On many occasions I have talked about tools designed to improve personal productivity and, of course, these tools are mostly if not always cross-platform work in one place and always want to use a computer. Sometimes we will use them in your mobile phone, a tablet, a netbook or even in the car. Here comes into play is when Android . An operating system for mobile phones and smartphones category called that lets you run applications that interact with the web, making it work as a container of information, as a distributor of communications or as a simple but efficient format converter. For all this cluster becomes a global tool of productivity, it is necessary to choose very carefully applications to use to which they belong without interference between them.
This article aims to explain what tools I use and therefore are, in my opinion, best suited to my way of working. Of course there are other applications, perhaps superior in performance, but because of its complexity to have excessive features or not fully integrated in all my environments, I have disregarded in use. This does not mean that they will not be appropriate applications for others so each one will take it deems fit.
My daily work is based on acquiring information that allows me to keep abreast of news, techniques, products, etc.. This information must be processed, cataloged, stored and shared. Alongside this, much of my job is to communicate with others, especially to address specific concerns that may affect ongoing projects. Finally, I plan all my work, assigning tasks and resources, and need to instantly know my situation within the project to determine what actions to perform at any time.
For all this I have a powerful tool to manage my productivity anywhere, my Android phone, then I will explain in detail each of the aplciaciones. However, to do too thorough article, as this theme contains material for a book as thick, give a brief description of each application without going into details of its operation.
In the description of my daily tasks, the first thing I did was to acquire information . My daily sources of information are based on reading a blog series of carefully selected for their subject and, using the motto of Web 2.0, its contents are arriving promptly at me through my subscription to the feed. The application I use to read news that are updated, is Google Reader . I opted to use this application for its simplicity, perhaps a little sparse from the aesthetic point of view, but this is precisely what prevents distort my attention when reading the contents.
Once I read an article, I can meet with various needs. One of them will read the text more calmly to analyze any section you feel is important. If that slow reading conducted under the brief, I can forward to that item directly to the browser the next time you open it at home. My partner for this action will android2cloud (now called simply 2cloud, using the name only to the version “with a donation,” although both are identical). When I encountered a text that I want to read later in the browser from home, I’ll select the option to share and then show me the different applications that I can share my content. 2cloud and will choose the next time I open my browser at home, I will automatically open the web I just shared. Of course, the browser I use on my computers is Google Chrome , but beware. Google Chrome is not the panacea of browsers, so do not discard point Mozilla Firefox as a browser alternative to Chrome.
It may happen that this article I’m reading on Google Reader is important to save it. In an office of last century, would print the page and would keep it in a file as a reference for future use. Today, in the XXI century and with Android as a tool, I will just click on the bounced share of Google Reader and select Evernote as a container for information. Evernote allows me to not only store information but also because I can classify it accurately to have a system of folders and labels. And in reality, Evernote is just a notebook, but very sophisticated, because even allows me to share those notes with others. Of course this is not the only way to store information into Evernote, and can create text notes from the editor himself, saving a photo from the gallery of images from the camera or capturing or creating a memo from the phone itself.
A lack that today has Evernote, is the ability to take notes by hand, making the annotations on an image or photograph or you can create an outline or diagram. This task is a simple tool such as Skitch . Recently, developers have taken on this application Evernote to include it as part of Evernote, which undoubtedly will alleviate the current lack of implementation, but for now Skitch is a standalone application that allows you to make notes or drawings on an existing image and then store the final result in Evernote. In case you need to make complex diagrams or charts, you can use applications like everyting Note , a notebook full offline or Smart Diagram allows you to create mind maps and flowcharts easily.
