productivity tools needed: how to optimize the following daily routine tasks?

[networm]

Hi all,

This might be a little bit not completely tablet pc and Outlook office
related... but since the tablet pc and office outlook guys are most
productivity-aware, I want to seek your advice here:

What are the best productivity tools for the following daily routine tasks?

1. Bank & other bill pays. We have many accounts and many bills they all due
at different dates... they all involve log on to the same website and input
username and passwords and then do some payment, etc. These occurs
periodically. I kept forgot my due dates and keep getting fined/charges. Is
there a way to automate these things so that these can be done
automatically? Even our school websites need a lot of logon and logoff, etc.

2. Computer job automation. This relates to item 1, but in a broader sense,
not neccessarily web-based. Might be just a computer job that needs to be
automated. For example, recently I have to send an ad to our local newsgroup
to sell my laptop. I have to keep sending the same ad every 1 or 2 days in
order to attract eyeballs. I use outlook express for this job.

3. News aggregation. I use both nntp from within outlook express for local
newsgroups and web-based MS and google newsgroups. After I post a messge, I
have to get back and see the discussion on my threads. Sometimes there is no
reply at all. Sometimes there are so many other posts so my thread gets
washed away easily, so I have to search it out and bring it back for me.
These are small time spendings but day and day and over the years, they
become very much time wasting... and there is no easy way to save the whole
discussion on one thrread in a beautiful way...

Thanks a lot!

 

[John Blessing]

Hi all,

This might be a little bit not completely tablet pc and Outlook office
related... but since the tablet pc and office outlook guys are most
productivity-aware, I want to seek your advice here:

What are the best productivity tools for the following daily routine
tasks?

1. Bank & other bill pays. We have many accounts and many bills they all
due at different dates... they all involve log on to the same website and
input username and passwords and then do some payment, etc. These occurs
periodically. I kept forgot my due dates and keep getting fined/charges.
Is there a way to automate these things so that these can be done
automatically? Even our school websites need a lot of logon and logoff,
etc.

Don't you have direct debit mandates in your country? i.e. you authorise the
relevant supplier to debit your account automatically.

--
John Blessing

http://www.LbeHelpdesk.com - Help Desk software priced to suit all
businesses
http://www.room-booking-software.com - Schedule rooms & equipment bookings
for your meeting/class over the web.
http://www.lbetoolbox.com - Remove Duplicates from MS Outlook

 

[Chris H.]

I may rely on Windows and my Internet connection to get me there, but:

1. Done through my credit union account, using their secure software online
and not running around to various sites to make payments. They
electronically make the payments when I designate to whom I've indicated
payment is due, and I can set the payments as "one time" or recurring.

2. Again, done online with the local newspaper's web site and their
designation of what date(s) I want it to run. Generally, a three-day spread
of ads is less expensive than repeated single-day. Other than Windows to
access their software, nothing is resident on my machine.

3. I use Outlook Express as my news reader, subscribe to 12 different
public and private NNTP news servers, and avoid web-based interfaces as much
as possible. Anyone can subscribe to the Microsoft NNTP newsgroups of their
choice (unless you're blocked for security reasons by your employer) by
creating an account in your news reader for the msnews.microsoft.com news
server. There's no logon, no password, and it is free. It'll give you the
choice of only viewing unread messages (Hide Read Messages, in OE), tracking
various threads, highlighting your own posts in various colors, and you can
generally synchronize the polling of the newsgroups with the same time as
you check your emails so new posts come to you instead of looking for them.
This even works with Outlook 2003 (my email program) and Outlook Express.
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone -