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Technology is a beautiful thing. Use it wisely! Here are a few tips to getting your technology to work for your optimum success. Get a backup, get a backup, get a backup. Need I say more? If you put out a lot of content set it up back up every day, if not once a week should be fine. And don't rely on your memory to do it either... look for a zip drive that has software that automatically does it for you. I like the IOmega drives (their 80 gig drive is perfect for most systems and at $99.95 is affordable) You can find it here Label your peripherals wires. Sure, you know what it's for now, but after a while your digital recorder wire, digital camera wire, webcam wire and all of those other ones start to look an awful lot alike. Get a nice big Ziploc bag and stuff it full of all your software, then put it in a safe place. You know that disk that came with your computer when you bought it and you've never used? Well, wait til the day you can't download something from your digital recorder without it (this has happened to me!). All of a sudden it is your lifeline. Keep an extra AC adapter for your laptop. When my wire frayed and I contacted my computer's manufacturer, they advised me that they don't carry them for the "old" models. How old? Just over 18 months. Keep a folder with all your manuals and call it "Electronics Manuals." If you're figuring you won't need that manual you won't... until you have an important presentation in 3 hours and your printer is spitting magenta ink at you. Keep it. You'll read it some day and chances are when you need it you'll need it in a hurry. Make it easy to find. Your phone will be your best friend. If your business is running like you want it to, you'll be on the phone many hours of the day. Splurge for one that sounds great and has a good battery life. A headset can save you lots of neck pain. You can't go wrong with almost anything from Plantronics. I like my Plantronics MX500 with my Panasonic cordless phones. The Plantronics stays with me and there are 3 Panasonics (I use a Panasonic Triple Talk) so it is virtually impossible to be without at least 1 charged phone. Find the headset here. Invest in a good digital recorder. They are versatile and easy to use. You can use them to capture ideas as they come to you (why is it that all good ideas come when you're doing 60 mph on the highway?), record an important conversation, create product by interviewing experts or being interviewed (for phone recordings, you'll need a $10 doo-dad from RadioShack that lets you plug the recorder to your phone. For this you need at least 1 corded phone) or create a recording every time you speak in public (the big gurus make gazillions with this one use of the digital recorder alone). Not bad for a gadget that runs you less than $200. Olympus, the industry leader, has several new models that not only act as a digital recorder but as an mp3 player as well. Check out the WS-310M here. Keep your computer "clean." I set up a monthly recurring appointment to clean out any programs I don't use that might be taking up memory unnecessarily, plus to archive or delete old documents I no longer regularly use. Keeping your computer "lean" makes it go faster and makes finding things easier... saving you days, weeks or even months of your life that you would otherwise spend slogging through tons of information you don't need. Create a Parking Lot. Do you get a lot of ideas? Do they end up on scraps of paper or strangely named documents you later can't understand at all (if you can find them?) Your ideas are valuable and if you're managing your time wisely, you know you can't work on them all know. Create a "Parking Lot" file and keep 2 sub-files in it: "Ideas" and "To Complete," (fragments of articles, programs, etc.). In a third "Inspiration" folder you can also keep articles, blog entries and e-mails that give you an idea for something you could be doing. Technology can be tremendously useful in keeping you productive and on track. Be diligent about keeping your contacts in order. Set up a time each day, or at the least, each week to input the scraps of paper you collect into your information database. Phone numbers, addresses, e-mail addresses, business cards, etc., should be all in one place where you can search them electronically. I use Outlook and find it just fine for my purposes. Some people prefer ACT! Software. Find it here: http://www.act.com/ And finally... step away from the computer, the phone and the recorder and go get some fresh air! Technology is a beautiful thing but it is just a tool that doesn't replace real, personal communication and freedom. Let it work for you and it can create magic.
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