I had the pleasure yesterday of taking a day off to go to share some time with friends at the shore. It was as close as you can come to a perfect New England day. The sun was shining, the water calm, the breeze cool and the conversation stimulating. A day where one could escape the confines of our daily lives and let our spirits soar. A day where we can look at our lives from a new perspective.

As I was enjoying each moment of this perfect day, my mind wandered to thoughts of the location. Tall grasses yielding to the breeze and the ocean teaming with life. Clear blue water with the egrets standing gracefully watched us watching them. An osprey perched high keeping watch over all of us. while beautifully maintained homes with manicured lawns stood guard in contrast to the nature.. My thoughts wandered to wonder what it would be like to live here, in this beautiful place. How it would be to enjoy the nature of it all. It was then that I noticed. The people who do live here, are not here enjoying this day or the beauty all around them.

Where were they, the people who owned these beautiful homes? Were they away on vacation? Were they off in the rat race trying to keep up with the mortgage payments, the utilities, the service people who maintain their property? .

Too Busy to Enjoy What We Have? is a post from: A Passion for Connection

Photo by Orvalrochefort

While visiting a client the other day I had the opportunity to witness first hand, the flow of information at the company. I was shocked to see the work that was needlessly created because of lack of training on software and complacency.  The people in the company were used to doing something one way and were resistant to change. “This is how we do it” was the attitude. There was no one questioning , “why do we do it this way,” or “is there a better way”

This particular client is buried in paperwork as he downsized and eliminated the position of bookkeeper. His staff, as good as they are at what they do, are limited by old systems that he set up long ago and clings to. Old Ideas that hold him back. Old accounting systems weigh him down and he has his staff doing menial tasks that are easily automated and integrated into his accounting. He focuses on the small things that don’t matter instead of looking at the big picture.

I watched as one of his staff wrote a purchase order on a spread sheet form that she manually multiplied the quantity x the price of each item. Then she manually entered that purchase order into a spread sheet log, and printed out two copies of the purchase order. She placed one copy in the client folder, and one in the purchase order folder and proceeded to delete the purchase order spread sheet she created . “There was no need for it” was the argument, “we have the hard copies.”

All of this took her well over an hour. I am still shaking my head in disbelief. All of this could have been done in Quickbooks at the time of the order in a minuit or two at the most. I then started thinking of all the work that still needs to be done like entering the transactions into Quickbooks for which I am sure he will pull out the purchase order file and compare the agreed on price with the receipt he receives from then vendor. When he bills the client, he will have to pull out the file of purchase orders and receipts and manually calculate his hours and prepare a bill for the client. ALL BY HAND. He has Quickbooks but does not use it to simplify his life. Instead it is one more chore that needs to be done.

I know this may be an extreme example, but I also know that many people don’t use a fraction of their resources. Many times because they simply don’t take the time to learn the tools the have.  If we take a few moments and look at how and why we do things, we can come up with solutions that can save us time.

Do you have resources in your company or organization that you under utilize?

Do We Underuse Technology? is a post from: A Passion for Connection

Do you have multiple email accounts and find that you bounce between them during the day? Do you ever struggle trying to find an email and can’t remember which account it was sent to? Gmail is a great tool on its own. But with a few minuets of set up, it can be an excellent email management tool.

Consider this: You can have all of your email from other accounts forwarded to your Gmail or Google Apps email account, sort them by account as they come in, and have them displayed in their own inbox using the multiple inbox feature in Gmail. Even better you can set up filters to have the emails tagged as they come in.

The benefit to this is when we are searching for an email, it can be found in one place using Gmail’s search. Another benefit is that ALL our email is available from any access point, any computer, any phone, or any other device that can connect to the web.

