Thomas Umstattd Jr.

If perfectionism is not the answer what is? Skill. A man skilled in his work will stand before kings. Here are the 5 steps to master any skill. (more…)

Why are skillful people rare? Because most of us fall pray to perfectionism. (more…)

Why is lying wrong? Because it hurts people or because God said not to do it? (more…)

If you haven’t checked out Part 1 look it over. This post will make more sense if you read that post first.

They go into more detail on each point. Here is the cliff notes of a recent Lifehacker article. Their advice is bold My comments are not

1. “Batch” email at set times. This is huge. I process my inbox to zero and then when I get a chance I batch reply to the emails in the “Need Reply” folder. I would spend even less time on email if I checked it less often but I am a bit compulsive.
2. Send and read email at different times. - This is hard to do if you use a web based email program like gmail. If you use Outlook it also helps to turn off automatic send and receive. This allows you to batch your email (see point #1)
3. Don’t scan email if you can’t immediately fix problems encountered - Employing this trick is what saves me so much time. I used to read and re read emails over and over without doing anything about them. Now I put them into one of my folders and don’t worry about it again until I get a chance to act or reply.
4. Don’t BIF people during off-hours. BIF stands for Before I Forget.
5. Don’t use the inbox for reminders or as a to-do list. I put my actionable emails together in a “Need Action” folder. This way they don’t clog my inbox and I can keep track of them.
6. Set rules for email-to-phone escalation. Sometimes a 3 minute phone call can save you from 30 minutes of email. A good rule of thumb I learned from my dad is this:

   If emotions are involved use the phone instead.

   Emotionally charged emails need too much proofing to be worth it. Too often even after spending 30 minutes on drafting an email the recipient still misinterprets it. If you are too angry to make a phone call you are too angry to send an email.

7. Before writing an email, ask yourself: “what problem am I trying to solve?” or “what is my ideal outcome?” Don’t send purposeless emails. They waste everyone’s time.
8. Learn to make suggestions instead of asking questions. The “where do you want to eat? I donno where do you want to eat?” passive question asking mindset does not make for efficient email processing.

How do you handle your email load? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

After years of digital coaching I have realized that most people stink at email. Here are the two people I most often encounter:

Person A: This person spends hours checking email each week sending and receiving dozens of emails every day. Yet, Person A seems to be always behind in email regardless of how much time he or she invests in it. If you work a white collar job you probably can relate to Person A.

Person B: Person B doesn’t care much about email and so he never checks it. You never know if this person gets your emails or not because he rarely responds and when he does it’s days later. If you go to UMHB you are probably like Person B.

So how do you stay on top of you email without it consuming your life?

The following video has changed my life when it comes to email. I now spend half the time doing email and I am always able to leave my inbox empty. How do I do it? I follow Merlin Man’s advice.

I had a folder for each activity and a folder for each person who sent me a lot of email. The problem of this system was that it was inefficient. Instead of having one inbox I had a dozen. Now all important mail comes to one place from which I send it to one of the following 6 folders/labels.

1. Encouragement - These are nice emails people have sent me. I don’t use this folder much (it only has 7 emails right now) but it is nice to set aside encouragement for a rainy day.
2. Need Action - These are my action related emails. If you email me and ask me to do something it will end up in this folder before I do it.
3. Need Read - These are emails I need to read when I get a chance
4. Need Reply - These are emails I need to reply to.
5. Reference - These are emails I will need later. This folder is mostly full of book related emails I need to keep track of.
6. Unimportant - I have setup so that anything unimportant (facebook etc) goes to this folder. This is my only folder that has mail rules related to it.

Most emails I scan and then archive. Only a few make it to one of these folders. Gmail lets me search through my archive which is helpful in finding an email I need when I need it. I don’t need to file school email in a school folder. I just search for the exact email I need and it comes up.
Inbox Zero by Merlin Man

In this video Merlin Mann, productivity guru and creator of the popular 43 folders website, shares his secret to keeping his email inbox at zero. I know its an hour long… But if you invest an hour into learning how to “do” email more efficiantly it will come back to you many times over.Does your inbox overwhelm you? Leave a comment and tell me what do you think.

You know, the professor who reads textbook provided PowerPoints slides to the class. You’ve had him too? I think we all have. The thing I find interesting is that as much as students complain about the presentation quality of their professors when it comes time for group projects they are just as bad if not worse more often than not.

