Rick Cooper, The PDA Pro

Change your Habits, Change your Life

As you wrap up 2008 and look toward 2009, it's a great time to think about your habits. Do you habits support you or hinder you?

What habits are leading you toward success? Which habits are leading your toward failure?

Do you think you could improve your results if you eliminated negative or unsupportive habits? You bet you could. So why are so few people able to actually change their habits?

In most cases, people just don't have enough motivation to change a habit. They may have tried and failed in the past.

If you want to change your habits, you need a compelling reason to change.

You also need to make a commitment to change. And you need to find someone to hold you accountable.

You Need a Compelling Reason to Change!

If you change your habits, you can change your life.

Seth Godin Offers a Lengthy Email Checklist

Author and Permission Marketing Expert Seth Godin offers a great checklist to review before sending email. It's a little impractical to run through the checklist every time you send a message, but I think his point is to make you stop and think about how you use email.

Here is a short sample from Seth's list:

4. Did every person on the list really and truly opt in? Not like sort of, but really ask for it?

8. Aside: the definition of permission marketing: Anticipated, personal and relevant messages delivered to people who actually want to get them. Nowhere does it say anything about you and your needs as a sender. Probably none of my business, but I'm just letting you know how I feel. (And how your prospects feel).

9. Is the email from a real person? If it is, will hitting reply get a note back to that person? (if not, change it please).

22. Is there anyone copied on this email who could be left off the list?

Send Messages to People
Who Want to Get Them

I have to think that some of the items on the list are included for humor's sake alone. But, I think his point comes across loud and clear that people communicate too often through email on things that other people probably don't care about. It's also a great reminder to CYA to protect yourself.

Unclutterer Shares Web-Accessible Project Management Tools

Barbara Beal-Lopez from Brightfarm turned me on to a site called Unclutterer, devoted to providing tips to stay organized. It's a great site with plenty of ideas on how to organize your life and business.

The site  includes  information on web-accessible project management tools. They mention a few standard tools like Basecamp as well as a few I haven't heard of, including 5pm and @task. 5pm looks pretty slick. I may give it a try. I'm currently using Central Desktop to manage some projects.

Challenge Yourself!

What is holding you back? What do you need to do to move forward in your life and your business? Take a moment now and brainstorm a few ideas. Now, challenge yourself! Challenge yourself to take one step to move forward.

Amazon Launches a New Wireless Reading Device

Amazon has launched an intriguing new device called the Kindle. It's an ebook reader with wireless access. It not only allows you to read books though. You can also read newspapers and blogs. Given the huge trend toward going green, I think a device like this could catch on.

Free Wireless Access on a Mobile Device!

I'm curious to hear from anyone who has tried the device. What's amazing is that the wireless access seems to be free. They appear to be covering their costs through book sales. It will be interesting to see if this thing takes off. Could a device like this have the same kind of appeal as the iPod when it first came out? I suppose only time will tell!

Jerry Hart Shares Tips on Using Google Alerts

A good friend of mine, Jerry Hart, CEO of Hart Creative Marketing, recently shared tips on using Google Alerts. Jerry is an Internet Marketing and Social Media Expert. He helps companies craft and deliver their marketing message online through websites, blogs and social media.

Bring it up from your soul and
get it up on the Web

Jerry says:

"Know that commenting on blogs is a big traffic driver for you. So, spend less time getting to deep into any one article and comment on what you’ve read in the first or last paragraph or headline. Then, go back to your email of Google Alert results and click to your second Google Alert result, read only a bit, save that site, blog, or network and move on by going back to your Google Alerts and finding another authority you can save in your www.roboform.com or www.clipmarks.com favorite sites folder. Both are the bomb and will make you feel like a blue angel pilot flying thru sites efficiently who can find content later that you liked today."

That's a great suggestion to use your time more productively. Remember to be authentic and focus on offering value when posting a comment on a blog. Keep it simple until you have had an opportunity to post a few times. Blogs have followings and you need to be aware that people will notice if you are a little too pushy or aggressive in sharing your message. The same is true when posting messages in online discussion groups or through social networks.

Hart also shares advice on how to give accolades to other bloggers when you sincerely feel it.

Do You Have Self-Discipline?

One of the keys to being productive is being self-disciplined. What is self-discipline? It's a characteristic that allows you to focus on your priorities and avoid distractions and interruptions.  It is living your life on purpose.

Success guru Mike Litman posted on his blog:

"For so many years of my life my self-discipline was terrible. This lack of self-discipline kept me running around in circles, procrastinating like a king, and always chasing the ‘latest greatest idea’. Have you ever been ‘there’? I’m glad I’m not ‘there’ anymore and I work daily on bringing more self-discipline into my life."

