Category Archives: Cool Tools

Starting a Law Practice using Mind Maps

By Larry Port on July 21, 2010

One of the best ways to boost your legal productivity, aside from using dedicated legal productivity software, is to embrace mind maps. We keep revisiting mind maps in our posts because they’re one of the most powerful collaboration and brainstorming tools we use here at Rocket Matter for all aspects of our operations.
Carolyn Elefant [...]

Also posted in Productivity | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

Law Firm Web Applications: Learn Tips, Shortcuts, And How to Use Them

By Larry Port on July 14, 2010

We software developers have been blessed with an incredible help site called Stack Overflow, written by one of the supreme nerd leaders and preeminent bloggers, the great Joel Spolsky.
For the SaaSy consumer, the Stack Overflow people created Web Applications Stack Exchange, a terrific public forum for learning the ins and outs of cloud-based tools for [...]

Also posted in Software-as-a-Service | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Rocket Matter Tip of the Day: Remove Mood Messages From Skype

By Larry Port on June 4, 2010

Skype is an amazing tool. The quality since we’ve been using it for the past three years keeps improving to the point where I hope, when I talk to someone, we can do a Skype to Skype chat as opposed to a regular phone call.
We’ve even rolled together an inexpensive and highly efficient alternative [...]

Also posted in Productivity | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

The Pomodoro Technique – Handling External Interruptions for Lawyers

By Larry Port on April 14, 2010

In Part One of our Legal Pomodoro Series, we introduced the basics of The Pomodoro Technique:
Pomodoro is Italian for tomato. The guy who invented it lives in Italy and had a wind-up tomato timer in his kitchen. The idea is simple: you wind up the timer for 25 minutes and work [...]

Also posted in Productivity, Work-Life Balance | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

The Pomodoro Technique – Supercharge Your Efficiency + Legal Productivity (Part 1)

By Larry Port on March 11, 2010

Let’s face it: lawyers have to wear a lot of hats. Before you know it, your day can be over and you feel like you’ve gotten nothing accomplished.
Like the Getting Things Done personal organizational system, The Pomodoro Technique is popular in technology circles but I haven’t seen a wide discussion of it in Legal. [...]

Also posted in Free Stuff, How-To, Productivity, Work-Life Balance | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Computer Spa Day: Reclaim Hard Drive Space on Mac OS X with GrandPerspective

By Larry Port on February 24, 2010

Computer Spa Day, which we talked about before (for both mobile and regular computers), will save you time and money.
I couldn’t believe it.  I wasn’t able to install Apple’s mammoth iPad SDK on my two-year old MacBook Pro because I was out of hard drive space.  Luckily, some genius named “eriban” wrote a donation-only program [...]

Also posted in Productivity | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

New Google Chrome for Mac Release adds Bookmark Manager

By Larry Port on February 11, 2010

Thanks to Jim Halberg from NextPoint for pointing out that Google released a new version of Chrome with Bookmark Manager.
Bookmark Manager crashed Chrome the first time I used it, but that’s another story.
In any case, this development renders my previous post irrelevant. And now Chrome sits alone at the top of the heap. Chrome, I dub thee [...]

Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

How to Keep Social Media from Dominating Your Life

By Larry Port on February 9, 2010

Social Media, whether Twitter, Facebook, Blogging, LinkedIn, Flickr, or something else, is like a huge train whizzing by.  Some people are trying desperately to get on it (enter the snake oil salesmen) while others are spending a little too much time on it.
For those of you on the Social Media train, how often do you [...]

Also posted in Productivity, Social Media | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Blogging on an iPhone

By Larry Port on February 7, 2010

I’m writing this post on an iPhone using an app called BlogWriter. It interfaces with most blog platforms, including WordPress.
Typing on an iPhone is a frustrating endeavor at best, so why would anyone want an app like this? The beauty, as I see it at least, is the ability to capture ideas while you’re on [...]

Also posted in Mobile Devices, iPhone | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Managing Bookmarks for Google Chrome on the Mac

By Larry Port on January 29, 2010

Google’s Chrome is a great browser.  It’s very, very fast, which is the primary reason I’m using it.  It has some cool features, too.  For instance, there’s no little window on the upper right for searching.  You type your search query directly into the address bar (it took a leap of faith and great confusion [...]

Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)