Number 13: Online Productivity Tools

23 Things asks:

• Did you find a tool that has some uses for you at the library or at home? Which tool(s) would you recommend to others?

This thing suggests trying out iGoogle and Google Calendars, both of which I have used before! I like that those services are integrated into my email. Some time ago I set up my iGoogle home page, though I do not regularly use it. At the time I was studying for the GRE, and added a gadget that gave me a GRE word of the day. I also added a weather gadget. I found it really helpful when I was using it regularly.

As for the Calendar feature, I am a regular user, even though in an oddball kind of way. Maybe that's what's great about these web 2.0 tools, that you can use them however best it suits you. Anyways, I pay all my bills online. I hate writing checks and I hate getting paper bills in the mail, so I do everything online. It's harder to remember those due dates though, when you don't get a paper bill reminding you every month. So, I set up recurring Calendar reminders for my due dates. For each bill, I set it up so that I would get an email reminder a week before it's due. Since I'm in my email nearly 24/7, I can just stare at those suckers and it helps me to remember to pay my bills. After I pay the bill, I delete the reminder from my email, so that I can remember that I did in fact pay it (a lot of e-bill services STILL don't send you an email confirmation that they received your payment). I really really like this service, it helps me a lot. There have definitely been times when I would've forgotten to pay a bill if I hadn't seen the reminder in my inbox.

Also mentioned in this Thing is Zamzar, which I have also used. I discovered it very recently when I needed to email a copy of my paper program plan to my advisor at OU SLIS. I scanned it, and then created a PDF using Zamzar. Totally helpful and awesome!

So, A+ to these Things. I like them. I recommend them.

Number 9: Online Collaboration

For this entry I'll blog about Google Docs, since I'm already familiar with it. But only recently! As in, just started using it a couple of weeks ago for school. I'm using it as an online storage place for articles I'm using for a research paper. Since I use up to three or four computers each day for work and school, it's handy to have those things stored online, as opposed to having to carry around a USB drive. And since I work on my homework at work (shh, don't tell!), it's also convenient to upload versions of that work to Google Docs for portability.

I realize this isn't exactly one of the intended uses of it, because I'm not really sharing my work with other people. I'm sharing it with myself! Across different computers. I like it. It will be a helpful tool in keeping myself organized this semester.