We’ve both read David Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. We like to find ways to be more organized and efficient. Tools for improving our productivity intrigue us.

He has a cult-like following. His raving fans love his system. The essence of the system is to “do it, delegate it or defer it.”

The gtdagenda.com is all about using the system on the computer instead of paper. There is also integration in the system to receive email notifications each morning for calendar, next actions and/or your vision wall.

There are examples of how you can integrate it with Stephen Covey’s  7 Habits of Highly Effective People or Leo Babuta’s Zen to Done system. There are also suggestions on how to use it for school, the gym or even software development.

Sherra says…

The website gives you a snapshot of your goals, projects and tasks on one screen which can be helpful. But for me personally, it’s a little too stark. I’d like to see more customization options – as in color choices, fonts and ways I could rearrange the screen to suit my personal preferences. There is a free option as well as a basic and premium plan with a 30 day money back guarantee which is always nice.

Leigh Anne says…

Because I tend to be a very visual person and really do prefer paper I like that you can also print. I also love that there is a Vision Wall where you can upload photos of your goals and dreams. Staying focused on your goals and the steps that move you towards them can be a struggle. The GTD system and gtdagenda.com help you to do this. It breaks goal setting and achieving into manageable, bite size pieces. It is so much more than a to do list. It helps you to have a more organized life and put everything thing in its place.

If you are a GTD devotee, this is worth checking out, especially if you want a web-based system that you’ll be able to log on and access from any computer. For now, we’re sticking with old-fashioned pen and paper because it still works for us.

Interns Leigh Anne Wilkes and Sherra Humphreys have been top direct sales business leaders for 18 and 16 years respectively.

So it was only natural that when I started my own business and had to foot the paper bill myself, I really began to pay attention to how much paper I’m using. Now, I’m not a gung-ho environmentalist, but like the idea of doing my very little part so, the ability to save some paper made me and my wallet feel good. But truth be told, I still like reading books and reports on paper. Thankfully, there are print utilities that make this a non-issue.

Two I’ve found and used over a span of 8-9 years are Fineprint and ClickBook. They have different features but by and large do the same thing. They allow you to print 2, 4, 6, 8 or more pages on one sheet of paper. They also make it super easy to print booklets – which was my favorite thing.

In ClickBook there are several more options including the ability to create your own printers. Which means, if you print a form regularly and like to have it formatted in a certain way, there’s no need to re-do the print setting every time. Just create a printer and print to that. I also like that it comes with a PDF printer so you can not only create PDF’s but create them in booklet form, banner form or any imaginable way.

In both software, you can also find out how much you’re saving by printing your document in the format chosen. In the screen shot below, I saved 50% of paper when printing this ebook that’s 118 pages long. You can also print double sided to boost your savings further.

Thankfully many of the newer printers provide you with *some* double sided or 2-4 page per sheet options now. But if yours doesn’t, ClickBook or Fineprint are definitely good options.

*ClickBook has a Mac version too.

And while Bidmycleaning.com offers a practical solution for anyone looking for a little extra help around the house, their business model is equally useful in showing small business owners how to keep tech costs low and maximize profits.

BidMyCleaning.com launched in April 2008 with virtually no budget for software and technology costs. These constraints prompted Bidmycleaning.com’s CEO, Raymond Akers, to utilize free and low cost products such as Open Source and Freeware to bootstrap their web startup.

If you are unfamiliar with these products, Open Source is a community of programmers that develop and improve upon existing source code and offer their work to the public free of charge for general use or modification.  On the other hand, Freeware is open to the public, but licensing rules restrict how the company uses or modifies that software.

And while “free” in the tech industry is sometimes a dirty word in terms of quality, Akers is extremely happy with his decision to use free and low cost products.  He offered the following advice to those toying around with the same idea:

“It goes without saying that the first benefit of Open Source is that it is free.  In this case however, free does not mean that it is a pared down or inferior solution to a product you would pay handsomely for.  Today’s Open Source software products are in most cases as good as, or sometimes even better than the expensive alternatives.

Another benefit is that the Open Source community is a lot like the Social Media community, in that it is very cohesive with lots of people willing to engage with you and provide really great support and guidance.  There is ready information-sharing and many devout (or fanatical) followers who generate a large, well organized knowledge base which is accessible to you for free with a Google search.  Free code libraries, extensions, components, platforms and/or addons are readily available.  Your largest cost is likely to be your development talent, and so their ability to save time by using canned code where it makes sense will be invaluable.

