It is true that you can explore more activities you’ve been craving to do if you have a Virtual Assistant (VA) working at your back. From filtering your mails, updating your twitter, writing your blogs, editing your manuscripts, drafting letters to your clients, fast tracking your marketing strategies, filing your documents, conducting product research, arranging your vacation, ordering your camera phone at Amazon, scheduling a coffee date with a friend, and so on!
Here are a few things worth noting in order to maximize her time for you.
Know your needs. Did you hire an assistant for marketing aid? For customer service? Administrative work? For time-consuming and routine tasks? Understanding your own purpose of hiring a VA ultimately improves your expectations and eases up your manner of delegating a project.
Platform for instructions. We do not recommend giving instructions over the phone or via chat is as a lot of the information may easily be lost there. Email or the project management system that we use, Basecamp, are still the best options. Phone calls and chat are great for clarifications though. However, if you prefer to do it over the phone, your virtual assistant will be taking down notes and will email back the minutes of the conversation to make sure she got everything right and didn’t miss out on anything.
Make it clear. Provide detailed instructions on the primary information that your virtual assistant must know in order to work on the tasks at hand. If you want her to send emails to your selected contacts about a particular subject matter, be sure to provide your email access; inform her of the complete lists of people you intend to send it to, then give her the full details and sample pegs of what she needs to write for you. Unclear instructions eat up the time of your VA and your help can assist her to spend it more efficiently. If instructions are not clear, expect some back-and-forth as your assistant will need to clarify things to make sure she understood it properly and efforts are not wasted.
Learn her background. The VA will be giving you her background and what she specializes in so that you know how you can gain more from her expertise. If you need other skill sets, ask your virtual assistant and see if she can work or get trained on it. We have a backup team in Pepper that may provide training for a VA so she can acquire the skills needed.
Share your objectives. Or simply give her a heads-up regarding the tasks given. Knowing the goal of an activity stimulates her thinking and she may even render relevant inputs. Remember that your virtual assistant is highly-educated and she can probably aid you with more than just the basic assignments.
Itemize your tasks. Delegating a project in long paragraphs to discuss what she needs to accomplish for the day (or for the week) may be good but can be better if you can bullet or arrange in numbers the specific items that need to be done.
Set the priorities. You can always give your assistant a series of activities but it helps if you identify which task you would like her to work on first. Is it the research on quantum physics for the school project of your son? Or bookmarking your webpage in various social media sites? Setting a deadline will also help her manage her time well.
Define work schedules. Most likely, your virtual assistant is working in a different time zone and if this is the case, your morning is her wee hours and vice versa. It is okay if you give her a certain time plan indicating your preferred hours of working for you. Or at least identify a specific schedule to send your instructions so she can work on it promptly rather than on the next shift. If you have something urgent after the shift, you can call or send her an SMS so that she can attend to it right away.
Give her feedback. Or at least acknowledge the receipt of the accomplished tasks. If there is a need to revise the copy of your brochure, tell her. If you like the way it was written, commend her. She will surely appreciate the comment and will be happy if you make some suggestions on how she can further improve the service.
Keep in touch. If you have a scheduled seminar and will be out of the internet the whole week, let her know. If you plan to skip some days and then use most of your hours for your next big project next week, inform her. Leaving her in the dark of your schedule is inappropriate considering that she too has other activities; she will continue to reserve a time for you unless you tell her otherwise.
Spend time wisely. Following your subscription, hours allotted for the given month cannot be carried over to the next so make full use of it. If you got a virtual assistant for part-time services, that means your VA is also handling other clients and will need to spend some time for them as well. She blocks off a chunk of time specifically for you so it’s better if you can help her make use of it properly.
Option for training. For some tasks that are also new to the VA (like the CRM program that your company uses), providing her your actual training may be needed. Gotomeeting, Dimdim, and Skype are good ways to teach her online as they have screensharing programs so you can chat while training her.
Remember … your virtual assistant is your ally. She will be happy to assist you in any way she can so you can enjoy the extra time that comes in availing her service!
