Professional Assistant Blog

FEBRUARY 11, 2008

Home About Me Advertise Co-Workers Not Cleaning Up After Themselves? Do you get annoyed that you are always the one that has to clean up after them? Do you know of any other ways to get your staff members to clean up after themselves? Do you start wondering if they treat their own house the same way? right away. right away.

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Professional Assistant Blog

OCTOBER 10, 2008

Home About Me Advertise Power Up Your PowerPoint With Templates! Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips 4comments for this post Feng Liang I stumbled upon this corporate presentation template at Cone Trees that I can actually use for my work, it wasnt cheesy types that usually come up in the search, so it thought id share :D.

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Professional Assistant Blog

MARCH 27, 2008

Home About Me Advertise 4 Steps to Setting up E-mail Distribution Lists By The Professional Assistant on Thursday, March 27, 2008 Filed Under: MS-Outlook , Organize , Productivity D o you find yourself having to write each persons e-mail address over and over again for certain e-mails ? All e-mail distribution lists are bolded.

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UPS 2008 Cubicle Microsoft Outlook 100

Ian's Messy Desk

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

One of the problems with e-mail is that not everything needs to be acted on right away, but if you don’t have a good reminder system in place, then you’re likely to let things slip through the cracks. In a nutshell, it turns *ANY* e-mail client into a reminder system. Or, you have someone you need to follow-up with on November 22nd.

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Ian's Messy Desk

MAY 10, 2010

Lotus Notes is the groupware of choice for my employer and GTD is my system of choice for keeping organized (however poorly implemented). Great tips and tricks for productive use of the To Do’s, Calendar, Email, Contacts, and more. Or, if you prefer, you can subscribe to my blog posts by e-mail. Thanks for visiting!

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Ian's Messy Desk

APRIL 9, 2010

Home About Contact Me Links Sitemap 5 Ways to Free Up Room on Your Brain’s Hard Drive Posted by Ian McKenzie Written on April 9, 2010 If youre new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Lynn was tapped to head up the project team for a major company restructuring. “I Thanks for visiting! Lynn was hardly reassured.

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Professional Assistant Blog

MARCH 3, 2008

Hopefully, not too many of you were affected by the email system outages yesterday. It’s a reminder to all of us that depending on one system alone works fine, right up until the time that it doesn’t. In this case, commercial email services were affected, but the next time it could be your server at work.

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Professional Assistant Blog

JULY 17, 2009

Then you finally do reach a live person and you are so fed up with all of the time wasted, that you start fuming towards the person on the other end of the phone. Retrieve Your Files with Ease Is You Boss Not Giving You Enough Work?

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Ian's Messy Desk

MAY 28, 2010

Test you telephone skills with this simple quiz: How quickly should you pick up a ringing phone? Set up your voice mail to answer after the third ring. If your phone system shows internal vs. external calls, alter your greeting appropriately. Get the information up front. What should you say when answering?

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Ian's Messy Desk

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Too many objects add to the clutter and eat up valuable work space. Set up a good filing system. Don’t allow things to pile up. Comment by Ahmad Fatoni on April 1, 2010 @ 3:39 am Trackbacks Leave a comment Subscribe to blog posts by Email The Essential Motivation Handbook The Zen Habits Handbook for Life!

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Professional Assistant Blog

OCTOBER 29, 2008

Did your boss just decide to install it on his/her system and yours then told you, "Read the manual, were going to be using this from now on"? In one of my previous jobs, when I was working for an Investment Advisor, he gave me the installation CD-ROM and asked me to read up on how to use it. as your client relationship manager (CRM)?

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Professional Assistant Blog

NOVEMBER 20, 2009

Your boss calls you up and tells you that you need to add an agenda to this meeting, but you don’t want everyone to get the meeting request again and have to accept/decline it. To do this, open up your scheduled meeting in the calendar that you are using and click on “Forward as iCalendar&#. I'm going to try this.

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Professional Assistant Blog

NOVEMBER 19, 2007

Do they end up talking loud on the phone while you are trying to do some work? Are you being bombarded with people walking up to your cubicle and dont have the decency to see that you are busy? Heres an article I found on this issue, which shows quite a few peoples e-mails about some of these very problems.

