Archive for the ‘Productivity’ Category

TeuxDeux, Oh How I Pine For Thee

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

It’s Friday everyone! Like you needed me to tell you, I know. So here’s this week’s Productivity Friday review, a chance for us at PureDriven to let loose a little, and talk about a great online site that should help make you more productive.

This week, I want to highlight TeuxDeux.com, which is French for To Do.

I’m quite honestly not a big fan of the French, but that’s a debate for another blog.

I’ve been using TeuxDeux for at least two weeks now. And quite honestly, it’s one of the best, little productivity products I’ve run across in as long as I’ve been using the Internet.

That’s probably because of it’s simplicity. It does one thing only – keeps an online “to do” list on a calender – and does it better than anyone else.

And that’s saying a lot, because even in the world of free online products, there are so many calendar and task list programs, I’m shocked anyone would ever try to get into the game. But I will be eternally grateful TeuxDeux did.

Here’s what it looked like for me for the last couple days.

Here’s the most important 8 reasons you should try this out.

1. Simplicity. Type an item, hit return. You’re done.

2. If you don’t get something done, the scheduler automatically moves it to the next day. There’s also a someday section for items you don’t want on a timeline.

3. Once complete, you can delete the items, or just cross them off, so you can see your progress.

4. They recently added an iPhone app for $2.99 (which I haven’t tried yet, but promise to).

5. They’re talking about a better, paid version. But I can’t imagine they could improve on the free one they have available today.

6. There’s something I can’t put my finger on, which makes this tool feel amazingly useful, and just plain cool and attractive. I feel special using it and telling you about it, sort of like showing off a new car and watching your friends take a whiff of that intoxicating new interior leather.

7. The guy who does the videos is hilarious. I’m serious! I’ve embedded the introductory video below. Take a look!

TeuxDeux Demo from TeuxDeux on Vimeo.

8. The Frequently Asked Questions are so funny you actually WANT to read them!

Get an eye full below.

Sold yet? Got one you think is better? Tell me about it.

How To Make and Take Calls on Google Call

Friday, August 27th, 2010

Welcome to another productivity Friday, where we at PureDriven step away from our usual focus on how to drive web traffic to your business, to discuss interesting online tools you can use to manage your time online more effectively.

Those sneaky programmers over at Google quietly added another tool to their free chest of goodies this week. The new tool called Google Call, allows you to now make calls from any Google (Gmail) account for free in the United States and Canada.


And if you add Google Voice, you can even use your computer as your home phone, complete with voice-mail that gets transcribed fairly well, and e-mailed to  you, all for free.

In a nutshell, here’s how it works.

Google Voice is like your own switchboard operator. You sign up here, and get a number.

Then when someone calls you on that number, it rings as many individuals phones as you want: home, work, cell, and yes, your laptop or home computer, through Gmail. So as long as you have Internet access and a computer, you don’t need to worry about having a great cellular signal.

If you want to call someone. You just type the number in the on screen keypad, or click on the name in your Gmail account, if you have a number for them already entered.

I already have a headset, so talking through my computer isn’t cumbersome. But New York Times technology reviewer David Pogue said he’s tested the service with only his built in speakers and microphone, and it seems to work fine.

If you use the service Magic Jack, I would strongly encourage you to consider this option. I’ve used Magic Jack, as have my parents, and routinely ran into troubles with maintaining stable online conversations. I’ve only made a few calls on Google Call so far, but already it seems much more stable, and it’s free, which is still cheaper than Magic Jack.

Moving from Magic Jack to Google Call

If you want to make the switch, here’s how:

1. Start a Google account. Make some calls to see how you like the service.

2.If you decide it’s for you, get a Google Voice number (having to pass out this number to friends and family is the only real negative of the switch).

3. You can then enter your Google Voice number into your Google account, so when people call you, a message will appear on your screen, so long as you keep a Gmail browser tab remains open. Here’s where you can read more on setting up Google Voice to receive calls.

Any questions?