Improve My Business

It’s the last Friday of the month - time for a fun Friday question:

What’s the most annoying or interesting of the spam mail you get?  If you look at my previous post on spam, you know I recommend to clean it out daily.  While doing so, there’s always a few that make me chuckle –

So for this month, tell me about the one that you found to be the most inventive, humorous (intentional or not), or annoying, and which category it’s in.  For me, it’s the “Grow your ‘male member’ 12 inches larger!” ones as an annoying one…

Technorati Tags: email, humor

E-Mail is one of the best or worst tools that’s come along in recent years (depending on who you ask, or what day it is)… and I’ve noticed that everyone has one great technique that they love to use, or one great tip that has been invaluable to them. My previous post talks about emptying spam folders (with the intent of finding the mis-filed, non-spam emails easily). I have other techniques that I love to use to save me time and effort; however, I’d love to garner some new tips. What’s your best tip or technique? Please share - the more the merrier! - and one lucky poster will receive a small gift for doing so.

Technorati Tags: E-mail, email

All of us get lots of email — some more than others, but we all share a common enemy - spam email. Yes, if I only click on this mail, I can become a foreign agent for government money, fix my bank/paypal breach, try creams, lotions, and potions that promise the world, and also get free software downloads.

Why should I spend any time reviewing this list of crap so diligently? Because of what it hides - the occasional mail from a legitimate source that gets buried in there! I’m a member of the Ask Liz Ryan Yahoo group, and one member complained that a lot of her digest mails were inexplicably going into her spam folder. Trouble is, she didn’t review the file for 2 weeks! So, instead of noticing the problem and nipping it in the bud, she thought the list was quiet… and may have missed some interesting threads that ‘perished’ [can threads become stale and die?]

By reviewing your spam folder religiously, you can quickly dispose of those files forever, keep your spam folder nice and tidy, and best of all, NOT LOSE A LEGIT CONTACT! The easiest way is to check it daily…. I know, I get between 12 and 35 spams a day. And at least two (if not more) days a week I’ll find something in there - a google alert that I’ve been getting for months, a link to subscribe to a new newsletter, etc. - that doesn’t belong. It’s like that old Sesame Street game - “Which of these things is not like the others? Which of these things just doesn’t belong?” Pick out the thing that doesn’t belong - the legit email - and dropkick the rest of the stuff where it deserves to go — in the permanent trash!

Technorati Tags: email

In order to get improvement, one must change. How hard is it to change? Apparently, harder than you think. I read about it first in Michael Bungay Stanier’s great newsletter (sign up if you don’t get it now - it’s always interesting, thought provoking, and humorous) and his business, Outside the Lines has one of the best programs I’ve found to help with creativity and goal setting — Get Unstuck and Get Going.

The thing that really startled me was the link he imbedded to a Fast Company article on change — and the results really shocked me. I can’t believe it’s that hard to change… but wait… how many times have I vowed to lose weight/exercise more/ be kinder/slow down/ volunteer more/ take care of myself/ take care of others/ stop and smell the roses/ etc. and haven’t? Maybe their numbers aren’t so far off…

Technorati Tags: improvement

One of the tips I tell my clients, if they are visual, is to use color to help them become more organized. For example, I use GREEN folders for my CPA - anything that has to do with money, I have color coded GREEN. I also color code my clients - if I am doing work with three different clients simultaneously (a pretty common occurrence), I will have them filed with three very different colors, such as BLUE, YELLOW, and RED. That way, when trying to find files on the fly, I can grab by color rather than read the tabs of files that all look the same.

Try color coding your files and let me know if that works for you also!

Which file is easier for you to find at a glance - the orange file, or the one with the McDonald Consulting Group written on the tab of the manila folders?

Technorati Tags: files, filing, organizing