1. Handheld Scanner
Remember those old spy movies, where the secret agents captured documents with a tiny secret mini-camera? Now we all have one. Believe it or not, photographing documents works.
I don’t recommend stealing information, but for random paper information, notes — even white-board information, you can snap a picture to capture the data.
2. Screen-Capture Utility
The same trick for capturing paper documents works surprisingly well with a computer screen. The “normal” way to capture a screen — pressing the PrntScrn key, the pasting into e-mail, Word or other applications (pressing Alt+PrntScrn captures only the selected window) — sometimes that doesn’t work. Some Web sites and some video formats don’t let you capture. In those cases, take a picture of the monitor! The resulting image won’t be perfect, but it will be a lot better than nothing.
3. Photographic Memory
Business travel involves remembering small details, just to get yourself there and back. The more you travel, the more these details blur together.
After checking into your hotel, and dropping off your bags in the room, you decide to go grab dinner. You come back to the hotel, and make it up to your floor — what was the room number 1021 or 1012? The next morning, you go downstairs to drive to your meeting — which of the 50 rental cars in the lot is yours? You arrive at your home airport after a weeklong trip — where in the five-story lot did you park?
Your camera phone can instantly record, then quickly recall, these and other minor but easy-to-forget details of business travel.
Whenever I travel, I always snap a picture of my hotel room number, rental car (with license plate) and airport parking garage location sign. If I forget, I can just call it up on my phone.
4. Contact Database Enhancer
Most camera phones let you add photos to each contact entry, which pop up on the screen when the person calls, or when you call them. Many also add the picture to Microsoft Outlook or other desktop contact applications when you synchronize the phone.
Snap a picture of important people you meet, and add that photo to your contacts. People don’t mind, and it really helps you later connect faces to names.
5. Automatic Personal “City Guide” Creator
For years, I’ve kept personal “City Guides” of my favorite restaurants, hotels, stores and other attractions in the “Notes” application of my phone. I used to either type in the information with my phone, or grab a paper business card, then key in the information later. Now, I just take a picture of the outside of the building, then drop that photo in a folder labeled “Chicago” or “New York” — or wherever the city is. Later, when I want to grab a bite to eat, or recommend some place to a friend, I just open the appropriate folder on my phone, and cycle through the pictures.
6. String Around Your Finger
Sometimes you see something that jogs your memory. For example, you see a flower stand, which reminds you – “Oh, No!! My anniversary is next week!!” Rather than forgetting again, just take a picture of the flower stand, and e-mail it to yourself as a reminder.
7. Driving Directions Maker
Some buildings are hard to find, even with good directions. Use your camera phone to make and send easy directions. Send a photo of the outside of the building. You can also give hints for directions enhanced by photos, such as “turn left at this gas station” or “when you see this fork in the road, keep to the right.”
8. Personal Security Device
Door-to-door con artists are more common than you think. Chances are, you’ve been scammed yourself. The next time someone comes to your home or office to raise money or for some other potentially illicit purpose, ask if you can take their picture. Legit people won’t mind, and criminals will leave immediately.
Women confronted by creepy stalker types on public transportation have successfully warded off unwanted attention by snapping camera phone pictures of their harassers.
Aggressive panhandlers, crooked sales-people, suspicious strangers in your office — it never hurts to take a picture and e-mail it to yourself (in case they steal your phone). It gives you the upper hand, can deter crime, and provides evidence if a crime does occur.
9. Liability Reducer
Camera phones can help you prove your innocence. If you get into a car accident, photograph everything (the cars, the victims, etc.) in case anyone decides to get creative with the facts later on.
If you check into a hotel room, and something is conspicuously damaged or missing, take a picture immediately, then send it to your Gmail or other online e-mail account. The time and date will be captured, which might protect you from being charged for the damage by the hotel.
10. Morale Booster
All managers are challenged by the need to keep staff morale high. A camera phone can help. When a sales person delivers a great pitch to a client, stand at the back of the room and snap a picture of them in action. Later, e-mail it to the staff with praise for the speaker. The photo will magnify the praise.
If something unusual happens at the office, take a picture and e-mail it immediately to employees who are away on business, home sick or on vacation. It helps feel more connected to the team, and reminds them that they’re important to you.
[via earthweb]
and Living the Simple Life
by Elaine St. James. I listed this first because it is one of the books that most influenced the simple philosophy behind this site. I began simplifying my life when I first read these books a decade ago, and though I’ve had some ups and downs, I credit my love for simplifying to these books. They’re an easy read and there are some great tips in there.
by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robins. No book on money is more important. If you haven’t read this book yet, you must. It’s simply life transforming, and takes the way most people look at money and turns it on its head. My philosophy about money stems from this book.
by David Allen. This is not a surprise for people who read this site. When I first read about GTD, I overhauled my organizational and productivity habits, and have been refining them ever since. This book’s methods guide much of the writing on this site, even if I’ve adapted them to suit my needs.
by Stephen Covey. I was highly enthusiastic about this book when I first read it about 15 years ago, but then I kind of forgot about it for a long time. Until recently, when I was looking for ways to fill in gaps in GTD, and realized that Covey’s concepts are perfect. Now, my productivity/goals system is a blend of GTD, Covey, simplification and a few others.
by the Dalai Lama. Taught me more about compassion than any other book I’ve read. For that alone, the book is worth its weight in gold.
by Noam Chomsky. This was a hard book to swallow when I was a journalist, as it cuts to the heart of the mass media (also known as corporate media). Chomsky’s writings awoke in me, as they did in many others, an awareness of the political and corporate machine that affects all of our lives. When people ask me how I can boycott reading and watching the news for two years (”You need to be aware of the world around you!”), I would point them to this book. The reading is a bit dense, but it’s powerful.
by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Although Gatsby is more highly regarded, I think because it is more compactly written and touches on themes considered more important, Tender is the book I read first and it is the book that truly awed me with the unmatchable beauty of Fitzgerald’s writing. He writes poetry and music in the form of prose, and his ear for rhythm of language is unmatched. My heart aches when I read this book.
by James Joyce. I think this book changed me because it taught me how powerful literature can be. I went on to read even more powerful stuff from Joyce, but this was the first, and it made all other literature I read before it seem like light reading. And Joyce captures beauty and sadness and humanity in the smallest things, and his mastery of the language is unmatched except by Shakespeare.
by Kurt Vonnegut. I love everything by Vonnegut. I wanted to write something on this blog when he died, but I couldn’t put my feelings into words. He became a close friend, through his books, and he was able to make fun of some of the most horrible things — things we don’t normally want to think about — and thus making them more digestible, and more absurd at the same time. Cat’s Cradle is simply my favorite, but Slaughterhouse 5 and the rest are awesome too.
. A great man captured in one little book. His words are profound and his actions even more so. Gandhi, more than anyone else, shaped my thinking about violence and politics and simplicity and the power of our actions.
Posted by dodowolf 
Posted by dodowolf 
Posted by dodowolf 