Tech tips for a productive start to 2011

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As many of us resolve to make changes for the better in the new year, consider adding better productivity to the list!  Here are some great tips to help us maximize productivity at home and at work:

• Use a Daily Log to Keep Yourself Focused on Productivity
• Productivity All Around: Be sure to sync your tools!
• 10 Ways to Get the Most Out of Technology
• The 10 Best Productivity Apps For Business Professionals
• Create a productive home office:
  • How Much Storage Space Do You Need in Your Computer?
  • How Can I Speed Up My Aging Laptop?
  • Set up wireless internet access in your home
  • How To Expand a Wireless Network
  • How Can I Find Out If My ISP Is Limiting My Download Speed?
  • Office Design Tips to Increase Productivity
  • How to Find Your Ideal Desk Height
  • Manage Cables with an Old Coiled Phone Cord
  • Something to think about - Where Are You Most Productive When Working at Home? 
• For those who need to be productive while on the go:
  • Check out the best in mobile/portable devices - Laptop Magazine's Best of CES 2011,
  • Five Mobile Productivity Apps for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry
  • Productivity On the Go with Office Web Apps
•  See also:
  • Assign Email a 15-Minute Minimum to Avoid Unnecessary Checking
  • 15 tips to customize Gmail to increase productivity and organization at work

5 tips to help you make the most of your Gmail account

Tweet Google continues to roll out improvements for it's Gmail service. With the many capabilities of Gmail, here are some tips to help you maximize the use of your account:

Priority Inbox - A newly launched feature, Google uses it's spam filtering technology to determine which messages are most important. You can also "train" the filter by using the "+" or "-" buttons in your Priority Inbox to tell Gmail which messages are/ are not important to you.

If you've maxed out the 7GB storage limit on your account, try signing up for a new Gmail account and importing mail from your old account into the new account.

Buzz - Google's foray into location-based social-networking. You can post status updates and share links, photos and videos with other Gmail users. Buzz may also be accessible on your web enabled cell phone.

GMail Plus addressing - A great tool for managing your inbox. You can add a "+" and any combination of words to your Gmail address, i.e., gmailer+mailinglist@gmail.com when signing up for emailing mailing lists. Emails to your "+" address will be delivered to your gmailer@gmail.com inbox but you can label, star, archive or delete using filters for the different versions of your address. This is particularly helpful when a service that has your "+" email address has shared/sold your email address to another mailing list - you can set a filter to auto-delete the unwanted messages.

Multiple account sign-in - Another new feature - if you have more than one Google account (not just Gmail), you can enable multiple sign-in in your settings. The first account that you sign-in to will be the default account for your browser session. You may be signed-in to up to three accounts simultaneously using the same browser session. Caution: if you sign-out of any one account, you will be signed out of all accounts

Now you can use Gmail to make phone calls!

Tweet Google Voice's new "Call Phone" feature in Gmail has been met with much enthusiasm, with users making one million phone calls within the first 24 hours of it's launch!
The "Call Phone" feature enables Google Voice users to call a phone number via their Gmail account, a step up from Google's Voice's existing computer-to-computer voice and video chat service. Google takes the service one step further and allows you to receive calls via Gmail once you have made an initial outgoing call using the service. For Google's tutorial on making and receiving calls with Google Voice, click here.

Calls to the U.S. and Canada using this service are currently free in 2010 but this may change. Google charges users for international calls. A Google Voice account (free in US) must be linked a Gmail account sharing the same username in order to receive phone calls.