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Chip
“thunder & lightning”
Interactive Account Director
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chip's tweets

  • Groupon: A Business That Does Not Easily Scale http://t.co/SYK84xCA 1 hour 13 min ago
  • @CharlesRBlack I guess I don't send that many important emails. :) 1 hour 21 min ago
  • @CharlesRBlack Do you think it still needs acknowledgement if it is going to be within 24 hours? Just curious... 1 hour 31 min ago
  • @RyanJCormier I can only pray... 1 hour 33 min ago
  • @caitvsmith but how fast can it do zero to sixty? 1 hour 35 min ago

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Tricks of the trade

My job is one part nerd, one part suit, two parts entrepreneur and all parts flexible. I never know what a day will throw at me and I need a lot of tools to get me through every day. I thought I'd take a moment how to share how I bring some order to this crazy business. Here are my must-have, everyday tools:

  1. Gmail: Every email (both business and personal) runs through Google's email service. While most people get frustrated at their first attempt at the system, once you get the hang of it, you will never go back. Gmail uses “labels” and Outlook uses “folders” is the biggest difference, but it’s also Gmail’s biggest strength. More about that next.
  2. The GTDInbox: GTD = Getting things done. I use this religiously in my inbox. After all, most email messages are poorly designed tasks - so I treat them as such. At any given time, my inbox is usually empty, all of my emails that need response get put into an appropriate “action” folder. If I can respond in less than two minutes, I’ll do it right away.
  3. iPhone: No surprise here, but the iPhone is my smartphone of choice. Do some phones do email a little better? Sure. But no where else do you have over 50,000 applications to grow on an already powerful phone. The apps are what make the iPhone the winner in this game. I sync my iPhone email with Gmail to make sure I’m never out of touch.
  4. Breakfast Burritos: Enough said.
  5. GoogleSync: This fairly new service syncs all of my iPhone calendars and contacts with my Google ones. Awesome.
  6. Basecamp: This project management software runs our agency. We affectionately call ours the B-Hive (you can name the site). All of our deadlines, project overviews, addendums, etc. are stored on this site.
  7. Evernote: This a new addition to my arsenal. Evernote is a killer note-taking application. It is available on many different platforms: Web, Mac, PC, iPhone and Blackberry. This allows me to always have my notes available, wherever I am. I can search, sort and tag them - even upload photos with written text, and Evernote will transcribe it.
  8. P90X: My current workout routine, it keeps my head level on crazy days. Not for the faint of heart!
  9. iWork: This is Apple’s answer to Office. It is a much easier to use, and it’s a lot sexier. I use this to write proposals, manage and edit Excel documents, and create presentations.
  10. Google Docs: We use Google Docs as more of a Wiki than anything else. When we need to collaborate on some verbiage, edit an Excel file, or just keep an up-to-the-second stump sheet, Google Docs is our place to go.
  11. Tweetie: I use Tweetie to keep my personal Twitter running. It’s simple and recommended for most personal uses.
  12. Caffeine: Yes, please.
  13. TweetDeck: We manage Twitter accounts for several clients, and we use TweetDeck to follow their accounts.
  14. Radian6: For online reputation management and social monitoring clients, we use Radian6 to manage the flow of information.
  15. Time Machine: A MUST have for every Mac user. Everyone at the agency has a external hard drive to keep all files backed-up.
  16. iMapWeather.com: With the crazy storms that pass through DFW, this helpful tool alerts me of bad weather, and I can follow the storm in realtime. I also get a morning forecast to my inbox.
  17. Adium: This free chat software keeps all of the agency in step.

What do you use?


Comments

Thanks Tim. This was a helpful read.

You're welcome. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks!

Chip