Michael Linenberger's Blog

Jan 29, 2013

Office 2013 went on sale today on Microsoft’s website. It’s branded as Office 365.

Here’s the link to the Microsoft announcement and store:

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/pd/productID.259179900?WT.mc_id=PromoEmail_Office15Launch_Online_1-29-13_ShopnowCTA

Outlook 2013 and MYN/1MTD

This of course means that Outlook 2013 is officially out. I already wrote up the differences in Outlook 2013 as they relate to the MYN & 1MTD systems. Here are the links to those writeups:

http://www.oneminutetodolist.com/blog/new-version-of-windows-outlook-coming-outlook-2013/

http://www.oneminutetodolist.com/blog/outlook-2013-fixing-the-harder-to-open-to-do-bar/

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Jan 26, 2013

This is a big deal. Mary Jo Foley is conveying rumors that Microsoft is planning to bring Outlook to Surface RT.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57565904-75/microsoft-said-to-be-testing-windows-rt-outlook-client/

To me, that closes the main gap that is preventing the RT from being a light-weight (and lower cost) PC laptop replacement for most workers in most companies. There are other issues still there, like the full directory membership. And of course some companies require other specific software on all their laptops. But many companies don’t need all that, and Outlook is all they need added to the existing Office suite on RT.

Let’s hope the rumors are true, and hope that it’s the full, real copy of Outlook, not just Microsoft slapping the Outlook name on a disabled e-mail client like they did with Outlook.com, Windows Phone Outlook, and even to some extent Mac Outlook 2011. If it’s the real deal, then MYN can run on it!

Michael Linenberger

Jan 25, 2013

I am going a bit out on a limb here and I am going to share some rather *personal* information—it’s my weight! Why share that? To demonstrate my experience so far with using Beeminder to reach a goal, in this case a weight goal.

I have had success with this so far, so I’d like to share it with you. Maybe you’ll find it similarly helpful.

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Jan 24, 2013

Microsoft just formally announced release of the Surface Pro tablet for Feb 9. It’s a bit of a delay (most had thought it would be Jan 26), but not that much of a delay.

My focus on this is because it will be the first Microsoft tablet to run a full version of Windows Outlook. And since over 90% of my clients/readers use Windows Outlook, that’s important. And Surface Pro should run any other PC software well, for that matter, since it will have a standard PC chip in it.

And, something important to me, it has an active pen interface (meaning better accuracy and built-in wrist protection for better note taking, markup editing, and drawing).

The big question: battery life. We’ll see.

Here’s the full Surface Pro page at Microsoft:

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.SurfaceProAnnouncement

Michael Linenberger

Jan 18, 2013

Not sure if you have caught this in the past months, but Microsoft, with the release of Office 2013, is urging buyers to use a subscription model for purchase—basically you are renting the software with free upgrades and liberal multi-computer terms. Here is an article from Mary Jo Foley about that:

http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-office-2013-what-to-expect-on-the-pricing-front-7000009591/

Michael Linenberger

Jan 18, 2013

I caught this review of a tool for Gmail and Yahoo mail users to get control of too many newsletters.

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57564570-285/clean-up-that-mess-of-an-inbox-with-unroll.me/

Let me know if it works for you!

Michael Linenberger

Jan 18, 2013

Ready Lane Young pointed me to this article on how to use Outlook VBA coding to categorize sent mail. Thanks Lane!

http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/catsentitem.htm

Michael Linenberger

Jan 17, 2013

The whole goal-setting topic is a tricky subject—it’s wrought with land mines. It seems so proactive to set ambitious goals, but despite our best intentions, most such goals are missed. When that happens repeatedly, we get discouraged and many of us never set goals again—to avoid the pain of missing them.

However, failing at goals may be because we’re creating and managing goals incorrectly, not due to being an undisciplined person.

4 Tips

Here are 4 tips you can use to achieve more success with goal setting and thus rekindle your faith in the process. Setting goals is still the best way to make progress in just about any area, so I hope you give one or more of these a try and get back on the goal bandwagon.

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Jan 13, 2013

For years I’ve written and lectured about (and recently wrote a blog about) the problems of setting arbitrary deadlines—deadlines that have no real consequence. The main problem is we tend to ignore them since they have no teeth; we often ignore action on them.

In recent years, however, a number of web-based tools have popped up that can help solve that problem. They do this by helping you create and manage commitment contracts that force you to pay a fine if you miss a milestone. This adds teeth to a deadline date, and may just solve the arbitrary deadline problem for many of your tasks and goals.

The best-known web-tool for this is probably stickK.com, co-founded by the author of the book Carrots and Sticks. Another one, one that I have started using, is called BeeMinder.com.

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Jan 12, 2013

It’s the beginning of the year so it’s goal setting season again, and a lot of you are making resolutions for the year ahead. Many of you will be setting deadlines on your goals, and you may be tempted to create arbitrary ones—using a random date—just to add focus. However, in my classes and in my books I discuss problems with using arbitrary deadlines.

Here’s how to fix them so your deadlines really work!

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