The Legal Pad

Multitasking is a BIG FAT Lie

Today, I’m going to present you with a challenge. It may be difficult for you. It might even shake you up a bit. We’ll see. Before we begin, if you’re doing something else while you’re reading this -- you’ll have to stop. This requires your full attention. Okay, are you ready? Read on…

We’ll begin with a question. Think before you answer. Focus. Here it is: Are you pretty good at multitasking? 

If you answered in the affirmative -- Hah! -- Wrong answer. You just think you are. You bought into a lie. You’ll need to continue reading. If you answered “no” to the question -- Congratulations! You get a gold star! You can stop reading and go do something else. 

In Dave Crenshaw’s book entitled, The Myth of Multitasking, he writes there are three consequences of multitasking. (1) tasks take longer, (2) mistakes increase, and (3) stress levels increase. 

Here’s an illustration of what happens when people try to multitask: I was picking up a few items at a store. I walked up to check out and there was a lady in front of me. I watched as she handed the clerk a coupon for one of her items. The clerk told the lady she thought one of the other things she planned to buy might also have a coupon and she told the lady she’d get the sales flyer and check that for her. As she reached for the flyer, the phone rang. She had a conversation with the caller in the middle of the first transaction. The lady and I stood there -- captive -- and waited.

The phone customer must’ve had a question about an advertised sale item because the clerk told the caller she would check. She already had the flyer in her hand, remember? She looked at it, gave the person on the phone a price of an item, and then said, “You’re welcome,” and hung up. She apologized to the lady who had to wait, rang up the rest of her purchases, gave her the total, and the lady started to write a check.

A break in the action. To the clerk, I said, “It’s hard to do two things at once, isn’t it?” The clerk said, “Oh no! I’m a great multitasker. I can do seven different things at once and I’m really good at it!” I didn’t say a word but you know what I was thinking, don’t you? 

The store clerk took the lady’s check, gave her a receipt, her bagged items, and said, “Thank you.” The lady started to walk away. Meanwhile, the cashier started to scan the items I had. In the middle of that, the first lady came back, interrupted the clerk and said, “You forgot. You were going to see if one of the things I bought had a sale coupon.” Oops. 

The clerk hesitated for just a moment. I could tell she was trying to recall. She told the lady she was sorry and that as soon as she was finished with me, she’d look for that coupon. The lady stood there. The clerk told me the amount I owed her. I paid the clerk, she gave me my receipt, the things I purchased, and she reached for that flyer again.

Obviously, the store clerk who said she was such a great multitasker -- was mistaken. Her tasks took longer, her mistakes increased, and so did her stress level. I’m pretty sure the lady who was in front of me experienced an increase in her stress level too. Trying to do more than one thing at a time is just not an efficient use of your time. You just think it is.

In our attempts to get more things done -- at work -- at home -- or wherever we are -- multitasking can result in some unintended consequences. Just ask the woman who was at a mall -- walking and texting at the same time -- who fell into a fountain. Or the guy who was walking down the street, texting on his phone when he walked right into a pole. Multitasking with unintended consequences.

Since when did it become acceptable to be rude to your co-workers, your customers, your clients, your office support person, or the attorney you work for? Rude? We don’t intentionally set out to be rude to others --but sometimes -- that’s exactly what multitasking does.

Ever been in the middle of a conversation in a co-worker's office and they stop to check their email? 

In a meeting with a number of other people when you notice someone is fiddling with their phone? The person who is paying attention to their phone is no longer paying attention to what’s happening in the meeting. 

You’re talking on the phone with a client. You’re typing something while you’re listening to the client’s story. Suddenly, you realize there’s silence. What happened? The client asked you a question but you missed it. 

You’re attending an out-of-town conference, heading into the first scheduled meeting. As you’re walking into the room, you see a sign on the door that tells you to turn off your phone. It’s common courtesy. You turn off your phone. You sit down, reach for your laptop and turn it on. The lecture begins. You think it’s a great opportunity to work on that document you started earlier. 

In all those examples, the common thread is rudeness. The person who checked their email in the middle of a conversation was rude to their co-worker. The person fiddling with their phone was rude to everyone in the meeting. The person who was typing and talking on the phone to their client was rude to the client. The person who turned off their cellphone but worked on their laptop was rude to the conference speaker.

Those examples are not unusual. Things like that happen all the time and now that’s “normal” behavior. Wait a minute. If that’s normal behavior, then when did being rude to others become acceptable? 