On the days before Christmas, my VA (Virtual Assistant) gave to me…
12 months of meetings
It’s never too early to get started on getting next year’s calendar filled up with your red letter days. Ask for your VA’s help to get your reminders set-up, whether it be for important meetings, birthdays, anniversaries and other important dates.
11 Jobs with Typing
For any transcription work or encoding that need to be done before the end of the year, seek your VA’s assistance in getting those important papers ready for you.
10 Sent e-greetings
Christmas greetings are a must for anyone so enlist help organizing and maintaining your email database, as well as sending out your Holiday wishes. Also consider having your VA reply to the greetings sent to you. You wouldn’t want your friends and family to think you’re a Scrooge.
9 Planned Parties
Find that perfect party venue, set up the caterers, send out the invites and mind those who have sent in their RSVPs. There is nothing more stressful than being a gracious host on top of planning and setting up an event that would make Martha Stewart proud. Cut yourself some slack and get a VA to do all that for you.
8 Lists for Shopping
Keep track of your Christmas gift lists – and more importantly, your budget – this Christmas season. Research the best online shopping deals, the hottest toys for your kids and even grab that much-coveted Hermes bag at a low price for your wife. Never mind who’s been naughty or nice, simply ask and your VA will even check for you twice!
7 Plans for Marketing
Get a head start on next year’s marketing campaigns before year end and impress your boss. Your VA can assist you in doing the necessary research and even do the preliminary set-ups to successfully implement it. Their know-how, equipment and creative flair may just be what you need to get you ahead in your field!
6 Year-End Reportings
There is no reason why you need to be stuck behind a desk doing your number-crunching, word processing and spreadsheets during the Holidays. Give your brain its much-deserved vacation and let your VA handle those mundane tasks for you.
5 Organizing
Most virtual assistants are experts in multi-tasking and organizing. If you’re starting to feel overwhelmed by the amount of paper work you have to catch-up on or bogged-down by daily tedious tasks, a VA might just be the answer to your prayers.
4 Calling Leads
Expand your market-reach by asking your VA to call prospective clients to inform them about your company. More importantly, let your existing clients know how special they are by getting a personal call to let them know about your special offers on your latest products and services exclusively for them.
3 Set Vacations
If you’re hard-pressed for time to book that special holiday vacation with your family or with that special someone, let your VA assist you in arranging your trip: get the best airline and hotel deals, book the best tour packages, or even get that rent-a-car to get home to your loved-ones.
2 Holiday Promotions
You have a Christmas sale to do? Get help getting your website ready for its Christmas promos, or sending out your brochures and flyers during the Holidays. Let your VA help you update your webpage, blog, or social networking sites to spread the word fast and easy!
And a whole lot more time for me… The best part of hiring a VA is that it maximizes your productivity while maintaining efficiency in your business processes. In the business world, time is money and freeing up your schedule to do more important things is the key to succeeding in your endeavors. This Christmas season, give yourself the gift of time and spend it on those that matter most to you.
Paperless office is a term that’s been around awhile. Plenty have adapted it, but some are still skeptical or daunted by the idea.
“No paper? But how do we keep track of important documents?”
“How do we let go of the old ways?”
“How much would that cost me?”
“How do we go about such a thought?”
Don’t get me wrong, I love paper. A great invention, it revolutionized the world. There’s also a therapeutic feel that comes from seeing a pen’s ink flow onto paper and seeing your ideas materialize right before your eyes. But let’s face it, we’re not helping the environment by exploiting its use.
We have reached the point where there’s just too much paper. In an office, it is often synonymous with clutter. It gets old, fragile, wet, lost, takes too much space and even dangerous when stacked up too high or grows moldy with age (yikes!). Most of them just get stored and forgotten, until we search and find that they have to be thrown out due to diminished quality or worse, they’ve become termite food. Well, we can certainly do something about it now, before it gets really bad.
A paperless workplace doesn’t necessarily mean totally eliminating the use of paper, just reducing it enough to help the trees recover from extinction. Going paperless would also make things easier — to keep track, store and distribute. It’s more beneficial too (ehem, cheaper), eventually.
