It has been some time ago when I was talking how google influences my workflow so I have decided to look it again and summarize my experience.
Gmail
I have started to use Gmail couple of years agao as my secondary email address. It took me only short time to realize that the spam filter is probably the best on the market and the free amount of space has just made my mind. I started to use it as my primary address and now I am more then happy. During the years Google came with lots of new features and clever ideas. The spam filter is even getting better. I have all my email addresses forwarded to single gmail account. I use special Gmail account for my blog and I also have my old Hotmail account. They are both forwarded to my personal account.
Get organized
One of my most used feature on Gmail are Labels. During those years I have created about 70 different labels. My filters are mainly based on the email address. Why do I think is so important to create filters and have your inbox always empty? It’s peace of mind. One advantage is that you are organized and you know where to look for when you quickly need to find something. Another reason is called closing open circles. What does it mean? Anytime you start thinking about something that needs to be done you open 1 circle in your mind. When you have to many circles open you become stressed. That is why it is very important to close the circles as quickly as you can. Email is just one of the areas where you come across with open circles. Once you create a rule for emails you closing some of those circles because you are not having mass of emails in your inbox and you know you have to go through all of them in some point. When the post is filtered you have an idea which folders contain important post and which do not. Obviously you need to go and read important emails and schedule the task if there is something which needs to be done. That way the circle is closed. You don’t need to keep the problem in your mind because it was solved. Even if it has just been scheduled for later, in your mind the problem is solved because someone else is taking care of it and will tell you when necessary. So here comes the second part of the work flow.
For the time being I schedule my tasks in Google Calendar and iCal. They are synchronized with my iPhone so that would be fine. The problem is I don’t get the overview for the projects I can only see individual tasks in my Calendar. That is the reason I cam with the idea to create my own project management application.
Google Docs
When I was talking last time about Google Docs I have just start using them. In the meantime Google went long way and build in lots of cool features. Google Docs are coming closer and closer to offline applications such are Word and Excell. I have been using them for more then year now and I have not found a single case when I needed to use something more powerful.
Google Reader
Google reader is another application I use very often but I am not that happy about. I need online RSS reader that is for sure. I need to access my 50+ RSS feeds at home or during the lunch break at work. Google Reader has some very cool Javascript build in such are drug and drop and ajax updates for your RSS while you read. The problem is the interface. In this case I don’t fine it as good as the other Google apps. I am seriously thinking to produce my own RSS reader specially when my PHP class case work is some kind of news reader with google map implementation. The only think I need to come up once I finish the course is some kind of easy to use theme. Interface which would make you happy to come and read the RSS.
So these are mine core online applications. Which are yours?
One small trick at the end. If you use labels in Google mail and you want to see the most important folders (labels) at the top of the list use underscores. See example bellow.
