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Monday, September 13, 2010

Assistant Wanted: Virtual Need Apply


With school having started, my to-do list is getting longer and longer.  Things are in serious danger of not making it onto a “list” and just hoping I’ll remember them.  Clearly, this is not going to work for me.  And it is going to be one very long school year if I don’t find a better way. 
Since I have an IPhone (who’s potential I clearly don’t maximize”) I thought I’d try getting a little more work out of it.  I’ve been looking at personal organizers and virtual assistants. 
I tried Cozi.  It gives you a calendar, to-do lists and more.  It will email your calendar to you each week (even after you decide you don’t want it anymore). And its free. But it doesn’t sync with the IPhone – only with Blackberries and other such smartphones.  So it didn’t help me “on the run”. 
I’m looking now at Jott.  For $3.95 a month Jott will let me phone in messages and reminders to myself and send them back to me as emails.  It will add things to my calendar and set reminder alarms on the calendar for me.  Jott does a bunch of other things too – like converting voicemails to text messages – that I’m not sure I need or want. 
Also on my list of possible hires is Toodledo.  Toodledo is basically a to-do list dream for the Iphone.  It lets me keep a list of to-dos, prioritize them, keep track of due dates etc.  It will sync with ICal (good) and with most other applications known to man.  And its free. 
Next candidate:  RemembertheMilk.  This one also is a steroidal to-do list.  It lets you make lists, set due dates, prioritize tasks etc.  It syncs with googlemaps so you can use the GPS function on the IPhone with it (not sure how useful I’ll find that one, but you never know).  Its free too (like that price)  The only thing I don’t think I like about it is that it looks like you have to email tasks to yourself rather than just add them directly. 
I’m still interviewing --- the freebies may get a probationary period.  I’ll let you know who I hire.

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