Managing emails (in Outlook) is simple — once you understand three things
Managing emails (in Outlook) is simple — once you understand three things For many, managing an inbox is an agonizing Sisyphean task – or at least unpleasant and inefficient. But really, it’s quite simple, and can be enormously efficient if you embrace three important concepts. Before we get to those concepts, however, let’s understand why […]
ActiveWords
ActiveWords Assign words to actions on your computer. Why write a paragraph when you can insert it automatically by typing one single word? Besides text substitution, ActiveWords opens documents, folders, web pages, and starts programs instantly. Just tap a few letters on your keyboard and whatever you need magically appears. ActiveWords is THE productivity tool […]
6 Reasons Why You Should Not Implement LeanMail In Your Organization
6 Reasons Why You Should Not Implement LeanMail In Your Organization 1. Email management solutions are basically digital paper shuffler. Myth: LeanMail probably organizes email and adds more bureaucracy to an already bureaucratic process. I have enough add-ins my kitchen drawer already. Myth Buster: LeanMail is not an organizer — though it will help you become more organized. It is a Lean-based […]
9 Tips for Working from Home
9 Tips for Working from Home There are oodles of tips on the Net for working from home. Here is a compact version. 1. Create a morning and closing routine Routines are important because they prime us for jumping into our work and help us transition back to our personal life, respectively. There are lots […]
How to squeeze more out of your employees – and have them thank you for it.
How to squeeze more out of your employees – and have them thank you for it No one cares about how well employees manage their inbox. Not the leadership. Not employees themselves. But here is why everyone should: Fixing it will take two hours. Keeping it fixed, another two hours over a couple of weeks. […]
Errors that LeanMail novices make in the planning step
Errors that LeanMail novices make in the planning step Follow-up; Read; Read and revert; Call; are a few of the typical entries that many LeanMail novices write as Next Actions. At the time you write them, they make perfect sense because at that particular moment you were immersed in the details of what it was you were supposed to do. The problem occurs three […]
How to Run an Effective Daily Stand-up Meeting
How to Run an Effective Daily Stand-up Meeting I was recently requested to suggest how to run an effective daily stand-up meeting. It dawned on me that we had not articulated the process in our own company so all the more reason to explicitly formulate this important morning staple. The Goal The goal of the […]
Desktop Hack – Get rid of desktop clutter
Desktop Hack – Get rid of desktop clutter Here’s an easy hack for reducing clutter on your desktop. The computer desktop has replaced the physical desktop in many ways. It’s important to keep it clean and neat, just like your physical desktop so that you can find the things you’re looking for. Even more important, […]
Lacking Discipline? Get Values Cheerleaders
Lacking Discipline? Get Values Cheerleaders I’ve been flying for over 50 years. How a plane defies gravity with its own massive weight along with the weight of passengers, baggage and freight is, for me, always mind-boggling. Every time I fly. Core values of flight An airplane is designed and constructed by teams of thousands of individuals meticulously following an explicitly detailed master plan. Each […]
A Simple Rule to Run Effective Meetings
A Simple Rule to Run Effective Meetings Ask your team to identify their biggest productivity killer and inevitably two issues will rise to the top of the list: managing their inboxes and their useless meeting schedules. I’ll tackle the former in a future post. For now, I’d like to focus on increasing the value of […]
To use a habit tracker app or not to use a habit tracker app
To use a habit tracker app or not to use a habit tracker app Getting into a habit tracker app (apps that help us remember to study our Spanish, do our push-ups in the morning and drink at least 1½ liters of water) are springing up. Do they really work? That’s a question I had […]
How to improve team productivity and how to measure it
How to improve team productivity and how to measure it This is where most companies succeed or fail. We’ve all seen big companies start from the ground up. Microsoft, Apple, Uber and many others have shown us that we can go from an idea to a successful business with the right bases. These bases are […]
