Tech Rest

12 Steps Closer to Your Ideal Work Day (GTD)

What would an ideal workday look like? While there might not be a single answer across the board, all of us can relate to the fact that many of our workdays are not designed for optimal productivity. We complain about too many meetings, not enough pay, travel that saps your energy and did I mention the hours?

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How to Create a To-Do from an E-mail in Lotus Notes (Email)

Great tip from Ian that help Notes users rapidly move messages from Inbox to Task lists.

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What is Email Snacking? ( & How You Can Avoid It) (Email)

Great thoughts on how to get your Inbox to Zero on a more regular basis.

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When Your Budget Gets Blasted (Misc)

Sometimes life happens and you find yourself in a nearly instant financial crisis.

Although I'm not an accountant or a financial advisor, I'm no stranger to these situations.

So what do you pay first? Next?

Food. You've gotta eat and it's a mistake to pay bills before you buy groceries.

Transportation. If you can't get to work, things are only going to get worse.

Utilities. If you don't pay them, they will cut them off.

Secured debt. They will come after the property and you don't want that.

Unsecured debt. These folks may be the most persistent but in my opinion should be at the bottom of the list.

One thing for sure is that you want to communicate with the people you owe. Sometimes they have solutions you are not aware of. They can't help you work things out if you don't talk to them.

And one last thing: pray and ask God for wisdom. He said He would give it to you.

How to Create a Calendar Entry from an E-mail in Lotus Notes (GTD)

One of my favorite GTD (Getting Things Done) hacks in Outlook is to move an email to the calendar.

In this post, Ian shows how to do this in Notes. Way to go, Ian!

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The Power Of Desire X 2 (Spiritual)

The power of desire is one of the most powerful forces on the planet. This power multiplies geometrically when couples, teams, or business associates share the same desire.

Recently, I have been profoundly impacted by Stormie Omartian's The Power of a Praying® Husband. Guys, if you want a happy wife, this one is a must read.

In Chapter 16, Omartian explores the subject of "Her Desires".

Rebooting Your Life (Spiritual)

Sometimes an event or series of events causes you to re-evaluate everything about your life. Recently I had one of those wake-up calls.

So what can you do (and what I am doing)?

Shut down what you can shut down. When life throws you a curve ball, you need as few battles to fight as possible. Shut down absolutely everything you can. If you are in a position to take a sabbatical or temporary breather, do it. What you need is less stress (good or bad) and more perspective.

Do You Tivo Sports? (Fun And Fitness Friday)

So here's the thing: I love to watch sports and I love to go to bed early. Up until recently, more often than not, when games went late I would just catch the scores and highlights the next day. Lately though I've been recording some events and watching them the next day. The NFL playoff game between the Patriots and the Jaguars is an example. The game was played on Saturday night. I watched all but about 1 hour of it on Saturday night and then watched the rest the next morning before looking at the final score. It was great! I loved it!

Macbook Air – Just Right Or Too Thin? (Tech Thursday)

The new ultra-portable laptop was recently introduced at Macworld. Kudos for Apple having the boldness to do something really different. As usual, if I could buy whatever Jobs pitches at a keynote within an hour of the speech, I would. On the other hand, after the effects of the speech wear off, I begin to look at things with a more critical eye.

P*O*R*N* Blocking and Windows Home Server (Windows Wednesday)

If you want to know about a free way to block adult oriented sites, then this post is for you. If you have a Windows Home Server and want to block adult oriented sites, then this post is especially for you.

What's Wrong With Annual Reviews And What To Do Instead (GTD Tuesday)

Recently I heard a podcast that offered a great alternative to annual performance reviews. It seems that most companies do annual reviews but most people agree that they aren't very effective.

The podcast was an episode of The Cranky Middle Manager featuring David Maister, author of Strategy and the Fat Smoker; Doing What's Obvious But Not Easy. At around 13 ½ minutes into the show, Maister addresses the issue of performance reviews. To summarize his thoughts:

Move It So You Won’t Lose It (Email Monday)

When you have more than one screen page of emails in your Inbox, you start to go numb to them. In effect, you lose them.

Many people use their Inbox as a todo list. Since the average person gets over 80 messages a day, the Inbox just doesn't work very well as a todo list: it fills up too fast.

Contest: YouTube Your Way To Stress Relief (Fun and Fitness Friday)

On a Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago, I was laughing out loud at some videos on YouTube.

If you need some stress relief (and who doesn't), just go to YouTube, type in your search, and immediately get funny videos for free! One search that works well for me is "clean comedians".

One comedian I really like is Henry Cho. He is an Asian born in Tennessee married to a woman from Arab, Alabama. Just go to YouTube and put "Henry Cho" in the search and you won't be sorry.

What are your favorite funny (and clean) YouTube videos?

Post a comment with a link to the video and after I get enough comments, I'll pick one at random and send them a free copy of my book, Escape From Email Hell .

Bitwine – Revisited (Tech Thursday)

Bitwine is a great service connecting consultants with customers. If you missed my post last week about it, click here.

I had some questions and one of their people was gracious enough to spend some time with me last Saturday.

Here was my big issue: I couldn't imagine that the average person would be willing to get everything in place before contacting me or other Bitwine advisors. To use Bitwine to its fullest capacity a customer needs a PayPal account, to have Skype installed, and to have the Bitwine toolbar installed. For most people, I just think that's too many clicks.

Can You See Me Now? (Windows Wednesday)

Thanks to the great folks at DownloadSquad (do they find everything or what!?), I found a great remote desktop application called CrossLoop . Have you ever experienced the frustration of trying to help someone over the phone with a software question? It's so much easier if you can see what they need and show them how to do it. CrossLoop (and other applications like it) overcome this by allowing you to connect to someone's computer over the Internet, see what they are seeing, and control their mouse and keyboard.

I’ve Gotta Do A Weekly Review! (GTD Tuesday)

Those were the words I silently shouted on a Friday morning about two weeks ago. After I made that decision, I immediately felt a deep sense of relief. I scheduled the review for the following morning. I spent over two hours doing my review but when I was done it felt great! You see, this review was only for my life outside of "work". Like many GTDers my "work" life tends to be more organized than my "home" life.

How To Avoid Phishing and Pharming + AOL security slam.

Plain English explanation of Phishing (and Pharming) as well as seven easy to follow tips on how to prevent identity theft. Most Diggers might know this - but definitely worth sending to parents and other amateurs. Did you know that for ever one legit mail - 5-8 pharming emails are sent?!! Also a nice (and deserved) slam on AOL mail security.

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Me On APT

For those of you in the Alabama area you can see me on TV at 7:00 PM today (January 18, 2008) on APT. The show is called Alabama Stories and is a documentary about the Start-up Weekend I participated in back in November.

Enjoy.

Having My Back Cracked Makes Me Happy (Fun and Fitness Friday)

I mean it. It had been a while since I visited my local Chiropractor. I was feeling pretty stressed and not sleeping that well.

After my adjustment, my attitude immediately began to improve. The next day, after a better night's sleep, I really was happier.

For me, Chiropractic care makes a difference in my day to day attitude.

What's your opinion on Chiropractic care?

The Ancient Secret Of Instant Memorization (Tech Thursday)

You will amaze yourself. I've been reading about memorization techniques for over 20 years. The "Roman Room" is the best I've ever found.

1. Visualize 10 places in a room. Pick a room you are familiar with. Use the four corners, the four walls, the floor, and the ceiling as your 10 points. Now associate an object with each one starting with the first corner and moving clockwise around the room.