Step away from your inbox! Don’t think you can? Well, this simple service called AwayFind will allow you to do just that.

One of the reasons you feel the need to check email email every 20 seconds is the fear that there might be something urgent sitting in your inbox. If you are serious about being more productive with email, you’ll need to eliminate the urgency from your inbox. If you’re not sure where or how to begin, AwayFind provides the means.

Once you create an account at AwayFind.com, they’ll place a link to your AwayFind contact form in your email signature or auto response message. When someone completes the contact form, you’ll receive a text message or you can elect to route messages for delegating to others based on the category selected.

Read about some of the common and creative uses for AwayFind here & here. If that’s not enough, at the end of the process you also get a few helpful bonuses in the form of video tips, a downloadable “Guide to NOT Checking Email” and specific instructions for how to turn off notifications within YOUR email application.

I met Jared Goralnick, the creator of AwayFind, at a local DC event and he invited me to try out the next version, AwayFind 2.0- Orchant, currently in beta, by invite.  He was also kind enough to provide a link good for 10 invites . You should definitely check out Jared’s blog at http://www.technotheory.com/- he definitely GETS how to be productive using technology.

Many productivity experts talk about the “two-minute rule”, which dictates if a task will take 2 minutes or less to complete, rather than defer and push it off until later (whenever that may be), you should do it now.

Recently, I received an inquiry from another experienced professional organizer.  She was partially playing devil’s advocate but also wanted a measurable answer to the question:  “How do you know when something will take 2 minutes or less?”  So, I set off on a quest to find a clear, defined response.  While I’m not there yet, I did come across a fabulous and thorough post exploring frequently asked questions about the 2-minute rule from Tools-for-Thought.com.  Andre Kibbe begins with a little bit of history behind the “2-minute rule”:

“The two-minute rule was originated by business consultant Dean Acheson (no relation to the former Secretary of State), then incorporated into the Time/Design (Time/system in the US) methodology and later picked up by David Allen for GTD.

Acheson, who also coined the Next Action technique, would guide his clients through an in-basket processing session by having them ask of a next action, “Is it a short action?” If the answer was yes, the rule was to do it immediately rather than write it down for later review or action. Later, as Acheson came to realize that “short” was overly subjective, he changed the framing question to, “Can this be done in less than two minutes?”

Read the rest of the article here.

A short and sweet post about software services and tech tools…

Who: Free Online OCR

What: Online conversion service from image or pdf to text

Where: http://NewOCR.com/

How Much: Currently free

Why: I serve on the chapter board of my professional association and had a PDF that required updating but did not have a copy of the text version of the file…and I will do just about anything to avoid retyping a document.  Of course, I only support using this tool for good and not evil- it should be used on documents that you own the copyright to.  It’s quick and easy to convert a document:

1. Browse to attach file

2. Select the language

3. Select whether to rotate the document

4. Click ’send file’

Viola! Within seconds, you’ll have access to download the file as a text file or Word document!

For converting other types of document check out this Tech Toolkit tip.

“One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned in my quasi-scientific approach to sustained laziness is the value of storing thoughts in appropriate places, as soon as I have them. That means parking them where I will later evaluate their merit (or lack thereof) and dispose of them accordingly. Having a thought once is what the mind is for; having the same thought twice, in the same way, for the same reason, is a waste of time and energy. I also found out that having a place for good ideas produced more of them, and more often.”

David Allen, Quote from WIRED Magazine- Be creative amid chaos By David Allen|11 May 2009

Read the full article here.

OK, really, it won’t cost you a dime…only you’re time.  If you’re a solopreneur, freelancer or other small business owner, you may find it challenging to collect feedback from clients and prospects.  Even more than collecting it, you are frustrated when it comes to organizing and accessing it in a way that you are actually able to use the information. You can also use this method as a replacement to the old email spreadsheet, copy & paste method of gathering information from coworkers.  And, as I write this post, my husband called to ask “We want to create a course evaluation survey- what’s the best survey service to use?” My answer: “Google Forms.”  It’ll do that, too.

There are quite a few paid survey services available like Survey Monkey, Online Survey from Constant Contact and Zoomerang, some of which even provide limited free access. I’ve used several of them and keep coming back to Google Forms. The paid survey services are pricey if running surveys isn’t your primary business and the data analysis process can be unnecessarily cumbersome and limiting.

Assuming you have a Google account, you are just a few steps away from a finished survey. First, go to the ‘Create New’ button in Google Docs and select the ‘Form’ option.

Begin by entering the ‘Question Title’ (i.e. question), any help text and selecting the desired ‘Question Type’, as follows:

• Text- allows your user to enter free-text in short form. While the ‘Text’ option doesn’t limit entry, it does limit the response viewing space
• Paragraph Text- choose this option for comments and long text responses
• Multiple Choice- displays all options defined by you, user selects one via radio button
• Choose from a list- displays drop-down box of a list defined by you, user selects one item
• Checkboxes- choose this option to allow for more than one selection from a list you define
• Scale- allows users to rate on a scale from 0 up to 10, you have the ability to choose the numbers (i.e. 0-10, 1-5, etc.) and the labels for the scale
• Grid- useful for rating multiple items on a scale up to 5 (in a row & column format) without the need to create an individual question for each.

Quick Tip: When typing the ‘Question Title’ you may also want to preface it with a number (eg. 1., 2., etc.) If you’ll be re-ordering your questions you may find it easier to add the number when you’re done.  Question numbering appears to be one of the only basic features Google overlooked, in my opinion.

Some additional features include the ability to:

• Make a question required
• Easily reorder questions by clicking and dragging
• Add section headers or page breaks
• Send user to a specific page based on the answer (multiple choice only)
• Select one of the 71 themes (I prefer ‘Clean & Simple’)
• Edit the survey confirmation message

Now you are ready to send your survey out- almost!  I highly recommend testing the survey and sending to a few friends for feedback first.  Then, you’re ready to email the survey link, embed it on your website, or share it on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, etc.

Finally, sit back and wait for the responses to come in…Whether sent in bulk or to just one, over a week or months, one-time or ongoing, responses are collected on your behalf into a spreadsheet.  I LOVE this part!! (yes, I’m flying my geek flag) You can sort, filter and analyze the data.  If you want to see the age of all survey respondents who live in a specific city, simply filter your spreadsheet by ‘city’ (assuming you include these questions in your survey). You are only limited by your spreadsheet skills…or lack thereof.  This is where Google Forms excels- no pun intended- really! And you can’t beat the price.

What do you plan to create a survey for? Please share in the comments.