Whether we like it or not, paperless systems are slow reaching mass acceptance. Unless you work for a company that has invested in paperless processes, you likely see loads of paper coming across your desk.

How do you deal with it? You could explore a personal paperless system. However, if that’s not workable for you right now, make sure you have a good filing system in place.

When building you system, consider these factors:

• Don’t be too logical. It’s your system, and no one else will be using it. It only needs to make sense toyou.
• Keep it simple. Use a limited number of categories. You may find the these five to be adequate:
  • Projects - files with information related to different projects you are working on.
  • Instant Tasks - folders on little jobs to fill in your time when you have a few minutes. Perhaps low priority letters to be answered, or general interest articles.
  • Self-Development- folders related to training: books, articles, etc.
  • Ideas - items you wish to investigate further to improve your operation.
  • Reference Information - a resource for different things you are involved with. Keep separate folders by topic and refer to them when you need statistics, examples, quotations, etc.
• Colour code you files. Use colours to highlight priorities within each category to draw attention toyour most important items. This is easily accomplished by using different color highlighters and marking individual folders.
• Schedule a regular filing time. Keep your filing current so time won’t be wasted searching for an item.
• Purge! Clean your files periodically to keep the volume of material to an essential minimum. This also will reduce time going through files when you are looking for something.

Related articles

• Doctape wants to make your office paperless (venturebeat.com)
• Why I Went Paperless (Contributed Post by Evernote Ambassador Jamie Rubin) (evernote.com)
• How I Started My Paperless New Year (lifehack.org)
• How To Go Paperless – A Beginner’s Guide To Escaping The Paper Prison (chicipad.com)

Last year, Evernote announced they had passed ten-million registered users. I don’t know how that stacks up against active users, but I suspect the ratio is high.

What is Evernote? If you’re not familiar with Evernote, it’s an application that helps you get organized and remember everything.

Here’s a short description from the Evernote website:

“Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere. Did we mention that it’s free?”

In a nutshell, you can save anything to this program and access it from your computer, from the web, or even your phone. The short video below demonstrates some of the key features.

How do you get the most out of Evernote?

First, you need an account. The basic account is free and would meet the needs of many users. However, apremium account is only $45.00/year.

Once you have an account, what can you do with it?

