5 Gmail Add-ons to Boost Productivity

TECHTONIC

5 Gmail Add-ons to Boost Productivity

15.11.2021

Emails are an intrinsic part of our internet-dependent lives — for personal and official use — with Gmail being one of the most popular services around. Besides built-in spam filters and security features, you can install third-party ‘add-ons’ to extend the functionality of a Gmail inbox. They can be found at workspace.google.com/marketplace, only need to be installed once and appear in a sidebar whenever you sign in from a web browser. Ashutosh Desai recommends five such add-ons to improve productivity.

SCHEDULE MEETINGS You can set up meetings with friends, colleagues or clients from Gmail with a smart scheduling service like CalendarHero (calendarhero.com). It also integrates with Google Calendar, so you don’t end up double booking your day.

It uses AI to ‘learn’ your scheduling patterns. Here, you can create fixed time frames for video calls, voice calls, coffee meetups, etc, for a more organised day. Each meeting type has a web link so anybody can ‘self book’ appointments with you. CalendarHero lets you set a daily limit to meetings; it can also integrate with Zoom and Cisco Webex; meetings can be scheduled via Slack, MS Teams, FB Messenger, and more. You can even chat with a virtual assistant to know your schedule.

MAIL MERGE GMass (www.gmass.co),lets you send several personalised emails with just one template. When you compose a new email, click the ‘GMass’ button next to ‘Send’. Choose a template to view the syntax it uses for the recipient’s first and last name. Now use the same format when composing the email. GMass will replace it with the recipient’s first or last name, depending on what you selected in the configurations box.

This add-on also includes a scheduling feature that sends reminders after a specified interval. A free GMass account lets you send up to 50 messages per day.

SEND INVOICES If you are the proprietor of a small business or a freelancer then a free invoice generator like Bookipi (www.bookipi.com) will be a useful addition to your workflow. To use this add-on, you first need to register with Bookipi and design your invoice to include a logo, payment instructions, etc before sending them from Gmail.

When you reply to a client’s email or compose a message, you will be able generate an invoice without leaving the tab.

These invoices can be saved into categories like estimates, incidentals, arrears, etc; can include tax, discount, shipping, and a placeholder for signatures as well. Alternatively, you can also consider the Zoho Invoice add-on to email bills to customers.

ORGANISE EMAIL You can turn your inbox into Kanban-style boards to help you get more work done with Sortd (www.sortd.com), a task-oriented service that lets you assign emails to ‘buckets’ like To-Do, Planning, In Progress, Done, etc. It is ideal for project managers and event planners who need to separate important emails from all the noise.

The add-on lets you assign the email to specific boards while its Chrome extension — which also needs to be installed — toggles between the regular Gmail view and Kanban boards. When you switch to the latter, you will only see the emails you assigned to the various boards. You will see the inbox as a panel, but you can hide this as well so that you can focus on the work at hand and not get distracted by new email notifications.

TRACK EMAILS If your work has you sending several emails through the day to your customers, clients and vendors then it is necessary to know if your messages are actually being read or ignored. With the Mailtrack (mailtrack.io) add-on and its browser extension, you will receive alerts — as popups and as emails, depending on what you choose — whenever your emails are read.

You can also set your account to receive daily reports with analytics related to your read/unread emails, alerts for old emails and messages that have been opened several times over a short period of time.

Mailtrack will also notify you when an email you have received uses tracking features. Moreover, you can install this add-on on an Android handset and send tracked emails while being on the move.

Heavy rains lash Kerala, red alert issued for 3 dists

Heavy rains lash Kerala, red alert issued for 3 dists

15.11.2021

Pathanamthitta/Idukki:

With heavy rains lashing various parts of the state since Saturday night, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday declared a red alert in central Kerala districts of Ernakulam, Idukki and Thrissur for the day.

Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in a Facebook post, asked everyone to be extra vigilant in view of the risk of landslides and other hazards due to the unseasonal rainfall. Authorities and the public need to be extra vigilant in the event of heavy rains in Kerala as part of the westerly winds, he said. He said that people living in landslide and flood-prone areas will have to relocate to safer places or nearby relief camps as there is a possibility of widespread rains in the coming hours.

The cleanliness of the camps, availability of food and a screening system for diseases should be ensured, he said.

Later, in a press release, the Chief Minister said that in a meeting of district collectors and officials it has been decided to limit the number of pilgrims to Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in the next three to four days due to the heavy rains. The ritualistic bathing in the river Pampa will not be allowed as its levels were dangerously high, spot booking will be stopped for the time and changing dates of those who booked through virtual queue system will also be considered to control the flow of pilgrims, the release said. PTI

Sim cards, digital wallets, bank accounts on sale for fraudsters’ use

Sim cards, digital wallets, bank accounts on sale for fraudsters’ use

Racket Thriving In Remote Areas Of North Gujarat

Ashish.Chauhan@timesgroup.com

Ahmedabad:15.11.2021

If you are not using your sim card or your bank account has been dormant, be warned as cyber crooks may have started using your phone number of bank account for illegal activities such as cheating or digital fraud.