Mike goes on to say that, "when we don’t have a VISION for our lives, we throw off self-discipline, self-control, and order."

So I ask you, do you have self-discipline? Do you stay on task? Do you commit to do something and then get it done? Or do you find yourself procrastinating? Do you put off till tomorrow what you could do today?

Self-discipline is a challenge because it requires you to get outside of your comfort zone and play big.

We've shared a lot of great information on how to get productive during our teleseminar series, the 12 Days of Productivity. All of calls are recorded and available at no charge to help you increase your productivity.

What steps are you going to take this year to get focused, increase your productivity and develop the self-discipline you need to move forward and achieve your goals?

 

Leverage Technology Tools

2008 is finally here. What are you going to do this year that’s different from last year? How are you going to increase your productivity? If you are resisting or avoiding learning new technologies, it’s time to create momentum and get over the hump. The younger generation is nipping at your heels. They are internet savvy, social media conscious and are comfortable using mobile tools (PDAs and smartphones) on the go. So, what can you do to catch up with them before they eat your lunch?

The younger generation is nipping at your heels...
what can you do to catch up?

Learning a new technology takes time. Most people don’t give themselves enough credit for their efforts to learn new tools. Here are some tips that can help you move forward.

Tip #1: One Tool at a Time

Don’t resolve to learn five new tools at once. It won’t work. You have plenty of time. Depending on how busy you are, make it a priority to learn one new technology every quarter. If you have a little more time on your hands, you can try monthly. But, you want to build in time to evaluate your options and select a new tool. This will help you maximize the free trial period available for many software tools.

Tip #2: Create a Checklist with your Wishlist

You don’t need to learn every feature on a hardware device, software program or online service. Create a top ten checklist of what you want to learn and rank them one to ten. When you have a spare moment, pick the most important feature to learn.

Tip #3: Join an Online Group

There are millions of online groups out there. They can be a great source of information on how to learn and leverage a technology tool. The trick is to find the right one for you. Be sure to learn the rules of the group. Look for ways to help and keep promotion at a minimum. You get tips, tricks and insights on how to leverage a new tech tool.

That’s it. Just look for ways to make incremental, baby steps. You can do anything you set your mind to. Good luck!

Productivity Shortcuts Winter 2007 Teleseminar Series

2007 is almost over. It's time to wind down and ramp up for next year. Will 2008 be a good year for you? Why not make a resolution NOW to increase your productivity?

If you would like to learn shortcuts to get more done in less time, then join us for The Twelve Days of Productivity! We're hosting a series of 12 half hour teleseminars. They're focused and quick. You'll get a few great ideas every day to increse your productivity.

 

FREE Teleseminar Series:
Productivity Shortcuts (The Twelve Days of Productivity)

Daily through January 9th

 

What you'll learn:

• Tips to get focused
• Techniques to get organized
• Strategies to combat spam and manage your email inbox
• Lessons on prioritizing your most important tasks
• Tips to shop for productivity gadgets
• How to balance work and family during the holidays

Click here to learn more:
http://www.thepdapro.com/ProductivityShortcuts.asp

2008 can be your best year yet! Start by working smarter, not harder!

Gmail Tip for Searching Email

I get a lot of email. Being The PDA Pro is busy work. I have over 10 email accounts and am subscribed to 50 Bojillian ezines and newsletters to stay on top of everything. I found that Outlook was just choking on the amount of email I was pumping through it. So, I made the decision to begin retrieving email using Gmail, the email service from Google.

I love Google. It's just the simple, but fast and effective kind of productivity tool I like to use. I was already using Gmail for a personal account and it worked great. So, I made the switch a few months ago for my business email. I have been very satisfied with how Gmail has worked for me. There are a few little annoyances, but overall it's been a great experience. I appreciate the fact that all of that data is being hosted on someone else's server.

Gmail Rocks!

Here is a quick tip from Gmail's blog written by Jen "Digital Mom" Grant. She writes:

"First, I make very specific labels for all of the categories that I might need - meeting notes, action items, personal - and I very meticulously use these labels for maybe a month or so. But then, I get overwhelmed and don't have the time to spend filing things under each of these categories. This is the point where Gmail really starts to help me out. The reason I categorized everything in the first place was to find it again quickly, right? Well, if I can find anything easily with search, then why should I take the extra time organizing? For my purposes, searching takes much less time and works just as well."

I love the labels too. They're much better than folders. I set up rules to automatically move and archive messages. This allows me to quickly read and respond to high priority client email messages first. The best part though, as Digital Mom suggests is the ability to search messages quickly. This took a lot longer with Outlook.

I strongly recommend you consider switching to Gmail. As a person who has been used to storing and archiving all of my email data in the past, I found I had a little fear around letting someone else store that data. But, as an entrepreneur, I have had to do that anyway through other services.