Here are a few tips on where and how to start:
1. Replace time cards
Bundy clocks are a bit old school, right? Instead of using time cards, why not try biometric technology? A fingerprint or hand print could be used to keep track of the comings and goings of employees. You can even play “spy” if it makes it more fun. :-p Other alternatives for keeping track of employee attendance are PC log ins or even ID card scans.
2. Scan copies of personal records
Upon signing one copy, a contract can be scanned, stored and sent to you electronically. Same with other records – school transcripts, tax returns, resumes, insurance information, etc. – the originals can be scanned and stored in electronic folders. This way, pulling them out can be done in a few mouse clicks instead of spending hours ruffling through rusty file cabinets.
3. Use Excel spreadsheets for numeric records
Gone are the days when you need to manually accomplish and copy columns upon columns of ledgers. Software such as Microsoft Excel has spreadsheets which make it easier to create tables, sort, compile, compute and even use formulas for numeric-based data, such as accounting records, time logs and the like.
4. Don’t print pay slips
Some offices still distribute pay slips on paper. This is another practice that’s easy to leave in the past. Start distributing them through email. Majority of the people who receive them tend to either throw them or store and then forget about them anyway. 5. Email memos and announcements
Bulletin boards are so high school. With the advent of email, any memo, letter or announcements could be forwarded electronically through emails or newsletters. It’s easy to carbon copy anyone, and those involved could just save copies in their files and bring them up anytime – complete with time stamps, sender/recipient list and all.
6. Use electronic signatures
With the availability of software such as Adobe Acrobat, signatures on documents can be accomplished electronically. They are personalized per user, and these PDF files are very portable and could be forwarded to any individual concerned, compiled, recompiled and secured with passwords and restrictions if needed.
7. Electronic business cards are cheaper
Business cards are useful during offsite events, but they tend to get wasted, especially when you change information such as contact numbers or even designations. What’s worse, the people you give them to may lose them along the way, making the effort moot. Electronic business cards, on the other hand, could be edited anytime and sent through email. You just have to request a new contact’s email address (store them in cellular phones, other handheld devices or laptops that, admit it, we always seem to carry) and get to personalize the business card with a short email correspondence.
8. Eliminate meeting handouts
Printed handouts for meetings can be avoided in several ways: voice recorders may be used during meetings, then downloaded and forwarded electronically; Microsoft PowerPoint presentations could be requested and sent through email; employees could take turns in taking down minutes/notes in their laptops and send them to everyone involved through Microsoft Word file or PDF. It saves a lot of paper and encourages personal interaction among colleagues.
9. Document important company events with digital cameras
With digital cameras selling for less now than when they first arrived on the scene, pictures can be taken digitally then saved and distributed electronically. This also gives you the freedom to only print the pictures you like (if needed) and even retouch or edit them with backgrounds and designs beforehand. Their quality would not diminish or change, unlike prints and negatives that fade or get sticky with time.
10. Avoid using sticky notes
Oh, I admit, they are so cute! They come in different sizes, shapes and colors, and they make your work area more colorful or personalized. But…must…control…self. Use whiteboards for people to leave you notes instead, or electronic sticky notes in your desktop to remind yourself of things to do.
11. Electronic cards are touching too
There’s nothing more touching than people remembering your birthday or congratulating you on your new promotion, baby or achievement. But personalized greeting cards become additional clutter. Why not use electronic cards? They’re easily available online, cost next to nothing if not nothing and they could even be enhanced with cool designs, music, videos or even animations!
12. Bring your own mugs
Instead of using paper or plastic cups, paper plates and plastic utensils in the pantry, bring your own mugs, plates and silverware. Provide extra ones for the occasional visitor too. This helps make things more personal and homey in the office. Not to mention, saving a lot of paper or plastic in the process.
13. Minimize holiday decorations
Working in a well-decorated office adds to the excitement of the holidays like Valentine’s Day, Halloween or Christmas. However, these decorations grow out of season (pun intended) and get thrown out when they do. Instead, explore using computer wall papers as canvases for decorations and play house (er, office?) music to build the mood.
