One of the important things the Bible does is provide guidelines for living. It tells you what kind of food to eat and what kind of clothes to wear. It tells you how many days to work and how many days to rest. The Bible also provides guidance for what kind of tools to use in everyday life.
But, the bible does not tell you what tools to use in today’s digital world. I think it is important that we make up for that deficiency.
What follows are a set of guidelines to function in a digital world.
Unlike biblical guidelines, these guidelines are not intended to suggest that they are the only way to structure one’s digital life. They are intended only as a suggestion.
The Cloud will publish any number of suggestions. However, the Cloud will also rank those suggestions. The suggestions will be evaluated on the basis of being the most effective to achieving a stated goal.
Introduction
I am 61 years old. That means that I remember a world where our only connection to the outside was a black dial phone, newspapers, radio, and 3 Local TV stations, and of course the Library. To say the world has changed would be an understatement. I noted to my adult daughter the other day that she never asked for a phone in her room. When I was growing up, having a phone in you room was the pinnacle, the top, the summit in terms of connectivity.
And while it is easy to point to the Interstate Highway system, the automobile, and Jets as the major innovations that shrunk our world, I would note that one could effectively argue that the innovations in our telecommunications infrastructure has been the most important of all those other important innovations. And even if I would lose the argument that it was the most important, it would be hard to deny that it is one of the most important.
1) At Home
- a) Set UPi) Physical
(1) Desktop PC – Going to change soon
(2) XP – will go to Windows 7
(3) Cable Internet – Satisfied – No change
(4) Twisted Pair Phone (I am evaluating moving to Cable)
(5) A lot of Memory – Currently
(6) Ergonomic Keyboard
ii) Computer Settings
(1) Internet Explorer 8
(2) Users
(3) QuickLaunch Bar
(4) Set Up
b) Start up
i) Finance/Money
(1) Quicken
ii) Observation/Internet
(1) Huffington Post (Home page – Recently changed from My.yahoo
(2) My.Yahoo
(3) Google
iii) Entertainment (Optional but usual if I am going to relax and work)
(1) iTunes
iv) Personal
(1) MS Word
v) Web Maintenance
(1) 1&1
vi) Social Network
(1) MS Outlook
(2) Facebook
(3) Hotmail
(4) Blogs
(a) Huffington Post
(b) @tlantis Learning Communityq
vii) Photography
(1) Elements 6 – Organizer
c) Policies
i) Only touch something ONCE.
(1) Act on it
(2) File it
(3) Delete it
(4) Put in Follow-up file for further action
ii) Minimize Key Strokes
(1) See entire file list without scrolling
(2) See all files in File Screens without scrolling
iii) Digitize as much as possible
iv) Use email signatures with Phone # and other relevant info
(1)
v) Uncluttered is better because you can find things easier
vi) Save your work frequently – All data is mortal
vii) Generally try to focus on one activity at a time, however, take advantage of multitasking where appropriate
(1) Downloading Photos from Card reader.
(2) Downloading/Uploading
(3) Searching
(a) Should be searching all the time through automated search algorithms
(4) Interrupt driven (just like a CPU)
viii) Data Security
(1) Password Safe
ix) Download rarely and carefully
x) Clean Register regularly (PCs only)
xi) Use a consistent file structure
(1) Use a consistent file structure to make things easy to find
(2) Desktop
(a) Is high level only.
(b) Only for those things that are needed often.
(c) No documents on the desktop except those that are needed often and easiest to find.
(d) If you don’t touch an icon on the desktop at all, or very rarely, it should be moved to another file location.
(3) Logical
(a) Desktop is Highest
(i) My Computer – Rarely (I think it is mandatory)
(ii) My Documents – Most Often
(iii) My Network Places – Rarely
(iv) Recycle Bin (mandatory)
(v) Internet Explorer (hard to get rid of – I have given up trying)
(vi) Indian Rocks (so it is easy for Annette to see it)
(vii)Quicken (it is the first thing I open always)
(4) Physical
(i) Ira’s Documents
(ii) Shared Documents
(5) Starting location for searches from Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other applications should be My Documents
xii) Actions – Standard
(1) Finance
(a) Download transactions
(b) Count Money
(i) Run Retirement Savings Report (never enough)
(ii) Run Cash Flow Report to check expenses
(2) Review Headlines
(a) See if anything is immediately Actionable.
