We Aren’t Done Cutting Down Trees … Yet!
August 15, 2007
The not-so-extinct printer is bound to be around a while longer … so it’s a good idea to have a strategy for dealing with paper.
Every so often, I come across an article about the digital revolution. Invariably, the author expounds on the marvels of modern technology, and points to a day “just around the corner” in which we will all be paperless. Well, to quote the former president Teddy Roosevelt “Bull Feathers”.
Obviously, it must escape the attention of such authors that attached to every network, somewhere, is a really cool machine that transcribes all our digital words and imprints them onto individual pieces of paper … it’s called a printer.
Sarcasm aside, I’m all for achieving the “paperless zen” they’ve been promising for years, but we aren’t there yet friends. So in the mean time, let’s discus some useful strategies for dealing with paper.
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Stock up!
August 14, 2007
You can use a shoebox or an expandable file like this one to organize your “stocked up” greetings cards.
I recently found myself at the market looking for a birthday card for a friend. As the clerk was ringing me up, he mentioned he’d never seen anyone spend over a hundred dollars on greeting cards before - joking that must be one special friend I was buying all those cards for. Actually, I have lots of special friends, and that’s why I follow the “stock up” greeting card strategy.
Since most of us are busy people these days, doesn’t it make sense to stock up on things like greeting cards? That way you’re not making a special trip every time another friend has a birthday, graduation, is sick, etc.
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Double Your Reading Rate
August 10, 2007
I recently came across this article about speed reading that I thought others might find helpful. I’ve actually read the book mentioned, and did find it a useful read: Breakthrough Rapid Reading
I’m definitely not reading 10,000 words per minute, but I’ve learned how to double and triple my reading speed with some very simple techniques, and a little practice. Think about how much information we absorb via reading … learning to just double one’s rate is well worth investing the view minutes necessary to learn the technique.
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Google Maps: Street View
August 9, 2007
I’m not sure if you’ve checked out Google maps lately, but they’re adding some pretty cool features. The latest is Street View.
What makes this feature so cool? Well, it actually lets you see a 360 degree view by simply placing the “street view” icon guy in the area you want to see.
You can now see a 360 degree street level picture view in select cities using Google Maps (click picture for larger view)
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He Said … She Said
August 8, 2007
I’m always a little horrified when I work with clients who, in preparation for our first meeting, decided to “clean up” their email sent folder.
My take has always been that you should AT LEAST save every single sent message as a record of your communication with others, if not EVERY single message period (minus spam of course). Of course, that’s so long as you have enough space to store it (which most of us do nowadays).
That way, there’s never any question about exactly what was said – it’s one of the beauties of email, its supper easy to log a communication trail. It also makes it easy to clears up situations like one I once had, in which someone told me they never received my message about asking for a reschedule. Read more
