Journal - Dave Darby's One Particular Harbour

Entries in Productivity (4)

Thursday

15Oct2009

Email alerts - I love you man

Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 12:43PM

I love email alerts I just don’t usually talk about them. But this week I’ve been improving my systems to be more efficient - more efficient for clients, family and dammnit, for me. So today when I see a few email alerts that save me time and aggravation, I have to grab the bullhorn and talk about a few things that are helping me grab life’s bull by the horns.

First up, vehicle diagnostics email from GM. Both right side tires are 2lbs low - gotcha. Next gas trip, I’m on it.

Next up, quick link to BaseCamp reports for time sheets - tomorrow is payday and these new reports allowed Julie and I to quickly review everyone’s time and get everybody paid in less time/effort.

Finally, Kohl’s statement alert - this is a big one folks because we just opened our first ‘charge’ account in, I don’t know, 10 years?? You know how every store clerk asks the obligatory, ‘would you like to save 10% today?’? Well, I usually respond with ‘what, so you can try to hook me for 30% tomorrow? (I smile when I say it, I think it’s cute but maybe it’s not.) Well, I was ‘in the mood’ at Kohl’s last month. See, I don’t shop and we’re pretty low key when it comes to shopping and I don’t give a squat about social norms. We buy what we need when we need it (like NFL Sunday Ticket) and we pay cash. BUT - Kohl’s offers really exceptional, ongoing deals to credit clients sooooooo, we did it.

So why did I really appreciate that email alert today? Because it was our first one and it quickly dawned on me, whoa, it’s been about 5 weeks since we opened that and, whoa, their automated system used our old driver’s license address (we moved 6 weeks ago) and we had to call to have them cancel/resend new cards and, WHOA, I’ll bet those bastards hit me for 30%!!!

Yep, payment turns out was due last week and we weren’t in the system for last month’s notice. Well to Kohls’ “credit”, they quickly reversed those charges and I promptly paid the account online ‘in full’ - no finance or late charges. Whew - that was a close one.

So, email alerts, because you this week we will get our team paid with a record minimal effort, improve the safety, fuel efficiency and wear/tear on the suburban and we won’t get jacked up by ridiculous finance/late charges. I love you man.

Dave Darby |

The Penny Principle

Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 11:51AM

Step right up! Get yer tickets here! Fer one day and one day only, you my lucky friend have an amazing opportunity to make MILLIONS! Dat’s right! You heard me correct-like - MILLIONS!

Whose gonna take dis offer? You der! You! Poyfect. Step right up here and let me show you how dis woyks.

It’s like dis. You choose yer destiny. How you like it so far? Dat’s right - you choose yer destiny.

Choice #1 - you come back to dis very spot right here where I’m standin - correction, where yer standin. You come back here in 30 days and you my friend will receive a lump sum payout of $1 Million. Oh, my - dat’s a whole lotta change.

Choice #2 - I will give you 1 red cent - that’s $0.01 today and today only! Have you made up yer mind? Not so fast my friend - you see ders more! Tomorrow, you come right back the spot where yer standin I am gonna double yer money. Tomorrow you der will have yerself $0.02! Now hold on before you get all hot in the pants ready to take the $1M - ders more. Yer gonna show up here each and EVERY day to this xact spot and I’m gonna keep doubling yer money all the way up to day 30!

So, what’s it gonna be? I need yer answer in 5…4…3…2…1…alright, times up! Which is it? $1M and no hassle or 1 penny doubled for 30 days?

So, what happens if you take a stupid risk and take the penny? Let’s see…

So, what’s the lesson of the Penny Principle? The lesson is this: the quick payout is not always the best and sometimes, even though you see the power of the penny, others will doubt you, throw up roadblocks and beat you down as ignorant. It is up to you to know the value of the Penny Principle in anything you do in life.

Note, this is a financial example because it is easily measureable. The Penny Principle works in any area of yer - I mean your - life and the reward may actually be monetary, but it more likely may be pride in accomplishment, the reward of lifting others up or the magnificent power of teaching others.

So, go out into the world and make money, teach others, lift others up, but follow your own principles and your value will double every day. It may not seem like you are impacting the world immediately, but stay in it for the final payout and your lasting legacy and reward will be more powerful than those who took the easy payout and hoped to just show up at the end and cash out.

Dave Darby |

2 Comments |

Legacy,

Monday

30Oct2006

Re-Searching

Monday, October 30, 2006 at 08:04PM

If you do any amount of ‘re’search on the web like me, then you will benefit from these tools called Bookmarklets - basically, tools saved in your browsers favorite’s or right on a toolbar.

These are search bookmarklets and here’s how they add value and efficiency to web research. The 3 major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN - in that order) all have biases that generally return different results - therefore it is generally more helpful to cross-search across all 3 sites rather than view beyond the first 20 or so results on any 1 site.

