Jott And Vitalist - The Perfect Combination

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with RealSatisfied

Jott has turned out to be a great tool... but not for blogging.

legal pad to-do listBack in March, I wrote about Jott in a post entitled Jott: My Head Is Spinning With Ideas And later that day we launched The Jottblog Experiment to test how well Jott would work to create "in the moment" blog posts, and a second post was written... Show Me What You Jott, Baby!

What transpired as a result of The Jottblog Experiment was a change I thought I'd never see.

I have been keeping my to-do lists on yellow legal pads for almost 20 years. In fact, over those 20 years, I've had the exact same routine, broken only momentarily by failed attempts to move my to-do list to the computer. I could never find a system that allowed me the same level of spontenaiety that paper and pen gave me.

The routine was simple.

If the to-do list got full, I'd rewrite my list, leaving off the things that were scratched through and adding the new to-do items that were now scribbled on the list. It helped me to focus on the tasks yet to be done. Sometimes it reminded me of how much I had accomplished and sometimes how much I did not accomplish. And I still have every page of those to-do lists. I often referred back to those sheets of paper to remember a phone number or to recall a name. I could never have dreamed of changing that system. As much as I love digital, when it came to to-do lists, it was all analog, all the time. 

Then came Jott and Vitalist. I wrote the following over at The Jottblog Experiment on April 22... 

    "Vitalist and Jott might be the perfect combination of two websites. I am just beginning to test this but i found a great article that I was pointed to last night in a link from Technorati from Jott’s website that is just making sense so lets see how that it all works. I have been testing this for the past few days and I like it a great deal. I first read about the possibilities at Shainemata.net in a post entitled, 'Jott-alist.'"

vitalist logoLiking it a great deal turned into getting rid of my 20 year old way of making to-do lists. Jott allows me to add things to my Vitalist to-do list while I'm in the car or when and idea pops in my head, and the Vitalist email address allows me to forward emails that need action to my to do list. I also gave my Vitalist email address to my team members and my wife, so they could add important items to my to-do list for me.

And I don't miss the paper. Because each morning I print out my Vitalist to-do list and take it with me. It has allowed me to keep all of the benefits of my old system and marry them with more efficient digital methods. After 20 years, I've given up the legal pad. I really thought that would never happen.

Today, the Vitalist Blog referenced The Jottblog Experiment.Their post is entitled Voice New Actions To your Vitalist Account with Jott. It gives the three required steps to get up and running with Jott and Vitalist. 

Check it out. 

 

Comments (80)

Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
Ryan... while you're checking out Vitalist, be sure to check out Rememberthemilk.com as well. It's much improved since my first visits. 
Jun 14, 2007 06:05 PM
Ryan Hukill - Edmond
ShowMeOKC Real Estate Pros of KW Elite - Edmond, OK
Realtor, Team Lead
I'll definitely do that Jeff! Thanks again.
Jun 15, 2007 02:22 AM
Ginger S
Wilkinson & Associates, Wilmington NC - Wilmington, NC
Wilmington NC Real Estate & Relocation~

Jeff, Thanks for the info about the group setup. I wil take a look at that . The possibilities are endless!

Ginger

 

Jun 15, 2007 05:52 AM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
Ginger... my pleasure.
Jun 15, 2007 08:13 AM
Ginger S
Wilkinson & Associates, Wilmington NC - Wilmington, NC
Wilmington NC Real Estate & Relocation~

Jeff, What I love about the Jott is they continue to send you a daily email about the things you jotted until you delete it!

This is also perfect for when I am on the beach and have a light bulb moment.

The other night by the standing by the sea, my head spinning with thought and ideas...make good blog fodder I thought...Well I totally lost them all before I got home. Next time I will JOTT it!

Love this new cool tool! It's JOTTerrific!

