Productivity begins with a mouse: Web applications to assist in your time efficiency

1. Behance action method:

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• The Action Runner- this is a miracle. It has a reference line up top, where you put the name or location of the work you're doing -- a date spot -- and then action boxes going down the whole thing. Very simple and small; I take it with me everywhere.

• The Action Cahier- Pretty much, it's like the Action Journal in a small mini book size. The right side has the action steps, like the runner, and the left side has dotted graph lines so you can sketch out websites or ideas.

2. Tweet Deck: This may seem like a weird thing to put in the productivity and GTD section, but I think it's essential, especially if you work in the internet/social/search industry like I do. If you must be interacting on Twitter everyday while at work (or working for yourself), Tweet Deck has columns you can use to:

• Save time by keeping your important contacts separate from people you're just following.[image-2]

• Stalk a search term. This is handy if you're doing analytical work with hash tag terms.

• Schedule tweets (a new feature) so you don't have to be distracted from the tasks at hand to send something out.

• Manage multiple accounts: Twitter, Facebook, FB fan pages, Google Buzz, etc.

3. Gmail Tasks: I'm a big Google-head so it's really no surprise that I would bring this up. Some of you may not know this exists, but you can enable a little box that looks like a G-chat pop-up that will keep a running list of your tasks for you. You can also:[image-3]

• Access it from your smartphone at http://www.gmail.com/tasks.

• Add important email tasks directly into Tasks with the click of a button.

• Integrate with Google Calendar. Check it off, move them around it's all simple.

• Hierarchical tasks list. Now you can have multiple tasks under a project, so you can complete pieces one by one.

4. Growl: [image-4]I am also a Mac head so, once again, it's no surprise that I'm mentioning this. Growl is pretty much an alert system for your Mac. It can handle alerts from almost anywhere. It's a gentle shove reminder that you need to check something, do something, or pay attention to something. Make sure you fine tune it thought because it can get kind of annoying. The large benefit is that you don't have to keep being OCD about checking system processes, programs, etc.

So this was just a small list, because my article is getting pretty long. Remember, productivity starts with a mouse. Without the little things, nothing gets done.