Randy Dean

Every day, managers and professionals are getting buried under a continuing stream of both useful and useless e-mail. Without a system for getting “control of the beast”, professionals spend much of their work (and personal) time spinning wheels and feeling highly unsatisfied. If you would like to get control of your e-mail “beast”, you should attend this program featuring specific tips for Outlook and Gmail users, but applicable to ANY e-mail user. Learn a proven system for taming your e-mail account, with strategies for keeping your inbox efficient and under control by building and administering a personal “e-mail processing system”. Learn how to get rid of all those “quick little” e-mails once and for all, prioritize your most important messages, and mitigate or even eliminate much of that annoying junk and spam. Finally feel on top of your e-mail and related activities, rather than feeling it is on top of you.

In this new program reflecting our current times with the coronavirus outbreak, Randy Dean, MBA, The E-mail Sanity Expert®, will take his 16+ years of “working from a home office” and leading multiple client meetings and webinars virtually, and provide you with tips that can greatly help increase your productivity and effectiveness with both. We’ll discuss critical set up, equipment, software, tools, and apps that will make your work from home experience more productive and less distracting. We will also discuss critical tips for running and/or attending online virtual meetings so they can be more useful and effective. All in a quick 90-minute webinar program!

E-mail. Texts/IM. Interruptions. Project Transitions. Office Clutter. Smart Phones and Apps! Social and Other Media. Even Family and Friends (and your dogs!) These common distractions make it almost impossible to get anything done, especially for those of us now “working from home” due to the COVID outbreak. It seems like there is always SOMETHING getting in the way of what you really need to do. But with some forethought and effective strategies, as well as some discipline, it is possible to find your focus, even in a hyper-distracted world. We’ll have a fun time sharing “game plan” ideas for getting and keeping your distractions under control, and finding critical “focused productivity” time every day, leading to both performance but also clarity of mind and purpose. And, this program is now “audience flexed” — the speaker will poll the audience at the start of the program to find out YOUR biggest distractions, and will customize the content accordingly.

You know which apps are fun, but what apps and functions will help you turn your Droid, IPhone, and/or Windows device into a productivity workhorse? In this session, we’ll discuss the apps, online services and peripheral devices that help take your Smart Phone (and tablets) from “cool” to “critical” when it comes to productivity, time, project, people, and e-mail management as well as “remote” productivity. You might even be able to consider whether the combination of these devices could even replace your “old school” laptop or desktop! And, for clients/attendees using Microsoft Office 365 or Google Suite, we will discuss app integration with your related computer/browser tools. A highlight to this program is when the presenter, Randy Dean, opens up the floor to program participants to share their favorite apps, allowing people to gain knowledge from all program attendees.

In this popular program on “finding an extra hour of productivity” every day, Randy Dean uses humor and high energy as he goes into many of the most common areas of productivity loss (and possible gain!) afflicting many busy professionals today: managing multiple projects, maintaining “traction” when dealing with tasks and interruptions, managing your e-mails more efficiently, clearing the clutter in your mind for better focus and attention, keeping staff on task, tracking “who owes you what” and getting that information on time, and better managing your calendar and contacts for better time and relationship management. His goal is to help stressed out performers learn several new and immediately useful strategies for finding a few minutes on tasks, activities, and actions you are already doing, leading to at least an extra hour of productivity every day.

In this popular program on “getting the most from your Outlook” for MS Outlook Users, Randy goes deeper into many of the most common areas of productivity loss (and possible gain!) afflicting many busy professionals today: managing multiple projects, maintaining “traction” when dealing with tasks and interruptions, getting more from time spent in meetings, clearing the clutter in your mind for better focus, keeping staff on task, tracking “who owes you what” and getting that information on time, and better managing your calendar and contacts for better time and relationship management. His goal is to help stressed out performers learn several new and immediately useful Outlook strategies for finding a few minutes on tasks, activities, and actions you are already doing, leading to at least an extra hour of productivity every day. Get more from all five of the key Outlook functions for greater productivity.

Many Microsoft Office users have used Outlook for years for enhanced productivity and communications, but with the rise of Microsoft 365, they now have a whole new suite of tools than can expand productivity, organization, collaboration, and coordination. Three of the easiest tools to use are OneDrive (and the related OneDriveLive.com), OneNote, and the new Office Lens app for scanning and PDF creation. In this new program by Randy Dean, MBA, The E-mail Sanity Expert®, he shows you how these natural extensions to your Microsoft Outlook tools can enhance your real-time productivity, increase the productivity of your related smart-phone/tablet devices, and move beyond individual productivity to deeper team productivity and collaboration.

For many years, Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, and other “server-based” productivity applications have been the industry leaders. But in the last few years, popular programs and services created by Google and based in “the cloud” have been emulating the capabilities of these productivity applications, now to the point where a professional could seriously consider “leaping to the cloud” to manage their projects, time, clients, customers, ideas, e-mail, and more. Existing users of Gmail/Google will find they can build a comprehensive system for time/work/e-mail management using tools like Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Tasks, Google Contacts, Google Drive & Docs, and Google Chrome, as well as affiliated apps for their smart phone & tablet devices, and those not using these tools can use this program as a way to see if Gmail/Google can give them what they need to manage this info in their work and/or life. (And, if you are just using Gmail personally, you can see how these other applications might be able to help you better manage your personal information on your personal devices.)

