2008 Simplify Your Life Checklist
By Eve Abbott
U.S. business loses millions of dollars annually because of employees who must correct identity theft (U.S. Dept. of Labor). One of my clients was arrested at work and jailed over a weekend while her children were taken to a juvenile facility because of identity theft crimes. It took three years and $50,000 in legal fees to correct the problems. And then it happened again!
An East Bay business owner had credit card offers picked off by an employee who sorted the mail. By using the convenient "new address" box, the thief collected credit cards and racked up $85,000 in credit fraud in under a month. Make sure you do the "opt out" of prescreened offers check box right away. Whether or not you have elders, high school and college kids to protect, this will improve your credit rating as well!
Have you seen a recent TV ad about a brand new "identity restoration" insurance policy? One ironic aspect of this new profitable insurance product is that the insurance industry is noted for frequently selling individuals' information on a scale too large for mere mortals like me to even comprehend.
Business losses are steadily rising due to fraudulent transactions of supplies and services, for which the selling company often never sees a dime. You can do something now to prevent the same companies who generate productivity problems from profiting off of you and your business!
HOW VULNERABLE ARE YOU?
You can take a quick test at the Identity Theft Resource Center that lets you know your identity quotient, or just how badly you are at risk for ID theft. Now that is motivation! idtheftcenter.org
I guarantee if you and your employees take advantage of my "2008 Simplify Your Life Checklist" that not only will you be more productive, your family will enjoy an improved quality of life as well.
Make 2008 the year you free yourself, your family and your enterprise from wasted time and privacy piracy. Do one checklist item a day, or one each time you pay bills, or one each Wednesday at noon until you have acted to limit risk to your good name. Just do it!
THE 2008 'SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE' CHECKLIST
- Junk Mail: To opt out of several mailing lists at once, contact the Direct Marketing Association's Mail Preference Service at P.O. Box 643, Carmel, NY 10512, or fill out their on-line form: dmaconsumers. org/consumerassistance.html
- "Do Not Call" Listing: Register online at donotcall.gov or call 1-888-382-1222. You can register your cell phone numbers, too! Don't pay for sales calls.
- Social Security: Review your earnings and benefits statement carefully for errors once a year. Order a free copy by calling 1-800-772-1213. You will also spot if someone else is using your SS number - a common step by criminals and undocumented foreign nationals.
- Credit Ratings and Credit Fraud: Reduce the number of preapproved offers you get by requesting these credit bureaus remove your name from their lists: Experian 1-800-353-0809, Equifax 1-800-219-1251, TransUnion 1-800-241-2858. Every quarter, carefully check your free credit report from one of the three credit bureaus by contacting the only authorized source at www.annualcreditreport. com or by calling 1-877-322-8228.
- Opt Out of "Prescreened" Credit Cards: Go to optoutprescreen.com or call 1-888-567-8688 to protect yourself, elderly family members, college-aged kids and employees from solicitations of creditors. This improves your credit rating, too!
- Government Agencies - Birth, Marriage, Home Purchase and Death: Public records of all our major life events are sold to advertisers. Call the largest dealer, Acxiom, at their Consumer Advocate Hotline 1-877-774-2094 or go to acxiom.com and use the "Contact Us" link to request an opt-out form.
- Terminate Unwanted Catalogs: Contact Abacus at optout@abacus-direct. com or write Abacus, P.O. Box 1478, Broomfield, CO 80093. Supply your address and the full names of everyone in your household and/or at your company address.
- Protect Your Internet Browsing Data: Register at networkadvertising.org to opt out of advertisers selling your browsing "cookies."
- (No check box here. I hope you never have to use these resources. But, you never know ...) Reporting ID Theft or Credit Fraud:
- Equifax 1-800-525-6285
- Experian (formerly TRW) 1-800-301-7195
- Trans Union 1-800-680-728
- Social Security Administration fraud line 1-800-269-0271
- Federal Trade Commission ID Theft Hotline 1-877-438-4338
- The FTC now has an ID Theft website that provides guidelines for victims of identity theft: ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/
March 2008 Builder Architect Edition Issue
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E-Mail Obedience Training
By Eve Abbott
Recent research conducted for Hewlett-Packard warns that "info-mania" is costing professionals an average of
-10 IQ points! This "abuse of always-on technology" by people who are addicted to checking e-mail and text messages (24/7/365) consumes more than twice as many IQ points as smoking pot (which is just a -4).
"The boundaries between work and non-work are now constructed by people turning technology on and off," says Debra Meyerson, a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business. "Being accessible at all times is a source of stress." The "stressed IQ" drops more in men than women, as constant calls and e-mail reduce everyone's mental sharpness.
A London study reported that 62% of adults are addicted to checking e-mail and text messages. Eighty-nine percent of those surveyed think colleagues who respond to e-mails or text messages in meetings are "extremely rude." Use these tips for your own e-mail tune-up and make it easier to work better.
