Category: Misc

Anything that does not realy sit anywhere else.

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Microsoft Misc Office Productivity Technology Work

Add Reminders To Outlook Appointments

A Reminder
Creative Commons License photo credit: Andrew Coulter Enright

If like me your Outlook calendar can get a bit hectic and others can add meetings to your calendar sometimes you end up simply “reacting” to your schedule and jumping from one appointment to the next on “autopilot”. It’s at times like these that Outlook’s ability to create a reminder can save your dignity.

However, sometimes the meeting organiser does not set a reminder. I have created an Outlook macro that will look for incoming meeting requests, without a reminder set and give you the option to set a reminder.

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Me Productivity

InBox Zero And Quantified Self

I’m a huge fan of keeping my inbox empty, but not very good and keeping it that way.

I’m becoming more interested in the “Quantified Self” concept i.e. you can only fix things that you can measure.

The obvious answer is to monitor what my GMail inbox looks like on a daily basis.

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Microsoft Office Productivity Technology Windows

Stay Focussed – Stay OUT of Outlook!

One of my main productivity “sinks” is continually monitoring Outlook to see if any mails have arrived.

I have a rule set up that notifies me if an “important” email lands but for this to run, outlook needs to be running (minimised of course). I can’t resist the temptation to just “have a peek” outside my first thing in the morning, last thing at night email window.

To get around this I want to be “discouraged” from opening Outlook.

To implement this I have used Antonio Franca’s fantastic WinTrigger AutoHotkey script.

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Fun Fundraising MND Motor Neuron Disease Ross

The ‘Tache Is Dead

As you will have seen from my previous posts, I was growing a mustache for MND Scotland

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All it would have taken is £10 / day for me to keep the ‘tache.

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Family Fun Fundraising Me MND Motor Neuron Disease Ross

Long Live The Tache

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Since Christmas I have been sporting a new look – now it’s the time to announce why!

I have been raising money for various charities by running (I’m doing 4 marathons this year for MND Scotland) but I have finally found a way where your donations can impact ME as well as helping MND sufferers and their families in Scotland.

On Monday the 2nd of April my tache will be “born”.
I will keep my tache for as long as there are donations to support it.
My tache expects £10 per day – if the total raised is £100 then my tache will “live” until 10 days after the 2nd of April.
The more you give the longer it lives – once it’s gone it’s gone !

https://www.justgiving.com/LongLiveTheTache

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Me Misc Productivity Ross

A Personal Manifesto / Dashboard / Scorecard

Those that know me will agree that I’m a bit of a “geek”.

Whilst I don’t always chase the latest and greatest geek toys or gadgets I do like to try and find a practical application of how technology can help me. This is a side effect of being a Business Intelligence consultant where I am striving to maximise (and measure) the benefits for my clients.

During a quiet moment I pondered – If I was to build a dashboard to measure/motivate/incentivise “ME” what would be on it?

Oops
Creative Commons License photo credit: churl

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Misc

Scottish Football – My Solution

Today the Scottish government, police, SFA and the old firm are having a summit to address the problems following last weeks match.

The problem is, the football clubs are a business and unless everyone is involved, shareholders included, then this will go nowhere. There is also the problem as to how to make this fair and equitable for smaller clubs as well as the very top tier.

My Solution:

The Players
Any player recieves a yellow card they forfeit 1 weeks pay.
A red card – forfeit two weeks pay.
i.e. two yellows and a red is four weeks pay forfeited.
Even if a player recieves a red and then continues to protest the ref can issue another yellow or red as he sees fit.

The Management
The referee or another official has the ability to issue yellow and red cards to the touchline management staff with the same forfeit as above.
Now the management will loose their pay if their behaviour is not up to scratch.

The Team
A yellow card equates to one point, a red gives two points. If a team (players and management) accrue over 5 points in a single game, they forfeit their share of the  gate money for the match. If the team accrue over 8 points in a single match they loose all income from the match gate, TV, food etc.

Who Benefits
The teams do not get to choose, the SFA or public can choose a charity every week or month and all fines get paid to them. This way the team is still out of pocket as they have to pay the player’s wage even though the player will not recieve it.

