• Maintain your diary
• Deal with incoming email and faxes
• Do background research and present findings
• Type up documents such as letters, agendas, reports and manuals
• Transcribe recorded interviews or audio dictation
• Organise meetings and events
• Ensure you are well prepared for meetings with your own material and with background info on participants
• Set up and maintain office systems such as customer relationship management
• Recruitment admin from placing the job advert to arranging interviews
• Arrange travel and accommodation and give you a report of restaurants, attractions etc. in the area
• Format documents, photocopy, scan and bind documents
• Prepare PowerPoint presentations and handouts
• Proofread and edit your documents
• Make phone calls on your behalf
• Draft letters or design document templates
• Invoice your clients/customers
• Sort through your e-mail, weed out the spam and prioritize your messages
• Reply to emails on your behalf
• Set up and update your business blog
• Submit articles and press releases to media online and off
• Set up online office space
• Make appointments (not cold calling)
• Update your status and profile on various social media sites
• Research suppliers, business events and grants
• Convert documents to PDF
• Organise a direct mail campaign
• Create a prospective list of contacts ready for cold calling
• Select and organise corporate entertainment
• Update your website content
• Manage your online sales

It’s sometimes quicker to use the shortcut keys if you’re typing a document in Word so here are ten that I use often.  They’re available in Microsoft 2002, 2003 and 2007.

If you have any favourite shortcut keys why not post them here.

Everyone leads such busy lives these days that it’s very easy to forget things.  How many times have you jotted an idea down on a post-it note and then lost it or bought an excellent bottle of wine and then couldn’t remember the name of it next time?

If you’re like me it probably happens quite often, but I found an excellent website this week that may just put an end to all that.  It’s called Evernote.

Evernote allows you to put your thoughts, ideas, inspiration and things to remember all in one place.  As well as typing text notes into it you can also store photos of things you want to buy, snaps of business cards or plane tickets or even clip pages from websites you’re researching.  Everything you capture is then processed and indexed ready for you to search.

It’s free to use, although there is a premium service for a small extra charge if you want a bigger upload capacity and enhanced security, and it can also be used with your mobile phone.

If you need some extra ideas on how it can be used, then check out this excellent list of 10 Great Ways to Use Evernote.

We had an interesting discussion on Time Management at the A1 Networking breakfast meeting last week.  As sole traders and small businesses it’s important that we manage our time properly so our busy days run smoothly and we accomplish everything we set out to do.  The following is a list of time management tips that can help us do just that:

• Plan your day first thing in the morning by writing a ‘To Do’ list and prioritise tasks.
• Do the things you don’t want to do first to get them out of the way.
• Put a limit on how often you check your emails – I try to limit myself to twice a day (first thing in the morning and mid-afternoon).
• Learn how to say No!
• Structure your day by taking proper breaks – eg 10 mins at 10.30am, lunch break at 1pm and 10 mins at 3.30pm.  Taking breaks helps you re-energise.
• Use your diary – put personal and business appointments in it so you can see how your week looks.
• If you’re researching something on the internet and you come across pages that are interesting but not relevant to what you’re doing, bookmark them into a folder with that day’s date on it so you can browse them later – saves you getting sidetracked!
• If you’re working on a big project plan out the steps you need to cover – it makes the task less overwhelming.
• Learn how to delegate.
• Organise yourself – do your filing once a day or every couple of days.  It makes it much quicker and easier to find things.
• Don’t take personal calls during your working hours.
• Set a time limit on your online networking sessions otherwise you find a whole morning has passed you by!
• Keep a note pad to hand throughout the day to jot down any thoughts or ideas that come to mind so you can work on them later.

Clare Evans, a personal and business coach, has some excellent time management articles on her website and is also offering a Free Time Management Audit to help you identify areas for improvement.  Go and have a browse – but only when you’ve finished your To Do list for the day!

I’m not left-handed but my son is, and to be honest I’ve never really thought about the problems that may cause – maybe because he’s never actually complained about it!  However browsing the internet recently I came across an interesting site – http://www.lefthandersday.com/index.html.

It’s full of interesting facts and information about being left-handed.  For instance did you know that famous left-handers include Prince William, Leonardo da Vinci and Jimi Hendrix or that studies of cave drawings have indicated a preference for the left hand?

There’s also a left-handed product shop where you can buy left-handed scissors, left-handed notepads and left-handed rulers!

I wish I’d come across this when my son was at school – I think I’ll send him the link now.