Today I’m presenting at the TECH cocktail Conference in Chicago, and the following is a guide to the timesaving material that will be discussed.

Whether you’re viewing this from the conference or just stopping by from elsewhere, I hope this will serve as a resource for:

1. Time-saving software tools
2. Tweaks to win back time from popular applications
3. Techniques for manufacturing time every day

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Everyone’s talking about you. Are you paying attention? If you’re a newbie this is a good starting point, and If you’re familiar with this stuff, just skip to the new part.

I’ll frame this in the context of searching both about you and your company.

There are many services out there, but I’ll focus on free ones you can set up and then forget about. I’ll also offer some ideas for what to search for.

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I know your secret because it’s mine, too: even busy, hard-working people finish everything they need to.  We (well, if you’d call me hard working) get to a point where we could do more work, but no deadline or emergency has tied us to our desks.   The best thing in this circumstance is to leave work and do something else.

The fact that I have to spell this out and even write this post is the problem.  Face it: many of us are little worker bees who don’t feel right about taking a break during traditional business hours.

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Though it’s the best time of the year to be outside here in DC,  fresh air comes in many other forms.  Surrounding yourself with that is what keeps me breathing easier–and generally sane.  So what the heck am I talking about–and how do you find it?
 

Fresh air for me has many names,

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The only thing that bothers me more than unprofessional email is the junk that people write in them when they’re reaching out to me. So I’m going to address how to write a professional email to someone you have little or no relationship with.

Those who follow half these rules will get a prompt personal response from me–and they’ve always worked for me. So read on, give it a shot, and maybe you’ll land that new client/job/hottie you’ve had your eye on.

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Keeping in touch isn’t good enough.  Social media improves the quantity of connections but not necessarily the quality of relationships.  So how do you build a real friendship with people you don’t see regularly?

You create presence.  This concept has long helped me in romantic relationships but it’s equally relevant with friends and colleagues.  I want to address this for three reasons:

1. I see people using social media as a replacement for other forms of relationship building.  It is a vehicle for keeping in touch, not a destination
2. Keeping in touch is different than presence–both easier and more difficult
3. I’ve just returned from the School of Blogging Conference and I want to hold onto some of those folks (#sobcon08)

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Three quarters of the meetings that “merit a face-to-face” really don’t. It’s not “telecommuting” (that’s so 1997) and it shouldn’t even be called “working remotely”–it’s just WORKING. I’m putting my foot down and removing any distinction. Working from home has greatly improved my business, my sanity, and my life. So I’m opening up the kimono here on my tools. No, you don’t need to come in, you can read this from anywhere in the world.

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A pet peeve of mine is receiving unprofessional email–but I realize there’s no easy way to learn the subtleties. I’m not talking about email content, but how you format and configure it. This stuff is visible to your recipients and easy to fix. If you’re not familiar with this, then that’s the point–I hope you’ll read on to improve how your email reflects upon you.

Next week I’ll tackle the much harder topic of the email content, but for now…

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Why is it that in school we always got our work in on time? We had outside pressure. If you have unfinished projects, commitment is often the missing ingredient.

Learn 7 commitment hacks that’ll get your project done. I guest-posted this article at Dumb Little Man: 
 

–> CLICK HERE to read this article on Dumb Little Man <–

This article is the third in a series on Everyday Productivity…

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Actually it’s curiosity that prevented him from ever becoming one. There are formulas, many formulas for spreading your message or building a personal brand online. These formulas actually work, but not if you let curiosity be the death of you first. Here you’ll find advice on spending your time a little more wisely on the internet so that you find your formula and stick with it.

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