Emily Parks to Offer Courses at the Technology Training Solutions Unit of North Carolina State University

According to Dictionary.com, productivity is “the quality, state or fact of being able to generate, create, enhance or bring forth goods and services”. Knowing how to get more done in less time and to quickly find what you need is a vital skill to be learned by busy professionals and corporate teams alike.

Are you looking to boost your productivity? If so, it might be time to go back to school… Starting this semester, I'll be teaching at the Technology Training Solutions unit of North Carolina State University. I am honored to be an instructor in the Technology Training Solutions unit at the McKimmon Center for Extension and Continuing Education, where they have a reputation for excellence in continuing education for technology, and I’m excited to share several of my most popular technology workshops, including productivity apps to help busy professionals get more done, boost profitability and aid peace of mind.

Holly Basso, Assistant Director at North Carolina State University, has said, “The Technology Training Solutions at NCSU has provided leading-edge training and certification programs since 1988. We are thrilled to add Emily Parks to our roster of outstanding instructors. Emily brings a new element to our program by offering classes that teach people how to efficiently and effectively use technology to increase productivity and sharpen their business organization skills.” Since I know technology can be overwhelming, I created my business workshops so people can have the best information at their fingertips. No matter if you are a PC- or Mac-user, I will share productivity apps and tips you can implement immediately to increase your efficiency.

Designed to benefit all busy professionals, no matter whether you are new to technology or comfortable with it, whether you are a small business owner or have 30,000 employees and whether you are a Mac-, PC-, Android-, Blackberry-, iPad- or iPhone-based, these workshops will provide ideas to implement for immediate improvements to your output and profitability.

Here are the courses I’ll be teaching in upcoming months, including links to get more details or to register for attending:

"Using Evernote to Remember Everything - Evernote Basics”…Tuesday, September 16th at noon to 4pm in NC State’s Technology Training Solutions unit, 1101 Gorman Street, Raleigh, 27606… Learn more and register today at http://bit.ly/1vDO9tE.
Attend this course and you will learn the following:
- What Evernote is and how it can improve your day-to-day operations
- Ideas for immediately implementing Evernote to increase productivity
- All the basics, including how to produce notes, add notebooks, merge into stacked notebooks, sort or search, share content and format notes to start maximizing your efficiency
- Hands-on experience in utilizing Evernote basics

“Top Tech Tools to Help You Burn Through Your To-Do List”…Wednesday, September 17th at 6pm to 9pm in NC State’s Technology Training Solutions unit, 1101 Gorman Street, Raleigh, 27606… Learn more and register today at http://bit.ly/1pMKHak.
Attend this course and you will learn the following:
- How to evaluate whether a task should be done and by whom
- Methods for prioritizing tasks
- Specific tools to move tasks from “to do” to “done” in the most efficient and effective way
- Manageable steps to implement for getting more accomplished immediately

“Get More Out of Evernote - Advanced Techniques”… Tuesday, September 23rd at 1pm to 4pm in NC State’s Technology Training Solutions unit, 1101 Gorman Street, Raleigh, 27606… Learn more and register today at http://bit.ly/1q6XEJx.
Attend this course and you will learn the following:
- Specific instances in which using Evernote can improve your performance at work, at home and in life
- How Evernote can better enable you to provide greater service to your customers
- Ways in which Evernote can enhance team collaboration
- Hands-on experience for more in-depth utilization of Evernote and its connected applications

“Using Technology to Boost Your Team’s Performance”… Tuesday, September 30th at 6pm to 9pm in NC State’s Technology Training Solutions unit, 1101 Gorman Street, Raleigh, 27606… Learn more and register today athttp://bit.ly/1Aby2mb.

Attend this course and you will learn the following:
- How, when and if technology is needed in accomplishing each task
- Specific tech tools for teams to collaborate on projects, communicate to-do items, attack scheduling dilemmas, share information / documents and operate more efficiently
- Ways to utilize each tech tool presented -- including software, apps and gadgets -- and how to implement immediately

“Top Tech Tools for Rocking It At Work and In Life”… Wednesday, October 8th at 1pm to 4pm in NC State’s Technology Training Solutions unit, 1101 Gorman Street, Raleigh, 27606… Learn more and register today at http://bit.ly/1olFqSn.
Attend this course and you will learn the following:
- Specific software, apps and tech tools to lower your stress and enhance your work performance
- Detailed ways to use the listed software, apps and tech tools to achieve desired results
- How to implement suggested solutions for immediate success

“Using Outlook to Organize for Success: Get More Done in Less Time”… Thursday, October 9th at 6pm to 9pm in NC State’s Technology Training Solutions unit, 1101 Gorman Street, Raleigh, 27606… Learn more and register today at http://bit.ly/1upzVLm.
Attend this course and you will learn the following:
- Specific ways to efficiently utilize Microsoft Outlook for email management, calendaring, task management, note-taking and maintaining contacts’ information
- How to utilize “the power of one” to enhance productivity
- Ways in which Microsoft Outlook can better enable you to provide greater service to your clients
- How using Microsoft Outlook can improve your performance at work, at home and in life, including effort-saving shortcuts

