Technology does not guarantee you will become organised!

You need to USE the technology in order to achieve this.

For example, one thing I used to find with a paper diary was that some days I got so busy that I forgot to even look in the diary once I left home in the morning - the day seemed to take on a life of it’s own and run away with me.  I was often heard to mutter “it’s not good enough for me to write things in my diary - I have to look in it too…”

This brings me to one the my favourite features of electronic diaries and lists - the ability to set an alert on them.  I can even set multiple alerts on a single entry!

So firstly I had to get into the habit of putting every little thing into my iphone calendar and putting the appropriate alerts onto them.  Secondly I need to carry it with me at all times (an alert can only get my attention if I have the phone with me doh!)

Seems simple, but once I got into the habit of really putting everything in there I have found the tool to be absolutely incredible - if an alert goes off but my schedule has changed, I am reminded and then I can simply change the time on the item, say put it to an hour later or whatever and automatically it alerts me again at the right time.  That used to be a huge issue for me - my schedule changing during the day could cause me to totally forget things to do that I was carrying in my head.

Another fantastic feature is recurring events.

It used to be a ritual that at the end of the year I would have to go back through my old diary and begin transposing certain events into my new one - birthdays to remember, monthly meetings etc.

Now I can set an ‘all day event’ for someone’s birthday and tell the calendar to make it recur every year - I don’t have to do anything else!  I can have it alert me a week before the date even to remind me to organise a card or to meet up for coffee or whatever.

I attend a few monthly meetings and the calendar allows me to set for example the ’second Tuesday of the month’ as the meeting date and set it up for every month.  I love that then there is no chance of getting the date wrong for any month.

I use a setup for all of this too that backs all these things up onto a web site automatically (so as long as I am in range of an internet connection I get everything backed up including my contacts list), and it all synchronises with my computer as well.  One fear I had when I went to the electronic diary was a failure causing me to lose everything and my diary is critical for my business.  Now I have not 2 but 3 copies of everything electronically, so the chances of my iphone, computer and web storage all failing is very remote - less remote than the chance that I could have lost my paper diary!

Still the true key to success has not been so much the technology itself, but USING the technology - every person reading this entry probably has all the electronic management tools they need, but ARE YOU USING THEM?

Small business owners often find that their time revolves around a stream of little things that are necessary to keep a business running, but don’t seem to have anything to do with what they wanted to be in business for.

If you allow them to queue up, it can seem daunting to imagine how you are ever going to get through them all.

One of the most important aspects to keeping this under your control, rather than letting a million things seem to take control of you is finding a way to organise yourself that suits you.

There are many ways to do this, but the principal is preventing all these tasks from clogging up your own brains temporary storage, and into some kind of a system. This system needs to be able to track these small tasks so that you can’t forget them, whilst allowing you to concentrate and focus on the tasks you went into business to perform.

The usual suspects are typically diaries, lists, whiteboards and sticky notes, but maybe you can use technological equivalents?

There are many brands of software that accomplish these tasks for windows, Mac and Linux systems.

I would be very surprised if you don’t already have the tools you need on your computer now, even if you’ve never used them.

Maybe you can add better or more sophisticated products, but some of the very simple tools could turn chaos into manageable.

One of the things I personally love most about using an electronic diary is the reminder alarm feature. You wouldn’t believe how many tiny tasks I put into my diary - everything from making a critical phone call to getting milk on the way home, allowing me to work through my day without so much clutter in my head.

I had an interesting experience last week.

I had a word document that I had created and had been working on for a week or two.

I converted it to a pdf and sent it to someone using windows for their opinion and they sent back some suggestions for changes which I did.

I then converted to pdf again and sent to my business partner and co-director of BITTS who is using a Mac Book Air with no windows install.

He responded that his antivirus software had alerted him that there was a trojan virus attached.

Well that sparked off having me researching more on virus infection and the Mac and as a result I downloaded and installed iAntiVirus and ClamXAv.

The first run - ClamXAv -  found some infected emails in my junk mailbox that I had not opened as Mail had sent them straight to Junk, and of course I emptied my junk mail immediately.  It found no other infection, certainly none in the pdf I had emailed out, nor the actual email sitting in sent items.

The second run - iAntiVirus - found no infections.

In the meantime Les had all sorts of odd little things happening on his Mac and finally his antivirus declared he was clean.

So without any infection found in the pdf document and no infections apparently having been active on my Mac I simply sent him the file again.

No response from his antivirus this time!

What happened?

I’ve no idea and that’s the truth.

Whatever it was, it was a windows virus and not something that could affect the Mac, and I will take the plunge and say that I suspect that my partners antivirus was giving a false report as it is too odd that with no infections here and no one else reporting an infected mail out from me, that it was something on my machine.

But it is a timely reminder for me who was writing a column about Mac maintenance and the need to avoid becoming complacent about virus.  It’s weird sometimes how things like this can happen in an ironic fashion.

I used to keep Norton AV for Mac, but I decided not to continue when payment time came around and happened not to have installed any of the free programs when this all happened.

The main issue Mac users have is that they can ‘get’ a virus on their computer, but it can’t wreak it’s havoc or damage there, but it may be able to pass itself on to windows people you communicate with.  Then of course it can wreak it’s havoc.

Another common thing I hear said is: but if companies like Symantec make antivirus for Mac then it must be true that they can get infected, everyone else is lying to trick me.

Really all we are doing when we pay money for these programs is filtering out Windows virus threats so we don’t pass them back - a windows virus CANNOT infect and do harm to your Mac!

Below are a few links for you to investigate and think about what steps you might take for your own Mac.

Mac World article on buying a Mac

Digital Trends excellent article

Mac World article on Parrellels (the feature that lets you simultaneously use Windows and Leopard)

Mac World article on Mac Antivirus

Nortons AV for Mac

Avast for Mac and PC

Tid bits article

I do hope all this helps to dispel some of the myths and assist you to choose what path you should take with your Mac

Use of the Mac is becoming increasingly popular with the latest figures showing usage at 16%. The change over to the Intel chip last year has possibly been partly responsible for this rise as you can boot into Windows as well as into Leopard.
The price has also come down significantly so that you can purchase a Mac system for a similar price to a PC.
All computers need maintenance regularly and the tasks don’t vary greatly from a windows machine except that the Mac defragments itself without the user needing to do anything.
The main thing a Mac user needs to do is run software updates automatically and the system will run optimally.
Maintenance the user can do for their system includes:
Keep files named clearly and stored in folders so they are easy to manage.  Please note that if you use iPhoto to manage your photos, only rename them from iPhoto rather than from the finder.
If your disk is getting full you can archive files that you don’t need but want to keep.  This creates a small zip file containing your files.
Backing up is as important when using a Mac as any other system.
Leopard has an impressive backup feature called Time Machine that manages your backups for you and makes finding items in the backup a snap.  I have my Mac backing up every hour when I am working on important jobs.
Now the Mac is far less likely to get a virus, unlike Windows, but that doesn’t mean it is impossible.  In fact many Mac owners will run Anti Virus software mostly to ensure they don’t pass Windows viruses on that were unable to affect the Mac.  Still Mac users should beware of becoming complacent.

OK so those poor souls who are running a business with Windows operating systems need to really think carefully about maintenance of their system.

Don’t fob this off as not important - keeping a computer running properly and securely is extremely important!  Your business files are the crux of your business and an office that stops running because of system crashes is an office losing money!

Sure everyone needs to maintain their systems but with the threat issues related to Windows it becomes even more critical.

This is where it is important to be aware of what operating system you are running as there are significant differences particularly between Vista and earlier versions.  Vista has attempted to give more of a feel similar to the MAC and in the background there are now system tools automatically doing some of the tasks that you had to either do manually or ensure you turned on schedules for.

Next week I will be looking at the maintenance needs of the MAC so don’t lose heart or interest if you are not a Windows user, but keep coming back.

A lot of this is really just good old common sense once you know it.

But if you don’t know it, and you don’t know what you don’t know, then you simply need some clear pointers to get you wised up.

Fortunately Microsoft actually do supply quite a good quality and quantity of information on this side of things so I’m going to use their own info here.

