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Hello and welcome to Thank God is Friiiiiday!

I have to confess I don’t think these up. I get them from a great guy - Phil Humbert. And he gets them from friends.

But I find them very funny and it’s a great start to my week as I get them on Sunday. I thought it would be a good way to end our week with a smile.

A couple are political or a bit risqué, but I think you’ll enjoy them. Smile everyone!

• Constipated People Don’t Give A Crap.
• If You Can Read This, I’ve Lost My Trailer.
• Horn Broken…Watch For Finger.
• The Earth Is Full - Go Home.
• I Have The Body Of A God - Buddha. (my kids just looked me up and down when I read this one!)
• So Many Pedestrians - So Little Time.
• Cleverly Disguised As A Responsible Adult.
• If We Quit Voting, Will They All Go Away?
• Eat Right, Exercise, Die Anyway.
• Illiterate? Write For Help.
• Honk If Anything Falls Off.
• Cover Me, I’m Changing Lanes.
• He Who Hesitates Not Only Is Lost - But is Miles From The Next Exit.
• I Refuse To Have A Battle Of Wits With An Unarmed Person.
• You! Out Of The Gene Pool - Now! (Love this one!)
• I Do Whatever My Rice Krispies Tell Me To.
• Fight Crime: Shoot Back!
• (Seen Upside Down On A Jeep) - If You Can Read This, Please Flip Me Back Over…
• Guys:  No Shirt, No Service - Gals:  No Shirt, No Charge
• If Walking Is So Good For You, Why Does My Mailman Look Like Jabba The Hut?
• Body By Nautilus; Brain By Mattel.
• Boldly Going Nowhere.
• Caution - Driver Legally Blonde.
• Heart Attacks: God’s Revenge For Eating His Animal Friends
• Honk If You’ve Never Seen an Uzi Fired From A Car Window.
• How Many Roads Must A Man Travel Down Before He Admits He is Lost?
• All Men Are Animals; Some Just Make Better Pets.

And Finally…

• "Politicians And Diapers Should Be Changed Often And For The Same Reason"

Enjoy your weekend.

Email is one of those things we used to love. And I mean “used to”.

There was a time when getting an email was the best thing.It was so cool and almost instant. Way better than snail mail.

Until now.

If there is a day when I get less than 50 emails I jump for joy. Most days however, there are over a hundred and many times over 200. And I think I am doing okay!

These days, there are times we’d like to take a break from email and, for many, the novelty wore off years ago. But, many people still allow email to be today’s “ringing telephone”. You know what I mean. If you’re in a meeting with someone and the phone rings, you feel compelled to answer it. (Well, for those of us without PAs!)

It used to be the phone but these days it’s email.

Yet, there are many tools and options in Outlook that can minimise the impact of email on our daily lives and allow us to focus on what we need to achieve each day. When I mention these to people, I am surprised how many don’t know of them. But I shouldn’t be surprised. Many IT departments just install the software. Few, from my experience, take on the responsibility of helping people become productive with it.

So here are 5 simple tips to put Email in its place and get you back on track.

1. Open Up Calendar First
Most effective people would want to be focusing on their high priority tasks each day. So, set up Outlook to open into your calendar and tasks and not into email! This small change actually gets you to see exactly what’s on that day and helps you focus. The alternative is to get hit with hundreds of emails first thing in the morning and that is not a motivating experience.

2. Bells and Whistles - Not!
It’s lovely how Outlook notifies you each time an email comes into your inbox. Sure, you can ignore it but we often stop what we’re doing just to make sure it’s not important. Focus on task? Gone! Outlook wins! You can turn off these notifications and set a time (a task if you will) to check your emails 2 - 3 times a day that will then allow you to get on what with you have to do.

3. Use Your Signature File
To help you get others on side, you can add a line to your signature file to let people know you only check your email 2 - 3 times per day. If the matter is urgent, ask them to pick up the phone. Most people won’t!

4. Drag n Drop
I am old enough to remember when this feature was first introduced! Very cool. But in Outlook most people don’t realise they can do it with emails to create tasks, calendar events and update your Contacts. Just drag the email to the relevant panel on the left hand side and you’ll find a lot of then information is already completed. Saving you time and effort. Not just now, but also later when you’re looking for the information.

5. One Filing Folder!
No, not your InBox! One thing I learned from filing emails in a wide array of folders was that I was always searching all the folders anyway. So, a friend of mine suggested I have one folder to file emails in: a “Filing” folder. Once the email is finished with, I drag it to the filing folder. If I need it again, there is only one place it will be and searching it is a cinch!

Now not all these tips are for everybody.

But before you toss them, try them. Your day will be so much easier when Outlook is in its rightful place.

The last couple of months have been pretty huge in our household. I don’t think we’ve ever experienced the changes we have recently. And many of them are right up there on the Holmes-Rahe Scale - a tool to identify stressors in your life. Go there and have a look.

Here is a short list:

• Changed job
• Father passed away
• Christmas (yes that is a stressor!!)
• Wife started full time work
• Son got driver’s licence
• and the are a few more

The problem for many of us these days is the white noise that comes in as a distraction or underlying intereference with what we are trying to achieve in life. When you take a step back and have a look at what is going on in our lives it is pretty insidious. White noise is all that extraneous stuff that goes on, demanding our attention but taking our focus off what we are trying to achieve.

