“We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.” – John Dryden

Improved self-management involves changing our behaviours. Often this means breaking old habits that we ‘know’ do not serve us well. The ruthless reality, though, is that our habits (both good and bad), exert a vice-like grip over our current behaviours.

Replacing old habits and building new ones, therefore, is seldom easy. It can not be achieved through applying random tips and tricks to current behaviours. Tools and technology, no matter how cool or compelling they look, often only add complexity and always dilute personal responsibility. 

There’s a lot involved in helping people – individually and as a team – change the habits of a working lifetime. It is something I have developed a deep expertise in.  It is an expertise I build into all our support programmes. That’s why we are able to help people deliver sustained behaviour change. 

I don’t mean to belittle the challenge of changing the habits of a working lifetime but here’s my top 5 suggestions. The first one is worthy of a workshop in its own right!

1. Know why you are embarking on the habit change journey. No purpose – no follow through.
2. Launch your new habit as strongly as possible. Change your routine immediately. Seize the first opportunity to act on your resolution because when you delay implementation, it becomes more and more difficult to sustain the new habit. 
3. Go public. Announce the change to those who care about you. Give them permission to support you and hold you accountable for your journey.
4. Keep the right score. Sometimes we can be winning but feel like we are loosing unless we keep the right score. You might find this post useful here.
5. Work through the pain barrier, knowing it will pass. Never let an exception occur until the new behaviour is firmly embedded. All new behaviours feel uncomfortable at first. Remember your first time driving a car? 

If you are looking for a better way to work, for yourself or your team, why not get in touch to see how we can help.

When I run teamworking training events based upon our priority management with Microsoft Outlook training, one of the things I strongly suggest is that the team members adopt a core of common Outlook Categories. Renaming the default Categories is relatively straightforward.

The other day I was facilitating a short session based upon my ‘Welding Purpose to Priorities’ programme and someone asked if it was possible to customise Outlook Categories automatically across a team at Administrator level.  My thanks goes to Rob May, the MD of Surrey based Award Winning IT support company Ramsac, who pointed us to the fact that, in Outlook 2007, it is possible to customise Categories options by using Group Policy. This would work well in those businesses where the Outlook Administrator can be influenced, coerced or bribed into using this approach to improve teamworking and team work flow management.

Rob pointed us to the Microsoft’s library for the technical solution: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179073.aspx  which I hope helps those of you who would like to enforce a handful of common Outlook Categories across their team. 

Whilst we are not ‘Techies’ we certainly know how to help people become more efficient and effective in how they manage their purpose and their priorities in their busy days through using Microsoft Outlook better. In fact, the average productivity gain across thousands of delegates from using our programme is 47 minutes per person per day as measured 4 weeks after the training. If this is something that you would like for yourself, your team or your company just get in touch and let’s see how we can help.

I can’t tell you how many times I am asked to ‘pronounce’ on the ‘Best Outlook Inbox Folder Structure’ when we run our workload and priority management training programmes. It’s a question I answer this way….Yes, those who know me are right …..You already have the answer and there’s about 60 seconds of work and 2 questions here to help you towards that answer. So, grab a pen and read on. Let’s start with a quick question :

What are the KRAs (Key Result Areas), KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) of your role?

Scribble out a quick list of the key deliverables of your role. Answer this in the reality of your role – not just the ‘official’ version.

Go beyond the ‘Headline’ and get into the major silos of work that help you deliver that overall result. You are writing aren’t you?

So, for example, a senior sales person may have:
Headline: Generate £X million in sales in the next 12 months
Major silos supporting the key business results:

• Key Account Management for top 3 clients
• New business generation
• Mentoring or managing others
• Project team participation for new CRM purchase
• Forecasting, Reporting and other ‘administration’ responsibilities.

Got your list written out? If so move on to step 2

2 Expand your Outlook inbox folder structure.

The idea is to see your folder structure in all its glory. So if you file your mails in any other Outlook folder / archive / .pst structure, expand that instead.

3 Now open up your ‘My Documents’ folder …

or any other place that you use to store the data that you choose to save in connection with your role. Resize this window so that you can see it beside your Outlook storage folder structure.

OK, now for the incisive question:

To what extent do the structures you created in your Outlook inbox folders and your ‘My Documents’ folders reflect the structure of the Key Result Areas of your role?

