Tools I Use

Your time is MONEY, even though it doesn't come out of your pocket, it still represents a considerable investment.

One very successful entrepreneur once remarked that it would take about 1,000 hours to be just reasonably competent in virtually any activity or subject and 5,000 to reach the "master" stage.

How much time have you invested in your on-line business? Can you really come back with an accurate answer, or would you just be guessing?

TimeTechnix® http://www.timetechnix.com

From this moment forward, there's no need to guess. I've discovered a free tool that can keep track of your time. TimeTechnix® is a simple time keeper for tracking time worked on a project. It automatically saves your work time every minute, so you don't have to worry about loosing any data.

It will time out when there is no activity after 5 minutes (no mouse clicks or keyboard actions).

This tool permits you to track multiple projects, and I'd suggest that you be ruthlessly honest with yourself when you set it up to use. Set up one project for your online business (several, if you have more than one), another for "recreational" web surfing, and other personal or business categories which you can only decide for yourself.

Form a habit of changing your "project" when you realize that you're no longer doing what you first set it to track. Then you won't fool yourself into thinking that you've spent an hour "researching" your affiliate business, when you get sidetracked into pursuing a branch of your family tree, some game, or something else that distracts you.

After awhile you may be surprised at where you really spend your time. Then it is up to you to decide if you want to continue using your time in that way, or to make an effort to change to something you prefer more.

This is entirely a personal decision. I'm not judging what you're spending your time on -- that's up to you. But the point is that if you are spending a lot of time doing something which is NOT taking you to some goal that you have set for yourself, the only person you can blame for not reaching your objective is yourself unless you use your new knowlege to change your ways.

Up until now you may not have had an easy way of tracking your time. Now you do. If you're determined to improve your life, then use this tool to do it. It's free, and you can download it from http://www.timetechnix.com Tell 'em Joe sent you (just kidding).

Note Tab

http://www.notetab.com

This is a text editor -- NotePad replacement which I use almost constantly. It comes in three versions, a free light version, a standard version and a professional version.

The free version is so complete that I've had little reason to consider the paid versions except for pure guilt. The paid versions are so inexpensive, that you may have paid more for a demo version of some programs.

I use Note Tab to copy data from web pages I'm researching. It has a capture function which allows you to simply select text in your browser and copy it to an open file of your choice. Note Tab is smart enough to distinguish links from ordinary text and will copy the link instead of the text you see -- if you want it to.

I also use it to create or edit web pages. It has a full slate of features for editing and writing HTML but it is not a WYSIWYG tool. You can preview your creations on your favorite web browser, but your actual work is done in plain text and you'll need to be familiar with HTML, but not necessarily an expert.

This page, on the tools I use was created simply as a plain text item to start and then I clicked on a button to convert it to HTML. Voila ... I now had a basic web page ready to enhance. Then, using the HTML clipbooks I simply added some of the enhancements which have produced this page you're now reading.

It has a rich keyboard macro programing capability and will sort lines, change case, modify fonts, convert documents to or from HTML, count your words, or characters, and do a hundred other things that I really haven't had the time to master.

You'll find it at http://www.notetab.com

Star Office http://www.sun.com/staroffice

If you're looking for a full featured, complete office suite bundle of software, compatible with Microsoft Office and yet don't have the money or refuse to spend what it takes to purchase a licence from Microsoft you might want to consider Star Office.

This is no longer a free suite of software but it is still relatively low-prices and supported by Sun Microsystems and includes WordProcessor, Charting, Web Browser, E-Mail, Presentation Tools, Spread Sheet and others, most of which are compatible and capable of reading and writing to Microsoft Formats.

If you've got various computers and need the capacity once in a while in one machine but don't want to pay to install an expensive paid-for version of Microsoft's software yet need compatibility, this might be an alternative worth considering. I used in working with material switching between a home and office computer where I couldn't justify buying two licences.

It's a hugh download, the last version I think was 80 MB but a CD version is available for a low cost. You may even find a local dealer who is authorized to give you a CD version for the cost of burning a disk.

For more information or to download the package, go to: http://www.sun.com/staroffice