How to do this:

1. Visit each of your email accounts and have the email forwarded to your Gmail or Google Apps Email address.
2. In your Gmail account, Click “Settings” in the upper right hand corner and click the “Multiple Inbox” link.
3. In the Search query box ( I leave “Is:Starred” in the first box for quick access to email that I tag with a star.) enter “To:YourEmailAddress@Domain.com” in the panes in the order you would like the inboxes displayed.

Your done. If you like you can go ahead and create some filters while you are there. I suggest doing it on the fly as emails come in. There is a little checkbox at the last page of creating the filter that will allow you to apply the filter to emails in the past.

Google allows you also to change the “Send from” mail address so it appears that you sent the email from the original email account.  This “From” email address does not even have to be a Gmail address. Under Settings, Click “accounts, then click the link “add another email address you own” You will be asked to enter your email address. Follow the instructions carefully to confirm you own that email address. You will be sent a confirmation code to the added email address that you need enter to complete the setup.

If you are using Gmail and want access to the past email stored in your other accounts you can import them. You contacts can also be exported and imported into Gmail Contacts. If you are using Google Apps, ask your Google Apps administrator.

3 Steps To Taming Multiple Email Addresses Using Gmail is a post from: A Passion for Connection

Taking control of our search queries

Advanced Google Search – The first area we can take control with is the “Advance Search” link. It is usually located to the right or bottom right of a Google search box. Here you can fine tune your query with options.
( For a complete set of instructions, click here. ) By using the advance settings you can take tighter control and narrow your search query to specifically the information you are looking for. It will help stop us from scrolling through pages of irrelevant responses.

Going beyond the simple search box or the advanced settings, Google offers ways to refine or expand our searches while presenting different ways to view the results.
( While returning searches in the standard view, Google includes the “sponsored” links is a very lightly shaded area at the top of the screen. Below that are the more organic results of our search query.)

Settings for controlling search results are found on the left hand side of the search window.The first option we notice is the “More” drop down.

Topics -In this area we will find ways to limit our search to certain topics like News, Books, Images, Blogs, Videos, Maps, Shopping, Status Updates, Discussions etc.

Time- Below that area on the left of the screen are the options for “Time.” Here we can pick standard time frames or customize our query to the exact time frame we want to focus on.

People – Below the time area we find an area where we can limit our search query to “Social” which would  limit the results to people within our social network.

We can also choose by location. – “Nearby”  offers options of selecting results from areas close to us geographically or limited to any area of the world.

Views – A feature that I enjoy is “Views”. Google can display search results in ways that can help us refine our search or expand it, so that we are sure to get what we are looking for.

Again in the left column you will see “Standard View.” That is the view we normally see. Added to the views section is the new ‘Wonder Wheel” The Wonder Wheel is a presentation of our query results along with other related topics in a Mind Map like format with click able links. It helps expand out thinking to new possibilities. As I was searching for information about Google Chrome. I chose this options and it lead me to the Google Chrome Blog. ( I didn’t know they had one.)

By Taking advantage of the tools provided, we can get more value out of the time we spend searching the internet getting results faster and with laser focus.

NOTE: I am a fan of Google and its myriad of tools to make life easier. With Crome, Google’s web browser similar to Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari, you can simply start typing your search query in the address box and Google will search for it. Google Chrome

Laser Focus for Google Search is a post from: A Passion for Connection

We asked, you answered, and we hear you loud and clear.

We all have a finite amount of time. We can not create more.

Time-

What we all can do is use it as wisely as possible. Over the next month we will be compiling some good solid information and resources for using our time better, not just from an efficiency standpoint but from a new mindset.  A mindset that puts our values first and balances our health, relationships, and our community with our own personal goals.

I would like to draw upon some of the work of Stephen Covey, A. Roger and Rebecca R. Merrill in their book, First Things First
It is a great resource and I highly recommend it.

Image Credits:
Time-

First Things First (book). (2009, October 29). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:31, March 29, 2010, fromhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=First_Things_First_(book)&oldid=322658393

Can Social Media Help Us Free More Time? is a post from: A Passion for Connection