“Using Technology to Boost Your Team’s Performance”… Tuesday, October 14th at 1pm to 4pm in NC State’s Technology Training Solutions unit, 1101 Gorman Street, Raleigh, 27606… Learn more and register today at http://bit.ly/1Aby2mb.
Attend this course and you will learn the following:
- How, when and if technology is needed in accomplishing each task
- Specific tech tools for teams to collaborate on projects, communicate to-do items, attack scheduling dilemmas, share information / documents and operate more efficiently
- Ways to utilize each tech tool presented -- including software, apps and gadgets -- and how to implement immediately

"Using Evernote to Remember Everything - Evernote Basics”…Wednesday, October 22nd at 5pm to 9pm in NC State’s Technology Training Solutions unit, 1101 Gorman Street, Raleigh, 27606… Learn more and register today at http://bit.ly/1vDO9tE.
Attend this course and you will learn the following:
- What Evernote is and how it can improve your day-to-day operations
- Ideas for immediately implementing Evernote to increase productivity
- All the basics, including how to produce notes, add notebooks, merge into stacked notebooks, sort or search, share content and format notes to start maximizing your efficiency
- Hands-on experience in utilizing Evernote basics

“Top Tech Tools to Help You Burn Through Your To-Do List”…Tuesday, November 4th at 1pm to 4pm in NC State’s Technology Training Solutions unit, 1101 Gorman Street, Raleigh, 27606… Learn more and register today at http://bit.ly/1pMKHak.
Attend this course and you will learn the following:
- How to evaluate whether a task should be done and by whom
- Methods for prioritizing tasks
- Specific tools to move tasks from “to do” to “done” in the most efficient and effective way
- Manageable steps to implement for getting more accomplished immediately

“Get More Out of Evernote - Advanced Techniques”… Thursday, November 13th at 6pm to 9pm in NC State’s Technology Training Solutions unit, 1101 Gorman Street, Raleigh, 27606… Learn more and register today at http://bit.ly/1q6XEJx.
Attend this course and you will learn the following:
- Specific instances in which using Evernote can improve your performance at work, at home and in life
- How Evernote can better enable you to provide greater service to your customers
- Ways in which Evernote can enhance team collaboration
- Hands-on experience for more in-depth utilization of Evernote and its connected applications

“Be More Productive While Working On-The-Go”… Wednesday, November 19th at 1pm to 4pm in NC State’s Technology Training Solutions unit, 1101 Gorman Street, Raleigh, 27606… Learn more and register today at http://bit.ly/1uMv0BB.
Attend this course and you will learn the following:
- Easy methods to transition systems from office to mobile environments
- Technological tools to help you find what you need when you need it while on the go
- Options to enhance communication and collaboration with remote teams, vendors and clients

“Top Tech Tools for Rocking It At Work and In Life”… Thursday, December 4th at 6pm to 9pm in NC State’s Technology Training Solutions unit, 1101 Gorman Street, Raleigh, 27606… Learn more and register today at http://bit.ly/1olFqSn.
Attend this course and you will learn the following:
- Specific software, apps and tech tools to lower your stress and enhance your work performance
- Detailed ways to use the listed software, apps and tech tools to achieve desired results
- How to implement suggested solutions for immediate success

“Using Outlook to Organize for Success: Get More Done in Less Time”… Wednesday, December 10th at 1pm to 4pm in NC State’s Technology Training Solutions unit, 1101 Gorman Street, Raleigh, 27606… Learn more and register today at http://bit.ly/1upzVLm.
Attend this course and you will learn the following:
- Specific ways to efficiently utilize Microsoft Outlook for email management, calendaring, task management, note-taking and maintaining contacts’ information
- How to utilize “the power of one” to enhance productivity
- Ways in which Microsoft Outlook can better enable you to provide greater service to your clients
- How using Microsoft Outlook can improve your performance at work, at home and in life, including effort-saving shortcuts

“Be More Productive While Working On-The-Go”… Thursday, December 11th at 6pm to 9pm in NC State’s Technology Training Solutions unit, 1101 Gorman Street, Raleigh, 27606… Learn more and register today at http://bit.ly/1uMv0BB.
Attend this course and you will learn the following:
- Easy methods to transition systems from office to mobile environments
- Technological tools to help you find what you need when you need it while on the go
- Options to enhance communication and collaboration with remote teams, vendors and clients

Contact me with questions at 919-981-6397 or by clicking here to send me an email, and I look forward to seeing you in one (or more) of this fall’s courses at NC State University’s Technology Training Solutions!

