How to get things done with jott

Editor: When you’re out and about and think of something you want to remember, you can leave yourself a voicemail you have to transcribe later, or you can use the excellent voice transcription service Jott . We’ve covered many ways you can get things done over the phone with Jott , but today guest writer Brad Isaac has a new one: how to add to note-taking application EverNote with Jott.

Get Things Done Over the Phone with Jott

At its most basic level, webapp Jott is a voice to text transcription service: you call Jott,…

Lifehacker readers already know about EverNote, great note-taking software that now offers a beta that includes a web-based side, too. Today I’ve got a cool hack that you can use to get your ideas into EverNote using the Jott service on your cell phone. What this means is that you can speak into your cell phone while driving in the car and record your notes automatically into EverNote. Here is how it is done.

To set it up you will need an EverNote Beta account and a Jott account. Both are free. If you missed the recent EverNote beta invite giveaway , I have a few invites, so I can give them out to the first few people who post in the comments. Be sure to leave an accurate email address in your comment so I can get it to you.

EverNote Free Today Only, Plus Beta Access

Windows and Mac OS X: Get into the invitation-only beta version of note-taking application…

The next thing to do is to check your EverNote account for an email address that allows you to send a message directly to your EverNote database. That will be the entry point for Jott. In essence, you’ll send your Jotts to EverNote by putting that email address in your Jott.

What’s the quality like?

Some of you or most of you are probably concerned with quality. I will tell you this. This current paragraph that I am writing right now has been translated unedited from Jott. How does it look? You be the judge. I find it to be pretty darn accurate, as far as how well it translates or transcribes what I am saying.

You can see Jott got every word right—The only mistakes were human error. I wanted to say “Most of you” instead of “Some of you” and “transcribed” instead of “translates”, so it is an awkward sentence. But that’s not Jott’s fault, it’s mine.

In fact, I wrote most of this blog post using a few phone calls to Jott. I did some editing (with the exception of the call above) for clarity, however it seemed to recognize almost all of my words.

Here are a few tips to improve recognition from Jott:

1. Make sure you are speaking very clearly.
2. Slow down a little bit.
3. Make sure you are in a semi-quiet room or car—turn off the radio.
4. Beginners may see improvements if they start by taking handwritten notes and reading them carefully to Jott. Once they get the hang of it, you can ditch the notes and just talk away.

One important feature of the new EverNote to Jott users is that you can combine notes. Since Jott only allows for 30 second recordings, to write longer notes, you will have more than one note in EverNote. Here’s how I set things up.

The journey of an old coot to learning new things – especially how to work smarter not harder.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

I JOTT’ed it; Now I Have To Organize It

The last blog discussed collecting “stuff” – ideas, honey-do’s, don’t-forget’s, things-I-gotta-do’s. I am getting pretty good at that. Between JOTT and GyroQ, I am collecting lot’s of stuff. And I mean lot’s of stuff.

The problem is that collecting lot’s of stuff doesn’t simplify life. it certainly doesn’t get me more efficient. I am now learning the next step in GTD – I have to get organized. And I don’t mean by that that I have to have a place for everything, and everything in it’s place. In GTD-speak, that means I have to process the “stuff.” I have to think about the stuff I have collected, and do something with it. And that can be anything from throwing a “stuff” thing away to filing it for future reference to assigning it as an “action” in a project to doing something about it the next two minutes. But, bottom line, I have to do something with all the stuff I have collected.

The recommended time for that is early Friday afternoon of each week. that gives you a little time to act on some of the “stuff” before the end of the day.

So, that is what I am going to do tomorrow afternoon. that is unless my 5 month old grandson is here, in which case, I will be more than happy to once again procrastinate. Well, maybe not. But the next time I write, I hope to be able to report some success. Let’s see if that happens.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Jott It Down

If you are like me, you find your self on the road, or at least away from your computer frequently during the day. As I try to adopt GTD as a lifestyle thing, capturing those stray thoughts is tough. I have not learned the art of text messaging while I am driving (I understand that it is discouraged). And those funky note pad things that stick to your windshield are ridiculous. who can write on those while winding through traffic? Who can write on those anywhere?

