Turn Your Cameraphone Into a Productivity Tool

If your cell phone has a camera built in, you can use it for more than just the occasional snapshot of the kids and dog. Indeed, you can put it to productive use during your workday, especially when you're traveling. Here's how:

• Remember where you parked. When you arrive at airport parking, take a snapshot of the nearest signpost so you can easily find your car again.
• Insure your belongings. Business Hacks reader Weaver1 offered this great tip in response to our post on packing light for business travel: "When laying out clothes for a trip, I take a photo with my cameraphone to document clothes/shoes/etc. for the airline in case of lost luggage."
• Send a fax. Using a service called Qipit, you can snap a photo of anything -- say, a whiteboard or secret company documents -- and have it delivered via fax. The service can also deliver cameraphone photos via e-mail and store them online for future reference. Amazingly, it's free.
• "Scan" a business card. Similar to Qipit, ScanR (also free) adds the option of capturing business cards, which are then delivered to you via e-mail in vCard format (ready for importing into Outlook or another contact manager). The only hitch? You need a 2-megapixel camera for this to work.
• Create a visual to-do list. Blogger Steve Rubel throws out the idea of making a to-do list consisting of photos rather than text. To me it sounds like more work than it's worth, but as a "visual" person I can definitely see the appeal. Maybe you will, too.