Your Smart Phone Can Help You Control Your Life

How much difference can a time management plan make in your life?  It will help you:

o   Use limited time.  There are only 24 hours in a day, which never seems to be enough time to get everything done.

o   Feel calm, reduce stress and more in control of your life.  

o   Accomplish more with less effort, including the things you enjoy.

o   Have more energy, because less time is wasted.

o   Achieve what you need and want to faster.

o   Feel more fulfilled, because you are free to make decisions based on the values you hold instead of the push of last deadlines.

To put your smart phone to work helping you control your life, simply download a time management app (application) from the App Store or Market button on your phone.  Here are my recommendations



For College Students:

As the name implies, College T.A. is for college students.  Since time management is often a huge problem for freshmen and they seem to have their phone with them all the time, this app could make a huge difference.

As these pictures show, it helps the student manage classes, clubs, coursework, jobs, and their social life.  In addition, students are able to update and manage their Twitter account, display daily weather reports and create playlists to study mood music.

There is an Advisor’s Guide section that provides students with helpful tips as they progress from freshmen to seniors, which is regularly updated with new and helpful tips for academic success. 

Furthermore, students are able to view a brief snapshot of the important tasks and events of the day and see a “to do” list with customizable alerts and animations.

Watch a video here.

This app is free and available for iPhone.

For Everyone Else

Wunderlist is a simple “to do” list and its free.  It has multiplatform support, so you can access your list from your computer as well as your phone.  It is available for Android, iPhones and Blackberry.  You can sort your tasks into lists, give them due dates, add notes and set up reminders.  High priority tasks can be starred, and you can share to-dos with other users through Facebook, email or SMS.

  



Importance of time management.  Time Thoughts.  Retrieved from:  http://www.timethoughts.com/timemanagement/importance-time-management.htm

Schedule Planner allows you to plan activities by category and priority.  Tasks can be planned in advance and placed in a flexible set of color coded categories.  Users can create day plans from scratch or edit pre-existing plans to save time.  You can change the settings for individual tasks and create full event articles to help remember specifics later.

This app is free and available for Android, iPhones and Blackberry. 

Give one of these apps a try!

Working at the computer helpdesk, I see a lot of computers that get infected with spyware.  The definition of computer spyware is “software that self-installs on a computer, enabling information to be gathered covertly about a person's Internet use, passwords, etc.”  It can also make your computer unstable and unworkable.  When a computer is infected with spyware, besides the obvious security risk, it can be a real nuisance and difficult to clean.  This tech tip will show how to minimize the risk your computer becoming infected with spyware. 

The first thing that needs to be done is to download a spyware scanner.  I like SuperAntiSpyware.  It can be found at http://www.superantispyware.com/.  Download and install the “Free Edition.”  After it installed, in Internet Explorer, near the top of the page, click on tools and then choose “Internet Options” from the menu.  In the general tab, press delete to delete “Temporary Internet Files, History, Cookies,” etc.  Once that is done, close Internet Explorer. 

With any other programs installed, double-click the SuperAntiSpyware icon on the desktop.  Right-click the orange balloon next to the clock by the taskbar and choose “Scan for Spyware, Adware, Malware….”  Be sure to press “Check for Updates…” first.  Now press “Scan your Computer…”  Depending on how infected your computer is, you can choose to perform a quick scan (scans known files for spyware to infect), a complete scan (scans the whole hard drive), or a custom scan (only scans files you specify).  It will then started scanning through the files.  When it is done, a window appears telling you what it found.  Press OK and you are back on the superantispyware program.  Press next and then a window will appear asking you to if you want to reboot.  Press yes.  The computer reboots and then you are done.

Below is a movie that shows step-by-step instructions.

Recording Phone Calls On Your Smartphone

We only have so much space in our pockets and purses right folks? Thanks to technology our smartphones can do things that used to require four or five separate devices. As a journalist a smartphone can be a lifesaver. Map to an interview, research in the browser, pictures to add content and in a pinch a recorder. But you don't have to be a reporter to get the benefits of recording phone calls.

Why Might You Need To Record A Call?

· To enhance your memory

· Record important conversations for business or school

· Legal reasons such as proof of something happening

Is It Legal?

It is legal to record phone calls in the United States without telling the person you're recording except in these states:

·  California

·  Connecticut

·  Florida

·  Illinois

·  Maryland

·  Massachusetts

·  Michigan

·  Montana

·  Nevada

·  New Hampshire

·  Pennsylvania

·  Washington

Most phones with Google Android and iPhones are capable of performing this function.

1. The VoIP Way

2. The Dowloadable App Way

The VoIP Way

There are two popular services that you can download to your phone: one is Skype, the other is Google Voice. Google Voice is a free service that uses a web interface so no downloading an app. All that's required is a free Google Account. Once you make the call just press "4" on the dial pad and you start recording. You can find the recording in your voice recorder control panel afterward.

Skype is a bit different. You have to make a call to somebody else with a Skype account or you have to pay. Plus all the recorders are third party add-ons. Some suggestions QuickVoice, Audio Memo, or ScreenChomp all have their benefits and drawbacks. What I would suggest is bypass the add-on and go straight for the app store.

The Downloadable App Way                                                     

There are far more choices free and not this way but no guarantees on reliability. Also iPhones are purposefully different from Google Android enabled phones and they each have their own apps. Test at your own risk but through trial and error the paid apps tend to offer best reward.

Some recommended free apps for Google Android:

1. Call Recorder - Saves to your phones SD memory card

2. Record my Call - Doesn't work on all phones

Some recommended pay apps for Google Android:

1. AllCallRecorder Deluxe - Costs $2.95 but comes with a free trial and comes highly recommended over it's free version.

2. Call Recorder Pro - Costs $1.58; will run in the background and save to mp4.

Some recommended free apps for Apple iPhone:

1. There really aren't any "free apps" there are some free apps as far as initial cost but pretty much all require a fee for a monthly service or what you record. Apple doesn't typically like nor allow people to have free reign to record phone calls on their devices.

Some recommended pay apps for Apple iPhone:

1. Call Recording by TPS Games - App is free; service is 10 dollars a month

2. Recorder by Retronyms - App is $0.99 and you pay for the time you record.

iPad App: Educreations

If you are looking for more ways to get the most out of your iPad, there's an app that might just help you do that. 

Educreations is a free iPad app for lesson or demonstration recording. It offers a whiteboard for your to write or draw as you lecture. You can also import images and write or draw on those to illustrate your point. It uses the iPad's native mic to record your voice as you lecture.

It features voice recording, whiteboard capture, image import, and a variety of colors for your illustrative additions. You publish your final lesson at educreations.com. From there, you can embed your lesson in your own web site or blog while also sharing it with your Facebook or Twitter friends and followers. 

Check out Rex Stephenson's Lewis and Clark lesson:

Find out more and view other examples at educations.com.