1. Giant Inbox - This is how I started using Evernote. Everything that comes into my head goes intoEvernote. I can add things to Evernote via the iPhone client, desktop client, or on any computer usingEvernote’s web-based version.
2. Sticky Note Repository - If you have sticky notes plastered around the edge of your monitor, or scraps of paper floating around the desk, one of the simplest uses of Evernote is to store these day-to-day snippets of information in a more organized, uncluttered manner. Evernote can clean your office.
3. Web Clipping – When you come across something of interest on the web, skip the bookmarks. Instead, use the Evernote web clipper to store for later reading. If you select and capture the content, you don’t have to worry about finding the material when sites disappear or change the URL structure. You will have have captured the article once and for all.
4. Share Information – Instead of filling up everybody’s e-mail inbox with all the bits of information you feel it is important to share, store that information in Evernote. Create a shared notebook,  give access to the relevant people and they can decide when and how to view.
5. Take Notes - Taking notes in Evernote is far easier than searching for the pad of paper that’s lost or not with you. If you organize and tag your notes as you go, they will be easier to find, using Evernote’s powerful search.
6. Take Pictures – Had a car accident? Take pictures of the vehicles, the damage, license plates, driver’s license and insurance information. See a book you want to read? Take a picture of the cover. TheEvernote iPhone app makes it easy to upload these pictures directly to your account.
7. Research - Instead of bookmarking your resources when you do research online, compile the relevant information from each page into a research note in Evernote.
8. Meeting Notes - Type away as your boss drones on and before you’re back at your workstation, the notes are on your desktop. If you take hand-written notes, scan them into Evernote where the search function can recognize words in images.
9. Idea File – Ideas strike at random times, in the oddest places. Evernote gives you a capture device almost anywhere. (I’ve never used an electronic device in the shower.) ;P
10. Document Storage - When I receive a document (PowerPoint, Word, Excel, or PDF) that I’ll need again, I forward it to Evernote. Evernote provides a unique email address to send information to your account. Evernote can also monitor a designate folder on you computer. Save recognized file formatsto that folder and Evernote will upload to your account.
11. Project Planning – Create a new Stack for a project. Sort different tasks and research topics into notebooks and make good use of the tags feature. Everything you need to recall or act on regarding a project will be in one spot.
12. Store Business Cards - Instead of collecting a pile of business cards that you’ll lose, photograph or scan them send the images to Evernote. Evernote recognizes text on the card, so you can search for names such as “Staples” or “Henry” when that’s all you can remember about the person. Evernote on a mobile phone can geotag the photo. If all you can only remember you met the person in Vancouver, you can still find it. You can save trees: When someone hands you their card, take a picture and hand it back.
13. Track Expenses - When you get a business receipt, photograph or scan it, and send it to Evernote.
14. Track Personal Spending –  When you make a personal purchase, scan or photograph the receipt, and send it to Evernote. When I buy something online, I use the web clipper to send the invoice toEvernote.
15. Store Passwords and Account Information – It can be difficult to keep track of all your on-line accounts, passwords and PINs. Evernote requires a password to log on. You can also increase the security by encrypting the contents of a note, using a separate password. All the usual cautions applyto storing and encrypting sensitive information. Make sure you understand Evernote’s encryption process before setting this up.
16. Store Warranty Information – When buying a new item under warranty, store the information in a note. You can manually enter the data, scan the warranty card, photograph the serial numbers, or clip the on-line warranty page.
17. Archive Twitter - Thanks to the Evernote-Twitter integration, you can easily capture the tweets you like: your own or those showing up in your stream. Plus, as an added bonus, you can now send yourself a quick note right from Twitter –no need to do any of that pesky app switching. Here’s how…
18. Keep a Journal – I kept a daily journals for a long time. Eventually, I got to a place where I was keeping more information electronically. Now I can put journal entries directly into Evernote: things I notice, find interesting, or want to reflect on, get entered into my Evernote. Using a numerical format for the date and tagging with “Journal” makes it easy to update and to find what I have written.
19. Create Lists - Grocery lists, to-do lists, movies to watch and gift ideas, these are all lists I update regularly and like to have handy. I have a notebook called Lists. All my lists go into that notebook, and are always accessible on any of Evernote’s many platforms. Using Evernote’s checkbox feature, I can make these lists, and check things off as I do or buy them.
20. Blogging - Evernote for blogging is great because it keeps all blog-related ideas together in one place. For example, you can create a notebook to keep a list of blog post ideas, articles about blogging, and drafts of articles for use in future blog posts. Whenever you want to save something blog-related, put it in here.
21. Hand-write/Sketch Notes – One of the lesser-known features in Evernote is the ability to create a “handwritten” note, called an Ink Note. Using your mouse or a tablet, you can write text into a note. This feature comes with a full range of tools for you to use. For example, you can select the color of ink you’d like to use. You can also select the width of the pen. You can pick a pen, a pencil, or if you make a mistake you can pick the cutter tool to remove your error.
22. Go Paperless – Using an combination or permutation of the above ways to use Evernote, you can work towards being completely paperless.

Related articles

• The Secret To Evernote’s Incredible Success: ‘It’s The First Product For Work That Doesn’t Look Crappy’ (businessinsider.com)
• How Evernote Helped Me To Write My Book (deirdrebreakenridge.com)
• How To Use Evernote: 21 Creative Uses (christianpf.com)
• SocialFolders plugs into Evernote to be your social media diary (rjmarmol.com)

• Wear a smile – A smile is one of the strongest communication tools. You don’t have to spend the entire time grinning like an idiot, but there is nothing quite as infectious as sharing a smile. Dale Carnegie said, “It costs nothing, but creates much. It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give. It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.

