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Easy Reading on the Go with Readability

Since I started blogging on productivity and technology and all that fun stuff I’ve been reading other blogs more and more. I’ve tried a couple of different tools to help me stay on top of the articles that I want to read, and at the moment I am very happy using Readability.

Readability is a bit like Pocket or Instapaper. You find an article you want to save for later and click the “Readability” button in the toolbar of the web browser. This captures the article and copies it to the Readability service so you can read it later from the Readability site, or from your mobile device.

There are three main ways I add articles Readability.

6Wunderkinder Close the Book on Wunderkit

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I am a big Wunderkit fan and user, so it is with a great deal of pain that I write this post. 6Wunderkinder, the people behind Wunderlist and Wunderkit have announced that they have halted development of Wunderkit to be able to focus exclusively on Wunderlist. This news comes eight months after the launch of Wunderkit Beta and when looking back at what’s happened during that time, it really is no surprise. 6Wunderkinder share their usage numbers citing that even though there are over 400,000 Wunderkit users, there are over 3,000,000 Wunderlist users and that number is vastly more significant.

While Wunderkit was being developed, Wunderlist, a very simple, powerful and beautiful task management tool, became stagnant – no significant enhancements were being made. 6Wunderkinder mention that of the 400,000 registered Wunderkit accounts, many of them were never used, leaving only a very small number of active Wunderkit users.

How to Track Expenses with Evernote

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If you work for a company then chances are that you’re going to need to travel somewhere, some day, for something. And when you do you will typically be able to claim back work-related expenses that you’ve incurred.

So often you see people getting back into the office after coming back from a meeting, with a taxi receipt in their hand and then stash the receipt somewhere in the back of their desk drawer. Then, when the accounts people start hounding everyone to submit their expense claims this same person is floundering around digging through piles of notes, junk, cables, dust and a half-eaten Vegemite sandwich from last week looking for any old and faded receipt they can find. And it’s normally a bonus if they can find all of them.

A Wunderkit Review by a Real User

Living2 Comments

It’s about time that I produced a Wunderkit review. It’s been about 8 months since the Wunderkit beta was made public and I have intentionally avoided writing any kind of review for a long while. For this Wunderkit review, I didn’t want to write about “this” feature or “that” feature, but instead how this tool has changed my life, because that is the true testament to any productivity system, tool or process. I’m not interested in contexts and time tracking or whatever. I want to have a simpler and more productive life.

And now I have. Here’s how it works.

3 Ways To Go Paperless

Life4 Comments

We’re all hippies. We all want to save the planet, have world peace and solve world hunger. These are big issues, but we can have some small impact on each. How? Being nice to people will have a knock-on effect – BAM! World peace; don’t order or buy to much food when you shop or go out – BAM! Leaving food for others. But what about saving the planet? Here I want to share some ideas on how to use less paper, and as paper comes from trees, save more trees, and what do trees do? Well, that’s a question for a tree person, but they are important.

Going paperless sounds easy. After all, how much paper do you actually use at home or at work? It can’t be that much, right? Wrong. You use paper much, much more than you realise. There’s bills that come in, the shopping list you’ve jotted down, manuals on how to work your TV and DVD, receipts (how I loathe paper receipts), contracts and invoices, and the list goes on.

Here, then, are 3 ways that you can start to use today to cut down on the amount of paper you have laying around in the kitchen, on your desk and buried in a filing cabinet.

How not to be the crazy person running around the letterbox

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It’s time to talk about money and financial freedom again. I’ve previously written about getting back in control of your money, and now I’d like to share with you how I have learnt to take the next step and “fill the big bill bucket”. The problem is this, and we all know it. You’re plugging away, working your job through the week, taking your family out on the weekend, enjoying being with your friends and then, one day, quite unexpectedly, you receive one of those annoying letters in the mail. Those stupid little letters with the little window. What happens next is usually one of two reactions:

Shock. You fling you arms in the air and run around your letterbox yelling and screaming in a panic.
Stunned silence. You simple can not believe what you’re holding in your hands. Surely, this cannot be true!

3 Things to Capture Tasks So They Never Get Missed

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I forget things. It’s just what I do. I have decided my brain is better at figuring things out than remembering anything. Which is a bit crap since the brain is where all memories are (lucky there are these things called “cameras”). So, because my brain doesn’t like to remember things, I rely on more permanent storage systems instead.

Before having a “system”, I would think of something I needed to do – it would just “pop” into my head as an idea or something that really needed attention – then I would really try to concentrate and commit that action to memory, hoping I could recall it when I was in the right place at the right time. Or, I’d turn to the person next to me and say “remind me to…”. How many times do you think either of these things worked? You wouldn’t even need one hand to count it.

So I had to come up with new, more permanent and reliable ways to remember all those things that I needed and wanted to get done. I think this was the start of my journey into the world of productivity applications, “getting things done” (GTD) and all that good stuff you can find around the web.

Here are three things I use to capture tasks, ideas and everything else, so that I can easily get to it when I need to, wherever I might be.

Dealing with Too Many Messaging Systems

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Do you ever get the feeling there are just too many places to look and listen to get all the information you need, and that’s expected of you? How are we suppose to deal with all these channels of communication and still be productive? It’s definitely a challenge. In a vain attempt to get something done, you end up shutting down your email, closing your web browser, setting your chat client(s) to “Do Not Disturb” and put your phone on silent and in your drawer. Does it work?

At work we depend on communication channels to keep abreast of changes in the workplace, client requests, the competition and everything else. So when email is so prevalent, why do we need to even think about using chat, or forums, or secret departmental mini-apps?

It’s Just More Fun Together! 3 Steps to Getting Things Done as a Team

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Cross posted from DEG Consulting.

Just about everything we read about improving productivity is about the individual, it’s about you. But didn’t your coach ever tell you that “you need to work as a team, and not as individuals” when you needed to accomplish something amazing to take home a win? The coach was right.

Working as individuals, it can be hard (not impossible) to accomplish big goals. If a particular project you’re working on has 100 tasks, then on you’re own that’s 100 discrete tasks that you need to do. And if you think you can multitask, think again. If you even attempt to multitask the project will take even longer.

The only option then, to bring the project in on time, is to get help. Get the team working together. Here’s how.

Wunderbook: Life Organized with Wunderkit – It’s Here!

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It’s here! After months of writing I am extremely happy to announce that Wunderbook: Life Organized with Wunderkit is now available!

When Wunderkit was launched at the beginning of 2012 I noticed there was a lot of confusion about how to use it and when. I put this down to the fact that people were expecting Wunderkit to be “Wunderlist 2.0″. Wunderkit is actually a very different tool and when used correctly, it will definitely help you organise all areas of your life!

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