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Ian's Messy Desk

OCTOBER 6, 2010

Here are two areas where you can increase your value to your boss : (1) Be a problem-solver Problems crop up all the time in business. If you can relate the problem to another situation entirely, it can help you come up with answers not available before. Pick up on subtle cues from your boss’s behavior and adopt appropriate behavior.

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Professional Assistant Blog

FEBRUARY 18, 2008

Home About Me Advertise 6 Easy Steps to a Better Work-Life Balance By The Professional Assistant on Monday, February 18, 2008 Filed Under: Ergonomics , Organize , Prioritize , Productivity D o you find that you are working way too much ? Even if it’s 5 minutes here and there, it does add up. Try to squeeze it in where you can.

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Professional Assistant Blog

OCTOBER 7, 2009

You actually end up thinking that you are working harder, yet you are reducing your productivity by about 30%. Thats quite a bit of work that you could be catching up on throughout your day, each and every day. Then I would open up the applications associated with the next task. Believe it or not, this can lower productivity.

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Professional Assistant Blog

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Your colleague or boss calls or comes up to you exactly 2 minutes later and asks if youve read it. You think to yourself, "What?!? Is this person crazy?!?" Has this ever happened to you? I am sure most of you are nodding your heads as you are reading this. Retrieve Your Files with Ease Is You Boss Not Giving You Enough Work?

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2008 Cubicle Google Docs 2007 100

Professional Assistant Blog

DECEMBER 13, 2007

Home About Me Advertise 4 Easy Steps to Finding Old E-mails By The Professional Assistant on Thursday, December 13, 2007 Filed Under: MS-Outlook , Organize , Productivity , System Security D o you have trouble sifting through hundreds or even thousands of e-mails ? If it isnt, click on it and a new toolbar will pop up.

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Professional Assistant Blog

FEBRUARY 21, 2008

By The Professional Assistant on Thursday, February 21, 2008 Filed Under: Client Service , Meetings , Productivity Y ou’re walking around the office and someone comes up to you, asking for a pen. Home About Me Advertise Do You Have a Pen? You search your pockets and realize that you don’t have one. Has this ever happened to you?

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Professional Assistant Blog

OCTOBER 31, 2008

Then a bunch of co-workers show up in costumes. Do you like to dress up in fancy or scary costumes for this occasion? Do you want to dress up at the office, but not sure what to wear or if you even can? You dont want to end up at work and be the only one wearing a costume. What are you dressing up as? What a sight!

2008 100

2008 Cubicle Google Docs 2007 100

Professional Assistant Blog

OCTOBER 6, 2009

Visit Travel Zoo for the most up-to-date best deals you can find on the internet. I originally wrote a post on this entitled " Travel Plans " explaining that you can use Travelocity and Expedia to find the best deals. Theres even a better site that helps you find the best deals on these and other airlines, hotels and car rental agencies.

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Professional Assistant Blog

AUGUST 13, 2008

Do you follow particular religious holidays, but arent showing up in your calendar? In this case, I dont have to worry about taking extra days off, since I dont really follow the religious holidays that I was brought up with, which in turn, are part of the regular holidays that come up each year.

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Professional Assistant Blog

NOVEMBER 15, 2007

You can find instructions to setting up this software here and the software download page here. Heres a free piece of software that was recently released that can do just that. In the near future, Blackberries, Apple iCals and many different types of phones will be supported on this software as well.

Google Docs 100

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Professional Assistant Blog

NOVEMBER 5, 2008

Creating a filing system can be tricky, as you need to know exactly how to file your files and what type of information you would need to be able to access quickly. One of my readers asks: I am trying to organize a file room based not on traditional alphabetical filing, but on a retrieval system. as you mentioned in your question.

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Ian's Messy Desk

AUGUST 25, 2010

Round up your papers. Tighten up current household systems. X Chelsea Comment by Chelsea on August 13, 2009 @ 5:16 am Trackbacks Some ways to keep your family active All the little things » GTD Leave a comment Subscribe to blog posts by Email The Essential Motivation Handbook The Zen Habits Handbook for Life!

