DeskSMS - saving seconds adds up to saving minutes (and eventually hours!)

** updated 5/14/12. After 2 weeks of evaluation, it was time to either pay up or get out. And I'm sad to say, but I got out. Another tech which has functional potential, and which some people might find useful, but I simply could not get enough use out of it to justify paying for it. In fact, after the first few days I was back to texting from my cell phone as my primary choice/response. Too bad, this seemed to have had potential... -Chris

Most days I'll have a handful of texting conversations during the course of the day. It's not a lot, but each text is very disruptive to my workflow.

Look over at my phone.  Pick up my phone.  Hit the "on" button and swipe to the home screen.  Drag the notification bar to read the text. Press to answer the text. Slowly type out my response. Hopefully find and replace all the errors caused by auto correct. I'm probably out about a minute by the time I've responded - longer if I had to type a long response. Add all those minutes up throughout the day and I probably lose more than 10 minutes a day to texting. (I can only imaging how much time is involved for those of you who text more frequently!)

Now imagine if I could get notified of, read, and respond to my texts without leaving my office computer.  I would save about 75% of that time, which translates directly to the productivity bottom line.

Enter DeskSMS. (hat tip 40Tech).

I read about this yesterday and downloaded it today, and so far it has worked flawlessly.  I don't think it works for MMS. (at least I haven't figured out how to send a picture yet.)  And it's only free for two weeks. (after which it costs about $5 per year.)

So far I'm calling it a win.  The real test will be whether I find it enough of a productivity enhancement to pay for the service.  I'll give you an update in 2 weeks...

-Chris Butterworth