Cool New Task Management Program Kanban2Go

I stumbled across this a few weeks ago.  It’s still in Beta so I’m not sure if it will look much different down the road but I think this has real potential for people who want a ToDo program that has a simple interface and a decent amount of flexibility.

For those of you who are, like me, stuck on the idea of having a program that will meet GTD standards, this might not be best.  I think, it would show diminishing returns when the number of tasks reaches a certain point – my guess would be around 50 but I’m not sure.

If you are not tied to the concept of every Next-Action becoming a separate task or if you are new to the idea of using a digital todo list, then this is worth looking at.   The visual interface is very easy to follow and adding or moving tasks is completely drag and drop.

I did a short video walk-through of what I’ve learned.   Check it out.

Sketiquette – 5 Behaviors To Avoid on Skype

The first time I saw a video phone call was the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing, NY.

It’s come a long way since then.  Real-time video calling is completely unremarkable today. It’s just the norm. For some reason, though, we naturally tend to think of these interactions as telephone calls and not as face-to-face meetings.  If you think about it, it doesn’t  get much more F2F than staring at a screen with the other party’s face all up in your face.

I’ve noticed that sometimes we (this includes me) do things that we oddly would not do in person, but we are very comfortable doing them on a Skype or other video call.  So here are a few things to avoid.

5.   Jammies, stained sweats, strewn about hair, 2-day beards.   I’m not saying you must wear a vested suit or a prom dress, but certainly follow the same rules

I Finally Figured Out How I Can Get Value From SCRIBD by Connecting To Blog Posts

I signed up for Scribd maybe 3 years ago.  I used it for a few different things – that all could be done elsewhere and better.

Perhaps I’m late to the game with this epiphany but I am so excited that I found something useful that can provide value to me and to my online community.

So – here’s the deal.   I have a WP.com blog.  It provides the ability for your readers to print blog posts or pages on demand

The challenge, to me, is always that the printed version looks a lot like a screen shot.  Not exactly, because it does strip out the sidebars and the blog header and just gives you the article but…   once printed, the only way the document relates back to you, is through a footer which has the long url linking to the post.

Sooooo… By taking the post after it’s written, cutting/pasting the text into MS Word, then saving it as a PDF you can upload it into a Scribd account.  If you create (the first time) a Word Template, all of your docs will have the same look and feel.

That all takes about 5 minutes adding on to your blog post time.

Then add a link to the bottom of each post which connects to the url for the PDF in Scribd.

I’ve only just started to do this but click on the link below to see how it works.

DOWNLOAD/PRINT A COPY OF THIS POST

Don’t Confuse Social Media with Content Marketing

Conventional wisdom tells us that most businesses have created accounts on “the sites”.   I’m not going to list all of the social media platforms here – that’s another topic for another day.

There’s been much hype over the last few years about successes that have come from posting updates and all the sundry add-ons.  This encourages people to believe that engaging in social media will help grow their business.

That’s a good thing.  Social Media does work when it’s done right.   Is that all there is though?

Why Are We Having This Meeting Anyway?

Did you ever attend a scheduled meeting or phone conversation with one agenda item and you end up talking about something completely different?

It’s not always a bad thing if a new, more urgent topic comes up and you choose to address it.  If that’s what happens, it’s fine – as long as the original issues doesn’t fall by the wayside.

One way to avoid this, is simply to open the meeting with a statement of purpose.  It can be one sentence but once you put it out there, you and the other guy(s) at the meeting are starting on the same page.  If another topic is suggested and you want to deviate from your plan, that’s fine as long as you all set another time to discuss the stated topic.

It goes along with an older post I wrote about Inverting Your Phone Calls. 

Pretty simple stuff but if you do it, you’ll be making much better use of your meeting time.

10 Productivity Tips For Solopreneurs Who Work At Home

One of the reasons that many of us started our own businesses because we believe that our creativity and our potential are often restrained by the structure of the corporation. The challenge is that while we may be increasing our capacity to be creative, it’s very easy to decrease our capacity to be productive.

Here are some things you can do maintain your productivity.

#1. Pick a time/activity management system and stick to it. Everyone has their own opinions on the best system. If you work alone, you can use anything you want – but you have to have some method of scheduling tasks and appointments. Then you have to use it.

#. 2. Make a work schedule. Decide what hours you want to work over the course of a typical week. Write them down. “Work when you want” does not mean “Do everything else you must and want to do and work with whatever time you have leftover”

MAKE MORE MONEY BY INVERTING YOUR PHONE CALLS

I know the title may sound a little odd but it means exactly what it says.   The way most of us tend to make business calls is completely backwards in terms of productivity. This applies as much to other business calls – not just sales but I am specifically addressing sales calls here.  It will create happier clients which ultimately will earn you more money.

The good news is that it’s an easy fix.

When we first meet a client we put a great deal of effort into building a relationship which includes getting to know them as people – not just clients.  This is a good thing.  We learn things about each other such as hobbies, family and a host of other things.  They don’t necessarily become close friends but they do become more than strangers.

So in addition to business stuff our phone calls usually include some kind of non business chit-chat. You know, asking how they enjoyed their recent holiday trip – or they ask us about ours.

There’s nothing wrong with doing that. It helps