Well, once again my faithful mentor, Eric Mack, came through. When I presented my dilemma to him, he suggest that I just “jott” my thoughts. Say what? Yeah, there is a new, FREE service at Jott.com. You sign up on the website for free, enter your email and phone number, and, after validating same through a quick 866 phone number and replying to an email, you are setup. Then, you add their 866 number to your speed dial, and jott away. When you call the number, they ask you who you want to jott to, you say “me” and after they confirm your choice, you talk away. If you are quiet for a couple of moments afterward, they assume you want to do another jott, and they ask you again.

Now what is really kewl, is that you can jott to other people. Just set up a list of contacts, either one at a time, or in groups. You can send “jotts” to your office, your kids, your spouse, even different accounts you set for yourself. Be sure to watch the video demos they have on the web site.

By the way, Eric and friends are busily putting the finishing touches on a template that will convert your Lotus Notes email file into a hotshot eProductivity workplace. So then, when you receive one of your jotts from yourself, you just assign it to an action and/or project, and you are ready to drive on!

Pretty slick. give it a try. And just Jott it down

Getting Started

For just a little more than a year, I have been self-employed [read: company bought out, and just about everyone was laid off.] It was a real struggle for awhile. I am a retired Army officer who has been developing Lotus Notes applications for the last 12 years. At the ripe old age of 63, I am competing for business with a lot of folks who have been doing this longer, and maybe a lot better. But I am doing alright.

Anyway, last November I met Eric Mack while doing some work for one of his clients. Over and above the work we did together on that project, Eric introduced me to a book titled Getting Things Done, by David Allen. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that book would open the doors to an amazing new way of thinking about what I do on a daily basis.

Fast forward 10 months, and suddenly I find myself with several new projects, all of which are competing for my time and attention. Enter GTD – a process that purports to lead to “stress-free productivity.” And thus the reason for this blog. as Eric mentors me and I learn to incorporate this system into my work, I intend to record my journey on the road to “stress-free productivity” – the wins and the losses; the ups and the downs. And hopefully you, my readers, might pick up something along the way that might help you, too.

Focus on the task, not how you feel about it.

No matter how generally motivated you are, all of us have some tasks that we don’t want to do. Maybe we find them boring, pointless, draining, time consuming, annoying, or anxiety producing. So how do you get motivated in these types of situations? The first step is to recognize that getting motivated doesn’t mean that you have to experience a particular feeling. You can decide to do something without ever getting excited about it by finding a personally meaningful reason to do it. Next, you have to come up with a strategy. Try involving other people; positive social pressure can provide the impetus to get something done. It’s also helpful to pair unpleasurable activities with pleasurable ones to increase your overall mood.

Focus on the task, not how you feel about it.

No matter how generally motivated you are, all of us have some tasks that we don’t want to do. Maybe we find them boring, pointless, draining, time consuming, annoying, or anxiety producing. So how do you get moving in these types of situations?

The first step is to recognize that getting motivated doesn’t mean that you have to experience a particular feeling, like excitement or anticipation. Instead, motivation is simply one or more reasons you have for acting in a certain way. You can decide to do something without ever getting excited about it by finding a personally meaningful why.

For example, you could choose to do something because it will:

• Lower your anxiety.
• Benefit someone who you care about.
• Lead to financial gain.
• Avoid a negative consequence.
• Make you feel good about yourself.
• Clear your mind.
• Align with your values.
• Reduce stress.

These reasons might sound something like this in your day-to-day life:

“I don’t want to do _______. But if I do ________, then I will see a significant financial payoff both now and in the future and will feel good about my choices.”

“I don’t want to do _______. But if I get ________ done, then it will make my boss happy and lower my anxiety every time I have a one-on-one meeting.”

“I don’t want to do _______. But if I make progress on ________, then I will have so much less stress next week and be prepared for ________.”

Even if we never feel particularly motivated by a task, we can find a reason to move forward by looking beyond the task to the results.

The second step for success involves coming up with a strategy for getting tasks done when you have a low to non-existent emotional drive. Depending on the task and your work style, one or more of these strategies may help. You can consider these methods as tools in your toolbox when you’ve come up with a reason to take action on a task but still feel uncertain on how to complete it.

