In my role as technology consultant I often have the experience of watching people using their computers and smart phones.

I see them wrestle and wrangle their way through Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, often without much finesse and even more often with a great deal of struggle.

Take this example from a few days ago:

One of our clients has a new staff member and during a site visit she asked me how to copy and paste data between their database and their accounting package.

“Obvious!” You cry – but not in this case.

You see in their Infinite wisdom the accounting package chose to disable the right mouse button Cut/Copy/Paste menu so it appeared as though these operations were not possible.

But all is not lost. These functions are still available via the keyboard.

Enter the CTRL key.

Using the mouse is an easy way to use a computer but it is not necessarily the most efficient.

If you’ve ever watched someone using a computer who is an expert you may have noticed that they rarely use the mouse.

Why? Because it takes a (relatively) long time to move your hand from the keyboard to the mouse and back again.

Instead they’ve learned the keyboard shortcuts to make them more efficient – and you can too.

Cut/Copy/Paste can now be performed using Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V respectively.

So to copy from the database to the accounting package our new staff member can:

• highlight the text they want,
• press the CTRL and C key together to copy the text to the clipboard,
• select the field in the accounting software, and
• press CTRL and V to paste the text

Voila! Simple when you know how.

But I promised you 4 keys and here is the last one: CTRL-Z – undo.

If every you’ve made a mistake typing, before you delete it all and start again, try pressing Ctrl-Z. It might save you some time by undoing the last thing you did.

And this doesn’t just apply to typing. In Word, for example, it could be changing the font or the page margins, or applying bullet points or any number of other operations.

And it doesn’t just apply to Word. These keystrokes will work in most Windows applications (and there are equivalents for Mac and Linux users too).

Want to be even more productive? Jump on Google and search for keyboard shortcuts and the name of your program. For example keyboard shortcuts excel - you’ll be amazed at what is available.

Got your own shortcuts? Feel free to share them below…

But before i continue why should you care?

Well because I think we can help you.

The days of businesses just building websites are now a fading memory.

With business owners catching on to the idea that their website is more than just an online brochure we are starting to have interesting discussions with potential and existing clients about how a website can benefit their businesses.

For example, when we talk about search engine optimisation (SEO), people think it is expensive but we know of people spending thousands of dollars a month on SEO.

Why? Because they make that back and more with a properly set up and executed campaign.

It does take a while to get started but even within 3 short months you should start to see some traction from your invested dollars.

This is your website ROI (return on investment) in action, and this is still a relatively new idea to many business owners.

Have you considered how your website can actively make you money?

Can you sell directly to your customers via an online store?
Can you provide more information so your leads are better qualified?
Can you offer hints and tips bout your products and services to position you as an expert?

These are 3 simple ways your website can increase your bottom line, someone of them without any additional outlay if you have the right kind of website.

Drop us an email if you’d like to know more or call the office on 08 9200 4431 to discuss your requirements today.

From company registrations to motor vehicle licences to employee certifications there are a plethora of things to remember to comply with.

How do you manage?

Is it in an Excel spreadsheet?
Or do you store them all in Outlook?
Or a part of a broader whole-of-business system?

Is it shared? Or is it on one PC where everyone has to ask the owner for access?

And most importantly, is it active or passive?
Does it remind you when things a due?
Or do you have to open it each day to get a list of items to attend to?

Or do you just trust to luck that someone sends you the appropriate paperwork?

This last option is not such a good idea as we discovered recently.

Our cars were registered at our old office address but we’ve moved both the business and our home in the last 12 months and even though we had used the online services, since these were company vehicles, the paperwork went to the old business addresses.

Presumably they with got binned by the new tenant or returned to sender where they were subsequently discarded because they never reached us.

Time passed. Registrations lapsed. More time passed.

And then the worst thing that could happen did: 2 days before Christmas one of the vehicles was stopped and the driver advised that the vehicle was not licensed. Turns out it hadn’t been for 3 months and so now needed a vehicle inspection, as did the other vehicle.

