My Geeky Year in Review: 2017 - Apps I Used and Tips I Tried

Year after year, the tools that I use typically change. But the ones that last are usually here to stay.

To start, let's review last year's roundup:

Tool	Status	Notes
Habit tracking with Loop	Still using!	I've been tracking tasks that I want to make sure to accomplish each day. There is something so satisfying about tapping those tasks to check them off.
Investing with Acorns	Nope, but maybe in the future!	I liked this idea a lot but when our budget became tighter this year, I didn't like not knowing when or how much money would be transferred from my bank account. I wish the roundups were immediately withdrawn instead of in a lump sum.
Gym tracking with FitNotes	Nope, but maybe in the future!	My gym membership lapsed a few months ago. I plan to renew it but family budget constraints have put that on hold.
Daily journaling with IFTTT	Still using!	While I don't manage to journal every day, I do use this quick method to jot down a sentence or two on a regular basis.
Recipe organization with Evernote	Still using!	I add new recipes to my Evernote notebook on a weekly basis. To keep up with the tag structure that I implemented last year, I make sure to update any recipes that I've cooked with the 'MADE' tag, and add tags when clipping from the internet.
Track what I've readin Airtable	Still using!	I haven't done as much reading lately, but when I do, I make sure to update my custom Airtable database with at least basic information about the book.
Scanned my journals into Evernote	Completed	This was a project that I'd been working on for quite some time and just a month or so ago I finally finished it up! I scanned all of my paper journals from my childhood and teenage years into Evernote using a Doxie scanner. It was labor intensive, but allowed me to get rid of the paper copies without a hint of guilt.
1 Second Everyday videos	Still using!	While I haven't exactly stuck to taking a video every single day, I'm at least saving multiple videos per week. It's a fun way to look back on highlights (or just daily monotony) from the year.
Google Reminders	Still using!	Combined with Google Calendar reminders, using the voice recognition to remind myself about future tasks has been pretty effective.

Now, what about 2017?

This year, I didn't add a whole lot of new tools and techniques to my geeky repertoire. Instead, the focus seems to be on LESS. Less social media. Less digital clutter. Less time-wasting.

Below is an overview. I'd love to hear about what you've implemented this year to improve your efficiency or organization (personal or digital). Please share in the comments.

1. Personal messaging with Marco Polo

Marco Polo is an app that lets you basically send video messages back and forth.

It's a lot quicker than recording a video and texting it.

I'm only using it with a handful of close friends and family, but I've noticed that I feel a lot more connected with those people than I had just with social media and texting.

I like that I can send a message when it's convenient for me, and the recipient can watch when it's a good time for them, although sometimes the conversation is back-and-forth in nearly real-time.

These video messages give me the personalized feeling of a video call without being as obtrusive. (My introvert might be showing a bit there.)

2. Google Keep - for saving links and so much more

I've been using Keep for a while now, but in the past year I've altered my usage. I used to switch between Evernote and Keep and hadn't defined when to use which. But here's my current method:

• Evernote = for things I want to save long term (recipes, journal entries, contact prescriptions, etc)
• Keep = for things that I want to reference or take action on in the near future, or am not sure I want to save yet (articles, recipes that I want to try before saving to Evernote, coupon codes, blog post ideas, etc)

I want to determine a color coding key, but for now I'm not that organized. I've just started using labels, such as Coupon, Research, and To Purchase. I love that I can add reminders to specific notes too!

I also appreciate that I can edit my notes on any of my devices.

3. Walmart Grocery

Walmart now offers a grocery pickup service. You order your groceries online, schedule a pickup time, drive to a specified parking area, and they load your car.

I know there are other stores that offer this (Target and Fred Meyer are two that I've heard of) but this is the first one I've tried.

Here are two instances that made me especially appreciate this service:

1. When I was sick and needed some cough medicine, Emergen-C and ingredients for soup. 
2. When I had a super busy day and was cooking a dinner in the evening - I ordered the ingredients I needed to make several recipes by having the Walmart Grocery site open in one browser window and my recipe in another.

A side benefit is that using this service helps me stick to my budget as I'm not wandering around and buying things that I don't really need.

4. Organized my inbox LESS

I used to be proud of my color-coded and organized email inbox. But lately, I'm more focused on just doing the stuff and less on making it look nice.

I've stopped using most of the labels that I previously organized meticulously. Instead, I just rely on Gmail's search functionality.

So close to Inbox Zero! And note: no labels.

5. Smartsheet for work tasks

Usually my preferred task management tools fade over time, but Smartsheet (for my day-job work tasks) has been going strong for most of the year. I really like the ease of customization, and how easy it is to drag and drop my tasks in card mode to update status.

For personal use, I keep trying to use Trello but I just can't figure out a use-case yet. I likely will someday... because I remember feeling the same way about Evernote back in the day, and now I can't go a day without using it!

