9 Warning Signs Your Computer Is Infected With Spyware

Spyware is Internet jargon for hidden programs that advertisers install on your PC without your permission to spy on you, gather information, and report this information about you and your online activities to a third party.

Spyware is NOT harmless; it can be responsible for delivering a boatload of spam, altering your web browser, slowing down your PC, and serving up a bounty of pop-up ads. In some of the more extreme cases, spyware can also steal your identity, passwords, e-mail address book, and even use your PC for illegal activities.

How many shining eyes do you see?

Benjamin Zander has been the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic since 1979. His insights for classical music and leadership can be applied in any leadership role.

As conductor, Zander’s job is to awaken the possibilities in others. As he says in the TED video, “ the conductor does not make any sounds.” It is up to him to make sure the musicians have the information they need do their best.

Learning from your peers is better than learning from your own mistakes.

I am a firm believer in peer groups. I always suggest that business owners look for peer groups in their industries. These groups can be invaluable. They can push you to get the impossible done. Your peers can also help you when you need it, because they have been there too.

Peer groups can allow you and your business to build a nationwide network.

Making Progress, Getting More Done And Staying Consistent

What are your daily habits?

•  Do you start each day knowing exactly what you need to accomplish and do you start working on “A-­‐1” the minute you hit your desk?

•  Do you time block (schedule) your day? How about you’re week?

•  Can you stay focused on a particular project or activity for 90 minutes without interruption and without a break? 60 minutes? 30? 20? 10?

5 Ways To Keep Your Laptop Running – Without Plugging It In

On the road, in the airport, at a client’s site, or simply at home on the couch … these are places you can’t or don’t want to – plug in your laptop. Want to keep your laptop running as long as possible without searching for an outlet? Here are five tips to help:

1) Keep your screen dim. A laptop’s backlight requires a lot of power. Reducing the brightness conserves battery life.
2) Turn off unused hardware. Your Bluetooth and your Wi-Fi receiver can both be turned off if not in use. Unplug your external mouse or other device. Mute the PC’s sound system. Not only will these steps save power, they will avoid annoying everyone else around you.
3) Don’t multitask. Run as few programs as you can get away with. Stick to one application (word processor, browser, or whatever) if possible. (If online keep your antivirus and firewall on in the background.)
4) Avoid multimedia. Save your photo editing and video watching for when you have AC power. These tasks use immense battery life. To listen to music, use your iPod (or similar device).
5) Sleep, standby or hibernate. Sleep mode (a/k/a “standby” in XP) keeps your PC on. It still uses power, just less than normal. Hibernate uses no power initially, but a lot of battery life to start back up.

What is your Centerpoint? Meet Blue Angels Pilot, John Foley

Recently while in Dallas at an industry conference for Tigerpaw Software, I had the great pleasure of hearing John Foley speak in person. He is Amazing and the focus that the Blue Angels have is Amazing. When the Blue Angels fly in formation, they start with the planes at 36 inches apart and get the planes as close as 18 inches apart. It must take incredible focus to achieve such precision. John explains that for every show, the Blue Angels have a centerpoint that everyone remains focused on. This centerpoint allows all of the pilots to focus on one thing and achieve unbelievable accuracy. Just imagine what you could do with that kind of focus. What is your centerpoint? What are you going to focus on that will make you achieve unbelievable goals?

A simple way to increase productivity

According to a University of Utah study, you can increase your efficiency (or your employees’ efficiency) by 25% just by adding a second monitor. With multiple monitors, you can get more done since you aren’t minimizing and maximizing all day long. Therefore, adding monitors can be a money maker for your company.

The study documentation states that 108 university and non-university personnel participated in a comparison of single monitor, multi-monitor and multi-monitor with Hydravision display configurations. Respondents edited slide shows, spreadsheets and text documents in a simulation of office work using each of the display arrays. Performance measures—including task time, editing time, number of edits completed and number of errors made, as well as usability measures evaluating effectiveness, comfort, learning ease, time to productivity, quickness of recovery from mistakes, ease of task tracking, ability to maintain task focus and ease of movement among sources—were combined into an overall evaluation of productivity. Multi-screens scored significantly higher on every measure. Respondents got on task quicker, did the work faster and got more of the work done with fewer errors in multi-screen configurations than with a single screen.

10 Easy Ways To Eliminate E-mail Overload

E-mail driving you crazy? Every time you delete one, do five more show up? Are you finding it impossible to answer every e-mail you receive? If this is you, then here are 10 tips to reduce e-mail overload.

1- Get a good spam filter. Even if it saves you just 10 minutes a day, that adds up to over 59 hours a year.
2- Cancel subscriptions to unwanted mailing lists. Also, make sure you are careful to check the “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” box when purchasing items online.
3- Ask your friends to remove you from joke groups or chain messages.
4- Don’t post or publish your e-mail on websites.
5- Don’t respond to every e-mail you receive. Yes, it’s okay NOT to respond to some e-mails.
6- Be succinct. Restrict your messages to a few sentences. If you can’t, pick up the phone or talk in person.
7- Take advantage of subject lines. If possible, put your question in the subject line of your message. Here’s another tip: create a set of codes with your co-workers and place them in the subject line to help them process and prioritize messages. For example, use “FYI” for informational messages. Use “AR” for action required and “URG” for urgent messages.
8- Block time to answer your e-mail and fight the temptation to check your e-mail every few minutes.
9- Respond to messages when you open them so you only read them once.
10- Set time aside in the morning and the evening to process your inbox. Shoot for a completely empty inbox. File messages you need to keep and set reminders for messages that require you to follow up.

What every business owner needs to know about tying shoes

I thought I would try something a little different for this post. Please watch the video to get the most out of your day. Steve Miller from The Adventure introduced me to TED a couple of weeks ago. Steve is a great guy with a huge sense of humor. I thought I would share some of the humor with you.

4 Questions About Backups That You Should Know The Answers To

The old saying, “Pack your own parachute,” comes to mind when I think of data backups or, more specifically, data RECOVERY. However, how many people actually know how to pack their data backup “parachute.

Since the absolute WORST time to check your backups is AFTER a data disaster, all business owners ought to know the answers to the following questions NOW so they aren’t unpleasantly surprised later when data gets erased and they’re scrambling to get back up and running: