Using Your iPod Touch or IPhone to Improve Your Time Management

Using Your iPod Touch or IPhone to Improve Your Time Management
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Time Management Features of the iPod Touch

The iPod Touch provides a number of features to help you with your time management. As supplied, the major time management applications are the built in calendar application, a contacts database and a notes facility

The calendar application provides the facility to keep track of your commitments and engagements. The facilities are quite limited but the functionality is provided in a very convenient and user friendly form. Audible reminders are available for appointments. The contacts database can help you keep in touch with your customers and contacts, and includes the ability to store phone numbers, email, photos, web addresses as well as physical addresses.

These days you may end up with a web-based calendar such as Google Calendar, a local calendar on your home computer (for example, Outlook) and a calendar on your iPhone. It is important to synchronise your calendars, or you will end up missing appointments, or double booking yourself in different calendars.

The notes facility is again quite limited but provides the basis of a “to do” list.

There is a stopwatch and timer function within the clock section. You can use these to ensure that activities are not taking excessive amounts of time. Additionally, if you need to check the local time of a customer or a contact in a different time zone, you can do that, too.

If you are within the range of a wifi service, additional features become available: you can access your email on the move, or access the Internet via the inbuilt Safari browser. This means that for example if you are out and about and have access to a coffee shop with free wifi you don’t have to return home to check or send your emails. If you get lost, you can use the maps function to get you to your next appointment.

And in case you thought the music function was entirely frivolous, if your car audio system has an iPod connector or other audio input, why not use the audio player to catch up with a useful podcast or learn a foreign language to make best use of your time whilst on the road?

If these are not enough, there is always the Apple iPod Apps store at https://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/appstore/ that offers a whole range of further applications.

The iPod Touch or iPad as alternatives

Why not use an iPhone instead? It has all of the above and offers the SMS and voice functions of a mobile phone. You are not dependent upon wifi for communications. The latest version offers better performance with 3G. The main drawback is running costs. For a home worker or small company these may be high. If you think so, then consider using the iPod touch instead. It’s free, once you have bought it provided your coffee shop offers free wifi.

Of course, you may prefer an iPad with its larger screen, but watch those data charges, and remember if you travel abroad, data roaming charges can be horrendous.