In this program, we’ll discuss three very powerful tools readily available to Google users – Keep, Drive, and a Chrome Browser add-on – Google Shortcuts. These tools are a wonderful supplement to those using the Google Suite for productivity, and enhance the user experience and capabilities beyond Gmail and Google Calendar. You will learn how to use Google Keep to create and share notes, checklists, and more; how Drive can be your primary cloud drive for your documents and files, how to share items and documents with Drive, and how to use the Drive app on your phone as a scanning/PDF creation device. You will also learn about Google Shortcuts – a very powerful tool for your Chrome browser that allows you to put you most-used Google apps and tools at your fingertips for quick and easy access. Take your Google usage to a new level with this program!

Well-managed meetings are highly effective tools for keeping people and teams informed and productive, but they don’t happen by accident. Unfortunately, many teams and organizations report far too many unproductive meetings causing a drain on productivity and staff morale. Businesses and leaders need to make sure that their meetings are effective, productive, and consistently create value for the organization. If you are a leader that wants to plan and run more effective meetings using the least amount of valuable staff time and resources, this program provides you with the tools and strategies you need to plan, manage, lead, and end effective, efficient meetings. And, with the new rise of virtual tools and meetings due to the coronavirus outbreak, we will also cover several tips and strategies for making your virtual meetings work better and create value. Finally, this program has a few fun and interactive exercises, including a fun tutorial on how to run a better, more focused brainstorm session!

There are so many choices and options for managing your time, projects, tasks, people, and more — Microsoft Outlook & 365, Google Suite, smart phones & apps, and even still “old school” paper options. In this program, Randy Dean, MBA, The E-mail Sanity Expert(R), will take you through these options and share what he believes are the best techniques, strategies, and routines for being an effective time and project manager, regardless of the tech you decide to use. He will also “cruise” the different software platforms and options, including Microsoft 365 and Google Suite, as well as discuss synchronized set up with your smart phone & tablet devices. We’ll even talk a bit about paper! During this program, you can see your options, and following the program, pick the option that is best for you for both work and life management.

Join Randy Dean, MBA, and author of the recent Amazon e-mail bestseller, Taming the E-mail Beast, as he expands beyond e-mail processing, productivity, and efficiency into the realm of e-mail etiquette. We will discuss how to make your emails get attention, actually get read, and then get acted upon. We will deconstruct a good e-mail, starting with smarter subject lines that get noticed and get opened. We will move into opening instructions that make the e-mail easy to understand and make action points, delegations, and deadlines clear and obvious. We’ll cover effective body copy that helps recipients fully understand the message. And, we’ll talk about effective closes that leave the recipient confident with next actions. AND YES, we’ll even discuss how grammar still matters (yes, it does!) We will also discuss multi-party e-mails and how to help make each person’s action items and deadlines clear, assisting with team coordination.

We will of course discuss several “problem” e-mail types — those lacking clear instructions, overusing CC’s, FYI’s, and “reply alls”, emails laden with complex or emotional content, “ping-pong” e-mails (you know — those e-mails that keep bouncing around between folks) and more. We will also talk about the right way to use e-mail for critical and/or urgent communications, and how to identify and re-use successful e-mail communications and templates to increase efficiency while simultaneously enhancing communications quality.

If you would like to get control of “the beast” of information overload and all of your “stacks & piles”, you should attend this program. Learn how to reduce the mess on your desk by having “natural” places for all of your papers, project folders, items to read, etc. Develop strategies and systems for effective and efficient management of your documents and workstation, as well as electronic files. Learn how to get rid of all of the annoying “little stuff” and “clutter” once and for all, and then keep it under control for the ongoing future. We’ll even discuss the possibilities and technology required to move toward a “paperless” workspace. Have a system for managing your info overload in all forms, rather than letting it manage you!

Three Essential 365 Tools for Enhancing Team-Based Productivity and Collaboration

In this course by Randy Dean, MBA, “The E-mail Sanity Expert®”, you will gain critical tips and strategies on how to utilize these most-essential new 365 tools as part of your productivity and team management/collaboration suite. With OneNote, you will learn how to not only “clear your mind” by having an “anytime, anywhere” creative notepad, but you will also learn advanced strategies for making those same notes team collaboration and coordination tools, as well as tools for direct management and coordination between supervisors and staff. You will gain exposure to Microsoft Teams, and how it is not only a very effective “video meeting” tool, but also a very powerful platform for team and project management planning and coordination. And with OneDrive as the “back end” you will have a unified storage system not only giving you “anywhere, anytime” access to your files, documents, and media, you can open up a slew of sharing and coordination options with your team members, clients, and vendors. We will discuss utilizing these tools in a classic computer/laptop environment, but also how to use these tools quite effectively working remotely including on smart phones and tablets. Take your productivity and collaboration to a new level with this new course