Follow Paula Rizzo – ListProducer.com’s board Exercise the lazy way! on Pinterest.

11 Free Fab Finds for Productivity

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Screen Shot 2015-02-18 at 5.03.21 PMGetting things done doesn’t always have to be time consuming and costly. There are actually a whole lot of free ways to be more productive.  I’ve put together this list of freebies that will get you on track:

Time Savers

1.  Pathtalk: This app is really versatile (and awesome)! It allows you to contact local businesses, make dinner reservations, book appointments, compare prices, and check in-store availability. Not to mention, you can do all of these things without making a single phone call!  I use it all the time.

2.  Dragon Dictation: Have a brilliant idea but don’t have any paper? Dragon will transcribe whatever you say with pretty good accuracy into a tweet, Facebook post or e-mail.  This is great for capturing to-dos that pop up when you’re on the run.

3.  Umano: This app allows you to listen to professionally recorded short news articles! Sign up and choose from a wide variety of publishers and bloggers (including me!) to listen to. It’s perfect for when you want to listen to stuff on-the-go! If you decide to try it out, use my code when signing up to get unlimited listening: NN8MEZ.

4.  Timeful:  A way to schedule all the things you really want to do!  You can connect Timeful to a calendar you already use and schedule in tasks like reading and meditation.Timeful will suggest the best times for you to complete each task – which you can accept or deny.

5.  Minutes Please: Control your web time here! You know how it goes — taking a 10 minute break to check Facebook turns into one hour. Enter the URL of the website and the number of minutes (up to 120) you want to spend on it. Minute Please will give you a countdown at the top of your browser. Never waste time online again!

6.  Scannable: A new mobile scanning app introduced by Evernote. I’ve already used it a bunch of times to scan receipts, insurance cards and articles.  All you have to do is point and click and you can instantly save or export the picture.

7.  HelloSign: You can sign e-signatures with this site that are legally binding.  This was a lifesaver when I was buying my apartment.  There’s just so much paperwork to fill out.  I used HelloSign to scan, edit, and sign documents.

8.  Hellofax: From the same makers of HelloSign.  With this app, there’s no need to have a fax machine anymore. HelloFax takes a high quality scan of your photo and securely faxes it to wherever you want. One of the best parts is, you can keep your current fax number to avoid confusion with customers. There’s a free 14 day trial.

Email

9.  Email Game: If you have an endless inbox — conquer your e-mail, with a game! This game encourages you to read and responds to e-mails faster and more decisively. This adds a fun twist on the boring task of sifting through your inbox.

10.  Unroll.Me*: Junk e-mail can pile up pretty quickly. When you’re in the store and they ask for your email, all of a sudden you’re getting a ton of useless newsletters. Unroll.Me will identify every newsletter that you’re subscribed to and you can opt-out with the click of a button.

11.  Boomerang: Get your inbox back down to zero. This app provides various useful features. If you’re up late answering emails, you can schedule to have them sent out in the morning. This way you can get your day starting out doing other tasks. You can also prioritize certain emails that you want to tackle later. Plus you can schedule emails you’d like to follow up on to pop back up into your inbox when you’re read to deal with them. The first 10 emails are free.

Still feeling overwhelmed by your email? Check out my course Take Back Your Inbox, which I created to help you get back in control!

Check out these free fab finds and let me know what you think below!

*Unroll.Me makes money by learning what people stay subscribed to and what they unsubscribe from – that data is valuable and helps corporations learn what people want and what they don’t want. Your email address is NOT sold. If you’d like to keep your subscription list private you’ll need to unsubscribe manually from individual email subscriptions. If you appreciate the swiftness that you can unsubscribe from multiple sources while helping brands service customers better then Unroll.Me is for you!

Stop Googling Yourself

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mentionI have a confession — I’ve been known to casually Google myself every now and again. Come on…we’ve all done it! I even have Google alerts set up for my name, and a few keywords like list making and to-do lists. But there’s a better way!

I’ve discovered the app and website Mention. It’s amazing and acts like your own personal Internet trolling system. I started using it just before my book Listful Thinking launched because I want to know who is talking about it on the Internet. It can be hard to track them down using Google alerts only.  Infact, Google alerts hasn’t alerted me at all about the book. What’s up with that? Read more