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Professional Assistant Blog

SEPTEMBER 5, 2008

Home About Me Advertise Cover Your Tracks: E-mail Archiving By The Professional Assistant on Friday, September 05, 2008 Filed Under: MS-Outlook , Organize , Productivity , System Security D o you back up your e-mails in Microsoft Outlook ? There are two ways of backing up your e-mails. Are you familiar with this?

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Professional Assistant Blog

JULY 14, 2009

They forget to do their own flight check-in and dont have time, so they call you up and ask you to do it. You search around to find the best deal (check out Travel Links on the right side of this blog for some suggestions) and book what your boss needed. The time finally comes when your boss is flying out to that all important business trip.

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2008 Google Docs Cubicle 2007 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JANUARY 28, 2008

Do you have a big project coming up and want to show your boss that you can handle this type of task ? Home About Me Advertise Copying Pictures To and From Microsoft Word By The Professional Assistant on Monday, January 28, 2008 Filed Under: MS-Word , Productivity H ave you ever wondered how to copy pictures from and to Microsoft Word ?

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Professional Assistant Blog

JANUARY 23, 2008

Do you already have a table set up in Microsoft Word, but dont want to copy to Microsoft Excel and back again, just to sort it? One of my colleagues came to me and asked about this very question. I wasnt sure if this was possible, but fiddled around on Google a bit and found that it is possible. Until next time, Take care - of your clutter!

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Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel Google Docs 2008 100

Professional Assistant Blog

JULY 24, 2008

When e-mails come in and you have set up your colors, you will notice that you have prioritized them by color. This will show up in red, since I know I have to get to this one first, before I can even touch any other one. Then I have my faxes set up as green. Now you have a new prioritization system set up.

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Ian's Messy Desk

JULY 7, 2010

You pull up the spreadsheet , print off your boss’s e-mailed comments, dig out your notes from the last meeting and settle down to work. Stand up for visitors. If a visitor comes into your office, stand up to greet them and don’t invite them to sit down. Or, if you prefer, you can subscribe to my blog posts by e-mail.

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Professional Assistant Blog

NOVEMBER 26, 2007

You can post up to 80 different job sites, such as Workopolis , Monster , CareerBuilder and many more, just with one submission. By The Professional Assistant on Monday, November 26, 2007 Filed Under: Job Seeking A re you worried about online identity theft online? Resume Rabbit will make all of this disappear.

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Professional Assistant Blog

SEPTEMBER 10, 2007

Home About Me Advertise Common Courtesy in the Workplace By The Professional Assistant on Monday, September 10, 2007 Filed Under: Organize , Productivity D o you always end up cleaning up after your colleagues? Do you neatly put all labels, papers, etc. on the printer table and then a few minutes later, you come back to a messy area?

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Ian's Messy Desk

SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

Total up the number of times you answer yes and see below. Being aware of your areas of weakness allows you to focus your systems and practices on strengthening the weaknesses. Or, if you prefer, you can subscribe to my blog posts by e-mail. Thanks for visiting! Yes No 1) Is managing my time a priority for me?

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Professional Assistant Blog

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

I am able to get a confirmation from the automated system to let me know that the reservation has been made with all of the details that I need. So next time you want to make a reservation via phone, hang it up and try OpenTable.com instead! Subscribe to The Professional Assistant feeds or get posts e-mailed directly to you today.

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Professional Assistant Blog

NOVEMBER 29, 2007

A large number of people that wake up in the morning need their coffee to jump start their mornings and help them throughout the day. By The Professional Assistant on Thursday, November 29, 2007 Filed Under: Productivity D o you feel like you need a coffee fix every day? Can you really survive your morning without that cup of Joe?

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Professional Assistant Blog

SEPTEMBER 4, 2008

Do you have trouble using the text box feature to place anchored text where you prefer, so that it shows up in a particular area of the page? Using text boxes can be a little tricky, since there are quite a few features that it comes with. Microsoft Word has quite a lot of features, even some that I don’t know and are still exploring.

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Microsoft Word 2008 Cubicle Google Docs 100