Don’t let random ideas interrupt your productivity
Good ideas can happen at any time – which is good and
bad. While creativity is key to competitive
advantage, you still have to maintain productivity if you want to get anything
done. David Allen goes into great detail
describing how the mind
is for having ideas, not holding them.
So, how to clear your head without losing these great ideas? I recommend the use of Quick Notes. Windows is able to call up Quick Notes from any application. You just have to use the keyboard shortcut ÿ+n (Windows key and the letter n). This will pop up a stickie-note window. Now, simply jot down the thought or idea on this note, with just enough information that you can make sense of it later – do NOT try to capture and clarify. Just capture the idea.
After capturing the idea, go back to whatever you were working
on, giving it your full attention.
Later, such as your next break or at the end of the day,
review your Quick Notes. At this time you can make an initial attempt at
clarifying the idea, expanding and filling in details such you can identify any
actions that you need to take.
Creating Quick Notes
From whatever application you are using, use ÿ+n.
Type your thought, idea or reminder on the new note.
La función de
notas de reuniones de office 365 conecta el Calendario de Outlook con Microsoft
OneNote. Sirve como una gran herramienta para prepararse antes de una reunión, guardar
elementos de acción durante la reunión y luego revisar las notas después de la
reunión.
Dentro de Microsoft Outlook, el Calendario guarda las reuniones y citas. Al seleccionar una reunión, aparece el icono de Tomar notas de la reunión en la cinta de la barra de herramientas. Si usted es el organizador de la reunión, tiene la opción de tomar notas para todos. De lo contrario, puede optar por tomar sus propias notas.
Una vez que elija
si desea compartir sus notas, Microsoft Office crea una nueva página en
OneNote. La página incluirá los detalles
de la reunión como una sección de encabezado.
Debajo del encabezado, se proporciona un espacio para tomar notas. Si tiene una tableta con lápiz, puede
utilizar este espacio para tomar notas escritas a mano.
Si alguna de las
notas requiere una acción, puede marcar ese elemento para su seguimiento
mediante la función Tareas de Outlook.
Los elementos marcados aparecerán en la lista de tareas de Outlook y en
Microsoft To Do.
La función notas de la reunión facilita la búsqueda de las notas guardadas de varias maneras. Si tiene una estructura de OneNote bastante organizada, puede, por supuesto, navegar por las carpetas de OneNote para localizar la nota. Si recuerda el tema de la reunión, los asistentes o las palabras clave, puede utilizar esta información en el campo de búsqueda de OneNote. Si sabe cuándo se celebró la reunión, probablemente la forma más fácil de encontrar las Notas de la reunión sea abrir el elemento del Calendario de Outlook y hacer clic en Notas de la reunión. Office localizará y abrirá la Nota de reunión asociada a ese elemento del Calendario. De este modo, las Notas de reunión le permiten prepararse antes de la reunión guardando sus propios elementos de debate y recordatorios. Durante la reunión, puede anotar respuestas y otros elementos de interés. Después de la reunión, puede revisar sus notas para identificar y luego marcar cualquier elemento de acción.
Creación de notas de reunión
En el Calendario de Outlook, cree o seleccione un elemento.
En la ficha Reunión, haga clic en Tomar notas de la reunión.
En la ventana emergente, elija si desea crear notas compartidas o tomar sus propias notas.
The meeting notes feature of Office 365 connects Outlook Calendar with Microsoft OneNote. It serves as a great tool for preparing prior to a meeting, capturing action items during the meeting and then reviewing notes after the meeting.
Within Microsoft Outlook, Calendar captures meetings and appointments. When you select a meeting, the Meeting Notes icon displays in the toolbar ribbon. If you are the meeting organizer, you have the option of taking notes for everyone. Otherwise, you can choose to take notes just for yourself.
Once you choose whether to share your notes, Microsoft
Office creates a new page in OneNote.
The page will include the meeting details as a header section. Below the header, a space is provided for
taking notes. If you have a tablet with
pen capabilities, you can use this space to capture handwritten notes.
If any of the notes represents an action, you can flag that
item for follow-up using the Outlook Tasks feature. Flag items will show up in the Outlook Task
list and in Microsoft To Do.
The Meeting Notes feature makes it easy to find your
captured notes in multiple ways. If you
have a fairly organized OneNote structure, you can of course browse through
your OneNote folders to locate the note.
If you recall the meeting subject, attendees or key words, you can use
this information in the OneNote Search field.
If you know when the meeting occurred, probably the easiest way to find
the Meeting Notes is to open the Outlook Calendar item and click Meeting Notes. Office will then locate and open the Meeting
Note associated with that Calendar item.
Thus, Meeting Notes allows you to prepare before the meeting
by capturing your own discussion items and reminders. During the meeting, you can capture responses
and other items of interest. After the meeting, you can review your notes to identify
and then flag any action items.
Creating Meeting Notes
In Outlook Calendar, create or select an item.
In the Meeting tab, click on Meeting Notes.
In the pop-up window, choose whether to create shared notes or to take notes on your own.
Casi todos los sistemas
de productividad recomiendan mantener una bandeja de entrada de correo
electrónico vacía, o casi vacía. La sola
idea de mover los correos electrónicos de la bandeja de entrada aterroriza a
algunas personas. Temen que nunca serán
capaces de encontrar lo que necesitan, cuando lo necesitan.