(b) Take a quick assessment of the environment and roughly plan the day.
(c) Hopefully there are no surprises.
xiii) Clean up email
(1) Target is to clean as best I can
(2) Some days it is easier than others
(3) Target is clean 100% out of Inbox
(4) Accept as best as I can given the situation
xiv)Social Networking
(1) Facebook
(2) Linkedin
(3) Hotmail
xv) Actions – Non Standard
(1) Photo Management
(a) Download photos from camera
(b) Learn how to use elements
(i) Elements training.com
(2) Buy a Domain Name
(a) taoismlearningcommunity.com
(3)
2) At Work
a) Cubical
b) Cisco IP Phone
c) Laptop and Docking Station
d) Set UP
i) Physical
(1) Laptop and Docking Station
(a) XP
(b) Ergonomic Keyboard
ii) Computer Settings
(1) Internet Explorer 8
(2) QuickLaunch Bar
(3) Set Up
e) Start up
i) Social Networking
(1) MS Outlook
(a) Go through Inbox (see policies for process)
(b) Check Calendar for days activities
ii) Observation/Internet
(1) Corp Web Page (Home Page)
(2) Huffington Post
(3) My.Yahoo
(4) Google
(5) Salesforce.com
iii) MS Office Suite
f) Policies
i) Generally the same as Home – Except
(1) No Password Safe
ii) Clean up email
iii) Starting location for searches from Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other applications should be the desktop
g) Actions
i) Go through email inbox
ii) Review Headlines
(1) See if anything is immediately Actionable.
(2) Take a quick assessment of the environment and roughly plan the day.
(3) Hopefully there are no surprises.
iii) Salesforce.com
(1) Run Funnel report to see what is immediately actionable.
(2) XP – will go to Windows 7
(3) Cable Internet – Satisfied – No change
(4) Twisted Pair Phone (I am evaluating moving to Cable)
(5) A lot of Memory – Currently
(6) Ergonomic Keyboard
ii) Computer Settings
(1) Internet Explorer 8
(2) Users
(3) QuickLaunch Bar
(4) Set Up
b) Start up
i) Finance/Money
(1) Quicken
ii) Observation/Internet
(1) Huffington Post (Home page – Recently changed from My.yahoo
(2) My.Yahoo
(3) Google
iii) Entertainment (Optional but usual if I am going to relax and work)
(1) iTunes
iv) Personal
(1) MS Word
v) Web Maintenance
(1) 1&1
vi) Social Network
(1) MS Outlook
(2) Facebook
(3) Hotmail
(4) Blogs
(a) Huffington Post
(b) @tlantis Learning Communityq
vii) Photography
(1) Elements 6 – Organizer
c) Policies
i) Only touch something ONCE.
(1) Act on it
(2) File it
(3) Delete it
(4) Put in Follow-up file for further action
ii) Minimize Key Strokes
(1) See entire file list without scrolling
(2) See all files in File Screens without scrolling
iii) Digitize as much as possible
iv) Use email signatures with Phone # and other relevant info
(1)
v) Uncluttered is better because you can find things easier
vi) Save your work frequently – All data is mortal
vii) Generally try to focus on one activity at a time, however, take advantage of multitasking where appropriate
(1) Downloading Photos from Card reader.
(2) Downloading/Uploading
(3) Searching
(a) Should be searching all the time through automated search algorithms
(4) Interrupt driven (just like a CPU)
viii) Data Security
(1) Password Safe
ix) Download rarely and carefully
x) Clean Register regularly (PCs only)
xi) Use a consistent file structure
(1) Use a consistent file structure to make things easy to find
(2) Desktop
(a) Is high level only.
(b) Only for those things that are needed often.
(c) No documents on the desktop except those that are needed often and easiest to find.
(d) If you don’t touch an icon on the desktop at all, or very rarely, it should be moved to another file location.
