E-Mail Managment Best Practices

Regular blog readers will notice that e-mail and task managment are a common theme this blog.  As I catch up on my blog feeds this weekend I found a great post on the Microsoft Office Outlook Team Blog entitled “Best Practices for Outlook 2007″ that reenforces many of the Getting Things Done concepts with tactical approches to managing basic tasks in Outlook 2007.

Among the concepts they cover are:

1. Reduce the number of places you read e-mail
2. Let some e-mail pass by
3. Reduce the number of places you manually file messages
4. Process your e-mail using the 4Ds
5. Reduce you to-do list to once list
6. Work in batches
7. Use good judgment when sending e-mail

While these topice aren’t uncommon GTD sources the Melissa MacBeth does a great job refering each topic to a how-to.

Technorati Tags: David Allen, Getting Things Done, GTD, Mail, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook, Time Management

Tags: David Allen, Getting Things Done, GTD, Mail, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook, Time Management

In the past I have written about GTD techniques and my ubiquitous capture system and from the beginning I have noticed a shift in my methods and techniques.  This week I had a bit of an “ah ha moment” when reading a blog post entitled “File Under: Miscellaneous“.

The problem with the Old World

In the tangible world of wooden desktops, filing cabinets, and hanging file folders (I hate those things!) data capture and retrieval takes a lot of forethought.  In my own hard copy files I have a section for Project (major heading) and then a folder for each project (minor heading) I also have a section for hard copy Purchase Requestions that have been returned from my purchasing department.  This all appears organized and easy to file and retrieve documents but after a couple months of use (maybe less) you will find a dilemma–where to I store a purchase requestion related to Project X?  Now I need to consider a set of rules to handle this consistently.

These indexing and referencing problems become more challenging with much larger collections.  Have you ever considered asking why most libraries divide them fiction collections by authors name and their non-fiction by subject?  What happens when I want to find a vampire romance novel?

These are problems in the tangible world because I can’t have the same hardcopy in more than one place at a time.

Breaking the Paradigm in the Digital World

When I first started building my electronic capture system it was based on my hardcopy process.  Identify information, move it to relevant folder, and retrieve it based on my working knowledge of the system (where do I put my project related purchase requsitions?).  This worked well, at least as well has the hardcopy systems that I was already working with.

A couple years into using my capture system I discovered indexing tools I could use to index and search the contents of my desktop like Copernic, Google Desktop, and Windows Search.  Each of these tools provides an efficient desktop index that will allow full text search of the documents stored in your computer and when utilized in conjunction with the extended properties if a document (i.e. keywords filed in a Microsoft Office document) can all you to quickly find relevant data in any indexed folder.

This shift from a directory based system and process is no different than the world experienced when they moved from the early version of Yahoo! (remember when it was a directory not a search engine?) to Google.  The world recognized directory based systems scaled very poorly the outbreak of the Internet, on a micro level this is what many of us managing electronic capture systems learned.  The more data you have, the more referential relevance you have, the more you need to run an index based retrieval process.

The paradigm shift has a little bit of overhead (quite literally some processor overhead to maintain the indexes) but once you embrace the concept most people will recognize there is much less effort involved with an index based system.  While I personally choose to maintain some documents in hierarchal folders, like dividing reference documents from projects, to allow me to archive them once they are no longer active other document types, like e-mail, just get moved from the in box to an archive folder.  I no longer need to put much mental effort into sorting because it is easier to just search for the information I need when I need it.

Consider the impact of this shift in much larger reference systems, like a library.  Google Books epitomizes the strength of full text indexes, consider the search for “ubiquitous capture system getting things done”, I can quickly pull up some relevant passages from the text I want to review and reference.  This method would allow me to concurrently store my non-fiction novels both my author and subject making it much easier to find the Twilight series when I want to read vampire romance novels.

By embracing index based systems I made my storage system as simple as possible and never sacrifice the ability to retrieve information much more quickly than my former directory bases system.

Technorati Tags: David Allen, Getting Things Done, Google, Google Books, GTD, Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Search, Search Engines, Web search engine, Yahoo

Tags: David Allen, Getting Things Done, Google, Google Books, GTD, Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Search, Search Engines, Web search engine, Yahoo

A couple weeks ago I upgraded my laptop from Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10. This was my third time using the automated upgrade available through the built in upgrade manager.

As usual my experience was that Ubuntu made the upgrade simple and I only had one minor issue related to my sound device not working following the upgrade. After Google Search and search of the community forums I was able to find an easy resolution.

Now if only it were this easy and inexpensive (free) to upgrade to Windows 7….

Technorati Tags: Google, Laptop, Searching, Ubuntu, Windows 7

Tags: Google, Laptop, Searching, Ubuntu, Windows 7

Like many on the Internet I have been a devote GMail user for a number of years and have grown to love the fact that it allows me to store gigabytes of e-mail on-line. Of course with this much content it becomes unwieldy to find just the right e-mail without mastering a couple of search skills.

The most important thing a GMail user can learn are some of options available for advance search and how to combine them to narrow your selection.