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One set of action-taking methods includes involving other people in the process. This positive social pressure can provide the impetus to get something done. This could look like delegating part of the task, teaming up with someone else to complete the activity together, getting accountability, or simply being present with other people who are also working. In regard to the last point, for some of my time management coaching clients, this can look like sitting in a library where other people are also getting work done, or even having a virtual session where they work on a task while someone they know is on the other side of Skype also cranking away.

Another set of action-taking methods revolves around how you structure your approach to the work. These types of strategies, each illustrated with an example, can help you to gain momentum when you have low drive to move forward:

• Put a low-frequency activity ahead of a high-frequency activity. For example, I can’t open my email until I’ve filed my expense report.
• Give yourself a standard time. Every Friday from 2-3 pm, I have time blocked in my calendar for weekly planning, and I honor that time as sacred for that activity.
• Limit the time commitment. I need to work for 10 minutes a day on this task and then I can stop if I want to do so.
• Set the bar low. I just need to take one action step a week on this activity.
• Get ‘er done. I want to get this entirely off my plate so I’m setting aside a whole day to complete the task.

A third set of action-taking methods involves pairing unpleasurable activities with pleasurable ones to boost your overall mood. This could involve giving yourself permission to do a more difficult task, like writing or putting together a presentation, in a location you really like, such as a cozy coffee shop or even a park if the weather’s nice. You can also try layering tasks, such as listening to music or a podcast while organizing your office. Even getting a little physical activity in during the process can help. I may have been known to practice speeches while going on walks. I probably look a little funny, but I get two activities done at once.

When you employ one or more of these strategies, you may not make speedy progress or perfect progress. But you can move tasks forward, slowly but surely, and get the things done that you don’t naturally want to do.

Entrepreneur’s New Year’s Guide

While I’m all about the holiday season, it can definitely be stressful and overwhelming. In fact, one survey found that the holidays are the most stressful for employees. In addition to doing a number on your health and well-being, it can impact your output.

So, how do you get back on the right track? Here are seven ways to get started.

1. It’s time to get real

Find some time for yourself. In your solitude, really think about what you can actually accomplish right now — it’s better to tackle a few important tasks than a hundred meaningless ones. Set more attainable expectations. For example, you may pride yourself on responding to emails as soon as they come through, but constantly checking your inbox is definitely counterproductive.

Personally, I limit myself to checking my inbox only three times a day. It’s a simple way to keep emails in-check while also not getting constantly distracted by them.

2. Put your to-do list on a diet

“Avid gardeners know from experience that accelerating the growth of a tree … requires pruning it,” writes keynote speaker, author and executive coach Sara Canaday. “To make it grow bigger, you have to cut it back.

While this may sound counterintuitive, the idea also rings true with any professional. “If we want remarkable business growth, we need the courage to prune things back, our schedules, our projects, and our commitments,” explains Canaday. “We must be willing to drop our dependency on some of the things we’ve always done, even if they’ve been wildly successful in the past.”

“Modern thinkers have adopted this unconventional approach by applying the prune-to-grow logic across the full spectrum of their tasks,” she adds. “Basically, they take everything they do off auto-pilot.” Instead, they question their value. If they discover that “it’s not worthy of their time and attention, they let it go.” That includes everything from administrative tasks to weekly team meetings to networking events.

To get you started, Canaday recommends taking the following steps:

• First, start with your to-do list and calendar. Rather than following the same patterns, review your lists and schedule to make sure that they still add value. Whatever no longer creates value can be rescheduled, delegated, or dropped. Something like the Eisenhower Matrix may also come in handy.
• Second, think about what you do on a broader scale. Reflect on the products, services, initiatives or projects that you’ve been responsible for. Have they run their course? If so, it’s time to move on from them.
• Third, get clarity about what really matters. Before committing to anything else, ask what will align with and support your objectives.

3. Carve out non-negotiable work time

Now that you’ve identified your priorities add them to your calendar. Why? It ensures that nothing else will get in the way.

For instance, if you block out 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. for your most important task, then don’t schedule anything else during that block of time. That means no online shopping or last-minute Zoom call. It may help to share your calendar with your family and co-workers so they can see when you aren’t available.

