How Many People Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?

How many [fill in the blank yourself] does to take to change a light bulb? The original answer to the joke is, “Three,” with the punchline being “…one to hold the bulb and two to turn the ladder.”

Musicians kid that the task requires five trumpet players…one to change the bulb and four to stand around and tell how they could have done it better. In the case of the movie star, it only takes one…she holds the bulb and the world revolves around her. We can find pages of “light bulb” jokes. It’s a favorite way to poke fun at a rival college or different ideology.

We all know it should take one person to change a light bulb, but we wait for the ridiculous answer and the even more absurd explanation. The absurdity is what makes the jokes funny.

What is not funny, however, are the real-life “light bulb” jokes. They are those tasks that could and should be handled by one person, yet wind up involving far more. Our time is wasted, our patience is tried, and we neglect the important work we could be doing in favor of the one-person job someone has seen fit to turn into a twenty-person job.

My background is the world of education. One of my pet peeves was to see teachers being asked to spent huge amounts of time collecting and reporting information when one person could have handled the whole job in a few minutes with software readily available at their fingertips. It happens in elementary schools and high schools, in the suburbs and in the cities, on the East Coast and on the West Coast. It happens every time we take a one-person job and begin farming it out to dozens.

The great leader’s mantra is, “One in; a dozen out.” “It won’t take anyone more than 10 minutes,” we say. When you start multiplying 10 minutes by the number of people being involved, the time adds up quickly. When we examine how many times bits of administrivia are dropped onto dozens of people, we begin to realize why people can’t accomplish the important work which would truly make a difference. They are so busy being forced to “major in minors.”

“One In; One Out” or better yet… “One In; A Dozen Out” 
We are good at instituting procedures. The problem is that new procedures seldom replace old procedures; they are just added to what is already there. We institute software which does what our paper procedures did. But, we keep the paper procedures “just in case.” I have seen it happen time and time again. You probably have as well.

The good leader’s mantra is, “One in; one out.” New procedures replace old procedures. The great leader’s mantra is, “One in; a dozen out.” A new procedure takes the place of a dozen others, and life gets simpler for all involved.

The poor leader’s mantra is, “One in, and here’s another, and another, and another.” Procedures duplicate procedures already in place. Dozens of peoples devote time to produce reports which are never read by anyone. Everyone is busy, yet nothing of substance is ever accomplished.

Today, our organizations have software that can crunch the numbers, organize the data, and spit out the reports that used to require teams of people many hours. All it takes is one person who understands the software to do the same thing in minutes. Why not spent the time mastering the capabilities of the software? Why not spend the time figuring out the task can be accomplished by a person instead of a whole committee? 

How does your organization operate? Are a few, simple procedures taking the place of a boat-load of complicated ones? Is technology making your job easier or adding to your workload? How many of your co-workers does it take to screw in a light bulb? What can you do to end the madness?

How to Never Forget a Birthday Card Again

"Batching" is a time-management technique that involves handling a group of similar items at one time. Thing about making cookies. Nobody would gather the ingredients, mix them together, pre-heat the oven, and pop in the dough for one cookie. We make a whole batch and enjoy them over the next several days.

In this short video clip, we look at using "batching" to buy birthday cards.

Could this idea work for you in 2014?

How to Keep Others Informed About Your Calendar

Throughout the workday, adding appointments to your calendar is part of the every-day drill. But who else needs to know when you add an appointment? I am not talking about who has access to your calendar and could reference it when needed. I am talking about who needs to be alerted that right now, you have just added something to your calendar.

For many, nobody else needs to know. For others, however, a secretary or business partner needs to know this information. For still others, a spouse needs to know. In addition, there may be some appointments where this other person needs to be alerted and others where he or she does not. How do you handle this notification?

In you use Google Calendar, look at the "Add guests" feature. When you create a new calendar entry, enter the email address of the person who needs to know about it and click "Add."

Adding guests in Google Calendar

If you are using Outlook 2007, while creating your new event, click on "Invite Attendees." Also look for the "Invite Attendees" option on any other version of Outlook.

