Meet Sandy, your new assistant. She efficiently manages your appointments, reminders, daily scheduling and more. She’s always on email, of course, but she’s also into Web 2.0 apps like Twitter and Jott, and likes to text as well. Even though English isn’t Sandy’s first language, she understands it very well. Best of all, she works for free.

One more thing: Sandy isn’t a person. She’s a bit of software on a server overseen by Values of n, Inc. I’ve been using Sandy for some months now and just love her.

Did you see what happened there? I called Sandy “she” and “her.” Not because I’m trying to be cute, but because it feels weird not to. Even though Sandy is really just a front-end for Stikkit, the web- and email-based task manager from Values of n, Inc., the pleasant emails and reminders she it shares seem as if they were written by an actual person. A friendly one at that.

It’s simple to use, effective and like I said, free. Here are some of the things I love about Sandy.

There’s nothing new to learn

If there’s one criticism of productivity geeks that’s entirely accurate, this is it: We spend almost as much time fiddling with our systems as actually doing our work. The problem is that we’re geeks, and a geek will always try something new if he believes it’s better that what he’s currently doing. That’s The First Indisputable Truth of Geekdom.

Couple that with the recent proliferation of productivity software, and you’ve got a lot of distracted, hPDA-wielding nerds.

But I don’t want to learn new software just to get things done. I’m old and crabby, and rapidly getting older and crabbier. Sandy, being lovely and accommodating, makes no such demands. All I’ve got to do is send an email.

Each account generates a unique email address. Anything sent to that address - like an appointment or a reminder - is filed away by Sandy. I spend a lot of time working on the web, so my email client is almost always open. When the spirit moves me, I just compose an email and hit “Send.” That’s it.

It’s appealing

A person is more likely to use something that she likes. I write things down all day because I must in order to remember what I need to remember. I make these notations in a Moleskine because I really like them. That way, I’m more likely to write something down; I’m happy to have an excuse to play with my notebook.

The same goes for my computer. I use a Mac because I like the way it looks and and functions. I’ve got to use a computer to get much of my work done, and since I love my computer, I’m eager to use it.

This is why Sandy works, too. All day long I receive pleasant emails and text reminders that say things like, “Hey, Dave. Here’s what I have scheduled for you today … Be well, talk to you soon.” I mean, come on. That’s just nice. Even my kids aren’t so consistently pleasant:

“Hi, honey. What did you do in school today?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well what did you talk about?”

“I don’t know.”

“Awesome. Good talking to you.”

Many ways to solve a problem

I’ve already shared The First Indisputable Truth of Geekdom with you. Here’s the second. We like to have many ways to solve a singe problem. Ask any geek “What’s the best way to set up a brand new, off-the-shelf computer?” and you’ll see what I mean. Sandy offers this flexibility in spades.

There are several ways to get information to Sandy. The simplest is email, which I’ve already explained. Next is Twitter.

To get started I, added Sandy as a friend (her username is simply “s”.) Next, I added my Twitter username to Sandy’s Twitter preferences. I’ve also opted to have Sandy send me reminders via direct message.

On the Twitter side, I’ve set things up so that I receive direct messages via SMS, which is super handy. With my iPhone, I can schedule appointments and receive reminders from Sandy anywhere.

Once everything is set up, Sandy regularly polls Twitter for direct messages. For example

• d s reminder leave in 5 mins
• d s r go for a walk in 15 mins (”r” tells Sandy that you’re requesting a reminder. There’s also “u” for update, “f” for forget and “i” for invite)
• d s l tomorrow

You can also Jott to Sandy. I don’t use Jott, but it looks pretty interesting. Basically, it’s a voice-to-web service that converts your phone messages to text on the web. After following these set up instructions, you can direct a Jott call to Sandy, no typing required. That’s pretty cool.

Receiving info from Sandy

Every morning, Sandy sends me my Daily Digest, outlining what I need to do. I also receive messages via SMS and Twitter.

Sandy is a rare beast: Productivity software that isn’t bursting with features and functions that I’ll never use, or that actually hinder productivity. No menus, icons, toolbars, drawers, smart folders or any of that. Just send and receive.

If you’re a person who 1.) Needs to remember to do things and 2.) Understands how to use email, you ought to sign up for a free Sandy account. I’m sure you’ll love it.