This is the time of year when we make promises to ourselves. Eat right. Exercise more. Get organized. Many of us fail to achieve our goals, but I am going to take a risk by publishing my technology resolutions for 2016 to hold myself accountable for truly accomplishing them. Here they are:
1. I will organize my emails. By the end of this month, I will place saved or “to be acted upon” emails into very specific folders. I'm embarrassed to say that, right now, when I need to find an old email, I need to do a key word search.
2. I will permanently delete emails I no longer need on an ongoing basis. If I look in my saved mail, I know I will find flight reservations from four years ago. It's time to clean that up rather than pay for more storage.
3. I will use my CRM software more diligently. My employees are told that “if it's not in the CRM, it doesn't exist.” Yet, I email assignments and keep lists on Excel for myself.
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4. I will clean up the icons on my desktop. They are unorganized and include icons for programs I no longer use. There are also icons that I wish were there. And, yes, I will do this by the end of the month.
5. I will make a decision and actually implement a password saver for myself. I know I've written about this and told everyone else that they need to do it. Yet, I am guilty of having to reset passwords I can't remember. Deadline: end of January.
6. I will change my voicemail greeting and auto-replies once a month. I'm a big believer in not saying the same old thing (“I'm out of the office right now…” or “I'm on vacation and will return…”). I like voicemail greetings like “I'm busy growing your wealth …” or “I'm working on strategies…” For emails, you can do an auto-reply (which is different than “out-of-office” reply) that says something like “I received your email and will get back to you later today” or “I'm about to go into a meeting, so I'll respond in a bit.”
These are good goals and I think I can do them. I'm embarrassed enough to have publicly admitted my shortcomings. I guess I'd better be prepared to be held accountable a year from now. Wish me luck!
Sheryl Rowling is the chief executive of Total Rebalance Expert and principal at Rowling & Associates. She considers herself a non-techie user of technology.
