According to Stone, she first noticed the email apnea phenomenon in herself, as she was checking her email one day. Stone realized that she was holding her breath as she sifted through her inbox, as her brain whirled and she tried to figure out where to file things, what to respond to, and how to deal with the assortment of emails which arrives every morning. Once she noticed her own email apnea, Stone started looking around her, and she noted that other people apparently did the same thing, breathing shallowly, hyperventilating, or not breathing at all while checking their emails, using their phones, and engaging in similar tasks.

Read more about email apnea

I would assume this happens more often in the morning when we strive to check our mails before anything else - have they replied? did something go wrong? do I need to reply to this person right away? how am I going to sift through so many emails? etc… What could work is to become aware of the amount of information coming in and then going through/ replying to the ones that matter today. Other stuff can wait for a day or two. ‘Urgent’ and ‘real-time’ are overrated words.

Our founder, Sahil Parikh, pens down his thoughts on starting businesses and cloud computing tools at PrudentCloud.

Startups are a rage in emerging economies. Look at India, China or Brazil, you will find hundreds of startups sprouting all across the country. It just has become so easy to start and market a web business (even in developing countries) – increased broadband penetration, inexpensive computers, smart-phones, easy access to the Internet, free-for-all social networking tools and above all, the availability of software tools that were either out of the reach of a small business or expensive and cumbersome to setup.

Startups today have no IT infrastructure of their own. They are lean, agile, and small. They work virtually using applications that are hosted in the Cloud. According to Wikipedia, a typical Cloud Computing provider deliver common business applications online which are accessed from another web service or software like a web browser, while the software and data are stored on servers.

You can crank up your startup idea over a weekend and automate every essential function of the business by using services in the Cloud. Here is a blueprint on how to achieve utopia:

Read the entire article here…

Unlike email marketing tools like MailChimp, iContact or ConstantContact, one of the key challenges of adopting a collaborative app like DeskAway is that its value is directly proportional to the number of people using it within your team. The more the merrier. However, realistically, there are chances that even though everyone buys into the concept of using a web-based app, some people might not log into the system to update their milestones or check off their tasks. A vision for a company-wide system to manage and track work remains a dream. See if these 5 things can help you get the ball rolling…forever.

#1 Send out an email or discuss in live with your team as to why you have chosen the application and its advantage over email. Spell out why email is a poor collaboration tool for working in projects where multiple people are involved.

#2 Show examples of other apps. Most people are familiar with a CRM (customer relationship management) app. If a CRM app can track your sales, a project collaboration app can track your work (internal as well as client-driven).

#3 Manage expectations. What can people expect from using the app. Clarity? Accountability? Time savings? Control? Doing more with less? etc.

#4 Start small. Have a few evangelists use the app for a few internal projects. Slowly, let them infect every one else.

#5 Don’t force. It doesn’t work with anyone.

Pulse of Technology, is a blog for Tech enthusiasts. They recently featured DeskAway’s founder Sahil parikh talking  on Cloud Computing Services.

India aims to become the fastest growing economy in 2010. How can a growing small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) benefit with this new technology trend?

That is exactly the area my book will be addressing. Small businesses will now have the ability to use the same tools and techniques that larger companies enjoyed for years. They can leverage Web 2.0/ Social Media tools to connect with prospects / customers, build their brand, and use Enterprise 2.0 tools to automate systems within their workplace using free, inexpensive and simple tools.

Can Deskaway cater to the project management needs of small & mid size companies of non IT sector say manufacturing?

Absolutely. In fact, besides technology companies, DeskAway users are from manufacturing, healthcare, non-profits, accounting etc. We are seeing more and more teams move away from email as a primary form of collaboration (sharing files, delegating tasks, planning work etc.) and use a web-based application.

Read More.

Thanks Basant from Techno-Pulse!!

We ended 2008 by saying:

“We are taking forward one thing from 2008 - love what you do and do it more. Every month is a stepping stone to stay true to our vision - to provide simple, powerful and affordable tools to help people work smarter.”

We carried this vision with us to 2009. More than just building new features, 2009 was about reliability, stability, security, ease of use and understanding our users better. Since the app is already feature-rich, we spent a considerable amount of time concentrating on the stuff that hides under the hood - how to make the app faster, more usable and simple for our users. Even though you don’t request these things, these are the essential ingredients that help you make a choice.

2009 has also given a lot of meaning to our brand. What we stand for and why we exist? We often include users and customers into our discussions about what they feel about our brand. Is it simplifying teamwork or is it about getting peace of mind when you know that your projects are running smoothly. Is it about creating systems at your workplace and automating things or is DeskAway about something that is simple, powerful and yet affordable? So many variations, but at the end, one line sums up what people think of us, where we have come from and where we plan to go. This is why we got started in the first place back in 2007.

“simplifying people’s lives in the workplace so that they have more time to do the things that they really enjoy. “

The end result is a shot at having a work-life balance that is well poised so that work becomes meaningful. We try to capture that moment of ‘aha’ when you either strike-off that task or when you are in control of your work. That feeling of ‘freedom’, ‘excitement’ and ‘lightness’. Life@Work has become more complicated, wired and information-overloaded - and that is all the more reason it requires refinement and simplification.

Before we get into 2010, I would like to say thank you to everyone who has made it possible for our small company to compete in the global world. To all the people who reviewed, features, interviewed, tried, purchsed and came in contact with our company and service.

These are site and blogs which mentioned us in 2009…

20:20 social
Digital Media Buzz
CMS Wire
On Software
Smashing Apps
Web 2 and More
Be Bizzy
The Gray Hair Speaketh (Sanjay Mehta’s Review)
AppVita
TechPluto
Life Hack
Blissfully Domestic
Mashable
Michele Corey’s search for the Perfect Project Management tool
Indian Startup Diary
Blondish.net

These are print magazines that wrote about us in 2009…

Technofirst Magazine
BenefIT
Indiatimes Article

These are channels that featured and interviewed us in 2009…

CNBC Young Turks
StartingUP - ETNow

Thank you all!

Lastly, thank you team for getting these features rolled out to the world…

FreshBooks Integration
Open Task Lists, Recurring Task options & Team filters
Blog email, update company name, adding team members and editing/deleting message comments
Revamped milestones page, colorful labels and at-glance overdue stuff
DeskMail - Add tasks and reply to task comments via email
OpenID Support
Status Updates
Task Calendar View
Adding tasks from anywhere
Uploading files within task, extending deadline before commenting
Recurring task & cloning tasks
Blog RSS and better search
Upload files to messages
Themes
User Reports

Thank you for your time and wishing you Happy Holidays! Stay safe.

Cheers,
Sahil Parikh
Founder & CEO

P.S - So, what can you expect from 2010?
Simplifying the user experience and features even more
A few killer features thats going to rock this app!
Features and enhancements requested by our users
Integration with other tools and services (e.g. Google, Twitter etc.)
Additional help and interactive tutorials & videos
and obviously the unplanned stuff