Thread: (Successful) Productivity Experiment With Google

Howdy,

Are you working in the cloud already?

If you're not, you're missing on some big benefits. For example, I've started working in the cloud a few days ago.

I've built a complete suite around Google and MindMeister and I'm more productive than ever.

There's no more Office ... no more Thunderbird ... no more "where I've put that file" moments.

Instead, I have one central hub around Google and several tools to help me get stuff done.

Here's what I'm using:
-> Google.com for general purposes.
-> Google Docs for document editing / sharing and commenting (the sharing and commenting feature makes it more valuable for me than Microsoft Office).
-> MindMeister for mind-mapping $5.99/month.
-> Google Bookmarks for saving lists of websites (especially useful when I research).
-> Google URL Shortener - does exactly what you think - useful for sending URLs in emails or on Twitter.
-> Google Reader for reading my favorite websites daily (lifehacker.org and zenhabits.com)
-> Picassa for inserting photos into documents directly, sharing and organizing (this is gold).
-> Google Maps on my phone (I'm not using it so much)
-> Google Places for finding places to R&R after work.
-> Google Contacts as a lite contact manager. Works great for its purpose.

And finally, Google Plus. I tend to use it sometime, but it's not even bookmarked.

The advantages of working with this suite?
-> No more 100 text files around my desktop which must be organized once a week.
-> No more lost files due to misplacing / crash due to the auto-save feature of Google.
-> No more "attach file, send email, receive email, see file, edit" routine. Now I simply use the comment feature, share the file and receive instant feedback.
-> No more 100 bookmarks in my Firefox or Chrome toolbar from all the websites I want to visit again.
-> No more lost time by manually checking for new articles on my websites.
-> No more lost time by finding pictures on my computer, inserting, attaching, sending. I just share it from Picasa.
-> Also, with ScreenCapture (Chrome extension) I can directly take screenshots (similar to Evernote) and upload them to Picasa or share them directly.
-> No more lost time trying to find contacts / a phone number or a b'day in my Google Mail.

The best thing out of all? It's free. With the exception of Mind Meister, everything else it's free.

Razvan

Glad it works for you. I personally hate Google Docs and Google Reader, but thats just my 2 Cents.
What todo-tool are you using? I use Wunderlist | Task Management At Its Best - strong recommendation

All the best,
Alex