Truth is that most of the thousands of people I have trained over the years have created their Outlook folders and their ‘My Documents’ folders with best intentions and almost always in response to a tactical question such as ‘Where will I put this email so I might find it again?’

The result can be stand-alone labyrinths of folders and subfolders in each system that bear little relationship to each other or the key drivers of our roles.

And so to my answer. It does not matter if you are an email ‘Piler’ (relying on advanced use of ‘Search’ functionality) or ‘Filer’ with a wonderful folder system. All that matters is that your structure is as simple and elegant as it can be, that it is common across all your critical data storage areas and that it serves you, rather than you serving it.

So, over to you. What approach do you adopt? Are you a piler or a filer? Do you use big silo folders or granular subfolders? Your approach could help other readers, jot it down in the comments area below. Also, could I ask you to spread the word through the media buttons directly below this post. I have just added them here. Finally, do get in touch if you think our training, coaching or speaking services could help you, your team or your company. Thanks.

I was delighted to be able to help one of our Finnish clients the other day with these resources for automatically spell checking multiple languages in Outlook emails . The main problem is that Outlook 2003 does not have the capacity for multiple language spell checking so you must first do this:

To engage multiple language spell checking in Outlook 2003 you must use Word to edit email messages. Here’s how:

1. In Outlook go to Tools . Options in top tool bar
2. In the ‘Mail Format’ tab check the option to use MS Office Word as your email editor and OK out of the options menu.
3. Then go to this Microsoft kb article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/821416/  and follow the instructions.

Outlook 2007 is much easier to do this. Here’s how:

1. Select the text you want to check.
2. On the Review tab, in the Proofing group, click the ‘Set Language’ icon ( the one with a Globe and a red tick) .
3. In the Language dialog box, verify that the correct language is associated with the text. If it is not, select the language you want to use for the dictionary and other proofing tools. If the language is preceded by the Spelling & Grammar icon (the ‘ABC’ tick) , it means that proofing tools, such as spelling checker, are installed for that language. If the language is not preceded by the Spelling & Grammar icon , the dictionary for that language is not available and you cannot check the spelling and grammar for that language. If this is the case you or your systems administrator must import it.
4. Complete steps 1-3 for each section of text that you want to check.
5. Go to this Microsoft kb article for fuller information: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA102488711033.aspx

Here at Attitude Solutions we support clients in 18 countries. We can not speak 18 languages but can deliver business training in 4 European languages.

Check out these proven training and support solutions to marry Essential management skills with Best use of technology: Working smart with Outlook Working smart with Lotus Notes Working smart with Blackberry Of course, you can always contact us directly to tailor a support programme to your needs.

I have been using Spinvox memo service on my smart phones and  BlackBerry for years when on the run between meetings. It turns my spoken word into an email I can drive our 4D priority management process through when I get back to my laptop. I have found it more productive than fiddling with a stylus or punching out words on a Blackberry keypad.

See here for how I use Spinvox to keep on top of commitments on the run  You might also find my notes on using Outlook Rules to control the email deluge helpful in this regard.

Well, after a lot of bad financial press, Spinvox has been purchased by Nuance - famous for among other things, the speech recognition programme ’Dragon Naturally Speaking’. This should bring some welcome stability to a great service. I am still using and advocate it.

You can still download the free SpinVox MEMO service here: http://www.spinvox.com/memo.html

Remember, to improve your performance and productivity at work, whilst leveraging your use of Outlook, Blackberry, Lotus Notes and Netscape just get in touch and ask how we can help.

It’s amazing how people who don’t do ‘Change Management’ can make change happen! I was recently asked to facilitate a team meeting within a client’s Kick-Off event based upon ‘Change Management’. None of those present were ‘Change Champions’, Project Managers’ or held ‘black-belt’ titles in anything work related. They are just a group of hard working people who are responsible for creating and driving improvement changes within the business during 2010, whilst keeping on top of the day-job. Here’s how we tackled the challenge.

This is a medium sized business where every minute matters; they do not have a Project Management Office (PMO) and they can not take people away from the front line to drive the initiatives full-time. Following earlier work with them, the senior team agreed that successful delivery of the agreed initiatives would be incentivised and the appropriately categorised and calendared activities would be protected and respected by default within the business.

Given that I was only going to have a couple of hours with them during their kick-off, a full blown session on ‘Creating, executing and delivering Change Management’ was never going to work – no matter how powerful (or pompous) it sounded!

