There is an absolutely wonderful new technology tool - Jott! Using Jott, you can send text messages and/or reminders to yourself or others, create lists of things to do and schedule appointments - all with speech recognition. Now for the best part: this tool is free!
Jott works with Google Calendars, but not with Outlook or Outlook Web Acess. I spent a good amount of time finding a way to make it work, and now it is running very efficiently and effortlessly. I have used this in recruiting demonstrations to illustrate how Real Living is light years beyond our competition in terms of our use of technology, and it is not that hard to set up. Here are my setp-by-step instructions:
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Go to jott.com and setup an account using your cell phone number.
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Program Jott as one of you contacts/memorized numbers in your cell phone.
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Call Jott and send yourself a reminder, just for practice. For detailed instructions, watch the demo on Jott.com
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Configure your PDA/Cell Phone to sync with Outlook Web Access (the Real Living Mail Server - see the QRG.)
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Setup Outlook to run on a computer that is normally connected to the internet. Be sure that it is set to NOT remove everything from the mail server (unless that's what you want) and that it syncs your calendars. Set it to sync/check mail every 15 minutes or so - whatever you want. This is also the frequency your calendar will be updated.
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Setup a Google Calendar account. Just go to Google.com and create an account if you don't have one.
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Now we have to sync your Outlook (local) and Google calendars - then when Outlook syncs with OWA, everything will be together.
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Go to CalGoo.com and download the CalGoo Connect utility. This software syncs the local Outlook calendar with your Google Calendar - it needs to run in the background on the same machine that is running Outlook. Follow the instructions to download and setup the program.
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The last step is to tell Jott to work with your Google Calendar. Login to jott.com and follow the instructions for setting-up the Jott Link for Google Calendar.
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TEST TIME: call Jott. When asked, "Who would you like to Jott?", answer, "Google Calendar." Record a message like, "Lunch with Phil at 12:30 PM tomorrow." Wait for Jott to say, "Got it!" A few minutes later (depending on the sync schedule you chose in Step 5), the appointment will appear in OWA and on your cell phone/PDA!
Jott has become my new personal assistant! I've even imported contacts from Outlook and created a Jott distribution list for my agents. I can call Jott, leave the message for my agents, and Jott sends it out as a text message to every agent in a matter of minutes. Great for announcements!
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