Still convinced you’re a pretty good multitasker? No, you aren’t. You just think you are. Try doing just one thing at a time. You might find that you actually do save time, make fewer mistakes, and your stress level will go down. What do you have to lose? How about the bonus of avoiding the embarrassment of being called out for being rude?

A Chance Encounter

It was a chance encounter -- one of those Celestine Prophecy moments that happen now and again. I was in the right place, at the right time, with the right need. A seemingly casual conversation with a lady I didn't know -- turned into something extraordinary.

It began with a phone call. My youngest daughter told me she had some good news and some bad news. My stomach turned. The good news was she went skiing; she had a great time, and was lookin' good in her new outfit. The bad news was that she fell. She broke her foot in three places, tore the ligaments, and she'd have to have surgery. She couldn't handle this by herself, so I drove to Baltimore to help.

Her bedroom and bathroom are on the second floor. The main floor consists of a living room, dining room, kitchen and a half-bath. We'd have to move some furniture. We'd probably have to rent a hospital bed and figure out where to put it. A light bulb! One of her roommates remembered he had a box-spring and mattress in the basement. He brought it upstairs and it went into the dining room. No need to rent a bed now. Problem solved.

By the time I arrived, she was getting around pretty good on crutches. Being drugged to the max after surgery would make it difficult for her to use just the crutches. She was going to need a walker. No one knew anyone who had one. It would be impossible to find a medical supply store that was open on a Sunday afternoon. Okay. That's a problem. We'd have to figure out what to do later.

She had to have some groceries and other supplies. Better get those now. All I needed was a list and directions to the grocery store. There was a big discussion about how to get there. I left with sketchy directions. Go to the light. Make a left. Go maybe three or five miles or so. You'll see the Broadway Diner. Get in the left lane; make a left at the light. It's right there. You can't miss it. I was totally out of my element -- driving in the pouring rain -- in an unfamiliar city. I was surprised it was so easy to find the store.

I parked the car and went in with my list. I was wet from the rain. The cart I grabbed had a bad wheel. I didn't know the lay-out. It took me a long time to find everything I needed. I was distracted. I was still stewing about how to find a walker. By the time I got to the check-out line, I was worn out.

There were two young women in front of me in the line. The store clerk and the women were chit-chatting about some restaurant. I was busy unloading all the stuff from the cart. I wasn't paying close attention. After they left, the checker asked me if I'd put the "This Aisle Closed" sign at the end of the conveyor. I did.

As she was ringing up the groceries, she asked me if I knew about that restaurant. No, I told her, I didn't. I told her I didn't live there and that I was just visiting.

She looked back at the huge mound of groceries and said, "Oh? It looks like you're going to be visiting for quite a while." She got me. We connected. I laughed and told her she was right. She asked me where I was from and what I was doing there. I told her the story.

She was very sympathetic and said she was sorry to hear about our situation. Then she told me that she, too, had broken her foot. It was a difficult time for her. She needed lots of help. She wondered if we had all the equipment -- a hospital bed, a walker, crutches, etc. I told her about the makeshift arrangement we made in the dining room and that my daughter had crutches.

She asked if I had a walker for her. I told her no, not yet. She said she had one. She said she'd be glad to lend it to me for as long as my daughter needed it. She could bring it with her when she came into work. I could pick it up after the surgery. She said she'd give me her cell phone number and told me to call her. She wanted me to let her know how the surgery went and afterwards, I could come to the store to get the walker.

She told me later on, my daughter would need a rolling walker to get around and she had one of those too. She'd be happy to lend her that one as well. She looked at me and asked, "Would that help you?"

I was stunned. It took me a few minutes to comprehend what just happened. I had been so worried about finding a walker and suddenly -- a total stranger -- stepped into my life out of the blue and took care of that for me. I couldn't believe it. She blew me away.

My Good Samaritan's name is Mary Barbara. I accepted her generous offer. Having those two walkers has made all the difference in my daughter's recovery.

The next time a total stranger strikes up a conversation with you -- you'll remember this story. Don't be surprised if something unexpected happens. Sometimes, good things happen when you least expect them. You, too, may be a recipient of a stranger's random act of kindness. Even better -- you may have an opportunity to be a Good Samaritan to someone else in need.

