Workflow for your Business

Within this industry, there is a lot written about, misunderstood, and confusing information on workflow. Let’s get this straight from the start, I’m not about to fix any of that. I’m going to talk a little bit about business workflow. You know, what actually keeps your business alive.

In the past I’ve mentioned such tools as ReQall, Tripit, and others. Today I’m going to offer a few more tools that are really helping me.

First up is Jott. You may already be using Jott, if not, sign up today. It’s a competitor to ReQall, but with a lot more to offer. What Jott has done, is partnered with a ton more other sites and technologies to make their service really valuable to my daily workflow.

Here’s how it works…

Because I’ve registered for a free Jott account, it recognizes me whenever I call from my phone, or any of my email accounts. I simply call Jott, speak into my phone and it transcribes my voice into text. That text can be emailed to me, placed into my “Jotts” (notes that I’ve made), or a plethora of other wonderful goodness that really makes Jott stand out for me. More about that later.

Xpenser is turning out to be a life saver for me. I am the WORST with expense reports. I have great intentions, but am a lousy record keeper. It needs to be incredibly simple for me to use regularly, or I will get lazy. Enter Xpenser. Here’s how it works: After I sign up for a free account, it recognizes my email address and immediately works to make my financial life easier. Whenever I happen to spend a little on business, I have a few simple options. First, I can email Xpenser at e@xpenser.com and in the RE. field I name the category, amount, and notes. Taxi $11 NYC trip to B&H.

RememberTheMilk has been around a while and is a great to-do list. It’s simple, Google-like interface, yet great toolset, is what makes it a fantastic tool. You’ve got the ability to basically do whatever you need. There’s a plugin to Gmail on Firefox and everything is just there. There are no excuses.

OK, so these tools are OK, but what really makes all of this shine? They all work with Jott. If you’ve kept reading to here, you’re in for the real meat. I went one step further and purchased a ToDo list for my iPhone that ties everything together. Now I have Jott, RememberTheMilk, and my ToDo application all on my iPhone working in concert to make my life easier. Here’s how it works:

I call Jott which is a speed dial on the phone and it recognizes my number. It asks me “who would you like to Jott”? I respond with, “XPenser”. Jott replies, “Xpenser, is that correct”? “Yes”. BEEP. Taxi, $11, NYC trip to B&H. Hang up. Jott transcribes the message, sends me an email confirmation, and automatically places the expense into my Xpenser account. How cool is that? I now have no excuses (damn!).

Speed dial Jott again, “Who would you like to Jott”? “Remember the Milk”, and my notes are transcribed to Remember the milk, placed into the correct date, and automatically synced to my ToDo program on my iPhone.

In all, these tools have really increased my daily productivity, not necessarily my video workflow. Feel free to comment on other tools you use to keep your business organized, or email me sgentry (at) provideocoalition.com