Part of my daily email routine involves logging into my Google Apps GMail accounts and applying the label:unread filter, which allows me to review any emails that I did not read throughout the day (since I filter my emails aggressively).

Now, I have found an even easier way to do this via my feed reader (which is currently NetNewsWire on Mac OSX and Reeder on the iPhone). Simply, use the following magical URL in your feed reader and enjoy:

https://mail.google.com/a/[your domain name]/feed/atom/unread

Note that you will need to authenticate your feed using your Google Apps username and login, where the username is your full email address.

Staying “in the zone” becomes increasingly difficult with the plethora of ways to be distracted. Especially if you spend most of your time in front a computer. Between email, IM’s, RSS feeds, phone calls and text messages it’s a wonder we ever actually find time to work for than 15 minutes at a time. My hope is that this simple tip will help you avoid at least one of these distractions multiple times per day … the non-important email. Before you continue, you may also want to check out How to Forward an Email as a Text Message.

continue reading "Reduce Distractions and Stay in the Zone with an Aggressive GMail Filtering Strategy"

Whether you are a student or a busy executive, the fact is, you have to eat, and Doritos, Cheesy Poofs and Diet Pepsi just can’t cut it for too long. And just because you maybe a starving, poor student, does not mean you have to be on forced diet. The following free resources show you how to prepare meals when you are short on cash, time and ingredients.

continue reading "Fast Low Cost Recipe Resources for the Starving Student or Busy Entrepreneur"

I’m in the process of evaluating my GTD weekly review process, as I feel like I’ve entered into the trap of executing the checklist without concern whether I am doing so productively. Following is the current checklist I am using:

continue reading "What is in your GTD Weekly Review Checklist?"

As an entrepreneur and consultant, I find that a balance between being responsive to people vs. focusing on work can often lead to an obsessive email checking compulsion. To battle this issue, I have  a recurring task to clear my inbox every four hours via OmniFocus. When I check off that task (check email, voice mails, text messages, etc…), OmniFocus creates a new task automatically in 4 hours.

But what about the case where there is an email that is critical and you need to know when it arrives right away? Option 1 is to sit in front of your email hitting refresh every 30 seconds, option 2 is to use some sort of notification program that pops something up when you receive a new email. The problem with option 1 is obvious and option 2 is a bit more subtle. Every time you see that pop up or see a number next to your email client you will likely be distracted and break your workflow to check email, only to discover some non-important email.

So this post introduces option 3. Setup a special filter to redirect the email you are looking for to your phone via SMS. This tip assumes that your SMS is primary used for urgent matters. Following are the specific steps to do this in Gmail; however, you can adapt easily to any email client that provides forwarding functionality.

continue reading "How to Forward an Email as a Text Message"

Ever since I read the article on Notational Velocity syncing with Simplenote by Merlin Mann combined with the wonder of Markdown, I’ve re-discovered the joy of working with text files. So now I’m using either Simplenote (when traveling with my iPhone) or Notational Velocity when I’m on my Laptop in most cases for taking notes. The following simple tip will give you an idea of how you can use these program’s powerful search mechanism to help you get things done.

Whenever I am taking notes and I realize that the item I’m writing down will end up being an action item, I add [A] to the beginning of the text. Then when I do inbox processing, I open up Notational Velocity and type [A] into the search box and then all notes that have pending action items appear. When I click on the note, all the instances of [A] are conveniently highlighted. Then I take each item and process through my GTD system (OmniFocus) deleting the [A] as I go along. For those with less complex task management needs, this could be the only system you ever need. Very simple, scalable, programmable and no vendor lock.

Do you manage notes using simple text files? What is your method?

It’s time to sweep 2009 under the rug and celebrate 2010 the only way us geeks can … Web 2.0 style! Most of us use the new year as a time to reflect and make resolutions for the coming year. Unfortunately, after a few months, we forget all about those resolutions and go back to our old habits. The number one cause for this is the lack of accountability. While self-accountability plays a key role, having the support of others, is often just the motivation you need to follow through.

Of course, you could use the old fashion method of simply telling your friends and family your resolutions, but then you probably wouldn’t be reading MakeUseOf.com if you participated in such old school methodologies. I’m kidding of course, but if you are reading this, you are interested in how to help make your resolutions a reality using free web 2.0 tools.

Following are two free social networks that can help you create, share and follow through with all of your 2010 new years resolutions and beyond.

continue reading "Keeping Your 2010 Resolutions, Web 2.0 Style"

Your significant other says “What are you going to do with all that junk” and you reply “I’m going to sell it on eBay”. Tick … Tock … 6 months later … “We should have a garage sale!” … shudder at the thought of actually trying to sell stuff without technology! If you wanted to do that, call Clean House or be satisfied with having the world’s filthiest apartment. We’ll maybe not, but the point is that you have lots of stuff that other people want and will pay cash. In this post I will get your creative and motivational juices flowing by offering you some easy options to turn your junk into cash. You can follow any of these tips to get the wheels in motion today from the comfort of your home and computer. I personally recently transformed some junk into this.

continue reading "Online Garage Sale"

For many years it was just one tab for me: www.google.com. I can’t remember what it was before then, but it was probably some portal site like www.msn.com or www.yahoo.com. But since the introduction of tabbed browsing, we are no longer constrained with just having a single home page open up when we launch our browsers. Here I share what’s on my auto-launch list, what is on yours?

continue reading "What tabs do you open first when launching your browser?"

There are many moments where computing is available in the palm of your hand, but using a NetBook is not. For example: waiting in line anywhere, executing tedious chores or performing any type of repetitive task. In these cases, you can maintain your quest for ultimate productivity with your trusty iPhone or iPod Touch. Following are some ideas you may find useful during those times when the only computing device you can use, fits in the palm of your hand.

continue reading "Mobile Productivity with the iPhone or Touch"