 

 

Taking A Break Is Serious Business

The other day I experienced one of those classic, "I've had just about enough of this" kind of days. A potential client called to be referred to an attorney. By the time that person got to me, they were frustrated to the max. I asked them to tell me a little bit about what's going on in the hopes that together we could figure out what I could do to help. The flood gates opened. Sometimes folks just need an ear -- someone to listen. Other times, all my skills go right out the window. It's as if the planets align or the moon phase is at a critical point and that person winds up hollering or cursing because they find themselves in a situation I can't fix for them. When I've had a few of those calls back-to-back, or a particularly nasty encounter, then it's time for me to invoke Dr. Benjamin Spock.

Some of you may be familiar with the doctor. Some may not. If your response was, "Who?" -- ask your mother or look him up online. As a young military wife with a newborn baby and very little in the way of a support network, Dr. Spock was my guy. He was all I had.

When my tiny daughter would cry for what seemed like forever for no reason, out came the Dr. Spock book with the checklists. No, she wasn't hurt, she wasn't hungry, she wasn't wet, she didn't have a diaper rash, she didn't want the pacifier, and she didn't want me to rock her, walk her, swaddle her, pat her, or burp her. None of the above. On to my last resort. I set the kitchen timer for 20 minutes. I laid the baby in her crib. I walked out of the room, shut the door and sat down. Gut-wrenching guilt. Sit and wait I did. A few minutes later I realized she stopped crying. There was no noise. Panic. I'd go into the bedroom to make sure she was still breathing. I found a sleeping baby. Back to the kitchen to turn off the timer and breathe a sigh of relief. When all else failed -- that worked -- which brings us to today's article....

We all know that the holiday season is fertile ground for additional stress so now is a good time to check in on your mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional state. We're going to talk about re-setting your timer and how to take a break.

Oops. Wait a minute. Did you just say you don't take breaks? Please. Give me a break. When asked, "What are some of the things you do when you take a break?"-- the best answers to that question come from those who say they don't take breaks. So what's a good way to take a break when you're feeling like you've had just about enough?

Consider yoga. Lately, my boss has been bothered by muscle pain and stiffness. His son gave him a DVD of yoga exercises to try. In addition to sore muscles, he's been dealing with sinus problems off and on for the last month and a half. He was skeptical at first, but gave it a try. He had nothing to lose. Something unexpected happened. Darn-near a miracle! For the first time in a long time, he slept through the night. When he got up, he didn't have a sore, dry throat and his sinuses were clear. He could breathe again. What a bonus! He saved himself a trip to the doctor for sinus medicine. You can do these yoga exercises in your office and some while sitting at your desk. You can find the DVD at The Himalayan Institute website. Don't knock it until you try it.

After my boss told me about his experience, I asked some of my co-workers to tell me how they cope with brain overload and what kinds of things they do when they need a break.

Many of them talked about literally removing themselves from the office. Walking was the preferred method. Going window-shopping, going to the park, taking a stroll on a green trail, going to the library, walking down the street to a coffee shop are all kinds of activities that will give you a breather. In those instances, you can be among people -- without much interaction.

Sick and tired of eating your lunch in front of your computer? Craving some lively conversation? When was the last time you went out to eat? Make a lunch date with a friend or a family member. You don't have to discuss your work. There are other things to talk about. Feel the need to ventilate? Talk out your frustrations with someone you trust over lunch. Consider ordering comfort food if you're in the mood for reassurance. In the mood to take a risk? Go to a different place and order something new from the menu. You may find you love Thai food but you won't know that until you try.

Remember Mr. Rogers? It may be a beautiful day in the neighborhood...but do you know your neighbor? If you work in a building with other tenants, maybe it's time you introduce yourself. Work in a small office downtown or in a strip mall? Have you met the other people there? If you're an attorney or you work for an attorney -- a networking opportunity is staring you in the face. Don't forget to take along some business cards.

Go for a drive -- with a purpose in mind. Try grocery shopping over your lunch hour. Go for a drive with absolutely no destination in mind. Drive with your radio or CD blasting and sing along. Listen to classical music to soothe your frayed nerves. Screaming talk radio might just be what you need to relax. Roll down the windows and turn off the radio. A short road trip may lift your gloomy spirits. 

Prefer to stay inside? Weather too crappy to get out? Working on a Sudoku puzzle or crossword may ease your tension. Play a mind-numbing computer game for 15 minutes. Taking a half hour to read one or two chapters of a book might just be what you need. Are you a Kindle kind of reader? Do you know there's an app for that?

