Two Tech Tools

I’m always on the lookout for tools that make life easier or more productive. Here are two. I found one recently, and the other one I’ve been using for a while now.

Sanebox

I can relate to what this New York Times writer says about email:

This month alone, I received more than 6,000 e-mails. That doesn’t include spam, notifications or daily deals, either. With all those messages, I have no desire to respond to even a fraction of them. I can just picture my tombstone: Here lies Nick Bilton, who responded to thousands of e-mails a month. May he rest in peace.

Email drives me crazy. Rules and filters help, but it’s hard to keep up. I recently came across Sanebox, which does a lot of the work for you:

SaneBox filters your Inbox. We separate emails that you must deal with right away from ones that can wait at least a couple of hours. And we do it automatically with no fuss and bother. All you have to do is click twice and eventually pay us some money.

So far so good. It’s like having somebody separate all the flyers and junk mail from the stuff that actually matters. They give you a free trial, so you may want to check it out. I don’t get any affiliate fees; it’s just because I think it’s a helpful service.

IFTTT

IFTTT stands for “If This, Then That.”

You can set a trigger (the “if this” part) based on almost anything on the internet: the weather, a Google Reader post, something on Twitter or Facebook. This will cause a certain action to be taken. If you don’t know where to start, you can simply use recipes that other people have created. For instance:

• When Facebook profile picture changes, update Twitter profile picture.

• Thank people in Twitter when they mention you or RT

• Text you the weather every morning

• Send starred items in Google Reader to Evernote

The possibilities are almost endless. It’s a great free service, and you can’t lose giving this one a try.