Maybe you’ve become aware of the fact that you can’t seem to stop yourself from refreshing your Gmail inbox, your Facebook homepage, or your endless Twitter feed. Maybe you’re a student working toward your master’s degree, and you’re working full-time, too, to pay your way through school and you’ve come to realize your dependency on (or perhaps obsession with) the Internet. If you’re starting to think this sounds a lot like you, then maybe it’s time for an Internet detox.
At first it sounds scary. Even impossible. Maybe you’re genuinely perplexed when you begin to wonder how you ever survived before the Internet came along. Maybe you’ve taken after the “digital natives” and have forgotten what answering machines were for.
But we survived. Before the iPhone, we really did survive. And our minds were calmer then. The endless chatter of online communication — whether trivial or business-related — has removed many of us from the simpler life and led us to forget how to relax.
It is okay to take a break. You are allowed a break. You are allowed freedom. And it’s healthy to take a vacation from work, school, the “Twitterverse” every once in a while. Tell yourself you deserve it (because you do).
We live in a fast-paced world of technological communication where we are now able and expected to communicate with our coworkers, bosses, friends, family and community anytime, anywhere, 24/7; the Internet has morphed us into, if not workaholics, webaholics. So, as hard as it may be at first, it’s more important than ever to let yourself take a short-but-sweet vacation from your online responsibilities: to close your laptop, turn off your phone, and unplug your commitments for a while, to enjoy what you’ve probably missed out on for far too long: real life.
Emily Matthews is currently applying to master’s degree programs across the U.S., and loves to read about new research into health care, gender issues, and literature. She lives and writes in Seattle, Washington.
The annoyance and even danger of spam seems to be a fact of our modern day lives, and it can be a particular problem for those who are trying to conduct business online. Fortunately, there is excellent anti-spam software available for both Mac and PC.
What exactly is spam? It is unsolicited, unwanted and inappropriate e-mail, most frequently sent for advertising or commercial purposes. This has led to the frequent abbreviation of UCE for unsolicited commercial e-mail.
The anti-spam software and service industry is a billion-dollar business. Why? Because time is money, and unsolicited commercial e-mails are annoying and time consuming. In addition, all that spam can easily clog servers with billions of pieces of unnecessary data.
Credit: Free images from acobox.com
For this reason, many software developers are constantly developing new algorithms so as to make their antispam software for both the Mac and PC more efficient.
There are a few basic procedures used by antispam software:
1. Checking the sender’s e-mail addresses against a blacklist maintained by various agencies so as to filter out the mail accordingly;
2. Checking the names and addresses of recipients against certain parameters, such as large groups sorted alphabetically, that are common to spam messages.
3. Scanning the body of the e-mail messages themselves for certain words or phrases, such as Viagra, that are common to spam messages and filtering it accordingly.
There are many antispam software products available for the Mac and PC. For the PC, there is Cloudmark DesktopOne, SpamExperts Desktop, Norton Internet Security and iHateSpam. For the Mac there is SpamSieve, Intego Personal Antispam, SpamSweep and SpamFire.
Whether such software works on the server or the client layer, it all fulfills the same purpose — to make your life more free of spam and therefore more productive.
You might get the impression that the Mac is the forgotten stepchild of the Internet marketing industry. But did you know that some of the top names in Internet Marketing use Macs? Visit http://internetmacmarketing.com and get a FREE 75-page ebook that covers everything you need to know about running your Internet business using a Mac, iPhone and iPad here.
How many items do you regularly carry in your inbox?
Well, if it is more than what recently arrived, chances are that you are using that inbox and its contents to remind you to do tasks related to those emails.
As Dr Phil would say, “How’s THAT workin’ for ya?”
Keeping hundreds of messages in your inbox is like having hundreds of papers strewn all over the top of your desk, in no files, in no piles, just sitting there waiting for you to root through them do decide what to work on next.
Using your inbox as a to do list is choosing the most dysfunctional, disorganized, and productivity sapping way to try to get things done. Why? Here are three reasons:
1. It essentially requires that you review each item each day to choose your next task, then do the same the next day, and the next. You’re repeating the same process every day.