Stuck? Suffering from writer's block? Those budget figures still not making any sense to you? Having trouble coming up with new ideas for that project you're working on? Having difficulty thinking outside of the box you find yourself in? Best answer? Get up and move. 

Just getting up from your desk to get a cup of coffee, tea, or to get a soda isn't really taking a break -- but when you make a slight detour and add 10 minutes of conversation with someone else to that mix -- then you've taken a break. You've interrupted your current thinking pattern and that may be all you need. 

Taking a break from your work now and again is serious business. Giving yourself permission to take a break may be the best thing you can do for yourself -- and for others. 

If you have any other interesting ways to take a break, feel free to share them with the rest of us! Your comments are always welcome!

 

 

How to Make Your Dentate Gyrus Feel Good

Do you frequently get stressed out at work? That's not good for a number of reasons. Not only is it unpleasant, but it can bother your dentate gyrus. Unless you are a brain surgeon, you probably haven't heard about this piece of anatomy. It's a part of our brain, located in the hippocampus, which is somewhere beneath all the grey matter. Exactly where doesn't matter.

But when you get stressed, your dentate gyrus doesn't feel so good. It stops doing what only one other area of the brain seems capable of doing -- creating new brain cells. This would be no big deal, except that researchers think the dentate gyrus uses those new cells to allow us to link old memories to new situations. Maybe for a 20-year-old that's not so important, but when you hit middle age or older, you want to be able to reshuffle what you've already learned and put it in a new context. Some people call this ability to gain new insight from old information wisdom.

In the book, The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain, by Barbara Strauch, the author interviews Fred Gage, a scientist who has conducted ground-breaking brain research. Describing changes in the dentate gyrus, Gage states: "The new brain cells help us integrate the new with the old. Without them we would never want anything to change because anything new would be too complicated."

Considering how fast everything is changing, the ability to cope with change and even thrive in a changing environment is extremely important. For anyone who doesn't relish the idea of having a feeble mind, Gage's research holds out a bit of hope. Rats that lived in stimulating environments and humans who exercised increased activity in their dentate gyrus.

Although crossword puzzles, Sudoku, and playing chess make for good mental workouts, the research indicates that physical activity may do more good for your aging brain. Physical exercise apparently helps keep the brain young. A young brain means an agile mind. By getting out of your seat and doing a little physical exercise each day, you may lose a little weight, but just as importantly, you may grow a few more brain cells.

 

 

Don't Look in the Mirror!

Something about driving home from work in the dark brings out the philosopher in me. So, as a change of pace, here is a bit of philosophic advice to chew over while the days shrink.

Sometimes it seems hard to remember at work that we are much more than just our job descriptions. Every morning when we sit down at our desks, the world tells us who we are and how each of us is doing. I know from experience that each of us has the capacity to grow beyond our job description -- whether it's the job we fulfill at work or the job description that others implicitly give us as a spouse or parent or friend.

Here's a quick and pleasant way to start changing into the person you want to be. Stop looking at your reflection. Most people can't pass by a mirror without taking a peek at their own image. I don't think it's vanity that pulls us to the mirror. Not many people have the looks to warrant being vain. Call it curiosity. Maybe it's an instinct, some sort of self-preservation, based on being able to see if there's any menace standing behind us.

The problem with looking into a mirror is that you see an image of yourself as you are, not as you can be. That's obvious, but if you want to grow, if you want to change something about yourself or the situation you are in, you need to focus on what you are striving for. I don't recommend spending much time in front of a mirror unless you are so pleased with yourself that you see no need to change.

There's another sort of reflection that is harder to avoid than the image we see in a mirror. That's the reflection of ourselves that we see in the reaction of others to us. Again, I don't think it's vanity that motivates us to look at others and search for their reaction to us. Feedback is important, and without it, we can't tell how we're doing and how to do better. Have we offended someone? Have we worn out our welcome? Or, have we been appreciated, approved of or admired? We find cues to our impact by how others react to us.

I was driving home from work recently, after a frustrating day. I was uneasy about an error I had made that, frankly, didn't make me look too good. You know how uncomfortable that can feel. We have all dropped the ball at some point in our careers or personal life. Somewhere on Highway 63 between Columbia and Jefferson City, my worrying stopped, abruptly. It was as if I had turned my car and headed in the opposite direction. One moment, I was mulling over the events of the day; then in an instant, I realized what a waste of time it was to fret over the impression I made on others. I have driven the 30-mile commute from work at least 6,000 times. On this particular trip, I rearranged my thoughts and realized that it was time to quit looking at my reflection, whether in a mirror or in the lives of others.