Luckily a friend had recently passed me a copy of John Kotter’s excellent little book ‘Our Iceberg is Melting’ which I had never read before. Like most people with a professional interest in productivity, I am aware of Kotter’s 8 step process for managing change within organisations (see below). And have well annotated copies of his ‘Leading Change’ and ‘Heart of Change’ books on my ‘Trusted Resources’ book shelves.

‘Our Iceberg is melting’ is an excellent little book, a fable about a colony of emperor penguins whose iceberg home was in danger of collapse and who, therefore had to find a new home – fast!
It is also a fast read – 160 pages of large type with plenty of attractive colour pictures (it is a fable after all!) – a 60 minute read, max.

That little book became the pre-work and the workbook for my session. And what a session it was. Insights, inspiration, energy and processes flowed and were slotted into Kotter’s 8 step structure. This, along with our earlier work on ‘Teamworking’ and ‘Managing projects alongside the day-job’ generated a lot of practical take-aways from the session.

My own learning from this?

1. Always investigate book suggestions from people who seem to know what they are talking about.
2.  Stories can be truly powerful learning tools in their own right. I deliberately avoided introducing any additional concepts into my session.
3. Most people have most of the answers to most of their problems most of the time.
4. I will keep more up-to-date on writers I respect. Why didn’t I know Kotter wrote a book called ‘A sense of Urgency’ in 2008? Especially as urgency, workloads, priorities and projects are in my DNA!

Resources:
Kotters 8 steps can be read and expanded from here:  http://www.kotterinternational.com/KotterPrinciples/ChangeSteps.aspx

 Contact me for further information on how we can help you and your team with your productivity challenges. Inspiring, practical and durable solutions guaranteed!

I was recently asked by a highly experienced, well qualified friend for some specific advice on how he should operate within a number of upcoming telephone interviews for some jobs he was applying for. He had never experienced a telephone job interview before.

After our conversation I thought it would be useful to get other peoples’ insights, so I posted this question to the IoD group and the LinkedHR group in Linkedin. I’m curious to know what your Top Tip would be. Do feel free to let me know in the comments section below. Here’s the question:

‘What is your one piece of advice for an experienced person who is attending a telephone job interview for the first time in their life? You can assume that all the relevant research on the company and the role has been done to a very high level.’

Here are the top ranked suggestions from 77 responses on Linkedin. I have amalgamated the responses and, where appropriate, I have added my own thoughts which reflect my own advice to my friend.

1) Listen!
Listening is the most popular piece of advice given by recruitment interviewers and interviewees alike. Because you can not pick up on the visual clues available in a face-to-face interview, active, concentrated listening is vital to your success in the interview. In addition to listening carefully for content (so you can answer the actual questions asked) listen out also for the interviewer’s tone, pace, language patterns and key words (especially if they also reflect language you have picked up from the company website)

2) Speaking mechanics
Speak confidently and purposefully, avoiding ‘emrms and errs’. My own advice is to speak 10% more ‘assertively’ and 10% slower than you would in a face-to-face interview. When you think you need a moment to gather your thoughts before replying, build an appropriate positioning phrase before you answer.

Answer questions succinctly with simple sentences. Always ask if the answer is sufficient or if the interviewer wants you to go into more detail. Avoid launching into detailed, rambling answers to demonstrate your knowledge.

3) Manage the connection
Use a quiet place for the call. Use a landline as a preference. If this is not possible make sure you are in a good reception area (Call a friend first and ask how you come across), make sure your battery is fully charged!

4) Stand up
Not only does it affect your physiology, breathing and energy transfer; it can also positively impact your psychology.

5) Wear the clothing you would for a face-to-face interview.

There are a number of other very good suggestions in the Linkedin forums which you can look at if you are on Linkedin already.

So, come on, let me know what you think the most important tip should be!

Many of the people who have inspired me from a distance, made me laugh or look at myself more closely, or pointed me to resources and information through Twitter will not have received a personal message from me – simply because I do not have their email address! I still want to wish you all the best for 2010 and specifically….

 I wish you the vision to see beyond the prevailing generalities and pick particular opportunities that will make the most difference to yourself, your business and those you care most deeply about.  

I wish you all the focus, energy and discipline that you will need to seize these opportunities even when other people, the events of the day (and sometimes even yourself), will be pointing you down different paths as the year progresses.  

And I wish you all the health and happiness you need to enjoy the fruit of your focused labour.  

