Friday Finds – 07/31/09

A weekly collection of things I’ve run across that may be of interest to you.

Why Multitasking Doesn’t Work via Lateral Action

10 Ways To Give Yourself A Procrastination Inoculation via ZenHabits

9 Rules of Facebook Promotion Every Small Business Should Know via All Facebook

Do You Have These 11 Traits of Highly Creative People? via Copyblogger

HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn via Mashable

Pondering Social Media in 25 Words

Liz Strauss has created a new 25 word challenge at her blog, Successful & Outstanding Blog(gers).  This one is writing 25 words about social media.

My contribution relates to how I have been feeling about social media lately:

So many blog posts; so many tweets; so many friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and followers; so little time to spare.  How ever do we keep up?

To contribute your own 25 words, head over to Liz’s blog post, Writing Project: 25 Words of Social Media Wisdom.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29223627@N04/ / CC BY 2.0

Strategies for Working More Efficiently

There are many strategies for working more efficiently, but I have found that the areas below are where people struggle the most.  So here are some ideas to help you use your time more effectively and work more efficiently.

Make A List

You’ve heard it before, but I’ll say it again:  a “to do” list is your friend.  Here are some task list strategies:

• Carve out ten minutes at the end of the day to create a new list for the following day.  This will help you wind down at the end of the day and help you jump in the next day.
• Break larger tasks into smaller, more manageable tasks.
• Prioritize your list.
• Do a few easy tasks at the beginning of the day.  Most people advise knocking off the hardest tasks first, but I find that I am more energized when I complete a few simple tasks and cross them off the list.  Sometimes you need that sense of accomplishment to be more driven to attack those harder tasks.

Organize Your Email

Many email programs and clients allow you to create folders.  Take advantage of this feature!  Following is how I manage my email:

• I have several different folders arranged by project.  Some projects may have additional subfolders depending on the situation.  Organize your email in a way that makes sense to you and allows you to easily retrieve old messages.
• Messages stay in my inbox until I act on it.  Once I’ve acted on it, I either delete it or place it into the applicable folder for future reference.  Consider this method as it keeps your inbox relatively clean and at a glance, you know what needs action.
• For certain types of email, such as newsletters, I create a folder and set my filtering options to place new message that fit a certain criteria into this folder.  These are typically emails that do not require action (other than to read them).  When I have some downtime, I go to this folder and start reading them.
• I use Outlook, so for messages that require action and are time-sensitive, I use the Flag option to set a reminder so I act on it on-time.

Organize Your Computer Files

I can’t tell you how many times I see hundreds of documents just thrown into the My Documents folder on my client's’ computers.  Computer files should be organized just like paper files.  I organize my business files by client., which may further be broken down by project folders.  I also have folders for my website, marketing collateral, and templates.  Find a systems that works for you and allows you to easily find documents.

Maintain a Calendar

Nothing is more frustrating than waiting for someone to show up for a meeting.  Don’t be that person who is always late, or worse, forgot.  Keep a calendar, whether it’s Outlook, Google Calendar, or a good old daily planner.

Unplug

Distractions can impair workflow and creativity.  When you are working on something that demands your full attention, consider the following:

• Close your email program.
• Turn off your cell phone.
• Let calls to your landline go to voicemail.
• Disconnect from your instant messaging program (or “appear offline”).
• Close your social networking tools.

I’m an organizational freak.  I’d love to hear about how you manage your schedule and workload.  Drop me a line in the comments.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tbisaacs/ / CC BY 2.0

Friday Finds – 07/17/09

A weekly collection of things I’ve run across that may be of interest to you.

Article  10 Tips for Taking Notes, by Maeve Maddox – Great suggestions for taking notes and meeting minutes.

Article  12 Tips for Making Small Talk, from CareerBuilder – According to a study of Stanford University School of Business MBAs ten years after graduation, their success did not correlate to their GPAs.  Instead, the ability to connect and converse with others had an impact on their success.  This article shares some great tips from Debra Fine, author of The Fine Art of Small Talk.

Organization Development Network Conference 2009

The Organization Development Network a professional organization for those who practice organization development.  Members from all over the world come together to share their knowledge and learn from others.

The 2009 conference will be held October 18-21 in Seattle, Washington.  If you register by August 15, you will receive a $200 discount.

Featured keynote speakers include:

• Peter Block
• Denise Caruso
• Leng Lim
• Carolyn Lukensmeyer
• Juliette Powell

The conference is a great opportunity to learn from others, build your skillset and toolbox, and meet others who are passionate about organization development.  What can you expect to get out of the conference?  Here are a few nuggets taken from the conference website:

• Learn from emerging and respected thought leaders; select from more than 100 offerings.
• Get tools, approaches, and solutions you can put to use right away.
• Use program tracks and content threads to tailor the conference experience to meet your personal and professional needs.

Interested?  Head over to the conference website to learn more.  And don’t forget, register by August 15 and receive a $200 discount!

