MOTIVATION FROM YOUR PC

Be smart in using your software.  Your ability to control information and ideas on a computer screen has inherent motivational power.   The PC is the daily sandbox you play in.  Is it keeping you turned on?

A PC isn’t just a machine to work with.  

And it isn’t even just a machine to think with.

It is a machine to dialogue with.

It is a machine to decide with.

It is a machine to create with. 

A PC isn’t just a machine to communicate with.

It is a machine to express yourself with.

It is a machine to multi-dimensionaly dialogue with.

A PC is a machine to self-actualize with -- not the only such machine, of course but an ingenious one, and definitely a sub-utilized one.

Break the PC mindset and constantly fold in more spice!

Here are Ten Ways I have found to keep the kick in my PC work day.

If you’re like me, you don’t need Google to come up in your browser window anymore because you already have it ready in your toolbar.  But I’ll bet you have sites you go to all the time that you don’t pull off bookmarks and that you have to type in each time.  Am I right?  Well: write down your Top Ten list.  Put the list in MS Word.  In turn, highlight each item, hit CTRL+K on it, type your link in the field where you are, and hit ENTER. Save the list “As a Web Page” (FileàSave as Web Page) and put it into My Documents.  It will now be an .htm file.   Double-click it open into your browser and click ToolsàInternet Options à Use Current.  Now every time you open your browser fresh, or click your Home icon, you’ve got the good stuff.  How sweet it is! 

Where do you like to go?  I am partial to the Wikipedia search field, to Netflix, and also to Craigslist Chicago, Google Video, the Charles Schwab Daily Dow, Half.com and Pricegrabber.    Got any suggestions of your own?  I thought you would . . .

Any list of activities, budget items, people to call, etc., needs your commentary and pro-action.  Don’t stop with just typing lists into your Word document or Excel spreadsheet.  Go back and stick an A, B, C or a ranking number to the left of each item and sort them off against each other. 
 

For example, imagine that you want to take a client to lunch and find that even after listing a few likely spots onto an MS Word page, you can’t seem to make yup your mind:

By forcing the issue (through simple, more intense focusing) and having yourself rank each spot with an A, B, or C, you will sharpen your preferences, and the reasons for them.  In this example, suppose you reflect that the client is not vegetarian and favors both ethnic and dramatic choices.  So you rank accordingly, then sort.  In MS Word, highlight the rows and click TableàSort, and proceed from there. Sorting ascendingly, you get:

Now you have something to work with.
 

Ranking helps to stimulate your own thinking and can result in more enthusiastic follow-throughs of all kinds. 
 

Other examples of rankable decisions:

·         which action goals would boost your output momentum most during the coming week?

·         which arguments are most persuasive in gaining a refund from a shoddy supplier?

·         which sales prospects are most likely to be receptive to a cold call?

·         which supplies have priority on a limited budget?

Why waste the chance for a inspirational quote or goal reminder when your screen saver kicks in?  Choose the Marquee screen saver and go to Settings to customize a message for your own benefit.   In Windows XP you can even let your screen saver cycle through My Pictures and can put  pictures there that you pull from the web.  You can also dump Power Point slides into .gif format and put the slides into My Pictures.  This makes My Pictures a motivational slide show that kicks in whenever your screensaver does.

Do you do a lot of writing?  Well . . . spice it up!  After you have spellchecked something  you have written, go back and look it over for flat or lifeless words.  Find replacements using the built-in thesaurus.  Right-click the word and select Synonyms, then pick a better word from the list.  Or pick Thesaurus at the bottom of the list.  Click among the lists offered and when you find a replacement in the lower right-hand quadrant for your word, click Replace.   Better?  Good!  Don’t like it? Well, simply Undo, then try again.

Don’t search through long documents or spread-sheets or web pages looking for names or phrases you want to jump to.  Use CTRL+F, type in your string, press ENTER repeatedly until you find what you need, then press ESC to disengage the Find feature.  You’re there, and highlighted to boot.

People tell me all the time that they are tired of scrolling down spreadsheets trying to find customer names.  There’s no need to!  People get talked into converting spreadsheets into entire databases just for lack of simple searching techniques.  Big waste!

Another search tip:  Are you on a website that you think has information that is turning out to be tricky to find?  Use the Search Current Web Site on your Google Toolbar.  Big time-saver!  You get matching links, on whatever pages they may be on the site.  Sometimes, doing this  is even superior to using a Search field provided on the site.

Dignify and dramatize your activities by depicting them in charts.  For example, let’s say your goal is to complete 100 new pages on a manual this month.  You’re not real thrilled with the process.  You may try keeping a running tally or count as you go.  But why not just put your current number onto a spreadsheet, and your goal number in the cell underneath.  Then hit F11.   That’s you!

Now your chart is in a sheet to the left of where you started.  When your number changes, go back and update your data sheet by clicking it first.   The chart is then automatically updated.  Go see it.    

Feel like the project has gone nowhere?  Pop up that chart and put the lie to such a silly notion!   The color, the obvious movement on that chart, and the dynamism of the whole thing speak out your heroism.  Yeah!   Advance on your game board!  Take that territory!  Feel the thrill of conquest!

You can also change your chart to a pie chart or other depiction that is in the Chart menus at the top of the sheet. 

Many businesspeople, being visual mental operators,  are very motivated by a graphical picture of their progress.  How about you?

Everybody knows that pictures are the show-stealers of printed material.  Use that fact to punch your important concepts by using InsertàPictureàClip Art.  Once a picture is inserted, use the sizing handles on its corners to make it as big as you want it, then drag from the middle of its body to its position.  To flow text around it, double-click the picture, then click the Layout tab to choose what kind of text-wrapping and positioning you want.

Many radio programs are now archived and do not have to be heard in real time.  Time-shifting, the Information Society practice that Alvin Tofler forecast for so long, is now on the scene.    I keep a reference page of my favorite shows to click into:

http://www.explain.com/webradio

As well, you can mark Favorites in Real Audio and in Widows Media Player.  And don’t forget the list of recently-played items in the File menu.  Handy!

News flash from fifteen years ago:  the World Wide Web is set up SOLELY to give you an instant splash of relevant information.  Are you using a fast connection to it so that clicking on links pulls in subsequent pages as fast as turning pages in a book?  If not, do you have any idea of what you’re missing?  Probably better business, because your competition is no doubt flying around the web.

Robb Murray

Computer Training On-Call

(773) 975-8020

ctoncall@aol.com