The vehicle licensing centres were fully booked so the suggested using a mechanic to carry out the check. Do you know how many mechanics a open on Christmas eve? Not many!

Anyway we managed to get one car sorted out before Christmas but it was not without its stresses so this just highlighted for us how useful an active compliance and registration reminder system is.

Even a simple Excel spreadsheet that lives on your server, is opened daily via a scheduled task and sends notification emails is better than nothing.

Do you have something in place?

The course was a Practitioners Introduction to Holacracy which is a kind-of GTD for businesses, and in fact it included a half day session on GTD (Getting Things Done by David Allen) for personal productivity.

And it was at the end of this half hour that the penny dropped!

You see I had been introduced to GTD by a friend of mine and I saw the benefits so I tried it out but couldn’t make it work. And then at this training i struck gold…the weekly review.

You see GTD is about have a single trusted system for everything that you have to do; EVERYTHING!!

And I did that to the larger part but still I wasn’t any more productive.

And then at the Holacracy training Brian, our instructor, starts talking about the weekly review and how important it is to keep things moving and to stop your list stagnating.

Oh! My! God! Talk about a light bulb moment! Archimedes would’ve leapt out of the bath for this one too!

The weekly review! I didn’t remember reading that but when I went back to the GTD book there it was in plain sight! How could I have missed it and yet I did! Oh happy days!

Since then my GTD practice has improved considerably. I wouldn’t consider myself proficient yet but I’m getting there and most times when someone asks me where something is I can tell them.

Happy days!

But I didn’t write this about Holacracy or GTD; this post is about the missing parts. The things we omit, intentionally or other wise, that undermine our entire system.

I saw an interesting parallel between my GTD experience and the typical business and their technology implementation.

It looks something like this: we’ve all been told how computers save us time and money in our businesses so we go out and buy the latest and greatest gear full of hopes and high expectations.

We load it up with Microsoft Office and MYOB and proudly unveil it to our staff convinced that everyone will be able to leave on time or even early with all their work completed meticulously.

But it doesn’t take long for reality to creep in.

Things don’t take less time; they take more time. Staff are working past knocking off time and some are even working from home to catchup on their workload.

And then your IT consultant tells you that there’s new versions of everything and you need to upgrade every piece of software you purchased, and “are you backing up” he asks innocently (are you??)

And that’s when decay sets in. The magnificent workhorses you bought are now the proverbial albatross; an anchor around your neck.

And your staff are unhappy – they take longer to do the same work because they’re using systems they don’t fully understand and have to do the same things 2 or 3 times on 2 or 3 different program’s.

Suddenly, business isn’t as much fun as it was – stupid computers…

But there is some good news.

Just like my experience with GTD, your dreams of productivity on the workplace are only a step,or 2 away.

First of all, did you send your staff on training?

It’s not enough to just buy them some software; get them trained professionally – it’ll be worth ever cent. And chances are the first batch of trainees will learn something simple, like undo (Ctrl+Z), which quill save people hours when they accidentally delete a whole bunch of text which they then diligently re-type.

Secondly, you do need to keep up to date. New releases of software typical fix or eliminate problems with previous versions so it is important that you do keep up to date.

And, yes, sometimes you will need to upgrade your PCs too. You can’t be productive running the latest versions of Windows and Office on a PC from 1998. You might as well go back to paper and ledger book.

And finally, find out if you program’s can all to each other. This is also called “integration”.

For example, did you know that Outlook and MYOB can share contacts? So why do you want to enter them twice and possible misspell a client’s name?

We’ve worked with clients in this area in the past where their database talks to MYOB.

it adds clients and jobs in MYOB when they are created in the database so there are no errors and time can be booked to the client immediately.

Now this will all cost some money but our experience with or client that the investment is well worth it as it means they get the job done more efficiently saving them time and they can often take on new clients without additional staff as everyone is so much more productive.

Couldn’t you use some of this your business?

If you’re not sure where to start, call us now on 08 9200 4431 and we can talk about your specific requirements.

Congratulations to Ben and the team for an outstanding effort!!

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