Enter the email address (or addresses) for each person who needs to be alerted about your new calendar entry.

Notifying others with Outlook

This one, easy, technique keeps notification of that other person from becoming a second step that you have to remember to do later. Who do you need to keep abreast of new events on your calendar? Would this technique do the trick for you?

How You can Improve Productivity Through Voice Input

The great things about our phones are portability, large storage capacity, and their ability to put information at our fingertips when we need it, just to name a few. The terrible thing about our smartphones has traditionally been input.

Let's face it, typing with two thumbs on a piece of glass is no picnic. For every example of a 15-year old who is able to compose a text message with one hand on the phone in his pocket while at the same time looking you in the eye and carrying on a conversation, there are dozens of stories of adults frustrated with trying to compose a three-line email.

I have been a participant in this journey since around 2001 when I started using a Palm synced to my computer. I have housed my calendar, to-do list, contacts, and reference information digitally. Our journey took us through a special alphabet (called "Graffiti") with a stylus on the glass screen. That concept was replaced by small QWERTY keyboards. Steve Jobs felt that a finger on glass was the best method for input. As software which recognizes handwriting on our mobile devices is progressing, the stylus is even making a return.

Yet through it all, none of those methods for input have approached the ease of plain 'ole pencil and paper. That dynamic, however, is changing as voice input is becoming surprisingly accurate and built directly into the operating system.

What capabilities does your device already have? 
In our busy lives, we tend to continue with what is familiar. We acknowledge our devices probably have many more capabilities than we are using. At the same time, pressing deadlines and the learning curve involved puts really learning our devices on the back burner.

Getting good with voice recognition is a skill well worth the little bit of time required to master it. Take a look at your device's keyboard and see if you have one of those keys that depicts a microphone.

Is the capability talked about here already present on your mobile phone? How much could your productivity be improved through using voice input? Email 
Open a new email message. Press that little microphone key and begin speaking. Your voice will be transformed into text, and will be placed at whatever point the cursor is blinking. Have another thought you want to insert into the middle of the paragraph? Touch the screen to move the cursor to the desired point. Tap the microphone, and begin speaking.

To-Do List 
I regularly use voice input to add items to the to-do list on my phone. Tap the icon to open the to-do app, tap the icon to add a new task, tap the microphone, and now I am speaking. When I am done, I tap "OK," and the item is on my list with a start date of today and a due date of tomorrow automatically assigned. If detailed notes related to that task exist, before tapping the "OK," I touch a finger to the note section, and instead of typing the details, I touch the microphone icon again and speak the notes.

Anywhere Else 
Anywhere you could type words on the keyboard, you could touch the microphone key and speak. You will see this key on the iPhone, Android devices, and BlackBerry 10. For those running BlackBerry OS7 or before, you can download apps which will give you some of this capability.

Is the capability talked about here already present on your mobile phone? How much could your productivity be improved through using voice input? I believe you will find the little bit of practice required to get used to it and get good at it will be well worth the long-term benefits.

From Tungle to "Schedule Once"

Good things will go away, and when they do, they are replaced with better things.

If your day is filled with one-on-one meetings, scheduling those meetings can consume a considerable amount of time and energy. You play telephone tag with the other person, suggesting dates and times, and then you wait to hear back from the other person. Invariably, your suggestions don't work for the other person. When they respond with their suggestions, those don't work with your schedule. Suggesting dates and times by email doesn't work any better.

Wouldn't it be good if you knew on the front end when the other person was available? That way, you could suggest times you knew would work for both of you?

"Tungle" was a service which did exactly that, and did it for free. I used it. I suggested it to others. But all of that came to a screeching halt in December 2012. Research In Motion, which operated Tungle, pulled that team to work on the calendar for BlackBerry10.

What I didn't know was that other services were available that did much the same thing. Of course, I didn't really care. I had Tungle, that is, until the announcement that it would soon be sunsetting.