Lets see how long it takes for the teams to get their act together and play in a responsibe, respectful and sportsman like manner.

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Email Me Productivity

EMail–How I make it work for me !

I have been reading a few articles recently on e-mail etiquette and thought that it was about time I described how I use e-mail.

Inbox Zero

You can read the concept behind this here.

My inbox is normally empty. If you have sent me an e-mail and then pop over for a chat to chase me up and don’t see the mail in my inbox, don’t panic, if it’s not in my inbox it means that it has been filed, if required it will be on my To-Do list (http://www.RememberTheMilk.com) or will have an Outlook reminder tagged on it.

Yes I do have two separate systems, this is due to client confidentiality issues. I use a single system where possible.

Conversely, if you see my inbox is full, don’t panic, it just means that I’m busy working and have decided to not process my inbox at the moment, I’ll get to it when I have some more bandwidth.

Priorities

As alluded to above, I don’t slavishly watch my inbox, I deliberately ignore it at times. If I’m really busy I’ll even close Outlook/GMail/Pidgin/Blackberry to ensure that I’m not disturbed. If something is urgent and I haven’t responded, IM me, or call me or come and see me. (I may tell you that I can’t respond at the moment, but at least you will know I’m alive!)

I have some colleagues that use out of office responses when they are “busyâ€?. I don’t like this as it just adds to the “noiseâ€?. I may however book a meeting with myself to block out my calendar to prevent meeting requests when I’m working to a deadline.

Efficiency

To make e-mail work best:

  1. Have a meaningful subject.
    I will read the “blankâ€? subject emails last!
  2. Have a “management summaryâ€? at the top of the e-mail that includes what if anything you expect me to do and when.
  3. Be concise.
    If I know it will take me 10 minutes to read the body of the e-mail, I’ll do it later unless you grab my attention quickly (see my previous bullet)
    This is one of the common comments on the e-mails that I send, they appear to be quite “terseâ€?, this is not deliberate it’s my attempt at concise.
  4. Carbon Copy (CC)
    If you are just sending me a mail for “informationâ€? CC me rather than sending it TO me, it will get automatically filed into my CC folder which will get processed after my inbox.

Responses

If you must, feel free to send me a “Thanksâ€? e-mail but it is not expected, I only send these occasionally, again to cut down on the “noiseâ€?. I can’t think of the last time I sent a “Your Welcomeâ€? e-mail, although I do really appreciate you all!

Categories
Fun Ross

Thoughts On Getting “Old”

Since turning 40 (unbelievable I know) I have noticed a few changes:

We recently went shopping for a new sofa for the family room, to aid getting one the fitted I did a floor plan of the room in Visio.

I felt compelled to then do a plan of the whole house and garden!

I resisted!

I get annoyed by really trivial things:

I quite like (as an occasional treat) a Twix from the vending machine. It’s great because it’s chilled. But because it’s chilled it quite often breaks when it falls from the machine.

This really annoys me, even though I’m just going to bite it and chew it!

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Cycling Emma Events Fitness Fundraising Running

Fundraising – MND Scotland

Great Scottish Run – Half Marathon 13.1 miles – 6th September
Pedal For Scotland – Glasgow To Edinburgh Cycle 50 miles – 13th September

Background

On the 7th September my 17 year old daughter; Emma Berry Goodman died of Motor Neurone Disease.
Previously I had promised her that I would run a marathon before I was 40. I have just under a year to ensure that I do that.
The only experience I have of running was doing a 10k for MND in 2008 so the half marathon is the next logical progression.
Never one to do things by half I have also signed up for a 50mile cycle ride as a “cool down” event after the run.
If you have never heard of Motor Neurone Disease have a look at their website http://www.mndscotland.org.uk/ I would pay particular attention to the video. The film has been given a cert 15 classification. It is a graphic portrait of how many people diagnosed and living with this illness can feel.
In addition to making a donation here, it would be fantastic if you could either join me on either or both events or if you could come along on the day and cheer me on!

Thanks

Ross Goodman