Virtual Assistant Services - Productivity Quick Tips

Quick Tip No. 90: Improve Your Relationship with Time

Fern Carbonell — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 00:09:20 +0000

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”
- Albert Einstein

I recently followed a link from a friend’s facebook page that read “how can we change our relationship with time?”. That got me thinking how we all act as if we are strapped for time because time has the appearance of moving very fast. We’re all on information overload, we have self-imposed pressure to hurry up, we stand in lines that seem to go nowhere and sit in rush hour traffic that is anything but rushed. No wonder most people don’t thoroughly read instructions or give their undivided attention to anyone or anything. Time is running out! There’s always something else to get to. In this world of speed we are not allowing ourselves to fully experience life.

If you take a moment to think about time, it isn’t moving any faster and it doesn’t move faster for me than for Allison; it is only perceived that way when we are overextended. We control our perception of time. Take a moment to stop what you’re doing and slow down you’re thinking. Close your eyes and breath. There are times when slowing down, breathing, and taking a few minutes to compose myself really helps to refresh my thoughts and get a fresh start. Try it the next time you feel overwhelmed. It’s a great way to control the time. As I sit here and write, there are 8 tabs open on my web browser. Maybe I’ll take a moment to slow down.

Start and end your day with a plan or to do list to help guide you through your day. If you don't get to everything on your list, it's okay - there is tomorrow. The unexpected is bound to happen so be flexible and patient with yourself. If you're running late, call ahead to let others know or reschedule if needed.

Share you thoughts on your relationship with time. Do you savor every moment or are you too rushed to get to the next thing to even realize the moment?

Quick Tip No. 89: Amp Up Your Productivity in 2011!

Fern Carbonell — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:31:05 +0000

I am always looking for better ways to manage my documents, organize my notes, and keep things simple. Smartphones are making it so much easier to do all of these things without being tied to a computer. So to help you amp up your productivity goals this year, below is a short list of powerful applications that will help you be more organized and productive.

Evernote is my favorite app of all time. Keep your notes, pictures, voice notes in one easy-to-use app and auto sync with your computer. Share your notes with others too. This Quick Tip was written using Evernote on my iPhone while waiting on my car to be serviced. Some other uses:

Record a voice-note if unable to type a note
Take pictures of wine bottle labels to help me remember the name
Take pictures of books that I'll want to buy later
Keep track of ideas or favorite quotes

Believe it or not, you can get even more features with a paid account.

Awesome Notes certainly stays true to its name. Have all of your lists is one place. Tabs are setup for Shopping lists; To Do lists with a calendar; keep a Travel diary or create your own tab. Notes can be synced with Evernote giving it a more powerful edge.

DropBox is great for sharing large files. Download it, set it up and invite people to access the files. You can download files from other DropBox user folders (by invitation of course) and sync files across all of your computers and devices. My daughter dumps her large photos (usually over 3mb) into DropBox and I get to view and admire them :-). You get a generous 2GB of space for free. Extra space can be purchased starting at $9.99.

SnapTell is an amazing product search app! Scan a barcode and you will get a list of prices and places to purchase that product. If there isn't a barcode, take a picture of the product and it will still return results. A message on the website says that SnapTell was recently purchased by Amazon.com. I suppose you can expect to have product results go to Amazon.com.

The evolution of cell phones has been amazing and has certainly enhanced the lives of Smartphone users. If you use any of these apps, please share your experience or share any other apps that you love.

Wishing you an abundance of prosperity and productivity in 2011!

Quick Tip No. 88: Managing Distractions

Fern Carbonell — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 13:53:15 +0000

'Tis the season for even more distractions! During the busy holiday season it's even more important to keep distractions to a minimum. Start by creating a plan at the beginning of the day. By doing this, you will have a better sense of priority. Anything "urgent" can be assessed by returning to your plan to help you decide whether the matter needs your immediate attention.

