• Where’s Ann Michael?– Working on an exciting project that I will be sharing with you shortly. Stay tuned!
• Feature Article – How We Make Our Coffee
• Ann Michael Recommends –Upcoming complementary webinar on Say Goodbye to Your Filing System - 7 Tips for Creating an Effective Finding System. Join us on March 18th at 1:00 p.m. EST to learn how to create a finding system for your papers and electronic documents, as well as emails. Register now!

I'm not a big coffee drinker, although I do enjoy it. I make a large mug of frozen coffee every morning; however, it's more milk than it is coffee--foamy, smooth, cool and refreshing. It's my little treat to start the day. I make it frozen because years ago when the children were younger and we were dashing from here to there I learned that I could drink frozen coffee faster than scalding hot coffee so I could get my caffeine hit sooner! How's that for being productive!

This morning cup of coffee is one of my daily pleasures. Actually, I have a bunch of little pleasures. At lunch time, I do the word Jumble in the comic section of the paper. To combat my mid-afternoon slump, I walk away from my desk and have a healthy snack. I don't know if these are little rewards - the coffee for getting out of bed, the word Jumble for a productive morning, and the healthy snack because I worked out and I don't want to defeat those efforts by having the piece of chocolate that I really crave. Or, if these rituals are actually my motivators.

Either way, they are my pleasures. They encourage me. They refresh me. They motivate me. What little pleasures do you fill your day with?

Say Goodbye to Your Filing System!

7 Tips for Creating an Effective Finding System

Complementary Webinar
Thursday, March 18th at 1:00 P.M. EST

You have tried hanging files. You have tried manila folders in a desk-top holder. You have even tried color coding. If your office was suddenly covered in lava much like Pompeii, archeologists hundreds of years from now would uncover layer upon layer of failed filing systems and marvel at your attempt to create something that works.

Then of course there is the filing system that you have on your PC. Your hierarchy of folders, sub-folders and sub-sub folders that you have set up in a seemingly logical fashion. That structure works when you go to put something away. However, when you go to find it, it fails you.

What about your email folders? Chances are your email folders resemble your PC folders...sub-folders...sub-sub folders. Is it any wonder that you have a hard time finding information when you need it?

What would you think if I told you that you can combine all three filing systems? Sound exciting? Well it is! And that is what I will be sharing with you during this complementary webinar. So, register now by clicking here!

How We Make Our Coffee


Your alarm goes off, and you head downstairs to make your morning coffee. When you arrive in the kitchen, you turn on the oven, get the mixer going, plug in the blender, turn on a couple of stove burners, set up the food processor, get the toaster oven warming, grind your coffee beans and get the coffee maker going - right? Goodness gracious no! You wouldn't dream of turning on all of that equipment just to make a cup of coffee. First of all, that would be an incredible waste of energy and resources. Secondly, the rest of the "sleeping" house would probably revolt! Instead, you use the tools you need, the coffee grinder and the coffee pot, to make your morning cup of Joe.

Why is it then, when we walk into our offices to begin work, we have a multitude of tools running at once? Our mobile device is attached at the hip - literally, our email is open, multiple tabs on our Internet browser with various web sites including, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, a variety of additional programs are running and "Googling" has become a national past time. What's worse, is that we respond to these tools instead of using them to support our objectives. It's like turning on the oven to make a cup of coffee; once the oven is up to temperature we look at it and say, "Oh, I should put something in there to cook" and off we go to prep a casserole. I can hear the laughter as we both know this makes no sense and is totally illogical!

Yet, this is exactly what we do at work. Oh, look incoming email, I should respond to that. Or, someone commented about the upcoming high school reunion on my Facebook wall. Wow, haven't heard from that person in decades, I need to comment right away. Or, heard this great story on the radio on the way in, I'd like to learn more so let me take a moment to Google it. So let me ask you...what does any of that have to do with your top one or two goals for today? Do you really need all of those tools running to complete your top priority of the day? Or, do you just need a Word document and 45 minutes of uninterrupted, focused time?

Now, don't get me wrong, I love what all of this technology can do for us especially when we use it to support our priorities. Therefore, I have a challenge for you. At the end of today, take a moment to reflect on the number one priority that you want to accomplish tomorrow, just one. When you walk in the office in the morning with your goal in mind, turn on only the tools that you will need to complete that task and begin. Use that goal as your standard by which you measure all other activity. Is an interruption more important than the goal? Is the email more important than the goal? Is responding to a Facebook comment more important than the goal? Chances are, if you are honest with yourself, the answer is no. Try it tomorrow and let me know how it goes!

Keystroke Shortcuts

Want a quick way to create copyright, trademark or registered symbols? In a few quick keystrokes you can create these symbols in your documents by simply typing parenthesis around the letters. Let's take a look:

• To create a Copyright symbol, type (c) and it will turn into ©
• For a Trademark symbol, type (tm) and you will see this ™
• And for a Registered trademark, type (r) and this symbol will appear ®

Ann Michael Henry is the Founder and The Productivity Chef for Mise En Place -- an organization and productivity consulting firm devoted to working with clients to discover the right ingredients for managing e-mail, digital data, paper, and workload so that they can "get cooking" at work and still have time to satisfy their appetite for life.

Her personal philosophy...let's get the work done so that we can go out and play is what motivates Ann Michael. If you liked today's issue, you'll love Ann Michael’s productivity tools, products, and training designed to help you improve your focus, organization, and productivity at work so that you have time to experience all that life has to offer.

Having the right ingredients – tips, tools, and proven techniques – to accommodate an individual's work style is what makes the difference. This is where Ann Michael thrives! Her ultimate goal is to find the recipe that works for you!