May 21, 2012

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The Second Rule of Email: Check It Less

May 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

We’ve covered the first rule of email: Touch It Once and while its a good strategy, its a better strategy when combined with the next rule of email.  How many times a day do you check email?  Once, twice, ten, twenty?  How many times a week do you go home from work feeling like you didn’t accomplish anything other than send and receive email all day?  I’ve had many days where I felt like the only thing I did all day was email and I didn’t get any real work done.  Email is a part of my job, but its not my entire job.  And I’m guessing you don’t get paid to send and receive email all day either.

The second rule of email is to Check It Less.  We check email too often and we are conditioned that when we hear the ding or see a new message come in that we have to check it.  I check email when I’m bored during a meeting or conference call, unfocused, and I’m just don’t feel like doing the work I know I should be doing.  The urge to check email is strong and its easy to fall into the trap of thinking that I have to check email constantly because it might be important, its my job to be responsive, and people expect me to respond quickly.  Email is a great way to procrastinate while tricking ourselves into thinking we are “working”.

Checking email constantly throughout the day is a great way to keep yourself busy without actually doing any real work.

Instead of checking email all the time, only check it 2 to 3 times per day.  I try to stick to a schedule of morning, lunch time, and late afternoon.  Just like the Touch It Once rule, this will feel strange and it is outside of your comfort zone.  But you have real work to do, the work that will help you reach your goals and the work that you need to do and want to do.

I’ve found that some issues tend to resolve themselves, without any response from me, when I check email less often.  And if its that important and I haven’t responded to the email, they usually track me down by phone or in person so that urgent issue I was worried about still gets resolved.  And since I’m still following the Touch It Once rule, I read the message, act on it, and then move to the next message.

But the best part about following both rules, I leave work at the end of the day knowing that I got real work done.  The work I want to do, the work I get paid to do, and the work that helps my customers and me.

For more on coping with email overload, I highly recommend this article by Peter Bregman.

And for what its worth, following both email rules is something I struggle with every day.  Most days, I have a pretty good handle on my work email and I follow the rules.  But I do not practice what I preach with my personal email.  I leave it open all day, checking it several times a day and reading messages knowing I’m not going to respond then and will have to reread the message later.  Managing my personal email is something I need to work on and I need to practice what I preach.  I’m sharing this with you because I want you to understand that these habits are hard to change but its worth it to get your time back to do the work that matters.

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The First Rule of Email: Touch It Once

May 3, 2012 By 2 Comments

Part of my job is supporting customers’ mail files and I see two types of users: those that are in control of their email and those that are not.  Those that are in control of their email rarely call me with email issues because they don’t have any.  Email is a tool that they control.  Those not in control have overflowing inboxes and and cannot be counted on to consistently reply to messages, usually because they never saw them or can’t find your message so they can respond.  For those people, they are a slave to their inbox and its a never ending supply of incoming messages.

It doesn’t have to be this way.  You don’t have to be a slave to your email but in order to become the master, you’ve got to make some serious changes to how you manage your incoming messages.

First, empty your inbox.  Move them to a folder, delete them, do whatever you need to do to start fresh.  Be realistic, you aren’t going to sort through them all and catch up.  If you could catch up, you would have done so by now.  If deleting everything is making you nervous, at least go through and delete all the junk mail and emails you don’t need to keep and archive the rest.  Sort by sender or date to remove multiple messages at once.  The goal is to start with a clean slate.

The first rule of email is to Touch It Once.  The Touch It Once rule states that once you’ve read a message you must respond, move to a folder, or delete it after you’ve read the message.  We waste so much time reading emails and then doing nothing with them and then we have to come back to the message, reread it again and then decide to take some sort of action.  And while we are in the doing nothing stage, more email is coming in every hour and now we’ve added more messages into this vicious cycle.

This rule can be a tough to follow all the time.  I admit there are times when I break my own rules and I advise you to do the same for messages that may require more thought to compose a response or if I need more information before I can respond.  And never follow this rule for emotionally charged or confrontational situations.  Pick up the phone or speak to the person face-to-face to resolve the issue because you can’t convey tone in an email.

But the majority of the email that comes in can be acted upon as soon as you read it.  Read it and then respond, move it to a folder, or delete it.  You will not go back and deal with all of your email later.  Trust me, you won’t.

