Keyboard Karma Blog ~ Helen Crozier

What is the 'cloud'?

 

photo: Code Poet

You might be seeing a lot of the term 'cloud computing' in your travels but aren't completely sure what that means. It is purely a rather nice name for any software or service that you use which is online rather than downloaded solely to your computer. For instance if you use Google Mail, Calendar, Documents you are 'in the cloud'. If you use Microsoft Outlook for mail, calendar and Microsoft Office for document work you are not 'in the cloud'.

Why the shift to cloud computing? It's the portability that sells it. It's the notion that you don't need to be chained to the computer at your desk to get work done. If you work in the cloud you can leave that cumbersome laptop behind and roam as free as a bird because you can check in on a computer at your client's office, the local library, or even on your iPhone/Blackberry etc.

There are thousands and thousands of cloud sites clamouring to be your online support system helping you with task/project management, customer relationship management, billing, etc. The choice is daunting but thankfully there are also many helpful sites and people (such as yours truly) that do the legwork for you - testing, reviewing and writing.

Would it make your life easier if you sent your business to the sky?

Inbox Zero is sticking!

 

If it takes 30 days to make a 'habit' I'm so close that I'm nearly cracking out the champers for this one! I've tried lots of systems and tools in the past but to be honest after 2-3 weeks those systems and tools start to wear thin and the backlog builds up. THIS TIME seems different and the reason is clear. I have some serious synchronisation going on - where ever I'm working. Previously I was downloading emails into Outlook because it was my preferred method of dealing with email. I tried and liked Taglocity for sorting the emails and putting them into folders but it truly wasn't the simplest system around. More and more frequently I was finding myself out and about and needing to deal with emails - yes I could read and answer emails on the iPhone but then when I got home the emails would be downloaded again into the desktop. Double handling (yuck) and I didn't have the facility to be able to sort the emails into their appropriate folders.

Now since I've signed up to Google Apps for my domain all that has changed. This costs $50US per year to host and what a bargain. Sometimes it's a little fiddly to set up but once it's done you are in for a treat. I collect all my email into one google email bucket (personal and business). I can use google's coloured labels which replicate in Outlook as 'folders'. I'm going for minimal folders however to keep it simple:-
@action
@data entry
@print
@read
@reply
@waiting.

I then have a folder for each of my top 5 projects and one for expenses (which probably isn't necessary - I could do a 'search' for invoice, receipt and that would bring up all emails accordingly - it just feels safer!)

Now here's the great thing. Whenever I handle an email in any of the three places - Outlook, Google Mail or the iPhone a magical synchronisation happens and I never have to double handle anything!! If I have spare time and I'm with my iPhone I can check AND process email at the same time - either replying or filing or reading and deleting. When I'm at my desk and feel like a bit of Outlook work I can get in there and click on the @reply folder and knock of some answers to people. Finally if I'm on anyone else's computer I can log into gmail and work from there.

To think we had to deal with Microsoft Exchange etc before this was happening - at a cost of thousands of dollars... (Of course calendars, contacts and documents are also available to work with in this way.... bliss) I'm putting together documentation on how to put this all together very soon so stay tuned!