Tried and True Rules to Organize for Success

 I partner with busy professionals to help them efficiently and effectively use their available resources for increasing productivity and sharpening their business organization. Throughout the process, I find myself utilizing several organizing- and productivity-focused mantras. Often, these mantras are catchy phrases to stick in their heads as a reminder of what habits need developing. Here are 10 of my most frequently used mantras:

1. “A place for everything and everything in its place”… Once something has a designated home, it is more likely to return to that home after each and every use. Further, when you know where things belong, you can avoid procrastination related to putting things away, especially as new items enter your space that are related to what you already have.

2. “Keep like with like”… When similar or related items are grouped near each other, it makes finding items needed much simpler for yourself as well as others using the same space. For example, store the tape, scissors and stapler in one drawer together.

3. “Location, location, location”… Frequently used items should be kept most easily accessible and closest to where you are usually working. For example, the items you use daily can be kept on your desktop or the top drawer of your desk. Then, items should be stored increasingly further from you as they are used less and less often. What you reference only annually or very rarely could be in a different room or, even, in a different building. Likewise, items should be stored near where they will be used in order to save time and make it easier to locate what’s needed when it’s needed; for example, keep printer paper near the printer.

4. “Horizontal is hidden while vertical is visible”… Whether it’s in a file drawer, a desktop file organizer or organizers designed to hang on the wall, it’s easier to see the contents when they are stored vertically. Alternatively, when items are stored horizontally, the items on top hide what items are further below, making it more difficult to quickly find what you need. Save time searching and make it easier to see what is where by using vertical storage solutions.

5. “Don’t pile it; file it”… Rather than piling a paper in your To File tray, just file each sheet of paper as you get it, thereby never having to schedule a mass filing session again.

6. “Minimize paper clutter”… Since it’s easier to locate what’s needed from electronic documents than paper files, when you must keep the contents of a paper document, scan whatever you can. Options like Doxie Go, Fujitsu ScanSnap and Neat make it easy to convert your paper to electronic. Likewise, limit unnecessary incoming paper by stopping junk mail before it arrives; eliminate unwanted mail with catalogchoice.org, greendimes.com, dmachoice.org, PaperKarma stopthejunkmail.com or 41pounds.org.

7. “Utilize the power of one”… While many say that one is a lonely number, I believe that one is extremely powerful for enhancing one’s productivity. It’s important for each professional to have one calendar for both work and personal items, one running tasks list that funnels into one daily to-do list for each day, one “data dump” that enables our brains to think instead of remember everything, one address book to better maintain all our contacts’ information and one weekly strategy session, dedicating time each week to create the next week’s game plan. With one of each, we’re less likely to duplicate or have anything slip through the cracks.

8. “Done is better than perfect”… Stop procrastinating and start moving forward on your existing projects. If a task can be done in 5 minutes or less, just do it; if a task will take longer, get started. You might be surprised by how much you get done when you simply start working on it; plus, when you allow yourself to just do rather than striving for perfection, you can accomplish so much, leading to greater productivity, and you can always tweak your work later.

9. “Neat is not the same as organized”… While neat is defined as “in a pleasingly orderly and clean condition”, organized is actually defined as “structured and systematized”. In other words, while something that is neat will look attractive, it is only be implementing organization that the environment becomes another tool in your toolbox, better empowering you to quickly find what you need when you need it and to get more done in less time.

10. “Plan your work and work your plan”… Every action item that is assigned a time during which it can be addressed is more likely to be completed. If we wait for that free time in which we envision completing said task, that task might never move from “to-do” to “done”. While distractions and unplanned issues might arise, if you start the week with a game plan, you can more easily tweak each day to make sure all tasks and appointments get resolved.

Do you currently utilize any of these mantras? Are there any other mantras that you find helpful in your efforts to be more productive and more organized?

Have You Considered Your Digital Afterlife?

 Today’s society is increasingly dependent on technology. With this dependence comes a growing online presence as well as all the data, documents and passwords associated with those online accounts… Most folks immediately assume that means just the various social media platforms on which each of us communicate. Yes, social media is included, but it’s so much more than that. In addition to websites, there are password-protected apps on your laptops and mobile devices. This includes your emails, online banking, shopping wish lists, loyalty programs, travel-booking sites, iTunes music libraries, bill paying, web-based photo albums, online file repositories, collaboration tools and more. Our digital footprints are scattered, and the list seems endless!

 Although each individual’s growing online presence can be a bit overwhelming while we are here on earth, have you considered what happens to your digital presence when you are no longer living? I think most folks would be shocked to learn that, under current law in many states, your heirs could be committing a crime by using what passwords you left them after you have passed away. Right now, it’s a legal gray zone… The US Computer Fraud and AbuseAct, created in 1986, makes it unlawful to “intentionally access” a computer without authorization and, then, obtain information from that access. Many propose that loved ones should get access to everything online immediately after one’s death unless otherwise specified in a will. Yet, as estate-planning lawyers have started battling to change this, it’s sparked quite a debate about who owns what on the Internet, who can access what in your digital afterlife and how to plan this transition.