4. Act more like Santa

Yes, it’s January, and yes, he’s fictional. But even if you don’t celebrate the holiday, there’s actually quite a bit you can learn from jolly St. Nick. One example is his legendary workshop. It’s a sprawling complex with all of the resources and workflows needed to manufacture and distribute toys. Regardless if you’re a toymaker or not, have a dedicated workspace that’s quiet and free of distractions like clutter and background noise. It should also have everything you need to get your work done.

He also has elves who make the toys. I mean, there’s no way one man could meet this insurmountable expectation. In the real world, surround yourself with people who trust. When you do, you can delegate and outsource less important tasks, then hone in on your priorities.

5. Don’t overcommit

On top of your daily responsibilities, there are also client events, family obligations and social functions. That leaves you with a packed calendar, leaving you less time to focus on your priorities. Be more selective, and don’t be afraid to politely say “no.”

6. Focus more on your health

As you know, it’s not that difficult to gain weight between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day — although it’s not as much as you think. The weather stinks, and you’re overindulging in everything from sweets to alcohol. You’re also eating out more and getting less sleep.

However, when you neglect your health, you have less energy and focus. By being more active in the new year, you can actually get more done.

7. Prioritize your happiness

Researchers from the University of Warick found that we work harder when we’re happy. In fact, happiness makes us 12% more productive.

A simple way to lift your spirits is to get festive. “There’s nothing like hearing a favorite old song to brighten your spirits,” writes the Scripps Affiliated Medical Groups. In addition to making you happier, music can improve memory, decrease stress, and even reduce pain. Don’t be afraid to dive into your current playlist or put on a pair of noise-canceling headphones.

When you’re in the throes of depression, it’s hard enough taking care of the bare essentials like showering, eating and getting up. Intellectually you know what you need to do.

But like a leech, depression saps all your energy and vitality. You feel lethargic, hopeless and pessimistic, according to John Preston, PsyD, professor at Alliant International University and co-author of Get It Done When You’re Depressed with Julie A. Fast.

So the last thing you want to do is… anything. You might think “I’d like to do this, but I just can’t,” Preston said.

But there are several ways you can get things done when you’re struggling with depression. They do require effort on your part, but they work. Here are Preston’s top suggestions.

• Enlist a loved one’s help. It’s essential to have someone you trust to support and encourage you, Preston said. This person will essentially act as your coach. It could be anyone from your spouse to a sibling to a parent to a close friend.

• Participate in your normal activities. When people get depressed, they do several things that worsen symptoms, Preston said. “On top of the list is becoming more and more socially withdrawn.” It feels natural to isolate yourself when you’re struggling. For instance, you might feel uncomfortable around people, Preston noted. But it’s vital to stay engaged with life. (In fact, behavioral activation treatments for depression focus on increasing pleasant activities and behaviors, which research has found to be effective.) Preston suggested sitting down with your loved one and writing all the specific things you used to do before you were depressed. The key, he said, is to get very specific about the activities. In other words, “What are the things that have been part of the fabric of [your] life?” he said. List all the activities that were a source of meaning and enjoyment for you, he said. Also, include errands, such as mowing the lawn or grocery shopping. Then create a detailed schedule that you’ll follow daily. The goal is to combat the tendency to withdraw from life, which only feeds the depression.

• Get adequate sleep. The very things you might turn to while you’re depressed can actually sabotage your sleep, including alcohol and caffeine. And “lack of appropriate sleep can intensify depressive symptoms,” Preston said. People usually drink alcohol to relax and caffeine to undo the lethargy of depression. Caffeine may even have some transient antidepressant effects, Preston said, but those dissipate after about 20 minutes. You still might fall asleep just fine, but both substances reduce the amount of time spent in restorative slow-wave sleep. So the profound exhaustion is actually exacerbated.

• Get physical. “One of the most effective treatments for depression is exercise,” Preston said. “Inactivity has a significant effect on decreasing dopamine and serotonin,” making depression more severe, he said. Movement increases them. But it’s nearly impossible to exercise when you’re depressed, he said. That’s where your loved one (i.e., coach) comes in. They can exercise with you, and help you get out the door.

• Have compassion for yourself. People with depression can be incredibly mean to themselves. But it’s important to develop a sense of understanding and compassion for yourself, Preston said. He pointed out that this is different from sugarcoating your circumstances. Instead, you might say, according to Preston: “I don’t like it, but I’m struggling here. Depression hurts. I need to be decent to myself.” Struggling with depression doesn’t make you weak or less-than. Many people struggle with depression.

