To-Do, or To-Don’t: That is the Question
Over the years, I’ve read hundreds of organizational and business books. The problem with the majority of these books is that they regurgitate the same information or have eight updated “new common sense” editions; “How to Organize Your Business! — 8th edition, now including Working off Lists!” (facepalm)
For the most part, the organizational books all have very similar methods for classifying and arranging everything in your personal and business lives. Normally, this process begins by creating and working off a To-Do list–prioritizing and checking off items as they are completed. This process has two man-made, deep-rooted problems:
- There are too many items to complete on the list; and
- There is not enough time to complete the items on the list.
Notice I said man-made problems. I say this because your list should first be filtered, then prioritized. So, let’s look a little deeper into these two excuses…
There are too many items to complete on my list.
When we create lists, we tend to be under dramatic (not stressing the importance of the task enough) or overdramatic (the opposite of what I just said.) Do all the items on your list need to be accomplished today? Are their items on your list that have low priority? If so, remove them. Place those items on the reverse side or on a completely separate list. The goal here is to accomplish the items that need completion by a certain time or day. If you find an item that is neither important or time-sensitive, remove it.
Another good rule of thumb is to create the list with enough detail so others could follow it. If you need to replace a light bulb in your bathroom and know that the only place close enough that sells that particular lightbulb is Home Depot; then on your To-Do list write:
- Go to Home Depot;
- Purchase replacement lightbulb for master bathroom vanity;
- Go home;
- Replace burned out master bathroom vanity bulb with the newly purchased replacement bulb.
Some would call these directions anal-retentive. However, remember what I said earlier: Create the list with enough detail so others could follow it. Some could argue that step 3 could be eliminated. Fair enough. But leave it on the list because I’ll show you how it’s relevant in a few moments. Moving on…
There is not enough time to complete the items on the list.
Bluntly speaking, there are 24 hours in a day. If you can’t accomplish a daily To-Do list in 1,440 minutes, you have bigger time management issues than you think. I understand that life intervenes and things don’t always work out as planned, but you’re probably wasting more time than you think on items that you shouldn’t be.
Prudently, we all should plan for the upcoming day the night before. This allows us time to collect all our thoughts on the subject at hand without wasting precious time the day of trying to create and prioritize lists. If I need to leave the office and run errands, I try to include drive time, completion time, etc. So if I have to run to the post office to pick up an item, I would calculate 15 minutes (including traffic), 5-8 minutes in line, accepting the package, then another 15 minutes driving back to the office. Now underneath that item is where I start creating another list: My To-Don’t List. In this instance, my To-Don’t list would include: Don’t stop at Starbucks! Similarly, if I have to do Internet research on a specific subject: Don’t log into Facebook!
Now, do you remember my light bulb example and how one could argue that step 3. (Go home) could be removed. What if you didn’t go straight home and stopped off at a friends house or went to the driving range. In doing so, you were late getting home, and didn’t think about replacing the burned out bulb in the bathroom–even though you purchased a new bulb that very day. Would you consider this item as completed on your list? No.
We take small deviations during the day that add up to time we should have spent completing our tasks. In reading organizational book after organizational book, I found they do a good job in explaining how to identify and protect your time against “time suckers” such as email and walk-in coworkers. However, these books fail to explain the biggest time sucker is actually yourself. This is where having a To-Don’t list comes into play. After creating your prioritized To-Do list, create a separate list of things you will not do so you can maintain your commitments and complete your To-Do list. It may seems silly to write down items you don’t plan to do. However, it’s been my experience that the items we don’t plan to do take up the most time.
Michael D. Alligood,
Partner Communications Manager
ExchangeDefender | Shockey Monkey
877-546-0316 x707
michael@ownwebnow.com
On the Road Again…
June has turned out to be a busy month for ExchangeDefender and Shockey Monkey! Thank you all who stopped by our booth during the Autotask Live conference this week. It is always a pleasure to talk to our partners face to face. With that said, ExchangeDefender and Shockey Monkey will be represented at the following events in the month of June:
12th International Cloud Expo
June 10th – June 13th
Javits Center, New York City
ASCII Baltimore
June 12th – June 13th
BWI Airport Marriott
Level Platforms MSP Community Summit
June 17th – June 19th
The Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas
If you are attending any of these events, drop by our booth and let’s talk about your business and how a partnership with ExchangeDefender can assist your company in increasing its service revenues.
