Getting Productive in 2008 with Jott
This week I'm sharing some of the tools and tips I've been using in my ongoing quest to achieve productivity nirvana. One tool that I'm really enjoying using is Jott. Here's how it works.
- Sign up for your free account. You'll be prompted through getting your account and phone set up.
- Once you're signed up, use your cell phone to call the Jott toll free number.
- Leave a message for yourself.
- Receive an email within about 5 minutes with the transcript of your message.
Yes, that's right--you can call Jott and leave verbal reminders for yourself that will then be sent to your email inbox for later action. I'm LOVING this thing!
Now, when I'm driving, I can call Jott (which I've programmed into my cell phone) and babble all those follow-up items into my Jott account so that when I get home, my "To Do" list is in my inbox, waiting for action. This is especially helpful if you've been using your email inbox as the collection point for all of your "To Do's," something else I've started doing and which I find extremely helpful.
You can also use Jott to leave reminders or updates for other individuals or even for groups. Again, you leave a voice message, they get an email--or even a text message to their cell. And of course, they can do the same with you. It's all extremely convenient.
I told one of my colleagues about this and her first question was "But aren't your email messages all garbled?" Actually, no. So far Jott has done an excellent job of accurately transcribing my voice messages into emails. But even if there was a problem, when I get my email, there's a link to the voice mail so that I could go listen to it just to make sure I got the info right.
This has been my best tech find to date to support my "getting productive in 2008" plans--definitely worth checking out.
What's your favorite tech tool to improve your productivity?
Jott sounds a really cool application; although it wouldn't work for me because I avoid using any type of phone at all costs. Mmmm my favourite tool for increasing productivity would have to be twitter because I can ask a question and get a fast response that is normally quicker and better than googling. I should also add that twitter is also a good way of decreasing productivity cause you can spend too long using it. But don't worry they are sending all us Twitter addicts to therapy soon.
Posted by: Sue Waters | January 11, 2008 at 07:20 AM
You can also do what i did and get an 800 number with voicemail from www.tollfreenumber.org. I can call it and leave myself a voicemail and it'llbe saved in my email for later use. jott.com and www.tollfreenumber.org are both great resources for 2008
Posted by: Tim | January 11, 2008 at 07:42 AM
While I've used Jott for several months now, primarily for reminders to myself, I have also used it to send emails to my supervisor and direct reports. For those of you practicing GTD, you can do this in less than 2 minutes. For example, at a conference, I meet with a senior manager who wanted to meet with me and 2 of my directs. I pulled out my phone and jotted both of them. I never had to move the task to my to do list and the meeting was confirmed the next morning.
What if, as you left a visit with a major gift prospect, you jotted yourself as you drove away? You could dictate all the pertinent updates while they were still fresh in your mind. If you have an AA, you could jott him/her and have the donor's account updated before you returned to your office.
Glenn
Posted by: Glenn | January 11, 2008 at 10:42 AM
I'm following your productivity posts but have not been very productive in commenting. This Jott sounds awesome...are you certain it's free????
Posted by: Danielle Blogging for Balance | January 11, 2008 at 04:29 PM
Another great feature of Jott is the integration that they offer with many of the other popular social productivity and communication tools like www.twitter.com and www.rememberthemilk.com Good Stuff!
Posted by: Corey | January 12, 2008 at 01:36 AM
Sue, I think it's funny that you avoid using the phone--I definitely would have pictured you being someone who used it all the time, especially with your interest in mobile learning! I have to say that Jott might make it worth your while, although not sure about the international capabilities with it, so I guess that could be a problem.
Great point, Corey about the integration with other social software. I had started using Remember the Milk, but stopped when I started trying to use my inbox for all my "To Do's" so I could also use gmail's labeling capabilities to create my GTD context folders.
And Danielle--I know it's hard to believe, but yes, Jott is free. You should definitely give it a try!
Posted by: Michele Martin | January 12, 2008 at 07:30 AM
Oh my god Michelle, thank you! This is awesome. I have already alerted everyone I know. I love it. How long until Google buys it???
Posted by: adam | January 16, 2008 at 09:43 AM
Hi Michele! I am a productive guru myself! Have you ever tried Pageflakes? I have all my bloggers on one page, another page is all my "newspapers" and so on... it keeps everything neat and tidy!
It also has widgets that use Twitter, facebook and whatever else you like to do. I am going to see if Pageflakes can add Jott as well (cool site).
Posted by: Allison | February 11, 2008 at 06:42 PM
Hi Allison--I've actually been using Netvibes (very similar to Pageflakes) and I agree with you about that kind of interface. Much cleaner and easier to organize. I've been playing around with Google Reader and i-Google, too, but I'm not sure that I'm liking them as well.
Posted by: Michele Martin | February 11, 2008 at 07:54 PM
Hi Michele!
I know Netvibes. I just think Pageflakes is better and easier for the everyday person (obviously you are a little more tech savvy :)). As well, Pageflakes has a cool sharing feature, so you can make "Pagecasts" (with your own URL) and it can be sent out to anyone. Netvibes has a beta version for sharing, I just think Pageflakes is doing it better.
Posted by: Allison | February 12, 2008 at 01:39 PM
Nooooo! i just don't believe you. Voice recognition over the phone, for free? Am i reading you correctly?
The last time i tried voice recognition software it was a) expensive and b) useless.
Oh all right, i'll try it then ..
thanks :-]
Posted by: michael chalki | February 13, 2008 at 12:42 AM