Advance search simply refers to combining keywords in a structured way to allow the Google search engine to operate that way the user intends. For example, instead of simply typing “John” and hitting search you can qualify the message with “from:John” or “to:John” to get only the messages that were sent from or to John. The first sample will include all messages that contain the word “John” while the the other two will provide just the messages from or to him.

Google has a number search terms available for use including:

• from – Used to identify the person who sent the message.
• to – Used to specify a person in the recipient list.
• subject – Used to search the subject line.
• has:attachment - Is used to identify messages that contain attachments.
• quotes – Are used to provide exact phrasing for the search.
• in:inbox – Limits the search to the in-box.
• in:anywhere – Searches all ares of Gmail except the Spam and Trash folders.
• after – Returns only messages sent or received after a certain date.
• before – Returns only messages sent or received before a certain date.

(Google offers a complete list of additional terms in their Support page)

Once you learn the search terms you can combine them to gain control over your messages. For example you want to find all messages from Bill regarding an Halloween party you may type a search phrase as follows: “from:bill after:10/1/2008 before:11/1/2008 subject:halloween or party”. Assuming Bill is a common correspondent this would return a much narrower set of results than just searching on “bill halloween party”.

Once you have a firm grasp of the search techniques you will be able to quickly and efficiently recall messages from your GMail in-box.

Technorati Tags: Getting Things Done, Gmail, Google, Google search, GTD, Productivity, Search, Search Engines, Spam, Web search engine

Tags: Getting Things Done, Gmail, Google, Google search, GTD, Productivity, Search, Search Engines, Spam, Web search engine

A couple months ago I explained how I installed Ubuntu on my Acer Aspire One, unfortunately following that post the screen got damaged so I hadn’t been using the system. Recently I was talking with a co-worker who wanted to use watch MLB.com on his television to catch his hometown team when they were not broadcast locally; this gave the broken Aspire a new breath of life as a media player.

While this wasn’t a terribly complicated project I found it was a good way to take re-use the laptop with a broken monitor in a constructive way.

First, thing you need is a television that can accept VGA inputs. While this may seem to be pretty straight forward, when I bought my living room television I wasn’t considering this option and as such it doesn’t have the required input. If you have a television with a VGA input you it should also have an audio input for the laptop output.

Once you have a television with the appropriate input all you need is a VGA cable and an appropriate audio cable (usually mini plug to mini plug but could be mini plug to RCA). Since I also wanted to be able to control the computer from across the room I added a wireless keyboard and mouse, but before doing so I was controlling it from another laptop using the built in remote desktop functions (Vino).

Once connected to the television I can use the laptop as a media player for almost any media I would like, or on-line content like Youtube or Hulu.

Bill of Material:

Technorati Tags: Acer Aspire, Hulu, MLB.com, RCA connector, Television, Ubuntu, VGA connector, YouTube

Tags: Acer Aspire, Hulu, MLB.com, RCA connector, Television, Ubuntu, VGA connector, YouTube

Last week my wife’s Acer Aspire One came back from repair and since we bought her a new laptop I inherited it for my one use. Since I have been tossing around the idea of finally migrating to Linux for personal use I took this opportunity to do so.

I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to do the Ubuntu install and that most functions worked out of the box.

Before starting the install I did a test run of a persistent Ubuntu 9.04 install from USB (available from pendrivelinux.com). This gave me an opportunity to validate that some of the historic “pain points”, in particular, the display, wireless, and audio would work. After a couple minutes of testing I was able to confirm that all functions were substantially working. From there I simply rebooted the laptop to run the install to my hard drive from the USB drive.

Upon completing the install there were only two areas that needed to addressed, both of which were minor, the LED for the wireless was not working and the sound/mic wasn’t working. To address the LED issues I just loaded linux-backports-modules-jaunty and to get the sound/mic to work I changed the sound devices in System|Preferance|Sound|Sound Capture both of which were detailed on the Ubuntu help site.

Following the install I am impressed with the performance, even on the lower end 1.6GHz Intel Atom and 1Gb of RAM. I have enabled the enhanced graphics themes and don’t notice any performance issues that would imply a sluggish graphics card.

As was the case with the prior version (Ubuntu 8.10) it is extremely easy to install software thought both the “Add/Remove Programs” and the Synaptic Manager so you can quickly get your productivity applications functional.

After the first week of running the new OS and going fully Open Source I have been pleased with the experiment and don’t plan to go back to Windows on that hardware any time soon.

Technorati Tags: Acer Aspire One, Intel Atom, Linux, Microsoft Windows, Open source, Operating Systems, Ubuntu, USB flash drive

Tags: Acer Aspire One, Intel Atom, Linux, Microsoft Windows, Open source, Operating Systems, Ubuntu, USB flash drive

In Seth Godin’s blog post entitled “Luxury vs. premium” he defines the difference between luxury and premium goods were at their core “Luxury goods are organized waste” and “Premium goods…are expensive variants of commodity goods.” With a premium good you get better performance while with a luxury good you are primarily getting value from the signal you are sending.

I think the most important take-away from this definition is the recognition that when you are marketing a premium good or service you need to understand the intrinsic value of premium you are providing. According to Seth, “Plenty of brands are in trouble right now because they’re not sure which one they represent.” This is true not only of luxury vs. premium but also premium vs. commodity.