Now, I was actively searching for another source that would fill my needs. What I found was others were searching for a Tungle replacement and writing about their findings. Those who operated other services were actively spreading the word, hoping to attract Tungle users.

What I settled upon is Schedule Once. After a few minutes, I was up and going. All I had to do was make my personal URL available to other people.In fact, you can click that link and see exactly what anybody who wants to schedule a one-on-one meeting with me will see.

What you see on the screen is what other people would see. They click on a day they want to meet with me.

They see a list of the times that day I am available. They click one or more. They get a little form to complete where they can tell you what they want to talk about. You get an email with a link to click.

I see the times they have requested. I move the slider over the one I want and click "schedule in calendar." You both get an email confirmation. The meeting automatically goes on your calendar.

When you create an account, you can set the hours that are "fair game." You will be presented with a screen that presents the default of Monday through Friday 9:00-5:00. But you also get a link that takes you to this screen, where you can set your own times. Here you just click green areas to turn them white or click white areas to turn them green. If you want don’t want people to be able to sign up between noon and 1:00, just turn that white. If you want to reserve Friday afternoon to clean up everything that has happened during the week, click to turn all of it white.

 

Then you see this very important message. You are going to link your calendar to ScheduleOnce. On this same screen, you see another capability of Schedule Once. While t handles people scheduling meetings with you, it also handles when you are trying to schedule a meeting with a group of people and trying to find a best time for everyone to meet.

  

Tungle shut down, and I lost something good.The void left me open to finding something better. Good things will go away, and when they do, they are replaced with better things.

Anyone using Schedule Once? What do you like or not like? Anyone using a similar service? 

Excerpt from "Free Tech Tools for a More Productive New Year"

We have one more week left in "Get Organized Month," a time for us to roll up our sleeves and jump into one of the most popular News Years resolutions: Get Organized! A year ago, Eye on Education and I kicked off celebrated with an hour-long webinar entitled "Free Tech Tools for a More Productive New Year."

Eye on Education is allowing everyone to re-live a portion of that webinar for free by visiting their blog. You can see that particular post here .

You can also watch the except below. I would encourage you to visit the Eye on Education blog if you are not already familiar with it. You will find resources from many authors.




reQall was providing us with voice-input capabilities before Siri or similar apps. Since reQall does not require a smartphone, those who use a feature phone can use reQall as a way to get thought out of their head and unto their email.

The world of technology changes rapidly. One of those changes impacts this video. The address to set up the reQall described in the video has changed slightly. It used to be http://reqall.com. Now, that address is http://reqall.com/app.

I hope you enjoy this excerpt!

Has anything happened this month to help YOU get a little more organized?

No More iGoogle? What Will We Do?

iGoogle has been my homepage for six years. Every time my browser opens, I see my dashboard of tools. It's always the same from device to device. I can log into it from any computer. If I make a change, the change shows up on all of my devices.

Imagine my shock when I opened my browser this past Tuesday evening to see an announcement that Google is shutting down iGoogle effective November 2013. I am not alone. A post on the subject appeared on Lifehacker the same day. A poll at the bottom of that post demonstrates just how popular iGoogle is.

Yes, I know November 2013 is more than a year away and much can change in a year. Google may reconsider. Google may come up with something better. But the reality is I have shown countless people the magic of iGoogle as a way to organize all Internet resources in a single place. Starting now, I will be offering another option.

Enter Netvibes
In June 2007, Mashable published this article comparing 14 different personalized homepages. While the article is five years old, it was the most on-point resource I found. Being impressed with the description for Netvibes, I created an account and started building my page.

• To begin, go to Netvibes.com.
• Click on "Get Started" and select "Go Basic" for your account.

Get Started With Netvibes

• You are presented with a a box asking you to create a dashboard. I clicked on "Productivity" and my dashboard was built.

Creating a Dashboard

• A helpful directions box walked me through the steps to adding and managing content. The green "Add Content" button at the extreme upper left of the screen is the secret. Just like iGoogle, once a widget is added to the dashboard, you can drag it to any position or use the controls on the title bar of the widget to make modifications.

