my presentation at barcamp

How to become 25% more productive

Essential free tools for the modern office

By James Yeang of Friedbeef’s Tech (www.friedbeef.com)

What’s in it for you

1. Email – How to handle heavy loads without going nuts

2. The 2nd chance Outlook Rule 3. Portable productivity – who needs admin rights?

Image CC Scattynobrain

CC Visualpanic

1. Email – How to handle heavy loads without going nuts

Simplified GTD Steps

1. Process Email in Batches2. Whatever can be finished now, do it now3. Whatever needs time to finish, assign a timeline

to it, and do it later4. Have ONE and only ONE To-do list

Ingredients• 1 Desktop Search Tool • 1 Outlook Email Client

A typical morning?

Email can be dealt < 2 minutes

Dealt with and moved

Email needs follow-up

Drag email to Follow-up basket

…

Zero Inbox

No Action Required

Action Required

Do one thing at a time, and move on to the next, according to priority

a

Sort by reminder time (You may need to add this field in Outlook

2000/03)

Once follow-up items are done, they are moved here

Have one and ONLY one To Do list

Gather all >2 minute tasks and email them to yourself

CC Stich, Steve Roe, bkzzang

Bcc yourself on every email that needs further action from someone else

…then treat it as an email to be followed up on

Sorting & Organizing Information

Desktop Search

What we’ve doneUse Outlook as the One and ONLY one

To-Do list

Go through every email and acting on it if <2minsMark it for follow up, and

assign a reminder if >2 mins

Move everything in the inbox to either a DONE or

FOLLOWUP folder

You get an empty inbox

You remove the clutter of the items which don’t

need action now

You get to focus on what’s next - based on the timelines you set

Outcome?

1. Next actions are clearly defined as everything is prioritized accordingly

2. NOTHING no matter how small slips under the cracks

3. Desktop search finds everything fast

CC Visualpanic

For similar projects visit http://www.43folders.com/izero

2. The 2nd chance Outlook rule

Murphy’s Law #99:

“You will realize you needed to add something to an email …ONLY when you’ve hit the SEND button”

The magic workaround

No more…

• Hitting the send button too soon• Forgetting attachments• Angry email written in the heat of the

moment

3. Portable productivity – who needs admin rights?

How to constantly backup your work without even trying

Http://www.mogware.com/FileHamster/

What it does

Watch a directory Detect changes Save a NEW instance of the file

Accidents happen!

• Deleted by mistake• File wrongly over-written• Document becomes corrupt• Wrong changes saved

CC Caro Wallis

For more portable freeware visit

• http://www.portablefreeware.com/• http://portableapps.com/• http://www.pendriveapps.com/

For more productivity tips visit…

www.friedbeef.com

To recap…

Thank you for attending

Enjoy your extra free time!

Visit Friedbeef’s Tech (www.friedbeef.com) CC Visualpanic