A few months back I called Kingsoft Office the best Microsoft Office alternative you've never heard of. Now Kingsoft is making waves again with a mobile version of that impressive suite.

Kingsoft Office for Android lets you open, edit, and create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations right on your smartphone or tablet. And it's noteworthy not just for its Microsoft Office compatibility, but also its price: the app is free.

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The best-kept secret of the business world? Email reminder services, which can help turn overloaded inboxes into productivity powerhouses.

Email reminder services such as Followupthen make you more productive.No, really. I’ve been using these services for the past couple years, and I’m constantly amazed at how helpful they are--and how few people know they exist.

See, I use my inbox as a kind of to-do list, marking as unread any messages I don’t have time to answer now or need to act on later.

The problem is, as my inbox fills up with other mail, these messages get pushed lower and lower, until eventually they're forced out of sight--and out of mind.

A reminder service gives you a kind of email snooze button. All you do is forward a selected message to a particular e-mail address; at the designated time, it’ll return to your inbox.

For example, suppose a PR person emails me about a new product launch that’s happening next Monday. I decide to write about it, but not until the actual launch day. Instead of spending a bunch of time setting up a reminder in my calendar or to-do list, I simply forward that email to monday@reminderservice.com.

When Monday rolls around, presto: There’s the email again.

Different services have different syntax for the kinds of delays you can set, but for the most part it’s pretty straightforward: 2pm@reminderservice.com, tomorrow@reminderservice.com, june1@reminderservice.com, and so on.

What’s especially nice is that if an email arrives (make that re-arrives) and you’re still not ready to deal with it, you can click a snooze-delay link right inside the message.

So, what reminder services are available, and which ones are best? PC World’s Liane Cassavoy recently reviewed three free email reminder services: Boomerang for Gmail, Followup.cc, and Followupthen.com. (Keep in mind that “free” gets you just the basics; for more advanced features, you’ll want to look at pro-level accounts. Worth every penny, in my humble opinion.)

I’ve tried all three of these services myself, and while they’re all great, I have to give the nod to Followupthen. That said, I also recommend checking out Nudgemail, which has been in beta forever but continues to be fully free while it is.

Seriously, if you’ve never tried one of these services, do yourself a favor. This is truly the kind of thing you’ll wonder how you ever lived without.

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Last week you learned how to avoid gridlock during your daily commute. Of course, you can't avoid that commute altogether, which is why it's smart to make the most of time you have to spend in the car (or, for that matter, on bus, plane, train, etc.).

Instead of getting enraged by talk radio or lulled into a stupor by your tired old playlists, stock your phone or MP3 player with podcasts designed to enrich your brain. Without spending a penny, you can learn the secrets of managing effectively, communicating better, staying motivated, and much more.

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Very often in business, the important thing is not how you act, but rather how you react.

For example, at some point you're going to be on the receiving end of a nasty email. It might come from your boss or a co-worker, a client or customer, perhaps even a stranger. But regardless of the origin, it can feel like a slap in the face. And chances are good it's going to result in hurt feelings, anger, and a strong desire to answer in kind.

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It was just a couple months ago that Google Docs improved its spell-check capabilities, making itself that much more attractive to business users seeking an affordable alternative to Microsoft Office.

Two more steps forward: Google just updated Docs with 450 new fonts and 60 new templates (many of which cater to business).

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Unless you're lucky enough to telecommute, you probably spend a ton of time in your car. There's the trip to and from work, the lunch meetings, the visits to client offices, and so on.

Needless to say, traffic is probably your worst enemy. (Second-worst: gas prices.) If only you had some magic tool that could monitor and even predict the traffic along your route.

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No one would argue that Google Docs isn't a great tool, but it remains, stubbornly, a Web-only tool.

That's why I'm jazzed about GDocsDrive, which solves several of the big hassles associated with Google's cloud-based office suite.

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Throughout my workday, I routinely encounter Web sites I'd like to revisit at a later date. For example, often I'll see something that's good fodder for a blog post. Or something I can use as reference material in an upcoming feature.

Whatever the case, regular old bookmarking doesn't really get the job done. A bookmarked Web site is, for me, too easily lost or forgotten. That's why I rely on other services to clip, organize, and otherwise preserve important pages. Here are my three favorite solutions.

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Remember when companies deployed Nextel phones solely for their push-to-talk (PTT) capabilities? With the press of a button, a caller could enable walkie-talkie-like communications with the office or a co-worker.

PTT technology has kind of fallen by the wayside, but the need for quick and easy voice communication hasn't. Enter HeyTell, a free app that lets you send voice messages to one or more recipients. (That link is for the iOS version; HeyTell is also available for Android.)

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When it comes to e-mail signatures, there are two schools of thought: "keep it simple," with little more than your name; and "make it count," meaning pack in every tidbit you possibly can.

My two cents: You've got the recipient's attention for at least a few seconds, so why not make the most of it?

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