“Getting IT out of the way to make you more productive for work, home and play”
CollaborateMK – 30 min Table – FreelanceGeek Ltd – Tuesday 16th July 2024
I rambled a lot today (as usual) about keeping things straight forward in IT. Remember nothing is “simple” anymore, the IT world is complex but much of it can be very straight forward.
Taking 2 mins a day to tackle something that is a headache to you or could make you quicker therefore more efficient day to day is worth the time. Nibble at an issue and the issue will never feel like an issue. Go slow to go fast and be kind to yourself – this is a new skill and they take time
Thank you to Tim and his team for a fabulous event and thank you to you for coming to my table or wanting to read my ramblings. My door is always open – if you fancy a chat, I love to share. See you soon!
Passwords
There is lots of chatter around Passwords… constantly. My fear over this is that we become complacent/blaze over them and really we should not.
They are the keys to our digital homes
Passwords can be made really straight forward to handle
You could start your journey by simply writing them down…. on paper. Stealing your beloved password book is a MUCH harder than downloading a database of known passwords.
If you prefer to use a spreadsheet or a password protected document, that is a fine start too.
A password manager? Even better! My preference is 1password.com
Which ever you choose, it is a great start and something you can populate and iterate on during your Tea/Coffee time, one nibble at a time.
Soon you’ll forget to worry about remembering passwords, they are simply a copy & paste. Then you can reset them and use a password generator like this one: https://1password.com/password-generator/
We talked about Zero Inbox, there is lots written about this but the simple answer is – don’t use your email Inbox as a task list.
Use a task manager/list for that
A great starting point is “Getting Things Done” by David Allen: Link here
I read and re-read this over the years and it is invaluable in my ability to hand a high workload as a single person company
Notifications
The last thing we touched on was a good mental overhead clear out. Own your phone find Settings > Notifications
My advice, go through this list of Apps on your device and decided “should they have the ability to draw my attention?”
If No – disable notifications
If Yes, you usually have granular controls as to how much
I personally only have notifications on for email, phone and messages.
My communications apps ie LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Social media – only have the ability to have a “red number” on them ie. Badge. They are also all in a single folder, meaning I only have a single red badge for all notifications
This gives me clarity on what is important and notifications for things I need to see but a whole lot of digital silence elsewhere
I hope this has been helpful, I am always happy to discuss it further, schedule some time when suits you: https://FgL.ink/bookme
See you all soon!