Remember, there is nothing more potent than purpose and there is nothing nobler than purpose beyond ourselves.  

Finally, I wish you a peaceful Christmas and a potent new year,   Skim my latest blog posts: http://priorityattitudes.com/posts/
Connect with me on Linkedin: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/richardmaybury
Join my Twitter tribe http://twitter.com/richardmaybury

I am a great fan of Tony Parinello, and specifically his book ‘Selling to VITO’  The very important top officer. He is compelling and I have used his simple, powerful processes for getting to top decision makers for many years. He cuts to the chase, as in this outstanding example…

This is based on some outstanding questions and I firmly believe that the quality of the question determines the quality of the outcome – always. Whilst supporting a salesperson client recently I came across this 86 second video gem by Tony Parinello on smart questions to ask key decision makers to maximise your time with them. Hit the link and build these questions into your approach – whatever sales process you are using right now and do let me know what you think.

If you want to create more time to sell, and want to maximise the effectiveness of your selling time within your demanding days call me on +44 (0) 1428 607763 or get in touch, I know that together we will produce results worth talking about.

Back in June 2009 I asked if Google Wave means we will be waving goodbye to our 40 year affair with email. My original post  pointed you to an 80 minute launch presentation. Well, the Google Wave product managers have now produced an 8 minute version of the key elements of what Google Wave can do for collaborative communications.

Even if you do not have one of the limited release Wave invitations – even if you do not want the technology, you should be aware of how corporate and team communications will be changing soon in your world. Here’s the link to the 8 minute Google Wave video enjoy!

Projects can and do go wrong. The UK government has deep experience – and often deeply painful experience – with projects. That’s why when the National Audit Office (NAO) and the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) within the Treasury produce a list of common causes of project failure, it might be worth a quick look at some of the specific failures that cause them pain… It would also be worth a slow reflection on how we manage our own projects. Use this list to question yourself about how you manage your important projects, large and small, personal and professional. Don’t forget to ask yourself uncomfortable questions about how you are managing your own project for your life.

Read this with a pencil in hand! http://www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/Project_Failure.pdf

Click for Project Management training by a registered Project Management Institute Global Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.)
Click to get the most from Microsoft Project
Click for proven time and priority management training
Call me on +44(0) 1428 607763 or Contact me

There’s an 80/20 rule for software.
80% of people will use or get value from 20% of the features.
Given that fact, what happens when you flip the equation around and ask: ‘What 20% more could I do or learn to be 80% more effective?’
The combination of MindManager mindmapping software with Microsoft Outlook truly leverages the potential in both programmes to help us drive our results within our busy days.

I am a big fan of mind mapping because it is a powerful process and tool for enhancing the thinking, memory, creativity, planning, control and representation of information that we have to be on top of, especially when working on longer-term goals and projects.

If you want to leverage your use of Outlook and MindManager to plan, execute and deliver your mission critical results call me now on +44 (0)1428 607763 during UK office hours to see how we can help you flip the usual Pareto percentages for software utilisation …. And increase you productivity into the bargain.

Meanwhile you might want to see how many of these MindManager features are you using
http://blog.mindjet.com/2009/11/top-10-mindmanager-features-you-didnt-know-about
To assist with ‘Strategic thinking and planning’ check out our Priority Planning framework. To assist with managing critical results within busy days check out our ‘Working Smart’ programmes. To assist with leadership communication, check out our Priority Influencing programme. Or contact me to discuss how we can tailor a programme to your exact needs.

I made an 84 mile round trip yesterday evening to hear Tom Ilube, a member of the founding team of Egg PLC and now CEO of online protection company, Garlik. He was speaking at a WOW! event on 5 of his insights into building a business. I have no doubt he has more! Here is a link to the notes WOW made for us all following that meeting last night: http://www.thewowcompany.com/November-event.htm

The world will not always be on your side, that’s reality….. and we should not let that deter us from creating and delivering our magnificent obsession .
Mother Teresa had a sign on the wall of Shishu Bhavan, the children’s home in Calcutta, that was taken from The Ten Paradoxical Commandments, originally published by Kent Keith in 1968 whilst still at school. Here is his full list.

1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centred.
Love them anyway.
2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
3. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
7. People favour underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
10. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
Develop your magnificent obsession, get to work on it, create a great day.
Check out these proven training and support solutions to marry Essential management skills with Best use of technology: Working smart with Outlook Working smart with Lotus Notes Working smart with Blackberry Priority Planning Of course, you can always contact us directly to tailor a support programme to your needs.

