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Insight, Information and Inspiration on women's careers, business, technology and the Industry.
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PC World published free online tools that can help you organize your life. It is a great list of smart tools you need to organize your life using any device that has a Web browser or an e-mail client, be it PC, Mac, or smart phone.
1. Track Your Tasks With Remember the Milk
2. Store Notes and Research at Backpack
3. Get a (Virtual) Personal Assistant Named Sandy
4. Make Sense of Your Dollars With Wesabe
5. Find the Perfect Gift With Amazon Gift Organizer
6. Stay Organized by Phone With Jott
7. Capture Web Clips With Google Notebook
8. Organize Your Itinerary With TripIt
9. Turn Gmail Into a Personal Information Database With GTDInbox
Getting email under control is one of the hardest things to do these days. Early this week, I blogged my method of managing my Inbox and wanted to offer another resource….David Allen.
David is an author of Getting Things Done and published a four page PDF that offers tips on how to keep your email organized. You can download the PDF for FREE after you register.
In his blog post yesterday, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch talked about email communication crisis and our ability as human beings to be able to respond to all the email that we receive. He said “The volume of communication requests for most people today are far, far beyond what they can handle. Few people today respond to every communication they receive. And an increasing number don’t even claim to be able to read every communication they receive, let alone respond”.
I am happy to report that I have zero unread email messages in my Inbox. Here is my method for managing my Inbox to ensure that all of the messages that need to get answered do, in a timely manner:
Continue Reading “How to manage your Inbox, save time, and respond in a timely manner”
Recently someone asked a great question on the Interaction Design Association’s discussion list: What music do you listen to while you design? Over the next few days, designers of all ages chimed in. Though some said they like it quiet and others commented that they were usually stuck listening to the sales guy’s phone calls, there was a strong, recurring theme: While we’re working with our ear buds in, we designers have background noise we don’t have to pay attention to to understand.
For example, many people said they listen to classical, jazz, electronic, and world music in other languages (like the Plutomayo series). Others said they let their iPod shuffle through very familiar songs. New music was off limits to most (though some people cited online college radio stations known for new indie music). To be fair, there was a punk streak, a little NPR, and a handful of nods to Rammstein. A wise soul acknowledged it’s nice to break from designing and play a little acoustic guitar. Even though hip-hop soars in the charts, it was mentioned only as a side note that people turn to when they’re in a certain mood.
One after another, people piped up about their favorite spots online to get endless streams of custom music on demand. Here are some cyber-music suggestions that came up in that discussion that I wanted to share with the Webgrrls community to keep you designing to the beat.
This site has canned channels or lets you build your own. They even have an Irish channel for St. Patrick’s Day. One cool feature is that you can put in an artist and it will tell you what radio stations play them.
The best feature on finetune is their widget that lets you put play lists on your blog. They say that “it’s the soundtrack for your life and anyone can tune in.”
Continue Reading “Online Music to Help You Design”
 Many of us are watching the Chinese market and trying to figure out how to play in that space. I’ve even started taking classes in Chinese (though I must admit I’m still working on my tones). If you’re like me, you’re on the edge of your seat to stop reading about what’s going on in China and instead start experiencing the culture firsthand.
For those of us eager to learn and experience more, I wanted to share a fantastic opportunity: the Rethink China! 2008 sponsored by Moving Target Research Group. This cultural immersion trip gives you access to anthropologists, designers, and other experts in the field. The itinerary looks amazing! You’ll spend 5 days in Beijing, 4 days in Shanghai, 2 in Chongging, Dalian, or Shaoxing, and 3 final days in Hong Kong. It’s a chance to go on an amazing trip that has a huge pay off in your career as well. They’re still finalizing the dates, but tentatively the trip will be June 6 through 19.
In each city, you’ll go on field trips and participate in workshops. According to the website’s description, the program will focus on things such as:
- What’s going on with the so-called “middle class”?
- What about brands?
- What do households care about? How do they differ?
- What about recreation and leisure?
- Product usage in China: Basic things to know (pre-purchase, purchase, transport, sharing in-home, etc.).
- Networking with China-focused colleagues in and outside of your field.
Of course, such an incredible program comes at an incredible price. Early registration opens March 17, 2008 and is US$7995 per person. After April 15, it jumps to US$8995.
And if you happen to know of any place to apply for scholarships to attend something like this, please share. I REALLY want to go! 
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