Another effective solution to handle the email backlog
Posted by lemiffe in Communication, Learning, Misc, Technology on May 10th, 2010 | 0 commentsA few months ago I posted a solution for handling large quantities of email.
A few of those tips were: You must organize your inbox, archive items, separate them into tags/categories/labels, use filters to direct incoming mail into specific labels instead of receiving everything in the inbox. That reduces the clutter and allows you to focus on more important email first. (i.e. I redirect all newsletters to a ‘Newsletters’ label and automatically set them to ‘Read’).
One thing I mentioned previously was getting straight to the tasks and answering all email before starting with other work. This gets your mind off the issue of ‘pending mail’ and allows you to concentrate fully on other tasks. However, sometimes this is not that easy as there might be certain emails you must spend more time on, and you might need to get busy with other things at that moment.
My solution for this issue is to start a new reply to every single email you plan to address in the course of the day. Add a salutation, and save the message. In certain emails where you might have to formulate a proper answer you might want to do a sketch; type in the main topics and then just save it as a draft like the rest. Do this for all your pending email and then get them off your inbox.
That way you will have peace of mind that you have started the replies, and you can get down to other matters knowing that your inbox is now clean.
Do you have any special way of managing your inbox? Share your comments,
Have you ran out of ideas for your blog posts?
Posted by lemiffe in Communication, Literature, Misc on Oct 8th, 2009 | 0 comments
I mean, seriously, we all face creative block sometimes, however, you might want to ask yourself this sometimes: Is my life really that interesting? Is what I have to say really that interesting? and, How can I spice it up?
I just read an interesting post that talks about cross-dressing as a method of overcoming the creative block, to be able to develop another “way” of thinking, as in thinking as the opposite sex would. It sounds interesting, however, I don’t think it should be necessary to reach those extremes. I live by a basic rule:
If you wouldn’t read what your writing down, you probably shouldn’t be writing it down in the first place.
If you run out of ideas, probably what you are doing right now isn’t interesting enough. The thing to do is find something you would really like to do, then blog about that. For example, go explore the world, take photos, learn a new language, start software programming, make your own website, learn to use photoshop, or a thousand other things come to mind.
Why? This is not only about blogging. Expressing yourself or your thoughts via a blog is only a way to reflect your own self on the web. So if your own self is boring, the best thing to do is to make your life less boring. And it is possible, it doesn’t matter if you work, or are too busy all the time, there is always a way to inch in a few things you would like to do. Think about it.
If someone managed to make a whole vlog series about “You Suck at Photoshop“, surely you can come up with something creative and blog about it. I don’t know, just evoke your wildest dreams, just think and act random, sometimes that’s the best way in enabling that creative part of your mind. That way you will never run dry. However, don’t blog without a reason. If you are not feeling it, then don’t go posting it.
Trains and Planes
Posted by lemiffe in Literature, Misc, Random Poetry on Oct 5th, 2009 | 0 commentsIt is so fine, isn’t it? To travel on trains, planes and buses. From the morning, to the afternoon, overnight and day to day. From city to city, country to country, place to place. A man that moves is a man that sees, a man that sees is a man that knows, a man that knows is a man that can die and truly say he knew the world, saw the world, and lived in the world.
So these departure gates are there not to stop us, but to allow us to move on to the next town, to the next gate. Not to lock us in, but to keep us moving. And if we stay back, if we fail to see the world beyond these city lines, we fail to explore, and we fail to know more than what our own land has to offer to us. There is so much out there, there is so much beyond.
Are we becoming Robots?
Posted by lemiffe in Communication, Life, Misc, Society, Technology on Jun 12th, 2009 | 0 commentsI would like to know one thing… Where is our dehumanisation and systematisation leading us to?
This is the world as I see it:
People are tending to flock towards online lives, social networks and chat instead of the telephone, live conversations, excercise and real life.
People are becoming more violent, we are also starting to swear a lot more. A lot of people are losing respect for their elders, siblings and even friends.
People are tending to buy more things every time. Technology has led to more consumer-oriented marketing. A lot of people can’t live without the latest items. Status division is becoming a serious rising issue.
Education is going down. War, greed and control is increasing. A growing percentage feels their life is worthless, boring or monotonous.
Why is all of this happening? How can a few generations change so much the aspect of life itself. Is technology the sole factor in the systematisation of people?
It sickens me. Greed? Envy? Violence? Need for Control? Lack of respect? Murder? Lack of respect? Indiference?
Many of these are claimed to be “natural instincts”. Many think they are embedded in us, as animals we are. But then on the other hand, we claim to be civilised, we claim not to be animals.
So then what are we?! If not animals. We sure act as such.
Our past generations had a greater sense of decency. We are falling fast into constant degradation. I remember in primary school, there seemed to be a constant battle for who was the worst student. The best ones got rocks thrown at.
So as I see it, there are those who strive for knowledge, and there are those who prefer to live indiferent unknowledgeable systematic-consumer lives. By doing so not only are we finishing off with out earth and our resources, but with the little hope for knowledge and progress we have.
Maybe it’s not all our fault, but the education system, the goverment and the social laws and restrictions. But nonetheless, where is our curiosity? Why not leave the box? Why not chose to become aware over staying behind.
