Quick Tip: Share Ideas With Colleagues With Del.icio.us

By Matt:

This great tip was inspired by reader Florian Hollender in response to our recent post "A New Twist On Del.icio.us".

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Today we have two quick and easy ways to share articles, blog posts, and ideas with your co-workers by saving web-pages with del.icio.us:

METHOD 1: Use the 'Links For You' tool built into del.icio.us. Save the target webpage with the tag for:USER, where USER is the profile name of your co-worker. These saved pages will now appear in your co-worker's 'Links For You' page listed on their del.icio.us profile.

METHOD 2: The other option is to save pages with a very specific tag name (that you wouldn't use for anything else). For instance, if you work in Strategic Marketing, tag these items as "strategicmarketing". Next, instruct your colleauges to subscribe to the RSS feed of items tagged as "strategicmarketing" on your del.icio.us profile. This is easily done by directing them to this link:

http://del.icio.us/rss/USER/TAGNAME

• USER is your unique profile name for del.icio.us, and TAGNAME is the specific tag that you defined for your department.

Send us your additional tips on how you're using del.icio.us to increase productivity - we'd love to hear how you're using this great tool!

Quick Tip: Swap Windows In .0013 Seconds

By Matt:

This will likely be remedial for the more seasoned, but for the benefit of the rest we wanted to share this most important of all keyboard shortcuts.

To quickly alternate between open windows on your desktop - like from Outlook to Firefox, or Firefox to Word - train your fingers on this sequence:

Alt + Tab

In Windows this will alternate you between the window you're currently viewing and the last window you had open. I use this all day long, especially when I'm writing emails and need to reference data on an open Excel page or website. Note that holding down the Alt button while pressing Tab repeatedly will allow you to browse through all open programs.

Likewise, Mac users have a similar shortcut they can use to access the most recently viewed window:

Command + Tab

Hope this speeds up your day, or at the very least gives you a quick way to navigate away from your Facebook profile when the need arises.

Quick Tip: Fluorescent Lighting Is Terrible

By Jon:

I don't know about you, but I seem to have been getting a lot of horrible headaches lately. I took a step back a few weeks ago and tried to identify their cause. I didn't get them on the weekends and they weren't tied to caffeine use, so I was able to narrow it down to my workweek. I took a look around my workstation and realized one simple fact:

I had fluorescent lights beaming down on me from all sides.

Our whole office uses fluorescents because they're cheaper and last longer. Even my desk lamp was a FL! I emailed our facilities team and asked them if there was any way to kill the lights above my head. A short email and 24 hours later and two massive lights above me were turned off. That was weeks ago and I've felt better since day one.

Sometimes all it takes is a simple email and your facilities/maintenance team can do a lot for you. Since then, I've gotten a wireless mouse, a wireless ergonomic keyboard, a new lamp and I'm working on having a section of my cubicle desk removed to increase the size of my available office space. The sky's pretty much the limit, considering all this is available elsewhere in our building and it's not costing anything to our bottom line. Send some emails and see what you can get out of it.

Quick Tip: Show Two Timezones In Outlook Calendar

By Matt:

From time to time I lead meetings with international counterparts, primarily based in either the UK or Australia. Being located in the United States myself, I'm always having to do quick math, adding and subtracting time-zones, as I try to figure out how I can get two parties on the phone without either one having to go to the office at 2:00 in the morning.

So for you globally minded corporate hacks out there, this Outlook-based quick tip should help you navigate the intricacies of the International Date Line without causing an aneurysm:

Display Two Timezones In Your Outlook Calendar:

1. From the Outlook menu select Tools > Options
2. Select the button for 'Calendar Options'
3. Select the button for 'Time Zone'
4. In the resulting dialog box select the check-box for 'Show An Additional Time Zone'
5. Next, select an additional time zone to display from the dropdown menu and give it a unique label so you can differentiate it in your calendar

Hopefully this little trick will help make scheduling cross-continental meetings a little easier... and if nothing else, it will give you North America based readers an excuse to squeeze in another break in the name of Afternoon Tea before lunch rolls around.


More Outlook Tips @ Corporate Hack

Quick Tip: Subdivide Tasks For Better GTD

By Jon:

If you're like me, GTD doesn't stand for "Getting Things Done", it stands for "Getting Too Much Done". Many of my daily tasks have sat on my list for weeks, and every time my eyes roll over them I just leave them be. I had to take a step back and evaluate why this was happening.

