There are a lot of programs that help you to organise your time, get to meetings and be productive out of the office. Here are my three favourite programs that will help you stay organised throughout your appointments. These programs help you to schedule meetings, get to meetings on time and make sure you’ve got everything you need at your fingertips once you get there.
1. Google Calendar
Google calendar gives you several ways to share access to your calendar with others, from a read only public calendar where people can see if you’re free, or busy (no event details) up to giving full access to read, write and manage appointments. That way your VA, PA or EA can add and edit your appointments, as well as send out invitations and meeting requests for you. It synchs with Outlook or iCal and your smartphone. You can colour code appointments, add a Google Hangout and do all the things you expect a calendar to be able to do. And one of my favourite features is that when you look at an appointment in Google Calendar there is a link to Google Maps so you can easily get directions, find a route or check out the building you’re heading to. Another awesome feature is the ability to “Find A Time” for a meeting between calendars that have been shared, are public or have Google Apps shared access.
2. Google Maps
With Google maps you can not only get a map of your route, you can get driving, walking, cycling and public transport (in some areas) instructions which include an estimate of the time it will take to get from A to B. You can also overlay a traffic map which shows which areas habitually have problems at certain times of day. You can drop in to Street View to get a look at your destination to make it easier to spot than if you were looking for a house number. Plus, you can print out the directions in Text only, Map or Street View format. You can get a link to send with your meeting invites showing a suggested route if directions may be difficult. Lastly, Google Maps allows you to set addresses such as “Home” and “Work” so you don’t have to type the address in every time you want directions, just use Home or Work instead.
3. Evernote
So once you’ve set the meeting using Google Calendar, and got to the meeting using Google Maps, Evernote is an amazing way of keeping track of everything you need while you’re on the road. There’s a wide variety of apps for phones, tablets and desktop/laptop machines to allow you to access and create notes, audio files as well as allows you to access services such as HelloSign to allow for contracts to be signed on the spot . It also works with services such as Shoeboxed, so you can send your paper documents to Shoeboxed, and access the results via Evernote. You can email notes to yourself, or use one of the note taking apps that work with Evernote, you can clip articles from the web and save in Evernote and it has a very flexible filing system with a great search tool that even searches within some files (even more with a paid version).
Tell me about your favourite program and how you like to use it in the comments.