Friday Finds – 07/10/09

A weekly collection of things I’ve run across that may be of interest to you.

Article  Why Doing It Yourself Can Cost More, by Cathy Stucker – Some great considerations to think about when debating whether to hire someone to do the work for you as opposed to doing it yourself.

Article  Empowering Your Communication Methods, by Carrie Wilkerson – Find face-to-face communications to be uncomfortable?  Read this article for ideas to make communication easier and more enjoyable.

Article  How to Write an Attention-Grabbing Professional Bio, Alyssa Gregory – A must-read for all professionals.  Great tips and ideas for creating a stand-out bio.

Article  So you want to be a Change Agent?, by Eric D. Brown – A great look at what it takes to lead change in your organization.

A Look at Google Wave

I just finished watching the demo of Google Wave that was presented at Google I/O back in May.  Google Wave is a communication and collaboration tool that works in your web browser.  It’s planned to be released later this year.

 

In the simplest of terms, Google Wave is about merging the various communication tools into one tool that maximizes communication and collaboration. 

• Convergence of email and instant messaging.
• Threaded messages, beyond what you find in today’s message board and group forums.
• Real-time updates (literally to the nanosecond!).
• Capabilities to use it in conjunction with social media sites.
• And so many more possibilities to come, I’m sure.

The demo is 1 hour and 20 minutes long.  Most everyone will be interested in the first hour’s worth of content, while developers will want to stick around until the end.  I encourage you to view the demo, as it’s pretty difficult to explain how Wave works in a short blog post.  Plus, it really just helps to see it.  I had read other articles about it and thought I had a pretty good idea about how it worked.  But when I saw the demo, I was surprised at the tool’s capability, above and beyond my initial thoughts formed by reading other material.  It’s worth the look, plus they’re kind of entertaining.

I’d love to hear your reactions to Google Wave.  Do you have any ideas about how you could implement it in your organization?  Do you think it’s just another wave (no pun intended) that will be big for awhile and then fade away?  Drop me a line!

Photo Credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/23209605@N00/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Friday Finds – July 3, 2009

A weekly collection of things I’ve run across that may be of interest to you.

Article  19 Presence Management Chores You COULD Do Every Day, by Chris Brogan – Great suggestions for anyone using social media tools to establish an online presence.

Video  Innovative Uses for Twitter for Small Business, Ralph Wilson interview Avinash Kaushik – Some great insights on using Twitter for business.  Avinash also shares some of the analytical tools he uses.

Article  HOW TO: Use Social Media for Enterprise Business, by Ben Parr – A look at some ideas to leverage social media for B2B companies.

Article  5 Uncommon Ways Your Business Can Use Twitter, by Darren Rowse – Some interesting ways you can utilize Twitter for business.

Tutorial  How To Send Personalized Mass Emails in Outlook, by Saikat Basu – A very good tutorial for using mail merge in Outlook.

Article  Will Your Small Business Use Google Wave? – A quick preview of Google’s collaboration tool Google Wave.

Quick Tip for LinkedIn: Websites & Feeds

On Tuesday I posted a quick tip for customizing your website listing in LinkedIn.  This tip is a follow-on about making the most of the website you list.

BlogLink is a LinkedIn application that pulls in feeds from your connection automatically, so you get to see what they are up to in one spot.  And, if you set up your website listing properly, your data will filter into your connections BlogLink feeds.  So, how does this all work?  It’s quite simple, just follow the steps below.

Stay On Top of Your Connections

To keep up with what your connections are doing, simply navigate the the BlogLink application and add it.  Once you’ve added it, you then have the option to display it on your profile and/or your homepage.  When you add it to your profile, it will display the four most recent items of your feed in your LI profile.  Adding BlogLink to your homepage, you have the ability to see your connections feeds (as well as your own) right from your homepage.

What’s nice about this is that your connections do not have to be using BlogLink in order for you to get their feeds.  As long as they have a blog in their list of websites, they will show up in your feed.

Setting Up Your Feeds

The really neat thing about this is that all you have to do is make sure your blog is listed in your profile’s website listing.  What even cooler is that BlogLink, although primarily focused on blogs, will also pull other feeds such as Twitter.  As you can see below, I have this blog and my Twitter profile listed as websites.  BlogLink pulls both of these feeds automatically, which will appear on your LI profile as well as the feed of any of your connections using the application.

How Does All of This Look?

This first image below show what the BlogLink feed looks like on your profile.  This is what people would see when they visit your LI profile, if you choose to have it displayed.

This image shows you how the feed looks from your homepage.  Here you can view your connections’ feeds, or click on the By Me tab to see your own feeds.  Conversely, when a connection adds BlogLink you will appear in their feeds.

 

 

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For more information about BlogLink, including FAQs, visit their website.

Don’t forget to read my related post Quick Tip for LinkedIn: Customizing Your Website Listing if you haven’t already.  It provides information on setting up your website listing for your LI profile.