Posted on Tuesday, April 1, 2014

How to Stop your Team from Ignoring your Emails and Assigned Tasks

I work with both online and offline teams and 99% of the time, I manage both teams wirelessly from the comfort of my sofa at home. Today, the primary method of communication is email, along with some other tools, but one of the biggest problems I was experiencing in managing my teams was sending emails and not getting any reply. The problem is that with so many emails you send, it can be difficult to track emails and tasks and keep track of who has responded and what is taking place with each one. This continued to be a big problem for me until I discovered a tool called Asana. This is a task management tool for teams. Of course, there are similar task management software available, but after conducting some research and viewing some videos, I concluded that Asana was the best option available so far.

One of the great things about Asana is that you can use it on your computer or as an app on your smartphone. Basically, Asana allows you to create a project and an unlimited number of tasks. Additionally, it is free up to 15 users. After you exceed 15 users, then it is priced on a monthly basis.

With Asana, you are able to create multiple projects and can even name the projects. Inside each project, you can share with certain members who are able to see the tasks you have created inside that project. In addition, you can create a description for each task and even assign deadlines. You also have the ability to assign that task to someone who will be responsible for completing and delivering that task.

Asana also allows you to assign followers who are able to see and contribute to each task. For instance, you can assign a task manager, but other people can contribute to the task, as well. Whenever someone comments on the task, you will be notified by email. When you add a follower to the project, you do so based on their email address and they receive an invitation to use Asana. In this regard, everyone can complete, comment, or mark tasks as incomplete. This makes it incredibly easy for teams to achieve project while also boosting productivity, regardless of the team size.

My Asana Dashboard Showing Projects, Tasks and one Task with its full description

You have the option of assigning tasks to an assistant, but even if you do not have an assistant, with this tool, it is really worth it to use just for yourself. You can also create the app using your smartphone and it is very easy and fast to use with no loading time. Simply create a task and share with the people you want and then you can track what is going on with that task. You can even come back a few days or a week later to evaluate progress, establish deadlines, comments, reminders, etc. Nothing is ever deleted, everything is documented, and you can ensure that no one ignores your emails. Asana can also be integrated quite easily with other tools, such as Chrome Extension, DropBox, Google Drive, WordPress, Evernote, Mailchimp, wufoo, Calender Sync, Weekdone etc. to make things easier.

As mentioned, if you have more than 15 users, you will need to pay to use it, but if you have a large company, they offer annual pricing that is quite cost effective.

So, with this tool, you can accomplish more, be more productive, and ensure that you never have to worry about your team ignoring your emails again.

Posted on Saturday, March 8, 2014

Why Is it Important to Have a To Do List?

In today’s hectic world, it seems as though we are all struggling to get more done. While we are spending more and more time working, sometimes it seems as though we are actually accomplishing less. What I have discovered is that the key to accomplishing more is having a to-do list. Having a to-do list is extremely important when you want to achieve more and be more productive and efficient.

I actually use an app called 2Do, which is available on MAC, IOS and Android. If you are going to use it on your phone, I recommend that you put it on the main homepage of your smartphone, and if you are using an iPhone then add it to the bottom fixed bar so that it is readily available and visible. You also need to get in the habit of programming yourself to actually use it and checking in with it throughout the day so that you can stay on track of what you need to accomplish.

With 2Do, you have a tremendous amount of functionality, such as the ability to star the tasks that you create and prioritize tasks based on the priority level that you assign to them. Additionally, you can sync it with your MAC so that everything is updated automatically.

Different Tabs / Tasks with different Priority level (From the 2Do app on my iPhone)

It also allows you to create checklists, create projects, create different tasks, etc. Most people use it to create tasks, also you can use different due dates for tasks, assign certain action for your task such as texting or phone calls that need to be made, so that know what action needs to be taken for that particular task. You can even put a time and a location so that if something is nearby, then you will know about it. Audio notes can be added, as well.