Maybe you want to change. I know I do. I don't intend to stop growing and learning until my last breath. I want to learn new skills. I want to develop new strengths and insights. I want to improve my relationship with people who are important to me. By taking my eyes off my reflection, I can see what's possible.

 

Part 3: On Bein' Stealthy

For those of you who were totally lost in the first two articles James wrote for us -- I'll give you a quick review. The articles are about different ways to use thumb drives. If you're not quite sure yet what a thumb drive a/k/a Flash USB port is -- here's a photo of one on the right. You can purchase them at any office supply company or a store that has a decent electronics department. They aren't expensive -- and you can get different kinds, colors, and different sizes. They're handy-dandy little items.

Learning how to use a thumb drive is not difficult. When James suggested I back up my files onto a thumb drive instead of a CD, my response was, "Okay. Good idea. What's a thumb drive?" He sighed and rolled his eyes. He showed me what a thumb drive was and gave me a quick lesson. Now I have a strange sense of power knowing I can copy important information from one computer to another -- or take the information on my thumb drive wherever I go. If you're nervous or you're not real sure you want to jump into the abyss of the thumb drive world -- trust me -- once you do it and you're successful -- you'll wonder why you took so long to learn.

In Part 3, James discusses backing up information. It's the undercover, sneaky stuff -- some ways to be stealthy!

 

One last thing about thumb drives I would like to address is a backup, and I want to emphasize the stuff most people don’t normally think of when they back up files. I have a fireproof safe in my house where I keep important documents, which is all fine and good. But if my house catches fire, then I’m still going to lose my home movies and photos, even if they were in the safe, just because they would melt. What I have done is take my home movies and important photos (wedding, babies and pictures of each room of my house) and stuck them on a thumb drive. By the way, the photos of each room are so I can show what I had should my house burn down. Along with those, I also keep a scanned copy of my important documents on the thumb drive, like birth certificates, wills and so on. Take the thumb drive out of your house, give it to a family member you trust, lock it in your car, put in your desk at work, put it in a safe deposit box, or just somewhere that won’t be destroyed by whatever destroys your home. Thumb drives are cheap, so make a few copies to cover any scenario.

I realize that making copies of these documents could be dangerous if someone dishonest gets hold of them. Depending on how sensitive the information and how far you want to take it, there are a few ways to go about protecting your data.

One is by using one of those portable applications to put your files in a password protected zip file. Then you can only open the zip file if you know the password. This keeps nosey people out, and most likely anyone who would steal your thumb drive or would go snooping around with it won't have the knowledge to do this. Google is a useful tool and passwords to zip files can be cracked. Then what you can do, as I mentioned above, is run a portable OS (operating system) on the thumb drive and keep your files in it. To step it up further, inside that OS put your files in a zip file so not only do they have to break through your computer’s security measures and passwords, but once in -- they have to find your zip file and then break into it.

Here’s a tip: Once you have made a zip file, or any other file for that matter, rename the extension. If you have a Word document, for example, called personal.doc and you rename it with an unrecognizable file extension (like personal.jwd), your computer won’t know how to open it and it won’t show up when someone searches Word documents. Even better, rename it with a file extension that has nothing to do with your file but your computer understands, like personal.jpg. When your computer tries to open personal.jpg, it’s going to try to do it with a graphics program and will result in an error along the lines of corrupt or bad file. This is elementary, but it’s one more step they have to take.

The last and best way to secure your data is to encrypt it. Download TrueCrypt, which is free and a very good tool. If you encrypt your data using it, you can feel pretty safe. Right now, if you encrypted your data using this tool and you have a good 8-character password (alpha, numerals and symbols), it would take roughly 229 years to crack. With a supercomputer it MIGHT be cracked in a few months. That’s with 8 characters; make it longer and it becomes harder to crack. Either way, anyone with the ability and time to get past your encryption scheme is hardly going to need your thumb drive to get your data.

A final note in storing your information… a SD (Secure Digital) chip like you use in your digital camera can function the same way as a thumb drive. Get a Micro SD chip - it’s smaller than a penny and usually sold with a SD chip adapter. Next time you go on a trip, put your important information (like scans of driver’s license, phone numbers to credit card companies, passport, travel information, medical information or whatever you might need) on it. Encrypt it and hide it somewhere on your person. It’s small enough that you can buy a cheap watch and hide it in the battery slot or hide it under the padding inside your shoe, for example. Then, if you get robbed, lose your luggage, get lost or whatever, you have vital information with you that only you can access.

