Invest time in learning

Often I hear "I don't have time to learn how to do stuff on the computer". My answer to this is usually "you don't have time to not learn how to use the computer".

Like the old saying "It takes money to make money. " The same can be said of time. It takes time to make time. Think of the time you spend learning how to become more efficient as an investment in time that will repay itself many times over.

For example, if you perform the same task 10 times a day and it takes you 2 minutes each time, investing 2 hours to learn how to do it in 1 minute - will repay itself in just 12 days. You will save more than 33 hours in the next year.

The computer is good for helping you do those things that you do more than once or twice. You just have to weigh how much time currently takes you to perform a task, how much time it would take you if you learned a better way and the frequency you do it to determine just how much time you can "invest" in learning how to do it more efficiently.

Keep in mind that often learning new skills will help you perform more than just one task. With computers, the skills you learn in one application usually apply to many others.

Once you learn something new, share it with others! By investing time in helping others become more efficient you will get repaid many times over. One benefit of sharing your knowledge is that usually you end up learning even more from your network of friends/coworkers.

Probably the biggest time saving tools I can think of in today's world are the collaborative tools available. Using sites like Delicious.com for managing and sharing your bookmarks, Google Docs or ZoHo for collaborating and remote access, Flickr or Picasa (or any of many others) for sharing photos, shared calendars (Google, Yahoo! or many others), wikis (PBworks among many others). For most of these the learning curve is insignificant. It is more of changing your mindset and changing habits than learning new things.

Open your mind to working differently!

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23065375@N05/2247354510/

Tools for Scheduling

I was recently asked the following question:

Do you know of any software or online program that would allow us to manage our meeting rooms?

Things I would like for it to be able to do include:

• Work with 3 rooms, 2 of which can be combined
• View the schedule online
• Request space online, to include # of people, name of meeting, contact for additional information, purpose of meeting
• automatically let the person making the request know if there is a conflict
• option for moderator to respond to requester for additional information
• identify an individual or two to "approve" requests
• moderator approve request
• automatically post to schedule once approved
• automatically respond to requester that it is approved/denied

My suggestion was to use Google Calendar and Google Forms. With these, they will be able to do everything in your list except the automatically responding.

This is just one example of where you could use Google Docs and Google Forms 'in the wild'.

While I don't think this is exactly what they were looking for and certainly not an ideal solution for what they want, it is free and it does what is needed. Is there some solution already made out there for them that comes closer to what they want.

Do you know of other ways/suggestions to address this common issue? If so, email me or post a comment.

Do you Skype?

Skype is a tool that I think many people are unaware of or just haven't explored. I can see LOTS of ways it could be used to save LOTS of $$$ and time.

Why use Skype?

• FREE long distance calls
• Video calls - see who you are talking to
  
• Avoid 'voice mail hell' by knowing if someone is available before calling
• Voice mail is available free with any subscriptions or just $20/year
  
• Text chat for quick messages or questions
• Free conference calls (up to 24 people)
• Why not augment a web conference by using Skype for the audio. This would allow people to participate from a land line if they can't be at a computer. Personal observation: I noticed that the Skype audio quality was better than the audio in an Elluminate Live! session (and I've been pretty happy with the audio in Elluminate sessions).
• Record calls with http://www.powergramo.com/ (Pete and I recorded our podcast using this tool)
• If you frequently receive calls from a long distance friend or family (or work), for $6/mo or less get a local number at their end, so they can call you for free - from a land line or cell phone
• Get those calls forwarded to any other phone when you are not online ($0.021/minute)
  
• Dial land lines (or cell phones) anywhere in the US/Canada (aka unlimited long distance) for less than $3 per month

So, before you pick up the phone to make a long distance call, why not look to see if the party you are calling is online? You might save yourself some time and money.

Of course, this assumes that you will be using voice to communicate. Often, there are much better ways to communicate, but that's another post.

Disclosure: I have no financial or other interest in Skype other than as a satisfied user.

Sharing what you find on the web

Every day I find web pages (usually through one of the "new ways") that I want to hold up to my friends and coworkers and say 'hey, this is good stuff' or 'have you seen this yet?' So, how do I do that?

There are several ways and the process has changed over the years and continues to change on at least a monthly basis. If I didn't adopt new methods of gathering information, I'd be left behind.

Old way

E-mail a mailing list or group from my address book. I rarely if ever use this method any more. Occasionally, I'll email a link to one individual with a personal note - if I know they aren't using any of the newer and better methods.

New Ways (in no particular order)

Delicious - Easy to find in future if you ever need it. Categorized. Has replaced my browsers' bookmarks with browser plugins for MSIE and FF.

Friend Feed - Allows others to add their comments. Aggregates more then just web sites.

Twitter - Keep up with more than just links. Maintain relationships. A couple of my cohorts post an IT tip of the day (usually with a link) to ITTOTD.

Reading feeds with Google Reader and posting to blogs (here and here) - Adds more context and discussion than any of the other methods.

Google Reader's Sharing - Share pages directly from within Google Reader - others can subscribe to your shared pages using their favorite Feed Reader.

When I started writing this list I was identifying "advantages" of each, but as I wrote each advantage, I realized that almost every one of these advantages could be perceived as a disadvantage by some. To me, these are all advantages.

Today, I'm using Google Reader to keep up with most of the incoming information along with Twhirl to keep up with both Twitter and Friend Feed, which keeps up with my friend's Delicious, blogs, and more. I'm not convinced that this is the best way and am open to trying other methods.

I also use my iPod to keep up and really enjoy listening in my car (adapter plugs into the radio). But that's another blog post.

Please share how YOU keep up and share.

Here's an old article about using delicious, but most of it still holds true.
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2006/05/tag_youre_delicious.html

Moving to FriendFeed

While hiking (without computer and cell phone reception except for a couple of times on the peaks) I found myself thinking about what I would tweet if I could. You know you're addicted when you start thinking in 140 characters.

On the last night on the trail, I asked my son what he missed most, what would he miss if he lived in the days without electricity, indoor plumbing and the like. I don't remember his exact words, but it boiled down to missing his network - he missed being able to communicate with all his friends. My network was at the top of my list too (after being with my wife and youngest son). I could easily live without electricity, computers, indoor plumbing, non-dehydrated food, and my comfortable bed (new sleeping pad was worth every penny). What I missed most was being connected to my friends. One of the first things I did when I got home was to upload my pictures to Flickr and tweet to tell my friends that I was back and read about what I missed during the last three weeks.

As I read my tweets and feeds I learned about how FriendFeed was replacing twitter. This means that I need to change my work habits again. I still need to figure out how to move to FF without leaving my twitter friends behind. - suggestions?

Can I post to FriendFeed and have it go to Twitter?

Look for another post (hopefully soon) with more info about FriendFeed.

Live commentary (shared note taking)

I just saw a cool use of a new tool - CoverItLive!

Right now, Kristin Hokanson is at the NECC and taking notes. What's cool is that I can read her notes as she takes them. What's really cool is that others can join and help her take notes!

Are you interested in seeing what she noted about the session she took from David Jakes and Dean Shareski's presentation? Check out her blog "The Connected Classroom". During the session, the notes were appearing as she (and others) was entering them.

She took a snippet of code from CoverItLive and embedded it into her blog and then as she typed, it appeared on her site. Since I can't make it to the conference, this is a great way for her to share what she is learning with me (and you!). Also, now she has the notes to the session stored on her blog for future reference.

Is there a meeting or session that you will be attending that others would like to get the highlights - as they are happening? - They could even give you questions to ask the speaker!

Soooo many really cool tools are out there! And they are all easy to use!

Thank you for sharing Kristin!