New Task Details

As you can see, you can have different tabs on the left side of the app. There is a tab for everything, where you can see all the tasks, projects and 2do lists that you have created. There is also a tap to show you only today tasks. The app will even tell you what the deadline was so that you will know how many days past due it is.

Different Tabs / Tasks with different Priority level (From the 2Do app on my iPhone)

You can also add different tabs based on what it is that you want to achieve. For instance, you might add a computer tab so that when you are at your computer, you can check in and see what you need to do. For most people, it is a good idea to create a work tab for their general work, but you can also create different tabs for different businesses. If you are out and about a lot, you might want to create a to-do list or tab for that as well, so that you do not forget anything while you are out. You could also create a future projects tab for those things you want to accomplish in the future, such as books you want to read, etc.

To Do List (From the 2Do app on my iPhone)

Project List (From the 2Do app on my iPhone)

Another great way to use this app is to create a calls list for the people you need to call. You might also consider creating a home tab where you can enter things you need to buy for your home. In the event that you delegate tasks to someone else, you could also create a special tab for that, as well to shift the delegated tasks into that tab. Also, this app will show you the list for items that are completed, so you know what has been done. There is also a main sidebar that shows all of the tabs you have created with different colors to distinguish the various tabs. Shifting tasks to different tab categories is also very easy to be done through this amazing app.

If you want to be more productive and achieve more, I highly recommend the 2Do app.

Posted on Sunday, February 2, 2014

Why Dropbox Gives you Peace of Mind and Makes you More Efficient

The era of the floppy disks, the small hard drives, and losing your data has already come to an end. I remember very well when we used to save data on small hard drives. When something happened, you would need to take the hard drive and send it to a professional for recovery. Sometimes the data could be recovered, but in some cases, you would lose all of your data.

Then, hard disks began to get bigger and bigger. Later, they began producing external hard drives, continually making them bigger as they developed with the times. The problem with external hard drives is that you must continually back up your data in order to ensure everything is safe. This is not efficient, especially with data increasing.

Today; however, this era is over.

Dropbox now makes it possible to keep your data secure and be more productive. If you are not familiar with Dropbox, it is a free service that allows you to place all of your documents, data, photos, videos, etc. and share them easily by putting them in the cloud. Basically, it acts as a hosting service for all of your data. You can back it up and synch it continually.

In order to take advantage of these benefits, you open a free account with Dropbox, which gives you the ability to save 2GB data for free. You can create a folder on your computer, tablet, or smartphone. When you create your account, it installs a folder automatically. You store up to 2GB and then automatically synch it in the cloud. Whatever you place in the folder, it will update automatically.

You also have the opportunity to invite others to join the service and earn free data storage. If people join Dropbox through your invitation, you receive 500MG per referral for the free account up to 16GB, so you are able to increase your data storage limits. You can also earn up to 1GB per friend if you are subscribed to the PRO account up to 32GB from referring friends. Dropbox also offers the ability to earn free storage if you connect via your social pages or link your mailbox.

There are multiple ways that you can earn free data storage, but there are also paid versions available, such as the Pro plan that begins at $9.99 per month. They also provide a business plan that offers an unlimited data plan.

Also Dropbox has a feature called Packrat that gives you unlimited deletion recovery and version history. Dropbox by default saves a history of all deleted and earlier versions of files for 30 days for all Dropbox accounts so even you don’t be scared in case you or one of the people that you shared your folders with deletes any of your files by mistake because you can contact Dropbox and they will recover the file for you, If you purchase the Packrat for your account then you won’t have to worry about losing a deleted folder or file because Dropbox will save your files for as long as you have the feature, so Packrat is available to all Dropbox Pro accounts for $3.99 per month or $39.00 per year.

I can also share links or folders with friends and team members then if I need to change the link later or unshared the folder, I can do that also. Dropbox can also be used to ensure that files are completely safe. They offer an unlimited deletion recovery service for an annual fee, a service to which I subscribe.