If you are unable to attend any of these events, shoot me an email at michael@ownwebnow.com or phone call at 877-546-0316 x707. I’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you have about ExchangeDefender services and our Shockey Monkey platform.
Michael D. Alligood,
Partner Communications Manager
ExchangeDefender | Shockey Monkey
877-546-0316 x707
Is Changing your Logo a Good Idea?
Some businesses change their logo as often as they change their printer ink, while others have maintained the same logo for decades. Branding your company with a good logo can provide your community 
with familiarity, awareness of your business, and can help to create loyalty. Understanding how your logo impacts your business and why and when to change it can help you to create a lasting brand image.
A simple search on some of your favorite corporate brands will show you the importance of modifying or changing your logo. Companies like Apple, Pepsi, and just about all-major brands have gone through revisions of their company logo over the years. Though there is no standardized rule for how often to change your logo it is definitely a good idea to do this periodically.
Pepsi for instance appears to be on a roughly ten-year cycle for their logo. This has worked pretty well. When you look at the history of the logo image, you can see how it has changed with the times. The logo reflects the period and you can easily see how certain versions now look dated. This is what can happen to your logo as well. Looking at just about any other corporate logo history will have this same outcome of some previous logos looking dated.
A logo and brand refresh can be good for business and can breathe new life and excitement into a business. Though we would caution complete brand makeovers as these can sometimes muddy a brand and confuse customers, and should only be done when it is absolutely necessary. Instead, look at the top corporate companies and take a cue from them. Most of these logos have slight but impactful changes that give the brand a new and fresh approach.
Personally I like the ten year approach to a logo change, though in the IT and MSP world, a five year schedule may be more effective given the amount of change in the products and industry. Changing your logo more often than this may not compliment the goal of brand awareness, and actually can potentially hurt business.
Sun-Sational Summer Savings Promotion!!!
This summer we are going to be running an ExchangeDefender Sun-Sational Summer Savings Promotion! When you use the promotional code you will get Compliance Archiving and Corporate Encryption for 50% OFF! Compliance Archiving will be priced at $2.00/user/month and Corporate Encryption at $0.50/user/month. When the promotional code is used to set up new accounts they will be grandfathered in at this price for the life of the active account.
Compliance Archiving has recently gotten a facelift! With the new design there are many improvements! There is a completely new and improved UI that is easy to use and navigate through. Also, we have implemented paging into the product and fine tuned the search functionality. In addition, there are more customizable options to better fit your needs. This is a solution that you should really add to your solution set!
ExchangeDefender Corporate Encryption provides an easy and seamless way for organizations of all sizes to implement content protection and comprehensive control over information being sent through email. It includes pattern-matching encryption, comprehensive reporting, corporate encryption mechanisms, and lexicon dictionaries. Corporate Encryption is very easy to promote and it is also extremely easy to add to your solutions set and offer because there are so many benefits associated with using it. A great thing to point out about Corporate Encryption is the ability to have more control. You can better monitor your network and be aware of things that are going on. You can define keywords and patterns, so that when certain things that you are concerned about happen you will know about them and be alerted. There are also legal and HR benefits of protecting both company data and employees and prevent important data from being leaked or sent out. Both Compliance Archiving and Corporate Encryption are compliant with SOX, HIPAA, SEC and local government requirements to provide you with more protection and powerful auditing.
The promotion will be running all summer from June 1st through July 31st! Use the coupon code listed in the image when signing up a new account and enjoy your savings!
For more information refer to our ExchangeDefender Promotions page.
Stephanie Hasenour
VP Marketing, ExchangeDefender
stephanie@ownwebnow.com