January 9th, 2010
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There’s a joke by the late comedian Mitch Hedberg in which he recounts a transaction that he feels did not require any documentation: he got a receipt when buying a donut. As Mitch had stated in his trademark deadpan:
“I’ll just give you the money and you give me the donut…end of transaction. We do not need to bring ink and paper into this.”
This scenario might seem a bit ludicrous, even for those who prefer to document everything almost religiously. But with the increase in activity on social networking sites, the minutiae of everyone’s daily lives seems much more prevalent now than it was several years ago. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in BlackBerry, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook 2007, Mobile Devices, Office 2007, Organization and Time Management, Podcast | No Comments »
December 23rd, 2009
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On a recent trip to our one of our offices, I had the pleasure of flying out of the Cleveland Airport. Now, being a techy kind of guy, I travel with more devices than Inspector Gadget has in his hat.
With the holidays right around the corner, I wanted to give my listeners a few tips for the tech-savvy traveler.
Posted in BlackBerry, iPhone, Listener Tips, Mobile Devices, Podcast, Windows Mobile | No Comments »
December 12th, 2009
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My friends and I all had jobs we hated while we were in high school. I worked the fast-food circuit, flipping burgers and trying to avoid burning myself while deep-frying chicken patties and french fries. I guess it taught me some basic cooking skills, so it wasn’t all that bad. I very much preferred it over one of my buddies’ jobs; he took a gig as a door-to-door salesman. He had to wander through neighborhoods, knock on strangers’ doors, and deliver a sales pitch for vacuum cleaners. I wasn’t much of a people person back in those days, so I would have taken the greasy kitchen over his job any day of the week.
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Posted in Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Netiquette, Podcast, Productivity Tools | No Comments »
December 5th, 2009
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The holiday season is upon us once again, and with it comes the importance of remembering that which truly matters most: cookies. Lots and lots of cookies.
Chocolate chips, snickerdoodles, and gingerbread men by the dozen. We humans have a tendency to celebrate various occasions with food, and I am by no means opposed to this time-honored tradition.
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Posted in Business Communication, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Excel 2007, Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Publisher 2007, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Word 2007, Office 2007, Podcast | No Comments »
November 21st, 2009
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Welcome back to the podcast! This week’s edition: Another Case of Formula Frenzy.
It was a dry and brisk November evening when I got the call. Sitting at my desk with the blinds cracked just enough to allow the last rays of sunlight from the dying day to creep through, the ringing of the phone shattered the silence like a brick through a pane of glass. The dame was one-half shrill hysteria, two-thirds livid frustration, and just a splash of hopeless desperation. The recipe for a typical batch of Formula Frenzy. Combine and shake well; serve chilled and aggravated.
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Posted in Data Analysis, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Excel 2007, Office 2007, Podcast | No Comments »
November 14th, 2009
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Welcome back to the podcast! This week’s edition: Lovely Spam, Wonderful Spam!
In the world of geek, there are few things more humorous than a sketch by the famous British comedy team Monty Python. One of my favorites is the Spam sketch, in which a man and his wife go out to breakfast and nearly every item on the menu contains Spam. Most items contain Spam multiple times, such as “Spam, bacon, sausage, and Spam.”
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Posted in Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook 2007, Netiquette, Office 2007, Organization and Time Management, Podcast | No Comments »
October 30th, 2009
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Welcome back to the podcast! This week’s edition: GPS For Your CPU.
One of the more thoughtful gifts I received recently was a GPS system. I am plagued by a complete lack of direction, so before acquiring this device, I had a keen ability to take two turns while driving and promptly find myself lost and very afraid.
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Posted in Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Word 2007, Office 2007, Podcast, Productivity Tools, Uncategorized | No Comments »
October 26th, 2009
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Welcome back to the podcast!
This week’s edition…
Welcome back to the podcast!
This week’s edition…
“Out with the Old and in with the New”: Using Find and Replacê in Microsoft Office
I’m a bit of a digital packrat. I keep everything. Not only do I keep stuff, I also have multiple back-ups of the documents I have saved.
I suspect I am not unique, either. Recently, I was talking with a colleague and she admitted that she keeps everything too – but she never goes back to use it again. She said she makes backups so she has “just-in-case” copies, but readily admits that she creates the same documents over and over again from scratch.
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Posted in Microsoft Access 2007, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Excel 2007, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Word 2007, Podcast, Productivity Tools, Uncategorized | No Comments »
October 16th, 2009
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Welcome back to the podcast!
This week’s edition…
“My Keys are in the Freezer” OR “Lost and Found”
We have all had one at some point in our lives – you know the interesting little morning argument with your spouse about why he or she moved your keys. Darn her incessant tidiness! Why did I marry someone who is so clean and neat?
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Posted in BlackBerry, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook 2007, Mobile Devices, Office 2007, Organization and Time Management, Podcast, Uncategorized | No Comments »
October 14th, 2009
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 Exercise equipment and organizational systems have at least one thing in common: many more are purchased than are used for their intended purpose. All of us know why most treadmills become clothes racks; it has to do with sweat. Today the Taskmaster will offer insights into why organizational systems are abandoned in hopes of helping you find one that won’t be. There are five main reasons for organizational system abandonment.
- Too Much Overhead. If a system requires too much effort relative to the effort that it saves, the return on investment is too small and it is abandoned. Multitudes of bells and whistles are great if your goal is to make a lot of noise. If your goal is to get organized, take an Ockham-ish approach by choosing the simplest system that can do the job. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Friendly Task Master, Organization and Time Management | No Comments »