When marketing premium goods it is critical to understand the value proposition not only of the commodity good but also the value of the premium you are offering. In a market full of commodity goods and services recognition and communication of your value is critical and consumers need to buy into the value you are selling.

Technorati Tags: Autoblog, Autocar, Business, Jaguar, Jaguar Cars, Jaguar XK, JaguarXf, Marketing, Seth Godin

Tags: Autoblog, Autocar, Business, Jaguar, Jaguar Cars, Jaguar XK, JaguarXf, Marketing, Seth Godin

Microsoft released Office Service Pack 2 this week (download here) which provides some much needed performance improvements in Outlook, Excel charting, and interoperability.

Among the most significant features users may find is the ability to save documents to PDF, XPS, and Open Document format without additional add-ons. While much of the world is running Office this will be a godsend to people interacting with organizations who don’t run Office as a standard.

A complete list if updates is available here.

I recently asked my Twitter community how to make the tool relevant in a business to business exchange since business purchasers don’t always have the same passion for your service as a consumer may.  Among the great responses I received were a couple stand outs.

First @MarkBonham pointed out that “[Social Media] is great for building awareness/brand with a target audience.  You want them to view you as an expert.”  Creating community interaction, responding to questions, and providing information not only allows you to stay in the forefront of your consumer’s consciousness but also reinforces your expertise.

@choirshark reminded me that even if the buyer isn’t passionate Twitter and social media remains a good way to engage.  Since social media is about Community, Context, Conversation and Collaboration you have an opportunity to continually reinforce your presence with the “cloud of influencers”.

While the content of the message may not be not be directly tied to your product and service offering you can use Twitter to remain in your consumer’s vision.  For example if you sell toner cartridges you may offer online printer support to keep your message in the forefront.  As long as you are providing value to the community they will endure some product placement among your messages.

It is important to keep in mind that within the context social media you need to provide valuable content or conversation to engage your community or they will revolt.  Since social media is about community not consumers they need to be engaged in the conversation and content.  This is no different than product placement in television-American Idol viewers most won’t mind a Coca-Cola cup in front of Randy or Simon, some viewers will be bothered by the Ford “music videos” inserted between commercials, and you would likely have viewer exodus if Fox allowed the advertising to have an obvious influence on the remainder of the content.  The viewers and community participate because they gain value from the experience.

To get the most value from social media a business my remain relevant, participate, be engaging, and helpful.

Technorati Tags: Advertising, American Idol, B2B, Business to Business, Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Company, Product placement, Social media, Target audience, Television advertisement, Twitter

Tags: Advertising, American Idol, B2B, Business to Business, Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Company, Product placement, Social media, Target audience, Television advertisement, Twitter

Contributed under Creative Commons by *clarity*

In a recent post on luisrocks.com called “Fighting Cognitive Dissonance one Customer at a Time”
Louis makes a point that follow-up one of the most critical tools to ensure your consumers remain happy after a sale. At first this lesson my appear to apply primarily to traditional selling and customer relationships I think the implications are much wider reaching to most relationships.

As a long term manager I have coached my staff to include follow-up on the work they do to ensure satisfaction and find other opportunities for improvement. As a department head I also make a point of performing follow-up on not only the critical items but some of the less critical items on a daily basis so I can ensure quality and provide additional coaching to the team.

A couple examples that have become common in my experience as an IT manager are:

• After a programmer completes a requested application and have completed iterative design I recommend a process review of how the completed application ends up being used. Frequently users will repurpose the work to perform unintended task which are more time consuming because they don’t have the right tool or even worse incorrect because they don’t understand the process and assume they can reuse the prior work. For example a report with too many fields that needs to be manipulated to be useful or a report that is filtered and is missing critical data.
• While large help desks frequently provide customer satisfaction surveys for post call support I have found them inadequate as a measure of success. The method that works well for teams of all sizes is a follow-up conversation on a sample of calls. A couple well placed questions like the following will get more insight than one-thousand surveys:
  • Did we resolve your issue?
  • How long was your wait?
  • Could we have done anything different?
  • Can we do anything else or do you have any other issues?
• Follow-up with people whom you have not worked with for a while. You may learn there a looming issues they didn’t think were important but could be symptoms of larger problem (“you know my compute has been getting slower lately” may yield a virus or failing hard drive) or you may learn that they are avoiding support because they were not satisfied with the previous service.

While the examples I provide are oriented toward an IT department I think they are applicable to all departments providing a service and certainly for sales departments managing external relationships. Imagine the finance department asking operations if the monthly reports are adequate to manage their business, or facilities asking if the lighting in the office is sufficient, or Human Resources requesting feedback on the benefits.

At any point we are either consumers or service providers and if we consider our desire for follow-up it is easy to recognize the need.

Technorati Tags: Business, Business Services, Customer First, Customer Management, Customer satisfaction, Customer Service, GTD, Human resources, it, Managment, Project Managment

Tags: Business, Business Services, Customer First, Customer Management, Customer satisfaction, Customer Service, GTD, Human resources, it, Managment, Project Managment