6. Workflowy

In a moment of organization desperation, when I couldn't seem to organize my thoughts and upcoming tasks well and needed a tool that didn't have a steep learning curve to get myself over the hump, I started using Workflowy.

Organizing my annual work goals and objectives with Workflowy

It's a really handy tool that helps me to focus on getting ideas down and organizing my thoughts, instead of worrying about how to format the content.

I'm trying this out for my work life and personal life. One particular project that I'm excited about is a novel that I've been attempting to write. I've made limited progress and was feeling overwhelmed, but after using Workflowy to outline the entire story, it's actually starting to feel doable.

Documenting my novel ideas

7. Less social media

Facebook

I recently tested out deactivating my Facebook account. I only posted a few times in the last year and have noticed that my interactions have become less meaningful over time.

In addition, Facebook's reminders of what I posted in years prior often stirred up negative memories: the loss of a dear friend, a former relationship that didn't end well, things I shared when I was stressed. I'm not sure if I'll delete my account entirely; there are still some good memories there. But I don't see it adding a lot of value to my life at this point.

Pinterest

I still like to explore Pinterest when I'm looking for something specific, but it's amazing how much of a time-drain it can be when I find myself just 'browsing'.

For me, Pinterest isn't the best way to organize ideas because there isn't a secondary level of filtering/sorting. eg: If I want to separate recipes I've made from those I want to try, without transferring pins from board to board. I prefer Evernote for that. I add recipes to a Recipes notebook and then add labels like 'Made' and 'Breakfast'.

I also don't like the fact that I can't verify that the source of a pin is valid. For example, I might find a recipe pin that looks wonderful but the underlying blog that originally hosted the content is now private. That's disappointing. When I find a recipe (or other content) that I want to save, I clip it to Evernote for safekeeping.

As I've realized that saving things on Pinterest doesn't work for me long-term, I've gradually migrated the majority of my pins (after verifying valid urls) to Evernote where I can more easily organize them.

8. Started mind-mapping some long-term goals with Coggle

I've never quite understood how to apply the idea behind mind mapping in a practical way. I liked looking at other people's mind maps but just couldn't figure out how to utilize them myself.

I'm still figuring this out, but I started using Coggle to create a collaborative 'Our Future' map with my husband to document some long term goals and life plans.

That's it!

I really wanted to make it to 10, but maybe the fact that I'm not adding a plethora of new tools means I'm better utilizing the ones I already have. Maybe.

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What did you implement this year to stay organized or improve your personal productivity?


Note: This post is not sponsored by any of the companies/tools that I've mentioned here. These tools may or may not work for you. I'm just sharing what I've found useful personally.

Easily RSVP to Unopened Calendar Requests from Your Inbox with Gmail

Happy Monday!

As I was processing my inbox this morning, a meeting invitation reminded me of a handy little feature in Gmail that lets you RSVP directly from your inbox (without having to open the email).

This is especially useful when I've been corresponding with someone and have been expecting a calendar invitation to come through.

Here's what it looks like:

I can click on the RSVP button and choose my response. It's a little feature that speeds up my inbox processing time.

Have you stumbled upon any handy Gmail features that give your inbox productivity a boost? Share in the comments!

When You Need to Forward 86 Gmail Messages at One Time to Someone

Today, a coworker asked me how to forward 86 emails at once.

While researching how to respond, I discovered that you can set up a filter to forward messages, but it will only apply to emails that you receive after you create the filter. So, that wouldn't work here.

To easily forward a large number of emails all at once, you can use a simple script from Amit Agarwal on labnol.org.

Here is the tutorial that I created for my coworker using Clarify. I used Clarify's HTML option under 'Share this page' to insert the content of my tutorial below.

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How to automatically forward new or existing email messages to another address using Gmail

1. Create a copy of the google spreadsheet with the script.

Click here to create a copy of the google spreadsheet.

2. Fill out the label and address to forward to.

It's a good idea to use a temporary label that you'll create just for this purpose, eg: 'FWDTOJENNA'.

3. Click on 'Gmail Forward' in the Google Doc menu.

4. Click on Initialize.

5. Confirm authorization.

6. Click 'Accept'.

7. In your Gmail inbox, apply the label to all the messages you want to forward.

You can click on the first message to forward and then, while holding down the SHIFT key, click on the last (if you're selecting a series of messages). This will check them all off.

Then click on the label icon (it looks like a tag). Put in the label that you decide to use. Click 'Create new'.

8. Confirm the new label by clicking 'Create'.

9. Go back to the Google Spreadsheet and click 'Start Auto-Forward'.

10. The emails will be forwarded. It'll take a few minutes for a large number of emails.

11. When done, choose 'uninstall'.

This will stop the auto-forwarding of the messages.

