Tonight when I was catching up on my blog reading for the week, I accidentally hit the “mark all as read” button in Google Reader, in effect hitting the reset button. I scrambled, looking for the undo button. None could be found, and I panicked.

Oh no, what will I do now that I’ve lost 1500 articles I will never be able to read, to skim, or to pick up.

And then I realized hitting the reset button is a liberating experience.

Hitting the reset button means:

Starting over and leaving my mistakes behind

Going out to a few of my favorite blogs LIVE and seeing what they’ve written

I’m not behind in my reading anymore.

I think about how I could be doing this as a manager…

I could declare e-mail bankruptcy and delete all the items in my inbox. If it’s critical, I’ve probably saved it somewhere other than my inbox, so what’s the worry.

I could forget about all the others who show up late to meetings, who are known for making bad decisions or taking us WAY off on a tangent, and give these folks the benefit of the doubt.

I could delete all the voicemails in my mailbox, instead of saving that one from 3 months ago, just in case someone wanted to hear it.

Now that I think about it, hitting the reset button is the best thing I could ever do.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to delete those e-mails, those voicemails, and just start over.

Are you willing to hit your reset button?

Reset button image credit to renaissancechambra

I get 1000 or more e-mails every day for my day job as an IT manager, and I use Outlook 2007 all day, every day to manage my e-mail, my calendars, and my contacts. I think I do it pretty well, as I don’t get complaints that I’m not responding to email fast enough. And I need to respond to much of what is in my inbox. Don’t judge or hate, just enjoy the tips

1) Colors and larger font on anything sent only to me – If you go to Tools and Organize offers lots nifty things, like being able to use special colors and a larger font for things sent only to me. Usually if something is sent just to me it requires my action and attention, so this gets my highest attention.

2) Use a special color for e-mails from my manager and anyone in my chain of command – I have all messages sent from my manager and my manager’s manager set with red so I can work on them right away and I leave the message there until I close the request out. This is also in the Tools and Organize section.

3) Use follow-up flags – I use follow-up flags for a number of reasons: I set them to pop up immediately if I want you to read something right away (just type now in the time to quickly set that), I set them to pop up by a certain date when I need a response by a certain date, and I flag things for myself so I remember to follow-up on them.

4) Archive emails by topic and month – I save a LOT of emails. Each important message I get from each person on my team, and each kudos message about them, and each weekly review sheet, goes in a separate archive folder called “Team Folders” with each of you having your own sub-folder. Below that goes an “Older Stuff” where I put all prior year important stuff. I also archive all my sent items by month for the full year, in an archive folder called 2009 (or whatever year) Sent Items. To make sure it stays in the right order, instead of using the name of the month (January) I use the number of the month (01) and then the year (2009) separated by a hyphen (01-2009). In April of every year I disconnect the previous year’s archive and keep the current year’s active. This keeps stuff out of my inbox, and off the server, because we only get to keep 100 MBs of email in our inbox (and I get TONS of attachments every day!)

5) Anything that comes from an automated distribution list goes to a certain folder – I love the Rules in Outlook 2007! They allow me to put automated messages into a folder for review later. When I get enough items in the folder, I look at them.

6) Add items to favorite folder – I keep my inbox, my sent items, the team’s inbox, and the team’s sent items in my favorite folders so I can, at a glance, see if anything is gummed up in our team mailbox and in case someone says something wasn’t sent, I can get it quickly.

Are these helpful for you? Do you have tips that are even more helpful for managing your e-mail in Outlook 2007?

Please share your best tips in the comments below.

Outlook inbox courtesy of tomeppy

Looking for a quick way to get organized that you can take with you everywhere?

Wondering how you’re going to fit all the stuff you need/want to take with you today, but don’t have a lot of room?

Want something to help your team get a little more organized but don’t want to spend a lot of money?

Check out the PocketMod. It’s a pocket organizer just for you. You pick the pages you want by clicking and dragging them onto 1 of 8 pre-defined squares, hit the Print PocketMod button, and voila: A quick, free, recyclable organizer.

My favorite pages are the small grid, the list of Ben Franklin’s 13 Virtues, and the storyboard.

It’s not fancy, it just WORKS.

The website is easy to remember: http://www.pocketmod.com

Have you used this tool? Do you like it? What’s your favorite tip?

Do you have any other quick, free tools for getting organized? Share a comment below.

Screen shot captured from my Pocketmod

It’s almost April and I have had enough snow. Typically, I sit around and whine about how much I hate the snow, how I’m going to move to somewhere warm (my latest favorite place to run away to is Denver, Colorado), and how I can’t believe I’m still in Milwaukee after all these years.

So what can I do that’s more constructive, more useful, on a day when I am trapped inside my house, and how can that make me a better manager?

