I'm a fan of productivity, but it seems like there a million different tools to help you keep track of stuff and get more done. How are we going to find time to figure out which of these productivity tools are the best? You can't, so that's why usually I ignore them.
The other day, though, my friend Dennis Kennedy asked some of his tech friends if they'd ever tried Jott.com. I hadn't so I decided to see what it was. I've been using it on a trial basis and I've found that it's a very useful way of keeping track of some of your 'to-do's.' It's free right now, but I assume that if it catches on then they'll have some sort of tiered service.
To set up your Jott account you provide your email address and your cellphone number (or whatever number you are most likely to use to call-in a 'to-do.'). Once you are authenticated, you can use your phone to dicate a quick reminder. This is useful for those times when you are driving or in some situation and you want to remember to do something. Another way you can remind yourself is to send an email to jott@jott.com from the email address you used to register.
The power of Jott comes through when you start to notice that every day you get an email called 'Daily Jott' which has all of the reminders that you have sent. If you want to delete one or two then you just go to your online account and do that. But, it's nice to get a daily summary email of all the things that you want to remember. It's also pretty cool that when you dicate your message to your phone the voice recognition software that they have converts your dictation to text (you can also listen to the voice message too if you want).
Check it out and let me know what you think (i.e. leave a comment below).
Excellent product! Thanks!
Posted by: James B | January 16, 2007 at 01:09 PM
Nice tool! Unfortunately, it is only available in the US...
Posted by: dominic jaar | January 27, 2007 at 10:39 AM
Another great productivity product is http://www.dailytodo.net
It allows you manage tasks that need to be performed on a regular basis, such as daily, weekly and monthly tasks.
Posted by: P. LaNasa | April 30, 2007 at 09:08 AM
I had quite an experience the first time I used Jott to communicate with a client. I started out "Hi David, ummm, just wanted to let you know . . . ." Jott transcribed it as "Hi David, I love you, just wanted to let you know . . . ." It's a good thing Jott sends the audio file as well! (It's also a good thing that David is very understanding.)
Posted by: Lisa Solomon | August 03, 2007 at 02:57 PM
Thats because they have actual people working, transcribing it... don't worry; they work in a sealed environment.
Posted by: Brad | March 02, 2008 at 10:22 PM
@dominic jaar: it works in Canada, too. You just have to check out the FAQ for the telly numbers.
Posted by: Brad | March 02, 2008 at 10:23 PM