Ginger

Jun 15, 2007 09:11 AM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
Ginger, that is exactly why I like it. This makes me smile!
Jun 15, 2007 10:19 AM
Katrina Madewell
Charles Rutenberg Rlty- More than 5,000 agents(813) 777-1196 - Tampa, FL
Tampa FL Homes for sale | Tampa Bay - (813) 777-1196
WOW i have used JOTT, I'll have to check out VITALIST  ~thanks Jeff
Jun 15, 2007 09:21 PM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
Katrina, it's a great combination of services.
Jun 16, 2007 01:34 AM
Dana Bostick
True Professionals, Inc. - North Hollywood, CA

For those of you who just can't let go of the paper here's an alternate solution.  Electronic paper!  Use Microsoft OneNote on a TabletPC and all your handwritten notes are saved and SEARCHABLE!  They can be backed up, archived, printed out, forwarded to someone else, converted to PDF's, put on a website.  Just think of the possibilities. They can also be organized into "notebooks" for each listing.  Each notebook can have ALL the data imported into it so everything is in one place and descrete from all the other hundreds of pages of junk you collect throughout the day.  Items can be created in OneNote, scanned in, clipped from a web page, imported as a digital picture.  There's really no limit.  Dump the paper, save a tree! LOL

You can still hand write your notes, just do it on the Tablet.  I've been doing it for some time now and it works great.

Jun 16, 2007 05:37 AM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
Dana... thank you. That's an excellent suggestion for those with a tablet pc!
Jun 16, 2007 10:00 AM
Joyce Heffner-Williams
Keller Williams Clients' Choice Realty - Monument, CO
Owner/Broker/EcoBroker - Monument Real Estate

Wow!  I have always done/thought the same thing.
I am going to give this a try. 

Writing it down now...

Jun 16, 2007 01:26 PM
Dana Bostick
True Professionals, Inc. - North Hollywood, CA

Update:

There is also a "new" OneNote Toy!  It's called "One Note SideNote".  A little icon sits in the system tray (by the clock) Click it and up pops a little note field to write in.  It sends the note to a special folder in OneNote where you can then drag it to where it's needed.

Dana

Jun 16, 2007 01:38 PM
Marie Kletke
iNet Realty - Long Beach, CA
Broker - Long Beach Real Estate

Dana, - This is the One One that comes with Office 2007, right?  Thanks for providing another avenue for organizing my thoughts!  I wondered what that icon was for.

Jeff- I registered and finally got JOTT and Vitalist working together.  Gotta input stuff now.  What a great tool! We are being charged for the 800 calls, right?  Any idea what that amounts to on a per minute or per 6 second basis?  Whatever the cost is, it is worth it to have organized thoughts.

Jun 16, 2007 05:31 PM
Dana Bostick
True Professionals, Inc. - North Hollywood, CA

Marie - Yes, that's the one.  There are lots of "toys" for OneNote.  Clipping tool is handy, Send to OneNote from IE and Outlook add-on for the right click menu to name a few.

I've found the easiest way to create notebooks is via Windows Explorer.  (hit the windows key and "E" for a speed key shortcut)  Dig down to "My Notebook" under My Documents.  Highlight the My Notbook folder, go to the File menu, select "New>folder and name it.  Create as many new folders as you need and they will show up in OneNote next time you open it.

Dana

Jun 16, 2007 05:55 PM
Sandi Bauman
Chico Homes Real Estate - Chico, CA
Chico CA Realtor
Hmmm....  my stomach flip flops just THINKING of giving up my yellow pad.  But I'm all for innovation, so of course I will be checking it out.  Thanks!
Jun 17, 2007 06:49 AM
Dana Bostick
True Professionals, Inc. - North Hollywood, CA
I got it working!!  I've now hooked Jott to Vitalist "Action" items and set up the iCal function to post my To Do's to my Google calendar.  SWEET!
Jun 17, 2007 07:17 AM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
Great additions to this discussion everyone! Thank you!
Jun 18, 2007 03:56 AM
John Occhi
Mason Real Estate - Temecula, CA
SRES,CPRES.ePRO - Temecula-Murrieta CA Real Estate
This looks like a great technology that I will have to explore further.  What is going through my head is transaction checklists as well as keeping up with marketing tasks.

John
Jun 23, 2007 06:20 AM
Dana Bostick
True Professionals, Inc. - North Hollywood, CA
Just an update on the Jott>Vitalist>Google calendar route.  Still working great.  When I complete a task (Action) I go to My Vitalist page and mark it off.  Within a few minuets, the Google calendar updates and removes it.
Jun 23, 2007 06:47 AM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA

John... it's worth testing, that's for sure. 

Dana... thanks for coming back in here and sharing your experiences. It helps a great deal. 

Jun 23, 2007 03:14 PM

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