• An open posture – Keep an open body position. Closing up your body profile—becoming smaller—looks like you lack confidence. If you keep your arms folded, you appear to be defending yourself against the other person’s communication.

• Rise and lean forward – Your posture should be upright but not stiff. Don’t slouch; but don’t sit like you’re at military attention. Stay relaxed and lean forward a bit.

• Make eye contact – Your eye contact is the single most effective indicator that you’re involved in the conversation. By avoiding eye contact, you appear anxious, uninterested and bored. Your eyes always talk and provide valuable cues as to your approachability.

• Territorial zones/touch – Find the appropriate balance of distance; too close invades personal space, while too far may seem like you’re not interested. Is the communication formal enough for an office or would you be better off meeting in a coffee shop?
  
  
• Head-nodding – There is plenty of research into the part nodding plays in communication. Nodding tells the speaker that you are listening and that they should continue to speak. If you increase the speed of your nodding, it signals you are ready to speak.

Communication works best in an active, not a passive environment. If you want to get your message across to your audience members, you have to connect with them.

Interaction is a continuous way to get feedback on how well your content is understood. It also gives listeners a chance to contribute their experience to the learning process.

How do you build interaction?

• Be prepared to be spontaneous. Have questions ready—begin with relatively easy, accessible ones. Ask questions that create disagreement and watch the audience come to life.
• Work to get everyone involved: even in large groups. I have an assortment of candy ready. I give a chocolate bar to the first person who answers a question. It’s amazing how responsive the rest of the group gets when there is chocolate at stake. (Yes, these are adults. )
• Break into small groups. Ask participants to consider issues with the person sitting next to them or small groups.
• Discuss as a larger group. Have the smaller groups present their findings to the whole group. Use those points to generate further discussion with the audience.

The way you move when speaking also affects you connection with the audience. If you spend the entire speach leaning on the lectern, with your arms folded, it will be difficult to connect with the listeners.

Move!

• Don’t rock or scurry back and forth, but don’t get locked into one position.
• Walk toward the audience.
• If you can’t walk toward the audience, lean in.
• Use eye contact.
• Energize and use gestures. The larger the audience and the room, the bigger your gestures have to be.
• Get your face involved.
• Use vocal variety.

There are few statements I make with absolute certainty, but it is safe to say, I’m a terrible golfer.

One of my bad habits is griping the club too tightly. If your grip is too tight, you have less control over the club and its speed. That means the ball goes everywhere but where you want. Trust me, I have water hazards full of experience.

Hanging on to anything tightly reduces the amount of control you have. Try grabbing a cat.

Your ability to control is proportionate to your ability to relax. If you’re negotiating with me and you’re tied to your position, I can control the situation. The grip you have on your position is going to slow you down as you try and react to my counter proposals.

It’s the same thing with your to-do list. You’re working on the year-end report that was due last week, the phone is ringing, e-mail is coming in and the boss is assigning new projects. The natural response is to tighten up and try and hold on to control of the sitaution.

Relax!

David Allen uses the analogy, “mind like water”. If you throw a stone into a pond how does it react? You don’t hear, “Oh, my bottom’s already covered with stones,” or “I need to calculate the displacement of this stone,” or “How big a splash should I make?”. The water reacts in proportion to the size of the stone and then relaxes back to its normal surface.

To be in control, you need systems that can help you absorb new demands and then relax to your previous state of doing. When stuff comes over your horizon, you need to be able to refocus on it quickly, put it into a system that you are comfortable with, knowing it will be looked after in the proper place and time.

It’s easy to compound our innate fear of public speaking by delivering a really bad presentation. There’s nothing worse than fighting the nervous butterflies in your stomach and seeing the glazed-eyes look of your audience as you slowly bore them to tears.

