Michael Linenberger's Blog

If you got this e-mail newsletter, it means you recently purchased the new book, (Master Your Workday Now!) But have you started reading it yet? If not, jump right to the short Chapter 2 (A Quick Start for Gaining Control), it’s only a few pages long and a great place to start since it shows you within minutes how to create the Workday Management To-Do list, and start getting your work under control. By the way, reader Jeff Miller is a classic example of someone who needed a solution for his overwhelmed workday and found the solution in that chapter. As he states “I had so many new requests for action coming in every day, they were building up and they all started to look like a blur—it was driving me crazy. When I read Chapter 2 of the book, it saved my life; in a matter of minutes it gave me a way to get the pile of requests sorted out and to handle the new ones coming in. I now have it under control.” So, if you are still waiting to get started on the book, read that short chapter now. It gets you going quickly.

I was on a TV show last Friday. It’s a great 5 minute interview, kind of fun to watch. Here’s the link.

Steve Pavlina is widely recognized as one of the most successful personal development bloggers on the Internet, attracting more than two million monthly readers to his website, StevePavlina.com. He has written more than 1000 articles and recorded many audio programs on a broad range of self-help topics, including productivity, relationships, and spirituality. Steve has been quoted as an expert by the New York Times, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, the Los Angeles Daily News, Self Magazine, and The Guardian. He is also a frequent guest on radio and Internet radio shows.

Steve says…

I recently had the privilege of reading the book Master Your Workday Now! by Michael Linenberger. I daresay this is the best book on workflow management I’ve ever read — and I’ve read a LOT of books on that subject.

The book just came out this week, and last I checked it was in the top 30 books on Amazon.com (#1 in the Time Management category). I predict that this book is going to be a huge hit and a long-term classic in its field.

I give Master Your Workday Now! a huge thumbs up, and I highly recommend it if you’re at all interested in improving your personal effectiveness, getting your e-mail under control, and aligning your actions with your life’s purpose. This is not a book to be read in a single sitting and tossed aside. This is a book you’ll want to keep as a reference, so you can refer to it again and again. I expect you’ll gain powerful and practical insights you can apply from nearly every chapter.

Read Steve’s full review here:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2010/03/master-your-workday-now/

I thought you would be interested in the news that as of this month (March 2010) my new book is now the #1 Time Management book on Amazon. It has beat books by David Allen, and many others well known luminaries.

As I mentioned earlier, I have been using the new ClearContext V5, and I love it. The new color coding approach for important e-mail really works now. In this new version, that feature has been simplified so that it gives me good information but minimizes color-clutter. I used to disable this feature in the old versions since, no matter what I tried, I found the colors confusing, especially once the mail was marked read. The new one has just the right amount of simplicity and support. There are two main colors, and I have no trouble distinguishing read from unread mail. I now use it all the time!

I’ll write a much longer article about all the new features in V5 in an upcoming newsletter, but I wanted to share that info now. Here’s the link to my specific version of V5, and the link to the regular version of ClearContext.

Outlook flags can be used in many ways, both good and bad. Here’s the bad way: Do you have hundreds of flagged mail sitting in your Inbox from weeks or even months ago? When you see an old flag in your Inbox, do you blur over it because you have so many others there as well? If so, you are definitely using Outlook flags the wrong way. If you leave them there long term, they just clutter up your Inbox and add to Inbox chaos.

The right way is this: Continue reading →