Establishing a firm foundation for a project is critical to its success. If you don’t, then it’s a bit like building a house without bothering to lay proper footings. Things might look OK for a while (although if you look closely you can probably see the cracks already appearing). Inevitably though, the whole edifice will come tumbling down, bringing pain, distress and abject misery to all involved.

Our experience shows us that managers don’t lay adequate foundations for their project assignments. Instead they work on assumptions or what they intuitively feel to be the case. This is a very risky thing to do! Studies show that problems in establishing the assignment properly at the outset are a major cause of projects going off the rails.

So when you begin your next project make sure you have the answers to these ten questions. They will ensure that your project begins on a sound footing.

1. What’s wrong with the current situation? It’s important to define the problem, issue or opportunity that the assignment will address.

2. How will things be different when we’ve finished? What are the benefits that this assignment will bring to the organisation? There has to be a clear business case for the assignment.

3. What are the performance criteria? What does this “thing” that we will be creating have to do? How well will it need to perform? Here we are defining the business requirements for the deliverable, not the actual deliverable itself.

4. What’s the scope of the assignment? What is in and what is out? This will help to prevent the onset of the dreaded “scope creep” and provides the basis for change control.

5. What are the cost constraints? How much can the organisation commit to the assignment? Note that this is not the same thing as a detailed project budget!

6. What are the time constraints? Again, this is not the same thing as a detailed project schedule. Questions 5 & 6 refer to constraints, not estimates.

7 What project specific constraints exist?.  These could be people, equipment – whatever will constrain the project team’s ability to deliver the work.

8. Who is the project sponsor? It’s astounding how often this vital role is not clearly defined, resulting in confusion and delay due to slow (or no) decision making. Essentially the sponsor is the person who makes the decisions, on behalf of the organisation, about the assignment. They also hold the purse strings!

9. Who is the project manager? The person responsible for making it happen.

10. What authority is being delegated? Project managers need to know the limits of their authority, so that if one of those limits is reached it triggers a conversation with their sponsor. It’s important for project managers (especially for their sanity) that they have sufficient authority to make the day-by-day decisions necessary to deliver the work.

Of course, laying a firm foundation is only the first step to creating the project deliverable and many potential pitfalls remain for the unwary project manager. But without clear answers to these ten questions it is highly likely that the project will encounter significant problems later.

This article is written by my colleague Paul Stacey at Priority Management. Paul is our lead facilitator for our Project Management Breakthroughs programme.

This course goes beyond the standards in the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), the recognized learning designation in this field and has 21 PDUs (Professional Development Units) recognized by the Project Management Institute. Priority Management is also registered with the Project Management Institute as a Global Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.)

Call or mail me for further information

A client has just asked if she could apply an Outlook Category to multiple Contacts she is importing, without having to physically categorise each contact separately. The answer is ‘Yes’ and here’s how:

First off – a couple of practical tips. 1) I suggest the ‘Phone List’ view when working with Contacts because you can manipulate the data far more easily than you can in the default ‘Address Card’ view.  2) When importing I usually import into a newly created separate sub-folder of my Contacts folder so I can run my initial management of them there before I incorporate them into my main folder.

Now for the mass categorisation: Simple really….

1. Use your Ctrl or Shift key to highlight the contacts you want to categorise
2. On the top toolbar click ‘Edit’ and select ‘Categories’
3. Click on – or create – appropriate Categories (you can apply more than one category to an Outlook item)
4. Click OK to finish and then get to work on those Contacts!

If you are looking for better ways to manage your workload,  increase your productivity, master your inbox and get the right things done in your busy days, get in touch. Our clients gain an average of 47 minutes extra productivity per person per day as a result of our training and support. Why not join them!

Help! I have just come out of a meeting – it was very worthy ( I think) but ruined by the guy speaking mainly at his powerpoint slides which were to far too many and far too full.

When things like this happen to me I can always turn to Dilbert to cheer me up and not take it all too seriously! This strip made me feel better back in the office.

Thank you Scott Adams! http://www.dilbert.com/

Let me clarify that: Microsoft Project, on its own, is not a good project management tool. This was bought into sharp focus for me again yesterday when I was supporting a rock-solid business unit leader struggling with the weight of too much to do. He is not a formal ‘Project Manager’ but he and his direct reports recognize that much of the business unit’s workload is about managing multiple, competing mini-projects. Boy oh boy was there a lot of learning in that session!

