I find that I am using these two clever tools more and more. Both are relatively new startups so there’s no telling how long they’ll be around, but word of mouth will hopefully keep them thriving so I can continue taking advantage of them.
First up is ReQall. In short, I have ReQall as a speed-dial on my phone. While going about my day, I find myself daydreaming and occasionally might get a great idea, or need to remind myself of an upcoming task. I hit ReQall speed-dial and I am prompted with a female voice asking me if I’d like to “add” or “ReQall”. You simply say “add” and wait momentarily for the beep. Then leave myself a voice message. Within 5 minutes or less, I get an email of my memo transcribed perfectly. Then daily I get updates as to my ReQall items. Think of this as having 24/7 access to a voice recorder and secretary.
The second tool I found myself using during this NAB is Tripit. Sign up at tripit.com and they’ll ask for your email address or addresses that you frequently use. Nowadays, upon making any sort of travel reservation such as hotel or airline, you usually receive an itinerary via email. Simply forward that itinerary you received from, well the hotel, travel agent or whatever, to tripit. It uses your email address to create an online itinerary of all of your pertinent events. It goes further to provide directions from the airport to hotel (if necessary), and even supplies you with the local weather forecast for the days location to which you’re traveling. I found it was easier to simply click on my iPhone Tripit icon and get everything quickly and easily.
I’m always on the lookout for more tools such as these as I am inherently lazy, um, creative in finding time-saving tools. More to come.
Scott Gentry started his career as a child actor then moving to ABC All My Children first in production straight out of college, then in front of the camera for a short stint as a regular walk-on (woo-hoo!)