Adding Widgets is easy

• You will probably find you want to keep a number of the widgets that Netvibes automatically included. Likewise, you will want to delete others and add your own. I was pleased with the variety of widgets available.
• Just like iGoogle, you may choose from a variety of "themes."  Click the "Settings" icon in the upper right just to the left of the word "Dashboard."

Netvibes offers a wide variety of themes

• The very last step is to chose a user name and password. This action will save the dashboard you created. Look for a confirmation email from Netvibes sent to the email address you provided. You will need to respond to that e-mail.

So far, here are the widgets I have added to my page:
Productivity Apps

• Google Calendar
• ToodleDo
• Gmail
• Calculator
• Stock Portfolio
• Google Bookmarks
• Google Reader
• GoogleDocs
• Bit.ly Link Shortener
• Google/Bing Maps Search

Social Media

• Twitter
• Facebook

News

• CNN News
• Fox News
• ESPN
• People

Here is the finished product

On Wednesday, we will examine how a workaround when you cannot find a widget you need. On Friday, we will look at how you can share widgets or entire tabs with other Netvibes users.

Why I Write My E-Mail Backwards

How many times have you clicked "Send" on an e-mail and then realize you forgot the attachment? The whole reason for the e-mail was the attachment, and you did such a masterful job of explaining all about it. When you finished that explanation, you thought, "I'm done!" So you clicked "Send." Only you weren't done. In fact, now you send a second e-mail explaining you forgot to send the attachment.

How about this one: You write your subject line, but by the time you get through composing the e-mail, its various twists and turns have caused it to stray from what the subject line originally said.

To solve both problems, let's write the e-mail backwards.

Add Attachments
If the e-mail is going to have attachment, start by attaching however many you are going to have. You have just eliminated the possibility of forgetting them. If you are replying to or forwarding an e-mail and need to add attachments, do so before composing any text.

Compose the Text
Go to the body of the-mail and say what you are going to say. Front-load the message so the reader gets the idea immediately of what needs to happen.

Compose the Subject Line
Look at the e-mail you have written and sum it up in a subject line as descriptive as possible. Can the reader look at that subject line and know what it's going to mean to him/her? Many times, you will find you can write the entire e-mail with just the subject line!

Avoid subject lines such as "Important" or "Meeting." If you want to show an e-mail is important, use the "!" priority symbol your e-mail program provides. "Need your approval on this proposal by Friday" gets the point across much better than "Important." "Can you attend the XYZ meeting on the 13th at 9:00?" is much better than "Meeting." If we can look at the subject line and know we can quickly take care of it, it's just human nature to act on that e-mail.

If you are replying to an e-mail or forwarding one, is the present subject line still applicable? If not, change it to one which is (especially if the original was "Important" or "Meeting").

Address the E-Mail
You can send an e-mail even though you forgot an attachment. You can send an e-mail even if you forgot a subject. You can even hit the "Send" button by mistake before even composing a word of your text. But, you cannot send an e-mail without a properly-formatted e-mail address in the address line. Save this step for last.

Proof-read your e-mail. Double-check that the attachments are there. As the final step, address the e-mail. Now, you are ready to send!

Write your e-mail backwards. See if it doesn't help you escape some of those e-mail blunders.

Does anyone already do something along this line? What other suggestions might you want to add?

What Scares You? Could It Be Your E-Mail?

Thanks to Gene Ramsay for this testimonial. Gene is an insurance agent and husband of master teacher Julie D. Ramsay. Gene had invited me to speak for a group of his colleagues. This video comes as a result.
 of that event.




E-mail is a challenge for all-too-many of us, but it does not have to be. By making decisions on each e-mail and using Outlook's drag and drop feature, an empty Inbox at the end of the day can be a reality.

A Better Way to Follow-Up on E-Mail

As the last post demonstrated, there are services which will help you follow-up on e-mails you have sent. My contention is that you don't need them. All you need is Outlook and the same "drag and drop" technique you have always used to turn e-mails into tasks.