Result? My to-do list wasn't good enough.

Looking at the things I've left on the list, I realize that many of them aren't individual tasks, but rather smaller projects. The reason I've ignored them is because multiple things have to happen in order to cross them off.

For each task, GTD'ers have GOT to try and break them down to the simplest forms, which are simple action-oriented tasks. Take a minute to review your task list and try and break down some of those nagging overdue items. Look for the simplest next action that will move you along towards completing the project. Often I've found that breaking something up and doing a small, easy chunk of it has dramatically improved productivity and help me finish the task.

Check out our other posts on GTD for more details on how we get things done.

Quick Tip: Meeting Notes

This post was featured on Lifehacker on April 3, 2008. We wrote a follow-up post in response to the comments made which you can view here.

By Jon:

In the event you get pulled into one of those unbearable, often unavoidable corporate experiences called meetings, this quick tip will help you make a good impression on superiors while keeping you from zoning away into the ceiling tiles.

The simple secret: Take detailed meeting notes

Note taking engages your mind (stymies off that post-lunch energy crash), provides you with a personal account of the information, and lends towards bonus points by demonstrating you're an active participant. So even if you're not the official note-taker, try these steps during your next meeting...

• Write or type your notes in the margins of the meeting agenda (there should be one!)
  
• Use bullet point format - subdivide by topics discussed, paraphrase information, and boldly call out action points and those responsible for them
• If you are the official note-taker for the meeting, send notes to all meeting attendees; otherwise, only send to the meeting leader (you don't want to come across pompous)
• Send notes immediately after the meeting (no more than 5-10 minutes after the meeting has adjourned... why?)

The End Result
It's our experience that taking personal notes at meetings somehow breeds respect and approval from superiors, and managers enjoy having a simple list of bullet points and action items at-hand. The long and short - if you have to suffer through the meeting anyways, make it a valuable investment of your time by providing a valuable account to meeting organizers... you will be rewarded with respect and trust.

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Top Posts:
Action Oriented: Create Meaningful To-Do Items
Pushing Decision Making Down
Fighting Procrastination: Just Do It
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Quick Tip: What To Do With Business Cards

By Matt:

Business cards... they're kind of that rite of passage type thing aren't they? I remember getting my first box of cards thinking, "Yes! I've arrived!" Gave a card to a friend down the hall, and then went back to my desk asking, "What in the world am I going to do with 1500 of these things?"

Likewise, I'm never quite sure what to do when someone gives me a business card, but I had this revelation recently. When you receive a business card, do the following:

• On the back of the card, write down a few memory joggers about the person - the color of their hair, their personality (outgoing, shy, funny), or distinguishing features
• Also, jot down personal information that they reveal in their conversation with you - things like their interests (biking or rock climbing), their music tastes, where they're from, etc.

Having these notes on the back of the card will enable you to quickly call to mind who this person is and what they are like. It also gives you a common ground to start from in future conversations - ask them if they've been on any epic kayaking trips, or have seen their favorite band in concert since you last saw them.

Business is all about relationships, but a business card is kind of a one-dimensional relationship. Add some depth by taking a few quick notes and then logging them into your contacts database. And for bonus points, as you're inputting information, take two minutes to send a quick email saying "it was a pleasure to meet you"... well, as long as you can say it and mean it.

Quick Tip: Postdate Emails In Outlook

By Matt:

I often send emails to team members requesting various submissions or details from them by a certain deadline. Invariably I only get a fraction of my desired responses by the due date, so I've taken up the practice of pre-writing reminder emails for the team and postdating them in Outlook to be sent at a later time (e.g. - the day before the deadline).

Here's how it works:

• Once you send your initial message (a week before the deadline), open the sent email in your Sent Items folder and click 'Reply All'.
• Draft your reminder message - "Hey guys, just a reminder, all of your submissions are due tomorrow" - and then click 'Options' in the Message window
• Under Delivery Options click the check-mark for 'Do Not Deliver Before', and then set a date and time for 24 hours prior to your deadline
• Close the Options box and then 'Send' your message - the message will move to your Outbox and automatically send itself at the time you chose
  

I love this trick because it takes care of two action items at once, and in fine GTD form is an example of "batching". Make sure you're actually going to be in the office during the time you set for the reminder message as your email will only send when Outlook is running.