A tidy workspace just feels good to some of us. It certainly projects a part of your professional image. Some of us just don’t care… this post isn’t for you. That is unless you have a tangle of wires behind your A/V and home theater equipment. Then someone more than you might care.

What can you do about that abundance of cables? Hide them! I just learned that the things that hide cables are called raceways, wire looms, and wrap-around braid. A great site for this is Cable Ties & More.com. These hiders of cables are smart looking, practical and inexpensive. Fortunately most of these can be do-it-yourself so costly technical or handyman assistance can be avoided.

A really inexpensive and clever option is demonstrated by the Jerry Bruno on YouTube. I would enhance his suggestion by first looping cables, securing with hook & loop (Velcro), then hanging the bundles on the hooks.

For another option, check out this perennial favorite Productivity Cafe solutions for Cable Organization:

Cure Cable Spagetti

Who would have thought that leaving a voicemail would impact your reputation?! This morning Kim @ Bike Virginia commented that my message was the easiest for her deal with because I left my name and number twice at the end of the message. Kim takes care of the customer experience and handles loads of calls every day. That my message elicited a comment prompts me to get back online and share the experience with you.

When you are asking someone to help you, make it as easy as possible for them and you’re more likely to be at the front of the line. Duh! I know. And, I’ve seen people that seem to want to be right more than they want to have their problem solved. They’re demanding, sometime rude, and sometime just missing a couple of bits that would help them reach their real goal – getting help. Sometime the caller (we) don’t realize the customer experience person doesn’t have all the background we do and they need to be filled in – calmly. And trust me, if you’re asking for help, unless you’re the boss, and even if you’re the customer, others can make things tough – drawing out the process, requiring extra steps, putting you on hold just because they need to calm down or think that you need to calm down.

Regarding the voicemail example, which is also addressed in another post here: Good Voicemail Messages Matter. When you give the full details for your call you leave a good impression. You build your brand to be what you want it to be. And, you’re more likely to get the results that you want. A little planning trick many people use is: jot on a piece of paper:

• Your goal for the call
• Supporting point 1
• Supporting point 2
• Supporting point 3 (max)
• What you’re going to ask the listener to do – be specific

This little trick also avoids hanging up, snapping your fingers and thinking, “Oh man, I forgot to mention…..”

Having this record also gives you confidence that you made the first call, what you said in case they miss something on their end, and allows you to move on.

Give it a try – let us know how it works!

Use the phone company voicemail system for your land line? If yes, how many digits do you dial to retrieve your messages? If it's more than 3, consider programming the speed dial to pick up your messages. Just like your cell phone, if you're familiar with that, you can make the dialing to get messages quick and nearly hands-free.

A tip I want to give you on using speed dial to pick up your messages is that you can put 1 sequence in to enter the access number (the number you dial to access the voicemail system) and your password. The trick here is to learn what the pause button is (often the * or P key) and enter a couple of those between the access number. Here's an example. Jay has to dial, 610-729-0220 to access the voicemail system at Verizon then he enters his password (7727 = Pass) followed by the # sign. So, he can program a speed dial on his phone to be 610-729-0220***7727#*1. That final *1 instructs his voicemail to play the first message.

When you're communicating via voice mail there is one thing that you can do to make the communication most effective – be complete and clear. For those of you saying, "No kidding," know that this message is prompted by recent messages I've received, voicemails, that just make me nuts on one hand and make me feel like I can be responsive on the other. The bad messages, "Hey, it's me, please give me a call," and "Hi Susan, its Terry, give me a call."

Here's what's missing:

• the full name of the person
  
• their phone number
• what I can do for them
• how urgently they need a call back
• and, if I don't know them, how they got my name

So here are some good messages:

"It's Steve Frank calling about the agreement you said you would send yesterday. I haven't received it. Please give me an update. Again, it's Steve Frank and my number is 416-622-6222 that's 416-622-6222."

"Hi Susan, its Bobby Allen, we met at the Keeping It Real event last week. I have an opportunity for you to write an article for our internal company newsletter. The deadline is in 2 weeks so I need to know if you're interested within the next day. You can reach me, Bobby Allen, at: 919-911-9111, to repeat, my number is 
919-911-9111. "

Have you received any 'remarkable' voicemail messages lately? We'd love to read about them so leave a comment below.

The shortcuts and quick keystrokes available on our computers could fill a book. But, who would pick up a book of shortcuts and digest more than a few at a time? Not me! You? For a while I am going to make Tuesday 'Tech Tool Tuesday' and offer some efficient shortcuts for you to try right away. Some will seem glaringly basic to you but to someone who has been doing things the way she's been doing them since she got her first computer some shortcuts will be marvelously helpful. So, skip those you know and try those you don't. Let us know how it goes!

1. When you're reading a web page, the spacebar will scroll down one page or frame.
2. When completing online forms, the spacebar will check and uncheck check-boxes.
3. To create the copyright symbol © type (c) (left paren, c, right paren, spacebar). Some versions of word and excel don't require the space.

The Smead Corporation has developed a ‘must visit’ website for those who want to get more organized. Of course selling their terrific products is the impetus behind the website. And, they’ve put a lot of good information there while they’re at it. (I get nothing from them for saying these nice things.)