James

Thank you to James, our Computer Guy  -- for providing some great tips and suggestions! Readers -- Let us know what you think -- your comments are always welcomed!

Part 2: Take It With You

Today's article is about "taking it with you" --  on your thumb drive. James shares more tips and suggestions by way of portable applications...

One thing I use is portable applications. Once again, there are several to choose from -- but I recommend you go to PortableApps. They have quite a few, including a suite which has the more useful/popular apps. These are applications that you can run off of your thumb drive. Even if you don’t run them off your thumb drive, you can download them to your computer and run them there. Since the idea behind thumb drives is portability,  some of these can be very useful in that capacity. For example, if you choose to put Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome on your thumb drive, then you retain your favorites wherever you go. Want to show someone a cool website you found? Just plug in your thumb drive and run your browser on whatever computer you go to. Do you want to do some online shopping for the holidays but other members of your house use the same computer? Use your portable browser and your history and cached files are on your thumb drive and not on the home computer. Want to go check out the local dating website but don’t want your spouse to know? I’m just kidding -- but you get where I’m going with this. Before I continue, let me state that an IT person with basic computer forensic know-how and the desire/need can still discover this kind of stuff, but this works for the average person.

Another thing you can do with portable applications is email. You can set up a web client on your thumb drive. If you're on the road and want to check your email without using a public computer’s web browser then you're set. Or if you want to set up an email account for that dating website that is not on your home computer, then this is what you do. (He's kidding again!)

Download GIMP and you have a portable graphics program to take with you. It’s not Photoshop, but it's free and you can do plenty of stuff like cropping or resizing photos while you're away so you can email them or post them on your web page before you get home.

Open Office is a suite of tools like Microsoft Office or Wordperfect’s Office suite, except it’s free and portable. It has programs like the others for documents, spreadsheets, presentations and so on. Not everyone has the same office suite and especially not the same version. With Open Office you can take yours and work on any computer.

I’ll stop plugging all the portable applications they have out there, but they have more, like games, security applications, mp3 players, and so on. These run off your thumb drive so you don’t need to install them on any computer you use.

James

 

Thumb Drive Tips From James -- Our Computer Guy

James is the Computer Guy in our office and he's a full-fledged geek. He says so himself. Yep, computers are his world. They're our world too, but on a much smaller scale. We've convinced him to share some of his knowledge, give us some suggestions, and pointers about thumb drives.

This will be a "three-parter" article. Today we're going to start to learn about thumb drives! You may learn something new today!

Welcome, James!

 

Thumb drives are not all that exciting. You most likely have one or more and use them to copy files between computers. If you don’t have one and are too cheap to buy one, go to your local hotel/convention center and there’s usually a booth giving them away. The main purpose of this article is to cover what you can do with a thumb drive besides copying files to take with you – although I’ll go over what files you put on it later. That being said, once you have your thumb drive, EVERYTHING I’m going to go over is free.

Let’s start with portability. You have your thumb drive to move files, but what if you could take your operating system with you? DSL (D*** Small Linux) is a complete operating system which can run off a thumb drive. There are two ways you can go from here.

One is that you boot your computer to the USB drive (your thumb drive in this case), and once booted, you have access to all your programs, files, email, etc. Any computer that can boot to a USB drive (most do nowadays) can run your operating system. The benefit is that you take what you think of as your computer – everywhere you go – home computer, office computer, laptop or an in-law’s home while you’re on vacation. From a technical standpoint, this option has its benefits. If your computer gets a virus, malware, or what not, you can boot with the thumb drive and deal with whatever problem you’re having without ever loading Windows onto your computer.

The second path, with a portable operating system, is more user-friendly. Instead of booting your computer with your thumb drive, you run it inside of Windows just like any other application. Run your thumb drive’s operating system application and you get a window with your desktop inside it that you can minimize and do everything you would expect with any other application.

Let me say that DSL, which I mentioned above, is just one route to go. There are other flavors of Linux –and some people even have Windows on theirs. I know Linux can be intimidating for someone with no experience with it, but to put it on a thumb drive is not much harder than copying the files.

Once you have it running, the same basic principals apply. Double click an icon on the desktop and it opens, click the “X” in the corner and it closes, click “File” then “Save” and it’ll do the same thing you’re used to when you perform this action in Windows.