Read it and then act on it.  Take control of your email.  Make your email work for you instead of you being worked by your email.

Coming up next: The Second Rule of Email: Check It Less

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Image Source: Source: Samba for Rats

 
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Change your iOS Defaults: Sounds

April 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I’ve been seeing a lot of new iPhones and iPads in the hands of people. How do I know they’re new? They’re still using the default settings: the background image, default sounds and things like that. If there’s anything we hope to do at Beyond The Defaults, it’s to show our readers how to move beyond what’s delivered out of the box.

So gather ’round everyone, and I’ll show you a few things that will make your device a lot more “personal”.

In this post, I’ll show you how to manage sounds on the device – because the sounds your phone or tablet makes are the first giveaway that you’ve got a new device;  it’s  the most noticeable thing – to both you and the people around you.

Open the settings and find Sounds – then tap on the item in the menu to display the entire array of Sounds options (a snapshot of my iPhone settings are shown on the left).

As you can see there are a number of settings, but here are the ones I think most people should change. Here’s why I encourage these in particular – if every iPhone in the room has the same settings, one phone call, e-mail message or text message will have every iPhone user in the room reaching for their hip or bag. That, and by default the device settings are “noisy”.

Ringtone

Choose something different if you can. I use the Old Phone option, but I also have a few custom tones for specific people. Can you create ringtones from files? Sure you can – and I’ll do a separate post on how you can do that without buying an app.

Text Tone

This is the one that usually gets everyone in the room all reaching for their phones when a new message arrives. The default is Tri-Tone, I use something a little more subtle (Ding), or I’ll just make it None.

New Mail & Sent Mail

I typically recommend setting both of these to None – because people that use smartphones are usually fairly heavy mail users (both incoming and outgoing). No need for the device to make that much noise.

Calendar and Reminder Alerts

Ever sit in a meeting and learn that three people in the room have a meeting right after the one you’re in? That’s because their Calendar Alerts all go off at the same time with the same tone. The default for both is Alert – a good suggestion would be to either use something different or just make it silent.

Lock Sounds & Keyboard Clicks

If you want to draw attention to yourself quickly, leave these two set to the default of On. By doing so, every interaction you have with your phone/tablet will make a clicking noise. I strongly recommend to most people to set both to Off as soon as possible.

One thing you’ve probably noticed in my suggestions – the “None” options is a frequently used and  perfectly good choice. As you’ll see from the snapshot of my Sounds preferences, I use None a lot. Primarily, it’s to be considerate of others (see my Lessons Learned post), but there are other reasons as well – such as not needing a tone when mail arrives during the night or the caller that I didn’t answer left me a voice mail message. My phone will still notify me – I’ve got the Vibrate option on, so in addition to (or in place of) sounds, the device will vibrate.

I’m making the device work the way I want to work, which is exactly what everyone should do.

Now, go forth and personalize.

 
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Manage Your Passwords

April 23, 2012 By 4 Comments

It’s not a secret that there are plenty of threats out there in Internet-land; if you remember in the Watch Your Links post, the bad people out there are going to increasingly great lengths in attempts to get us to divulge passwords. Truth be told, in addition to just paying a little closer attention to how we use Internet-based resources, the best protection against fraud and identity theft on the Internet is to use a good password.

We’ve all heard the recommendations – but they’re worth repeating here:

  • Use something only you will know, but not easily guessable (meaning your kids’ names are a bad choice)
  • Mix in upper and lower case letters
  • Use numbers and special characters (such as !, & or @) wherever possible
  • Don’t use the same password everywhere (this is very important)

That last one is a really big deal – using the same username and password combination for everything from Facebook to online banking/credit card management inadvertently creates a single point of failure and a massive exposure. Once it’s breached, the thief has the keys to the kingdom. Literally.

This is where the reality fairy pays me a visit and says “there’s no way people are going to do this, even though they know they should.” And the fairy would be (mostly) right – which is why there are tools to help us do the right thing, and they’re called Password Managers.

Password Managers are add-on solutions that keep a list of the sites we use, and record the username and password required to authenticate when it’s needed. Usually there’s a master username and password required to open up “the password vault”, but once that’s been opened, the tool will auto-fill the information when it’s requested. Many of you will say “doesn’t this also create a potential single point of failure and exposure?” The answer is technically yes – which is why the password to the vault must be extremely complex and difficult to crack.

