|
I hope your summer is sailing smoothly along. Right
now it’s oh so hot in Southern California. The heat
often makes me feel sluggish and it’s easy to lose my
focus. Glad I have my
daily to-do sheet to keep me on track. I
mentioned
this back in the March issue of Moving
Forward.
Download one for free to help you stay focused.
This month I’m going to share some productivity
lessons and ideas that have been personally helpful
for me. They streamline a project or help make sure I
don’t forget something important. As always, if you
read something that inspires you, provokes you,
wasn’t clear, or you feel you could add a little more
info -– talk to me; I’m just an email or phone call
away.
Until next month, try to keep cool – both inside and
out!
Debbie Gilster
| Productivity for Your Business: Changing your Company Name – all the things to consider |
 |
|
After ten years of being Organize & Computerize, I
changed our company name to Center for Growth &
Productivity. Boy, did we learn some lessons. Here
are some things to consider when or if, you decide to
do the same. I hope they will lessen your learning
curve and transition pains.
|
| Productivity for Your Self: Vacation checklist – reduce the stress |
|
|
Are you harried getting ready for your trip? Just sure
you’ve forgotten something as you walk out the
door? Vacations aren’t supposed to create stress,
they are supposed to relieve stress. One of my
personal techniques is to use a checklist that I keep
on my computer and update as necessary. I’m
sharing with you the same checklist I use at home.
My Vacation Checklist is available as a free
download. Customize it for your own use. Now really
enjoy that vacation!
|
| Technology Tip: Save time finding today’s date |
|
|
OK, I’m memory challenged! I wear a watch with the
date and every time I write a check or need to
know the date, I have to look down. The same thing
happens in my office. I want to just look up
and see the date. I don’t want to hold my mouse
over the time or click on my ACT! or Outlook
calendars. I hate wasting key strokes or
taking up wall space with a calendar.
There is a software solution for just about
everything. Now the day of the week, the date
and the time are listed in my system tray in
the bottom right side of my computer screen.
Windows, as a standard, shows the time but not the
date. In my research I found several inexpensive
products that would, at a minimum, list the date
without taking up lots of memory. They all had more
features than I wanted, but I now have what I need.
Who knows, I might use the alarm feature some day.
The first product I installed works like a charm so I
didn’t even try out the rest. If you have a similar
issue, go check out 1st Clock 3.0 at
www.greenparrots.com. It’s only $29.95 and you
can download
a free 30-day trial. I’m in heaven now!
|
| Interesting News |
|
|
- Debbie is facilitating a contest by
Argent Mortgage for all their 70,000+
independent
mortgage
brokers nationwide called “Office S.O.S”. The person
with the messiest desk can win a day with Debbie to
get their office in order. What can we do for you?
- Did you know that the average one-way
commute to work for the nation is 24.3 minutes? Are
you making productive use of your time? Tell me why
or why not – email Debbie@c4gp.com. For more
productivity statistics and quotes visit our site.
|
|
"Ask Debbie" |
|
|
|
Q: My boss is a mess. Can I organize him or her?
A: Yes, you can organize someone’s office if you are
in a position they respect. If you are their
administrative assistant, organizing consultant or the
Office Manager (someone with recognized
administrative skills) they will probably let you take a
stab at cleaning them up. But, what you are really
asking is, can I keep someone organized?
After all,
you’ve got a lot of other tasks on your plate.
Sadly, you can’t organize someone who doesn’t want
to be organized. They have to want to maintain what
you have set up for them and it has to be simple.
Start with finding out what will motivate them. Is it
saving time or money or stress? Does your boss like
finding things faster without bothering you? Will your
boss feel less embarrassed or more “executive” with
a neater office? Use their measures, not yours, to
push them along.
Then make sure the system is
simple. Start with a few steps – you can always add
more when they’ve bought in. For instance, if the
problem is paper, start using an in and out box to
corral the paper in one place. If the problem is
getting to meetings on time, start the day with a 5
minute session to be clear what is happening and
when. Begin with small successes they can call their
own – then you will both be moving forward.
Remember, God didn’t create the world in one day!
[Thanks LO for asking the question.]
|
|
