Fresh Focus On Productivity!™

Welcome back!

Mozy has a great deal going this November:

10% off MozyHome Unlimited

That’s a great deal for a software that is reliable and one of the least expensive services around.

What is Mozy?

Mozy is a secure online backup service. It’s a simple, smart, and economical way to protect your data from hazards like file corruption, accidental deletion, or hardware failure. Mozy regularly backs up your files to our secure servers automatically so that you never have to worry about losing important data.

There are three versions of Mozy: MozyHome, MozyPro, and MozyEnterprise. As the names imply, MozyHome is designed for individual users, MozyPro is designed for business users, and MozyEnterprise is designed for corporations. Whether you want to back up just a few megabytes of personal files and photos, or you want to back up several terabytes of sensitive company data, Mozy has a solution that is just right for you.

I use Mozy myself and have featured it in a Fresh Focus post at this link. It’s got many virtues over the other online services, and it’s detailed in that article. And you know what? It starts at only $4.95 a month! How low is that!?

So if you are interested, please click the banner in this post: it’s only available through Mozy affiates and It’s only this month, so catch it before it expires! Remember to add the coupon code “NOVEMBER” at checkout!

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You've read the series, now get the E-Book! Special EXTRA material not included in the blog series, plus three FREE templates!! Templates included are Time Management Matrix, Goal worksheet, and The Completion Journal. Only $24.99 for the book!


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As I have mentioned previously (yes, tantalizing you), I found a new project management “cloud” application. Below is my first screencast (w00t!) that is a brief introduction to clockingit.com. This will be a multi-part series, as I want to be able to go into detail with you about clockingit.com and it’s features. Please view the screencast below, and be gentle on me! This is my very first one ever!

Click on the “Fullscreen” icon in the video control bar in order to enable fullscreen mode. Pressing the ESC key will exit you out of fullscreen mode. Comments and critiques are welcome!

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You've read the series, now get the E-Book! Special EXTRA material not included in the blog series, plus three FREE templates!! Templates included are Time Management Matrix, Goal worksheet, and The Completion Journal. Only $24.99 for the book!


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If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, Haddad’s Theorem, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Business management thinker Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy went to 20% of the population. It is a common rule of thumb in business; e.g., “80% of your sales comes from 20% of your clients.”

So with that thought in mind, I am going to lead a multi-part series on time management.

We will cover such topics as:

• Stomping out procrastination
• Mind Dump
  • Processing the dump
• Categorization of tasks
  • Email sorting/GTDInbox for Gmail
  • Using Microsoft OneNote in your daily life
    • Setting up your main NoteBook
    • Sharing Notebook/ Synchronization
  • Prioritizing / Scheduling
    • Action Priority Matrix
  • Setting your Goals and Keeping Them / SMART Methodology
  • The Completion Journal

  Since starting my path to organization, I have discovered tip and tricks to accomplish tasks in both my daily life and my personal life. One goal is to implement the paperless office. My first tool in this goal is to purchase a great scanner. The mizer in me has procrastinated because of the cost: the one that I would like to have is quite pricey, but a good investment nonetheless.

  Each topic will cover the methods that I use, in addition to methods gleaned from other popular blogs and websites. While I do not claim to be an expert in any of the above mentioned topics, I can relate to you my processes, successes and failures and what is available to you to get to the ultimate goal in your life: whether it be perfectly organized, excellent skills, how to make a to-do list, or just how to get the ball rolling! Through this journey, I’m sure that we will all learn new things and share great ideas.

  Stay tuned for the start of this series. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts and comments!

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You've read the series, now get the E-Book! Special EXTRA material not included in the blog series, plus three FREE templates!! Templates included are Time Management Matrix, Goal worksheet, and The Completion Journal. Only $24.99 for the book!


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If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Once your computer runs for 6 months or a year, it is a good idea to format. I do this frequently, and have my re-install done, complete with software, in about three hours. Here’s my list of must-install applications.

My first two installs are Intellipoint and the Intellitype drivers. I have a Microsoft
Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000. I have used ergonomic keyboards for years and both of the models I have owned have been MS products. I like all the configurable buttons along the top that I can use to link to my own applications or webpages. I use an old five button optical mouse that I can configure through the Intellipoint software even though it isn’t an MS mouse, it’s a GE.

My next installation is True Launch Bar: it is a superior replacement for the standard Quick Launch bar. All functions presented in Quick Launch are also in True Launch Bar. However, the True Launch Bar is fully compatible with Quick Launch because it uses the same folder for shortcuts. But there is one huge difference

True Launch Bar allows you to combine your shortcuts into groups. This feature looks like popup menus. This vastly improves the management of your shortcuts and save working space on your desktop. By using True Launch Bar, you speed up the launching of your applications like never before. Since I’ve been using Windows Vista, and they have removed the ability to dock and auto-hide the task bar, I’ve had to find a replacement. True Launch Bar fits the void and more. It supports transparency in Vista, is skinnable, has icon size options, and so much more. You can link to folder and have an expandable menu, or have buttons that launch bars within True Launch Bar. True Launch Bar costs $19.90.