There are a number of tools out there – some are free, some are included with your browser and some are paid/subscription services. Some examples include:

  • Password Safe (Free app, Windows only)
  • 1Password (Paid app, Mac OS X only)
  • RoboForm (Paid app, Windows only)
  • Firefox Password Manager (Free, built into the browser, cross-platform but Firefox only)
  • Chrome Password Manager (Free, built into the browser, cross-platform but Chrome only)

My preference is LastPass – and here’s why:

  • It’s cross-platform: I run it on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux
  • It’s also cross-browser: it installs as a plug-in to Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari
  • It permits organization of sites into folders, for easier bulk management.
  • It will generate secure passwords for you, if you want it to.

For me, it doesn’t matter which machine I use or which browser on whatever machine I’m on, my vault is accessible and integrated into the browser. I can’t begin to describe how much time and effort this saves me.  This doesn’t even include the time saved by another LastPass product called Xmarks  – another huge time-saver and must have.

Here’s the best part - it’s free. But if  you’re smart and want to be like me (and who wouldn’t), shell out the whole $12/year to be a Premium user to get the real value:

  • There’s an app for your smartphone/tablet that allows you to access your LastPass Vault – and I use it often.
  • You get Priority Support. You shouldn’t need it, but it’s there.
  • There are no ads – to me, no ads alone is worth $12/year.

I am of the firm belief that in life, you get what you pay for. LastPass is worth every bit of my annual subscription costs. Being a subscriber also provides the company (in some small way) a revenue model that helps sustain the product. I like it, I don’t want it to go away, so I’ll give them some money. Everyone wins.

(DISCLOSURE: I have been a paid LastPass subscriber for some time, and I endorse it because I like it and use it – not because I got a free offer in exchange for a product plug.)

So if you’re worried about keeping your passwords straight, no need to worry. There are solutions to make your life easier.

Be safe out there.

 

We at BTD also recommend reading (or viewing) these links, as they provide some additional ways to secure yourself.

 
4 Comments

Watch Your Links

April 19, 2012 By 4 Comments

Most web sites, especially those for credit card companies,  take account security very seriously. They ask us for security questions, and they notify us when something changes. Change your e-mail address? You get a notification – and it tells you to contact them if you did not initiate the change. All very good things, except….when those notifications are not legitimate.

Over the past few days, I’ve gotten two e-mail notifications asking me to confirm changes to my accounts – one from Apple, the other from American Express. Here’s the one from Apple:

On the surface, this notification looks like something I’d get from Apple. The URL’s that are provided are actually correct. It really got my attention because I had not made any account changes. So naturally, my first instinct – and the first instinct of most people – was to click on one of the links to get it sorted out. That choice would have gotten me into a lot of trouble. There are six links in this message, and not one of them points to Apple. In fact, there’s a different link beneath each link shown in the message.

This kind of message falls into the world of phishing – impersonating a real site or company for the purpose of doing bad things. These “socially engineered” traps are designed to prey on people’s natural reactions or instincts, either in an attempt to trick you into surrendering personally identifiable information (like a user name, password, credit card number, etc) or to take you to a web site that’s set up to inject virus payload onto your computer. Either way, no good will come of it.

So how did I know that bad things were around the corner? I’m very security conscious when it comes to links sent to me, so I pay attention to the underlying URL’s that are delivered. I also pay attention to who sends these links to me. Just like attachments, if you don’t know the source, don’t click them.

Most e-mail systems (Outlook, Notes, GMail, iOS, etc) provide a way to see the underlying destination. In most cases, it’s simply a matter of moving the mouse over the link text. Here are a few examples of how to do this:

For Lotus Notes, mouse over the link to see the target URL in the status bar at the bottom of the window – here’s how the actual target URL link for the iforgot.apple.com link text in the message:

For Microsoft Outlook, moving the mouse over linked text will display a little balloon with the target URL:

Believe or not, this can also be done with mobile devices.  For the iPhone and iPad, using a “tap and hold” gesture on a link in an e-mail message will display the following choices:

The same applies for Android-based smartphones: a “tap and hold” on a link will display a prompt to either share or copy the link, but the URL in play is displayed at the top of the prompt.

