Posts tagged productivity

Blogging On My iPad with Blogsy App


One of the biggest challenges in becoming a successful blog author and publisher is to figure out ways of integrating that actual sitting down and writing a blog post into your daily workflow.

And usually, producing posts take longer than your really think it will take, at least when you’re first starting out – mostly for the little things that add up like formatting, making sure you have appropriate graphics or photos accompanying each posts, etc.

This is why with my coaching clients, we spend a lot of time upfront trying to reduce the friction in getting things out of the blogger’s head and into the computer. If you can solve that ongoing battle for your time and attention’ you are in a for a great blogging experience. The question is just how can you do that?

So I was very happy to hear about the Blogsy app for iPad the other week. The developer was kind enough to let me take the app for a spin for this review and so far I’m impressed.

Blogsy blog editor app on iPad

This just might do the trick for my writing praxis while I am out and about with my iPad.

Out of the gate, there are a couple of things I really appreciate about the Blogsy app. Here are 3 of them:

  • You can easily search for video/images on Flickr, Picassa, YouTube, or even search on the web for images — all right from inside the app. This is a huge time saver since on the iPad, you would normally have to jump out of the app, launch a new one, find the image or video, copy paste the copy for it and then go back to the writing application. You don’t understand the convenience until you do it yourself with Blogsy.

    I do wish Blogsy supports Vimeo soon. It seems like it is on the to-do list to add for new capabilities by the developer. But at least you can use the in-app browser to go to vimeo.com and grab the HTML embed code.

  • You can manipulate any inline embeded image and video size via pinch and zoom. Again, one less hassle which actually takes advantage of the iPad platform touch screen controls.
  • Multiple blogs support. Anyone that is a serious bloger is more likely to have multiple blogs. Having access to all of them from one app is a treat. . .especially when I am on a trip, I won’t have to consider bringing my laptop or not. This makes my iPad just that more productive while I am traveling or out of the office for extended periods of time.

Blogsy just got updated to version 2.0 this week, and I have seen a couple of crashes, but I assume these will be addressed in the coming weeks by the developer.

I have written a couple of drafts already in Blogsy, but this is my first live blog posting by the actual Blogsy app itself.

I will be blogging more about Blogsy 2.0 and beyond as I continue to use it, especially on an upcoming international trip where I will certainly ditch my laptop for the iPad (actually, with TeamViewer, I will be able to use my laptop on my iPad remotely just in case, but that is another blog post).

Are you a blogger with an iPad? How do you write and publish blog posts on your iPad? Please leave a comment below!

Email Super Powers


Are you being slayed by your inbox or are you successfully slaying your inbox?

There’s a big difference between the two.  Productivity these days goes to those who understand how to manage their email inboxes effectively.

People have tons of different approaches and strategies to win the war on the overflowing email account that we all deal with in today’s world.

Check out some of the neat little tips for becoming more proactive and productive with respect to your email life on The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur’s site.

While you’re there, can you spot MY TIP amongst that list? ;-)   That’s right, Michael Michalowicz featured my contribution on the site.

How To Get Your Weather Forecast By Email


Ok, so my last attempt to predict the weather daily didn’t really work out.

Here’s a better way to know what the weather is going to be like without turning on the radio or tv and waiting for the weatherman to come on.  No opening up a web browser either to go check a weather website like www.weather.com or www.accuweather.com (my fav), etc.

I simply have the weather report emailed to me every morning right before I get up each day.  That way when I check my email on my cell phone or computer, I have a quick weather report snapshot for the whole week.

weather-alerts-by-email

What I like about this service is that there a bunch of options available like which days you want the weather report emails, what time of day for each delivery, if you want severe weather alerts, and if you want a 2nd weather forecast sent to you later during the day (perhaps before you go to bed?) too, etc.

It’s just a one-page sign-up form and you’re all set.  Your own personal weatherman via email!

Do you use any other service to get the weather?  Share them below in the comments. . .