Dot Connector Blog

(Source: lilivanilli)

Did you know? You may be relying on time-consuming menu options more than you need to when working with text on your Blackberry? By using some of these Blackberry tips for editing text, you can speed up the way you create emails and other content on your Blackberry.

Selecting Text

• Press shift once and then roll the trackwheel/trackball to select a line, or multiple lines, of text.
• Press and hold shift and roll the trackwheel to select text character by character. If you use a trackball, you can simply use #1 above and select the text character by character.

Cut, Copy and Paste Text

• When editing text, Shift + Del (the delete key) cuts text.
• Press Alt and click the trackwheel/trackball to copy text.
• Shift and click the trackwheel/trackball to paste text.

Shortcuts for Typing Text

• To insert the at sign (@) and period in an email address, press the Space bar for each when entering the email address.
• To capitalize a letter, simply hold the letter until the capitalized letter appears.
• In a number field (like a phone number field), just press the number keys to enter numbers. You do not need to press the Alt key to enter numbers, like you would in the body of an email.

If you have a favorite Blackberry tip for editing text, please feel free to share it in the comments!

Other Blackberry Help posts from Dot Connector:

• 6 Blackberry Tips for Reading Emails
• 5 Useful Blackberry Tips and Tricks to Boost Your Productivity

Want to be more successful at work? The Dot Connector blog helps you do just that. Here is a recap of the most popular Dot Connector posts. Each can help you be more effective at work, and think differently about the work world around you!

5 Useful Blackberry Tips and Tricks to Boost Your Productivity

If you have a Blackberry, chances are you picked it up, and started emailing right away. Did you know, there are several time-saving features built in, and several tricks you can do to make your Blackberry even more useful? Here are 5 of my favorites…

10 Tips for Getting Organized with To Do Lists

Getting organized — and staying organized — can help you get things done, feel more fulfilled, and clear your mind for more creative thought! A cornerstone of every organization “system” are to do lists.

10 Tips to Improve Your Voicemails

Voicemail is one of the most frequently used communication tools within an organization. And, it seems that the more senior the person you are communicating with is within your organization, the more likely they will favor voicemail over email. Here are 10 tried-and-true tips to improve your voicemails.

Top 5 Characteristics of Effective Work Relationships

Effortlessly working with your peers is one of the things that is so hard for many to attain, yet so easy to take for granted. In this post, I’ll discuss my top 5 characteristics for effective relationships at work.

Get Control of Your Email – Email Management: Part I, Part II, and Part III

Email. We all have it. We rely on it, and sometimes, we can’t get away from it. Overflowing Inboxes cause us stress. Trying to find an email causes stress. Wondering if you replied to all of the emails you need to causes stress. Today, that stress goes away!

6 Blackberry Tips for Reading Emails

Did you know you can use the keyboard to read Blackberry email? Here are my favorite keyboard shortcuts, especially useful when only one hand is free.

(Source: miss karen)

In my previous post, 5 Useful Blackberry Tips and Tricks to Boost Your Productivity, I covered some of my favorite overall tips. In this, and future posts, I will be going deeper into different Blackberry tips that can help you.

Did you know you can use the keyboard to read Blackberry email? Here are my favorite keyboard shortcuts, a great way to speed up your email management system:

#1 – “T” – pressing the letter T when reading an email, jumps to the top of the email.

• Have you ever started reading an email, and then wondered who’s copied on the email? Just hit “T” to jump to the top of the email to see information like who is on the CC list, when it was sent, etc.

#2 – “B” – pressing the letter B when reading an email, jumps to the bottom of the email.

• This is really helpful when you are reading a reply and want to see the earlier message. By jumping to the bottom of the email, you can read the previous emails first, and read from the bottom-up to read the entire email trail.

#3 – “Space” – pressing the Spacebar jumps down one screen in the email.

• This is especially useful when you need to quickly scan emails you will read again later. By using this technique, you can scan email reports, long email chains, etc. quickly and effectively.

#4 – “Shift + Space” – pressing Shift and Space jumps up one screen in the email.

• This is especially useful after you hit “B” (outlined above), since you can use it to scan up an email more quickly than with the wheel.

#5 – “N” – pressing the letter N jumps to the next email.

• You can use this technique (combined with the others above) to quickly read Blackberry email with one hand. To use this technique, just hit the letter N when you are reading an email. You will jump to the next email in your inbox.