It’s unfortunate that there are so many out in Internet-land that have bad things in mind, so it’s worth just a little extra effort to pay attention to links that are sent to us. I received two messages in two days, both looked very legitimate. So take the extra step when you’re not sure, because one wrong click can create a slew of new problems.

 
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Silent Shortcut for Android

April 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I’ve had my Android phone for several months now and I’m embarrassed to admit the new feature I discovered last week.  I have a Motorola Droid X and a requirement of having my work email on my phone, I have to password protect my phone.

To put my phone on vibrate meant I had to swipe to unlock the phone, enter my password, and then use the volume button on the side.  My husband has an app on his home screen that he uses to toggle between a ringer, vibrate, and silent.

Both ways felt like too many steps to do something that should be simple. Which is why I felt like slapping myself in the forehead when I saw the sound icon on the home screen.  The same home screen I look at probably 20 times a day.

To unlock my phone, I usually swipe from left to right (click on the lock icon and slide right).

To switch between the ringer and vibrate, I swipe from right to left.  If you want the action to go to silent instead of vibrate, go to Settings – Sounds – Vibrate and select Never.

To see it in action, check out this video around the 1:12 mark.

Do you have any Android tips or tricks I should know about?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Update:  This feature is not available on HTC phones.

 

 

 

 

 
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ICYMI – March 2012

April 10, 2012 By 3 Comments

In Case You Missed It – the March 2012 Edition

From the web site:

From Facebook:

  • Ever wonder what exactly “4G” means in the ads? 3G? LTE? This is a great “written in English” explanation of these things.  4G or Not 4G
  • If you haven’t already switched to the Facebook Timeline, you will soon be forced to update. We’ve put together some information on how to get started.  Facebook Timeline
  • This is a great article about using technology to regain focus. If your tools take up more time than your work, your process and tools are too complicated! What tools or apps do you use to help you stay focused and manage your work? – via Lifehacker
  • Where to Speak on your iPhone 4 – via Tidbits
  • With swackett, they take the weather and dress your “peeps” with what’s appropriate for the weather. Its available for iPhone users and sadly, no iPad app or Android app yet.
  • Are you a Microsoft Word user? Here are a few tips that might be useful (video is included) – via yahoo.com

From Twitter:

  • This is worth the 5 minutes to watch. Social Identity in Three Layers ow.ly/9XCHg via @idonotes
  • Don’t Be a Minimalist: Regain Focus With Technology ow.ly/9XhXK via @lifehackorg
  • We will definitely be checking out Swackett, a visual weather app to help you dress for the weather ow.ly/9MPRU Thanks @digitwirl!
  • How Evernote Made Doing My Taxes a Total Breeze ng4p.us/zXNdt8 via @nerdgap
  • A little microphone trickery on the iPhone – a few things I’ll bet you didn’t know (I didn’t) – http://bit.ly/GDDR0y (via @tidBITS )
  • Tablet Considerations: iPad vs. Nook & Kindle Fire http://bit.ly/za1bdI via @life_yourway

Have a great April – hope everyone’s Spring Break was a good one!

(EDITOR’S NOTE/UPDATE: Some of the links were incorrect on the post – they’ve been corrected. Thanks for letting us know, my apologies and thanks for reading.)

 

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My Son Grounded Me From Facebook

March 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Parents embarrass their children.  Its a ritual that’s been passed down from generation to generation.  I remember as a kid when I prayed for the ground to open up and swallow me hole to save me from my embarrassing parents.  Now I am grateful that there were limited instances in which my parents could embarrass me and Facebook and Twitter were not around then.  Children today do not have that luxury as I recently learned after I embarrassed my 8 year old stepson on Facebook.

Let me set the scene for you.  It was after dinner and homework time and it was time for him to get a shower.  As usual, he was taking forever and I went in to check on him and I found him doing tai chi in the shower.  They were reading a story at school that mentioned tai chi and then someone taught him some moves (without proper explanation of where its appropriate to do!).  After asking him what he was doing, I told him to stop, he did, and then I did what any other parent would do who just had a funny interaction with their kid, I posted it on Facebook.

I didn’t think anymore of it until he came home a few days later.  I am friends with his best friend’s mom on Facebook and she saw my post and shared it with her son, who then relayed it to the lunch table the next day.  My power to embarrass my son is so powerful that I can embarrass him without even being there.  I felt terrible.  It was a funny situation that made my husband and I laugh and I knew others would get a kick out of, but it wasn’t worth embarrassing him in front of his friends.

