Inside eProductivity Blog Home Page

I've posted about the new Gmail Priority Inbox over on the "Notes on Productivity" blog. Did you know that Notes has had a similar inbox style available for almost 10 years? Find out more.

Mark Hughes is the Lotus Notes developer behind the ITANA app that makes it possible to access Lotus Notes tasks, Journal entries, and more from an iPhone or Android device.

The iPhone is notorious in productivity circles for not having a native task application. This makes syncing the iPhone to desktop task managment software like Lotus Notes to be a challenge at best. Mark's ITANA application could be a solution to this gapping need in being productive with the iPhone. Plus, his solution works on Android.

Mark has contacted us about getting eProductivity to work with his solution and there has been progress on that front. He wrote a blog post today called Manage eProductivity Projects & Actions on your iPhone and Android. He's got a few screenshots there that show what he's been working on, including this one:

Head on over to Mark's blog to see more screenshots and ITANA information.

Jens Bruntt has posted a sneak preview from the upcoming eProductivity 2.x version. This new version builds on the power of Lotus Notes 8.51 and enables a host of new features. eProductivity 2.x is currently in beta and open to current customers. Contact us if you'd like to join and if you meet the qualifications.

Excerpt from Jen's post:

I would like to show a couple of new features from the coming Lotus Notes 8-enabled eProductivity template.

Save and Add Another
There is now a "Save and Add Another" button available when you're creating or editing an Action. See the illustration below:

This action button makes it easier to plan a project where you know that there will be a number of actions involved. What you do is you create an action. When the form is filled in, you click the Save and Add Another button. This saves/closes the Action and then brings you to a new Action form that you can then fill in. And this of course can be repeated for as many actions as needed.

Very handy. I definately can use use it. I often know need to add two-three actions in a row.

Continue reading the rest of the preview on Jen's blog

At this year's Lotusphere, IBM Lotus VP of messaging and collaboration, Kevin Cavanaugh presented the Technology Keynote. Kevin talked about the Lotus product strategy, roadmap, and of course, Project Vulcan.

Kevin discussed how Lotus applications bring a flood of information to the user, and he pointed out a key problem that this can cause: information overload.

"... we don't need more calendars... we need a way to consolidate and adjudicate between competing events. ... we don't need more ways to capture text; we need ways to reduce the stress of unfulfilled commitments and organize tasks for action... As an industry, we're kind of guilty of multiplying lists, with no real method for how those lists of tasks might be managed. However, there are some great counter-examples..."

Kevin proceeded to talk about David Allen's Getting Things Done® (GTD®) Methodology and how eProductivity is a solution developed by Lotus Business Partner Eric Mack and David Allen to 'GTD Enable' Lotus Notes. (See the video for more).

On a related note, one theme that came out of Lotusphere was how CIOs feel that they've extracted all the cost cutting value they can from IT budgets. There's not much left to pare down. CIOs are instead focusing on making workers more productive. (Read the conversation transcript at Escape Velocity, a blog by Nathan T. Freeman)

Lotus has introduced many new improvements and enhancements to their products that can help, but at the end of the day, value creation ultimately happens at the individual level. It's at this level - increasing personal productivity - that the next great opportunity exists.

With that in mind, it's exciting to see Lotus exploring ways to increase worker productivity. One way they're doing that is by looking beyond Lotus software to the best practices of GTD and software tools like eProductivity that complement Lotus offerings and help users get things done.

Teamstudio recently announced the winners of their 2010 Spotlight Awards. This is the 3rd year of the contest, which was "created to raise awareness of how creative, relevant, and effective Lotus Notes application can be."

Each award applicant is judged by a panel of industry experts.

We're very pleased to see eProductivity win 3rd place in the contest, and we have the shiny award plaque to prove it! Recognition for eProductivity's excellence is appreciated.

A big thanks goes to Teamstudio for this organizing this contest. Hat tip as well to the other well-deserving winners, Response Tracker and Notes Reconn.

IBM announced a new Lotus Solutions catalog today, and eProductivity is one of the featured apps. Also cool was seeing eProductivity featured during Kevin Cavanaugh and Mike Masterson's Business Development Day session here at Lotusphere. You can see some pictures over at the Notes on Productivity blog.

Here is a screenshot of eProductivity's featured product page (click to go to the page):

Lotus Knows has been running since 8am this morning. Already 400+ ideas, 5500+ votes cast, and 825+ comments posted as I write this.

A better email system in Notes has been a hot topic. People are clearly fed up with having cluttered inboxes that nag at them all day long. Here at eProductivity, we get excited about helping people gain control over a rowdy inbox and it's always great to hear stories of people going from inbox chaos to inbox zero by using eProductivity. It'll be interesting to see the solutions the Lotus community suggests for relieving the email burden.

Continue Reading ""Lotus Knows" ideas for a better Notes" »

Last week, Bilal Jeffrey of IBM announced an upcoming IdeaJam session called Lotus Knows. I'm excited about this Jam because it's squarely focused on Lotus Notes end-users.

IBM has had the reputation of focusing their marketing on large companies and IT departments. But IBM seems to be working hard on changing up their game plan and focusing on the end user. This IdeaJam is another step in that direction.

As has been well-publicized in many other places, companies are finding out that end users now drive the adoption of new technology. Ending quickly are the old days of the IT department dictating completely what technology tools their employees can use. The top-down approach is leaky.

Employees, especially younger ones, have expectations that they can use whatever technology tools appeal the most to them. They tend to figure out ways to get their hands on these tools, and perhaps more importantly, they tend to tell their friends about their tools.

Tapping into the viral power of "my buddy says 'xyz tool rocks!'" is crucial. Lotus Notes could use a few more end users talking about how cool Notes is. As a company that makes an individual productivity tool for Notes, eProductivity could use a few more end users talking up the hipness of Notes.

So yes, I'm excited about Lotus Knows  I plan on dropping by frequently over the 3-day Jam span.

And remember, this is a public event, so you can join in too. Register at http://lotusknows.ideajam.net/register

Fortune Small Business section of CNN Money Magazine published an article today on David Allen, entitled Getting Things Done guru goes digital. The writer, Chris Taylor, briefly touches on David's productivity toolkit of Lotus Notes + eProductivity + smartphone:

Allen currently uses a customized version of IBM's Lotus Notes for PC, which he calls his e-productivity suite. It syncs automatically with his phone, so he can add notes on the go. Allen isn't planning to commercialize e-productivity anytime soon, though. And he's wary of most to-do-list software on the market.

Chris gets it  mostly right. What he refers to as Mr. Allen's "e-productivity suite", you know as eProductivity. He's right that it's highly customized - to make you especially productive- but it's certainly also commercialized for public sale.

Finally, he's correct that "David is wary of most to-do-list software." That's understandable because most to-do-list software applications just don't "get" the fundamental principles of task management at the personal level. That's why out of the hundreds of to-do-list apps, there are only two that have been vetted and certified as "GTD-Enabled." We're pleased to be one of them.

And we're definitely pleased to be mentioned in CNN Money.

P.S. Hey Chris, if you happen to read this, we'll even let you take eProductivity for a spin through a special program we've set up. Contact me directly and I'll give you a free activation key.