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Tips & Tricks

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"SORT IT OUT" "GET IT DONE"
Sort Your Email Inbox By Document Size Spam E-mail: How to Report
Philosophy of Simplicity 'Help' link in PeopleSoft-User Productivity Kit (UPK)
Ending the 'Reply All' Nightmare Clear Cache in Outlook to View Forms
Is Multitasking Hurting You? Create a Note in Outlook
Waiting on Response Folder Downloading Query Results to Excel
Become More Efficient With Email Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder
What Is Your Comfort Zone?  
Stay On Top of Your Weekly Meetings  

Philosophy of Simplicity-- 04/30/08

Acoms razor: The simplest solution tends to be the correct one.

Three tips to keeping your work day simple:

  1. Use bullets and numbers in emails instead of long rambling sentences.
  2. Write out voicemail messages before you call so that you are clear and concise rather than vague and confusing.
  3. Move all piles off of your immediate work space and only focus on one item at a time.

Source: Sort It Out, organization consultants http://www.sortitoutduo.com/

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Sort Your Email Inbox By Document Size-- 04/23/08

Many people get and stay overwhelmed by the large number of emails that are in their inbox. If moving emails into folders seems impossible, try sorting your inbox by document size. By sorting this way, those emails with large and possibly important attachments will be listed first. You might be amazed at the important emails that slid into the abyss of your inbox and still need attention.

Source: Sort It Out, organization consultants http://www.sortitoutduo.com/

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Ending the 'Reply All' Nightmare -- 04/10/08

Are you tired of getting a lot of "me too" emails, resulting from a group email and everyone hitting the 'Reply All' button? Then, try including this language in your next group email to discourage the 'Reply All' nightmare...To be more efficient, please reply only to me instead of hitting 'Reply All'.

Source: Sort It Out, organization consultants http://www.sortitoutduo.com/

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Spam E-mail: How to Report -- 04/07/08

If you receive a spam email and want to report it: In Outlook, go to Public Folders and click on the plus sign Go to All Public Folders and click on the plus sign You will see a folder called Spam Reports Click and drag your spam email into the Spam Reports folder and this will automatically notify the Helpdesk of the email.


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'Help' link in PeopleSoft-User Productivity Kit (UPK)-- 03/04/08

The Non-PO Voucher tutorial that is available on the Training Site is now also available from the Help link inside the PeopleSoft Production database.

If you click the “Help” link in the upper right hand corner while in PeopleSoft….

you will be able to access the “UPK (User Productivity Kit – See it – Try it – Know it and Do it! “ 

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Is Multitasking Hurting You?-- 12/12/07

The Journal of Experimental Psychology found that it takes your brain four times longer to recognize and process each thing you're working on when you switch back and forth among tasks. If you are hopping from one task to the next, your work will take longer because of all of the real time you lose switching gears. Focus on one thing at a time and try to complete one task before you begin another.

Source: Sort It Out, organization consultants http://www.sortitoutduo.com/

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What Is Your Comfort Zone?-- 11/27/07

How many emails are currently sitting in your inbox today? Everyone has different levels of comfort regarding this matter. Some get nervous when there's more than 20 and others sleep well at night knowing they have thousands. Just like it's not ok to let all of your mail pile up in your mailbox at home, it isn't ok for it to pile up in your computer inbox. It's time to stretch your comfort regarding your inbox and begin taking action on emails, putting reference emails into folders and deleting old emails. Our challenge this week is for you to spend at least 20 minutes at the end of every day to clean up your inbox.

Source: Sort It Out, organization consultants http://www.sortitoutduo.com/

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Stay On Top of Your Weekly Meetings-- 11/13/07

Do you attend the same meeting(s) every week? If so, create a folder on your computer, or a physical folder for your desk top. Label your folder with the name of the meeting, and put emails and papers into those folders throughout the week that are pertinent to those meetings. This way nothing gets forgotten or overlooked, and you can easily retrieve that information when you're planning for next week's meeting.

Source: Sort It Out, organization consultants http://www.sortitoutduo.com/

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Waiting on Response Folder-- 10/23/07

It seems like we are always waiting on someone's response to something. So, what do we do with the papers and emails while we're waiting? Well, if you're like most, they stay in the inbox on your computer and go into the infamous "pile" on your desk.
It's time to make a change. Create a Waiting On Response (WOR) tab for your desktop action system (yes, I'm assuming you already have one), and also a WOR folder for your emails so that those emails and papers have somewhere to go. Once the response has been answered, you can save the email and paper into another folder or throw it away.

Source: Sort It Out, organization consultants http://www.sortitoutduo.com/

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Clear Cache in Outlook to View Forms-- 10/23/07

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options .
  2. On the Other tab , click Advanced Options .
  3. In the Advanced Options window, click Custom Forms .
  4. In the Custom Forms window , click Manage Forms .
  5. In the Forms Manager window , click Clear Cache .
  6. Click Close .
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Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder-- 10/23/07

  1. Open up IE
  2. click on Tools
  3. click on Internet Options
  4. Click on Advanced
  5. Scroll down to the yellow padlock that has Security beside it
  6. About 5ish lines down is "Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder when Browser is closed"
  7. There needs to be a check mark in the box at the beginning of that line. If there is no check mark, click on the box at the beginning of the line,
  8. Click Apply
  9. Click OK and then totally close Internet Explorer and attempt your process again
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Become More Efficient With Email-- 10/17/07

According to a 2004 Email Marketing Report, email volume is rising at a rate of 14.6% per year. Help change your company's corporate culture by making sure that your next email has an effective title in the subject line. The more specific the title, the quicker the follow up. Begin the subject with one of these 4 words:


Examples of this are:

Action: RSVP Stratman Open House
Confirmed: 10/31 Meeting
Request: 2007 2nd Qtr. Sales Results
Delivery: Widget 005 Order

Source: Sort It Out, organization consultants http://www.sortitoutduo.com/

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Create a Note in Outlook-- 10/15/07

  1. On the File menu, point to New , and then click Note .
  2. Type the text of the note.
  3. To close the note, click the note icon in the upper-left corner of the Note window, and then click Close .

    4. Note : You can leave the note open while you work. When you change the note, the changes are saved automatically.

    How to Access a Note once created

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    Downloading Query Results to Excel-- 9/19/07

    If you want your download to EXCEL to open in EXCEL and not as an HTML on the WEB:

    1. Open Windows Explorer
    2. Select Tools, Folder Option, File Types
    3. Select XLS (Excel Worksheet)
    4. Click the Advanced button, and select or clear the 1 st & 3rd buttons at the bottom (the second isn't related to this & can be either way)

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    Last updated: April 30, 2008