Amidst all the confusion, though, there is good news… The Uniform Law Commission has created (and approved on July 16, 2014) the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Acts, designed to “let relatives access the social media counts of the deceased”, per NPR. This act overrides the terms of service of Internet companies who restrict account access to only the user and requires states to define details.

Still, gone are the days when whoever you designate to handle your estate can collect your mail for a few months to see all the accounts that need to be addressed… By not specifically addressing your digital afterlife, you risk issues with online bills or financials, loss of data (including sentimental items of photos, status updates, communications and more as well as items with monetary value, like music, movies, etc) and losing control of your personal legacy. However, how can you convey that applicable data to whichever personal representative you need handling it?!? Further, should your emails, digital photo albums and online accounts die when you do or can you pass them along to heirs as you do physical items, like a house, an automobile, stocks and prized possessions? While I am certainly not a lawyer and do not have all such expertise, I see the importance of addressing my digital afterlife and have been doing some research.

Where can YOU start and what can YOU do to address this situation? 

First, I recommend creating a digital estate plan. Like estate plans in the traditional sense, this would details your wishes about what you want done with what is yours once you are no longer living. Further, within this digital estate plan, appoint a Digital Executor, who is the person you designate to execute your wises for your digital assets. You’ll need to stipulate in your will that this Digital Executor should have a copy of your death certificate as proof for websites to take action.

Using a password manager to generate, save and autofill your many passwords would make life easier for your heirs. With one of these tools, the password manager’s password is the only one you must remember, protect and make available to your heirs. Plus, by using many of these, you can store vital documents (like your will) in a vault that's part of your password manager account. Great examples of a password manager that would help are LastPass, SplashID, 1Password, Roboform and Dashlane.

If you are uncomfortable with a password manager, as an alternative, you could utilize a password-protected memory stick or flash drive; however, storage of this device could prove tricky as there is often quite a delay before heirs are legally allowed to access your safe-deposit box. Therefore, if you choose the alternative of a password-protected memory stick, you’ll want to store that in a fireproof home safe.

Victoria Blachly, an estate-planning attorney with Samuels Yoelin Kantor in Portland, OR, recommends that you put all details about your online accounts in a VAIL or Virtual Asset Instruction Letter. Your VAIL should indicate which email or social media accounts to delete, conveying your wishes to your heirs for them to take the necessary next steps. Put a copy of your VAIL on a password-protected flash drive or CD, locking both the digital and hard-copy VAIL in a safe.

Further, with the aforementioned legal battles happening, it is very important to update your Power of Attorney document to include language specifically allowing your designated heir to access emails and other electronic data. If you’re incapacitated, this gives your designated person ability to manage your financial affairs.

As another alternative, there are online afterlife companies (or digital vaults) that pledge to store and distribute postmortem your designated digital assets, such as Cirrus Legacy, DeathSwitch, DeadSocial, Eterniam, IfIDie.org, PasswordBox, LivesOn, Planned Departure and SecureSafe. An assigned “digital heir” is provided your passwords once a valid death certificate and proof of the heir’s identity are received. Basically, they allow you to specify “beneficiaries” to receive information about your accounts once death is verified. However, I am extremely wary of these due to all the legal activity currently related to individuals’ digital afterlife. It’s a fluid situation right now, and I’m not convinced of these companies’ stability. Plus, what if you depend on a company for all of your digital data, documents and passwords but that company goes out of business?!?

An interesting substitute for the aforementioned online afterlife companies is Perpetu, which is a startup that was founded by an intellectual property lawyer and banker. You sign up for Perpetu with your email, Facebook or Twitter account; once logged in, you see a list of services you can add to Perpetu, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Gmail, Dropbox, Flickr, Instagram and GitHub. For example, you can schedule a final wall post for your Facebook profile or tell Perpetu to email a download of your Facebook photos, status updates and private message to a selected someone. You can select repositories on GitHub to make public after you die or tell Perpetu to email a download of your LinkedIn contacts to a designated person. Unlike the online afterlife companies I mentioned earlier, Perpetu doesn’t ask users for their passwords; instead, you select what information is downloaded and sent to your contacts.

Websites want to honor their privacy agreements with users. Further, thus far, the legal system has made clear that its desire is to respect the wishes of technology users; however, unless you communicate your specific wishes, the courts and society in general can only guess, assume and infer what those wishes might be.

