Useful tools for management

A notepad, a writing instrument and a communication device (phone, sat comm, radio etc.)

I've managed out of corporate offices, on the road and even mud holes in the ground. The tools are good but the manager is what makes it all happen

My favorite things right now are my iPhone (for synchronising with Outlook), my notebook and my silver and marble fountain pen (thank you to my wife, it was a fantastic present). Everything else is just an add on.

Tim

 We use Lotus Notes at work for mail and PIM, at home I use Outlook and I also have a Blackberry and an Android phone.  I sync Lotus notes calendaer, tasks and contacts to Google Calendar and Contacts using AweSync (this is a commercial product, I was unable to find a free one that worked with our systems).  Outlook uses GoogleSync to sync with Google Calendar and Contacts.  The Blackberry and Android phone also sync with Google.  The upshot of this is that I always have my calendar and contacts available to me (I also have paper copies of both).  When I had a new laptop last year I just installed Awesync and ran a sync, contacts all synced up.

 This does mean that my work and private calendars are the same but as there's nothing in my personal calendar I'd be worried abut someone seeing in my work calendar (if there was I'd probably just give it an innocuous name in the electronic calendar and put the details in my paper diary).

I have tried Evernote but right now, for me, it's a bit of a solution looking for a problem.  I can see it would be useful for certain things but don't have anything it woudl be useful for at the current time but it's there for when I do need it.

I blog a lot, mostly about technical things I have to do as part of my job (nothing that could be considered remotely sensitive or commercially confidential) and with the full knowledge of my line manager.  This is useful for when I come to do the same thing again and need to be reminded how.  Also sometimes I get comments from other people suggesting better ways.

Other than that, just the usual office suite stuff.

Stephen

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Skype: stephenbooth_uk  | DiSC: 6137

"Start with the customer and work backwards, not with the tools and work forwards" - James Womack

My primary tools are Outlook for the obvious email / PIM stuff, OneNote for my general reference library, a Capturx digital OneNote pen and notebook for taking paper notes and importing them into OneNote, a Levenger pocket briefcase for when small, portable 3x5 notecards are necessary or advantageous, and my Windows Phone 7.

The focal point is really OneNote. Notice I call OneNote my general reference library, not my note taking tool. I leverage the "Send to OneNote" option in Internet Explorer, the OneNote printer, and the "Open in OneNote" options within Outlook to bring all reference items that I want to refer back to, into OneNote. Yes, even email. If I receive an email that contains a process, procedure, or some other reference item that I anticipate needing to refer back to at some point, I send it to OneNote. OneNote's flexibility makes it much easier to store and file disparate content types (emails, web pages, screenshots, meeting notes, etc) so I find it to be a great filing tool. I also love the Open in OneNote option within Outlook calendar appointments. When I'm on a conference call and taking notes on my laptop, I just open the meeting request and click the OneNote button, and it sends all of the meeting details (Subject, time, attendees, etc) into a new OneNote page that I can then start taking notes on.

I store my personal OneNote notebooks on SkyDrive, and my business notebooks on my company's internal SharePoint server. This allows me to open my notebooks from a browser on machines that don't have OneNote installed, allows my notebooks to synchronize between my desktop and laptop, and allows me to access my notebooks from my phone (since Windows Phone 7 has a native OneNote client. iPhone has one now as well).

Did I mention that I like OneNote? :)

Jason