Just a quick post from me today, but I wanted to tell you about a really great tool I've found to keep your GMail account under control. Its called Boomerang.

I'd heard about Boomerang before, but up until now had dismissed it as something that I didn't need. However, now I've had a deeper look at both Boomerang and my e-mail inbox, the features in Boomerang are really appealing to me.

So, What Is Boomerang

Boomerang connects into your GMail account or is installed as an addin for Outlook and enables you to apply GTD to your emails. Here are just some of the features:

• Defer an incoming email till later. If the email is something that you don't need right now, but you will at some stage int he future, then you can hit the boomerang button and it will dissapear from your inbox and magically appear when you specify. A tickler file for your inbox.
• Delay sending an email. Not sure how often I would use this, but if you wanted to send an email later on (for instance, you want to send a birthday email), but you know you won't have time to write it on the day it needs to go, you could write it now and defer sending it.
• Follow up reminder. There is an option to boomerang hte message back to your inbox if you don't get a response within a certain amount of time.

Ways To Use Boomerang

• So, just some of the ways I have come up with to use Boomerang:
• Work as a tickler file for tickets you have booked weeks in advance of needing them
• Remind you that you are waiting for a reply to an email you have sent
• Send emails at key times to people in different time zones

Summary

I'm really excited about Boomerang now I have had chance to install it. I need to do a big clear out of my inbox, but Boomerang coupled with heavy use of filters should hopefully keep my email inbox to zero.

I am forever losing track of emails. Now I really will be able to fire and forget, and then get reminded that I haven't had a response from a question I asked, so I can keep on top of my correspondence.

I won't need to spend an hour searching my email for all my travel and accommodation plans before I go on holiday.

If you use either Outlook or GMail, you really need to check out Boomerang and see how it can work for you.

The post Get to Inbox Zero with Boomerang appeared first on Babbling Engineer.

The majority of people would much rather be talking than listening. Unfortunately, many often exercise this preference. However, being a good listener can improve your life in a number of ways. In order to improve your listening, then read on – and stop talking at the back!

A study by Paul Rankin way back in 1929 showed that in a typical day’s communication, the average person spends:

· 45% listening

· 30% speaking

· 16% reading

· 9% writing

By improving your listening skills, you are effectively improving on almost half of your communication skills in one blast.

1. Remove All Distractions from your Head and Concentrate on the Speaker

Although often thought of as the realm of the nutty, we all have voices in our heads. James Borg, in his book Persuasion* refers to these as playing back tapes in our heads. They cover all the little preoccupations that are swimming around our minds and can be to do with thoughts, senses and emotions.

For instance, you’ve just got home from a really gruelling day at work and an incident from the day is playing on your mind. Your wife starts to talk to you about the shopping list, but you really aren’t listening because you are playing over the incident from work in your head. Because of that, you end up eating low fat, cardboard cereal for the next fortnight.

Practice taking your distractions and putting them in a box while the other person is talking about something that is important to them. It will come with practice.

The above example used is a common situation in most households. Something my other half and I do when we get in is we each vent about the day at work and things that are still weighing on our mind. We get it out of our system, while the other one listens, and then the other one takes their turn. It’s not quite as regimented as it sounds, but it does really work. It would only work, though, as long as the other one listens.

2. Distinguish Between Hearing and Listening

This is one very important point to make. So many people think they are listening, when in reality they aren’t… at least not actively listening. If you are thinking about other things while another person is talking to you, you might hear the words being spoken by the other person, but your mind isn’t processing them, because it is focussing on the afternoon’s football results. This is where mistakes happen. Take the following conversation:

Person 1: "So I’ve just realised that we need to get the car taxed. It’s due at the end of the month, which is this Friday. I don’t know how it happened."

Person 2: "uh huh"

Person 1: "You’re not listening to me are you?"

Person 2: "Yes I am, you were saying we need to tax the car. I’ll go to the post office next week."

Clearly, Person 2 could hear what was being said and recorded it on his internal tape recorder, but hadn’t processed it.  In most households, this would have resulted in a row - a row that could quite easily have beena voided if Person 2 had been listening and not just hearing.

3. Don’t Interrupt

Too many times we think we have got the full story behind what somebody is saying, before they have finished talking. It could be down to impatience, an abundance of energy, or whatever, but people will jump in with an answer to the question that they think is being asked. A lot of the time they are wrong though. A former work colleague of mine is terrible for this. He’ll hear (note, I said hear, because he isn’t listening, he is only hearing) one word or phrase in my sentence, latch onto it and take the conversation off at a tangent.

Me: “So, I was looking at your analysis of the widget and whilst it’s good that you’ve started analysing for buckling, there really wasn’t much need, as the widget rib interfaces along the web, so you could clear it off with a statement.”

Colleague: “Ah yes, the widget. I’ve been that busy analysing the flimflam brackets, that I haven’t finished the widget. Anyway, I’m halfway through the buckling calcs.”

It doesn’t leave me with a great deal of confidence in my colleague, and leaves me wondering what else he doesn’t listen to. As a result, I end up checking his calcs a lot more thoroughly than I would any other analyst.  Most of the time, they are fine, but the doubt has already been cast.