No voy a entrar
en la filosofía de la Bandeja de Entrada a Cero, ya que hay muchos sitios web
que pueden cubrir el concepto en profundidad.
Para lograr una
bandeja de entrada de tamaño manejable, recomiendo el uso de banderas de
seguimiento dentro de Microsoft Outlook.
Estas banderas permiten marcar aquellos correos electrónicos que
requieren algún tipo de acción por su parte.
Veamos un ejemplo.
Considera un
correo electrónico que recibes que tiene algunas acciones específicas que debes
realizar. Como se muestra en el vídeo, Alice tiene dos acciones que deben
realizarse. Rápidamente escanea las
acciones y determina que no se pueden realizar en menos de dos minutos. Por lo
tanto, decide abordarlas más tarde.
Para asegurarse de no dejar que estas acciones queden olvidadas, utiliza la función de seguimiento del panel de Outlook Inicio. Los valores por defecto le permiten marcarlo para Hoy, Mañana, o alguna fecha personalizada. Como necesita aclarar cuáles son exactamente las acciones, selecciona Hoy. Esto no significa que vaya a realizar las acciones hoy, pero al menos va a planear cómo va a completar estas tareas.
Una vez que
seleccione Hoy, aparecerá una bandera roja en la lista de correo electrónico
junto al panel de vista previa. Ahora
puede arrastrar el correo electrónico a su carpeta de archivos, confiando en
que podrá encontrar ese correo electrónico más tarde.
Exactamente,
¿cómo lo encontrará más tarde? Utiliza
las carpetas de búsqueda. La ventana de Nueva carpeta de búsqueda le permite buscar en
todas las carpetas de su cuenta de correo electrónico. Cuando haga clic en esa carpeta, cualquier
correo electrónico que haya sido marcado para su seguimiento aparecerá en esta
carpeta de búsqueda. (Sin embargo, mejor no empezar con el debate de Etiquetas
vs. Carpetas. Esa es una discusión para otro día).
Just about every productivity system recommends maintaining
an empty, or nearly empty, email inbox. The
very idea of moving emails out of the inbox terrifies some people. They fear they will never be able to find
what they need, when they need it.
I am not going to go into the philosophy of Inbox Zero,
as there are plenty of websites that can cover the concept in-depth.
To achieve an inbox of manageable size, I recommend the use
of follow-up flags within Microsoft Outlook.
These flags allow you to mark those emails that require some sort of
action on your part. Let’s look at an
example.
Consider an email that you receive that has some specific
actions that you need to take. As shown in the video, Alice has two actions
that need to be taken. She quickly scans
the actions and determines that they cannot be done in under two minutes. As such,
she decides to address these later.
To ensure she does not let these actions get buried, she
uses the Follow Up feature on the Outlook Home ribbon. The defaults allow you to
mark it for Today, Tomorrow, or some custom date. Since she needs to clarify
what exactly the actions are, she selects Today. This does not mean that
she is going to perform the actions today, but she is at least going to plan
how she is going to complete these tasks.
Once she selects Today, a red flag appears on the
email listing next to the Preview pane.
She can now drag the email to her Archive folder, confident she
will be able to find that email later today.
Exactly how does she find it later? She uses Search Folders. The New Search Folder dialog allows
her to search all of the folders within her email account. When she clicks on that folder, any email
that has been flagged for follow-up will appear in this search folder. (Don’t
get me started on Tags vs
Folders, though. That’s a discussion for another day.)
Creating Search Folders
In the Navigation pane, right-click on Search
Folders and choose New Search Folder…
In the Select a Search Folder dialog,
under Reading Mail, select Mail flagged for follow up.
Click OK to close the dialog box.
In the Navigation pane, expand Search Folders
to display the For Follow Up search folder.
Last year, Microsoft released To-Do which was derived from Wunderlist. The promise was all to-do’s in one place, a focus on today’s activities and integration with Office 365. I looked at it as a possible bridge for OneNote Windows 10 while that version of OneNote awaits tag search. What I found was much to-do about nothing.
Pros
To-Do offers a quick snapshot of the Tasks residing in Outlook.
Since the Tasks actually exist in Outlook, additional functionality can be found in Outlook (e.g., sorting and filtering).
My Day does allow the user to focus on just what you have chosen for today.
Cons
No reporting on the past dates. For example, if you want to review last week’s tasks for completing your time sheet, you can’t do that in To-Do (but you can do that in Outlook).
Although it can sort, the sorts available just are not that useful (but again, you can do it in Outlook).
To-Do task notes cannot include links, such as to your work notes, or a relevant web site (wait for it – Outlook!).
Essentially, if you use To-Do, you end up spreading activity management across three applications:
Focused activity list: To-Do
Notes on activities: OneNote
Review completed activities: Outlook
Right now, I can do all three in Outlook. But for other reasons, I prefer to keep everything in OneNote:
Focused activity list: OneNote
Notes on activities: OneNote
Review completed activities: OneNote
So, To-Do offered no functionality or features that were not already available in OneNote. Using To-Do means opening another window and scattering information across multiple applications. This seems to go against the rule of Keeping It Stupidly Simple.
