Stick to your resolve
Keep those beginning-of-the-year resolutions with these tactics from organizing guru FranklinCovey:
Category: Time Management
Setting yourself up for action: 4 tips
What makes the difference between productive workers and those who simply think they’re productive? Doing vs. talking. Here are four quick tips on how to set yourself up for action: 1. Jolt yourself into action by trying something. 2. Prototype your ideas. 3. Replace update meetings with "huddles." 4. Create testaments to progress.
2 cool tricks for smartphones
Here are two ways to use smartphones to make daily tasks easier: 1. Track your expenses with an iPhone application from Shoeboxed. 2. Map your way. Move over, TomTom. Phone-based navigation systems are becoming more popular, says Forrester Research.
Social technology eating into your time?
If you find it hard to keep up with Facebook, Twitter and other social-media tools, you’ll love this idea for a New Year’s resolution: Stop trying to keep up with social technology. Alexandra Samuel, CEO of Social Signal, says you could spend half your life trying to figure out the latest, greatest tool—so don’t even bother trying. To refocus your relationships:
3 ‘best’ online tools
Here are three great tools for creating to-do lists, collaborating on documents online, and viewing and modifying PDFs: 1. Best for tracking tasks: Doomi. 2. Best for word processing: Zoho Writer. 3. Best for viewing PDFs: Foxit Reader.
Google’s 7 hottest tools
Have you tried these seven hot tools from Google? 1. Sidewiki. 2. Fast Flip. 3. Google Wave. 4. Google News Timeline. 5. Wonder Wheel. 6. Google Squared. 7. Flu Trends.
Struggling with ‘ghost work’? 3 tips
Halloween may be over, but “ghost work”—the work left behind after colleagues are laid off—still haunts the employees who remain. According to a recent survey by the International Association of Administrative Professionals, admins are hit particularly hard by the spectre. Here are three tips to help you gain control of "ghost work":
Streamline your admin meetings
“My senior admin recently asked us what we should discuss during our monthly admin meetings,” a reader wrote. With time at a premium, this is a good point, as there’s an ever-increasing need for groups to get more real work done during regular meetings. Suggestions for making your next admin meeting more productive:
1-Minute Strategies: Nov. ’09
Avoid sending big files back and forth with your boss—try Dropbox, a virtual hard drive … Hold a web conference free and invite up to 20 guests, with DimDim, which Inc. magazine calls the best in its class … Print less by taking advantage of the less-popular settings in your Print dialogue box …
Don’t let self-interruptions derail you
The true superheroes at work are those who work reasonable hours and manage their workloads like pros; get away from the office to recharge, then come back energized and creative; and don’t make careless mistakes because they’re tired and overworked. The first step to managing your workload is handling the interruptions that derail your day. Here’s how: