Did you make your life more complex today?

Did you add to the number of things demanding your attention?

(Cell phones, email, voicemail, Facebook, Twitter, websites, text messages, etc.)

It’s easy to make your life more complex.

Complex is easy.  Simple is hard.

Adding More Complexity

These days it is very easy to make your life complex.  In fact, we are often guilty of self-inflicting more complexity into our lives daily.

Why?  Well, for one, it is often free.  We sign up for new services, accounts, and newsletters.  We do this repeatedly without much thought as to the added complexity it will bring us.  Sign up for a simple online account and suddenly you are receiving endless email ads, and all of your friends are being solicited, too.

How much of the “spam” email you receive is self-inflicted?  Probably quite a bit.  Do you really need to know the airline specials every week?  Do you have to see the shoes sales daily in your inbox or Facebook feed? (more…)

It’s no secret that I am a big Apple fan.  I use the iPhone for most of my productivty needs, and the iPad has replaced my laptop.

Yesterday was a big day for the iPhone.  No, the new iPhone is not out yet.  That is later this week.  However, the new operating system, iOS 4, was released for all current iPhone 3G and 3GS phones.

This is a huge update with literally over 100 new features packed into it.

I installed it last night on my iPhone 3GS.  While I haven’t had much time to put it through its paces, here is a quick look at the big new features… (more…)

Just how fast is email? Not that fast, really.

Here is a little secret…

“Email has become the new snail mail.”

Email used to be fast. Very fast, in fact.

Not anymore. Now it is slow.

Why is this? How did email become relegated to a second rate communication tool?

1. More Immediate Methods

The main reason that email has taken a backseat, is that there are now so many more communication options. And some of the newer methods are really fast. Things like text messages, IM, Twitter, Facebook updates and chat. Email has been replaced with even more immediate intrusions into our life. Why send an email when I can send a message that will pop-up on my friends cell phone or computer screen?

2. Can’t Expect Immediate Answers

Once upon a time, when email was still magical, people would sit in front of their computers just waiting for emails to arrive. But, somewhere along the
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I have not reviewed specific iPad productivity apps yet, but after installing Reeder for iPad (iTunes link) this weekend, I just had to share.

My reaction was WOW. Reeder is a shining star in design for the iPad. It has gotten right what so many developers have not yet figured out, which is the the interface power of the iPad. Simple, yet elegant, Reeder is a pleasure to use.

What is Reeder?

Reeder is an RSS reader. If you are not familiar with RSS readers, think of them as news collectors. They go out to your favorite websites and collect all the new articles for you to read in one place.

Reeder syncs with a Google Reader account. If you are not familiar with Google Reader, it is a web-based RSS reader that is folded into the Google suite of tools. Definitely recommended to keep all your news feeds in one place.

Reeder gives me one app to keep up with all the news I want and the blogs that I follow. It saves me time by preventing me from endlessly surfing the Net for the information that is of interest to me.

It’s the User Interface

When you use Reeder for the first time, you may be underwhelmed. It is not flashy. It is not full of buttons and options.
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When you get back to work from a weekend do you suddenly have hundreds of emails waiting for you?

Does your email multiply?  Does it reproduce while you are asleep?

Some people are convinced this is the only answer to explain the mountain of email that appears in their inbox.

Where does all this email come from?

Email was once heralded as a miracle in communication.  Now it has become a productivity problem for most companies.  Email consumes so much time that it can be counterproductive.  Many employees are drowning in emails to the point that they regularly declare email bankruptcy and simply delete all their mail and start over.  (Have you done this?)

I have actually seen companies shut down by email run amok.

I was working at a Fortune 15 company that accidentally sent out an email to all employees that could be replied to.  Apparently, there was a hidden distribution list that addressed everyone in the company.  Well, you can guess what happened next.  Someone posted a silly response.  Which lead to another.  Every single employee in the company was getting spammed by this internal communication chaos.  Sounds funny, but within a hour, the email server was down and out for the rest off the day.  How much did that cost in time and money?

How you can stop the email flood… (more…)