It’s true that this process may be a little expensive and time consuming at first. Old files will have to be scanned or encoded, new software would have to be learned and you have to get used to the new electronic workflow. And of course, I could not stress the importance of backing up files enough. As with all things technological, it helps to be cautious, prepared and yes, even a little paranoid.
In the long run though, there are many benefits to be had. The office space would be maximized, storage would be easier, files could be searched and sent easily without shelling out money for shipment or labor fees and we could help the environment in the process. This is definitely one situation where less is more.
You’ve probably been spending freely like me before the global economic crisis hit us. Compulsively shopping, frequently going out for dinner, regularly watching movies, getting hour-long massages at spas, drinking designer coffee…
I used to do these things a lot before the recession happened, and I bet I’m not the only one.
Since then, I have managed to tighten my belt just enough so that I could still indulge once in a while but not as much as I used to. There was a big change with my spending habits. Instead of going to the movie theater once a week, I would just wait for the film in DVD. Instead of eating at a fancy restaurant, I would just settle for some fast food. And instead of shopping every weekend, I would just wait for the occasional sale. Even if the recession brought a drastic change to my lifestyle, I believe it has taught me to become more practical and more prudent with my finances.
Here are some tips on how to rethink your spending habits during the recession:
Cut Back on Luxuries
First, list down all your daily expenses so you can figure out what to cut back on. Of course you have to spend for your basic needs like food, clothing and your living expenses. But do you really have to buy designer duds? Or do you really, really need to go to Starbucks everyday? You could live without these luxuries, you just need to do some adjusting.
Buy Used or Refurbished Items
You don’t always have to buy brand new. It’s perfectly fine to get a second hand items as long as you check that they’re it’s in good condition. For instance, if you’re in the market for a car, instead of getting brand new wheels, you could get a used sedan for a fraction of the price. Aside from spending less, you’d also contribute less carbon footprint (Mother Earth would thank you for it.) The same goes for refurbished gadgets like computers and mp3 players.
Ask for Promos or Discounts
Internet, cell phone and cable providers usually offer promotions from time to time. All you have to do is ask about it. Even restaurants and stores sometimes have ongoing promos or discounts. Again, just ask – you’ll have nothing to lose if you do. I actually tried asking for a discount at a sports store once and they gave me an additional 10% off at the counter. I was pleasantly surprised when they granted my request. It could happen to you too.
Pay in Cash
When you’re buying something, I suggest that you pay in cash rather than charge it to your credit card so that it would be easier to keep track of your finances. You’ll know exactly how much money you have left and not be in any risk of credit card debt. Even if these cards are convenient to have around, it’s also risky to have one especially if you have a tendency to go wild with your spending. At least when you’re using cash, you’ll know when to stop – when there’s nothing left in your wallet anymore.
Since the world is still experiencing financial crisis, you can’t do away with spending freely anymore. You can’t just sit back and relax. You need to adjust to the circumstances and welcome change in your life. You need to re-think your spending habits so you can stay afloat of the situation. After all, you don’t know when the recession would end. That’s why you should physically and mentally prepare yourself for whatever may happen. In the meantime, why don’t you try out my suggestions above so you’ll be equipped to face the financial challenges ahead?
No one was prepared for the wrath that typhoon Ketsana (local name Ondoy) released when it hit the Philippines last September 26, 2009. That was the day when Metro Manila experienced the worst rainfall in its history. Imagine getting 341 mm or 13.4 inches of rainfall in just a matter of six hours. That’s about a month’s worth of rainfall that the country usually gets. And although the Philippines is no stranger to typhoons, this was, by far, the worst ever and the one that left the most destruction.
From 8 AM to 2 PM that day, practically the whole of Metro Manila turned into a water world. The water filled the streets, underpasses, major highways, and buildings and residences. People were forced to seek higher ground – on top of their cars, rooftops and whatever stable structure they could get a hold of. And even if you get to the top, you’ll still feel scared when you see what’s happening on the ground – people needing rescue, objects being swallowed by the raging waters, parked cars moving along with the waves (yes, there were waves on the streets that used to be solid and dry). It wasn’t a pretty sight. I guess you really can’t put it to words. I think this video would tell it all.