Assuming you are able to use a password manager or password-protected device to pass along to your heirs the data, documents and passwords associated with the accounts in your online presence, there are certainly many “next steps” to consider, particularly as different sites have various approaches to resolving your digital afterlife…

• -       Facebook: In January 2014, Facebook altered its digital afterlife policy to turn a deceased person’s page into “memorial mode” and make it publicly available, but shutting down a deceased person’s Facebook account requires the user’s birth certificate, death certificate and proof the person submitting the request is the lawful representative of that deceased user.
• -       Google: Google Inactive Account Manager allows you to choose a trusted contact who will be notified by email and phone when your account has been inactive after a specified length of time and who can also be given access to the Google accounts you choose.
• -       Twitter: In its website’s support area, Twitter offers a contact form to assist in deactivating, not transferring, the deceased’s account.
• -       Yahoo: In America, Yahoo accounts are nontransferable but can be terminated after submitting a detailed request; alternatively, in Japan, Yahoo has created “Yahoo Ending” to send an email the user has prepared to as many as 200 addresses and open a “memorial space” board for people to leave condolence messages.

The legal battle related to folks’ digital assets is complicated by many details. For example, certain online accounts can be worth real money, like a popular blog’s site or a gaming avatar that acquired significant status online. Further, some individuals would prefer that their social media profiles become “memorialized” rather than deactivated or deleted. All of this confusion and “gray area” are why it’s vital to communicate your wishes for your digital assets to your loved ones, especially whoever you designate to handle legalities.

Please start by taking some time to think about these items:

• -       What do you envision for your social media content after you die?
• -       What would you like to happen to your blog when you die?
• -       Do you want your Digital Executor to make an announcement online?
• -       Where would you like your obituary posted?
• -       Would you like a guestbook activated on your website?
• -       Would you like your website, blog and / or social media presence to turn into a virtual memorial when you die?
• -       Do you have a list of all websites on which you have a presence as well as the passwords for accessing those accounts? Where is it?

Expand your thought-process to cover all you can think of. Then, once you have a good feel for your wishes, please write them down and be sure to share them.

Want to see more about the items discussed here? You can view a recent interview I did with Julie Coraccio of Clearing the Clutter Inside & Out by clicking here, and stay tuned for an edited version of the video soon.

As you proceed in addressing your digital afterlife, you might find some resources helpful… Evan Carroll and John Romano have written Your Digital Afterlife to assist, and their website of TheDigitalBeyond.com provides many different strategies you can explore. Alternatively, social media and marketing consultant Adele McAlear offers DeathAndDigitalLegacy.com for more information. Investigating the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act and how your state is moving forward on its approval will help to localize your actions. Plus, review this US Government blog post about creating a social media will. Finally, seeking advice from a lawyer in your region is most highly suggested.

Do you have a plan for your digital afterlife? Have you shared your wishes with a loved one? If not, what can you do now to prepare?

A Pleasure to Share "Be More Productive While Working On-The-Go" with Professional Mortgage Women

 Yesterday, I had the pleasure of speaking to the Raleigh - Triangle chapter for the National Association of Professional Mortgage Women. You can learn more about their organization at http://www.napmwraleightriangle.org/. Meanwhile, since these lovely ladies enjoyed my presentation so thoroughly, here are some of my presentation’s tidbits for you, too.

- Make sure you have the right tools to support working on-the-go… Do you use a smartphone, tablet, 2-in-1 and / or laptop? Are your email, contacts and calendar syncing properly between your various devices so there’s less repetitive actions?

- Always keep tools near you for charging or providing back-up power to your devices, no matter what types of devices you use. Using GRID-IT organizers to keep a set of necessary tools wherever you might be working is helpful, culling together charging cords, flash drives, headphones or earbuds and the like via one for your office, one for your bag and one for your vehicle. Likewise, Mophie’s rechargeable juice packs keep your smartphone going for hours extra.

- It’s even more important than ever to clean each of your tech tool’s exterior regularly as most of us simply do not have time to be getting sick… Do you have a microfiber cloth to use on your smartphone, tablet and 2-in-1 devices?

- It is easier to find what we need more quickly if it’s stored electronically. Invest in a quality scanner for uploading your docs to various online file repositories and, then, choose between Citrix ShareFile Quick Edit for iOS and CloudCube for Android to cull your databases on different online file repositories so you stop wasting time searching.

- Consider how your processes need to be adjusted to transition from offices to mobile environments. There are plenty of tools to help: DocuSign, HelloSign and SignNow for electronic signatures; eFax, MyFax and RingCentral for faxing; PicMonkey, Animoto as well as Skitch to edit imagery for advertising; TimeTrade for scheduling.

- Above all, though, “practice the power of one” with one calendar, one daily to-do list, one running list of tasks to be addressed, one data dump, one address book and one weekly strategy session. This approach helps you avoid duplication, prevent forgetting things, quickly find what you need when you need it and focus on addressing all that’s important.

What tips and tidbits do you utilize to be more productive while working on-the-go? With what do you struggle as you’re working from mobile environments, like planes, trains or automobiles?

Smartphone Battery Letting You Down? Here's Help!