Neil Patel has posted 10 Tips for a Killer Presentation. My three favourites:

• Don’t abuse your visuals – Usually your visuals are posters, charts, or even a PowerPointpresentation. Whatever your visuals may be, keep them simple and don’t put too many words on them. The audience isn’t there to read your slides, they are there to listen to you present.
• Make them laugh – Although you want to educate your audience, you need to make them laugh as well. I learned this from Guy Kawasaki and if you ever hear any of his speeches you’ll understand why. In essence, it keeps the audience alert and they’ll learn more from you than someone who just educates.
• Talk to your audience, not at them – People hate it when they get talked at, so don’t do it. You need to interact with your audience and create a conversation. An easy way to do this is to ask them questions as well as letting them ask you questions.

I have one more tip that I’ve had to learn the hard way: Tell stories – People don’t want to sit through a dry recitation of facts, statistics, policy, etc. They want to hear how what you have to say plays out in real life. Learn to tell stories.

Related articles

• 5 Easy Tips for an Efficient PowerPoint Presentation (sweetbusinesses.com)
• Tips on Making Presentations (rismanismail1.wordpress.com)
• 5 Tips for Killer Presentations (fearlesscompetitor.net)

Image via Wikipedia

Lotus Notes is the groupware of choice for my employer. It is coupled with my BlackBerry via the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. This allows me to keep my e-mail in-box, calendar, to-do list, address box and journal synced between my desktop and handheld.

Lotus Notes works somewhat differently than other types of productivity software. Here are some of the tips and resources I’ve taken advantage of to enhance my usage.

1. You can quickly create a new e-mail memo by pressing Ctrl+M anywhere in Lotus Notes.
2. You can create numbered lists within lists. To do this, enter the sublist with the first list, then select it and press F8. This indents and numbers the sublist within the main list. You can also do this on the fly by pressing F8 at the line you with to indent. Pressing Shift+F8 will return you to the previous level.
3. Lotus Notes Calendar and Scheduling explained!
1. Part 1
2. Part 2
4. Here’s a great way to save space in your Notes form or memo — create a collapsible section. This feature allows you to put portions of text into sections users can expand if they want to read the whole paragraph. In Edit mode, highlight the text you want to collapse, then select Create, Section. That’s it– the text automatically collapses into a section. Clicking on the twistie (point) beside the section expands the text.
5. You can move to Notes documents while you’re still in another document without going to the view. All you have to do is click the Next icon in the SmartIcon bar or press Enter when you have the first document in read mode. You immediately go to the next document in the view.
6. The previous tip explained how to move to the next document in a view without going to the view. You can also do this to get to the next unread document in the view. With the document in read mode, just click the Next Unread icon from the SmartIcons bar. The first document closes and the next unread document in the view opens.
7. Like most programs, Lotus Notes allows you to do some things quickly by pressing certain keys or combinations of keys.
   

   Shortcut	Description
   Alt+A	Access actions from within a document
   Alt+accelerator key	Access top level menus (for example, Alt+F opens File menu)
   Alt+Down	Open drop-down controls such as the Select Names dialog box from name fields, combo boxes, date pickers, color palettes, and collapsed list box controls.
   Alt+Minus	Opens a Size menu for pane borders. Press the s key to activate the menu, move the Up or Down arrow to select the border to move, and then press the Left, Right, Up, or Down arrow to move the selected border.
   Alt+Spacebar	Opens a menu that lets you perform standard window operations such as Restore, Minimize, and Maximize. Use the Size and Move commands with the arrow keys to size or move the Lotus Notes window.
   Arrow keys	Navigate days via date picker in calendar
   Arrow keys, Left and Right	Navigate tabs or a horizontal list
   Arrow keys, Up and Down	Navigate a vertical list, such as a menu, navigator, calendar time slots, or items in a list view
   Alt+B	Access Open menu and open the applications and bookmark list
   Ctrl+F7	Access the sidebar
   Ctrl+F	Opens the Find dialog box from views
   Ctrl+F1	(Linux® only) Get Help on current feature
   Ctrl+F7, then Up and Down arrow keys, then Enter	Move to selected window panel
   Ctrl+F8, then Up and Down arrow keys, then Enter	Move to selected window tab
   Ctrl+Page Up and Ctrl+Page Down	Navigate pages in calendar
   Ctrl+Shift+L	Open list of available shortcuts
   Ctrl+Tab	Navigate forward in tab order
   Ctrl+W	Closes current tabbed page
   Enter	Expand or collapse a category or folder
   Esc	Closes current tabbed page, collapses current thread, or exits current element
   F1	Get Help on current feature Linux users: Use Ctrl+F1 instead.
   F6	Cycles through all panes in the open perspective. (In views such as mail and calendar list views, for example, moves focus from view navigator to list view to preview pane (if open) to mini-view and back to view navigator.)
   Minus	Collapse a category or folder
   Shift+F10	Open a context menu
   Shift+Plus	Expand a category, folder, or thread
   Shift+Tab	Navigate backward in tab order
   Tab	Navigate forward in tab order
   Tab	Give focus to Refresh schedule information icon in Scheduler in a meeting entry. Then, to access the Scheduler, press Tab again to give focus to entire Scheduler, and press Spacebar to give focus to the first item in Scheduler. Then do any of these: Press Tab to give focus to different items within Scheduler. Press Ctrl+Left arrow and Ctrl+Right arrow to move the time bar when it has focus. Press Esc to remove focus from the Scheduler, and then press Shift+Tab to give focus to previous items in the meeting entry.