Email cleanup - I’m going through my e-mails and trying to whittle that down some, both at work and at home. Inbox less than 100 is my goal, though long term, it sure would be great to get to no e-mail in my inbox.

Weekly review - I’m going to review my next week and see what’s on the schedule I need to do some prep for. I have weekly one-on-ones with each member of my team, and I like to give them feedback on how I see their past week went.

Learn something new – Staying inside is a great opportunity for me to catch up on my management podcasts. My 3 favorites: Cranky Middle Manager, Manager Tools and Management Tips. Often there are a few nuggets I can get from Wayne and Mark and Mike  Nick that can make me more effective.

Share something new – Just knowing something isn’t enough for me. I like to share what I know as well. It’s why I continue to write the Slacker Manager blog every day. It’s not easy coming up with 30 articles a month for you, but if I keep learning, and keep sharing, I hope I can impact the world and make it better for managers and want-to-be managers.

Rest – I’m definitely going to rest a little more than usual today. I’ll take a nap in the afternoon, so I am refreshed for the week ahead.

What do YOU do when you have a snow day or other unplanned day off?

Take a snow day credit from Phil Gerbyshak’s private collection

Today’s the day that folks in most of the US “spring forward” and get an hour less sleep – and hopefully an hour MORE daylight in their day. I could sure use more daylight. The coldness of winter definitely depresses me.

Now that I get an hour more of daylight, I’ll get an hour more of productive time in my day. Getting up at 6 AM doesn’t feel quite as bad knowing there’ll be some sunshine sometime in the day.

What’s a manager to do with an extra hour of productivity?

LOTS of things!

5 things to do with an extra hour of productivity

Say good morning to your customers – Let your customers know they matter by calling them and letting them know how you can help them.

Manage by walking around – Take a few minutes and walk around your team to find out how they are REALLY doing. 

Write thank you notes – Set the timer, and challenge yourself to see how many thank you notes you can write in an hour (then keep the habit up once a week for the rest of the year). Thank your team, your peers, your manager, your customers, and your FAMILY.

Be fully present – Instead of feeling like you HAVE to multi-task, use the extra productive hour to tune OUT all the distractions and be fully present for your direct reports or your manager.

Learn something new – You’re never too old to learn something new. Now that you have an extra productive hour, how about listening to some 5-10 minute management tips, or pick up a new book, or find a mentor.

What are YOU going to do with your extra hour?

Photo credit to SideLong

According to Pamela Skillings, this week is National Procrastination Week. Seems like a perfect week for slacker managers to procrastinate on a few things.

You’re probably thinking, there’s so much to do, what should I procrastinate on? OK, that’s what I was thinking.

First, I’m going to put off my blog reading. I have about 800 blogs I read on a consistent basis, and I am WAY behind in my readings.  They can wait another week.

Second, I’m going to put off eating that double fudge ice cream sundae. As much as I’d like to have it, a few extra pounds are NOT what I need to add this spring. I’ll save this for a day when I actually accomplish something that earns me a special treat.

I’m going to put off doing anything else until I figure out what else I have to do.

What’s on YOUR to do (later) list?

day dreamer courtesy of mycocoabutter

Instead of doing something traditional to improve your management today, do something FUN! Make your own demotivational poster and share it with your team or your other managers. You could even order a high resolution picture from the folks at Despair.

Need some inspiration to create your poster? Check out this Demotivators lens someone made.

Sometimes taking a break and doing something silly like this helps me get more done, because it forces me to think of things in a new way. Admitting I am demotivated can actually help me get more done and be more motivated.

And sometimes I just need to laugh, so the demotivator is exactly what I need to take a break.

What do you do when you’re not feeling motivated that gets you back in the groove?

Image credit: Demotivators lens.

Strength impoverishment in our workplaces.

by David Zinger

Assessing the poverty of strengths in the workplace. Here are the results from my latest management strength survey.

• 55% of people have had no strength training
• 18% of participants spent less than 1/5 of their day using their strengths
• only 9% of participants spent over 4/5ths of their day using their strengths.
• 28% of respondents report being able to spend beyond 60% of their time using their strengths.
• only 3 out of 10 managers are working from their strengths a majority of the time.

Actual strengths. The list of their greatest strength at work was somewhat vague. Communication, organization, problem solving, and knowledge were most frequently cited strengths. I believe managers would benefit from more detail and a sharper focus on their strengths (see the list of strengths listed at the end of this post).

My two favorite strength responses were: Making complexity comprehensible and sleeping through the noise!

Conclusion. We still have a long way to go to create a strength based workplace.

• 55.8% of the respondent have not had any training while 44.2% had at least some training in strengths.