Alas, what a pain to type and search on Google, go to Yahoo and type and search, then again on MSN. Enter these bookmarklets. Voila! With these beauts, you visit Google and search, then click on the Yahoo bookmarklet and you are instantly transferred to the search results on Yahoo. No more typing. To add these to your browser:

In Internet Explorer, right-click and select ‘Add to favorites’. You will have to answer Yes to the security alert that you trust this link. This is perfectly safe, but you will have to trust this to try it. Then you can save it - I like to save it in my ‘Links’ folder which puts them on the ‘Links’ toolbar for 1-click access.
In Firefox, right-click and select ‘Bookmark this link’. I like to add to my ‘Bookmarks Toolbar’ for easy 1-click access on the toolbar.

Enjoy and let me know if these make ‘re’searching better for you.

Dave Darby |

What Not To Do

Friday, September 1, 2006 at 10:27AM

You want to get things done? Bet you have a list. Also bet you still can’t get everything done. How do I know? Well, look at the address bar of your web browser, where it shows ‘http://www.davedarby.com’ - you see that green box in front of the address? That’s a tiny little spy camera and I’ve been watching you watching me.

Ok, all kidding aside ;) I know you struggle with your list as I do because it’s human nature and we all lean on technology everyday - computers, internet, cell phones, tivo, secret spy watches - to help us get more done. For some reason though - and you and I both know it - we are NOT getting more done!

Why? Come on, if you know me you already know the magic word - MARGINS.

Sure enough, those handy little electronic devices buy back margins - alas, they also take away margins. Admit it. The internet saves you time when looking for the nearest dry cleaner or learning about that red bump behind your ear, but it also sucks the time away as you watch some large guy wearing a small sweater in a cubicle lip-sync to Brittany Spears. Funny enough, but a margin sucker if there ever was one.

And TIVO - ah TIVO. Love TIVO. Now we can watch an hour of Survivor in only 42 minutes. Well, that’s saving time and creating margins Dave! Yes, until you discover that OLN is running back-to-back-to-back Survivors from all previous seasons - (loud sucking sound) - now, you’re watching 6 seasons in one.

And email - ah email. ‘Steve, could you revise that project by Friday.’ ‘No problem, Angie, please find the attached invoice.’ ‘Thanks Steve. Hey have you seen the video of the guy imitating Brittany Spears? I attached it, check it out!’ (loud sucking sound)

So, I am going to offer you a thought. Your problem is not what is on your ‘to-do list’, instead, I challenge that it has more to do with what is NOT on your ‘do-not-do list’. (A big Tim Allen ‘Arughhh?’) That’s right, we all suffer from “continuous partial attention disorder” or CPAD (I made this up) whereas we are so busy keeping tabs on everything that we never focus on anything. What we need are drastic measures - measures in which we leave potential distractions behind.

Maybe the great poet, Paul Simon says it better in his fabled ‘50 Ways to Leave your Electronics’.

Just slip out the back, Jack. Make a new plan, Stan. You don’t need to be coy, Roy. Just listen to me.
Hop on the bus, Gus. You don’t need to discuss much. Just drop off the key, Lee. And get yourself free.

Good luck getting that song out of your head today! ;) Let me get you started with your not-to-do list, then you can close this browser and ‘get yourself free’.

NOT-TO-DO LIST

At home and work, do NOT check your email every 3 minutes. Change the setting to something measured in hours - preferably 4 and give the email interuptions a break. (Special circumstances: if you work in a missile silo, ignore this!)
At home, do NOT answer the telephone every time it rings - take advantage of the best thing since pockets in a shirt AND sliced bread - voice mail.
Do NOT ponder what state society was in that made pockets in a shirt and sliced bread such a huge advancement for civilization. ;) Oops, sorry, where was I?
At work and home, do NOT follow a link to more than 2 websites. You know - hit your home page, click on interesting link that takes you to CNN, read story then click an add for Vonage internet phone, then visit whitepages.com to look up that person you used to sit on the phone with every night in high school. DO use the free service from BlinkList and add/organize your internet favorites/bookmarks by tags (categories). ‘Blink’ anything beyond 2 websites that looks interesting and tag it ‘hmmm’ for later review. BTW, with BlinkList, you can view your bookmarks from anywhere, anytime on any computer. When you decided to commit some time to it, view your BlinkList ‘hmmm’ tags and delete them or re-tag/save them as you see fit.

There you have it - 3 bona fide things for your ‘Not-To-Do’ list that should allow you to better manage your ‘To-Do’ list.

Parting shot: Speaking of 3s, there are three kinds of people: those who can count and those who can’t.

Dave Darby | Comments Off |

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Productivity