8. For security reasons, it’s usually not a good idea to leave your Lotus Notes open when you leave your desk for any length of time. Rather than having to close and then re-open several times a day, you can just hit the F5 key – the next time you try to do anything in Notes such as opening or sending a message you will have to type in your Notes password.
9. The easiest way to get text from an e-mail message in Lotus Notes to an MS Word document… copy and paste. For example:

1. Select the text you want from the message

2. Press Ctrl-c (to copy)

3. Go to the document in Word

4. Press Ctrl-v (to paste)

10. Notes allows you to work in more than one database at the same time. When you have several databases open simultaneously, you can move between them by pressing Ctrl+Tab.

Related articles

• Updates on Lotus Notes & Domino (Lotuspehere 2012) (ebiztechs.wordpress.com)

Toastmasters International has put together a list of ten tips that will help improve your public speaking skills.

1. Know your material. Pick a topic you are interested in. Know more about it than you include in your speech.
2. Use personal stories and conversational language – that way you won’t easily forget what to say.
3. Practice. Practice. Practice! Rehearse out loud with all equipment you plan on using. Revise as necessary.
4. Know the room. Arrive early, walk around the speaking area and practice using the microphone and any visual aids.
5. Know the audience. Greet some of the audience members as they arrive. It’s easier to speak to a group of friends than to strangers.
6. Relax. Ease tension by doing exercises. Transform nervous energy into enthusiasm.
7. Visualize yourself giving your speech. Imagine yourself speaking, your voice loud, clear and confident. Visualize the audience clapping – it will boost your confidence.
8. Realize that people want you to succeed. Audiences want you to be interesting, stimulating, informative and entertaining. They don’t want you to fail.
9. Don’t apologize for any nervousness or problem – the audience probably never noticed it.
10. Concentrate on the message – not the medium. Focus your attention away from your own anxieties and concentrate on your message and your audience.

Related articles

• Technical presentation tips please! (ask.metafilter.com)
• 10 tips for public speaking (slideshare.net)
• Overcoming Your Fear Of Public Speaking (news.dice.com)
• 10 Ways for Communication Empowerment (socyberty.com)

I have a terrible time remembering people’s names. Let me rephrase that, I have a terrible time learning people’s names. I don’t know how often I’ve been embarrassed when someone greets my by name and I can’t remember who the person is.

I envy those people that remember your name from the first time they hear it. Anyone with such an ability has a head start on building strong relationships.

