| Greetings!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! It only took me almost a month to wish that to you! Yes, I'm squeaking in this Timely Tips just under the Jan. 31 deadline, but not due to procrastination. I've been working on some BIG new initiatives, and wanted to give them some time to grow and mature before sharing with you. You'll learn more below and to the right.
Plus, this month, I have a smart tip for saving time and sanity throughout the year, AND a cool new "App of the Month" to feature.
Let's get to it! |
Timely Tips January 2012 -- TRACK Your Recurring Tasks
| This is ALWAYS the place to look for your Timely Tip!
One of the tips I share in nearly every one of my "Optimizing Your Outlook" programs is to track your recurring tasks with "anal abandon!" Recurring tasks are those tasks that happen at regular intervals -- weekly, monthly, quarterly, or even annually. They can be work tasks (monthly or quarterly reports) or personal tasks (paying the monthly credit card bill, oiling the garage door rail tracks), but they come up every so often, they need to be done, and there is usually trouble if you do them late and/or forget to do them.
I recommend watching closely for ALL recurring tasks, and then getting them into some sort of a tracking task planner or software. By watching for and tracking these task items, you can greatly reduce the stress of your day-to-day work. Rather than putting the pressure on your brain to try to remember these unique, individual tasks and intervals, a smarter system makes this easy like "autopilot".
In the old days, I'd use a "tickler file" (a manual date-based accordion file) to track these items on individual pieces of paper. Whenever the paper reminding me of the task would come up in the tickler, I would do the task, and then tickle the task reminder note at the next time I'd need to do the task. For years now, I've been using Microsoft Outlook to manage recurring tasks, in a completely automated manner.
Outlook makes this easy. Simply create a new task, set the due date for the NEXT upcoming task occurrence, and possibly categorize and/or prioritize the task. Then, before hitting "Save", instead click the "Recurrence" button on the top of the new task window. This will allow you to set the recurrence interval for the task -- and you have options for daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. And you can tag a weekly event to occur every 2 weeks, a monthly task to occur every 3 months (quarterly), and so on. With a little creativity, you can create a recurrence schedule that fits just about any task. (Note, I'm featuring Outlook, but MOST task-tracking software programs offer some form of recurrence tracking capability -- get in and find it.)
When one of the recurring tasks comes up in Outlook, all you have to do is complete the actual task, and then, rather than deleting the task, mark it "Complete" in the "Status" drop down. When a recurrence is set for a task in Outlook, rather than it showing ALL FUTURE occurrences (as it does in the calendar), it only shows the active, current task. When you mark it "Complete" and hit save, it disappears from your Active task view, and the next recurrence of your task pops up at the appropriate date on your task list. That is SLICK!!!
Knowing how to manage and track recurring tasks makes it easy to manage repetitive items in your work and life. AND, it takes that pressure off your brain to do this rote memorization (something most human brains aren't great at.) Let the software take on the bulk of this kind of memory, and use your mind to solve problems, look for opportunities, and enjoy your day! (And keep those garage doors oiled and credit cards paid on time too!)
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My Big Announcement to the Right -->
(And how YOU can use webinars for your business/company/association below)
As you can see to the right, I'm going to start hosting paid webinars on my most popular topics in 2012. Every few months, I'll be hosting a new program/topic, and we'll be recording these webinars to allow for post-program purchase and download (an amazing reference tool!)
This will be a huge part of my business this year, and moving forward. And it has been made possible through my alliance with Copper Conferencing, a leading webinar, teleconferencing, and information products firm. I know that many of you on my list are also professional speakers, authors and experts. Some of you are leading member groups or associations and are looking for new ways to provide professional content and information to your membership. And some of you are corporate/organizational HR/training managers looking to better educate your company and employees.
If any of these describe you, and you'd like to find out more about the possibility of using webinars any of these purposes, on FEBRUARY 15, I will be the co-host of a program called the "WOW of WEBINARS" with the CEO of Copper Conferencing, Carolyn Bradfield.
This one hour program will show you the feasibility and affordability of using webinars for promotion, for profit, for partnership, and for training & development. And this webinar is FREE to any participants that want to learn more about this RAPIDLY GROWING method for business and employee development.
And if you can't make the February 15th date & time, register anyway! Copper is recording this webinar, and will make it available to all registrants post-program in a downloadable file. (How cool is that?)
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Yes, this is my big new development in 2012 -- all of these popular programs I've been leading on the road and at private company sessions are now going to be available "for the masses". (And you can do this for your company, group, or association too!)
Hope you can join me as a program participant in one of these upcoming programs. Until next month, Stay Timely!
Sincerely,
Randy Dean
Randall Dean Consulting & Training, LLC
or http://www.emailsanityexpert.com
PS: Is your association or company interested in partnering with my Taming E-mail webinar program to the right? If so, send me a direct note at randy@randalldean.com and I'll tell you how your association might even be able to raise some revenues in conjunction with this March event, and events in the future! PPPS: Always feel free to use the "Forward E-mail" option below to share this info with your family, friends, & co-workers.
PPPPS: Have you ever seen this many PS's at the end of a message? ;-) |
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SAVE THE DATE:
Wednesday,
March 14, 2012
Full-Version Taming the E-mail Beast Webinar | I've had several requests to host another full-version Taming the E-mail Beast webinar program, especially from the newer people on my list. Because of this, I'm hosting a new full 90-minute webinar program on March 14, 2012.
This will be a paid program being sponsored by Copper Conferencing and several associations. I will be sending a specific note to you on this program very shortly, including program information, program costs, and registration opportunities. I have also made connections with several other top speakers, authors, and consultants who will be co-promoting this event and providing some outstanding bonus gifts for program registrants.
I wanted to get you to save this date right now, and give you a "heads up" to watch for the formal announcement on this program coming in the next few days. I also recommend you share this information with anyone in your group, company, or association that might benefit from this program.
This will be a great way for an individual or small group of people to get this training at a VERY affordable rate. And, I expect this to be the first of a series of paid webinars I'll be hosting on Copper Conferencing throughout 2012 and into 2013 on ALL of my major topics (Optimizing Outlook, SmartPhone Success, Using Google for Time Management, and more!)
We will also be recording these programs for post-program sale and download, thus allowing for a full catalog of my most popular programs in coming months.
MORE INFO (Including registration information) COMING SOON! |
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App of the Month
Grocery IQ
| Grocery IQ -- available on both the Android Market and the IPhone App Store.
This is a pretty cool app that you can use not just for groceries, and it works on both IPhone and Droid.
It allows you to build and add to a shopping list at any time. You can either type in the product you need to buy, and/or use the on-board barcode scanning tool on your smart phone to scan an item and automatically add it to your list.
Not only that, but you can tag each item on your list for separate stores (thus, it doesn't NEED to be grocery-specific -- you could have lists for the home supply store, general merchandise store, music or book store, electronics store, office supply store, etc.) And when you go to that store, just select the proper store list, and you are shopping.
This may be the coolest capability of Grocery IQ -- my wife and I both created a "joint account" on the app. That means she can add an item on her IPhone and it automatically appears on my Droid -- talk about saved trips!!! If you are doing any kind of in-person shopping (for work or home), I strongly recommend checking out this app. And remember, it works best with a barcode scanner installed on your phone too. Enjoy!!! |
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