By using Dropbox, I have found that it makes it easy to access data from wherever I want. For instance, if I go to a meeting and I don’t have my computer with me, I can access my data directly from the app on my smartphone. It gives me tremendous peace of mind and fast access to missing documents.

Posted on Thursday, January 16, 2014

How to Make the Move from Reading a Couple of Books a Year to Two Books a Week

It is not a secret that learning is a crucial key for transforming yourself and attaining the ability to achieve anything you desire. I often refer to books as the treasure or one of the main secrets to success. Everyone learns for various reasons. Whether it is to make money, get ahead in your career or to improve your self-esteem or solve a certain problem.

Unfortunately, not everyone enjoys reading. In the past, it usually took me between six months to a year just to complete one or two books. I struggled quite a bit because reading has never been a fun experience for me. Even when I was studying at university, I found it to be difficult. I would lie on my bed and try to read and within about 30 minutes, I would fall asleep. So, I struggled tremendously with learning efficiently.

Everyone learns, but it is really a matter of how much you learn within a minimum timeframe. For instance, I spent time trying to learn, but I was not doing it at a very efficient rate. Then, I discovered audio books and they literally transformed my life. Suddenly, I gained a huge advantage for learning.

As you may or may not be aware, when you read, you retain about ten percent of what you read. When you listen; however, you remember twice that, about twenty percent. Therefore, audiobooks give you a huge advantage when it comes to learning.

Once I discovered this, I started to listen to audiobooks more and more. To make things easier, I use a service from a website called audible.com which is a site owned by Amazon. The advantage of this service is that the length of most books is about 5 hours. That, of course varies, but on average, they are about 4-5 hours. The books can be downloaded from your digital library, which you can check online, listen to the books from your library online or download the books to your computer or Mac and then burn the books to CDs through iTunes. This is quite efficient for me because I mainly use the books while I am in the car. Plus, having a digital library can save you a huge amount of space by eliminating the need to have big stacks of actual books.

If your sound system in your car has Bluetooth, then you can link the Audible app on your tablet or phone through the car system and you do not even need to burn the CDs at all. The Audible app is available and can be downloaded for free on most smart phones. Your digital online library will be shown on the audible app, so you can listen to the books through your headset from your smart phone and then when you get into the car, you complete the book from where you have reached on the sound system. Also, you can bookmark some chapters or add notes to it through the app.

Most people spend, on average, between two and three hours driving in the car per day. Imagine for a moment if you skip listening to music while you are in the car and instead just listen to the audiobooks. In most instances, I can finish a book within just a couple of days. Now, on average, I finish 2-3 books per week, whereas in the past I was only able to finish 1-2 books per year.

This method has completely transformed my life. Now, whenever I wish to learn about something, I just go and buy an audiobook on that topic and listen to it in the car. This method also works if you spend a lot of time commuting, perhaps not driving in the car, but on the subway or the train or whatever. Download the book to your tablet or smart phone, put in your ear buds and listen while you commute. It’s also a good method for the person who may not struggle with reading, but perhaps you just find it difficult to find the time in your schedule to read.

Of course, not all books are found in audio version. Even so, many books are available in an audio book version, and more and more are added on daily basis as authors are discovering how important it is to have an audio version and demand increases day by day.

I have also found it to be cost-efficient, as well. While regular books can cost up to $60 each, with audible, books range between $9 and $15 per book. This is based on the subscription plan you choose. They offer different plans with varying amounts of credit. Basically, one credit will buy you one book or you can buy the books directly from audible without subscripting into any monthly plan, but of course the books will cost you a bit more, up to $30.

This method has given me a huge advantage for learning. Not only does it make learning more mobile for me, but it also allows me to learn on demand based on any topic that I want to learn about and in a very efficient way.

Posted on Saturday, November 23, 2013

How to Be 10x Times more Efficient in Checking, Replying, Sending and Receiving Emails

Ever since I shifted managing my business from offline to online, I have been searching for and testing out new ways of managing one of the biggest wastes of time I encountered during this transition: my email inbox. The system I’m currently using (Al Kiremli Email Efficiency System) took me two years to perfect.