Keep in mind that depression is highly treatable. So in addition to trying the above tips, be sure to get a proper evaluation, and seek treatment.

A Note on Too Much Sleep in Depression

About 15 percent of people with depression sleep 10 to 12 hours a day or more, Preston said. Yet they’re still profoundly worn out, he said. He cautioned that about four out of five people with hypersomnia and severe depression have a form of bipolar disorder. It’s important to get evaluated for bipolar disorder.

To stabilize sleep, Preston suggested the same tips: Reduce or eliminate your caffeine and alcohol intake, and exercise. For about a month, you’ll still feel fatigued, he explained. But you can make these changes to boost energy, he said:

• Instead of drinking a cup of coffee, go for a brisk 10-minute walk. You can simply walk for five minutes and walk back, he said. This gives you the same energy burst as a cup of coffee, he said. Just be sure it’s a brisk walk, and not a stroll. (You know it’s brisk if you have to catch your breath or have a tough time talking, he said.)

• Expose yourself to bright light. Unless you have eye disease or bipolar disorder, take your sunglasses off when you’re outside. When light hits your retina, it activates the hypothalamus, which activates serotonin and other neurotransmitters, Preston said. This leads to positive mood-altering effects, he said.

• Eat protein. Eat a snack that’s mostly protein (with very little carbs), which helps to boost energy within five minutes, Preston said. Examples include nuts, eggs and tofu. He noted that this works really well for about half of the people who try it.

Everyone has things they do regularly: the laundry, the shopping, the gym. If you’re even the tiniest bit forgetful, then you might set reminders for these things on your calendar or to-do list.

But some of the things we do often take more than one step to complete. That’s when checklists can help.

David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done, defines ‘projects’ as multi-step tasks. Projects are “all those things that need to get done within the next few weeks or months that require more than one action step to complete.”

But projects aren’t the only things that have more than one step.

Writing a blog post, doing my invoices, setting up a new client: these all involve lots of little to-dos. And they’re the same to-dos every time. To make sure I do these things the same way every time, I use a checklist.

Checklists are everywhere

I’ve been using them for years without thinking about it. I only realised how much I depend on checklists when I read The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. This book tells the story of how a surgeon discovered checklists as a way to reduce surgical complications and deaths.

En route, the author learns how checklists help us build skyscrapers, fly planes, and get Van Halen through their concerts without their lighting rig collapsing around them.

“I began to recognise checklists in odd corners everywhere – in the hands of professional football coordinators, say, or on stage sets.” Atul Gawande

The repeatable task list

To-do lists hold a list of actions that you need to take. Checklists are repeatable to-do lists. They’re designed to be used over and over again.

Large organisations might call their checklists ‘processes’. They serve the same purpose: to make sure that tasks are always done the right way, in the right order, to get the best result for the business.

Five good reasons to use checklists

Avoid mistakes. When there are 10-15 steps involved in doing something right (like when I publish a blog post), it’s easy to miss a step out. And why waste the energy remembering these trivial steps? “The mind is for having ideas, not holding them,” says David Allen.

Save time. Often you can get things done quicker by doing the steps in the right order. Once you’ve worked out the fastest route, your checklist means you always do it that way. This has shaved at least an hour off the time it takes me to publish a post.

Your whole team gets smarter. As people work out how to avoid problems or save time, they can update the checklist. Everyone learns from everyone else’s mistakes.

New team members get going faster without you needing to spend so much time explaining how to do things. Even if you’re a one-person business now, you might not always be. When you do decide to bring in extra help, you might not have time to create loads of checklists. But without them, your new help won’t know what to do. So create your lists now.

Checklists are insurance. If only one person knows how to do something, what if they get a new job? Or they get sick? I once started a new job covering for a woman about to go on maternity leave. The baby decided to come early, before she’d finished writing my instructions. She was still sending me handover notes from the labour ward.

How to get started with checklists

It needs to be easy for your team to grab a fresh copy of the checklist and start ticking things off. If the tool is difficult to use, you might find your team won’t use it.