My favorite feature is the calculator -  because it makes the downside of disorganization vivid. That makes the upside of organization equally vivid. Try it now. 

Most companies that bring me in justify the cost with a Return on Investment that is less than one month. Often it’s a matter of a couple of weeks. That means the ROI to you learning productivity skills is also high.

You might like the personalized solution that is at My Organiomics. You’re asked a few questions then specific solutions, centered on Smead Products, are offered. Even if you aren’t attracted to some of the Smead products you might get a good idea for how to tweak your own supplies or system.

Look also at the Hot Topics offerings. The articles by Audrey Thomas of OrganizedAudrey.com are particularly well written and focused on the fundamentals. As I always say, doing the fundamentals very well over and over pays big dividends. Ask Tiger Woods or Michael Phelps – they stroke and swing to big payoffs.

Using address labels and address stamps is a quick, inexpensive, and clever way to streamline completing forms.

When handed the clipboard to update his information at the doctors’ office Joe walked to a seat and a minute later was back at the welcome desk. The receptionist looked up and said, "Back already?" "Yep, ready to go," replied Joe. "How’d you do that so fast?" the receptionist asked. "My secret weapon," said Joe with a grin.

Joe completed the contact information by opening his wallet, taking out a self-stick address label, and applying it to the form. That move took a few seconds. Then Joe concentrated on the questions on the form completing them swiftly and he jumped ahead of the other 3 people who were printing their name, address, zip, etc. with pen. The bonus to Joe’s address label trick was that the label is easy to read so they get his information easily & correctly!

Whether you’re completing a form at the doctors’ office, addressing an envelope, or filling in almost any other type of form, use address labels and stamps! Carry a few labels in your wallet. And, for goodness sake, do not worry about the address information being right on the address line! Everyone will appreciate the clear print of address labels. You might want to get a set made that includes your telephone number to have even more complete information with you in a snap.

Do you move documents from email attachments to your folders regularly? If so, I have a streamlined operation to do this for you. As often happens, I learned something accidentally today and I love the shortcut. So here it is for you.

When you have documents to move from an email attachment to a folder there are three options.

1 – You right click on the attached document and on ’save as’ in the box that opens. Then you select the folder to store it and hit return.

2 – Some of us double click on the document, pdf or other type of attachment to open it with the related application. Then we File Save from the original program. Then we select the folder to store it and hit return. This is by far the longest route to storing attachments.

3 – You can drag and drop an attachment to a folder in an explore window. (This is the shortcut) note: This operation uses an explore window, not internet explorer.

With the email with the attached document open, open explore. The quickest way I know to open an explore window is hold down the windows key (also labeled start key on some keyboards) and tap the E key.

Left click – hold the left mouse button down – over the document(s) you want to move.

Drag and drop the document in the folder where you want to place the document.

Release the left mouse button and viola – it’s done.

The picture below shows this operation. Double click on it to see a full-screen version.

Is your home office organized or tidy and your auto office a mess? Are they both a jumble of stuff? Well, this article is just about your auto office and making it work for you. Your auto office is the vehicle that you use to make your customer calls.  Here’s the test – if a client was to visit your auto office, would you be stuffing an old drive-thru bag with cups, lids, and wrappers? Would you be proud? Would you be making excuses? If the later is your auto office we have some guidelines for you.

Pick the tips that work for you and transform you auto office in half-an-hour.

1. Grab a trash bag and dump all the used stuff – candy wrappers, donut boxes, coffee cups, post-its  etc.
2. Buy some small trash can liners and put one in the car and the box of the extras in the trunk. Use binder clips to hang the bag on the back of the passenger seat to have it in easy reach of you in the driver’s seat. Replace regularly.
3. Buy a plastic file box and stock it with hanging folders and your literature. The trunk is a good place to put this.
4. Borrow some small cup-size containers from the kitchen, or buy them at a discount store, and put your loose change in that.
5. Buy a visor clip for your sunglasses.
6. Coral your sports equipment and extra stuff in a car net. This hangs off the back of the seats in an SUV and keeps balls, groceries, plants, and even small kids from rolling around.

Okay you road warriors – what’s working for you?

Another quick email tip today – for your subject line… NRN – No Response Needed.

We all agree that a good subject line is the best way to start an effective email. Sometime a subject line is all you need (use EOM then).

When you’re informing someone of some facts or updating a situation’s progress your can add NRN to the end of the subject line. When used regularly, meaning you’ve trained your recipients that this is what NRN means, NRN informs the reader that this is an update and they can delete or file after glancing at it. NRN is not as popular as EOM. A NRN Google search turns up some interesting links. An EOM Google search goes right to it’s definition. This is useful for emails you send to those people that seem to write "Thank You" to you for all your correspondence to them, too. It’s a polite way to break them of the habit, hopefully. Sure, thank you is the traditional way – and it wastes time in a time-strapped schedule. I’ve even heard about a "You’re Welcome" response to Thank You.

Here’s an example of an email subject line with No Response Needed incorporated:

SUBJECT: Contract with Austin Supplier will Close on Friday the 13^th – NRN

To refresh you on EOM – End Of Message. Your subject line can sometime be the entire message. So, use it in your messages and those you regularly correspond with will appreciate you helping them breeze through (yet another) email.

Here’s an example:

SUBJECT: Tonight’s dinner reservation is for 7pm – EOM