City crime branch recently nabbed a 22-year-old man named Vijaysinh Jhala of Aniyol village of Talod taluka of Sabarkantha for allegedly selling simcards illegally.

During his questioning, it was revealed that bank accounts, digital wallets, OTT app access credentials were also being sold illegally.

These activities are flourishing in rural areas of north Gujarat— mainly Sabarkantha, Aravalli and Banaskantha districts — where gangs steal data from telecom companies or banks using the dark web and use it for illegal activities, said a police officer.

Jhala was nabbed on October 9 after police learned that he was about to deliver a couple of sim cards to certain person. When the cops caught him and investigated further, they found that the gang for which Jhala worked as a delivery man had around 20,000 simcards.

“Such gangs work in layers so they can evade the cops. The kingpin will operate various Telegrams groups using which he offers to sell sim cards, bank accounts or digital wallets. If a person shows interest, another set of people will check his credentials and if the person passes their background checks, they will send someone to deliver the simcards,” said a police officer.

In the case of digital wallets and bank account, the end user or the customer who buys them illegally will be given the user ID or passwords by gang members in such a way that the end user will not even know their name or identity.

Not just the end user or customer, the people working in the second or third layer will also not know who the kingpin is, said a police officer.

Class III girl donates money from her savings to buy food for flood-hit people

Class III girl donates money from her savings to buy food for flood-hit people

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:15.11.2021

Seven-year-old Janani had a dream of buying a cycle with the money she had saved. Since her home in Pattalam was flooded during the rain, she decided to use her savings to buy milk packets and bread for people in her locality. She had managed to save ₹5000, and has now emptied the sum for the people in the slum.

Janani, a Class III student, of a Corporation School, lives with her grandmother at Pattalam, while her parents, R R Nagarajan and Shivarajani, live in Andhra Pradesh.

For the past four years, she used to save whatever little pocket money she got in order to buy a bicycle. Unlike other children of her age, she never bought anything for herself, and used to collect ₹5 every day. When the downpour battered the city, on seeing the tragedy of people around her and those who were suffering due to inundation, the little girl was moved and decided to buy provisions from her savings of ₹5000 for the flood-affected people.

She distributed biscuits, milk packets and bread to people at Pulianthope, Thattankulam, Sivarajpuram, Pattalam and other affected areas in North Chennai, travelling on a boat.

“I wanted to buy a bicycle for my birthday in January. I had been saving money since four years. But I decided to donate my savings to people whom I saw suffering in front of my eyes. I am happy to help these people. I can buy a cycle later,” Janani said.

“I want to help the poor and the needy, especially children. I could see them smiling after receiving the bread packets,” she said.

Janani's father introduced the concept of savings to her. She is fond of Mother Teresa. She had always helped other children in her school, her father said, The heartwarming gesture of the little girl was appreciated by many of her nieghbours.

HER BIT: Janani donates milk

When the downpour battered the city, on seeing the tragedy of people around her and those who were suffering due to inundation, the little girl was moved

The perfect bedtime for heart health

The perfect bedtime for heart health

15.11.2021

Going to sleep between 10:00 and 11:00 pm is associated with a lower risk of developing heart disease compared to earlier or later bedtimes, according to a study led by an international team of researchers.

The study was published in European Heart Journal - Digital Health, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology.

“The body has a 24-hour internal clock, called circadian rhythm, that helps regulate physical and mental functioning, while we cannot conclude causation from our study, the results suggest that early or late bedtimes may be more likely to disrupt the body clock, with adverse consequences for cardiovascular health,” said study author Dr David Plans of the University of Exeter, UK.

While numerous analyses have investigated the link between sleep duration and cardiovascular disease, the relationship between sleep timing and heart disease is underexplored. This study examined the association between objectively measured, rather than self-reported, sleep onset in a large sample of adults.

The study included 88,026 individuals in the UK Biobank recruited between 2006 and 2010. The average age was 61 years (range 43 to 79 years) and 58% were women. Data on sleep onset and waking up time were collected over seven days using a wrist-worn accelerometer. Participants completed demographic, lifestyle, health, and physical assessments and questionnaires.

They were then followed up for a new diagnosis of cardiovascular disease, which was defined as a heart attack, heart failure, chronic ischaemic heart disease, stroke, and transient ischaemic attack.

During an average follow-up of 5.7 years, 3,172 participants (3.6%) developed cardiovascular disease. Incidence was highest in those with sleep times at midnight or later and lowest in those with sleep onset from 10:00 to 10:59 pm.

The researchers analysed the association between sleep onset and cardiovascular events after adjusting for age, sex, sleep duration, sleep irregularity (defined as varied times of going to sleep and waking up), self-reported chronotype (early bird or night owl), smoking status, body mass index, diabetes, blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and socioeconomic status.

Compared to sleep onset from 10:00 to 10:59 pm, there was a 25% higher risk of cardiovascular disease with sleep onset at midnight or later, a 12% greater risk for 11:00 to 11:59 pm, and a 24% raised risk for falling asleep before 10:00 pm.