Here are some common distractions that can easily take your focus and how to manage them:

E-mail: Turn off your email. Or if it's email you are trying to get through, give yourself a time range that you will allot to email. Then work from the oldest to the newest messages. Do not allow incoming emails to distract you. Keep working through the oldest to the newest. Anything that does not need your attention immediately or needs more than two minutes of your time can be flagged or filed for later.
Phone calls: Allow calls to go to voicemail. You can then alot time later to retrieve the voicemails and return calls. Just like with email, give yourself a time range.
Visitors: If the visitor just wants to chat, let him/her know that you'd love to chat but you really need to focus. People understand that. If it's something specific and doesn't need your attention right away, ask to schedule a meeting time.
Your own chaotic mind: Take some deep breaths to calm your mind. at this time of year, we've got plans to make, gifts to buy, events to attend. At the minimum, take 5-10 minutes to calm your mind by doing some deep breathing. Those few minutes will energize you and make you more productive. Sometimes it also helps to do a brain dump by writing down everything on your mind. Just write it out, it doesn't need to make sense, you don't need to edit. This is an exercise to clear your mind. When you're done, save it for later to look at or trash it and move on with your project.

Start applying at least one of these tips during the holidays and you'll soon start working them all into your daily work routine.

If you have have your own tips for managing distractions post a comment to share with everyone.

Quick Tip No. 87: 3 Easy Steps to Creating a Work Sanctuary

Fern Carbonell — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:03:59 +0000

I recently read an article called "Home as Sanctuary" and realized that many of the points could be applied to work space. If you have a home office, like me, creating a sanctuary becomes even more important in keeping the division between home and office. This month's tip will help you create a workspace sanctuary that will re-invigorate the stagnant energies that build up over time. The new energy you create will help bring focus and creativity to your working hours, making room for lots of productivity.

Remove objects that don't inspire or have a purpose, such as the collection of coffee mugs at the bottom of your bookcase. A cluttered office can hamper creative thinking and cause unproductive behavior. Start with a small area of your office, preferably your desk, if that's where you spend the most time, and spend 10 minutes a day tossing anything that's draining positive energy from you. Before throwing anything out, find ways to re-use old stuff.
Create a morning and evening ritual for starting and ending your day. Avoid diving right into email and phone calls. Start your mornings with a short list (5 items) of what you intend to accomplish for the day. End the day reviewing the list and acknowledging your accomplishments and carryover anything that you could not get to for the next day. Be sure to praise yourself for your accomplishments.
Fill your space with objects that create harmony and feed your creativity. Keep your space open and fluid by "creating a container for positive energy."

Do you have tips for creating a more harmonious workspace?

Additional resources:

Quick Tip No. 86: Multi-tasking is overrated

Fern Carbonell — Fri, 07 May 2010 22:01:37 +0000

Did you know that when you multi-task, you aren't retaining as much information as you probably need to? According to a study conducted by USC "...distractions force you to pay less attention to what you are doing, you don't learn as well as if you had paid full attention." Your brain is not wired to focus on multiple things. So if you're on the phone and at the same time getting your 3-year old dressed and your husband is telling you where and when to meet him for dinner Tuesday night, there's a great likelihood that you are going to flake on the dinner date with your husband. Try these steps to help you focus:

Set a goal for that particular time period you are devoting to a project. Ex: In the next hour I intend to finish writing the Executive Summary
Turn off anything that could cause a distraction, e.g. Internet, cell phone
If you're in a public place where the noise level is high, put on your headset and listen to soft music

Quick Tip No. 85: 3 Easy Green Habits

Fern Carbonell — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 03:01:00 +0000

Happy Earth Day! We all do our part to be Green and today I am sharing with you 3 easy habits for a green office.

1. Recycle

Paper - better yet, reuse: print drafts on backs of used paper
Ink cartridges - take them to Staples where they collect ink jet cartridges AND give you money back for recycling them. Being green really does pay!

2. Plants

Beautify your work space with plants that absorb airborne toxins for a cleaner more breathable air. Big absorbers are ficus and bamboo.

