The 3 Books You Need To Read (Part 2)

Here we are in the middle. I hope everyone gets a chance to look at my first book suggestion, even if you have to go to the library take a quick look through one of Dale C's books. 

So on to book number two, “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. This book is a must for anyone who is trying to get organized, or anyone who has to use there brain for there job. Unless you’re bagging fries, this book will be a great asset to you at work and at home. 

The key to understanding this book and it’s method of organizing is realizing that you;

A/ Can’t remember anything without writing it down in its proper place

B/ The worst thing you can do for your stress level is try and keep a mental list of anything

C/ You shouldn't agree to anything you probably don't have time to complete

The book also gets a little deeper into what things you should be doing in the different roles out of your life. It doesn't just tell you how to organize things but it gives you ideas regarding which areas of your life you should be looking for "Action Items.” An action item is anything that you need to do. Email your boss , cut the grass, call your mother are ell examples of “Action Items.” If an action item has more than one step than it needs to be a project , for instance "call you boss" could be a single on action item about calling your boss to tell him you want vacation time in July. If you don't know exactly when you need time off , you may need to turn it into a project with multiple action items (see below).

Mini Project - Book vacation time with boss 

1. email wife to see what time she has off work 

2. email other coworkers to see if your vacation has any conflicts

3. email HR to see how many vacation days we have left 

4. call friend Bob to get the name of that resort that he stayed in last year 

5. login to air miles site and check balance 

6 email gramma about watching kids for a week in July 

As you can see a one step action item can turn into a multi action project with 5 different people involved. 

This book will really help you GET THINGS DONE. Its available in audio book and paper back.  It is a must read for any one who needs to sort through the piles of information and to-dos and emails that are all wanting there attention. 

I personally have been using this method since 2008 and have found it irreplaceable. 

Aaron Weir
Leadwave Technologies Inc.
www.leadwave.ca
(519)704-1463

3 Books You Need To Read (Part 1)

I was about half way through my Dale Carnegie course in 2004 when I really began to see the value in his books. I started to see how the course and the books were helping shape my personality. It was easier to deal with people and a lot of personal conflicts were avoided. My work and personal relationships were easier to handle , people seemed to get along with me. The book I would suggest you read is How To Win Friends and Influence People, and here’s why.

It was about this time that I started to think about my Grandfather. He had passed away a few years before and a lot of what I was learning in the course reminded me of him. In the books and the course you will be told that complaining does not really do anything positive. That really hit home to me because i was always amazed at how, although my Grand Father lay almost completely parallelized , fighting a slow death from ALS, he never complained. 

I remembered waking up at 7:30 am to go to work, at the time I lived in my Grandfathers basement , I would come up the stairs and he would be sitting in his chair by the window. He would tell me what the weather would be like today , he would tell me about a bird he saw for the first time , but he would never complain and he would always be positive. 

An even earlier memory was working for my Grandfathers company when I was a teenager. Before he got sick he ran a large electrical company. During his busiest times he had up to 300 employees. I remember he had a sore wrist from signing so many pay checks. He didn't complain. He told me it was a good problem to have and that it came with success, not failure. He was the first into the office everyday. He took the time to meet with his guys every morning before they went off to see clients. A few years after that, he retired and a few years after that, he was diagnosed with ALS. It was a long and painful ordeal, and he handled it with grace. 

Soon the course I was taking was coming to an end and I was preparing my final speech. I had decided to talk about my Grandfather, what he had taught me, and how it meshed with what I was learning from Dale Carnegie. I had decided to go through my Grandpas office closet and maybe bring a picture of him or maybe a news paper article about him. What I found instead was a Diploma from the 1960's , it was my Grandfathers and it read " Robert Ferns has successfully completed the Dale Carnegie Course."

I hope you get a chance to read any of Dale Carnegie books , they have made a lasting impression in my life.

Aaron Weir
Leadwave Technologies Inc.
www.leadwave.ca 
(519)704-1463

Are You Ready For The Cloud?

One of the major buzz words of 2011 has been "The Cloud". The trend is sure to grow even more in 2012. People talk about having there documents on the cloud or there backup on the cloud or there email on the cloud. Well what are they really talking about?

You prolly guess the cloud refers to something internet based, to put it simply cloud services is any service that you access over the Internet where your data is stored on a server somewhere connected to the Internet. If you use Hotmail or Gmail you are basically using a cloud service for your email. If your home computer crashes you wont loose any of your emails because they are on the cloud not on your local PC.

Lets look at some of the other benefits to using Cloud or Internet based applications or services with this example. Quickbooks is a popular accounting program and they released a cloud version many years ago , you upload your data to there servers and then you use your accounting application from a web browser instead of a program window on your computer. Since your using a simple web browser to access your accounting service you can log on at your office and then work from home and log on using your home PC. The software does not need to be loaded on every PC you want to use. Your data would also be backed up by the company offering you the service. Another benefit is that you wouldn't have to download any updates or tax tables , companies that offer cloud based accounting applications are constantly upgrading and tweeking things in the back ground. The need for yearly software upgrades or quarterly tax updates are gone. Scalability is also much easier with cloud based apps , you need one user setup , they can do that in a day , you need twenty more users, ready tomorrow.The beauty of the cloud is you pay for what you need , it could be one user or one hundred users.

So what are the drawbacks of using cloud services? There are not a lot of drawbacks to using the cloud. Cloud services are designed to make things better not worse. One drawback to using the cloud to store large amounts of data (like for your companies backup) is that it can take a long time to download all the data. That is why I would suggest having a local and also cloud backup.  One other drawback of the cloud is that you or your company is really at the mercy of the company providing the cloud service. If there servers go down you have to wait for them to make the necessary repairs or changes to get backup and running. Researching cloud services thoroughly before switching a business critical service to is a must!

The cloud is here to stay , so you might as well get your feet wet. I would suggest using some free cloud services to get started , Google docs is a great place to start (www.google.com\docs). I also personally use Evernote (www.evernote.com) everyday, it is a free service to store notes , pictures , documents , web pages and sound clips. I even used it to write this article !


Aaron Weir
Leadwave Technologies Inc.
www.leadwave.ca 
(519)704-1463