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Have you tried this method? or have you discovered an alternative? I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

How to: Automate Adding Customizable Buttons to your Gmail Messages

Here's an easy way to add a little flair to your day-to-day emails.

Background

When I'm sending a link to a report or tutorial, I want it to stand out from my other email content. And sometimes hyperlink-formatted text just isn't enough.

So, I came up with this little trick that allows me to easily insert a customizable button in my Gmail messages.

I find myself creating these buttons from scratch several times a day, and I finally realized that I could save some time by automating most of the process.

Technology leveraged:

• 'insert image by url' functionality of Gmail
• a text expansion app, like TextExpander
• a button wizard site that I use on a regular basis: Da Button Factory.

How To

1. Generate your button using Da Button Factory
2. Pass the button image url into TextExpander and customize
3. Use the insert image by url and your TextExpander abbreviation to insert the button into an email
4. Add a hyperlink to the button

See it in Action

Sample Button image url:

http://dabuttonfactory.com/b.png?t=button%20to%20customize&f=Calibri-Bold&ts=18&tc=ffffff&it=png&c=round&bgt=unicolored&bgc=79a5f2&hp=20&vp=11

The example button looks like this:

Do you use TextExpander to automate your daily tasks? Have you figured out how to tweak your Gmail messages to stand out? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Templates for Sending Custom HTML-Formated Emails

In my last post, I shared a link to a tool that lets you design or send HTML-formatted emails.

When I was first experimenting with it, I used Vertical Response's templates as a starting point.

But, I found a few other great template sources that you can use. They are free and a great way to get started, especially if you aren't adept at manually crafting layouts in HTML. Or, if you're like me and you can never remember all of the attributes for a table.

I prefer to use a template to start, then switch to HTML-mode and make changes as necessary to spacing, alignment, etc.

Without further ado:

• 36 basic templates from MailChip
  These are a perfect starting point for customizing to create your own template. Basic layouts with sidebars, mobile-friendly versions, etc. I'll be using these often!
• 100+ free templates from Campaign Monitor
  Some of these look really nice! I wanted a more basic layout (white background, no extra graphics) but these were rather appealing. I might use them for personal email campaigns.
• 20 free templates from Benchmark Email
  Some outdated colors/styling, but still could be customized.

Tips: 

• When editing HTML, Ctrl + F becomes your friend. Use it to find specific code snippets or to locate the formatting properties for a particular text block.
• Once you have the main template customized as you'd like, you can copy/paste it into a new Salesforce email template. Fancy!

Jenna Baze is a rather geeky girl with average social skills and an affinity for: Google Apps, Salesforce.com, Pinterest, natural light photography and finding creative ways to avoid doing dishes (which includes updating a handful of blogs).
Email: rathergeeky@gmail.com | Twitter: @RatherGeeky | Facebook: Rather Geeky Tips

How to: Send HTML-formatted Emails with Gmail

I love Gmail. But sometimes, there's a feature that I *really* miss from desktop email applications.

Html-formatted emails is one of them. I'm not talking about bolded text or selecting my font. I want tables sometimes... and columns...

And so I was excited when I discovered a tool for designing and sending html-formatted emails with Gmail.

You can use the editor to design your email and then paste the html code to send or you can write the html manually. I used a template from Vertical Response to get started and customized it in their editor. Then, I pasted the code into the Google Docs sheet tool and sent.

It worked exactly as I expected! I used it to transform a bland text email to new users into a more professional welcome email.

It turned out like this:

Potential uses:

• Company bulletins
• Tip emails
• Personal newsletters (no need to buy credits and use an email service!)
• Pretty much anything...

Here's the link to the tutorial. Give it a try!



Jenna Baze is a rather geeky girl with average social skills and an affinity for: Google Apps, Salesforce.com, Pinterest, natural light photography and finding creative ways to avoid doing dishes (which includes updating a handful of blogs).
Email: rathergeeky@gmail.com | Twitter: @RatherGeeky | Facebook: Rather Geeky Tips

Just for kicks: Gmail Conversation View

I’ve heard from some Outlook holdouts that they just can’t give up Conversation View and switch to Gmail.

I decided to turn off Conversation View in Gmail.

My inbox normally looks like this:

When I turned Conversation View off, it looked like this:

Really? People prefer this? Ick. I had to turn it back.

How do you ‘undo’?

Gmail offers a Lab called “Undo Send.”

Today, I made use of this handy feature at least 3 times; once when I accidentally sent an email to the wrong person; another time when I clicked send before I was really ready to; and then again when I realized my grammar was a bit off.

You can find it by clicking on the green beaker at the top right of your screen, enabling it and then clicking “Save Changes.”

Then, when I click Send, I see a note popup under the thread of the email I just sent. (Assuming I didn’t click “Send and Archive.” If I did, the note would appear at the top of my screen.)