3. Consolidate your errands

Walking and public transportation are not always practical options. Plan your trip by mapping out the stores you need to hit and park in a central location so you can walk as much as possible. Remember to bring your shoppping bags. Whenever possible, bring a friend!

What are your green habits?

Quick Tip No. 84: Who's in control here?: Information overload

Fern Carbonell — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:51:33 +0000

Don't let information overload control you.

I repeatedly hear how people have too much information coming at them. How do they decide what to read, will they be missing out on really important information if they delete an email, what if a colleague asks how they liked their latest newsletter, and so on.

Remember that you have total control over the information you're receiving. When you open an email, you call the shots: read, file away, or delete. It shouldn't get anymore complicated than that. Get a handle on your information overload by following any or all of these tips:

Unsubscribe to newsletters you don't read. If you haven't bothered to open the past 6 issues, then how interested are you in the information anyway?

Create folders for your subscriptions and have the issues filtered directly to the appropriate folder.

Instead of subscribing to the newsletter, subscribe to the RSS feed and check out the thread of information that interest you.

Delete any emails that don't apply to you, or share it with someone, being very mindful that you're not adding to the info overload.

Your sending habits

When you are on the sending end of the information, be mindful to:

Have a table of contents for quick reference
List all of the permanent information at the top of the message, with links.
Be sure the information is concise
Ask friends and colleauges how they process their information and try to design your messages with their comments in mind.

A personal note

Personally, I only subscribe to two email newsletters and they are both from the Harvard Business Review. Their information is always concise, meaningful and includes links to related HBR articles and it's a model I try to follow. For anything else, I subscribe to RSS feeds or go directly to my favorite sites - that's what bookmarks are for afterall.

Speaking of bookmarks, managing them will be the next quick tip topic.

If you have comments to share or have topics you want to read about, please let me know. I'd love to hear from you!

Excel Tip: Deleting Duplicate Entries

Fern Carbonell — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:15:24 +0000

Happy New Year fellow entrepreneurs!

The very first Quick Tip of 2010 will teach you to how find duplicate entries in an Excel worksheet. I've worked with worksheets that were extracted from someone's contact list with some contacts listed multiple times.

In your worksheet, insert a blank column (for this purpose the blank column is B). This is where you will enter the formula that will find the duplicate entries for you.

Assuming that row A1 is a column heading, enter the following formula in row B1

=IF(COUNTIF(A$1:A$100,A1)>1,”DUPLICATED”,””)

Now let’s breakdown the formula:

>=IF(COUNTIF: this says to count how many cells in the given range have the same value as A2

>(A$1:A$100,A1): this indicates the range of the data you’re searching for dups

>>1,”DUPLICATED”,””): this says that where do duplicate exists, the count is 1 and the cell will be blank. When a duplicate value is found, the word “DUPLICATED” is entered in the cell.

Now try it for yourself. Please share any tips you have for this Quick Tip or post any questions you might have.

Exemplus Holiday Package

Fern Carbonell — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:27:29 +0000

Get the holiday season off to an organized start with the Holiday Package. Exemplus will send your party invitations, thank you cards, design and distribute your annual newsletter at a generous holiday price. Read the details and start getting more done this holiday season. This offer is available only through January 8, 2010.

The case for text - A MS Excel Tip

Fern Carbonell — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:02:57 +0000

Have you ever wasted valuable time changing the case (upper/lower) of text in an Excel file? Then this is a shortcut many of you will love to know.

=UPPER(A2) This formula will change all of the text referenced in cell A2 to UPPERCASE
= lower(a2) This formula will change all of the text referenced in cell A2 to lowercase
=Proper(A2) This formula will change the leading letter referenced in cell A2 to Title Case

The cell that the formula is in is also the cell where the results will appear. So if you’re typing the formula “=UPPER(A2)” in cell B2, that’s where the results will appear.

Did you like this tip?