It’s easy to accumulate powerful digital tools which help us in our work and play. This past weekend I found myself realizing that as much as I use certain tools in my digital toolbox, there’s a small collection that form my Swiss Army Knife – the tools on which I depend to help me with my work on a daily basis. I’ll leave out the obvious (computer, iPhone, iPad) since I can’t use most of my tools without them.
Livescribe Pulse Smartpen: Whitney Hoffman introduced me to this incredible tool in her LD Podcast over two-and-a-half years ago. I often tout it as the coolest technology I’ve ever paid money for. I know. It sounds odd that a digital guy still uses a pen and paper for scribbling down thoughts, sketching ideas and the odd doodle. My Livescribe pen allows me to record all of my penstrokes and even the soundtrack around me when I write, and import them into the computer. Perfect for meetings, lectures, presentations, planning sessions and leisure.
Hootsuite: Despite a recent shaky period during which Hootsuite and the Hootsuite iPhone app caused me (and every other Hootsuite user) tremendous frustration for three solid days, I still love the tool. It’s my social media dashboard, allowing me to follow conversations on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook (I haven’t incorporated FourSquare, yet), and even zero in on specific conversations using keywords and other search criteria. It’s like a social media news ticker on steroids.
Daylite: This is an integrated productivity suite that allows me to connect all of the elements of my projects, tasks, calendar and relationships. I’ve barely scratched the surface of the software and its capabilities. One day I’ll make time to become more efficient with certain features it has. I also use their Billings software though I haven’t yet integrated the two packages to share information.
Sysomos Heartbeat and MAP: These are by far the most powerful online monitoring and research tools I’ve evaluated and/or used. Sysomos is part of my daily routine (even most weekends) for client projects, online audits and research such as my extensive digital analysis of the recent federal election. I’m finding new ways to push these tools and the team at Sysomos has been very supportive of my work and receptive to my ideas.
Dropbox: I find myself increasingly dependent on Dropbox to share files with others and synchronize files between my Mac, iPhone and iPad. I’m still not comfortable with being reliant on the cloud since I still don’t trust it will always be there when I need it (and Murphy’s law says it will be down when I need it most). So, I still work with local copies. However, it’s nice to have a big thumb drive in the sky as a tool of convenience.
NewsRack: A good RSS aggregator is important when you follow lots of blogs and online news sites. NewsRack is that tool. It syncs with my Google Reader so everything works nicely and stays current on my computer, iPhone and iPad.
Photo: Swiss Army Knife uploaded to Flickr by AJC1.
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