I just read this quote by Lewis Eigen, uttered in 1961, which is even more profound today than it was then: "The workers and professionals of the world will soon be divided into two distinct groups. Those who will control computers and those who will be controlled by computers. It would be best for you to be in the former group." A 2001 survey sponsored by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and conducted by Harris Interactive shows that the increased use of technology such as cell phones, beepers, email, and computers has had a tremendous impact on the feelings of overwork in America. The four out of ten employees who use technology often or very often for their jobs during typical non-work hours more frequently feel overworked. About one-fifth of employees in the study said they often or … [Read more...]
Are you spending too much time surfing eBay?
A reporter asked an interesting question today: How do you know if you're spending too much time surfing eBay? While I'm all for saving time on Internet shopping and having things delivered, instead of driving around town to ten places trying to find the same item, you don't want to cross the line into an addiction. An addiction? That's right. How many hours a day would you have to devote to something before it would be labeled an addiction? Television watching? Gambling? Drinking? eBay surfing? As with anything, it can get out of hand. So I told the reporter I'd have her readers ask themselves these questions: · Do you spend more time on the computer surfing eBay listings than you do with your … [Read more...]
Anagram Intelligence for Microsoft Outlook
I love this amazing little plug-in for Outlook. Your $30 will be well-spent. You highlight information from the text of an email, hit a hotkey, and the software instantly determines whether you're highlighting contact, appointment, task, or note information and opens the appropriate dialog box in Outlook with the information *already populated* for your review. You can try it free for 45 days. Visit http://getanagram.com/anagramoutlook/ to see a flash video and read about the neat features. … [Read more...]
Email OCD Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
According to a report from Basex, the average "knowledge worker" — someone who is part of the growing information economy — loses 2.1 hours a day to interruptions. If those workers make an average of $21 an hour, that adds up to $588 billion a year — more than the gross domestic product of Argentina. See http://blogs.abcnews.com/scienceandsociety/2006/01/frazzing.html Then another article http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Technology/story?id=1549972 goes on to say, “Other companies, such as Ambient Devices, say keep it simple. You shouldn't have to open your e-mail whenever an icon pops up on your screen. A glance should tell if the new message is important to you, much the way you glance at a clock.” Actually, that’s a *really* bad idea. Even glancing at an email starts … [Read more...]
Laying off workers in email — a breech of email etiquette
Can you believe this? Radio Shack laid off 400 workers---via email! Talk about a major breech of email etiquette. I was just laughing at another article I read about someone being laid off via text message on her phone, and I even thought to myself, "Oh, great, pretty soon they will be laying people off via email" and boom! How rude. Out of 65,000+ people surveyed on an AOL site, 93% said email is an inappropriate way for a company to lay off employees. Let's remember one of the basic rules of messaging: the more emotional and complicated the message, the greater the need for a rich medium, such as a face-to-face conversation with a real person. How will this people remember this employer? Bitterly. When better times arise, will they want to return to Radio Shack? … [Read more...]
Create a Throw-Away Email Address
Spam can be annoying and time consuming. In a test, Northeast Netforce investigators “seeded” 175 different locations and monitored the fake addresses over the next six weeks for spam; 100 percent of email addresses used in chat rooms received spam; 86 percent of posts in newsgroups received spam. So what can you do to help reduce it? Bottom line: Don’t use your work address or personal address for open, public forums, where spammers are harvesting your email address. Create a screen name that isn’t associated with your email address or a “dummy” email address. Your ISP can automatically forward the “dummy” address to your “real” address. When spam builds up, delete the decoy. For $9.95 a year, you can get a block of 500 disposable email addresses to use from www.Spamex.com. You can also … [Read more...]
How to Process Email and Deal With Information Overload
I was reading an article in Information Week appropriately titled, “Eaten by the Email Monster.” http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2006/08/eaten_by_the_em.html It links to several useful articles on how to handle information overload. I thought I’d add my thoughts on how to efficiently process email: the 6-D Information Management System™: 1. DISCARD = Delete it 2. DELEGATE = Forward it 3. DO = Reply immediately if it will take you three minutes or less 4. DATE = Needs work but not now. The key is to somehow get it out of your in-box. Pick one favorite method and try to be consistent, so you don’t confuse your brain about what you did with that email. Options: * Move to a process folder called “Action” or … [Read more...]
My Favorite Way to Use Outlook Notes as Category Lists
I wanted to share my favorite Palm trick (I use MS Outlook and a Treo 700p). I was frustrated by being in the grocery store and not having my list with me. Then a friend would tell me her experience at a great restaurant, and darn if I couldn't remember the name when my husband asked where we should eat. We'd be at the video store and couldn't remember the name of the funny DVD my dad suggested. So, I created a Note in Outlook for each of these categories: 1. Books to read 2. Groceries to buy (even though “go to grocery store” may be a task, this list contains the individual items I need to remember to buy) 3. Shopping to do (a list of things I need to remember to get when I’m … [Read more...]
Test drive Microsoft Office 2007
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/testdrive.mspx?showIntro=n Just for my readers...a FREE test drive of the new Microsoft Office 2007! This is BETA, but you are live in the applications. Test the new versions of Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, and many more! The tutorials provide lots of new ways to work in Office 2007. You can explore the new versions of Office in this fully functional Test Drive environment. Try this before downloading the new beta versions to your computer. Most other support applications like ACT or Quickbooks aren't ready for 2007, and you don't want to hose your mission-critical business systems. So try it---no risk---in your browser instead. … [Read more...]
Productivity Boost Using Three Screens Per Worker
I'm mulling about my monitor. I was reading an article at online.wsj.com/articles/talking_tech about a research study done by Microsoft's Center for Information Work, which looks at the way office workers use computers. They found that with three monitors per worker, productivity jumped NINE PERCENT. That's unreal. Nine percent might not seem like a lot to you, but it's getting to the point where it's really hard to squeeze a few extra productivity points out of workers, so that's a very large amount. When you look at the stock market trading floor, you see multiple monitors everywhere---that group has already realized it's required to see all that information. Perhaps I wouldn't have three monitors, but I'm seriously considering adding a second. It … [Read more...]
