Displaying All Posts by Carl Natale

The Digital Nomad’s Guide to Using Paper Stationery

I’m a digital nomad. I love using computers. I worked as online editor for newspapers. I am so online that my filing cabinets are practically empty.

So going paperless should be a no brainer. Although I don’t hug trees, I don’t mind saving a few. But after looking through my messenger bag, I realize that it’s harder to do when you work out of the home office. If I stay sequestered at home every day without meeting anyone, I can go paperless fairly easily. Once I step out, things get trickier than they do at home, and at least some paper stationery becomes necessary. Click Here to Read Article …

How to Stay Productive When the Internet Is Down

Carl Natale 18th August Productivity 14 Comments

The Internet went down this morning at the home office. If I were in a deadline situation, I would have packed the laptop into the car and headed for the nearest caffeinated wifi hot spot. But I was under no pressure this morning and had hope the Internet downtime would be brief.

Under these circumstances, this is how I stay productive when the Internet is down: Click Here to Read Article …

How to Hone Your Business Skills with a Cribbage Board

Carl Natale 1st August Goals 2 Comments

One of my favorite ways to kill some time and unwind is by playing cribbage on my iPhone. It’s an addictive way to clear my head.

Oh, it’s not all fun and games. There are some valuable business skills to be learned:

Pay attention to your numbers: When I pick my cards, I need to add up all my possible points. More often than not I keep the four cards that add up to the most points.
Take risks: OK, I don’t always play the highest points. That’s because if I get the right start card or my opponent puts the right cards in the crib, I could clean up. Sometimes it works. Sometimes I have to make the best out of a busted strategy.
Analyze the competition: I pay attention to what my opponent plays. Analyze its strategy and adopt what works.

What do you learn about work and business from games? Click Here to Read Article …

How to Balance Your Internet Life with Your Real Life

Carl Natale 29th July Communication 3 Comments

Hi, I’m Carl, and I’m a blogger.

I really started blogging back in 1997 when I created an e-mail newsletter for the newspaper. I would start each daily e-mail with some personal insights then list the day’s headlines. I didn’t know it but it was blogging.

I thought I could quit whenever I wanted. But I kept posting updates. And that led to Facebook and Twitter accounts.

So now I’m very comfortable sharing personal aspects of my life with complete strangers. But some people I share my life with aren’t social media exhibitionists. They don’t blog, tweet, friend or check in. And they’re not thrilled to be part of my social networks by associations.

We talk a lot about balancing work and life. But how well do we balance internet life with real life? Do you need to keep your personal relationships quarantined? Here are some tips for achieving harmony:

Disclose

On your first date, confess your blogging and social media habits. Your date needs to know that this may be the subject of a blog or Facebook update. Better yet, give them veto power. They need to be able to express discomfort and keep their private life private.

Discuss

Set up ground rules with the people in your life. Understand what they don’t want revealed to the world.

Ask permission

No matter what the rules are, your friends and family will appreciate if you ask before you blog.

Create pseudonyms

Your personal life can have a lot impact on what you write. You can use personal anecdotes to add punch and protect the shy members of your life. Instead of using their names, identify them as “My Better Half” or “No. 1 Son.” Give them a little bit of cover.

Don’t ambush

We’ve all thought of the perfect comeback after losing an argument or point in a debate. Social media offers a chance to make that point after the fact. Which really isn’t fair. And don’t write anything you wouldn’t say to someone’s face.

Extend these courtesies to coworkers

Even if it’s totally professional, you want to consider the people at work and clients part of your private life. They may not appreciate reading about themselves in your blog or Facebook timeline. Ask.

Do you have rules to separate your real and social media lives? Click Here to Read Article …

How Your Spouse Can Help Your Work-Life Balance

Carl Natale 27th July Career 6 Comments

I don’t need to tell you how challenging it is to balance work and life. In this economy, it’s hard to say no to working more hours. You want to spend more time with your family but need to make enough money to pay the bills.

What works for many people may not work for you. Luckily you have an extremely powerful ally – your partner. No, not the person who works with you or co-owns your business. I’m talking about your spouse/significant other/family member. Who do you share your life with?

Your partner can play a huge part in achieving work-life balance. Here are some ways to help each other make the most of your time: Click Here to Read Article …

9 Ways to Sync Bookmarks

Carl Natale 21st July Software 25 Comments

I’m writing this on a desktop computer. I also use a laptop – when I’m away from home or working from the patio. In addition, there are two mobile devices in my messenger bag that can access the Internet. Oh, and I used to work for an employer who provided yet another desktop computer.

That means five different Web browsers with different sets of bookmarks. So if I save a site to my bookmarks at work, how do I remember it when I’m at home or working from my favorite coffee shop?

Thankfully. there are plenty of ways to sync bookmarks. Basically they store your URLs on their servers and sync them with your computer – or allow access via the Web. I prefer the tools that integrate smoothly with my Firefox browsers and keep bookmarks private.

Xmarks: This is my preferred choice for the Firefox browser. It’s seamless, fast and easy. It also will save passwords if you like.
Google Chrome Sync: This is built into Chrome so you don’t have to download or install anything.
Sync2It: This offers a toolbar and mobile access with your device/phone browser.
Evernote: A lot of people love Evernote’s features for taking notes and clipping web pages. It can serve as a bookmark storage if you use someone else’s computer or one with community access. Note this isn’t as easy as using the previous tools.
Gmail: Lifehacker explains how to create a bookmarklet that saves links to your Gmail account. It’s a hack and takes some work. But it may serve your needs.

If you don’t have anything to hide when you’re surfing and saving URLs, maybe a social bookmarking service is for you. There several that let you easily share and categorize the pages you think are worth saving. Plus these sites have privacy features that let you keep URLs hidden.

The beauty of social bookmarking sites is that they are great places to look for other sites you may be interested in seeing.

Delicious.com: One of the earliest services that’s easy to use.
Stumble Upon: Again, easy to use. Many bloggers and Internet marketers credit the service with increasing traffic.
Google Reader: If you use this RSS reader, you also can create a bookmarklet that saves URLs and clips text to a central page. Privacy and keyword categorization are available.
Bit.ly: Yes this primarly a URL shortener. But it does keep track of the URLs you shorten, which could end up being a handy bookmark storage system.

These services and tools also serve as backup for my bookmarks. If something goes wrong, I don’t lose the important addresses I need.

What bookmarking tools work well for you? Click Here to Read Article …

What Wedding Planning Taught Me About Project Management

Carl Natale 16th July Productivity 2 Comments

I’m getting married.

Yes, I’m thrilled. It’s going to be a small wedding on the shore of the lake. Beautiful spot for a beautiful day.

I’m pretty busy with the wedding planning. Even though it’s going to be small, we still have almost all the elements and decisions that come with a big wedding. Perhaps this is as unromantic as you can get, but it seems to me we’re using project management skills to do all of this. We have calendars, file folders, checklists and meetings.

This is a product launch to be branded as “Mr. and Mrs. Carl Natale.” Click Here to Read Article …