Development tools are another area where you can save by using the Eclipse or NetBeans IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) together with the powerful debugging features of the FireFox Web Browser with the freely available Web Developer Addons.

Finally, when looking for free solutions don’t forget Freeware – it may not be Open Source but it can be useful for filling some gaps in your technology plan.”

This business plan proved extremely successful for the executives at Bidmycleaning.com, as their savings allowed them to shift their focus to marketing in an effort to increase awareness and bring in customers.  The small startup out of Houston is growing rapidly and is now active in cities throughout Texas and California including Dallas, Fort Worth, San Diego, Orange Country, Los Angeles, as well as Chicago, Philadelphia and New York.

However, if you’re still skeptical regarding the power of free software, the owners of Bidmycleaning.com invite you to check out their platform to see for yourself just how functional a “low cost” site can be.
Oh, and while you’re there, use coupon code SPARKAT  to save  $10 off of your next house, carpet or window cleaning courtesy of Mr. Akers.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W120

As a web publisher, frequent conference speaker, mom, and hobby photographer, I take a lot of pictures. I even studied photography in college for two years. So when I was offered the opportunity to check out the new 7 megapixel Sony Cyber-shot, I jumped all over it.

Let me start out with the Pro’s:

This camera gives a GREAT first impression – it is adorable. I was given a pink one, and my teenage daughter immediately started ‘borrowing’ it before I could get my hands on it. But it also comes in black, silver, and powder blue, so it’s not just a girly camera. The back LCD screen is very large for such a portable camera. And that tiny size is one of the biggest plusses of all – I could fit this camera in my pocket if I had to.

It is also very easy to use – I cracked the user guide only once, but it turns out I didn’t really need to. Settings are intuitive and it gives plenty of options for shooting up close, in low light, in portrait mode, and also has a video setting. It also has some smile-recognition technology so that it knows when to snap the shutter at the right smiling moment (great for kids pictures). That being said, I didn’t use that setting very much because I prefer to have more control over my photos.

And now the Con’s

Like I initially stated, I’m kind of a photo nut. So I pushed this camera to it’s limits – and found those limits sooner than I wanted to. I also compared results to my way-more-expensive Fuji camera, which was completely unfair, because these two cameras are apples and oranges.

The biggest drawback I found was that the auto-focus feature left a lot to be desired. It held up well in the middle of bright, sunny days. I’d even say the image quality rivaled my Fuji in bright light. But even as the sun was getting low in the sky, pictures were blurry. It also had a hard time figuring out what to focus on sometimes, even when my camera subject was smack-dab in the middle of the frame.

My other complaint was that any photo taken in less than bright mid-day light was also very grainy when you tried to blow up the photos (viewing or printing). That’s where my camera “elitism” turned me off.

Who would this camera be good for?

If you are picky about photo quality, need a reliable focusing mechanism, or need to professionally reproduce your images, the Cyber-shot DSC-W120 isn’t your camera (unless all of your shots take place between 10:00am and 2:00pm).

But I could have given this camera away to readers, and I can’t bear to part with it – here’s why:

1 – This camera really is IDEAL for my teenage daughter. She LOVES this thing, doesn’t care about my picky photo quality quirks, and was able to use it immediately without any help or instruction. In fact, from now on, the camera will be hers and I will “borrow it back” from time to time. She is ecstatic.

2 – There are times when I don’t want to risk bringing my big expensive camera to places (sandy beaches, swimming pools, etc.). I’m completely willing to sacrifice quality for the peace of mind I get knowing I will still get fairly decent pictures and my expensive equipment is safe at home.

3 – For web publishing, 7 megapixels is completely overkill. Even 800×600 photographs need to be reduced in size. So this camera has come in handy to take quick shots when I don’t need the high-resolution power of 7 megapixels.

Disclosure :: Sony provided this camera to me for free with the request to review their product. They also encouraged me to write a fully honest review, which I have done (as you can tell!). Sony did not pay any money for this review and did not receive anything in return from me or my company for taking the time to review their product.

Buy the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W120 on Amazon