With 2011 already in full swing some of us may have already returned to work, while others are slowly getting used to the idea of returning from holidays and attacking the new year challenges.
I often find spending a bit of time organising my technical life often results in better management of my time, gives me more flexibility throughout my work day and allows me to take back (at least some of) my life once work becomes a full time job again after Christmas.
If you’re an executive, or just looking to improve your work life, browse these 7 Techie Tips for becoming more effective:
1. Empty Your Inbox
This might sound like an impossible mission for some – but most time management experts would agree that starting the year (or even the day) with an empty inbox allows for a clear head and gives you the presence of mind to work less reactively.
Some of us are guilty of keeping everything in their inbox “just in case” we might need that email or email attachment at some stage in the future. Whilst statistically it’s proven we rarely need 99.9% of the email we keep, I won’t have that argument here.
What I would suggest, is if you like to keep the bulk of the email you’ve received in the past, simply create a folder called “Filing” or “Keeping Just In Case” and once you’ve processed/read an email move it to this folder, leaving your inbox free of clutter and only containing new, unread emails. With Outlook search becoming better and better, and addon tools such as Google Desktop you can find emails quickly and without fuss by searching.
2. Empty your Head
Perhaps it was between eating the last slice of Christmas pudding, or while you had your feet up during the Australian boxing day test but that brilliant idea you had to improve a system or process or start a new product or service needs to be written down before you get too consumed in your day to day duties.
There are many ways of streamlining your ideas and thoughts but two come to mind right now. The first is to spend an hour or so just braindumping thoughts into your Outlook Tasks – don’t “overthink” the thoughts, just create a task one by one until your head is empty. The other is to use Mindmapping software, especially if you have an iPhone, iPad or Blackberry – products like Mindjet allow you to drop all of your ideas into thought bubbles and then build on them from there.
Emptying your head into a task list or a mindmap tool can be a very liberating experience. I can remember the first time I did this exercise I had created over 100 tasks! All of these ideas were able to be realistically looked at on a task list before I planned my year ahead (and delegated or dropped a few along the way where possible).
3. Using a Smartphone or Tablet
Speaking of iPhone and so forth, if you haven’t already jumped on board with this technology, perhaps your new years resolution can be to get your hands on a Smartphone. By removing the need to be ‘chained to your desk’ in the new year, checking your emails on the fly can lead to faster decisions, more time with family (albeit, checking your emails from time to time) and more time away from the office to spend with your clients.
You can’t go too far wrong with some of the latest products – my favourite is still the iPhone 3Gs or iPhone 4 simply because of the convenience of how I like to work – but many might still opt for a Windows Mobile or a Blackberry. Just make sure it is compatible with your current IT system or talk to your IT Support for further information.
Take it a step further and look at the vast array of tablet computers now hitting the market from iPad to Playbook and trade in your bulky laptop for a sleek mobile device to get you from A to B when you’re not at your desk.
4. Research a CRM or Line of Business Application (LOB)
OK so you’ve struggled by on spreadsheets and 20th century contact management tools (like Outlook) for long enough and recognise that perhaps your competitors now have an advantage by using a CRM (customer relationship management) or Line of Business application (e.g. quoting tools or advanced accounting packages beyond the standard Quicken or MYOB) and you want to start to get some more efficiency out of your team and your business, why not start the process of looking at the types of products available to help you do that?
Many businesses have made the jump to Microsoft CRM, SugarCRM, ACT!, Salesforce, SAP and so forth because it allows them to put all of their data in one place, create business workflows and then automate them. Remember, in 2011 we need to automate, automate, automate. Our businesses depend on being competitive, flexible and able to use our headcount for higher level functions such as spending more time with customers.
5. Get a 2nd computer screen
Or if you already have a 2nd computer screen for your PC or Mac, add a 3rd. By distributing your software across 2 or more screens you can be more productive in 2011. If you’re determined to stay on top of your emails, or keep track of a specific report – keep one screen open with whatever it is you’d like to keep an eye on, and the other for whatever you are working on – perhaps writing a proposal, reading blogs like jamesvickery.com.au or updating learning your new CRM or LOB application.
6. Optimise your computer
Whilst I don’t recommend executives or their staff waste time defragging computers – we do know that optimisation can dramatically improve the performance of a PC or Mac – if you have some time before you get too far into the new year, look at cleaning up your desktop, opening up your browser such as Internet Explorer and cleaning up temporary internet files to free up space and improve overall performance.
Many of these tasks can be done by products such as OnSight Technology where common routine tasks are performed regularly to make sure all of the systems in your company are operating at their best.
7. Setup “Dropbox” or something similar
Cloud services such as Dropbox are making it easier for people to have access to their documents, files and music wherever they go.
The product works by installing a small app on your PC, your Mac, your Smartphone and your home computer if you like – you then “drop” files into the Dropbox folder which immediately synchronises those files to all of your devices. So if you’ve prepared a sales presentation on your desktop at work, but you wish to present it from your laptop – you simply drop the presentation into dropbox and voila! the file is there on your laptop whenever you’re ready to collect it.
Whatever your goals are for 2011 I wish you well – an often forgotten premise for owning all of this wonderful technology is that it is supposed to make our lives faster and more efficient – not be an expensive burden. Good luck with your technology (and stay away from the pudding until next December).
