The Productivity Pro® Blog by Laura Stack - Time Management, Getting Things Done, How to Be More Productive

I wanted to share my favorite Palm trick (I use MS Outlook and a Treo 700p). 

I was frustrated by being in the grocery store and not having my list with me.  Then a friend would tell me her experience at a great restaurant, and darn if I couldn’t remember the name when my husband asked where we should eat.  We’d be at the video store and couldn’t remember the name of the funny DVD my dad suggested. 

So, I created a Note in Outlook for each of these categories:

1.      Books to read

2.      Groceries to buy (even though “go to grocery store” may be a task, this list contains the individual items I need to remember to buy)

3.      Shopping to do (a list of things I need to remember to get when I’m running errands)

4.      Honey-do’s for John

5.      Gift ideas (one for each person)

6.      Meagan’s friends (I can never remember their names)

7.      Johnny’s friends

8.      James’ friends

9.      Neighbors (who lives where, kids, pets, etc.)

10.  Passwords (I know I’m not supposed to do this!)

11.  Combination locks (so I can take the sticker off)

12.  Babysitters (so many to keep track of)

13.  Errands to run

14.  Girl Scouts (copied from roster)

15.  Soccer (roster)

16.  Bus stop info

17.  Teachers (all the info handy on my kids’ teachers all in one place)

18.  Restaurants to visit

19.  Videos to rent

20.  Master task list

As I think of things to add to my lists, I open the appropriate Note and type it out.  When you close a Note, it automatically saves.  When I sync, they are loaded in the Memos in my Palm.  Wherever I am, I can then glance at my Palm and see the grocery list, video list, restaurant list, etc.  Think of them like electronic Post-it notes.  I love Memos on my Palm!

I’d love to hear from anyone on your Notes: how do you use them I haven’t listed here?

Productively yours,

Laura

What do you surround yourself with to make you feel productive?  I have an "I love me" wall with degrees, certificates, awards, etc., to remind myself that I am living up to a lot of expectations.  I keep a wall calendar to remind me that my job is to keep it full with speaking engagements.  I have photos of my family, husband, and children, to remind me that a lot of people are depending upon me.  I keep my dog and cat running around in my office to remind me to play.  And my newest environmental addition…two Siamese fighting fish (a.k.a. betta fish)…no fancy filtration systems needed. Just watching them swim around on my desk relaxes me and knowing I get to feed them gives me another good reason to look forward to coming to work.  The glass partition separating them keeps them from destroying each other, reminding me to maintain an assertive edge!  I’d love to hear what keepsakes, toys, plants, reminders, etc., you keep around to help you be productive!

I was reading about a survey by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. of 100 human resource executives, which found 56 percent said they would have normal office hours on Monday, citing the global nature of their businesses. Many people took the day off, turning it into a 4-day weekend.  Those that are left in the office wish they weren’t.  So how to you get some last-minute pre-holiday productivity?  Roll in giant recycling and trash bins and stage a paper-tossing contest between departments.  Have employees clean out their filing cabinets, and whoever gets rid of the most paper in weight (adjusted to % based on the # of people in the department) gets a pizza party at lunch and leaves early.  Of course, buy everyone pizza and let everyone go early, but you’ll at least get folks to get something accomplished!

Today is National Leave the Office Earlier Day!  To get you out on time today, some last-minute reminders:

I’ll share a simple procedure to install an RSS newsreader, so you can subscribe to blogs and news feeds and receive them direct to your desktop!  No more corporate firewalls to worry about!  No more newsletters going into your spam folder!  You receive exactly what you want to see.  This is the productivity wave of the future, so you may as well figure it out, and I’ll make it easy for you:

1.      Download the free Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1.

2.      Run a Windows Update http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us 

3.      Select Custom

4.      Select Optional Software updates

5.      Select the option to install .NET Framework 1.1 or 2.0

6.      Restart your computer as required.

7.      Go to www.rssreader.com 

8.      Click the Download button on the left side.  You have already completed step 1.

9.      Click the Download button next to rssreader.exe.

10.  In the file download dialog box, click Run.

11.  Follow the instructions to install RssReader and restart as required.  Now you’re ready to subscribe to feeds!

12.  Go to http://theproductivitypro.typepad.com/the_productivity_pro/ 

13.  In the right column, RIGHT-CLICK on “Subscribe to this blog’s feed”

14.  Select “Copy Shortcut”

15.  Start RssReader by double-clicking the icon now in your system tray (lower right-hand corner of your screen)

16.  Click the big green + to Add New Feed

17.  In the pop-up box that says “Enter the URL of the feed,” right-click and select Paste.  This will insert the URL from my blog’s feed.

18.  Click OK

19.  Follow steps 11-17 above to add as many news feeds as you want!

20.  Select Tools, Options to set the timing of how often you want to be notified of a new posting on one of your blogs, feeds, etc.  I have mine set to daily. 

When a new post is added to one of your feeds, you’ll get a pop-up window and an alert (I have mine set to a doorbell).  You simply double-click the RssReader icon and view the new postings.