scheduling

I have to admit that I don't use Apple's Dashboard widgets very often. Though I know there are several useful widgets available I think it might be that, in my business, I often search for a stand-alone solution to whatever the particular problem might be before thinking of Widgets. In other words, I think it's mostly just habit that I moved away from the Dashboard. But I came across an excellent free widget today that just might make me spend more time with widgets.

Organized, from iSlayer.com is a handy and elegant calendar widget which helps … Read more

Of all the meeting time brokers I've seen, Presdo is the most peculiar. Which means it's worth checking out. Unlike other apps I've covered (Timebridge, Jiffle, Tungle, Timedriver, etc.) Presdo's strength is not that it automates the selection of meeting times that work out for attendees (it doesn't), but rather that it helps script the dialogue that's usually a part of the back-and-forth in setting up a meeting.

What makes this service peculiar is that it does very little that you can't otherwise do through e-mail and Web surfing. However, it packages everything … Read more

Since I started using Gmail as my primary e-mail program a couple of years ago, I haven't missed much about Microsoft Outlook. However, there's one useful Outlook feature that Gmail lacks: the ability to delay sending all of your outgoing messages, or to set individual messages to be transmitted at a particular time in the future.

Have you ever wished you had reconsidered sending that e-mail to your boss, explaining in detail his shortcomings as a manager? Or perhaps you regret complaining to a client about her unprofessional behavior for canceling a meeting at the last minute--before learning … Read more

Tungle, launching today, may be the meeting coordination utility to beat. Like TimeBridge, Jiffle, and other products in this new category, it lets you block off a bunch of times for a meeting you want to have with a person or group of people, and then it handles all the back-and-forth while your attendees figure out which of the available times they want to grab. Once the meeting is booked, it enters the appointment into your Outlook calendar and sends the recipients calendar entries, too.

Tungle's success is in its design. If you're setting up a meeting, you … Read more

If you've ever wondered how many minutes a day you spend using Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, or Gmail; or how much of your day is "wasted" by community Web sites such as Digg, Slashdot, or MetaFilter, a free application called RescueTime (also available for Mac) can track that information for you, while providing several other valuable features to monitor your time.

Monitoring productivity in the Internet age has become more complicated than ever, especially if you work online. E-mail, instant messaging, and multitasking keep many of us switching constantly between projects or contacts. RescueTime combines a local application … Read more

Here's a creepy site that is based on a sound idea: JustInCaseIDie. On this service you can set up a message to be sent to a single recipient if you don't check in by a certain time or reply to a reminder e-mail. The idea is that, if you die, you can't check in, and your canned message will be sent. Said message could be a posthumous love note, a terrible expose, the combination to the safe in the house, and so on.

It's implemented in a pretty lightweight fashion, so I can't imagine it … Read more

The meeting time negotiation service TimeBridge is adding a new Web-based component today. It now lets you set up a page, which TimeBridge hosts, that displays your free times. People who want a piece of your schedule can request an available time from those that are open. It's a good improvement to TimeBridge for service providers like consultants.

Previously, all of TimeBridge's scheduling communications were in e-mails. See review: TimeBridge makes scheduling easy.

As before, TimeBridge gets its free/busy data from your Outlook or Google calendar; if you're a user of one of these products, you … Read more

There's good news and bad news about the popularity of something like the "RoomWizard " scheduling system: One one hand, it means companies are apparently growing and hiring enough to demand a product like this; on the other, it means they're having more meetings.

The RoomWizard is kind of a digital referee that can avoid inter-office fisticuffs by keeping track of schedules for conference rooms that are always in high demand. Spaces are booked with touch screens outside the rooms or online through the system's Web server, according to OhGizmo, and information can be downloaded to … Read more

I'm always privy to simple, one-shot tools that get the job done. ScheduleOnce is a good example of a meeting scheduling tool that's been designed with this in mind. The free service is set up to help you reach a consensus on a meeting time for multiple parties based on open time slots. Each user has access to a calendar, and depending on how open the meeting's creator has left the schedule, users can go in and note times they're free, or accept any slot that's already been noted as open. The app takes time … Read more