2. Scrolling up and down, opening and closing messages, reading and rereading the same message is just plain wastefully unproductive.
3. It also is an instant source of morning stress, opening that inbox and viewing everything you’re NOT going to get done that day.
Our solution? Sort all items requiring your action to folders you’ve created for that purpose. Call them Action A and Action B – A for the important stuff, and B for the not so important stuff.Drag and drop the message there, and set a reminder for the date you want/need to view it to work it. Your reminder system then becomes the trigger for you to work that items rather than viewing it every day waiting for its importance to rise to the top.
As if we don’t have enough emails charging into our inboxes already! Now we have Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. notifications haphazardly gracing that inbox, intterupting us, and adding more messages to an already crowded space.
Here’s a tip that you might find useful:
Create folders for each social media account. Or perhaps just one folder for all your social media stuff. Whatever works best for you…
Then, create an automated rule that sends any email notification directly to that folder. In other words, you might create a rule that says all messages coming from Facebook are dropped directly into your newly created Facebook folder. This emliminates another flash or ding of an interrupting email. It also eliminates your having to read, or drag and drop them to the folder. It is done automatically.
Then, view all the contents of that folder at a time that works for you. Simple – that’s all there is to it.
The benefit of this is that you’ll avoid multiple sporadic interruptions throughout the day. It also sets you up to “group like tasks” which is a time management technique that truly works.Then, when you’re in the mood to check in on your FB friends, YOU decide when you’ll view the notifications, not the other way around.
You’ll enjoy this 2 minute ABC News Boston segment.
Reporter Kelley Tuthill has only 37,000 items in her inbox, and that’s only one of her many email accounts.
Click here to watch. The accompanying article ain’t bad either!
Well, you never know what’ll come outa the woodwork. My speaker friend and songwriter, Greg Tamblyn wrote these lyrics for me. I think it goes to “On Top of Old Smokey”. Enjoy!
My inbox was messy, demanded detox
So I took a shortcut and gave it botox
It was all neat and pretty, at least for awhile
But when I write something funny, now it can’t smile.
by Greg Tamblyn, humorist, singer, songwriter, author: http://GregTamblyn.com
NPR just did a 3 minute segment on Google’s new release.
Listen here.
They interviewed me on this – tools are great, and this one might be, too. BUT you’ve gotta manage yourself first, don’t ya think?.
I know I am not alone in this…
You’ve experienced receiving these email messages–the ones whose subject lines are the same as they were 2 months ago, even though the subject is now completely different. Here’s an example – when someone asked you directions two months ago to the offsite meeting ( subject line = Meeting directions?), and you responded. Yesterday, they pulled up that message, cuz they knew your email address was on it, hit reply, and asked if they could borrow your powerpoint projector next Tuesday. The subject line still reads ‘Meeting directions?’
Pull my hair out!
[picappgallerysingle id="108273"]Well… there is a very simple solution to this:
CHANGE THE SUBJECT LINE!
Your recipients will appreciate it. Reeeally!
Winter Clear-Out!
Is Your Inbox Screaming At You?
Bursting At the Seams?
Packed Full With Old Emails That Should Be Given The 3 D’s Approach?
Do it, Delegate it or DITCH IT!
Do It Now!
Read the full article on Michelle Waitte’s blog, Life Success Formula at http://bit.ly/8PvpZM
Many emailers think they’re expected to respond to received email messages within milliseconds. Give it a rest!
Email was never intended to be an urgent communication tool, so take the pressure off.
The strong majority of emailers, according to studies, don’t expect a response for 24 to 48 hours. Just think of this… When YOU send an email message, you have no idea whether the recipient is at his or her computer, you don’t even know whether he or she is in the office that day! My guess is that you are in that majority who’s not expecting an immediate return.
So why then, do you put unnecessary pressure on yourself to respond immediately?
Instead, group the sorting and managing of your email. See our posts Do You “Do Email” and Trouble Managing Your E-Mail? Behave Like an E-mergency Room Nurse for more information on how to do this.