In today’s society, from fast-typing teenagers to busy professionals working on-the-go to grandparents staying in touch with their families, everyone is highly dependent on our technological devices. With all this use, it is very normal for our smartphone batteries to let us down. Have you noticed your cell phone battery lagging and dwindling down before your workday is even halfway through? With these few minor changes, you can preserve battery life and squeeze a little more life out of your ailing phone.

- Determine which apps are running in the background and taking up the most space; then, close those not currently in use and delete those no longer needed. On an iPhone, visit Settings > General > Usage to see which apps are providing the biggest pull on your battery; then, click the > on the right-hand side and tap Delete App to remove those apps hogging your phone’s power which you no longer want. Daily, double-click your home button to get a horizontally scrolling list of running apps, and flick up the screen image of each app you’d like to close down.  On an Android, visit Settings > Battery to delete the apps using too much battery that are no longer needed, and, at the end of each day, visit Settings > Apps to shut down those apps you no longer want running in the background.

- Verify that your operating system as well as all installed apps are running their latest versions. On an iPhone, you can confirm your operating system by visiting Settings > General > Software Update; likewise, on an iPhone, you can make sure your apps are up-to-date by visiting App Store > Updates. On an Android, in Google Play, hit the menu key, go to My Apps and verify that all updates have been done.

- Turn off Location Services completely or disable the Location Services associated with certain apps one-by-one. On an iPhone, visit Settings > Privacy > Location Services; if you tap the circle beside Location Services towards the top, the green will disappear, which turns Location Services off for all applications. Alternatively, you can tap the circle beside any of the apps listed below Location Services to make that app’s green disappear, turning off Location Services for that particular app only. On an Android, visit Settings > Location and uncheck the box associated with apps not needing this data. While it’s great to keep Location Services active for your weather, navigational and Find My Phone apps, it’s not necessary for web browsers, social media apps and file repositories so be selective.

- Turn off Wi-Fi. As your smartphone continually searches for open Wi-Fi connections, it is oozing power. While it’s important to keep Wi-Fi activated as you’re using a navigation-related app so you can get the most accurate directions possible, you generally know when a Wi-Fi connection is necessary rather than relying on your cellular connection. If you don’t need Wi-Fi, on either iPhone or Android, swipe from the bottom or top of nearly any screen to bring up a limited settings menu, from which you can single-tap on the Wi-Fi icon for activating or deactivating this.

- Turn off Background App Refresh completely or disable the Background App Refresh associated with certain apps one-by-one. On an iPhone, visit Settings > General > Background App Refresh; if you tap the circle beside Background App Refresh towards the top, the green will disappear, which turns Background App Refresh off for all applications. Alternatively, you can tap the circle beside any of the apps listed below Background App Refresh to make that app’s green disappear, turning off Background App Refresh for that particular app only. 

- Turn off Bluetooth unless it is in use. Just as was the case for Wi-Fi, when your phone is not paired with Bluetooth devices like ear pieces, keyboards and headsets, having the Bluetooth option turned on means your smartphone is continually searching for available devices, which drains power recurrently. On either iPhone or Android, swipe from the bottom or top of nearly any screen to bring up a limited settings menu, which includes an option to single-tap on the Bluetooth icon for activating or deactivating this feature. 

- Switch the manner in which you fetch emails from “Automatic” to “Manual”. On an iPhone, visit Settings > Mail, Contacts and Calendars > Fetch New Data and make sure “manually” is selected. On an Android, under email settings, just make sure checking for new messages is set to “manual”, not fetch or pull. Constantly checking for new data can be a real drag for your smartphone’s battery, but squashing that neurosis will certainly help.

- Utilize Airplane Mode strategically. Airplane Mode is a setting to turn off cellular connection, Wi-Fi, FM radio and Bluetooth simultaneously while continuing to use other apps that don’t require a connection. When you’re in a low coverage area or just want to preserve your battery without powering down your smartphone, switch to Airplane Mode. On an iPhone, Airplane Mode is the first option under Settings. On an Android, visit Settings > Wireless & Networks > Airplane Mode to check the box for activation. This is particularly helpful when you’re napping since it will still work as an alarm clock but not leak power.

- Turn down brightness. On an iPhone, visit Settings > Wallpapers > Brightness to slide the level of brightness down and tap the circle beside Auto-Brightness to make the green disappear, which turns this feature off. On an Android, under Display Settings, slide the level of brightness down and turn off Automatic Brightness.

- Adjust the time for your screen to timeout to the shortest duration with which you are comfortable. On an iPhone, visit Settings > General > Auto-Lock to choose your desired time limit, whether 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes, 5 minutes or Never. On an Android, visit Settings > Display > Screen Timeout to choose the time limit you want, whether 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes, 10 minutes or Never Turn Off. If you choose either “Never” option, you must manually lock your phone for the screen to go to sleep. More battery power will be used on longer timeouts or if you forget to lock the screen when you’ve selected “Never"; however, there’s no issue related to timeouts while charging.