4. Don’t Finish Other People’s Sentences

This isn’t always a flaw of not listening to the other person, but more not letting them finishing. You can’t actively listen if you are putting words in their mouths. Consider the following:

Manager: “So, I’ve got a few parts here that need some stress analysis doing on them. I’d like to give them to you, but I’m worried that….”

You (interrupting): “will mess them up, like I did when I applied the wrong loads to the widget? I’ve learnt my mistake there”

Manager: “Well, I was actually going to say I was worried that you won’t have time”

If you hadn’t interrupted, your Manager may have forgotten about you messing up on your last analysis. All you did was bring it back to the forefront of his mind. Let’s hope this didn’t happen right before your appraisal.

5. Paraphrase

So far I’ve mostly talked about what not to do, in order to improve your listening abilities. One positive action to take is paraphrasing.

What do I mean by paraphrasing? Well, basically you are summarising your understanding of what the other person has said. This has several benefits:

· It shows the other person that you were listening

· It reinforces the message in your own mind (similar to writing down notes)

· If there is any misunderstanding, it gives an opportunity for it to be rectified before you go off and take action.

· You may want to ensure that the speaker has heard what they have just said, and the implications.

An example of the last point would be:

You: “So, can I just be clear what you want? Although our standard product holds 16GB of data, you only want us to supply you with 8GB of storage? You realise that this will require modification of our existing product, so will be more expensive, and will make future expansion more difficult?”

Client: “Hmmm, you have a good point there”

By actively listening to conversations, we aren’t just listening to the words, we are listening to the meaning and reasoning behind the words. By practicing active listening, we are improving communication and the nature of our business and personal lives.

The post How to Improve Your Active Listening appeared first on Babbling Engineer.

Nobody wants to be stuck in a boring meeting.  All it achieves is to suck the life out of a group of people who would otherwise be being productive at their desks.  Yet so many of meetings held are ineffective and pointless.  Here are my tips for organising a more effective meeting

Don’t Hold a Meeting

Is holding a meeting the best solution?  Before you schedule a meeting, ask yourself:

• Does this really need a face-to-face sit down with a group of people?
• Is there a better format to achieve what we need to achieve?

It reaches a point where some people spend all their time in meetings and hardly any time at their desk doing actual work.  Is that really the best use of them as a resource?

What Are the Aims of The Meeting

Now that you’ve decided that you need to hold the meeting, this is the most important step.  You need to decide what the aim of the meeting is.  If you are chairing the meeting then you need to make sure that the meeting doesn’t drift away from that focus.

It’s easy for a discussion to drift off-topic, but if it does, often the best way to deal with it is to acknowledge that there is an area that needs further discussion, but due to time, it would be best to revisit it after the other agenda items have been discussed.  Make sure you make a note and you do return to it at the end.

Write an Agenda

Once you have decided on the focus of the meeting, write down the specific items that need discussing.  Each item should have an outcome required.  Some suggested ideas for item outcome could be:

• Agree on a way forward for a particular topic
• Update and record the progress of a job (and agree the next action)
• Agree on a new team structure
• Ensure all the correct information is collated to do a particular task

This is by no means a definitive list and it is up to the organiser to visualise the ideal desired outcome.

Once the agenda has been written, it should be distributed to all the participants so that they can prepare for any agenda items that involve them.

I also find it is a good idea to make a note of how long you expect each discussion item to take.  Then you can assign a length of time to the meeting.

Write Down the Actions and Outcomes

During the meeting, make sure that any actions and outcomes that arise get written down.  These can then be distributed to the participants afterwards so that they can see what was agreed.

If something is written down then it becomes tangible.  Everybody knows what they are doing and if they don’t agree they have a chance to correct it.

Only Invite Necessary People

Have too many people in a meeting and it can soon turn into a free-for-all.  Having chaired large meetings before, I wouldn't choose to do it again if I had a choice.  Participants tend to split off into smaller discussions and if you are not careful, chaos soon ensues.

It also means more people are being kept from doing work.  Are all those people really necessary in the meeting?  Perhaps they could come in for just the sections they are needed for?

So, your mission now is to go forward and spare us all from the tedium of a poor meeting.

The post How To Organise a Really Effective Meeting appeared first on Babbling Engineer.

We are currently in the communication age.  Over the years, the number of channels of communicating with each other has increased at an astounding rate.  We can now telephone, SMS, email, Facebook, video-conference, Skype, let alone write a letter.  Its understandable that we suffer from communication overload.  One way in which we can combat that, though, is if we all learn to use the appropriate method of communication for the situation at hand.

Factors to bear in mind

There are several factors to bear in mind.  We shouldn't just randomly pick the nearest method to hand.

Length of message - Some forms of communication are better suited to short messages (e.g. SMS), whilst long messages may be better suited to letter or e-mail.

Urgency of message - Writing a letter would take longer than an email to arrive

Would multimedia (images/diagrams and/or video) benefit the message? - You can’t convey images over the telephone, but with a service such as Skype you can.