This was taken inside a local hospital somewhere in Manila.
Typhoon Ketsana spared no one. Everyone was affected – the old, the young, the wealthy, the poor… The worst hit areas were Marikina, Rizal and Pasig, where the water level reached the second floor and people got stranded on the rooftops for hours, and others even more than 24 hours. They were drenched, cold, hungry and scared to death. Even when the rains stopped, rescue efforts couldn’t get to them right away because these areas became impassable and vehicles couldn’t get through. Those who had relatives on these areas braved the rains and the floods and went there on foot in the hope of rescuing them. The good thing that came out of this was that strangers were helping each other out – risking their lives to keep the others safe.
Even if the typhoon has already left the country, what happened is still fresh in the minds of the Filipinos. Ketsana left about 80% of Metro Manila underwater, more than a quarter of a million people displaced, more than two hundred dead, and millions worth of damage. The clean up has already begun and relief operations are ongoing. The Internet became a big tool in getting donations from other Filipinos abroad who wanted to help. People are updating their Facebook, Twitter and other sites on how to send donations over. A lot have responded, not only fellow Filipinos but other nationalities as well, even popular personalities like Demi Moore and Josh Groban have called for help to donate through their Twitter accounts.
Despite everything though, many Filipinos are thankful for having survived this ordeal, including the Pepper team who are all safe and sound – thank God. This tragedy has brought out the best in many Filipinos. Those who are able have been donating their time, effort and money to those in need. As of now, many individuals and groups have set up relief efforts by accepting donations and distributing them to the affected areas, because the residents there practically have to start from scratch since their homes were destroyed. If you want to help them pick up the pieces, you can do so by sending over cash or goods (clothes, food, drinks, medicines, blankets…) If you’re abroad, you can donate online or by phone.
USA: Call the American Red Cross at 1-800-435-7669. Please choose the 3rd option (International Donation), then tell the operator that your donation is for the Ondoy (Ketsana) typhoon victims in the Philippines.
Local Hotlines:
Red Cross donation through SMS: text REDAMOUNT to 2899 (Globe) or 4483 (Smart)
For people who need assistance:
National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) Emergency Numbers: (+632) 912-5668, (+632) 911-1406, (+632) 912-2665, (+632) 911-5061. Help hotlines: (+632) 734-2118, (+632) 734-2120
Do you feel easily irritated or annoyed recently? Is there a significant change in your eating or sleeping habits? Are you feeling listless or having trouble concentrating? Hopefully, you haven’t answered “yes” to all of these questions or else you would be on the verge of being stressed out.
It’s easy to manage stress once you’ve identified it but the thing is, people experience it differently. Its signs and symptoms vary from one person to the next. You just have to be attuned to your body and know whether you’re acting normal or stressed out. But don’t worry, you can easily relieve stress by doing the following things:
1. Manage Your Time
Sometimes you may feel that you have so many things to do and so little time for it. Yes, it all might be overwhelming and stressful so it would be a good idea to be more organized and learn to prioritize your tasks. Make a to-do list if it helps. It would also give you a sense of accomplishment when you tick off each item on your list. And if you’re becoming too stressed with so much work, why don’t you try getting a virtual assistant instead of waiting for a nervous breakdown to happen? Delegating tasks to others is an effective way of reducing stress.
2. Have a Support System
Have you ever felt so tense or anxious that you just want to let it all out? Well, instead of hurling expletives at an innocent bystander, you would be better off talking about your concerns with a close friend or family member. Communicating with someone can help you calm down and take the pressure away.
3. Exercise Everyday
Bring out your sweat pants and go to the gym! Getting fit is a nice way to loosen up and alleviate stress – a 30-minute run on the treadmill or a boxing session might do the trick. When you do strenuous exercise, your body releases endorphins, which actually act as natural pain relievers and make you feel good as well.
4. Reflect and Unwind
When was the last time you did nothing at all? Sometimes it helps to just take a break for a while, think of nothing and do nothing. This would clear your mind and help you de-stress. Or you could choose to relax by getting a massage, listening to music, or even do some retail therapy. These would all uplift your mood.
