Efficiency

I had to create a new document today for a number of people to manage. I had a suggestion from a few people to put it on Google Docs. I am not a huge fan of Google Docs... it is not quite as responsive as I like and I really like local documents so that I can work offline whenever I want. Not too mention, it is not as fully featured as MS  Office Applications or OpenOffice.org Applications.

Nevertheless, it really did make most sense for me to have this particular document online so that I don't have to continue to email the document when I make an update. continue reading...

I have been thinking a little about the reasons why I might procrastinate getting something done.

I sometimes amaze myself at what I will procrastinate. I will put off till the last minute some things that don't take very long in the end. Often times these small things can make me a lot of money if I would just get them done.

Not long ago, I put off getting a time card program set up for my employees because I just didn't want to deal with it.

In an effort to understand why I procrastinate, I have learned something interesting about me. continue reading...

In business, to ensure efficiency, you should have a process for everything. You should know what needs to be done to accomplish everything you do as effectively as possible.

You may not realize it, but even if you are a one man show, you have processes that dictate the things you do. If you are a small operation, then it is likely very easy to tell me what you do on a regular basis. As you get larger, that becomes more complicated.

Ask five people in your organization how you do something. I bet you get five different answers. Five different ways of doing the same thing. Five different reasons for doing those things. Five different timelines for getting those things done. continue reading...

A good day at work is not defined by the number of hours you spend on a project, sitting behind a computer or talking with clients. A good day at work is measure by what you have accomplished that is meaningful.

Don't confuse busyness with working. Don't think that just because you put in 8, 10 or 12 hours that you actually accomplished something.

If you can't look back on your day and honestly say that you have completed something of consequence or significance, then you didn't have a good day at work. continue reading...

I have run this blog for more than a year now.

I must say, it has been a fun thing for me. I would guess that I have learned a lot more than anybody who has read this blog. It certainly makes me think a little more about business and technology. When ever I go anywhere, I always think about the blog that I can write.

I am sure that I have come up with some bad posts, but I thought I would share a few of my favorites from the last year. continue reading...

A few weeks ago, I moved my email services to Google Apps.

My main motivation was I wanted to find a good alternative to an Exchange Server. Since I left corporate America a few months ago, I have missed the synchronization that an Exchange Server provides. I can't justify the costs of one, so I needed an alternative.

Google Apps provides free email hosting for up to 100 email accounts on your domain. You can petition for more without paying extra. The shared calendars are pretty cool, too. Recently, they added IMAP support which allows the users to have their email in their favorite email desktop client sync with the Google Gmail interface... so you can have the best of both.

If you are used to the way that your client handles email in a POP3 or Exchange environment, it takes a little getting used to (for example, you can't hit delete in Outlook, you have to drag and drop to the trash and identifying something as spam or not as spam is a little more complicated). But, once you get used to it, it works really well. One of the things that I really didn't like very much was that I couldn't synchronize my calendar. I still prefer to use Outlook for my email. I do because it is so well used. But, I really like the idea of having a web interface to modify my calendar. continue reading...