Top 5 Work/Life Productivity Tools

I'm a fan of gadgets and web apps but only those that make my life easier. Email is a great tool, but as we have seen with information overload, in immature hands it can cause unneeded stress.

Here are some great tools that will make put your work/life back on balance.

• Problem - When scheduling a meeting, people send an email blast to 10 others asking when they are available. You get 20 replies for a simple meeting request. Sometimes — not everyone “replies all”. Solution - Meeting Wizard. It's simple to use, requires no download, and is free for basic service.
• Problem - Your RSS reader seems to expand indefinitely and that's after spending hours each day reading it. Solution: AideRSS. Subscribe to this RSS filter and it delivers only the posts that are causing a stir online. The assumption is that if people aren’t talking about it, you probably don’t need to know about it.
• Problem - you get dirty looks when you answer your phone in a public place or have to wade through countless voicemails to get to a specific one to write down Uncle John's new number. Solution. Callwave - Currently free while in Beta, the web app effectively connects your cell phone and PC to help you manage your communications online. The best part is when you get an SMS text message to your phone that parses out the important content of a new voicemail. You have to see this to believe it! "Text is the new voicemail."
• Problem - your IE browser is not secure, keeps on crashing, has terrible support of standard web technology , and you just don't want to support the beast. Solution: Firefox. Join over a third of the web community -- AKA "those in the know" and just install it already. Here is our pre-emptive "your welcome".
• Problem - You are tired of spending a couple hundred dollars each year for business productivity software that crashes and contains features you rarely use, and again just don't want to support the beast. Solution - Google Apps. They really are "powerful communication and collaboration tools for your organization without the usual hassle and cost." With the saved money, go ahead and buy yourself some cute socks.