#6 – “P” – pressing the letter P jumps to previous email.

• Similar to the N tip above, pressing P will jump you to the previous email in your inbox. Both N and P are a great way to scan your email quickly, instead of just looking at the inbox view.

(Source: karindalziel)

Getting organized — and staying organized — can help you get things done, feel more fulfilled, and clear your mind for more creative thought!

A cornerstone of every organization “system” are to do lists. Below, are my Top 10 To Do List tips.  FYI: I use the online organization tool Remember the Milk to manage my to do lists online.

Note: If you’re familiar with David Allen’s “Getting Things Done,” system/book, some of the ideas below will look familiar. However, I’ve taken my own approach, as you will see throughout this post. Also, the following tips are specifically designed for getting organized at work. However, you could easily apply them to your personal life as well.

1. Create the system that’s right for you. For years I used a paper-based version of the to do list system outlined below. Just over a year ago, I moved to a completely online system. Really, it comes down to the tools you want to use (or already use) in your daily routine. Are you online a lot? Do you have a web browser on your phone or Blackberry? If so, I’d recommend using the tips below with Remember the Milk. Are you less concerned with the “digital world”? That’s just fine, you can use a paper-based system just as effectively!
2. Create only 3 lists: “To Do List,” “Waiting For,” and “Someday/Maybe.” Then, put all of your to dos on your 3 new lists, as outlined below. Remember, it’s fine to create more lists, segment lists into areas (i.e. “To Dos by Client,” or “Project A’s Someday/Maybe list”), etc., but really try to keep it simple for now. You can always refine later!
   • Paper-based Tip: Create a To Do List template and save it. That way, when you need to create more lists, you can just print more copies! You can download my Excel To Do List template here.
3. Your “To Do List” is the new home for all of the current things you need to get done. Personally, I like to have a motivational quote at the top of my list, and separate out my Top 3 for today (see Tips #9 and #10 below), Calls I need to make, and the rest of my To Dos.
   • Paper-based Tip: You can use sticky notes to write down your Top 3 for today, and simply slap today’s note on top of your To Do List.
4. Your “Waiting For” list should contain all of the things you are waiting on others to do, including stuff you’ve delegated. Be sure to list WHO you are waiting for at the beginning of the item for easy scanning later (i.e. “Doug: Revised 2008 Strategic Plan”)
5. Your “Someday/Maybe” list is a place to store all the crazy ideas, brainstorm session results, stuff you just can’t think to hard about right now, and dreams that you have but that may never happen. It’s a place to actively “remember” new ideas!
6. Start each item on your to do list with an action verb. This is a subtle, but powerful tip, that I found thanks to Patrick Rhone’s blog. It has helped transform my lists into lists of action! Just by starting a to do with “Call…” or “Determine…” or “Present…” you get your mind thinking about taking action.
7. Dedicate some time to review your lists. Just like with email, your to do lists are a “thing” that needs attention. Even taking just 5 minutes at the beginning and end of each day will help you focus on what you need to do, and ensure you are keeping your lists up-to-date.
8. Develop easy ways to keep your to do lists up-to-date. Your lists are little help to you if the things you need to do are not in them! Find ways to make sure you keep them updated.
9. Each morning, make a list of 3 things you need to do today. By limiting yourself to only 3 things, you set yourself up for success. Also, it means you have to go through your lists and decide what is most important. And don’t pick more than 3 — most days don’t go as planned, and you need to be easy on yourself (that’s very hard in today’s world). By only picking 3 things, you give yourself the time necessary to do those other things that come up!
10. Don’t let your system run your life! Always do the right things first. We all have 1,000’s of things to do. You can easily let your well-organized to do lists run your life, and settle into being a “task doer” at work. Don’t let that happen! This to do list system is strictly a “place” to keep all of your to dos, not a direction on what to do. Deciding what to do — and how you want to react to what you have to do — takes thought, prioritization, and intuition.

(Source: edans)

If you have a Blackberry, chances are you picked it up, and started emailing right away. If you have a personal email management system, your Blackberry can be a real asset to your productivity.