Then, you can customize how long it gives you to realize your mistake. Go to Settings > General > Undo Send. I give myself 10 seconds, just to be safe.

Yet another way to prevent those “d’Oh!” moments.

More than You Ever Needed to Know about Searching in Gmail

 

If you are now accustomed to clicking “Archive” for emails that you no longer want to see in your inbox, you are probably aware of how powerful the gmail search is. You may have been overwhelmed by the sheer number of results or wondered how to filter your search results to find that one email about that one thing.

Discover the ins and outs of using gmail search by reading this article: http://email.about.com/od/gmailtips/qt/et_find_mail.htm)

Clean Up Your Sidebar by Hiding Labels

Since I have 55+ labels, they used to take up a lot of room on the left side of my inbox.

If you want to clean up your sidebar and allow more room for other things (like chat and add-ins), you can hide certain or all labels from appearing on the left.

Go to Settings > Labels and choose Hide All or Hide on individual labels.

Now my sidebar looks like this (a little cleaner).

I can still click on one to show all emails with that label by clicking on the little arrow next to the number of labels and selecting a label, like this:

Create a Map Repository For Often Used Locations

Do you use a map site (like google maps or mapquest) to view the same map repeatedly? This tip might save you some time when you need to lookup directions more than once.

You can maintain a simple Map Repository within Gmail. It's builds on the concept introduced in the post entitled "Creating Notes in Gmail.”

1. Create a new Label called "Map."
   
2. Create a Filter to add the "Map" Label to any email addressed to username+map@---.com. Check the "Skip the Inbox (Archive it)" checkbox to bypass the Inbox.
    
3. Whenever you search for directions or view a map that you will visit repeatedly, save the map as a gif image and send it (as an attachment or inline) to username+map@---.com. Include the name of the location (such as “ABC Engineering – Seattle Office” or “John Smith – Home.”
   
   As an alternative to using a graphic, you could copy and paste the url of the map into a new email. Then you could just click on the hyperlink to view the map. To do this in google maps, click on Link and copy the “Paste Link in email or IM” link.
   

Using Gmail's Search, you can later find the map much faster then by using an online map-service.

This can be adapted for many other applications by adjusting the label and filter.

Shortcut for Searching for Multiple Labels

Gmail has some advanced searching capabilities that, if you take the time to learn, enable you drill down to very specific information. In this tip, you'll learn how to search for specific messages based on their Labels including how to search for multiple Labels.

If you want to search for all messages having a specific label, you can click on the "Show search options" link, click the "Search" dropdown, select the desired Label, and click the "Search Mail" button.

But a shortcut is to type the Label prefixed with the "label:" query word in any simple search field at the top of any Gmail page, like this:

 

If you want to view all messages that have selected multiple Labels, for example messages having both 'Label1' and 'Label2', enter the following into the simple search field at the top of any Gmail page.

To see all messages with either 'Label1' or 'Label2', you can enter:

Note: the specific label names are NOT case sensitive, but the "OR" operator is case sensitive, and must be in uppercase. The pipe operator '|' can also be used in the same manner as 'OR'.

Creating Notes in Gmail

Some email providers provide a "Notes" function to let you maintain a list of notes. For example you might keep Web site links, random thoughts, etc. Gmail doesn't offer this feature, but by using some of Gmail's other features, you can set up a very nice, easy to maintain group of notes.

Basically, the concept is to email yourself the notes, but Gmail lets you at least better organize and handle these emails. Here's what you do:

1. Create a label called "Notes"
2. Create a filter to add the "Notes" label to any emails addressed to yourname+Notes@---.com. You can also check the "Skip the Inbox (Archive it)" checkbox if you don't want to see these notes as a new email in your inbox.

The effect is this: When the message arrives in your Gmail account, it will automatically be archived into your "Notes" Label view, bypassing the Inbox (if you selected "Skip the Inbox"). Nice and organized.

When you want to email yourself from your own Gmail account, click "Compose Email", and just type "Notes" in the "To" field and hit "Tab" or "Enter". Because you used the name "Notes" in the Contact, Gmail will fill in the email address automatically eliminating the need to enter a long address. Then, when you click send, the email gets sent to yourself, and is auto-archived in the Notes Label, just like above.

You now have a Label containing any notes you want to keep, and they are completely searchable!

Practical Application

I use this to include notes to myself within an email thread. I click reply, remove all other info in the email and send it to jbaze+enote@….com. This way, I can view all notes that I have related to a specific email (such as when I am discussing an email topic with someone over the phone). In this case, using a label is not necessary.

I also send generic notes to myself that aren’t necessarily related to another email. To send those, I have setup a filter for jbaze+Notes@….com. I can then further tag my notes with additional labels such as ‘reference’, ‘education’, etc.