Start by looking at the project management or to do list tools you already use, and see if you can adapt them. For example, ToDoist Premium lets you create a new blank checklist from a text file.

Asana lets you copy a task and all its subtasks to create a fresh checklist. You can create special template tasks, and copy them as you need to. Or you can set tasks to repeat at fixed intervals. This works well for GTD fans, with their daily and weekly reviews.

If you need something more sophisticated, try Process Street. It’s dedicated to checklists. You can set up detailed instructions for each step, including images and video. Colleagues can work together on completing a task list using the commenting feature. You can even embed email templates into the checklist. This makes it super easy for people to send the messages they need to move the process along.

These extra features make Process Street perfect for more complex activities like briefing a new employee. There are lots of example checklists to help you get started.

And of course, there’s pen and paper. It’s easy to create a checklist and print out loads of copies so you can just grab one when you need it. My local bike shop uses printed checklists to book bikes in for a service. It works better for them than trying to use a laptop with oily hands.

Check out the first webinar in the “Profit Pillars” course from Unemployable: Smart Systems and Processes for Freelancers. Top tip from this session: don’t make your checklists so long that no one can be bothered to use them.

And finally – as a checklist nerd, I love that there’s a checklist for writing checklists

This post also appears today on my new blog Tech Rest

How to manage home while you’re at work and work while you’re at home.

One of the fundamental keys to Getting Things Done is to capture your thoughts and put them into a trusted system. In addition, its good practice to sort those thoughts and todos based on “context” (work, home, etc.). The problem becomes how to deal with things when you are “out of context”. When I’m at work I don’t want to take time away from work for freelancing. On the other hand, I know that not putting those thoughts down causes stress. Some of my strategies for dealing with this tension are shown below.

Bookmarks. I follow around 70 blogs on a daily basis. All my blogs are in Google Reader. Some of the blogs are work related and some are not. When I’m at work sometimes I see a post that I would like to read at home (and vice versa). The solution for me has been creating a Bookmark folder called @ACTION with two sub-folders called @WORK and @HOME. So when I’m at work and see a home related post, I bookmark it in the @HOME folder. That way, I get the post off my mind and I can take a look at later it in the right context. What makes this work is Google Browser Sync for Firefox. With it, changes I make in Firefox (see link in sidebar) at either location sync with the other.

Blackberry. My works provides me with a Blackberry. When I’m at home and think of something I need to do at work, I create a task on my Blackberry. Works great. Also, while I’m at home, I turn off all notifications except the phone. This helps me not be interrupted at supper by some message like, “we are going to be doing maintenance on the voice mail server”.

Google Docs and Spreadsheets. I get some of my best blogging done from work when I’m not “on the clock”. Docs allows me to draft a post from where ever I have an internet connection. Then when I get home, I copy and paste from Docs into Word 2007 (Microsoft Word Home and Student 2007) that I use to post.

Jott (Jott.com) . When I’m on the way to a meeting at work and I think of something I need to do at home, I use jott. Then when I get home, the message is in my home email. I have it set up so that when it says “Who do you want to jott?” I can say home, work, or Debbie and the emails are routed to home, work, or my wife respectively.

You’ve got two choices:

Establish a system that allows you to live with your two (or more) brains.

Bear the stress of thinking about work while you’re at home or thinking about home while you’re at home.

Perfectionists are great procrastinators. Stalling until the last minute, they tear into a project with dust flying and complaints about insufficient time. Perfectionist-procrastinators are masters of the excuse that short notice kept them from doing the quality job they could have done.

But that’s hardly the only variety of procrastination. For others, it comes with a gnawing feeling of being fatigued, always behind. They try to tell themselves that they’re taking it easy and gathering their energies for a big new push, but procrastination differs markedly from genuine relaxation—it saves no time or energy. On the contrary, it drains both, leaving behind self-doubt and self-delusion instead.

Feeling like there is forever far too much to do, we say we’re really under the gun this week. But working hard or even heroically to solve a problem is little to our credit if we created the problem in the first place. When most people refer to themselves as being under the gun, they want to believe the pressures and problems are not their fault. In most cases, though, the gun appeared after failure to do something in good time. Instead of being proactive early, they procrastinated until the due date became a crisis deadline.