Question 2. What percentage of the working day do you use your strengths at work?

• 18% spent less that 1/5 of their day using their strengths
• 18% spent between 1/5 to 2/5ths of their day on strengths
• 36% spent between 2/5ths and 3/5ths of their day using their strengths
• 19% spent 3/5ths to 4/5ths of their day on strengths
• 9% spent over 4/5th of their day using their strengths

Question 3. What is your greatest strength at work? (the list is in alphabetical order as provided by the participants in the survey.

ability to make decisions
Ability to Solve Problems.
Adaptability
analysis
analysis: finding patterns
Analytical Thinking
Analytics
Analyzing
calculations
calm
Calming people down to get to the root of a problem
coding
Commitment to get the job done right
common sense
communicating complex information
communicating requirements
communication
communication
communication
Communication
Communication
Communication skills
communication?
Course of Action Analysis / Planning
Creativity/Problem solving
customer relations
deadline work
decision making
Direct Work
don’t know
Employee Relations
Enabling people to understand their strengths and how to use them
encouragement and leadership
Excel skills
EXPERIENCE
Finding Solutions and Strategic Planning
Focus
Going home on time
Humor
humour
innovation
Integration of Ideas
interpersonal skills
intimidation
justice
Knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge
knowledge
knowledge of product
Lateral Thinking
Leadership
Leadership
leadership
leading groups in short-term goals - and as a musician
listening
Listening
Listening
listening
Logical Analysis
Making complexity comprehensible
Manage by walking around
management
managing
Multi-tasking
My focus on the needs of the customers
Organisation
organization
organization
Organization
Organization
Patience
Patience
patiences
perspective
planning design
positive attitude
Priority Setting
proactivity
problem solving
problem solving
Problem solving
problem solving
problem solving
Problem-solving
Process Improvement
procrastination
promoting other people’s strengths
Relating to people at their level to help them develop
relationship building
relationship mgmt
sales
seeing a problem & starting the process of root cause solution implementation
seeing how things can be done
SEO
SEO
setting priorities
simplifying
sizing up people
sleeping through the noise
speed
Strategy
team building
Technical Depth
Technology
Technology
tenacity
Too many to name
Troubleshooting
Understanding people
unknown
Vision

What conclusions or thoughts do you have after looking at these “strong results?”

May’s Golden Slacker: Leo Babauta 

Inducted by David Zinger

I am delighted to induct Mr. Leo Babauta of Zen Habits as the May inductee in the Order of the Golden Slacker.

It is an honor to induct Leo Babauta into the Order of the Golden Slacker. Leo’s primary focus is on productivity and his perspective, suggestions, and articles on self-management are guaranteed to create a solid foundation for any manager to manage others by first managing himself or herself well. Leo is an exceptional blog writer who demonstrates an exquisite flair for this medium.

Leo is able to demonstrate solid and sound management by his top-notch award winning blogging fused with a family focus and even training for a triathlon.

If you are not already familiar with Mr. Babauta, here are 3 posts I recommend to get you started. If you already read Zen Habits then I recommend you go back and review these 3 classics:

1. Haiku Productivity: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential
2. Big Rocks First: Double Your Productivity This Week
3. How to Accept Criticism with Grace and Appreciation

I am honored to induct Mr. Leo Babauta into the Order of The Golden Slacker. As with all Golden Slackers, Leo will be receiving his official certificate by email!

The Order of the Golden Slackers:

Water cooler gossip can kill any work environment. Being a manager, I have found that often times this gossip is hurtful and even hateful.So what can you do to combat this axis of office evil? Simply join in yourself.

There is simply no way to get a better finger on the pulse than by joining in. Let’s be honest, there’s no way to stop it, and if you can’t beat it join it. Right? Yes, that’s exactly right.

How else are going to find out which employees have cooties or bacterial funguses? It’s one of the only places your employees throw that whole “boss” thing out the window and are completely honest with you. You need to find out about the scuttlebutt. That way you can fire Claire before she resigns. You can snuff out any office romances, and most of all you can throw Roger under the bus if he ticks you off.

Some would call this trivial, but I beg to differ. If it wasn’t for hiding behind ferns I would have never known that Michelle used to be a Michael, which explained the Adam’s apple and the defined jaw line.

Be right back, I’ve got to get the dish about Joan’s new man.

So…Do you have any ideas on how to stop water cooler gossip?

Hudson is the C.E.O. of Rib Riot.com and spends time managing sub-ordinates, and bossing others around. His hints are offered to you free of charge so that maybe you too will be inspired and motivated to accomplish somewhat great things with your life. If you want to read more about Hudson head over to RibRiot.com

Images courtesy of istockphoto and RibRiot.com