That’s why I like what Leo writes about at Zen Habits when he talks about 27 Great Tips to Keep Your Life Organized. There’s some really good and practical stuff there. Leo is also great at communicating the essential elements of his point so the time spent reading isn’t wasted. For example, Point 5: Do One Thing At A Time. Not all that scientific but if you review your day (and you’re anything like me) you’ll find there are a zillion things racing through your mind while you’re trying to do something else. Thus you lose your effectiveness.

Steve Pavlina also has a great technique (I haven’t implemented yet) around not listening to news. Here is Australia I listen to the ABC and every half hour we get 5 minutes of news - and it’s all bad. Steve’s solution is to NOT listen to the news (radio, newspaper etc). And if you think about it it’s not a bad idea. Imagine, first thing each morning you wake up to news - and it’s all bad. That is not a great start to the day. Killings, tragedies, inflation, interest rate rises and the pathetic list goes on. Pathetic in the sense that there is not much we can do about any of the issues we hear and yet, without knowing, they can deflate the energy of our day before we start.

Now we come back to the Holmes-Rahe Scale and how our lives are affected by stressful situations. Too much stress and we become prone to illness, fatigue and burn out. If we inadvertently add to this through negative influences on our lives we are, potentially, shortening our lives and, more than likely, shortening our daily effectiveness.

Both Leo’s and Steve’s ideas on managing information and workload will go a long way to managing the operational stress levels we wortk within.

Life events, as depicted by the Holmes-Rahe Scale can be a little harder to prevent. So, do what you can and reduce your stress in areas that are easier to manage.

By the way, my score on the Holmes-Rahe Scale ewas 455!! Beat that (lower) … Please!

"It’s a fine line between pleasure and pain." - Divinyls

When it comes to managememnt I’ve seen, and done, a lot of things I’d cringe at today. The best of intentions from a manager has had distastrous effects on their staff.

One example recently was a colleague of mine had just introduced themselves at a workshop. Now this person had the best of intentions and their heart is, I believe, in the right place. But, as this example will show, even sincere people can be sincerely wrong.

During their introduction, at a communications skills workshop, they mentioned they were looking to get a lot from the day because they experience conflict with people, his staff in particular. One of who was in the room, who he actually named as having conflict with. Ouch!

Can you imagine being in a room where your boss states publicly that they are having conflict with you? Luckily, the facilitator, asked them to re-frame (or re-word) that part of the introduction. But, to my mind, the damage had been done.

The rationale for this was openness: "We want to create an environment of openness and transparency."

I fully support such environments - when all parties are aware of what may happen, are ready and in agreement. However, I would be against this type of openness as it has the potential to paint people in a light they do not wish.

A manager’s good intentions (pleasure) has only caused embarrassment (pain) and, perhaps dealt a shocking blow to trust between the two. It is, indeed, a fine line.

If You’re a Manager …

• Being a manager doesn’t mean some rules don’t apply to your level of the "food chain."
• It is your role to uphold the rules and ensure they are abided by.
• If you’re going to be "open and transparent" in public, apply that only to yourself and not to others. You cannot assume everyone thinks the same way you do. In fact, they probably don’t.
• Listen to how staff communicate with you if they have been put in an awkward situation.
• Empathise - put yourself in their position. It will provide context.

If You’re Staff …

• In terms of "openness and transparency" try and understand what the company is endeavouring to do.
• Work with the manager, not against them and get on to their level; as well as letting them know how you feel about it.
• Clarify the ground rules. However, you don’t need to be embarrrassed by anyone and they need to know that.
• Be direct with any feedback if you have been put in an awkward situation and remain objective.You can be objective in telling them how you feel, or felt.
• If they don’t listen at first, be firm and repeat the situation and how you felt about it.

Being open is great, but it can be harmful if that openness includes other without their permission.

Oh, and listen to the Divinyls’ song, it’s great!

Everyone loves a holiday.

Most people have holidays around the same time, whether they believe in the holiday is a different matter and a personal issue I don’t want to address here.

I know on a few forums around Christmas time there is always the debate about who to send cards to and what to send. (Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah etc).

Call me simplistic but I could care less.

If someone sends me a card, they are thinking of me, and that’s great!

It means, to me, we did enough stuff this year to warrant a contact of some sort. Maybe it wasn’t this year but a year or two ago. Who cares? I got a card and that’s great.

It means they wish me well. I like that.

So why am I writing this now?

Well, I also know that at Holiday time, we are all busy sorting through a whole bunch of stuff that just puts more and more pressure on us.

So I’m suggesting you write your cards now! Yes, NOW!

Don’t post them, diarise that for a day that you’re comfortable with. But write them out now. You’ll have more time to think carefully about the recipients and you’ll get the writing part out of the way well before the pressure is on.

Birthday Cards Count Too

While you’re at it, write some birthday cards too. Maybe a year’s worth and then sort them into monthly divisions. When the month arrives, pick up the wad of cards and drop them in the post box. Done! All you need, besides the cards, envelopes and stamps is some high -tech gear like a shoebox, or an elastic band. (Tutorials on how to use them will be posted soon! )

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