Ross Goodman

Category: Productivity

  • Useful Outlook Macros

    Quite often I want to create a task immediately off the back of sending an e-mail – usually to remind me to follow up with the recipient after a period of time. I created a macro to do this rather than having to remember to go into tasks and do this manually – better to keep the flow rather than having to remember the steps.

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  • Contacts – Keep In Touch or Update Details

    One of my New Year resolutions was to keep in touch with more people.

    I also need to clear out my contact list as there are lots of “old” and incomplete entries in my Google contacts list.

    Ever the productivity geek I wanted to automate this. I ended up writing the following Google Apps Script:

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  • 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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  • 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. (more…)

  • 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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  • 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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  • 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!