Here are some top time tips to get students to return newsletter and permission slips asap: Encourage a ‘rewards’ system so that the children take responsibility for returning them the next day – an end of term tally perhaps? (NO punishments though!) Mention what is required in the weekly newsletter, with a due date. Replies [...]
Continue reading about Teachers’ Time-Saving Tips, and Bureaucracy Highlights »
Does spam drive you crazy? Even though I use Spam Arrest - http://www.spamarrest.com/ - as a first-stop filter, and my email programme is pretty good at filtering a lot of rubbish into Junk Email, I’m all too familiar with being deluged with bounce-backs from mail that falsely appears to be from our domain and been sent to false addresses. [...]
Does your desk breed paper every time you turn your back on it? Layer upon layer of miscellaneous paper, magazines, newsletters, invitations to this and that, reports, files and vital tasks you mustn’t forget to attend to? Every couple of weeks, with grim determination and fired by a sense of desperation, do you approach this monstrosity supposed [...]
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Do you find that interruptions are the constant companion of an open plan office? If you’ve been one of my ‘family’ of readers for a while, you’ll possibly already know my thoughts on unmoderated open plan environments, but in case you’re new, or missed my previous comments, here’s the snippet from‘Getting a Grip on the Paper [...]
Continue reading about Battery People: The Dark Side Of Open Plan Offices »
A key question for the problem of space and information storage and management is ‘do I really need it?’ And following that, ‘what can I prevent coming into my space?’ Faxes: Get off fax lists of unwanted information. First port of call is to contact the offending company and politely request removal. If they choose [...]
Who opens the mail? Who does the filing? Do you find yourself constantly getting bogged down with tasks somebody else could do? Over lunch some time David Eddy, Project Director of a great First Time Principals programme via Auckland University, shared the following tip. It was given to him by a colleague early in [...]
I’ve just had a sort-out of my paperwork. You might be thinking, ‘Robyn, if you practice what you preach, your paperwork would be always tidy. What do you need a sort-out for?’ I’m human too. With our New Zealand summer just past I had a wonderful parade of non-stop visitors; I HAD to go fishing with the neighbours and learn [...]
Continue reading about The Time Queen’s Little Green Folder »
What do lawyers, accountants, quantity surveyors, consultants to many industries, secretarial services, project managers, government bodies, researchers and computer programmers have in common? Most of them hate to do time-sheets. If you’ve ever worked in a time-driven industry you’ll know that tight recording is absolutely critical or how would you know what to charge [...]
Become one of those inspirational people who seem to whizz around their computer without ever touching the mouse. Lets start with some simple tips that make navigating tables so much easier! The most common method for moving around a table is to click the specific cell you want to go to. However, if the table [...]
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Teachers have a hard job at the best of times! When I heard the following tip I just had to share it… Have your class lists on your trusty laptop and as the students work, mark the roll and email it straight to the office. If you’re lucky enough to have a wireless internet connection [...]