You need to be effective if you want to succeed in life. Your focus should be on creativity, invention, and execution rather than menial activities. You need to be passionate about your work and put in the extra effort to achieve success. You also need to have a positive attitude and be able to handle criticism well. Finally, you need to be able to work hard and persist through difficult times. If you can do all of these things, you will increase your chances of success dramatically.
There is no one formula for success, but if you can focus on being creative, passionate, positive, and hardworking, you will be well on your way to achieving your goals. Keep these things in mind as you strive to reach new levels of success in your life. Success comes from thinking outside the box and finding new and innovative ways to achieve your goals. If you can tap into your creativity, you’ll be able to find solutions to problems that others haven’t even thought of.
I spend the most of my day doing three things: conversing, reading, and searching for knowledge. You’re probably overconnected and overwhelmed with information if you’re anything like me. Efficiency comes from streamlining information management. Read more at accely if you want to make your business more productive.
I already discussed how I organize my inbox. Here are three resources I use to control the onslaught of digital data and prevent information overload.
1. Boomerang for email scheduling
If you are familiar with email marketing, you are aware that depending on the recipient, there is a best time to send an email. Sending an email when the recipient is most likely to view it will ensure that it is really read.
When I send an email late at night to have anything taken care of the following day, I am failing my team. I’m mailing it in order to cross it off my to-do list and clear my mind, but in doing so, I exacerbate a problem. First off, if it’s not read that evening, it will probably be buried among emails the next morning and might even go unnoticed. Second, if it is seen, I unnecessarily increase my employee’s tension by sending them a late-night email from the boss.
The answer is to quickly write the email and then queue it up in Boomerang for early morning delivery. I no longer have to worry about sending the email first thing in the morning, about it getting lost in the employee’s inbox, or about interrupting anyone’s evening with a boss’s email request.
2. A pocket for maintaining order
At least 95% of the news and information I consume each day is online. I am completely immersed in technology, yet I struggle mightily to keep up with the deluge of content. I check my Flipboard, Feedly, and Zite content queue every morning and evening. Each post falls into one of three categories for me in terms of value.
Even though I have little interest in the article, if the title is well written, I will learn enough to admit in conversation that I am aware of the subject. It would be like to knowing that your baseball team won yesterday night, but not knowing who hit the game-winning pitch. I skim or read the article to find out additional information if my interest is peaked.
The third and most important article is one I need to memorize. I must save the information for later retrieval since, like the days of clipping newspaper articles, my brain has a limited capacity. I use Pocket for this since it’s a powerful combination of a personal archive and a digital memory. I can easily access my digital memories by using simple keyword searches because my information is categorized with terms like “infosec,” “leadership,” or “media trends.”
3. CloudMagic for information retrieval and discovery
You cannot use Gmail’s inbox search features if your company is not one of the five million businesses that already use Google Apps. Too many people use their inboxes as all-purpose storage locations, but this practice makes it difficult, if not impossible, to search for and retrieve information. What a hassle it is to know you have some digital notes regarding a client meeting stored somewhere, but you have no idea where. You may search through all of your personal data repositories, including Gmail, Outlook, Evernote, Dropbox, Aol, and more, using the CloudMagic interface.
I want to add one caution. This service might not be for you if you are concerned about your online privacy. Before continuing, make sure you have read and are at ease with their privacy statement.
The production of information will keep increasing rapidly. You will hurt your ability to create and expand your business if you don’t have the tools and technologies to assist you filter through the digital noise.
Avoid letting oneself become weighed down. Utilize these three techniques to arrange and strengthen the framework of your digital communications.