As soon as a presenter shows their first slide riddled with text we know we are in for a long boring talk. I gave a talk at a Rotary Club a few months ago and I could just see everyone cringe as I pulled out my projector. But PowerPoint does not need to be boring.

A guy named Cliff Atkinson author of the book Beyond Bullet Points opened my eyes to a radical new way to present using Power Point. I used his approach and Rotarians thanked me for not boring them. I’m not a great presenter yet but I am working at it. I have sat through hundreds of hours of bad presentations though, so I know some things to avoid. Here are some tips I hope you find helpful.

Tip #1 - Use Graphics Instead of Text

A clever graphic not only catches and keeps your audience’s attention but it can add to your credibility and their understanding. Which of the following two slides do you think is more effective?

I would say the first slide is far more convincing because the photo sells the concept. When people see the photo they can think of that drugged feeling they get from a long time on the computer.

Remember the goal for Keynote slides is not to present the information. It is to help you present the information.

Tip #2 - Don’t Let Your Underwear Show

No one in their right mind would give a presentation with their fly down. Yet often when we have zipper in a southernly position unknowingly. In this same way many people show the underwear of their talk without knowing it. Your notes are important and private, unless you are Madonna they are not for public display.

Most people when they put together their talk all they work on is the power point bullets. They wear nothing but their underwear and then go up and present with raw text. Don’t show your audience your notes. They will read them ahead of you, zone out and get bored. It keeps you from having any surprises any secrets. It takes away your ability to implement comic timing. Nowadays when people get bored they whip out their iPhone or Blackbarry and totally stop listening until you say “in conclusion.” People will respect you more if you stay modest.

Some great sites that have free photos are:

• sxc.hu (my favorite),
• EveryStockPhoto.com, 
• Flickr Creative Commons Photos
• Microsoft Office Clip Art Gallery.

If you are wiling to spend a little dough I recommend:

• iStockPhoto.com
• StockXpert.com

When searching for clip art it is important to register for the site and in order to avoid any adult only images. The best sites wont give you that trash but it’s safe to make sure.

Tip #3 Kiss Your Audience

Steve Jobs, one of the best modern communicators imo, knows how to make things simple. He has made a fortune making complex things like mp3 players iPod easy. He presents in the same way. He often will use only a simple photo or a singe word on a black background.

There is a reason that millions of people download and watch his keynotes while Bill Gates who also talks about cool gadgets often gets ignored. The blog Presentation Zen has a great comparison of these two styles as embodied by these two men. If you can ignore the Buddhist undertones the site has some great tips on keeping presentations simple.

Tip #4 - 1 Minute Max

Don’t use one slide for 3 minutes when you can break it up into three one minute slides. This is easy if you don’t cram them with concepts. Try not to ever spend more than a minute on any given slide. Keep the audience’s attention by keeping it fresh. You are talking to a crowd that used to watching commercials that show a new shot every 4 seconds. Once you pass the ten second mark the clock starts ticking and once you hit sixty seconds the cell phone start discreetly coming out of pockets.

Another way to get invited back is to finish early. Try to leave time for questions. People love asking questions and you might find the most interesting part of your presentation is the dialog at the end. If no one has any questions bait the audience by asking one of your own. Answer it and the questions will come.

Tip #5 - Keep your Bullets in Your Concealed Firearm

I’m not saying not to use bullet points just keep them out of site in your notes. PowerPoint and Keynote both have excellent notes sections that you can print or display on your laptop as you present.

Like real bullets, digital bullets are ineffective and dangerous when they are out of place. Hitting a rifle round with a hammer might make a lot of noise but you wont hit your target unless you hide your bullets in your gun. Keep yor bullets out of site and you will find that your presentation become more interesting and more effective.

To learn how to go bullet free I would recommend that you watch the following video. This video is what caused me to join the bullet free revolution.

This short 4 minute video explains podcasting better than anything else I have ever seen.

We have all seen this orange icon and likely just ignored it. But this little icon can transform your internet experience. Clicking this icon causes good things to happen. To explain those good things I have found a short 2 minute YoouTube video.

RSS in Plain English

Using Google Reader (Tutorial)
I use google reader. For me its the easiest to use since I use gmail. If you are a yahoo person you can use yahoo’s RSS.

Yahoo RSS Faq