I've shared my solution for retrieving files via email using a specially designed script for Outlook 365. The post Retrieving Files Via Email appeared first on Laura Earnest ..read more

I’ve been using the old version of aBreevy8 (Breevy) for almost 15 years. It is a tool that saves me time every single day. And the newest version, rebranded aBreevy8, is just as solid and useful as the previous version. I didn’t realize I needed a text expander tool until the first contact with 16Software (15 years ago) asked me to look at Breevy. I quickly realized how useful text expansion is. Simply put, you type in a couple of characters, and the program expands them to whatever is stored. This could be something simple like an email address or phone, or it could be as large as a complet ..read more

Weekends….those blissful days when you don’t have to work…but are they too busy? Here is how I go about freeing my weekend so I can relax. Quote of the Week Weekends are the stretch of time you have for yourself. Don’t squander them with trivialities. Musings – Freeing My Weekend I used to be of the mindset that it was best to focus on work during the week and use the weekends to catch up on things like grocery shopping, cleaning, errands, etc. Don’t get me wrong. It works. But for me, it also means I don’t have adequate time to unwind. So how do I manage to get things to the point where my ..read more

We interrupt the regularly scheduled program to present the following rant: I routinely read a couple of websites discussing productivity methods. There has been a rash of “this system won’t work for me because….” These are inevitably followed by all the excuses about why the person can’t possibly be productive. Do any of these sound familiar to you? “I can’t be productive because… …my job is too unpredictable. …I’m not at a computer all the time. …I can’t keep paper with me everywhere. …my work isn’t segmented into projects. …I have to respond to everything as it comes up. …my situation is ..read more

I don’t know if it is just the way my mind works, but I suspect not. Fully engaged in a task, I will suddenly have a random thought pop into my head. If I don’t write them down, I will be plagued with reminders. So here is how I capture random thoughts. Why This Is An Issue During one client presentation, I remembered I needed to refill the toilet paper in the downstairs bathroom. Being at work, and in front of a roomful of people, I could do nothing about it at the time. Every time I clicked a slide, my mind nudged me about the toilet paper. Then there was the time that I was up to my elbows ..read more

Time has always seemed variable to me. Sometimes the same fifteen minute block went by in the blink of an eye, and sometimes it stretched into eternity. The speed of time seemed proportional to my motivation to do a task. When doing a tedious task, I would spend more time looking at the clock than doing the task, and therefore the task took even longer in real time. So how can you remove the perception of time from the equation? Use timer tricks. A dozen years ago, timers were something I used in the kitchen. I used them to time kitchen things, like boiling eggs and baking cakes. So when I be ..read more

Too often burnout is depicted as something that strikes without warning. But it’s never sudden. There is always a ramp up to the burnout level. If you can catch them, there are ways of preventing burnout. I have burned out a couple of times during my life. The struggle to get back on even footing can be long and difficult, and I determined that I would never again get so stressed that I would be sidelined. Instead, I learned how to recognize the four pillars underlying my physical and mental health and how to strengthen them against prolonged stress. Relaxation Since burnout is caused by an e ..read more

One of the fundamental concepts taught in my last year in engineering school had to do less with “can it be done” and more with “should it be done.” These lessons encompassed ethics and a concept lifted from the business school: Return On Investment or ROI. But ROI is not just about engineering or business profits. It’s not simply about the dollars returned for the dollars spent. It also has to do with effort, and should be a fundamental consideration for every task you undertake. In our economy where time and attention are a precious resource, we have to make sure that we get the best return ..read more

One of the underlying fundamentals of productivity is to only expend as much energy as necessary, but no more. Efficiency is one part of the productivity balance beam. Yet most of us break this principle many times every day in our actions. This article will show you how to increase your productivity by touching it once. An Inefficient Strategy Let’s say you have an email that arrives. You read the email, then decide you need to answer it. But then you notice there are other emails in your inbox, so you go on to read those. When you get back to the original email, you need to read it again to ..read more

I love spreadsheets. I use them frequently in my job. But I never use them for doing things with numbers. Instead, I used the functions of Excel to take text apart – and consolidate it. I deal with a lot of information, for my job, for my classes, and for Girl Scouts. When I get information in a form that is readable, but not quite usable, I have the option to re-type it…or I can put Excel on the task and let it do the work. Most people assume that Excel, as a spreadsheet, is just for crunching numbers. Truth be told, I use Excel more for text manipulation than I ever do for numbers. Today I ..read more