While less than 10% of my businesses are online, and the remaining 90% are offline, I manage more than 95% of my communication with my offline teams (investors, partners, franchisees, branch managers, PA, etc.,) and online teams (accountants, VAs, researchers, web developers, graphic designers, lawyers, transcribers, social media managers, etc.,) primarily through email.

This model allowed me to avoid having an office and specific working hours, allowing me to wake up anytime I want, work from anywhere I want, travel anytime, play my favorite sport anytime, and more importantly having my own free time when I want to and spend it with the people that I like and want to spend it with. The most challenging thing I faced after shifting to this online management style is the tsunami of emails I received, which was filling my inbox with 100-200 emails a day, not to mention spam.

Just checking and replying to these emails was taking me 6 to 12 hours a day. So in effect I had created another full-time job for myself, which was sitting in front of the computer and replying emails. In theory it’s not a bad job compared to what some other people have, because I can still do it from the beach, the mall, a café, or from home, and I can do it in stages; not necessarily all at once. But still, it was taking over my life, and brain, by taking so much time away from me during the day.

The step by step process that I use to send and reply to my email in 95% less time to what was taking me before is the following:

1- Hire a virtual assistant (VA) through (elance.com) on an hourly basis. This will cost you from $4-$7 an hour, and I currently pay about $5 an hour to my VA, at a monthly cost of $100-$200. Bear in mind this VA will have access to your emails, so select them wisely and test them with a fake or less important email account before giving them access to your main email accounts;

2- The emails VA will read your emails then send them to you as voice messages through WhatsApp on your mobile device in the following format:

Text from VA: Email: (Email No. As per the sequence of emails received that day) (Sender, Name)

Voice from VA: this is a recording of the email received, and it should always start by the email number to avoid confusion should you have sent them a messages through WhatsApp in the meantime

Text from You: (Email No.)

Voice from You: (Your voice reply to the email)

Sometimes you prefer to reply in writing, in that case:

Text from You: (Your written answer)

A Snapshot from WhatsApp for the process

3- For the emails that you need to reply by yourself because they’re personal, or critical to a business deal, or include an attachment that you need to review, then you need to reply to your VAs voice message as follows:-

Voice Message from VA

Text from You: (Email No.) (F) f here stands for forward, but forward to where?

A Snapshot from WhatsApp for the process

4- You then need to create a secret email address that nobody knows about except for your VA. Even your family and friends should not know about this secret email address, because this is where your VA will forward the emails that you need to review or reply to yourself. This means that now you will have 5-20 emails to check (and no spam!) on your secret email address instead of checking 100-200 emails in your main inbox. So basically your VA will act as smart filter and gate keeper from the world to you and a quick answering and forwarding machine from you to the world

5- Depending on the type of email reply that you want your VA to send, your VA can reply from their email address and use a range of business cards when they reply on your behalf. For example, they could reply as your VA, using your business card and email address if you want to make your reply appear as if it came directly from you.

6- When I want to send an email to my team or reply the emails in my secret email address I use a free app called Say it Mail it because when you speak, you usually deliver the idea you want in a better and faster way, and you avoid what usually happens when writing an email such as formal greetings, Proofreading for spelling mistakes, and continually reviewing your written response.

6-1- This is what you see when you open the app.

6-2- When you click on the Microphone the recording starts so you start your voice email.

6-3- When you click again on the Microphone the recording stops and immediately attach your voice email to your email screen, you just need to click send and your voice email will be emailed to the email address that you want.

Currently this is the email system that I use to save 95% of the time I spend sending and receiving emails, and it works very well for me. of course mistakes happen sometimes, but in terms of efficiency this is the best system that I have ever come up with. Now I spend about 15-45 Minutes a day answering my emails, unless there’s something long that I have to read like a partnership or leasing contract.