WINDOWS XP

WINDOWS VISTA

Both these sites are a really good start in thinking about maintaining your computer system, but don’t forget that there is also a critical need for having up-to-date virus and malware software running.  These threats are still rampant and the internet and email are the main modes of transmission.  No business today that have computers are not using these tools, so don’t discount that everything will be ok, or that you don’t do much so it doesn’t matter.

If you run computers, run them properly, carefully and keep your business in the black!

A computer is more than just a filing cabinet, many components make up a complete system..
Like vehicles and appliances, computers need a regular maintenance plan.
A large organisation may be fortunate enough to have staff dedicated purely monitoring and maintaining the IT needs of the business.
In smaller businesses the choice usually is to either out-source or try doing it yourself.
There are significant differences between the versions Windows regarding which inbuilt maintenance processes can be scheduled to run automatically or have to be carried out manually.
The internet is a fantastic resource to assist anyone carrying out computer maintenance.  A very important point to remember is to ensure that the information relates to the equipment and version of software that you have.
One of your most important daily routines should be to back up your files and have at least one verified copy in another location, just in case of the inevitable happening. Too often I hear about businesses that have a backup copy but later find out that it is corrupted and of no use after a disaster.
The minimum maintenance tasks you need to become familiar with and perform regularly are: ensure the anti virus program is enabled and up to date, removing unused programs, archiving old files, using disk cleanup tools to free up disk space, defragmenting your hard disk, ensure all software is up to date and the updates are scheduled for a time that doesn’t impede normal operations ie after hours. Regularly completing these maintenance tasks will lead to greatly improved performance. Other items such as modems and networking equipment (wired and wireless) may require a specialist to carryout checks for security breaches and performance issues.
It is critical that your business computers work optimally, therefore spending a little time and money on maintenance will deliver significant returns on your investment.

What happens if your desk becomes piled so high with papers that you have no clear space left?

What happens if the same thing happens with your computer?

There are a few practices that should be put in place when working with any kind of computer system and there are differences between the maintenance options and features different systems offer.
In a class discussion I ran recently, there were some excellent routine/process suggestions that have been on my mind since.

Sometimes a simple routine can totally revolutionise your business life.

Most business owners find it too easy to get caught up in the day to day stuff – phones ring, emails come in, people come in (or fail to come in), orders arrive, orders have to be placed – another day is over and you are leaving an hour later than you expected, again.

No wonder workspaces and computers become cluttered and clogged up.

This means it is even harder to get your work done efficiently the next day as you are already behind.

The really tricky bit is that many people don’t even notice that their computer is in this state, until something goes seriously wrong.  They “think” they have records of lots of stuff on there “somewhere.”

The thought of getting in and cleaning it all out is often too much for many people to seriously contemplate.
Some processes on how your file your work and the regular maintenance to keep in good working order can save you uncounted working hours.
The Windows machine is quite different to maintain compared to the Apple Mac.
Over the next couple of weeks I will look at how each of these types of machines should be looked after in their different ways, then talk about some general practices that should be followed regardless of what system you use.

Don’t do your business a disservice by neglecting good practice.

When it comes to the programs or software on our computers – what do we actually own?
When you ‘purchase’ software you are not actually buying the software but licenses to use that software.  As a business owner it is critical to understand what licensing you have on your software
A typical license grants a user permission to use one or more copies of the software. Licenses generally fit into two distinct categories – proprietary and open source.
Proprietary licenses grant use of one or more copies of software but ownership and virtually all rights regarding the software remain with the publisher.  The click wrap license ensures the user must accept the terms of the license to use the software at all.  This ensures the publisher will win any court case regarding use of the software as the user has explicitly accepted the license terms.
Open source licenses allow ownership of the copy of the software by the user however every business owner must understand that this does not give copyright ownership even though the user can use the software without accepting the license. Open source does not mean free of obligation.  Within the category of open source there are a range of license types.
Businesses have an obligation to track and maintain their software licenses and large organisations use software to monitor this.  Schedule an annual software license review. This important activity allows you to decide how many copies of software are required and therefore the annual cost to the business can be included in your budget.
Although the cost of upgrades and renewals may seem onerous, the potential legal costs and your systems degraded performance due to not being able to utilise updates resulting from running unlicensed software are much higher.