Before we get to the learning list I think it is important to recognise that we do offer one of the most practical project planning training programmes on the planet as a PMI Global Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.) and we also offer an excellent Working Smart with Microsoft Project training programme. MS Project however is not always the most appropriate solution to managing multiple projects.

Here’s the learning list that this hardworking manager created at the end of our time together:

1. New tools are no substitute for good process. Reaching for an additional tool rather than researching the process is too easy and rarely satisfying! (More ‘productivity tools’ gather dust than do meaningful work for most people)
2. You can not really create a project plan in MS Project.
   (Even Microsoft says that MS Project should not be used without an executable project plan being created. Furthermore, there isn’t even a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) functionality built into MS Project to facilitate this element of planning.)
3. MS Project is not great for communicating and sharing project progress.
4. So – Use fewer tools and integrate them better.
5. Agree a Team-Based approach to sharing workload through the use of Outlook Calendar, Task and Categories. Agree email protocols specifically for team project communications.
6. Check how the team feels about Mindmapping for project plans (after seeing how we integrate Mindjet Mindmanager with Outlook)
7. Apply Richard’s Priority Management processes across the team.
8. Book Richard (Yippee!!)

I’m curious to know how you manage multiple mini-projects across your team. What works for you? Join the debate below.

To assist with ‘Strategic thinking and planning’ check out our Priority Planning framework. To assist with managing critical results within busy days check out our ‘Working Smart’ programmes. To assist with leadership communication, check out our Priority Influencing programme. Or contact me to discuss how we can tailor a programme to your exact needs.

Pardon the pun but I’m a fan of James Dyson. I admire his understated influence, his ambition to radically rethink solutions ….. and his marketing.  You will be hearing a lot about his new fan, if you have not already.  I just love this 1 minute 22 second teaser advert . Then just watch the first 3 minutes or so of  his understated explanation. His is a true influential leadership that many celebrity entrepreneurs, chefs and other assorted high profile Talking Heads could learn from.

I’m curious to know what this experience makes you think about? What can you do differently in your business?

Would you like Microsoft Outlook to automatically file emails you send into your chosen folders?
Our reputational and commercial risk is recorded more in our ‘sent’ emails than in our received mails. Many people have elaborate Outlook folder structures to file received emails, yet they pile their sent mails in their ‘Sent’ folder. The following automatic filing approach works well within our 4D Zero Inbox process.

It does not matter whether you are an email ‘Piler’ or ‘Filer’, the principle is that – unless you are relying 100% on search technology to access relevant emails and see them in their correct context – you need to see your ‘Sent’ mails along with received mails.

Creating separate Outlook Rules to divert specific sent mails into specific folders is just too impractical. We therefore need a general rule and a simple process-step to achieve our desired result of seeing ALL emails on a specific subject area together.   

First, create the appropriate Outlook rule:

1. Click on Tools in the top toolbar and select ‘Options’
2. In the ‘Preferences’ tab click ‘Email Options’ and then click ‘Advanced Email options’
3. In this pop-up, click the middle option in the ‘Save messages’ area ‘In folders other than inbox save replies with original message’
4. Click OK 3 times to exit.

Now, make a simple email management process change:

Simply file the email BEFORE you action your Do, Date or Delegate decision – then go to the mail in your selected folder and reply or forward from there. Your sent mail will now be filed in that folder. You can then action any other control processes on those mails without moving away from the folder. If you were going to file the received email anyway, there is zero additional overhead in adopting this process.

What do you think? I’m curious to know. By the way, my thanks goes to Jon Scragg at EMC for raising this during one of our recent ‘Working Smart with Outlook’ training programmes.

Check out these proven training and support solutions to marry Essential management skills with Best use of technology: Working smart with Outlook Working smart with Lotus Notes Working smart with Blackberry Priority Planning Of course, you can always contact us directly to tailor a support programme to your needs.

Today, 2nd October is the birthday of ‘Mahatma’ (great Soul) Gandhi, it is also a National Holiday in India. I was recently in Delhi running a training event for a team of very talented people and had the opportunity to take a 2-day break in that ancient city, the highlight of which was standing within the grounds of the Mahatma’s simple memorial.  