One of the best escapes from the prison of procrastination is to take even the smallest steps toward your goals. People usually procrastinate because of fear and lack of self-confidence and, ironically, become even more afraid when under the gun. There are many ways to experiment and test new ground without risking the whole ball game on one play.

Experience has shown that when people go after a big goal all at once, they invariably fail. If you had to swallow a 12-ounce steak all at once, you’d choke. You have to cut the steak into small pieces and eat one bite at a time.

So it is with prioritizing. Proactive goal achievement means taking every project and cutting it up into bite-sized pieces. Each small task or requirement on the way to the ultimate goal becomes a mini goal in itself. Using this method, the goal becomes manageable. When mini mistakes are made, they are easy to correct. And with the achievement of each mini goal, the positive feedback motivates you to take on the next mini goal.

So step forward and do it now and do it right. To stop procrastinating and to be more proactive, do these nine things:

1. Set your wake-up time a half hour earlier tomorrow.

Use the extra time to think about the best way to spend your day.

2. Memorize and repeat this motto: “Action today, not tomorrow.”

Handle each piece of incoming mail only once. Answer your email either early in the morning or at the end of the day. Block out specific times to make phone calls, take phone calls and to meet people in person.

3. When people tell you their problems, give solution-oriented feedback.

Rather than taking on the problem as your own assignment, first, ask what’s the next step they plan to take, or what they would like to see happen.

4. Finish what you start.

Concentrate all your energy and intensity without distraction on successfully completing your current major project.

5. Be constructively helpful instead of unhelpfully critical.

Single out someone or something to praise instead of participating in group griping, grudge collecting or pity parties.

6. Make a list of five necessary but unpleasant projects you’ve been putting off, with a completion date for each project.

Immediate action on unpleasant projects reduces stress and tension. It is very difficult to be active and depressed at the same time.

7. Seek out and converse with a successful role model.

Learning from others’ successes and setbacks will inevitably improve production of any kind. Truly listen; really find out how your role models do it right.

8. Understand that fear, as an acronym, is False Evidence Appearing Real, and that luck could mean Laboring Under Correct Knowledge.

The more information you have on any subject, the less likely you’ll be to put off your decisions.

9. Accept problems as inevitable offshoots of change and progress.

With the rapid pace of change in society and business, you’ll be overwhelmed unless you view change as normal and learn to look for its positive aspects—such as new opportunities and improvements—rather than bemoan the negative.

There is no such thing as a “future” decision; there are only present decisions that affect the future. Procrastinators wait for just the right moment to decide.

And if you wait for the perfect moment, you’ll find yourself running in place, unwittingly digging yourself deeper into your rut. Get out of your comfort zone and go from procrastinator to proactive and productive.

Make your personal motto: “Stop stewing and start doing!”

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Looking for an easy out from a lousy date? Feeling like a rat in a phone-tree maze? Wishing that someone could transcribe your voicemail messages and e-mail them to you? With this assortment of phone tips, tricks, and services, you’ll be able to navigate your phone with MacGyver-like ingenuity.

Collected here are the best Websites, services, and apps available to help you get more done with your phone. I’ve organized them by phone type. In this article, I introduce you to Websites and services to enhance any phone. Next, in “14 Ways to Supercharge Your Smartphone,” I offer tricks to make the most of an Android, BlackBerry, or iPhone handset. Lastly, in “13 Tips to Supercharge Your ‘Dumb’ Phone,” I show how you can inject some smarts into a basic candy-bar phone.

13 Sites and Services to Supercharge Any Phone

Here’s how to bypass automated menus, transcribe voicemail, make free calls, and more.

Skip the Menu

At best, automated menus are necessary evils of modern life; at worst, they’re a pain in the neck. Press 1 for English, 2 for billing, 3 if you hate phone-tree menus.

Fonolo.com offers a way to skip automated menus. This Web-based service has mapped out the automated directories for hundreds of large companies from Apple to Visa, and lets you browse their phone menus online. All you have to do is select where you want to go; Fonolo then calls your phone and connects you directly to the menu spot you wanted. You can also use Fonolo to set up shortcuts for entering frequently used numbers in automated services, such as your mobile account number or your frequent flyer miles card.