Did you know, there are several time-saving features built in, and several tricks you can do to make your Blackberry even more useful? Here are 5 of my favorites…

#1: Master the Keyboard Shortcuts

Just like on a computer, the keyboard on a Blackberry is full of time-saving shortcuts. Here are my favorites:

• “I” - Hit the letter “I” when looking at email in your “inbox view,” or when reading an actual email to file it. If you’re already using my plan for getting control of your email, then you know the importance of filing email to achieving an empty inbox.
• “0″ - Hold down the “0″ (i.e. zero) button and then use the thumbwheel to select multiple emails when in your “inbox view.”
• “Del” – Use this to delete email you don’t need after highlighting it in “inbox view” – to speed this up even more, you can also remove the delete confirmation.
• “C” - Hit the letter “C” when looking at your email in your “inbox view” to compose a new message.

Be sure to check out my “6 Blackberry Tips for Reading Emails” post with additional keyboard shortcuts too!

#2: Setup Your Blackberry to Work Well with Voicemail

• In my 10 Tips to Improve Your Voicemails post, I discussed setting up speed dial hot keys (Tip #6), making logging into voicemail easier (Tip #7) and forwarding your voicemail (Tip #8) to one voicemail box.
• If you use your Blackberry as a phone, be sure to put all of these to work for you!

#3: Get Google Maps for Mobile

• One of the most useful apps you can download for your Blackberry is Google Maps.
• With a simple search (i.e. “breweries in Duluth, MN”), you will get results on a map, turn-by-turn directions, and one-click to call the business you looked up.
• If you do any business travel at all, it’s an absolute must. I’m sure it will quickly become one of your favorite apps!

#4: Reorder Your Apps in Order of Most Popular

• If you hold down the “Alt” key (below “a”) when clicking on an app, a pulldown menu will appear where you can select “Move Application.”
• Then, you can order the apps in any way you want! I put my most used apps right next to each other to minimize scrolling.

#5: Update Your Blackberry Email Signature

• Your email signature is a valuable “one stop shop” of contact info so people can get a hold of you.
• Make sure you always use the same signature on your Blackberry that you do in your main email (usually MS Outlook).
• That way, readers of your email are less likely to pre-judge your message (“Oh, she’s stuck in an airport and dumping ideas again!”), and they are less likely to know where/how you sent it.
• It’s also a great idea to remove all “Sorry if this is misspelled, I’m on a Blackberry” messages. That’s like a website having an “under construction” page – it’s just not necessary. Plus, it makes you look like you can’t spell.

Bonus Tip!  #6 – How to Dial “Letter-Based” Phone Numbers on Your Blackberry

Ever want to call one of those alpha-numeric phone numbers, like 800-QUICKEN, but can’t find a “land line” dial pad to figure out what numbers to hit?  Fear not!  Thanks to Ron O’Connor, at Quicken Loans, you now have the answer: use the “alt” key + the letter to dial the numerical equivalent of the letter!  For example, to dial the letter Q, just hit “alt-Q” and your Blackberry will show you the Q, but enter a 7.

I hope these tips and tricks prove useful for you. If you’re reading this and thinking, “but he didn’t mention…” then please, leave a comment!

In Part I of this topic, we discussed some resolutions you have to make before embarking on a plan to take control of your email. We also talked about the fundamental ways to organize your view of your inbox, and the folders to use for processing and storing email.

Now, let’s talk about how to really make this new system work for you.

First, you must decide when to work your new system. Your options are:

1. As emails come in (i.e. in “real-time”) – best for people with Blackberrys and all-day access to a computer
2. At scheduled intervals each day – best for people in a lot of meetings, managing teams, and leading organizations

If you plan to act on all email as it comes in, you simply do that. In a later post, I will cover some useful tips for making this easier on a Blackberry.

The best way to stay on top of email is to schedule regular time to work your new system. I highly recommend:

• 45 min. – 1 hour at the beginning of the day
• 45 min. – 1 hr. at the end of the day

When you take time like this, it’s best to block off your schedule, sign out of IM, and only take the calls you must take. That way, you know in your mind that you have a dedicated time each morning and late afternoon to “catch-up” on email (or, work your new system!).

I also recommend blocking 2-4 hours once per week to process the email in your “Read/Review” folder (if you remember, those were all the emails, attachments, video emails etc. that you will dedicate time to later.

Dedicating time like this might be hard, and it may sound extreme, but it’s the fastest way to an empty inbox and less email stress!