A few days ago I sent you a strategy for leveraging your signature file. Do that and you will save time with every email you reply to. If you missed that email I’ve put it on the blog here:

http://www.tnpcnewsletter.com/blog/2009/05/24/how-is-your-signature/

A few people wrote and asked if this only worked with Outlook. Every email program I’m familiar with will let you edit your signature file. I have edited the signature inside Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird, Pine, Gmail, Kmail, Eudora and several others I’m sure. Those are just the ones I have experience with.

Some email programs let you use multiple signatures with is very nice. Set one for replies and one for new mails. Then make a nice one to use with your friends. If your program does not let you use multiple signatures there is still a solution. I’ll tell you about that in the near future.

Finally here’s a tip that helps me reply to emails quickly. As soon as I see an email that I plan to reply to I hit reply. I mean before even reading it. Then I’ll read and reply at the same time. Before I started doing this I would see a longer email and think “I want to reply to this” but because it was long it would get put off. Now I just hit reply  and answer that email as I go.

If you have tips or comments please leave them below.

My friend was typing this anyway. Now she simply copies their
question, hits reply, pastes the question inside the ” ?”.  Now she
is off and running.

Expanding your signature file may seem like a small thing that only
saves you a few seconds. That is true. But those few seconds spread
over all the email you reply to day after day add up.

My wife has an iPhone. We had to get it replaced under warranty. Only problem was she couldn’t access her voicemail. I did a quick search and found the helpful instructions at Steve Cooley presents. The instructions are for iPhone but it will work with any AT&T cellular account. You can find that post here:

http://somejunkwelike.com/wordpress/2007/12/05/password-for-iphone-voicemail/

It was a coincidence. I stopped for lunch at McDonald’s a few days ago. While I was standing in line a gentleman asked about the pen in my pocket. It turns out that he is a pen collector. One of my interests is pens – fountain pens specifically. His name is Jim. We sat down and enjoyed an interesting discussion about pens, watches, sales, communication, and chance meetings over lunch. Both of us were off our normal path. It was a chance meeting in an out of the way location.

Why bring this up? What chance meeting will you have today? Tomorrow? What will it lead to? You never know. My wife and I frequently meet people in the most unlikely places that share similar interests. I don’t think there is anything special we are doing other than showing an interest in the people we meet.

One of the things Jim and I discussed was how even common courtesies are missing in our daily lives. He and I had both spoken to the order takers with a friendly hello and a friendly goodbye. We watched the other people go through the line and didn’t see anybody else do the same. Why is that? It took no more time and just added a personal element to an otherwise routine interaction.

One of my mentors emphasized the distinction between frustration and fascination. He would speak about being in a traffic jam. You can be frustrated with the situation, or you can be fascinated with the various things going on around you.

So what does any of this have to do with productivity? Everything. Since your overall attitude affects everything you do it is important to keep a pleasant approach. Many times your productivity depends on the actions of another person. A little personal interaction can go a long way to helping everyone’s tasks go a bit smoother.

How interesting will your next interaction be? Do you have an interesting chance meeting to share? Go ahead and share it below. Who knows the information in your post may become a chance encounter for a random web surfer.

Have a productive day!
~ Dan

For most of us, electronics are like the weather: we complain a
lot but don’t do anything about it. So periodically you come
across products that solve those complaints and make you wish
you had done more than just gripe. This is the first in an
occasional series of items I have found that intrigue me in that
way.

Top of my list: SimulScribe (simulscribe.com). It is a $10-per-
month voicemail service that you can use to replace your
cellphone, office, or home voice mailboxes – or any combination
of them. That alone is valuable, giving users a needed central
collection point for messages. But the key innovation in
SimulScribe is that it uses speech recognition technology to
transcribe your voicemail and then sends it along to you as an
email that contains both the transcript and an audio file.
Transcriptions aren’t perfect – bad connections and certain
voices fool it – but they are usually good enough to give you
the gist of the message and let you assess its urgency. When in
doubt, you play the audio.

This is a huge time-saver: no wasted calls to check on empty
mailboxes; you get the messages as they come in. It is a plus
for smartphone users, as you can discretely check your voicemail
on screen without making a call. I personally find it helpful
since I pay little attention to my cell while I am using my
office phone and vice versa. My guess is that sooner or later,
all voice mailboxes will work this way.

Check out the SimulScribe service here:

http://www.simulscribe.com

© 2007 Al Gordon.

In addition to his computer interests, Al Gordon is a political
and media consultant in the Boston area.

TNPC Newsletter
by Dan Butler
04 June, 2007

Thank you for reading TNPC – I really appreciate it. This week
three easy tips to streamline your voicemail.

You can read this issue and previous issues at the blog:

http://www.tnpcnewsletter.com/blog/category/newsletters/tnpc/

If you have a comment on this article please leave it at the blog.

~ Dan

3 Tips to Streamline Your Voicemail

by Dan Butler