Timely Tips November 2014:

Heading into the Holiday, Let's Talk
Hands-Free Voice Productivity Tools

*Plus, I have put my streaming Taming E-mail & Optimizing Your Outlook programs on sale through the end of 2014

November 2014

So, who else is being a bit extra careful about what they eat this week, in preparation for next week's gluttony? This is a good time to drop a couple pounds to make a bit of extra room for next week! Hard to believe Thanksgiving is nearly on us, but it gave me the idea for today's Timely Tip.

With many of us here in the States about to go challenge the planes, trains, and automobiles with the busiest travel day of the year next Wednesday, let's talk about how your smart phone can help make this travel time both easier and more productive.

This Month's Timely Tips: Using Your Voice & Hands-Free Tools for Mobile Productivity

This is where you can always find your Timely Tip.

When I lead my Smart Phone Success & Terrific Tablets program, I'm always surprised by how few of the attendees at these courses are actually using their voice/hands free tools on their smart phones. I think a big part of it is that many people tried out Siri a couple times a couple years ago, got frustrated, and just went back to using their fingers! But these tools are significantly improved over the last couple of years, and are worth another try. If you learn how to use them right, these tools can be a monster in terms of enhancing real-time mobile productivity.

Here are some of the things I recommend you test over the holiday to get better at using these very cool tools on your phones & tablets:

1. You'll likely be driving somewhere next week -- turn on your phone's GPS and do a voice-based directions search! I have to admit -- I almost never look up directions BEFORE getting in my car anymore. I just use my Google Now voice tool, say the name or address of the place I'm traveling, and let Google find the address for me. If my GPS is on, it will even allow me to turn on turn-by-turn voice-based navigation. Love this.

2. Staying somewhere? Use your voice commander (Siri, Google Now, etc.) to set a reminder in your calendar of when you need to leave, as well as the actual lodging place/time.

3. Set up driving assist/hands free. With one of my latest Android updates for my Droid Maxx phone, it added Assist, and one of the best features is that, if I have my GPS on, and the phone senses I'm moving more than a few miles per hour, it goes into driving assist mode. In this mode, it will tell me if a call or text is coming in, who it is that is calling or texting, and ask me if I would like to answer the call if by phone and/or read the text to me if I would like to hear it. (Yes, I DON'T have to read it.) It will then even allow me to respond to the text by voice, translate it into text, and let me hear the translation before sending. Yeah, that's cool (and MUCH safer than trying to look at my phone to do any of these things while driving.)

4. Do an Internet search using your voice on your phone/tablet. Give Siri and Google Now another try -- they are doing much better at general searches by voice now. Did you know that 1 in 5 Internet users now ONLY search the web on their phone or tablet? They no longer use Google on a laptop or desktop -- they do 100% of their searches on their phone, with many using the voice tools to do these searches (I'm betting that I'm doing approximately 50% of my Internet searches on my phone browser using voice tools now -- it is just flat out easier and faster.)

5. Compose some form of document using voice-to-text. Typing is so 2008. Open up a document, or e-mail, or text, or note in Evernote, and use your voice-to-text tool to compose your first draft. I'm simply amazed at how accurate my Google voice-to-text tool is at transcription (capitalizes proper nouns, gets basic punctuation commands, and if I'm enunciating clearly enough -- it pretty much nails what I'm saying.) And, it is built right into your on-screen keyboard (see that little microphone icon on your keyboard? That allows you to talk your text instead of type it.) Just last week, I developed a new program on Productivity in The Cloud, and I used my Evernote in conjunction with voice-to-text on my Android device to voice draft each and every slide in the presentation (each slide was its own separate note in Evernote.) I then opened up my Evernote account in my browser in my laptop, and copied and pasted the info from Evernote into my PowerPoint. Easy Peasy!

These are just a few ways you can use your voice/mobile tools to enhance your travel experience, make your drive time safer, and just get more work done more quickly. What other tools are you using similar to this? Tell me your best ideas for mobile/voice productivity, and they will possibly appear in a future Timely Tips!

