Tag: Tips

Posted on

Using Sky Drive for Work

My Google Calendar is full!
My Google Calendar is full!

I’ll let you in on some tips that I use to task and manage projects given to my employee and independent contractors. I have three family members that work for me that I routinely and on a daily basis send new project details to. To make things easy, I use Sky Drive from Microsoft accessed now through www.Outlook.com to manage these projects.

Here’s what I do:

1. In Outlook, I have created a work calendar for each individual. I keep their project calendar separate from my own main Outlook calendar. My own mail Outlook calendar I sync to my smartphone and GMail as my preferred personal work calendar. My contractors each have their own job calendar which is posted at Outlook.com.

2. I have given them each my own master user name and password – created just for this purpose so they have full read, write, and edit privileges. When I add a task to their calendar from my desktop in Outlook, automatically the new task appears in their own personal Outlook.com online calendar tied to my work login. When they complete a task, they drag the project to the beginning of the calendar which makes it easy for me to know what my employee has completed and to just check in on tasking with my independent contractor.

3. I’ve just found out that Microsoft now has two smartphone Android apps that will allow me to add these two calendars to my smartphone so I can add, review, and update tasks and projects for staff on the go. Outlook.com app and Sky Drive app.

As it can get very complicated now to try to sync multiple calendars to Google without paying to use Google apps and send all your mail through their exchange servers, I simply like the greater control and free aspect of compartmentalizing my work and project work separately.

As you can see from the image of my own personal work calendar to try to integrate my project calendar would simply be too much data to manage as it is nearly as full as my own calendar. If you haven’t tried out some of these online tools, you may want to play around with the Outlook.com and Sky Drive calendars separating out kids and family schedules from work schedules to see how you’ll like using them.

Posted on

How to Sync Your IE Favorites between Computers with SkyDrive

Live Mesh from Microsoft went away in February. I have used this service from Microsoft to sync my IE favorites between four or five computers which I really love. With Microsoft dropping Live Mesh in favor of the new SkyDrive, I just had to find a new alternative way to sync my favorites between my myriad computers and screens.

This excellent video will show you how to set up this action to sync IE favorites using the new SkyDrive from Microsoft. This same tactic works on Windows 8 too.

Here’s a special tip for Vista users:

These instructions work great for Windows 7 and 8 systems, but do not work for Vista. I have, however, found a work around for Vista users. If you follow the video instructions and are using Vista, when you try to open favorites in Internet Explorer, you will get an error saying that the favorites/favorites folder is missing and your favorites will not show.

To solve this problem, open your SkyDrive folder for your favorites and copy all the files. Then create a new folder called favorites inside of the favorites folder and then paste inside all the favorites you have just copied. I know this seems redundant, but it works. Now open IE on a Vista machine and you can now see all your favorites in Internet Explorer.

If you are syncing to a Windows 7 and Vista machine and you are saving a favorite, you will see that you have the option to save your bookmark now in two locations  the plain favorites folder and the favorites/favorites folder. Save your same URL in both and this way you can see your new bookmark on Vista and Windows 7 and 8.

Posted on

Helping Others to Succeed

Put the pieces together to help your team be effective.
Put the pieces together to help your team be effective.

As an incredibly strong scheduler of my own time, it makes it very difficult for me sometimes to understand that not everyone else’s lives revolve around Outlook.

I’ve found that there are types like me who are strong on the details and their are other who are strong on the creative side instead. Finding the balance to help those who work for you to be effective and enjoy their job with you is crucial for business growth.

I’ve found that not every great creative person is a good match for my business. There may be some terrific writers out there, but if they can’t make a deadline so your business gets paid they may not be the best match for your needs. On the other hand others who are highly creative but can be worked with to perform within somewhat flexible guidelines may be strong business partners in the long run.

This is what I’ve found. There are some things that you as a business owner can be flexible with and other things that you simply cannot be flexible with.

Maybe you can be flexible about when a contractor sends their invoice to you.

But maybe you can’t be flexible about a contractor missing a client’s deadline.

Maybe you can be flexible about the time of day a project is turned in.

But maybe you can’t be flexible when other people are waiting to work on this same project.

Working with others is a balance. By trying to create an environment where others that work with you have a degree of input and you yourself show flexibility for their needs, you develop loyalty and trust. It can be a win-win for workers and bosses.

Posted on

How to Sync Your IE Favorites between Computers with SkyDrive Using Vista

Live Mesh from Microsoft is going away in February. I have used this service from Microsoft to sync my IE favorites between four or five computers which I really love. With Microsoft dropping Live Mesh in favor of the new SkyDrive, I just had to find a new alternative way to sync my favorites between my myriad computers and screens.

This excellent video will show you how to set up this action to sync IE favorites using the new SkyDrive from Microsoft.

Here’s a special tip for Vista users:

These instructions work great for Windows 7 and 8 systems, but do not work for Vista. I have, however, found a work around for Vista users. If you follow the video instructions and are using Vista, when you try to open favorites in Internet Explorer, you will get an error saying that the favorites/favorites folder is missing and your favorites will not show.

To solve this problem, open your SkyDrive folder for your favorites and copy all the files. Then create a new folder called favorites inside of the favorites folder and then paste inside all the favorites you have just copied. I know this seems redundant, but it works. Now open IE on a Vista machine and you can now see all your favorites in Internet Explorer.

If you are syncing to a Windows 7 and Vista machine and you are saving a favorite, you will see that you have the option to save your bookmark now in two locations  the plain favorites folder and the favorites/favorites folder. Save your same URL in both and this way you can see your new bookmark on Vista and Windows 7 and 8.