- Turn off as many Notifications as possible. On an iPhone, visit Settings > Notifications to see what notifications you are currently receiving; choose to deactivate some notifications completely while deactivating the way in which you receive other notifications. On an Android, visit Settings > Device > Apps to turn off whichever notifications you no longer what to have popping up for you.

- Complete a hard restart. Sometimes, there’s nothing that works quite like shutting down completely. On an iPhone, press and hold the Sleep / Wake button on the top of your device until the red slider appears; then, drag the slider to turn your device completely off. Alternatively, to reset your iPhone completely, press and hold both the Sleep / Wake and Home buttons for at least 10 seconds until you see the Apple logo. On an Android, it can be as simple as holding down the power button (not just tapping it to lock the phone); however, if your phone isn’t responding to powering off the phone with the power button, you might need to pull the battery out, count to ten and, then, put the battery back into your phone.

Please keep in mind that, if many of your clients are in areas with low cellular signal, as you are traveling to those locations, your phone will work harder to connect. While you can’t avoid going through such locations, try using your phone more when signals are better and less when in areas of weaker cellular coverage. This is particularly useful for calls and texts.

While each of the aforementioned techniques will conserve your phone’s power, all mobile devices must get charged from time to time. Putting your phone into airplane mode will charge it twice as fast. Further, be sure to completely drain your smartphone’s battery monthly and, then, charge it fully. As a bonus, to make charging your phone easier while traveling, note that many hotel TVs have handy USB slots in the back that will more easily charge most smartphones from in your hotel room. Alternatively, if you’d like a backup plan for when your phone is dying as you’re out and about, consider an external battery like any of those from Mophie or a professional bag that includes a portable charger like those from Urban Junket. What techniques do YOU use to extend the life of your smartphone?

Celebrate National Simplify Your Life Week

 As we're in national "Simplify Your Life Week", what do you think it means to SIMPLIFY? Think you'll need to give up all your worldly possessions to become a hermit and live in a cave somewhere?!? Not quite... Per Dictionary.com, simplify means “to make less complex or complicated; make plainer or easier"... Cutting back on physical clutter can be part of the picture, but the emphasis is on slowing down and focusing on your true priorities. For some, this may mean working fewer hours and taking a cut in pay to have more time with friends and family. For others, this may mean buying a smaller home that is closer to work so as to lessen the daily commute while cleaning out unused items throughout the home. Meanwhile, others may take this as the opportunity to simply say "no" to more of each day's endless requests from others, saying "yes" to only those requests that fulfill personal & professional goals.

Here are some actions you can take today, over the weekend or sometime soon to simplify your life:

1. Remember that less is more when it comes to email… Less email sent means fewer replies received. Less retention folders make it easier to find what you need when you need it. Less email lists to which you subscribe lead to you getting only what information you really want.

2. Outsource, delegate, ask for help… However you word it, utilize others to double your output. Great resources can be found at Fiverr and Task Rabbit so take some time to check out which options might be best for your needs.

3. Automate bill pay… While many folks pay each bill manually when the reminder arrives via snail mail or email, how much easier would it be to have payments sent automatically from your banking account each month? Such settings can be programmed online fairly quickly.

4. Automate many of the domino effects in your daily processes… There are plenty of cause and effect relationships you can set and forget, running without ongoing efforts on your part. Investigate options via IFTTT, Zapier and PodBox for the solution to best support your processes.

5. Plan to have the tools you need nearby when needed… Do you utilize a smartphone, tablet, laptop and / or desktop computer? If you depend on tech tools, you are well aware of all the accessories needed for each, including charging cords, flash drives, headphones or earbuds and the like. Rather than depending on whether you remember to bring all the necessary accessories whenever you are working on the go, keep multiple sets of those accessories (one for office, one for bag, one for vehicle), pulling each set of accessories together with a GRID-IT.

6. Be strategic about how you organize items… Make sure what you need is conveniently located close to where you will need to use it and by grouping like with like to have those items used together stored together. Further, so you can quickly retrieve what’s needed, make sure to assign everything a specific home and return each item to its home each time you finish using that item.

7. Don’t retain the printed manual that came with any item you’ve purchased… Printed manuals are difficult to efficiently store and take up valuable space. Instead, download the corresponding PDF from the ManualsOnline.com website and store electronically.

8. Save time with forms, templates, checklists and the like… If you regularly send the same email response, create a template for that reply, tweak it a bit for each time you send it, and avoid starting from scratch each time you need to send that response. Create a packing checklist so you don’t forget anything that’s needed on each trip, customizing it for personal versus business travel, whether traveling by plane, train or automobile and for how long you’ll be gone. Design a template for grocery lists with all items you normally use, listed in order of the aisles at your regular store.