What I Used to Do
When you delegate a task by e-mail, the other person is responsible for some action. However, you want some trigger to remind you, on a specific date, to see whether the person has delivered. Checking up is not difficult; it's the remembering to check up that's tricky.

I used a simple technique very effectively. When I would send an e-mail delegating action to someone else, I would blind-copy myself. In other words, I would add my own e-mail address to the "bcc" line. A copy of the e-mail would be delivered to my Inbox. I would be shown as the sender. Because I was using the "bcc" line rather than the "cc" line, the recipient would not know I had copied myself.

When I sent the e-mail, I could forget about it and immediately move onto something else. The bcc e-mail sitting in my Inbox served as a reminder. I would generally allow that e-mail to remain in my Inbox until the end of the day.

At the end of the day, my practice was to drag that e-mail to the Task button, amend the subject as needed, set a due date, and save the task. When that date arrived, I would be looking at an entry on my task list to followup with the person.

The system worked great, and it is one I would recommend to anyone. But, you see this section is entitled "What I Used to Do." If it worked so well, why did I stop? The answer is simple...I improved upon it with a technique which required only one keystroke.

The Rule I Created...Enter the Tilde (~)
The tilde sign (~) is located on the upper left of your keyboard next the the "1." It is a character used in Spanish, and it happened to be a character I never used. Therefore, I selected that key as the one to help me with the job of follow-up on mails. (If you do use the tilde, pick another symbol which you do not use.)

In Outlook, I created a Rule. (Tools>Rules and Alerts) as outlined below:

1. Under the "Start from a blank rule" heading, I chose "Check messages after sending."
2. Click "Next."
3. When the next box asked, "Which condition(s) do you want to check?" I selected "with specific words in the body."
4. At the bottom of the screen, Step 2 asked me to edit the rule description by clicking an underlined value. I clicked the "specific words" hyperlink.
5. When the box box appeared, I put the tilde sign (~) in the blank and clicked "Add" and then "OK."
6. When that box closed, I clicked "Next."
7. The next box asks, "What do you want to do with the message?" I checked, "move a copy to the specified folder."
8. At the bottom of the screen, I was prompted to "Edit the rule description." I clicked the "specified" link, and on the next screen clicked on the picture of the Inbox. I then clicked "Next."
9. I was presented with a screen which said "Are there any exceptions?" For me, there are none, so I simply clicked "Next."
10. The next box asks for a name for the rule. I called mine "Delegated," and then clicked "Finish."
11. I have now been returned to the "Rules and Alerts" screen where I click "Apply" and then "OK."

Below, you see how the rule reads when I click the "Rules and Alerts" from the "Tools" menu:

What I Do Now
Because of the rule I created in Outlook, anytime I send an e-mail that has the tilde sign (~) somewhere in the body, a copy of that e-mail instantly goes to my Inbox. On a day-to-day basis, whenever I create an e-mail that is delegating some task to someone and I want to later followup on it, I simply put that little tilde sign somewhere in the bottom. Usually, I stick it below the signature line. One keystroke...that's all it takes! The result is the same as putting myself in the bcc line. I can now go to something else. A copy of the e-mail goes to my Inbox. Later, as I am handling the rest of my e-mail , I see that e-mail, drag it to Tasks, and make a decision about when I want to see it again. I set a due date, along with amending the subject line, and save.

One keystroke and nothing falls through the cracks. That's easy enough I will actually do it!

Coming to SDE Conferences in Las Vegas or Chicago?

Coming to the SDE Administrator Summit in Las Vegas next week? What about the Midwest Differentiated Instruction Conference in Chicago later this month?

If so, I hope ou will join me for the following sessions:

SDE DI Administrator Summit

• The 5 Keys to Successful Organization & Time Management
• A Day in the Life of the Digital Administrator
• Your Own Blog in 10 Minutes or Less
• Free Digital Tools That Increase Productivity

Midwest Differentiated Instruction Conference (Chicago)

• A Day in the Life of the Digital Administrator
• Your Own Blog in 10 Minutes or Less
• Get More Done! 5 Keys to Organization & Time Management
• Free Digital Tools That Increase Productivity

Is This a Shapshot into Our Future?