The only part of an e-mail anyone sees first is the subject header: the most valuable 36-50 characters in business today. Use subject headers the way a good journalist uses titles: describe with detail. Vague headings like "Question" or "FYI" waste everyone's attention and time. Be specific, like "Project Name proposal done?" or "Thurs. Project name mtg resched: Mon 3 p.m. Conf Rm B."
Who, what, when, where, why and how are the basics everyone needs to know. Get who, what, when and where into your subject header to help people respond quickly. How and why are more complex and belong in your message text. To automatically identify important messages create labels in Outlook rules or Eudora filters, which display message headers in colors, i.e., blue client messages and purple vendor messages.
Signatures: Set up your own signature, which appears at the bottom of all new and reply messages. Put in all the contact information your respondent might need. Make your e-mail and website live links. This makes it easy to add your contact information into their database or to look it up later when they need to buy your services!
When someone sends you a message that can be briefly answered, send your whole reply in the subject header. This is the e-mail version of text messaging: Subject: "Project Name contract done? - YES!" Or subject: "Confirming: Fri 9 a.m. Project Name mtg. Eve."
SPAM makes up 80% of all e-mail in the U.S.! Outlook rules and Eudora filters help keep spam out of your inbox. Internet service providers (ISPs) tag suspected spam by inserting an identifying code. Contact your ISP provider and use their codes to set up filters so junk is automatically sorted into a spam folder. Register with a SPAM/virus protection service like MacAfee ($$) or SpamBayes (free).
Printing out all the messages you need to keep wastes paper and printer time, as well as adding to your paper blizzard. Instead, create folders to store and organize messages. Small business folders: clients, prospects, projects, programs, events, templates, internet, organizations, personal and family. Company categories include: division, department, teams, projects, customers, staff, job schedules and reports. Make folders for personal and business e-receipts.
Flag your priorities: Use the flag function for any time-sensitive in-box message, so it "returns" on the date you need to work on it. Use your color coded flagged messages to prioritize your follow-up and review daily. E-Ticklers: Create folders for each person/project that you delegate to (or receive tasks from) through e-mail. Set up filters to automatically sort your significant outgoing messages into their matching folders for quick, easy project documentation.
Out of the office or in meetings all day again? Set up an auto-respond message that includes alternate contacts, if appropriate. Include name, phone, intranet, website and e-mail. Even if you're only out for one day, this creates more realistic expectations.
I guarantee that you and your team can save time every day by fully employing these e-mail tips. The only question is, "How much is 10 IQ points plus an hour a day worth to you and your business?
November 2007 Builder Architect Edition Issue
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Overcoming Information Overload
By Eve Abbott
The New York Times reported that the average U.S. executive still wastes six working weeks a year shuffling paper piles and e-mail. That is 12% of that executive's paycheck! Even worse, that is 12% of their time traded for zero results.
For business owners intent on making their enterprise more profitable, this statistic rings alarm bells. By definition, executives can delegate tasks to someone else. Do you have people to delegate to? Whether you do or not, how much would your business improve with six more weeks each year invested in growing your business?
The frustration is clear in this comment from the vice president of an architectural firm: "I knew I was creating more work for myself than was necessary because of not having a systematic approach for dealing with the huge amount of time-critical information that arrives daily in the form of paper, files, reading materials and e-mail."
The volume of input can be overwhelming for experienced professionals in any industry. Here are the best-practice tips I shared with this vice president to help you overcome information overload.
The first information management lessons I learned as a kid came from the TV show M*A*S*H. The Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) teams had the best casualty save rates in history. Why? First, the MASH teams were only five miles from the frontlines. Second, all medical personnel used triage from injury site to recovery tent. The medical art of triage means asking the right questions at the right time, throughout any critical process.
In today's state of information pollution, triage is your key skill. One builder client (retired military) refers to his arriving e-mail and snail-mail as "INCOMING!" You must triage paper or computer files from arrival all the way to archives or backups.
If you feel like my clients and colleagues who say they are bleeding information at the seams, begin by putting a trashcan near your mail drop and junk everything you can first. You'll toss more if you stand up while recycling!
An interviewer once asked Albert Einstein why he didn't even know his home phone number. Einstein replied, "Because I do not use it." If you do not know how you will use the information piled in front of you, chances are good that by the time you do need it, that information will have changed.
Although most of us aren't geniuses, creating your own "Hot Questions to Melt Information Overload" is critical. Now, you can have "garbage in" and do better than "compost out" because you won't let it into your office systems.
HOT QUESTIONS TO MELT INFORMATION OVERLOAD
1. "Can I get this information elsewhere if I do need it?" If yes, recycle it or give it to a colleague or client, but let go of it.
2. "Can I use this directly in my current profession or business?" Most information is obsolete in six months — if not sooner.
3. "Now that I've read it and understand it, do I need to keep it?" Keep legally required records (contracts, personnel actions) and your tax/financial documents.
4. "Will I need to look at this paper/e-mail again because it's so complex (legal, statistical) that I will have to review it?" If not, TRASH.
