De-clutter your work space – Alison’s Top 10 Tips.

Are you struggling under a mountain of paper work? Can never find that receipt when you need to? Or, do you just feel a bit overwhelmed by the amount of ‘stuff’ you have to deal at work? Whether you work from home or in a more corporate environment, the state of your surroundings can have a massive impact on your productivity.So, if this sounds a bit like you (or even if it doesn’t – you can always file it away for the future!), read on to get Alison Armitage’s (from Armitage Home Decluttered) Top 10 Tips for dealing with your work space to make sure your environment is helping you flourish and perform; not dragging you down.

Tip 1

• For some, the paperless office may seem like a crazy, crazy dream! But you’d be surprised how many great tools there are to help you manage the amount of paper you shuffle. From i-phone apps to store your receipts and business cards(try Shoeboxed or Lemon for receipts; there are lots for business cards too – check out this site for more information http://appadvice.com/appguides/show/business-card-scanning-apps ) to scanners that will store vital receipts and other documents on your hard drive. Strive for a paper free(ish!) environment!

 Tip 2

• Sort and deal with your mail every day. It’s easy to let it pile up, but the longer you leave it, the more daunting a task it becomes. Keep what you need and recycle/shred the rest. Everyday.

 Tip 3

• Control your junk mail and opt out of receiving unsolicited post, by signing up to an opt out service: http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/

 Tip 4

• Lots of utility companies and banks are encouraging us to receive statements and bills electronically. It saves them money and helps towards their ‘green’ targets. It helps you too. With your ‘paperless’ targets!

 Tip 5

• Magazines, circulars and other interesting industry stuff often gets put in a pile marked ‘to read’. Somehow, they usually stay in that pile, are rarely read and are re-cycled at the end of the year when you finally give in and admit that there is no time. Well, make time. Flick through for articles of interest and scan them to your hard drive. You may not read them in-depth, but at least they are there for you to refer to. And some systems allow scans to be searchable, so you always have that info at your finger tips if needed for a tender, or just to look very knowledgeable in front of your clients!

 Tip 6

• Better still; cancel those paper subscriptions and sign up to online versions of your favourites!

 Tip 7

• We love white boards here at Armitage Home De-cluttered. They’re a great way of displaying your thoughts, ideas and other things that would usually end up on scraps of paper or post-its, prominently and neatly.

 Tip 8

• There is always essential (note the word essential) paper work that will need to be kept in paper form. So, invest in a filing cabinet – and use it!

 Tip 9

• Adopt a ‘one-in, one-out approach! If you buy a new appliance, get rid of the old one. You’d be amazed how many people’s offices look like an electronics consumables graveyard, because they couldn’t bring themselves to throw it away ‘just in case’!

 Tip 10

• Deal with it now. If you can’t work out immediately what you need something for, where it will be filed or whether it will be scanned to your hard drive, shred it. Now. You’ll be astonished how clean your desk becomes!

Armitage Home Decluttered is the UK’S premier home de-cluttering expert. Alison’s based in the South West, and has been helping people just like you to de-clutter your homes, offices and lives since 2006.   For an informal chat about how Alison can transform your office (or any of the rooms in your home!) and your life at the same time, call her on 0117 911 7556. www.armitage-homedecluttered.co.uk email: hello@armitage-homedecluttered.co.uk

I was recently asked to come up list of requirements for a home computer support service and what to look for when hiring in a Geek to help you with your computer at home.
As with any person or company you hire to come into your home you have to be a bit careful, so I’ve made a list of requirements:

Trustworthyness would be my main priority, when you have a computer repaired you need to know that person is honest because all your documents, pictures and website logins details are stored on your computer.

Reliable – They show up at the time you’ve agreed.

Encouraging – Good to have a person that will encourage you to learn new things and introduce you to new software, whether it is for managing your pictures, or backing up your computer. There are many ways your computing experience can be improved by making small changes.

Knowledgable – A good knowledge of computer security and best practise, so they can offer advice on the best way to setup your network and stay safe online. A good working knowledge of what setups and systems work well together saves a lot of time.

Impartial Advice – Looking what’s best for you and not how the most profit can be made, sometimes replacement is more economically viable than repair, recommending the best antivirus product instead of the most profitable.

I would also look at their website and see if there are recent testimonials from people in your area.

I can empathise for  a completely non technical person looking to get help with their home computer, it is really difficult to assess the skill level of the technician, but you can asses the company by making a few basic checks.

Here are two really useful utilities for dealing with Adobe PDF files.

Convert PDF To Word

The first piece of software will convert an existing pdf (.pdf) document into a fully editable microsoft word document (.doc)

This is called PDF to Word Converter (strangely enough) and it’s made by a company called AnyBizSoft

This software  is free you just have to register (they don’t spam you, I use this software) register here:

PDF To Word Converter

The software once installed and you get the free registration code

Looks like this:

Just drag and drop your pdf file onto the window or click add and browse.

It will output the word docs in a folder specified at the bottom.

Once ready hit the large ‘Convert’ button, the word docs will be in the folder ready to go.

Create a PDF from a Word Doc

The second piece of software is called Bullzip PDF Printer (terrible name, but works well)

Here’s the download link, there’s no registration it’s Donationware (if you like it donate)

Bullzip PDF Printer

This software comes as a .zip file so you’ll have to open it (windows will open .zip files, winzip not required)

Then run the installer.

What is does is add a printer to your PC, called Bullzip PDF Printer.

So all you do now is open a word doc and press print, select the Bullzip PDF Printer and press OK

Next you’ll get a box giving you save options , here you can choose where to save it and other options.

Hope these pieces of software help.

The information above is provided free of charge and free of warranty as I don’t provide the software.

DialaGeek Computer Support Bristol

Here’s what it looked like,

It’s much like the windows Scareware, it’ll ask you for money to remove non existent viruses

What to look out for is a popup much like this one, you’ll be surfing the web and this will popup full screen

and look like a normal finder window with links on the left hand side

If you do get such a message pop up on your Mac , don’t panic, don’t press OK.

Take your cursor straight up to the Apple icon on the top left and select Force Quit – Your browser, Safari Chrome Firefox whatever your using.

In doing this you’ll have not inadvertently installed anything by clicking a close box that a link or something along those lines.

Another good precaution to take if you’re a Safari user is to go into the preferences and disable ‘Open Safe files after downloading’

A good idea also is to get some Mac Antivirus (pains me to say it)

Sophos do a free one for Apple Mac which seems quite light on resources, it also detects windows viruses (windows viruses do not effect macs) which is handy.

Sophos Mac Antivirus

Unfortunately viruses on Mac are set to increase so we need to be bit more careful as Mac users these days.

DialaGeek Apple Mac Support Bristol

We discussed various topics, including the subjects covered on the blog here, this is a slightly cut down version (due to You Tube and it’s 15 Minute Limit).

Many thanks to Steve for inviting me in and making the the interview go well, I never realised what a skillful job interviewing is.

The topics covered are:

Password security

How to securely store your passwords

Dangers of open WiFi

What is backup?

How to setup a free safe surfing system