Archive for October, 2009

The September Work Smart Challenge at Work at Home Parents on facebook was:

Before the holidays creep up on you, your challenge is to FIND ONE TASK (or more if you’d like) that you are responsible for completing and find a way to AUTOMATE that task. Whether it be activating that free automated bill pay service that your bank provides with your checking account, or taking advantage of that appointment application that has always been on your cell phone to keep track of your dentist and hair appointments. Just find something that will make your life easier and do it. Working smart is all about forming good habits.

Discoveries that will hopefully to make life easier:

Researching Voice Recognition Software: Get voice recordings transcribed into text versions.

• YouMail.com – subscription for the first 10-15 seconds per voicemail is 3.99 per month, and if you want the entirety of each voicemail transcribed it’s 6.99 per month. Each subscription is limited to 50 voicemails
• Jott.com offers 40 full voicemail transcriptions to text for 9.95 per month.
• MessageSling vs. YouMail – An older post at lifehacker.com compares these 2.

What is so cool about this exactly? My thoughts are: brainstorming. When I have a great idea for a blog post or even hear about something that I want to research, I either have to write it down on a piece of scrap paper (and then probably lose it), call myself and leave myself a voicemail or text myself and my cellphone is kinda past it’s prime and txting isn’t exactly easy. So inevitably I have to type it out later anyways right? Not if I have a good service that will do the typing and the saving for me! – So, that was my answer to the worksmart challenge.

September is over. Happy October!

Misc Work Smart Side Note: Learn Keyboard Shortcuts:
Microsoft Windows
Mac OS X
Linux