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Organization
Sandy-The Assistant I've Always Wanted
Posted on Aug 27, 2008 7:59:22 AM  |  By Erin—Manic Mommies

If you're like me, you're constantly forgetting things: the milk, the dry cleaning, the overdue library DVDs.

There is only so much information a busy working mom can keep contained in her brain. And while I do remember important things like flight schedules and conference calls with the help of my Entourage calendar, there are countless little things that pop up throughout the day that I want to be reminded of later. Like when I am in the car picking up the kids. It's then that I can veer off my path to pick up the milk or return the library DVDs, not three hours later when I am getting the boys into bed.

Iwantsandy_207x207 Readers, meet Sandy, my new personal assistant. I met Sandy on a recent flight to Florida. I opened my in-flight magazine and there she was, pencil behind the ear, looking capable and ready to tackle my never-ending to-do list. As I reviewed her list of qualifications (she can keep your day moving forward with reminders right when you need them) and a LifeHacker testimonial ("the best part about Sandy is the messages you get back from 'her'—helpful and fun, the tone truly makes you feel like have an assistant backing you up" ) I decided she might be worth a try.

We haven't known each other long, but Sandy's off to a good start. Before deciding to give Sandy a go, I spent a lot of time on her Web site trying to decide if she'd be right for me. After all, I don't want to download another application to help me stay organized. And I don't need an assistant when I am at my desk. I need my reminders on the fly, when I am in the car, or in an airport. Heck, I need them in Target so I don't forget the one thing I went there for!

According to her Web site, Sandy has worked for Beverly Coleman, an advertising executive, wife, and mother of two boys who needed to stay on track at work, at home, and on the road. Bev (as Sandy calls her) leaves Sandy to handle the what, when, where, and who while she focuses on the more important how and why. Does Sandy sound like a human? Yes, she does.

No matter how far you are from your computer, Sandy can text/SMS reminders right to your mobile phone, BlackBerry, Palm, or iPhone. Sandy's also on Twitter. Sandy knows online calendars, too! If you want Sandy to email you the day's list of action items at 7am, she can do that. She'll even text your husband to remind him to buy your birthday cake and flowers.

And the best part? Sandy is free. From what I can tell she's never called in sick or been late to work (although the timeliness of her text messages relies on your carrier). Sandy's on a 90-day probation period with me now.

In case she doesn't work out, do you have a virtual assistant you can recommend?



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Jott.com also works super well! I've been using it for awhile now and it has the same sort of functions.

Posted by: Jenny Mack| September 03, 2008 at 01:58 PM




I love Remember the Milk (or RTM, www.rememberthemilk.com). It's not necessarily a "personal assistant", but definitely has a lot of the same features, like email reminders and can sync up with your Google Calendar. You can also choose how to get reminders, whether via email, AIM, text, all of the above, etc and can set up daily reminders or time specific reminders. I haven't researched all of Sandy's features; I may try using both for a little while and see which one I like more. My fav part of RTM is that I can set up repeating reminders to help me remember of those due dates for my bills and payments. So, once I click "complete" it automatically queues the reminder for the next week, month, or whatever.

p.s. Love your blog!

Posted by: Mia| September 03, 2008 at 02:01 PM




Jott just went for-pay. The free version is so limited as to be useless. Used to use Jott to send Sandy a voice message. But it often didn't recognize words, so the message got garbled and made it pretty useless.

I've used I Want Sandy for about 4 months. It's a little quirky, but overall it does the job of keeping my to do list organized. I have set up re-occuring tasks using the @weekly, @daily, etc. tags. Getting email reminders is EXTREMELY helpful for keeping a task top-of-the-mind until it's done and I delete the email.

Sandy can be embedded in Google calendar, the same as RTM. I've set it up for that but since I can't get my Google calendar to sync with my Blackberry reliably, I haven't really used Sandy that way.

Another web based "organizer" that I reallly like is Map My Walk [www.mapmywalk.com]. It's great a great walking and health log. I trace my walking route on its map and it calculates the distance in miiles. I enter the amount of time it took me to complete the walk. And viola! it calculates my waling rate -- no more guessing or *hopeful* overestimating.

Posted by: Hi_C| September 04, 2008 at 11:24 AM




I have a cleaning (actually it is far more unbelieveable & embarrassing) situation. I don't want to share it with the world, but I absolutely need to find
a effective & thorough solution. It is in my home and it developed due to my
having severe arthritis & my inability to keep up with my home cleaning. I've
had 2 surgeries in the last 2 years--hip replacement & repair broken arm.
My husband wasn't able ( & after awhile just got sick & tired of caring for

Posted by: KATHY B FISCHER| September 04, 2008 at 05:08 PM




I love Sandy...been using her for a couple of months with my Peek (mobile email) and it's a really handy way to do calendaring stuff without a calendar

Posted by: amol| September 22, 2008 at 11:03 AM




I am LOVING Sandy!!!! She takes a little while to get used to, but having her deliver my grocery list WHILE I AM AT THE STORE is priceless, and it sure beats seeing what I forgot when I get home.

Posted by: Tisha| September 24, 2008 at 03:26 PM




I am LOVING Sandy!!!! She takes a little while to get used to, but having her deliver my grocery list WHILE I AM AT THE STORE is priceless, and it sure beats seeing what I forgot when I get home.

Posted by: Tisha| September 24, 2008 at 03:28 PM




Even a Virtual Assistant could use an assistant at times. What a great find!

Posted by: Jennifer Rai| June 30, 2009 at 11:35 AM






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