Situation of the required participants - If the people you need to communicate with are in different countries, then a face-to-face meeting is much more difficult.  Similarly, if time zones are majorly offset, then a telephone conversation might not be the best option

Is an immediate response practical, or does the receiver need time to think and/or gather information - If some information gathering is required, then an email requesting a phone call at a later date might be appropriate.  This ensures that enough information about the telephone conversation is provided.

Types of communication

E-Mail – Suitable for non-urgent and medium urgency communications, or for contacting multiple recipients.  You can also add attachments.  E-mails should ideally be kept short though.  Due to the avalanche of emails some people receive, care needs to be taken over whether email is the right form of correspondence for the recipient.  A future post will cover getting the best out of email.

Telephone – If you start to write an email and your email is expanding into an essay, it may be quicker just to pick up the phone and call the recipient.  Also, if you need to discuss / debate an issue, then this may be the most efficient.

Face To Face – Sometimes, meeting up face to face is the best option.  Sure, it may take up more time, but you connect better with the recipient.  It could be a sensitive issue, or maybe you just enjoy spending time around the other person.  Face to face meetings are much more personal.

Skype – As a happy medium, a video service, such as Skype can be that in-between ground between a telephone and face to face.  You can share files, see facial reactions and there is even a whiteboard for scribbling.  It requires both people to have signed up to the service though and to have a microphone and webcam.

SMS – SMS, or Short Messaging Service, otherwise known as text messaging, is sent through your phone and limited to 160 characters.  However, most phones and service providers now allow multiple texts to be stitched together.  This is good for short messages that need to be sent quickly.  It also gives the recipient chance to reply when they are able.  For instance, if your recipient is busy during the day, but you want to know if they are free for dinner, you could text them.  They will see straight away what you are contacting them about and will be able to reply when it is suitable for them.

Letter – Letters seem to be a dying form of communication these days.  However, it always feels that bit special to receive a letter from someone (other than the Inland Revenue!) as it shows they have taken the time to put pen to paper and walk to the post box.  However, its known as “snail-mail” for a reason!

I can't possibly cover every single form of communication in one post, it would go on for ever.  I haven't even touched on social media, instant messaging, wikis etc, but hopefully I have covered the main forms of communication and formed the foundations for future communications in your future.

If you enjoyed this post, why not share it to Facebook or Twitter using the links below?

Featured Image:  Pedro Ribeiro Simões
Day 18/365 - shehan peruma

The post Which Communication Method is Best for You appeared first on Babbling Engineer.

Conversations are an important part of our everyday life. In 1999, the US Department of Labor declared that 46% of those who quit their jobs did so because they weren't being listened to. In this article, I will discuss some of the reasons why active listening is so important.

Paulo Alegria via Compfight

We've all been there at one point or another; trying to have a conversation with someone and they constantly talk over you, or they answer a different question to the one you have just asked, or maybe they just completely ignored your question and prattled on about themselves some more. How did it make you feel? Not great, right?

We've also all been guilty of being on the other side and not listening. We could be distracted by something that’s been on our mind, we could be really excited about what we want to talk about, or we might just be generally not interested.

According to James Borg, in his book [Persuasion], we talk at a rate of 100-200 words per minute, yet we think at a rate of 600-800 words per minute. It’s no wonder that our minds wander off sometimes. However, by controlling those thoughts we can apply ourselves to the conversation we are currently having and get the best out of it.

This is known as “active Listening”, which I’m sure you have heard of before. And here is why it is an important skill to master:

Avoid Miscommunication

One of the aspects of active listening is to re-state your understanding of what was just said to you. For instance, you might be a systems engineer having a conversation with a design engineer about how a new system works:

You: “So, let me get this straight – the widget prevents the system from surges by clipping the signal if it exceeds a certain value?”

Designer: “No, it prevents surges by COMPRESSING the signal if it exceeds a certain value. This prevents high frequency artefacts caused by clipping”

Had you not checked your understanding, you would have gone off with an incorrect understanding and may have turned down a product being offered, or designed a completely redundant system around a misunderstanding.

Learn More

Wonderlane via Compfight

By actively listening in a conversation, your mind is completely on the conversation and your thoughts are all around the conversation. This enables you to come up with questions to do with the subject, which you could learn from. So, following on from the above example, you might have gone on to ask:

You: “So, how does the widget sense the signal strength, and how does it need to integrate into the existing design?”

Build Relationships

By actively listening in conversations, you are showing an interest in somebody – be it them as a person, what they are teaching, what they are selling etc. You might be talking to a friend who is going through a particularly bad patch. They are trying to tell you about something that is really bugging them. By showing an interest in their problems, asking questions about it and trying to talk them through possible solutions, your relationship will strengthen. One day, you might be in that same position and they will be more likely to return the favour.

Had you dismissed their problems and continued to prattle on about the football results from the previous night they will bottle up their problems, feel rejected and will be less likely to be as open with you in the future. So by not practising active listening, you could actually damage relationships, as well as people’s feelings.

Conclusion

I've just shown several ways in which active listening can benefit you. Have you had any experiences where active listening has improved your life? Or on the other side, have you had any experiences where things have gone wrong by not actively listening? Leave a comment below.

The post How Active Listening Will Improve Your Life appeared first on Babbling Engineer.