Next comes my firewall: PC Tools Firewall Plus. It is a super simple but very powerful firewall. And it doesn’t hurt that it is FREE.

PC Tools Firewall Plus is a powerful free personal firewall for Windows® that protects your computer by preventing unauthorized users from gaining access to your computer through the Internet or a network. By monitoring applications that connect to the network Firewall Plus can stop Trojans, backdoors, keyloggers and other malware from damaging your computer and stealing your private information.

PC Tools Firewall Plus is advanced technology designed especially for people, not just experts. Powerful prevention against attacks and known exploits is activated by default while experienced users can optionally create their own advanced packet filtering rules, including IPv6 support, to customize the network defenses. All you need to do is install it for immediate and automatic ongoing protection. I’ve used it ever since my Vista beta days, and have found it to be just what I need in the way of power and simplicity.

Anti-virus is a sure piggy-back to a firewall, and in tandem they protect my system stealthily. Avast! is a great FREE anti-virus.

avast! Home Edition is now free of charge for HOME users for NON-COMMERCIAL use. You can find more information here. If you are not a home user, or you use your computer for profit, the avast! Home Edition is not licensed for such use, and you are asked to use the commercial version – avast! Professional Edition.

To use the Home Edition, you should register it, however, after initial installation you have 60 days to trial the product (as with all avast! antivirus products) before you must complete registration. The registration process is very easy, and will take you only a couple of minutes. All the setup packages are in the form of self-extracting executables and are digitally signed by ALWIL Software.

I’ve tried to wean myself off of the megalomaniac apps like MS Office and go strictly free and/or open-source. Toward that end I have implemented Open Office as my office suite. OpenOffice.org is a FREE multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute. OpenOffice.org is both a fully-featured office suite compatible with leading office products, and a virtual community working through OpenOffice.org’s numerous projects. The community comes together at www.openoffice.org to develop, support, and promote the use of OpenOffice.org. So far the implementation is going well. I have only used Writer (Word) and Calc (Excel) and can say that I like both. I have a few learning curves with it, but if it weans me off the large apps, I take that curve and apply it to good use!

Trillian Astra is another program that I am beta testing as well. It is in closed beta right now, but the last latest released version comes in both a standard and Pro version, Pro having more features than the standard version. Trillian™ is a fully featured, stand-alone, skinnable chat client that supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC. It provides capabilities not possible with original network clients, while supporting standard features such as audio chat, file transfers, group chats, chat rooms, buddy icons, multiple simultaneous connections to the same network, server-side contact importing, typing notification, direct connection (AIM), proxy support, encrypted messaging (AIM/ICQ), SMS support, and privacy settings.

Trillian provides unique functionality such as contact message history, a powerful skinning language, tabbed messaging, global status changes (set all networks away at once), Instant Lookup (automatic Wikipedia integration), contact alerts, an advanced automation system to trigger events based on anything happening in the client, docking, hundreds of emoticons, emotisounds, shell extensions for file transfers, and systray notifications. Trillian costs $25 or is free with Trialpay.

Currently I vacillate between using Thunderbird for email and using the web interface for GMail. I use the web interface at work all day long, so I’m getting to the point that I am liking that better than using an email client. If I do use TBird, I use Gmail in IMAP mode to keep the emails synchronized.

This is the last application I install in Revo Uninstaller. Revo Uninstaller helps you to uninstall and remove unwanted programs installed on your computer even if you have problems uninstalling and cannot uninstall them from “Windows Add or Remove Programs” control panel applet.

Revo Uninstaller is much faster and more powerful alternative to “Windows Add or Remove Programs” applet! With its advanced and fast algorithm, Revo Uninstaller analyzes an application’s data before uninstall and scans after you uninstall an application. After the program’s regular uninstaller runs, you can remove additional unnecessary files, folders and registry keys that are usually left over on your computer. Even if you have a broken installation, Revo Uninstaller scans for an application’s data on your hard disk drives and in the Windows registry and shows all found files, folders and registry keys so you can delete them.

With its unique “Hunter mode“, Revo Uninstaller offers you some simple, easy to use, but effective and powerful approaches to manage (uninstall, stop, delete, disable from auto starting) and to get information about your installed and/or running programs. Revo Uninstaller is FREE.

This is my minimum installation on a new install. It takes me about three hours and goes by lickety-split! Out of all these applications, only two require purchase: True Launch Bar & Trillian™, aside from the operating system. Quite an inexpensive way to go to have a great running system!

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You've read the series, now get the E-Book! Special EXTRA material not included in the blog series, plus three FREE templates!! Templates included are Time Management Matrix, Goal worksheet, and The Completion Journal. Only $24.99 for the book!


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