5. Veer Away from Vices
Taking advantage of that “Happy Hour” won’t really do you much good. Although having a drink or two after a hard day’s work could temporarily reduce your stress, it would actually leave you feeling bad since alcohol has an effect of giving you a depressed feeling. So stay away from vices like alcohol and drugs to guarantee you a stress-free life.
Remember, once you notice that you’re getting somewhat stressed, just try out some of these stress busters to see which one works best for you.
If you are a Windows Vista user, you’re probably enjoying all the fancy features that are designed for better security and easier use, not to mention the sleek interface, making computer use more enjoyable.
One of its best features is the Windows Sidebar. The Sidebar is a pane on the side of the Microsoft Windows Vista desktop. You can organize your favorite gadgets or applications here, so that they will all be easily available to you anytime.
There are so many gadgets to choose from. If you haven’t fixed up your sidebar, it might be too tasking for you to go through all of it and choose the ones you can benefit from.
To make it easy for you, we have chosen the most useful Vista Gadget Tools from the list.
The RD Safely gadget makes it possible to easily disconnect your usb, SATA, eSATA drives.
2. Minimize
This Vista Gadget allows you to minimize all the windows you’re working on quickly and show just the desktop.
3. Drag & Drop and Print
This vista gadget makes it very simple to print a document. You just have to drag and drop the documents that you wish to print.
4. Recent Items
This vista gadget shows a list of your recently accessed items grouped by location. The gadget was designed to maximize screen usage. You can also set the number of items it could show.
Images that we copy or paste are usually stored on clipboards. Copy/Paste or image grabbing can be a tedious task. But with this gadget, you can easily manage your clipboard from the Windows Sidebar. The clipboard manager will allow you to see current clipboard content on the clipboard history.
7. Spell Checker gadget
If you normally get stumped in spelling, the Spell Checker gadget would be really handy for you.
8. µTorrent Stats
For those who usually download large files, this sidebar gadget is very helpful. You can start, pause or stop the torrent easily. Also, you can view stats for each torrent separately.
9. Screen Snaper
This Vista Gadget allows you to capture anything on screen. It can capture full screen, windows or selected objects. It can capture by region too. It can automatically copy images to clipboard and save it. In addition, it can save images in 7 formats: BMP/EMF/GIF/JPG/PNG/TIFF/WMF
This windows vista gadget monitors your network connections and displays a real-time graph. Click on the graph and you can see your internal IP address, MAC IDs, current connections, and other network information. This is also available for the 32-bit machine.
11. Run
This one is a real timesaver. Just type in the name of a program, folder, document or Internet resource you wish to access and this little gadget will instantly open it for you.
12. Countdown to Anything
This can be both useful and fun. It’s so easy to use too. Just enter the date and the countdown event.
13. The Magic Folder
This is a great organizing tool. The gadget will help you categorize and move files in an organized manner. When you drag a file to the gadget, it will check the file extension and place it where it should fit. Most extension types come pre-registered.
14. CT Control
This sidebar gadget shows the current Time, Date & Uptime of your computer. You can also use it as a stopwatch, alarm or a countdown clock. Plus, you can put your computer on standby, shut it down, restart it or log off using this gadget.
15. Digital World Clock
If you need to constantly check for time on different timezones, this gadget is really practical.
Monitoring your day’s earning has never been easier. You can quickly check clicks and impressions from your adsense campaigns using this gadget.
17. Twadget
With this vista gadget you can easily keep up with your friends’ status on Twitter and update your own status. No need to log in Twitter!
18. Windows Live Writer
The Windows live writer gadget is designed to make it easy for you to build your article throughout the day. You can open a new blog entry, open a previous blog entry or even have it floating and open from anywhere on your desktop.
19. FTP Access
This gadget will instantly connect you to the ftp server once you enter the required information.
This gadget enables you to launch your preferred applications from the Windows Vista Sidebar. Just add files or applications that you frequently use on the gadget and a simple click will automatically launch the program or files.