I could unfriend the parents of his friends or hide kid related posts from them, but that’s not solving the issue.  And, its not their fault, its mine.  I chose to post the story on Facebook and I made the decision to share what happened in the privacy of my own home in a public forum.  And once I made the decision to put it out there, I no longer had control over what happens to that story.  Its the choice that I made, I am responsible, and my son and I have to live with the outcome.

Now I am much more conscious about what I post about him on social media and my personal blog.  Yes, they are my accounts but I also have to think of his future and feelings.  One day, he is going to apply for a job or scholarship and someone when they search for him on the internet, they will see what I’ve posted about him on Facebook, Twitter, and my blog.  Its my job as a parent to make sure I’m preparing him for life, real and online.

So now, I ask him before I post anything about him online (including this post) and if he says no, then I don’t post it.  The picture of the spider he put on my ice cream because he was trying to scare me is kid approved.  After I finished screaming, he said “You can put that on Facebook”.

I highly recommend you read 8 words from my 5 year old that changed social media forever by Jon Acuff.  It resonated with me the first time I read it in November 2011 and even more so now.  And this article by Lisa Belkin, What Should Parents Never Share Online, is an interesting read about what happens when parents share too much online.

Have you embarrassed your kids on Facebook?  How do you decide what to post about your kids online?  Let me know in the comments!

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The Pomodoro Technique

March 26, 2012 By 1 Comment

Call it Spring Fever or maybe I’m coming out of my winter hibernation, but I’d rather be outside than inside and my concentration is starting to suffer.  Spring Fever is not a legitimate excuse to get me out of work, so I need a little help to get back into my groove.  My go to strategy is to use the Pomodoro Technique.

The Pomodoro Technique helps increase focus and concentration by splitting up your work into intervals.  The technique recommends you work on a specific task, no multi-tasking allowed, for 25 minutes and then take a 5 minute break.  Its a short enough interval that its not overwhelming and once I get started, I usually end up working longer than 25 minutes because I’ve found my focus.

When its time for a break, I try to stand up and get away from the desk for a few minutes.  I try not to check email or get online because its easy to get sucked in and I could lose my focus.

I use an app that I’ve installed on my computer called Focus Booster, available for Mac and Windows.  Its free and its simple to use.  I can adjust the interval length, right now I have mine set for 30 minutes of work and a 5 minute break.  And it keeps track of how many intervals I’ve gone through, which is great for those projects in which I’m required to track how much time I’m spending on it.

Once you start Focus Booster and click the green arrow the timer will start.  I usually minimize the application or move it to a lower corner of the screen so I don’t watch the time countdown.  When the time is up, an alert will sound and your 5 minute break starts.  Repeat as necessary until the task is complete.

You could also set a timer on your phone or tablet and I’m sure there are other apps out there that will do the same thing.  If you find something that works for you, use it.  But don’t spend too much time searching for the perfect tool, that’s procrastination and you want to focus on the work, not on the tool.

I don’t use Focus Booster and the Pomodoro Technique all the time, but when my focus starts to waver its great to have these tools to fall back on.  They are simple to use, free, and help me get my work done so I can finish my work.

When you notice your focus slipping, what do you do to help get it back?  Let us know in the comments!

Did you notice the new Evernote clipper at the bottom of each post? Its new and we hope you will try it out. If you are reading this in your email, you will need to click through to the post to see the new button.

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Why Won’t My New Password Work On My iPad?

March 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

My sister called me on Friday afternoon because she needed some help with her iPad.  She had recently changed her Facebook and Pinterest passwords but wasn’t able to log into either account using the browser (Safari app).  (She knows she can use the Facebook app but chooses to use the browser.)  The fix is pretty simple.

Open your Settings and go to the Safari option.  From there click on “Clear History” and “Clear Cookies and Data”.  Press the Clear button when prompted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go back to Safari and try logging into your accounts again and it should work.

Did you notice the new Evernote clipper at the bottom of each post? Its new and we hope you will try it out. If you are reading this in your email, you will need to click through to the post to see the new button.

Did you know Beyond The Defaults is now on Facebook and Twitter? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You can also sign up to receive new posts delivered directly to your Inbox!

 
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