All right – there’s a good chance you just don’t care enough to carry around a portable operating system. I’m a full-fledged geek, and I have an operating system on my thumb drive. But, with multiple laptops, an iPhone and a Blackberry, I’m pretty set on mobility as is – so I don’t use it much. If I only had a home computer and a work computer – it might be different.

James

Watch for more geeky stuff next week in Part 2

 

How to Get Rich -- (Coffee, that is)

Office coffee makes me cringe. For some reason, most office coffee smells like old, dirty tires to me. I'm not a gourmet, and I'm not a picky eater. But I hate office coffee. I have compromised with reality and while thumbing my nose at the free coffee that can be found in the break room, I pay for my own instant coffee. I don't even like the hot water that comes out of the coffee machine here, but I use it.

I'm not much of a fan of instant coffee. It's not the real thing. Instant coffee is like a memory of coffee; it's like a knock-off of brand name fashions. It's similar, but not quite as good as the authentic thing.

I know that if you're reading this that probably the best thing you can say about the coffee at your office is, "It's OK." Show me the person who raves about office coffee, and I'll show you someone who has spent so much time at a desk that he or she has lost touch with the real world of coffee trees and all the other things that exist but can't be experienced on a computer screen.

I'm done complaining. Now, here's some news that can deliver a caffeine-like boost to your time spent in the office -- You can have not just decent coffee at the office, but great, rich, dark and fragrant coffee. Better yet, it will cost you half of what you normally pay.

You can do what I did this week -- roast your own coffee beans at home and then bring in the richest, best-tasting coffee you've ever had and brew it at work. Today I had what tasted like a $4.00 cup of coffee at my desk. My cost? A few cents.

Roasting coffee is about as difficult a task as popping corn. In fact, some people roast their coffee in hot air popcorn makers. Others roast it in the iron popcorn skillets that have those handles that stir the popcorn as it heats. If you have a convection oven, you're in luck. That's probably the most efficient, error-proof way to roast it. Even a regular oven can work with a perforated pan.

You'll need green coffee beans. Green, in this case, doesn't refer to their effect on the environment. It means uncooked. I bought mine at a local coffee house. The bonus is that the green coffee costs about half as much as roasted coffee. For a deep, Ethiopian coffee that would cost about $10.00 per pound roasted -- I paid $5.00. Same for a pound of Guatemalan.

I won't go into details of how to do the actual roasting. Here are several links to websites that I used. What I will say -- is that my budget doesn't include $4.00 a cup for coffee. At least it didn't until I started roasting coffee myself. Now I can drink $4.00 cups of coffee all day, and I pay only pennies.

So long, office coffee -- Hello -- to world-class brews by the bucket!

Sweet Maria's 

Coffee Research

UTube Coffee

The Receptionist

If you're the owner of a law firm or for that matter -- any kind of company -- you may not realize your Receptionist has the power to make or break your business. Your success may ride on the Receptionist's skills and abilities to represent both you and your business. Small firm or large company -- size doesn't matter. Your Receptionist is the first person your potential client or customer hears on the phone and is the first person they'll meet when they walk in your door. That's power.

If you just read that paragraph and experienced a fleeting thought that the person who is occupying the front desk at your business might not be right for the job -- then you have a problem. The seed was already planted in your subconscious mind before you read that and now -- it cracked through the soil on its way to the surface. You can either fix that situation or let it go. It's your choice and your business.

But -- if you read that and it confirmed what you already knew -- that you DO have the right person working for you as your Receptionist -- that's great! You're fortunate to have a valuable employee working for you and your business. That's the key position in your organization --the first line of defense.

We've all made appointments -- with lawyers, car repair shops, doctors' offices, hair salons and other kinds of businesses. We've all made reservations at hotels, or restaurants, or with airlines. We've all had conversations on the phone or in person with people from all walks of life who booked those appointments and booked those reservations for us.

If you've had an experience over the phone or in person with a Receptionist who made you feel like your call or visit wasn't important -- or they were rude or unpleasant towards you -- you're going to remember. Why would you, the customer, pay for a product or a service when you've been treated like that?

On the other hand, when you've had a positive experience with a Receptionist who greets you in a friendly and pleasant manner -- treats you with respect, and makes you feel like your business IS important to them -- you'll be more inclined to pay for the product or the service you want or need and you'll go back to that business again.

An effective Receptionist may make all the difference!