Productivity tools and scheduling tips – no substantive investigative content

keep private. e » Establish do-not-disturb hours, when calls are routed directly to voicemail with no ring. e » Have voicemail sent to your cell phone as SMS (text messages). YouMail, another option, can also transcribe voicemails and send them to your phone as text messages. Getting calls while stuck in a time-wasting meeting’? No problem: Respond to voicemails via SMS during the meeting so you’re not stuck returning calls afterward. One Shot, One Kill Scheduling Without E-mail Back-and-Forth Few things are as time-consuming as scheduling via e-mail. Person A: “How about Tues. at 3 PM.?” Person B: “I can make it.” Person C: “I have a meeting. How about Thurs.?” Person D: “I’m on a con- call. How about 10 A.M. on Fri.?” Use these tools to make scheduling simple and fast instead of another part-time job. = Doodle ( www.doodle.com ) The best free tool ’ve found for herding cats (multiple people) for scheduling without excessive e-mail. Create and poll in 30 seconds with the proposed options and forward a link to everyone invited. Check back a few hours later and you’ll have the best time for the most people. = TimeDriver ( www.timedriver.com ) Let colleagues and clients self-schedule with you based on your availability, which is determined by integration with Outlook or Google Calendar. Embed a “schedule now” button in e-mail messages and you'll never have to tell people when you can make a call or meeting. Let them see what’s open and choose. Choosing the Best E-mail Batching Times = Xobni ( www.xobni.com/special ) Xobni—inbox spelled backwards—is a free program for putting Outlook on steroids. It offers many features, but the most relevant to this chapter is its ability to identify “hotspots,” or periods of time when you receive the bulk of e-mail from your most important contacts. These “hotspots” are batching times that will enable you to keep critical contacts (clients, bosses, etc.) smiling even while you reduce checking e-mail to 1-3 times per day. It will also populate your contacts automatically by pulling phone numbers, addresses, etc., from separate e-mail buried in the inbox. E-mailing Without Entering the Black Hole of the Inbox HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_013867