Put My Two Currently-Available Streaming Programs on Sale Through End of 2014

Do you have some remaining training budget for 2014? Or just want to start 2015 in a much more productive, less distracted mode with your e-mail/gmail and/or your Microsoft Outlook tooks (calendar, contacts, tasks, notes)? I have a deal for you:

I have taken $20 off the prices for an individual-license streaming program via my new e-learning academy store on Thinkific.com (and, if you are a senior accounting/finance pro looking to lock in a few additional CPE credits before the end of 2014, you can get those through my posted versions of these same programs on Proformative.com.)

To read the information release on this announcement (including info on how to stream the first programs available now), click here.

To note: I am planning on adding my full slate of courses, including Time, Project, People & E-mail Management In "The Cloud" Using Google and also Smart Phone Success & Terrific Tablets before the end of this year.

Look for announcements here in Timely Tips as these courses get added and also for similar announcements for more live webinars on these popular topics.

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Here's to hoping that this crazy cold blast and snow that hit most of the U.S. this week breaks in time for your Turkey Day Travel next week. (We're supposed to be in the 40s with rain this weekend -- sounds like a tropical sauna!) Seriously, I'm wishing and hoping for you to have trouble-free travel to/from your destinations next week. I won't make that same promise for time spent with family though -- I can only do so much. ;-)

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments on this month's Timely Tips. And, until next month, Stay Timely!

Sincerely,

Randy Dean
Randall Dean Consulting & Training, LLC
http://www.randalldean.com

PS: Please consider joining my networking list on LinkedIn -- http://www.linkedin.com/in/randydean (would love your recommendation!) and/or becoming a Taming E-mail fan on Facebook here. Follow me on Twitter @timelyman. (And I'm on YouTube & Google+ too.) ;-)

App of the Month

YouMail

YouMail -- available both on ITunes and GooglePlay, but to learn more, click here .

Here's another one of those cool apps that I found out about through one of the attendees at one of my recent Smart Phone Success & Terrific Tablets program -- YouMail.

YouMail is a visual voice mail tool that has some very cool features: 1) It can convert your voice mails into e-mail messages that come right into your inbox; 2) In a meeting or movie? It can also turn your voice mails into text messages so you can "listen" to your voice mails by reading them instead, without making a sound; 3) It has an on-screen user interface that identifies the caller leaving the voice mail, so you can determine if you even want to listen to the message in the first place; 4) For junk or spam callers, it can even leave a message for those specific identified numbers so that they believe your number has been disconnected.

I really like the capability of getting my voice mails in my e-mail inbox, as I like to use my inbox to convert items into tasks or calendar items. That means I don't have to manually go find my voice messages to get them into my tasking/calendar systems. They pop right into my preferred mailbox, and I can "triage" them right away.

Like Google Voice, the business version allows you to consolidate several phone lines into a single voice mail location.

This app does have a fee, but if you are highly mobile and/or prefer to get your messages in both voice and e-mail formats into a single location, this is definitely worth a look.

Have to change the SAVE THE DATE to
December 16th, 2014
1:00 p.m. Eastern

Webinar Program on
SMART PHONE SUCCESS & TERRIFIC TABLETS

I will be sending out the formal announcement including registration & payment options right after the holiday. I had to change the date by one day to accommodate a new client event that popped into my calendar this week.

As a reminder, this has been without a doubt one of my most popular programs on the conference and training circuit the last 2-3 years, rivaling even my ever popular Taming the E-mail Beast program in terms of audience interest and attendance.

Why is it so useful? Because I show you how to FINALLY use your smart phones and/or tablets to be PRODUCTIVE (not just fun, games, and social anymore.)

See why many professionals are seriously considering ditching the ol' laptop/desktop configuration for the leaner, friendlier smart phone/tablet productivity configuration instead. We'll discuss Apple & Android smart phones & tablet products, as well as some of the new Windows tools available.

Look for your formal invitation right after the Thanksgiving Holiday for this powerful program to take your smart phone & tablet usage to a whole new level!! Welcome to the 21st Century!