(3) Logical
(a) Desktop is Highest
(i) My Computer – Rarely (I think it is mandatory)
(ii) My Documents – Most Often
(iii) My Network Places – Rarely
(iv) Recycle Bin (mandatory)
(v) Internet Explorer (hard to get rid of – I have given up trying)
(vi) Indian Rocks (so it is easy for Annette to see it)
(vii)Quicken (it is the first thing I open always)
(4) Physical
(i) Ira’s Documents
(ii) Shared Documents
- Shared Photos
(5) Starting location for searches from Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other applications should be My Documents
xii) Actions – Standard
(1) Finance
(a) Download transactions
(b) Count Money
(i) Run Retirement Savings Report (never enough)
(ii) Run Cash Flow Report to check expenses
(2) Review Headlines
(a) See if anything is immediately Actionable.
(b) Take a quick assessment of the environment and roughly plan the day.
(c) Hopefully there are no surprises.
xiii) Clean up email
(1) Target is to clean as best I can
(2) Some days it is easier than others
(3) Target is clean 100% out of Inbox
(4) Accept as best as I can given the situation
xiv)Social Networking
(1) Facebook
(2) Linkedin
(3) Hotmail
xv) Actions – Non Standard
(1) Photo Management
(a) Download photos from camera
(b) Learn how to use elements
(i) Elements training.com
(2) Buy a Domain Name
(a) taoismlearningcommunity.com
(3)
2) At Work
a) Cubical
b) Cisco IP Phone
c) Laptop and Docking Station
d) Set UP
i) Physical
(1) Laptop and Docking Station
(a) XP
(b) Ergonomic Keyboard
ii) Computer Settings
(1) Internet Explorer 8
(2) QuickLaunch Bar
(3) Set Up
e) Start up
i) Social Networking
(1) MS Outlook
(a) Go through Inbox (see policies for process)
(b) Check Calendar for days activities
ii) Observation/Internet
(1) Corp Web Page (Home Page)
(2) Huffington Post
(3) My.Yahoo
(4) Google
(5) Salesforce.com
iii) MS Office Suite
f) Policies
i) Generally the same as Home – Except
(1) No Password Safe
ii) Clean up email
iii) Starting location for searches from Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other applications should be the desktop
g) Actions
i) Go through email inbox
ii) Review Headlines
(1) See if anything is immediately Actionable.
(2) Take a quick assessment of the environment and roughly plan the day.
(3) Hopefully there are no surprises.
iii) Salesforce.com
(1) Run Funnel report to see what is immediately actionable.
Organizational Policies
Emails
There are many ways to go through emails. I like to use the “last in – First out” approach. I start with the most current and work my way down from there. I also try to deal with my inbox real time. When I get an email I try to act on it at that moment. I allow it to interrupt me.
I know that a lot of you are saying that is a crazy way to manage emails. And you may be right. But I do have some justification for this approach and I would like to share it with you.
First let me provide to bits of history that have led me to this point. The first is an experience I had at the Tampa Airport more than 20 years ago. Anyone that has travelled a lot knows that it is not uncommon for smaller regional airports like Tampa to have flights every hour or so to the hub like Atlanta or Orlando. At this point in my career I was travelling a lot and I would often take the flight from Tampa to Atlanta. On this particular day, my 4:30 flight was delayed for some reason. We were given a new departure time of 6:30, which was after the next scheduled flight of 5:30. I went up to the gate agent and asked why they didn’t up the passengers of the 4:30 on the 5:30 flight. It did not seem fair to me that those that were on the 5:30 flight should not have to wait like us. I said that if they put the 4:30 passengers on the 5:30 flight they would only have to be delayed an hour as opposed to 2 hours. The answer the gate agent gave me made perfect sense and it changed my perspective on organizational principles. The gate agent said that right now only the passengers on this plane are upset. If we bump the 5:30 passengers they will be upset. Then everyone will be upset. However, if we get the 5:30 passengers out on time they are happy. What we accomplished by not bumping them is reduce the number of unhappy people by 50%,
Here is how I apply this to email. I assume everyone that sends me an email expects an immediate response. If, for whatever reason, I have delayed getting a response to someone, they are already upset. However, if I get a new email and I respond immediately to that, I have a happy sender.
Staying Connected
Being connected always was and always will be an important need. Digital technology has given use tremendous tools to stay connected. One of the biggest competitive advantages one can take advantage of today is all the digital connection options.
Home Connections
I use a cable modem, I always have. I have never used DSL. If I could I would use fiber, but it is not available yet in my neighborhood.
Wireless
Having worked for GTE Wireless/Verizon Wireless since 1989 I think I know wireless.
Social Networking
I use Linkedin and Facebook.