Monthly Archives: May 2011

I amp’d a post yesterday “Save The Customer”. There was a lot of good discussion about the 80/20 rule, kicking wasteful customers to the curb, setting boundaries.

This was brought home to me in a big way yesterday with a former client. Long story short (you’re welcome) this client asked me to call and then we set a day and time to meet. I gave my best advice and suggested what I could do with the small amount of money available in the budget. When I got home I discovered the real request. It did not occur to me the whole thing was simply an elaborate set up to acquiesce to the request. I sent a detailed proposal. Then yesterday other stuff started spilling out.

Here’s the thing: I would have done it anyway. It wasn’t a big request and I benefited. What flabbergasts me is the idea that people think I need to be bought off with a meal. That I sent a detailed proposal that was probably used negotiate a better deal for a contract with someone else. That my b http://bit.ly/mp7dyY

I do this especially when I’m feeling stressed.

Don’t spend time worrying.
Don’t take fear out on loved ones.
Don’t look back and try to imagine a different outcome.
Don’t focus on the problem.
Don’t let anyone say failure is an option.

I keep looking at it until I get past whatever was using up the creative cells in my brain. http://bit.ly/m4wgS2

Meeting Notes – New School

Love new productivity tools. Makes up for distractions like co-workers, email and planning for raptures.

Amplify’d from www.readwriteweb.com

minutes-io-logo.jpgWhether you meet with colleagues in person or from remote locations, there’s still a need to keep an accurate record of what was discussed and what next actions are required. You could go the old school, pen-and-paper route, but those notes will still need to be typed up and shared with colleagues.

To simply the process, you might want to try minutes.io, a Web app that lets you take meeting minutes online and easily share them with others.

The app doesn’t do anything more or less than you need it to. Its simple interface consists of a few text fields for pertinent meeting information like attendees, location and agenda. Beneath that is an area for adding minutes, categorizing them (Is it a to-do item, idea or comment?) and giving them an owner and a due date. In the upper-left sit three buttons: one for emailing notes, one for printing them and one that takes you back to a listing of previous meeting notes.

Since the app’s functionality is built with JavaScript rather than Flash, it works nicely on tablets. We tested it out on the iPad and had no issues. The only challenge might be keeping up with the meeting while typing on a touch screen keyboard, but it’s nothing a wireless keyboard can’t fix.

Minutes.io is free to use and doesn’t require a user account, so giving it a shot could hardly be more painless.

minutes-io-ipad.jpg

See more at www.readwriteweb.com

 

I started thinking about two-tiered systems after watching a little Morning Joe.

A two tiered Medicare system means instead of $1200/year cost with all expenses paid I would get $15000 to get private insurance. Of course if older people could get private insurance we would not need Medicare. Let’s just call it, oh say, a death panel.

Two tiered pay systems are not unusual now especially in unions. All for one and one for all…unless you ask me to take less to make sure my local brothers and sisters are equals.

There is a two tiered gold price. Really? Yes it was designed to keep international gold reserves at a fixed price while regular old run of the mill gold is sold at commodity prices.

The American Rental Car Association want a two tier system for dealing with recalls on vehicles. The government would designate which recalls were serious enough to pull cars off the road and the rest could be driven and fixed later. WTH?!

Two layers. One always stays on the bottom. http://bit.ly/kUqj5Q

Treating Kids As Adults

It’s not the crime really. It’s where you do the time.

Amplify’d from ashleyandme.wordpress.com

We weep over the ignorance of a girl who has a baby at 12 but believe she knows exactly what she is doing when involved in holding up a convenience store.  We shake our heads at violence in music, movies and games then feel shocked when teenagers internalize that violence and act on it.  We drink and smoke and have random sex as adults and are incredulous when our kids follow suit underage.

Read more at ashleyandme.wordpress.com