Fonolo is free to use, but you have to sign up as a member to get access to Fonolo’s complete directory map for each company. iPhone owners can also use Fonolo’s iPhone app.

Get a Personal Assistant

Jott Assistant is a voice-to-text service that lets you call one toll-free number and update everything on your calendar, social network page, blog, or to-do list. Jott works with more than 50 Web services and desktop productivity applications, including Blogger, Facebook, Google Calendar, Outlook, Remember the Milk, Twitter, and WordPress.

You can use Jott to have your RSS newsfeeds read to you; the service also lets you send out e-mail or text messages to distribution groups. Just call 866/JOTT123, and record your message, calendar appointment, or to-do list–Jott Assistant takes care of the rest.

Jott Assistant is free to try for a week, and has several paid-subscription and pay-as-you-go plans. However, to try Jott for free, you have to hand over your credit card information.

Go Directly to Voicemail

Too much of a coward to tell someone unpleasant news in person? Tell them via voicemail. That’s the idea behind Slydial. This free service connects directly to your contact’s mobile voicemail, freeing you from the worry of having to speak to the person.

Call 267/SLYDIAL (267/759-3425) from any landline or mobile device, and enter your contact’s mobile phone number (U.S. numbers only). Then, just leave a message. With any luck, maybe they won’t call you back.

Get Off the Phone

Ever wished you could end a boring phone conversation, but not sure how to do it gracefully? If you’re in front of a computer while you’re on the phone, just visit SorryGottaGo.com. This Website allows you to play a wide variety of sound files via your Web browser window.

It offers basic stuff like a doorbell, a crying baby, and a second phone line ringing. But it also has some wacky choices, such as the sound of a car accident, sneezing fits, and visits from outer space.

Spoof Your Caller ID

Is someone screening their calls via Caller ID and avoiding you? With a Caller ID spoofing service, you can broadcast another phone number in order to trick the person on the receiving end.

Online you can find a lot of Caller ID spoofing services, such as SpoofCard and Spooftel, that charge a small fee; most offer a free trial, which can be handy if you want to use Caller ID spoofing infrequently.

Turning things around, the company behind SpoofCard also has a service called TrapCall that claims to unmask blocked and restricted numbers.

A word of warning about Caller ID spoofing: The U.S. House of Representatives just approved a bill that makes it illegal “to cause any caller ID service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller ID information, with the intent to defraud or deceive.” The bill is working its way through the Senate, but will likely be signed into law relatively soon. Though spoofing itself won’t be illegal, using it with ill intent and to harass will be.

Receive Voicemail Transcriptions

Why is it that whenever you desperately need to hear from someone, they call while you’re indisposed in a meeting? For those must-get phone calls, you have a couple of options aside from disrupting the meeting with your Michael Jackson “Beat It” ringtone and announcing “I have to take this.”

Option one: If the call is important but you don’t need to actually speak to the person, let Google Voice do the work for you. Google Voice offers a free service that uses computer-automated voice-to-text transcription to send your voicemail as either e-mail or text messages to your phone.

To have messages transcribed and sent, you’ll need a Google Voice account; if you don’t have one, you can request an invitation via the service’s Website. A quicker way to get an account is to have an existing Google Voice user invite you–so ask around.

Once you have an account, go to your Google Voice inbox, click Settings in the right corner, and select the Voicemail & SMS tab. Check the Voicemail Transcripts checkbox at the bottom of the page, and under Voicemail Notifications choose either the Google Voice-connected phone or the e-mail address on which you want to receive voicemail transcripts.

Afterward, be sure to give your Google Voice phone number to the person who will call you, or just forward your calls to your Google Voice account.

Option two: If you’re stuck in a conference call and looking for a polite way to be alerted to an important incoming call, consider creating a ringtone sound effect like a cough or a sneeze. Two sites, Entertonement and Sound-Effect.com, offer such sounds for a fee.

A cheaper alternative to buying a ringtone of someone clearing their throat is to record your own ringtone. Most basic-phone users should be able to do this by creating a voice memo, saving it in the recordings folder, and then assigning that recording as the ringtone. Android users can download the Ringdroid application, and iPhone users can make their own as well (see “Don’t Pay for Ringtones” in “14 Ways to Supercharge Your Smartphone”).

Next: Unify Your Communication