What will technology look like in years to come? How will it impact our daily lives? This 5-minute video gives us a snapshot into our possible future. Go here, and then click on "Watch Video."

Paul Sings Nessun Dorma

Talent we have not discovered is all around us, and perhaps within us. This video is one of those heart-warming examples. Looking at Paul, a seemingly average man engaged in an average life, who would have expected the musical gift that he displayed?

Click here to view the video.

Doesn't it make you wonder what treasures are around you which have yet to be discovered?

Forget the Answer. Do You Know the Question?

Our world is moving forward at a blinding pace, and technology is leading the charge. No matter where we are on the continuum of "tech-savviness," there are those who look to us as being the "tech guru" while we are awed by others who are so much farther down the road than we are. Those who can solve the problems and find the answers are essential. There is, however, another group who is as valuable--if not more valuable. They are the ones who ask the right questions.

Perhaps the most memorable of these experiences happened some 20 years during a talk with the school system's transportation director. Those who work in small school systems wear many hats, and Jim was a prime example. He began to show me the paperwork nightmare that was his system for keeping up with field trips. Calendars with multiple pieces of paper stapled to them littered the desk. Invoices had to be typed at the end of each month for each school listing every field trip taken and the amount owed. In the midst of lamenting about his paper avalanche, Jim asked the question that over night changed that transportation system.

"Frank," he said as he glanced at the AppleIIGS sitting across the room, "is there any way the computer can help me?"

Jim knew little about computers, and at the time I knew even less about transportation. However, Jim was able to describe the kind of information he needed. It would be a conversation which would have long-lasting effects on both of us.

The next day, I was back in Jim's office with a database I had created on AppleWorks. The input screen was designed to parallel the paper request forms that were submitted to him. Input, thus, was made so simple he could delegate it to an assistant. Jim could simply assign drivers and then view reports which would show him information by date, by driver, or by school. Best of all, the labor-intensive task of typing end-of-the-month invoices was now a simple matter of running one report. What had previously taken hours now took less than a minute.

For years, that school district ran its transportation system from that simple database. Along the way, Jim found shortcuts. That tends to happen when average folk like you and me start to sit down and actually use technology. We get better. Eventually, we get very good at it.

Twenty years later, the names have changed, I have changed school systems twice, and technology has improved dramatically. The essential elements are still there, however. We still need people who can solve problems. And, we still need people who can ask the right questions.

My present school system has come a very long way in terms of moving from paper housed in filing cabinets to digital creations housed on our intranet. Spreadsheets we have designed locally are being used statewide. Above all, we are doing it all with minimal staff and with tools that practically everyone already has at their disposal. The key to it all is that we have a few people who have been around technology long enough to appreciate the promise it holds. When confronted with a problem that involves data or copying information from one place to another, their first thought is to ask the same question Jim asked 20 years ago.

"Dr. Buck, is there any we could get the computer to..." That's a question that those who have worked closest to me tend to ask frequently. "Yes" is the answer they tend to get, and then I can get busy figuring out how to do it.

We need those who can find the answers. But first, we need those who can identify the questions.

I am beginning to understand that we can never find an answer to a question which has not been asked. Whether we are good at finding the answers or good at asking the questions, we can all play a valuable part in the bigger game, provided we choose to play at all.

What questions in your environment have gone unasked for too long? What role can you play in asking them? What are you waiting for?

Increasing productivity with dual monitors

Microsoft has released an article regarding the benefits of multiple monitors. The story is located here.

My set-up at work includes two monitors. I have been using this configuration for a year and love it! Here is a post I wrote when I changed jobs/offices/computers and went to this arrangement.

Bob Rankin wrote a great article that provides the technical aspects for those those would like to pursue the idea further.