“Mommm! Leave me alone! I’ll do it later!”

Is that you, in the middle of your bookmarks folder?

Who knew that when you were whining that sentence from under your pillow, you were actually being organized?! You told her, didn’t you? A big part of efficiency (when you get past the homework, chores and allowance stage of life) is recognizing what needs to be done now, and what should be done later. We have recently discovered an awesome way to organize your future time and things that should be done later – an extension for Firefox called Read It Later. Check out the features after the jump…

Read More…

What is the best online collaboration tool?

This question comes up a lot and for good reason. Nearly every techno-savvy company is looking for time saving tools that will help their team collaborate and achieve more. Before we start spouting solutions, however, we have to ask some follow-up questions: “Collaborate on what? With whom? Using what mediums?” There are a number of different categories to consider. Each has a variety of collaborative solutions, some of which overlap:

• Audio Conferencing
• Co-Browsing
• Collaborative Reviewing
• Collaborative Writing
• Document Sharing – Wikis
• Event Scheduling
• File Sharing
• Instant Messaging
• Mind Mapping
• Multimedia Presentations
• Screen Sharing
• Video Conferencing
• Web Conferencing
• Web Presenting
• Whiteboarding
• WorkGrouping

Robin Good has put together a huge mind map list of tools in each of the above categories, complete with links to each tool. Check it out here. Use the +/- buttons (lower right) to view.

If you prefer the iPaper format, use this link instead.

As a business owner or manager, you are concerned not only about your own efficiency but that of your staff. If employees are whiling away time on personal surfing, chats, or emails instead of working, you are incurring cost (for the employee) without making any forward progress toward company goals. This drains your margin.

Spector Pro from SpectorSoft provides the monitoring software you need to easily reduce this problem.

Sometimes the surfing problem is reduced when employees simply become aware that monitoring is in place. I’m not suggesting that every employee on the internet is wasting time… only that company principals deserve to know who abuses the privilege. This comprehensive software is a bargain and gives you the tools you need.