| Greetings!
Love this -- as we approach the halfway mark for 2013, I decided to look back at how my firm performed in the first half. I had set a modest goal of adding 8 new clients this year -- a little less than one a month -- to keep the business nicely growing along with my existing client activities. As of today, I have already added 21! new clients for 2013. That is unbelievable! Thank you to all of you that have helped with making this homegrown effort a big success!
This month, as we head into a holiday week, I'd like to share a simple Outlook tip (you could use this tip on Google too) to set up your workstation for better productivity and quicker decision making. Here we go: |
Split-Screening Your MS Outlook (and Google Too!)
| This is ALWAYS the place to look for your Timely Tip!
This is just a fun, handy (and quick!) Timely Tip for Outlook users. Did you know that you can open up different functions of Outlook in different "windows" on your screen(s)? Try this: open up your Outlook and go to your e-mail inbox. On the bottom left hand side, you'll see links to your Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, and Notes. Right-click on any one of these functions, and it will give you the option to "Open in a New Window". Do just that. Then, minimize your inbox and "bounce" it off the left-hand side of your Windows screen so it only takes up half of your monitor screen (you may have to manually resize this if not using Windows). Take your other open function, minimize it, and "bounce" it off the right-hand side of your Windows screen. Voila!
Here is a picture of how I did this with my inbox and Outlook calendar (note how my inbox was at ZERO earlier today!):
http://www.randalldean.com/Outlook_Split_Screen.jpg
Now you should have your inbox on one-half of your screen and your calendar on the other half (and this is even slicker if you have a dual-monitor layout -- with two monitors, including one that is a wide-screen monitor, you could easily have three functions open at the same time. Think about this -- you could have E-mail, Calendar, and Tasks ALL open and visible at the same time!)
Using Google? You could do the same. Simply open your Gmail in your Chrome browser, resize to fit half the screen, open a second window in your Chrome browser, and put your Google Calendar, Contacts, or even Tasks in the second half of your screen.
This is a great and simple way to not only see your e-mail, but to see the more strategic functions in Outlook or Google too (you know I'm a big fan of Calendar and Task List for managing your day!)
Don't have a big enough monitor or second monitor? GO GET ONE!! Jeez! ;-)
(Or look to the right for this month's cool app suggestion.) Enjoy!
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| Enjoy the Holiday! |
I'm opening up the freshly-pressure-washed deck tonight to some old friends and their kids, as we try to dodge the raindrops and skeeters for some holiday grilling tonight.
Enjoy the upcoming holiday week, and I'll be back next month with more fun tips. (And let me know if you start to use the Outlook or Google "split screens" -- I think this could truly help with productivity for at least some of you!)
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And please remember to use the links below to connect "socially".
Until next month, Stay Timely!
Randy Dean
Randall Dean Consulting & Training, LLC
http://www.randalldean.com
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App of the Month
SplashTop
XDisplay for IPad, IDisplay for Android Tablets?
| SplashTop XDisplay App -- available on ITunes. IDisplay on Google Play.
What if you could use your IPad tablet as the second monitor to your Mac or Windows PC? Wouldn't that be slick? Well, you might just be able to using SplashTop XDisplay.
I found a great article comparing three different apps that would allow you to do this with your IPad -- here's the article, so you can see your different choices.
Android users may have success with IDisplay, which allows for USB connection to the PC you will be second-streaming. Here is an article on this possibility.
It looks like you may need to be at least a bit of a techie to go through the set up for both of these apps, but if you'd really like to expand your usability of your tablet as part of your productivity "suite", this seems like a great way to stretch your tech dollar.
Let me know if you do test and use either of these "tablets as 2nd monitor" apps, and what you think. |
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Interesting article on e-mail usage and pretty cool apps to help prioritize/manage.
| Thank you to Timely Tips reader Tim Schultz for sharing this interesting FastCompany article on e-mail usage and two cool app solutions to help.
This article, E-mail is a Universal Plague, is interesting. I do wonder though if better training, regimens, and techniques turns it back from "plague" to "productive without the need for new apps to learn and master. In essence, the creators of these apps believe there are tasks trapped in your inbox. I believe exactly the same. But you could simply use the on board tools in e-mail systems like Outlook and Gmail to do exactly the same thing (with a little training of course.)
Look at the premise of the article, and consider if these apps might help. Of course, I also know someone you can call that can get your team on Outlook or Gmail to do the same things using the tools you already have.
;-)
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