5. "For whom am I taking this action?" Your boss or a colleague? Your $20,000- contract client OR a $1,000-contract client? Prioritize by WHO.
6. "When is this due?" When our brains prioritize, the due date is actually more important than the "what" that needs doing! Put "reminder information" by date into paper and e-mail Tickler systems.
Steelcase, Inc., experts have documented that 80% of the clutter in your work environment is disorganization; it's not lack of space. Do you know what put every piece of clutter in your office? It's a question, "What do I do with this?" that was never answered. All information clutter is a series of unmade decisions.
Enjoy being ruthless while applying my best-practice tips to overcoming information overload. No one asks better questions or makes better decisions than you. And no one deserves that six "extra" weeks a year more than you do!
Three Keys to Overcoming Information Overload
1. Turn off unused information channels. Get off e-mail lists. Take only the Sunday paper.
2. Triage all incoming information. Discard useless information immediately.
3. Get organized! If you like, sign up for my free productivity tips ezine at: abrainnewwaytowork.com/subscribe.html
October 2007 Builder Architect Edition Issue
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This is Your Brain at Work
Excerpts from How to Do Space Age Work with a Stone Age Brain
By Eve Abbott
How profitable could your architecture practice be if you or one third of your clients and support staff wore blindfolds? What if you or one-half of your building customers and crews stuffed earplugs in before every communication?
The truth is, over 50% of people have brains that are hardwired with a dominant visual information style and they are not really "hearing" much, while nearly 35% are hearing predominant and they are not "seeing" as much. Kinesthetic or "body and feeling" dominant people are active "doers" and are not as visually or aurally oriented.
Have you interacted with a colleague or customer and realized, "Not only are they not doing it the way I do, they're not even thinking about it the same way!" We may be speaking the same language, but we're not hearing the same words or seeing the same pictures.
When one person leaves irate voicemails and another responds with flaming e-mails, a personality conflict is not the most likely reason. Every day, brain-based misunderstandings steal your time as well as your company's profits.
Our brains have had no major changes for 50,000 years. Meanwhile, scientists report that in the past century the information that we process has multiplied by a factor of thousands. We are simply not designed to deal with it all. According to the American Medical Association, over 80% of all medical conditions are related to stress!
Knowing how you are hardwired to work at your personal best gives you a real performance edge at work and in life. Simply put, auditory people can't see the forest for the trees and visual people can't see the trees for the forest.
My brain quizzes show that I am 50% auditory, 30% kinesthetic and 20% visual. Here are three celebrities as examples of sensory brain style characteristics … do you recognize your brain styles?
VISUALLY PREDOMINANT
Receive info best: They are seeing the big picture - not details, so SHOW them.
Indicative words: Look, view, etc.
When accessing info: Eyes move rapidly up - glancing and squinting.
Speaking style: Rapidly with broad gestures; inflection varies.
Celebrity: Jay Leno
Quote: "I see what you're saying."
When talking to a visual thinker, show them, use a whiteboard or piece of paper to make overview points. They may take the pen and draw over your marks to explain their side. Ask questions like, "How does this look to you, so far?"
AUDITORY PREDOMINANT
Receive info best: They are listening for facts, so give them details and how-tos.
Indicative words: Hear, sounds like, etc.
When accessing info: Eyes move steadily left-right to ears.
Speaking style: Modulated pace with minimal gestures.
Celebrity: Ellen DeGeneres
Quote: "I hear what you're saying."
For a hearing learner, giving them facts as details like when, what, where and whom is best. Using lists and numbered items helps them focus on your message. Ask questions like, "How does this sound to you, so far?"
KINETIC PREDOMINANT
Receive info best: They are having feelings and physical sensations, so give them experiences - FEEL THIS.
Indicative words: Regarding, touch, grasp, etc.
When accessing info: Eyes move down and stay there.
Speaking style: Slowly with pauses, deep breaths and no gestures.
Celebrity: Oprah Winfrey
Quote: "I get what you're saying."
With kinesthetic learners, slow your speech down while explaining a task. Explain first, then demonstrate or physically model the task. If needed, do it once yourself (or do it with them once). If complex, coach them through doing it on their own. Ask questions like, "Got a handle on it, so far?"
A client recently exclaimed to me, "This explains years of misunderstandings between me and my team!" By reducing mistakes and misunderstandings, the more time you and your team can invest in generating profits. That is why you and I went into business in the first place.
Please send me your own professional best tips and stories on managing time, whipping paper piles and making e-mail work for you. When I share your tips in my column, you win my book, How to Do Space Age Work with a Stone Age Brain.
But you don't have to win my book to discover how to take advantage of your own unique hardwiring. Free and easy online brain quizzes await you at ABrainNewWaytoWork.com/assessments.html Please do not hesitate to send me questions about problems you are facing on the job. I write this column to help builders and architects achieve higher quality work in less time with less stress.
September 2007 Builder Architect Edition Issue
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