Hope this makes it easier for you to organize your sidebar. If you find any of the other Vista Gadget Tools useful too, please share it with us through the comments section. ☺
If you’re a freelancer or a small business owner, it is important to know what business-building resources are available to you with little or no budget at all.
If you don’t know where to start, here are some recommendations…
Besides the homepage gadgets, Google offers free services that can help boost your company’s productivity and grow your business.
If you can’t afford to get your own researcher for the meantime, this is really a convenient service to have.
Google Alerts can help you monitor news, blog articles, videos or any other web published materials about your product, your competitor or your industry.
You can also stay on top of the latest events and keep tabs on your personal interests like sports, celebrity news etc.
Alerts can be sent through your email or posted on your feeds tab in your homepage.
Through this free Google service, you can optimize your website, conduct split tests and boost your sales.
The service provides advanced segmentation or analytical interpretation of your website’s traffic with an interactive segment builder.
You can also generate custom reports by using the drag and drop interface to view all the information the way you want to.
Simply put, this web analytics solution gives you accurate information on your website traffic and marketing effectiveness.
Google Analytics is a really powerful tool that is easy-to-use. Its features can help analyze traffic data in different ways. It can help guide you in creating better-targeted ads to increase your sales and ultimately give you a higher converting website.
If you haven’t tried Gmail and you’re interested in using Google Analytics or Google Alerts, then you need to sign up for Gmail ☺
You can set up your Gmail to be as functional as your Outlook or whatever email software you use. Here are some cool Gmail features that you can check out.
• Email management
If you have a Gmail account, you can make use of that account to manage several email accounts. Here’s how…
Click on Settings > Accounts > Get mail from other accounts (then add the email account/s)
Also you can set it up so you’re able to reply to emails using your other accounts. Just follow these steps…
Settings > Account > Send mail as (then add the email account/s)
• Google Calendar
This feature serves the same functions as your email software calendars. You can set up appointments, manage invites and even share your calendar simply by adding emails that would have access to the calendar.
You can sync your Google calendar to your Outlook or if you’re using a Mac, you can sync it to your iCal.
• Google Labs
Inside Gmail are some really cool features that you can enable on your account.
Just a couple of brilliant tools you can add are text messaging through Gtalk for free (available to US numbers only) and offline access.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re an employee, a business owner, a student or a stay at home parent, life just has too many demands and we all struggle to accomplish as much as we can throughout the day.
When you go online you would want to get as much done in as little time as possible. There are many free online gadgets available that could help.
Personally I’ve been using some cool Google gadgets & services.
You can start being productive the moment you turn on your browser. By customizing your homepage you’ll have instant access to whatever you need.
iGoogle has a wide array of free gadgets that are easy to use and manage.
Here are a few iGoogle Gadgets that I find extremely helpful…
1. To-Do List
You can download this gadget and place it where your eyes can instantly see it once you open your browser. This way when you go online you can start focusing on the task you really need to accomplish for that day. You can also print and email your list.
2. iReminder
You can set alerts or reminders throughout the day. A real practical gadget especially since we can sometimes lose track of time while working.
3. World Clocks
If you need to keep track of several time zones to manage your appointments or meetings, this tool is really handy. You can modify each clock according to the time zones you need to keep track of.
4. Timesheet helper
This is especially helpful for freelancers. This can help track time and schedules.
5. Sticky Note
Just like your regular sticky notes, you can use this to jot down ideas or stuff you need to remember. I write on my sticky notes throughout the day. I put links or resources I was able to find or ideas or things I need to add on my next day’s “to-do” list.
There are several other iGoogle Gadgets that you can choose from and add to your homepage. You can add Date & Time, Facebook gadget and several others that you think would be handy to have there.
In addition, it also helps to customize the news links to your homepage. You can choose only the ones that you find relevant. This eliminates wasting time surfing the Internet for news and information that you regularly need to be updated with.
If you’re using another portal, like Yahoo, MSN, etc. you can check out the tools they offer that will suit your homepage needs.
If you have other great suggestions, let us know by putting in the comments section below.
I used to do these things a lot before the recession happened, and I bet I’m not the only one.