9. Convert what files you can to a searchable, digital system… Since it’s easier to find documents in an electronic form than paper, transition what you can via a fast, portable scanner, like one of the options from Doxie, Neat or Fujitsu. Then, make those documents easy to access from anywhere as well as simple to share with others by storing them in an online file repository; options for your online file repository include Box, Dropbox, iCloud, OneDrive, SpiderOak, Google Drive and SugarSync. Finally, if you choose to utilize the free options on more than one of these online file repositories, avoid fragmentation by keeping all your “clouds” together via Citrix ShareFile Quick Edit for iOS devices or CloudCube for Android devices.

10. Cut back on distractions by having fewer pings and dings… When you are distracted, on average, it takes about 16 minutes to refocus upon returning to the task at hand. Therefore, turn off your notifications for emails, social media updates and new text or voice mail messages whenever possible, choosing to schedule set times for checking each instead.

11. Consolidate social media platforms into one management tool... While many enjoy the benefits of the various different social media options, it can be overwhelming to stay on top of everything for LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and more. Instead of logging into each platform individually, group as many as possible together with one login to Hootsuite, Postling, SocialOomph, Buffer or Sprout Social.

12. Practice “the power of one”… While many claim that one is a lonely number, I find it to be extremely powerful in boosting productivity. So that you can quickly find what you need, easily remember all that needs to be done, avoid duplication or things falling through the cracks and keep it all together better, it’s important to have one calendar, one running data dump of all tasks to be done, one daily  to-do list, one source for others’ contact info, one system by which all your files are structured (whether paper or electronic and with as few categories as possible) and one place for all the information you must reference and remember, such as my all-time favorite tool of Evernote, a secure suite of apps that allow users to capture typed text, video and audio files, checklists, web clippings as well as photos, including photos of handwritten notes, in a database of content created by the user or culled in from other sources which is easy to sort, edit, search and share.

Did you celebrate this "Simplify Your Life Week" by making a change to simplify your life? If not, where do you see excess and complexity? What will you change soon based off the aforementioned suggestions or your own analysis?

Why Are Americans Should-ing All Over Ourselves?

As children, we are taught “You shouldn’t talk to strangers”. Then, it often progresses to “You should look like the girls in magazines.” or “You should play football more like Peyton Manning or Russell Wilson." As adults, our shoulds can become barriers. For example, your peers might say “You should stay in your current job so you don’t lose momentum on your career path”, even though that current job is in a toxic work environment that has you severely stressed out. Or your peers might say “You should apply for this job in the next level of your career path”, even though that path is not your true passion.

How do you choose "could" or "must" over "should" daily?

Sometimes, the shoulds come from peer pressure; other times, instead, the shoulds come from within. As should plagues mankind, people tell us what we should or shouldn’t do, and we do the same thing to ourselves when that little voice in our heads tells us what society expects of us. Why are we should-ing all over ourselves?!?

In reality, there’s nothing you “should" or “shouldn’t” do. Those are a reflection of someone else’s thoughts, beliefs, values and priorities  Instead, what you must do is about what is right for your wants and needs as well as what you'll do to achieve those desires. 

There is a distinct difference between “should” and “must”. While “should” reflects how others want us to be, think, speak or act, “must” reflects our most authentic self’s basic needs, cravings, ideals and calling. Yet, it is usually not so simplistic... Choosing a “must” is often scary and a very difficult path while choosing a “should” can be much easier and involves much less risk.

Back in 2007, if I had listened to the shoulds being tossed my direction, I would’ve never opened Organize for Success, LLC  and I certainly would’ve never transitioned from the automotive industry being my full-time job. Many would highlight the stability of my Marketing Director position, wondering if I could possibly survive in this new frontier and saying that I should stay where I was successful. Instead, I took a risk, acting upon my passion for productivity, and I haven’t regretted it at all.

Recently, I came across an article discussing this “should" versus “must" predicament. As modern philosopher Joseph Campbell has said, “Follow your bliss and doors will open where there were no doors before”. Still, for those who are still searching to discover that most basic need, craving, ideal or calling, the article outlines a couple exercises to drive that conversation with yourself. First, write a press release for your future self, maybe about something you will have done, maybe about an award you will have won, maybe about a specific thing that you have created. Second, write your own obituary, elaborating on additional actions and accomplishments you will have completed throughout your life.

Instead of saying “should”, try using “could”. Watch Stefan Sagmeister’s TED talk about jobs versus careers versus callings, and internalize how they compare to each other. Examine your thoughts and beliefs to make certain they accurately reflect YOUR own beliefs, YOUR values and the fire within YOU. Then, take whatever action is right for you. Abandon the guilt! Honor your calling, take the path less traveled and commit to your “must” over any “should”. 

Do you find yourself regularly succumbing to the shoulds? How will YOU shift away from “should” today?