In a country of bold steel and glass pillars to global modernity, magnificent Mogul Palaces, Temples and – yes – world famous Mausoleums – monuments to love, power and  wealth, this – for me- was one of the most moving places on the planet. A simple, solid, low, black marble table with an eternal light. A fitting tribute to a simple man whose life of service will shine for ever.

‘My life is my message’

‘Be the change you want to see in the world’

Back in June I wrote about Google Wave’s potential impact on email . Well, they have just released 100,000 invites to preview it. Obviously sill a lot of work to do – and I’m not too sure about other people seeing my typing speed and error correction in real time, but it will have an impact – of that I am sure.

How easily do you access mission critical files and folders when inserting them into Outlook Emails, Tasks and Calendar items? How quickly can you execute a ‘Save As’ when working with Microsoft files? You can customise your Microsoft ‘Open’ ‘Insert File’ and ‘Save As’ dialogue boxes to provide one-click access to currently critical folders rather than drill down from ‘My Documents’. Here’s how:

I’m in the early stages of a new large project with a client and in our meeting yesterday I was saving a Mindmap we had jointly edited on their meeting room whiteboard whilst the projector was still connected to my laptop. I was just about to hit the ‘Save As’ button when my client grabbed my right arm and said ‘Stop! How did you do that?’ He could see that I had a shortcut to my Project Folder on the left side of my ‘File As’ dialogue form and was excited to know how I did it. Once I showed him he created shortcuts to all his major project folders in a matter of seconds. You can do it too.

First, simply access your ‘File As’ or ‘Save As’ or ‘Open’ dialogue form (editing one will implement the changes in all). The easiest way within any Microsoft software application is to go to the top toolbar and hit ‘File > Open’.

Now, navigate to a critical current folder / subfolder that you want one-click access to. With this folder highlighted in the ‘Look In’ dialogue area at the top of the form, all you have to do is click on ‘Tools’ in the toolbar and select ‘Add to My Places’ and the folder will appear as a shortcut on the left side of the dialogue form.

You can now move your shortcuts up or down the list by simply right-clicking on the folder name in the ‘My Places’ bar on the right and selecting ‘Move up’ or ‘Move down’. Obviously your most critical folders will be at the top of the list! Whilst there, you may as well change the default ‘Large Icons’ option to ‘Small Icons’.

To remove folder shortcuts that have served their purpose simply right-click the folder name in the ‘My Places’ bar and hit ‘Remove’.

There you go! Another way to make software work for you rather than you work for it! If you are fed up with software fighting your productivity and you want it to facilitate your productivity, why not get in touch?

Check out these proven training and support solutions to marry Essential management skills with Best use of technology: Working smart with Outlook Working smart with Lotus Notes Working smart with Blackberry Priority Planning Of course, you can always contact us directly to tailor a support programme to your needs.

I was speaking with one of my sons yesterday. He is in his final year at University reading Philosophy. We were discussing different approaches we can use to help us weld our purpose to our daily priorities to help us reach our goals.

Part of our conversation skirted my own early morning practice to help me weld strategic purpose to daily priorities which I outlined here . My son pointed me to Marcus Tullius Cicero  106 BC – 43 BC,  the Roman orator and philosopher and  politician (106 BC-43 BC)  who said  

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

I can’t help wondering what the world would be like if we all approached life from a deep sense of gratitude.

What do you think? Was Cicero right? Is Gratitude the foundational virtue? If so how do you deliberately build gratitude into your life?

A quick word of warning, which will be particularly important for you or people you know who use IM informally in business, especially if working within smaller companies.

I was facilitating a great ‘TeamCommunications’ workshop yesterday. The team is geographically distributed and highly interdependent, running multiple projects with demanding performance criteria and very limited scope for slippage. They are good! Highly skilled and very professional under pressure.

We worked on polishing up their Team approach to email management and other team communication and control issues. Their IM usage was raised in an almost off-hand way and once explored raised a number of very important considerations that I know my client is working on as I write this.

Their approach to IM usage and the management and control of commercial risk connected with IM communications fell below the high standards they are already working to for email management, document control, public folders and all the other infrastructure, protocol and culture elements that they are developing within their growing business.

IM is increasingly being used as a mission critical communication application. It carries legal and commercial risks. IMs are legally admissible commercial documents. In short, if you know anyone using IM in business and you suspect they may not be fully aware of the risks please let them know. There is a useful paper by MessageLabs available on the web at the moment here: http://pdf.computing.co.uk/MESSAGELABS_040809.pdf?id=0