The third option I can need to read an article from Google Reader is to want to save the address of the link to that article. Eye, because this time I do not save the contents of the article, but the direction of the link to the article in the blog. The difference is that sometimes I need to work with the text, while at other times I just want to store the address of the article whether any other time I need to remember its contents. To store the address two very important tools I use in my daily work. The first is URLy , allowing me to work with short addresses. Not the same type in an email address https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mndroid.apps.urly&feature=order_history to write http://kcy.me/4q53 and that is what makes URLy precisely narrow the addresses so they can be handled comfortably. Then, once you’ve narrowed the direction I want to save, will store in the Andricious which will label the address and save it into my Delicious , the social bookmarking service (favorite if you want to use the terminology of Windows) most widespread of the Web
To end with ground actions performed within Google Reader, the most social of all is to share those items that I consider of interest to them, either because they are working on the same issues that I or I know some people are interested in the subject matter the article. Here are a range of sharing possibilities ranging from Twitter to Google Plus as latest addition. The offer very wide, but since its appearance, my favorite is Google Plus and to create groups of people according to their interests, and give each group (actually called circles) that its components are interested and can compartmentalize talks by theme. The Google Plus offers possibilities go far beyond that offered by other social networking sites like Facebook and has an enormous potential for use in both professional and educational fields thanks to its versatility and its high level configuration of partitioning communications.
Leaving the field of information I get from my daily sources, there are other documents that I manage. Can be reached by e-mail a document copied from the computer of a client or a text editor generous gift of the mobile itself. Depending on the type of document you will store in Google Docs , if a text, spreadsheet or presentation, for example. But if a file containing multiple documents or programs that Google Docs is not the right place, I will use Dropbox as storage in the cloud. There are other virtual disks that offer much space or are becoming more fashionable Drobox last, but perhaps because of the pioneers and have a native application for every platform imaginable, Dropbox storage service is more spread and the favorite for me.
Now is the time to talk about communication s. The most basic and elementary that can be done with a mobile phone is to talk with other people via phone call, but stating that I at least, thanks to be connected to mobile Internet, every day use less. Calling a person means to bother with a cut in its work. In contrast, a timely and direct message to your phone allows me to make a comment or a question at a glance by the recipient serves to fulfill its mission without distraction. An SMS would be a valid option, but is unreasonable and exorbitant cost, which can be avoided with the use of Google Talk offers also additional functions such as voice communication or chat and I can, using the visual system of user status, whether or not it is available to talk. Then there are other communications applications such as perfect for WhatsApp , which allows a chat having the particularity that the contacts are not grouped by account at Google, as in the case of Google Talk, but by the number of your phone Mobile, expanding the number of partners.
An important role is played in my communications Twitter and Google Plus. The first is not only a means of direct communication with people of my same interest group, but behaves as a source of information in real time, not just what happens in extreme situations as they can be natural disasters, but situations current to a jam or a demonstration that cutting certain streets. In this case act as a traffic alert system, but much more effective because of its immediacy. But if Twitter people I communicate with my same interests, it is logical that they will like me when reading your sources of information and Twitter share in what they consider relevant. And not just on Twitter, but also do so in Google Plus and therefore both environments become a meeting place for capturing information and discussion topics.
Finally we reached the section related to the planning of tasks and their distribution over time for a project, as well as the management of resources for the project. From the beginning of the article I am only sketching a methodology that is included within the GTD (Getting Things Done), developed by David Allen and presented in the book ” Getting Things Done . ” The book is unfortunately sold out, but if you spend a while searching the web, find a PDF version that you will no doubt help.
The GTD method is based on the development of specific tasks for each section of your project and for which you must set a priority level based on its relevance, its level of gratitude and runtime. Basically is to shake off as soon as you find it what to do or that thankless task whose execution lasts such a short time not worth thinking about for when to quit. It is immediately and one less thing to do. The bulk of time devoted to tasks that require more thorough and concentration. To manage this, you need a good planner and time tasks, such as Google Calendar. Not only is it possible to schedule the remaining tasks and appointments with other people, but will have a complete system of alerts that can warn us of the start time of a task or that we are near the completion date and time of onset of a meeting or when it’s time to leave it all to rest. The native application Google Calendar I do not like too much because it is too simple, so I’ve replaced Georges is much more colorful and incidentally adds some functions that the native application Google does not offer.
Let’s say that Google Calendar is the minimum tool by default, but there are other more specialized tools to manage tasks by using the GTD method, such as GTD Tickler . This is an Open Source application under development that aims to provide an aid to scheduling. Finally, a very interesting and has the advantage of seamlessly integrated with Google Calendar. This is Remember the Milk is a complete task management system using multiple user alerts.
The truth is that even we could talk long about cool tools, but the article would become too dense to be part of a post on a blog. I think it’s time for everyone to investigate what tools are best suited to their way of working and, perhaps, let us comment on their experience to enrich the readers and myself.
