Time to Help Yourself

For many offices today, the atmosphere has changed. There are fewer employees which is causing stress on the remaining employees.

Some people are feeling stress trying to keep their jobs.
Some people are feeling stress from the additional workload of working in an office with fewer people.

OK, so let’s all take a collective deep breath – we can get through this.

Remember, your talent is what got you hired in the first place, and you have NOT lost that.

So how can you lower your stress now that things are changing? What tools are available to you to help you get your job done?

Your computer.

There are many things that your software could be doing for you that will help save you time and reduce your stress.

Take just a few minutes to think about the things you do every day. How many of your tasks are repetitive? How often do you have to HUNT for information in the computer?

Now, make an educated guess as to how much time this takes.

There is a good chance that you can save that time with only a few minor modifications or customizations to your software. The good news is that you don’t have to be a programmer to accomplish this. It may just take a few minutes to make these changes.

Okay ready? Use the Help feature. Really.

Many of today’s software will give you step-by-step procedures to follow to accomplish what you want. Type in what you wish your software was doing for you, and see what comes back in the results. If it is not what you need, select another one, or try rephrasing your search using fewer words.

Searching the help, and even the Internet, does take a bit of thought. Just because you would phrase your need in a certain way does not mean other people do the same. Consider alternative ways of saying the same thing, or maybe just a single word.

For example, say you want to stop MS Word 2007 from making the first word on every new line capital (because you can’t even remember how many times you have had to change it back).

If you search for “line begins with capital” the results start with two videos about extra spaces and horizontal lines. Now, if you search for “capital” the first two results talk about capitalization in text. A much closer match to what we were looking for.

Make the time to help yourself now to save time later. A few minutes here and there add up, and can give you more time to think, act, or just breath in the office.

Ellen DePasquale – The Software Revitalist™