In a further analysis by sex, the association with increased cardiovascular risk was stronger in women, with only sleep onset before 10:00 pm remaining significant for men.

Dr Plans said, “Our study indicates that the optimum time to go to sleep is at a specific point in the body’s 24-hour cycle and deviations may be detrimental to health. The riskiest time was after midnight, potentially because it may reduce the likelihood of seeing morning light, which resets the body clock.”

“If our findings are confirmed in other studies, sleep timing and basic sleep hygiene could be a low-cost public health target for lowering the risk of heart disease,” he concluded. ANI

TAKE IT TO HEART: Both early and late bedtimes can disrupt body clock

A guide to reopening your home for guests

A guide to reopening your home for guests

Communication, flexibility and open spaces help make sure that things go smoothly

15.11.2021

When Covid-19 put an abrupt halt to social gatherings, many homes were reconfigured to encompass study areas and home offices. And while restrictions are easing, guests, like hosts, are grappling with a somewhat changed social terrain.

Hugs or handshakes? Dining tables or balconies? Because the pandemic isn’t over and comfort levels vary, etiquette and home experts agree that communication, flexibility and compassion are key to making sure things go smoothly. Here are a few tips:

Always ask first

“While some people have jumped right back to hugs and handshakes, others aren’t quite there yet, so it’s very important to ask people about things first, and respect differing comfort levels,” says Lizzie Post, co-president of the US-based The Emily Post Institute. “Ask ‘Is a hug OK?’ If it’s not, express that friendliness and enthusiasm with words,” she says.

Touch base with guests before the gathering. Let them know how many people will be there and where you’ll be gathering. People are returning to social gatherings at different paces, and that allows guests to prepare accordingly.

Amy Panos, home editor for Better Homes and Gardens, adds: “Don’t hesitate to get specific, like ‘Everyone who’s invited is vaccinated so no need for masks’, or, ‘We have kids, so let’s mask up when possible’.”

Less is more

Where guest lists are concerned, experts agree that it’s a good idea to start small. Consider a smaller guest list in the first few forays to test the waters, then tweak your approach as you go along.

Take the party outdoors

Instead of piling onto the couch or squeezing around a dining table, as people did before the pandemic, these days, people tend to be more comfortable if they’re able to spread out.

“If you have the space, this may be the time to invest in stackable stools or chairs to keep handy so people can spread out comfortably. And keep the windows open if you can,” Panos says.

As Martha Stewart Living style director Tanya Graff says, “We have become pros at doing everything outside. If you can entertain as much as possible outside, I would continue to do that.”

Tidy up

While it’s not necessary to dismantle pandemic-configured home offices, you'll want to tidy things up, especially in areas where you will be entertaining.

“Any time you will be inviting people over, make sure you have a nice, clean, available space. If your living room is also an office, office things should be cleared away. Get the space ready for guests,” says Post.

Embrace individual portions

Skip the dip and any dishes where guests may need to share. “Make sure everything has serving utensils and no one has to use their hands with things,” Graff says.

Setups that allow guests to serve themselves are also popular now.

— AP

S Railway lifts all restrictions, but wait on for unreserved coaches

S Railway lifts all restrictions, but wait on for unreserved coaches

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:15.11.2021

Southern Railway has lifted all restrictions on travel by suburban trains and has regularised express/mail services from Sunday to the pre-Covid-19 level but people may have to wait longer for unreserved class to be opened up.

Southern Railway is running only limited number of unreserved trains in various sections and also unreserved passengers are permitted only in specified mail/express trains keeping in mind that Covid-19 is not fully eradicated, said a statement. Passengers who prefer to travel by available unreserved coaches or trains will have to book tickets from the counters and not by UTS app because railways want to limit the number of people in a coach to prevent crowding. "Steps are being taken to introduce UTS app booking in the non-suburban sector in a phased manner," said the statement.

T Sadagopan, a consumer activist, said that it was good that train services were brought back to the pre-Covid level but they should resume senior citizen concession, reduce platform ticket charges and unreserved class trains soon. "The railway is going to introduce regular fare for festive specials and others but they should also refund money for those who have already booked tickets on these trains," he added.

As regular express/mail services will be operated on pre-covid schedule and fares, Southern Railway has already updated fares on its data centre in Chennai. "All trains originating from Southern Railway that require fare revision from festival specials to regular services have been updated at Chennai data centre and passengers are booking on old fares now," said an official. As far as train number changes are concerned, CRIS will be carrying out number changes of about 500 trains per day over the next week to complete more than 3000. As travel restrictions have been lifted in suburban trains, passengers will be allowed to travel without any time restrictions on the Chennai Central-Arakkonam, Chennai Central–Gummidipundi/Sullurupeta, Chennai Beach–Chengalpet and Chennai Beach–Velachery sections.

Unreserved single, return journey tickets and season tickets would be issued to all. These tickets can also be booked through UTS mobile app.

PATIENT WAIT: Southern Railway is running only limited number of unreserved trains in various sections