Blog

Monday: We woke up to find ourselves on MSN.com! Jott for BlackBerry was also written about on Web Worker Daily

Tuesday: Nothing too exciting happened… just lots of hard work all day.

Wednesday: The monthly newsletter went out and Lifehacker mentioned Jott as one of the Top 10 Tools to Get Blogging Done

Thursday: Customer feedback started coming in from the newsletter. We heard from people on the blog, on Facebook and on Twitter.

Friday: Chloe came to visit!

This week in blog posts from Jotters:

Buttonpresser wrote: Call in a post with Jott.com

Using Blogs in Education wrote: Jott- is it really effective?

Jon the Canadian wrote: Free Friday: Jott

Neverx wrote: Jott Tips

The Color wrote: Jott.com vs twitterfone.com vs. the rest…

Alex Carpenter wrote: Jott.com

Park & Co Advertising wrote: Are you using Jott yet?

The Grizzly Den wrote: Use Jott to Jog Your Brain!

Zakk Forchilli wrote: Jott Beta- Get Simple Back!

Elliot Media Group posted on Jon4lakers.com : What is Jott?

Cheap Office Guy wrote: A new tool- Jott

Clif’s Notes wrote: Jott.com rocks

SBC Ghost Recon wrote: Do you JOTT?

Bill Glick wrote: Rethinking Parent Alert System

Wendy Gauntt’s Tech Zest wrote: Need a quick reminder?

CopyRunStart wrote: Note to self, Try Jott

Hello all,

For about 40 minutes today, some of our customers may have received a notice saying that the Jott number (866) JOTT-123 was invalid. This was due to an outage from one of our telco vendors, effected many companies, and is very rare. We know that many of you use Jott for mission critical applications, so our most sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Again this is a very rare occurrence, but if it does happen in the future, please feel free to try our alternate number (347) 523-8843 which was up and working during the outage. We are working hard here to take all steps possible to minimize these occurrences in the future. Many thanks for your loyalty to Jott. We have the best customers in the world and we hate when something like this happens.

Kind regards,

John Pollard, CEO

Jeff explains Jott…

Don’t want to say “Myself” every time you call to send yourself a Jott message? Have no fear, there is a remarkably easy solution to your predicament- the #1 key on your phone keypad. When you hear the start of “Who do you want to Jott?” just press the 1 key on your phone’s keypad and it will automatically default to sending a Jott message to yourself.

All over the blogosphere this morning are posts about Twitter’s 1% downtime. Many a blogger and microblogger (or at least this one), deemed this downtime as unacceptable- displaying weakness and vulnerability of product. This has got me thinking about why we consider that 1% loss of connectivity such a horrible thing. Admittedly even 1% of downtime might not be good for a company, but is that really why everyone is upset? Or could it be good sign that we are in need of some downtime?

Jott is all about encouraging a simpler pace of life. We’re not here so you can just send more messages to web sites (Twitter, Google Calendar, Amazon) or other people, we want to offer a way that makes the process of staying in-touch easy and takes up less of your time. We hear so many stories from busy Moms and Dads trying juggle life and work, and from mobile professionals who need to offload their thoughts on a meeting so they don’t forget them. We really hope that what we bring to the table isn’t about 100% go-time for these people, but rather a way to quickly unload and go spend time doing other things.

This all brings me back to my original question of downtime being good. If we stopped thinking about 1% of downtime as a missed opportunity to communicate and started thinking about it as getting that time back, that leaves us with 14 extra minutes. In that time you could take a walk, or as the overwhelming consensus at the Jott office appears to be, take a nap.

So how about it… you’ve got 14 minutes now to do whatever it is you’d like, away from the computer and networking sites and cell phones- what would you do?

1439: Johann Gutenberg invents the printing press.

1775:The United States Post office is born.

1860: The Pony Express starts delivering mail.

1876: Alexander Graham Bell submits his telephone patent.

1952: Bell Lab. introduces Automated Speech Recognition.

1965: Email is born.

1983: Motorola releases 1st FCC approved mobile phone.

1989: The first text message is sent.

2006: John and Shree start Jott.

Today over at The Growing Life there is a great post about productivity articles. It’s good to have a laugh at yourself sometimes and the author does a great job of poking fun at, and raising some valid points about, the GTD world and its recent popularity. Per the post’s advice, I started this off with a picture of someone jumping. Why someone jumping? You’ll have to read the post to find out.

This week in blog posts from Jotters:

Scott Brewer wrote Jott.com

The Slow Lane wrote: Jott

Influential Interactive Marketing Blog wrote: Plse Forgiv Typoes- Jott Fights Terse Reply Syndrome

Sonig.org Fun Links wrote Jott- Use your voice to schedule!

Alex Alexander wrote Jott Yourself

Chasing Change wrote Who would you like to Jott?

EasyChurchMedia wrote: The importance of staying up-to-date…

Live The Active Life: Planning Out My Century Ride

Palabras de Deb wrote: My new best friend

Eclettico wrote: Jott- Voice to Text

Dot Connector wrote: How to Never Forget Anything Again

Lifehack had an interesting post the other day about taking time back in your work day, something I think most of us struggle with. Ever since I started my adventure of the empty inbox and have been books like Lifehacker’s Upgrade Your Life,  I’ve realized that emails can often be my biggest time waster. Think about it…

You get one unclear email, which leads to you responding with follow up questions, which leads to another email, which leads to your actual response to the original email now that you have all the data, which leads to a reply from that person, and it keeps going and going and going. This is what I like to call of the dreaded Email Cycle of Overload. Everyone is guilty of it (admit it, you’ve sent at least one unclear email in your life), and it causes everyone’s email inbox to overflow with emails that answer no questions, make no points and serve no purpose.

How you can help:

1) Use bullet points or numbers to call out important points
This helps organize your message and allows for easy reading.  If you can’t come up with a single one, rethink sending that email.

2) Practice sending emails with your voice
 I know I know, I’m biased, but it really does help! When you have to construct a message in 30 seconds over the phone, it teaches you to get right to your point.

3) Reread your message
Before you send your email, ask yourself if you were the recipient if you would get the information you need to convey out of your message.

4) Thank you
This is the only exception I’ve found to the email cycle. Maybe it’s just me, but I always appreciate a thank you email.