Use Web 2.0 tools to save time and be more productive

photo credit: ASur­roca

For a while I’ve been using a few Web 2.0 applic­a­tions that, on their own, are great, but when when partnered with other Web 2.0 apps, become super­star effi­ciency optimizers.

The applic­a­tions
Con­sider Jott, IWant­Sandy, and Twit­ter.

Jott is a voice to text applic­a­tion. You call a free num­ber, say your mes­sage, and moments later it’s emailed to you (or a group), turned into a reminder, added to a list, or sent to Web 2.0 applic­a­tions (called Jott links).

IWant­Sandy is a ‘vir­tual assist­ant’. She’s able to man­age your sched­ule, build and man­age lists, man­age email groups, and share your lists with others.

Twit­ter is a simple ‘status update’ applic­a­tion that allows you to post your status (your answer to the ques­tion “What are you doing?”).

Con­nec­tions are key
Stan­dalone, they’re all good, solid, Web 2.0 applic­a­tions. But where they really begin to shine is when you let them talk to each other, and other online applic­a­tions. Here’s a simple example:

• Use Twit­ter to have Sandy remind you to backup your blog on the 13^th of each month
• In the Twit­ter win­dow type d s r Backup the blog on June 13, 2008 @monthly
• which means Dir­ect mes­sage to Sandy (s is Sandy’s Twit­ter name), Reminder ® Backup…(the text Sandy is to remem­ber) on June 13, 2008 (the start date of the reminder) @monthly (a spe­cial Sandy tag to make the event repeat.

Depend­ing how you’ve got Sandy set up, you’ll be reminded through Twit­ter, email or SMS mes­sage to your mobile device (or all three).

AFK? Use Jott When I’m out and about, I use Jott to work with Sandy to get things done. Here’s the same example using Jott:

• (Dial into local Jott num­ber, Jott answers) Who do you want to Jott?
• (Me) Sandy.
• (Jott) Sandy.(repeats to con­firm) Is this correct?
• (Me) Yes.
• (Jott) Got it. BEEP-TONE-TO-RECORD
• (Me) Reminder. Backup the Blog on June 13^th 2008. Tag Monthly.

Extend­ing fur­ther
Twit­ter, Jott and IWant­Sandy all embrace open­ness, to vary­ing degrees. Depend­ing how you con­fig­ure each, they can update your online cal­en­dar (Google Cal­en­dar, 30Boxes, etc), your local desktop applic­a­tion through CSV or iCal files, really the sky is the limit.

So, what have I missed? How are you using these (or other applic­a­tions) to make your life easier?