Here are 6 tricks I use to help imprint that new name in my memory:

1. Show interest in the other person – Your initial frame of mind makes a big difference in name retention. I have lost countless names because I was thinking about the impression I was creating, and not listening to the person I was meeting. There’s an irony in making a bad impression because you’re too focussed on making a good impression.
2. Repeat the name back – It’s easy to confirm what you heard by saying something like, “Nice to meet you, Joan.” If the person’s name is a little unusual, you can repeat it to make sure you’re pronouncing it correctly. If you’re unclear about a name given via telephone, ask for the spelling. Saying the name immediately helps lock it in the memory.
3. Use it often – When you’re speaking with someone you’ve just met, use their name throughout your conversation. End your conversation with their name.
4. Write it on their forehead – Not literally! Picture the name you’ve just learned on the person’s forehead. Visualizing this incongruous image reinforces the name.
5. Use word association – Dora the Explorer is easy to remember because of the rhyme pattern. Mike Holmes is easy to remember by playing off his last name; Holmes on Homes. Come up with some sort of word association on a person’s name.
6. Write it down – The best thing I can do to learn a new name is to write it down. The minute I walk away from the person, I pull out my pocket pad and write the name. 90% of the time, that’s all it takes to seal the name in my mind. The other 10%, I can pull out the pad and refresh my memory.

Our names are important to us. We appreciate those people who, with seeming lack of effort, learn and remember our names. If you want to make a strong impression on the people you meet, make the effort to remember names.

Related articles

• Tips for Remembering Peoples Names (bayintegratedmarketing.wordpress.com)
• What’s Your Name Again? (lessonsinsashology.com)

Everybody faces challenges in managing certain aspects of their lives. Someone who loves to go trail riding on a bicycle will have no problems motivating themselves to exercise. However, putting aside time to sit and read might be problematic. On the other hand, the reader might have problems putting down the book and getting active.

This self-management checklist can be applied to any area of your life where you need to gain some control.

1. Set specific goals. You can’t measure achievement if you don’t know where you’re going. Set specific goals such as: I’ll walk for 30 minutes per day; or I’ll write a 1,000 words each day; or I’ll lose 20 pounds.
2. Set specific times. You need to determine when you are going to accomplish your goals. Work with specific times; whether it’s a deadline for a one-off project or regular times for on-going behaviour.
3. Track your progress. Write it down. You can use a journal, a calendar, a graph or any other form that works for you. Make sure you track both your successes and failures so you can refine your systems.
4. Set rewards or penalties. You’ll need some motivation to help you move forward. Set small rewards to mark the completion of small steps. Set larger rewards to mark major accomplishments. You might even set penalties for not reaching goals. You could, for example, make a donation to a food bank every time your weight went up instead of down.
5. Take small steps. If you’ve been sitting in front of the TV for ten years, don’t try and run a marathon tomorrow. Changing a habit takes time and you need to start slowly.
6. Break it down into pieces. Regardless of your readiness, if the task seems overwhelming, you may never get started. Break down large tasks in to small, logical and manageable pieces.
7. Monitor time increments. Use a timer to help you stay on track. Set it to the best interval to help you measure your progress.
8. Share your goals. Telling someone what you hope to accomplish can add another level of motivation. It’s easier to fool ourselves than to fool others. Tell someone what your goals and your deadlines are; get them to check on you to see if you met the goal.
9. Have a work buddy. It’s not just enough to share your goals with someone, you need to have a buddy that can meet with regularly. Keep your goals on someone else’s agenda. This should give you an added sense of responsibility and motivation to reach your goals.
10. Review with your buddy. Have your buddy do more than review accomplishment. Review the written track of your regular progress. They might spot patterns you don’t see and give you some help for getting back or keeping on track.
11. Eliminate distractions. Reading through e-mail may seem productive, but it’s not going to help you read three chapters of a book. If need be, turn off the phone, shut down the computer and throw the television in the garbage.
12. Review and rework your system. Your self-management plan may not work the first time you try it. There will be times when your self-management process falls apart. These steps are not static, but need to change and grow with you. Make time to review your process and see what changes can be made.

Some people look at self-management techniques as cumbersome, getting in the way of productivity. The truth is, if you look at successful and productive people, you’ll find some type of system guiding them. Give it a try.