Business Management

All Certified Legal Nurse Consultants know I’m a fan of dual monitors. I can’t live without them and when I’m saddled with my laptop’s single monitor, say when I’m traveling or sitting in the back pew in church, I feel the pain. It’s funny. Once you go to dual monitors you never want a single monitor again. Just ask any of the staff members here at Vickie Milazzo Institute.

That being said, the more monitors you have, the more programs you open. The more programs you open, the more difficulty you have keeping track of what’s open. The more difficulty you have, well, you get the idea.

I’ve often wished for a way to install the handy Microsoft^® Windows^® Taskbar at the bottom or side (yes, you can move it to the side) on both my monitors. Recently I learned that the kind people at MediaChance heard my wish and made it come true! If you follow this link to MediaChance’s MultiMon download page, you too can get a free copy of their simple MultiMon, multiple taskbar program. Once downloaded and installed on all the dual-monitor-enabled computers you use in your legal nurse consulting business, it will imbed itself in your Windows start-up menu so every time you start your computer, MultiMon will start automatically with no fuss and no muss!

Once running, it will keep track of the files you have open on each monitor and display them just like the Windows taskbar. If you want to spring for $28, you can get the “Pro” version which is customizeable and does some neat tricks, but I think the free version is more than enough for most legal nurse consultants. In fact, this is one of the best freeware programs I’ve run across. MultiMon will reduce your Windows-related headaches and save you all that time you spend fishing around those cool dual monitors. Now my CLNC^® amigos, as Vickie says, you can get some real work done.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

We all love social media. For example, I use Facebook to communicate to all Certified Legal Nurse Consultants and aspiring CLNC^® consultants. I love reading details of your lives and seeing the fun photos you post. One Certified Legal Nurse Consultant told me that what she loves most about Facebook is that she never has to worry about keeping up with her friends’ email addresses – because their Facebook address never changes. If she’s on Facebook, she’s always in touch with them. This is really a radical form of communication and allows connection with more and more people, including attorneys, who are joining Facebook every day.

Something I’ve noticed though – social media can quickly move from a means of communication to an obsession. One can get caught up in all of the things to do there – the games and other ancillary applications. That’s my issue with social media. Clicking your mouse to get points to build a hen house for your farm or sending someone virtual hugs, flowers or groceries seems like a crazy waste of time.

Where we focus is where we yield results, and let’s face it, building a better farm, sending pictures of flowers and answering meaningless quiz questions becomes a feel-good addiction that reaps little more than distraction from vision and purpose. Does “I got a new llama for my herd today” or “I answered a quiz about Pop-Tarts^®” really sound better to you than “I got three cases from a new attorney-client today”? The way you unwind is certainly your personal choice, but I prefer to find my relaxation in nature, taking a walk or listening to the clacking of my bamboo while enjoying a glass of wine in my backyard. Relaxation has a beginning and an end but the demands of a “virtual farm” never will.

For successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultants living in the real world, those meaningless feel-good addictions are something we avoid. We spend our time growing our legal nurse consulting businesses, not fertilizing our virtual farms. I’ve gone though and blocked just about every “application” I can on Facebook to keep those “requests to bale hay” from cluttering up my wall. I appreciate that someone loves me enough to want to send me a virtual pet – but I’m busy with my legal nurse consulting business and connecting with my family and friends – and I hope you are too.

Social media is a great thing. It’s changing the way we connect and communicate. Just make sure that you’re using it to advance your legal nurse consulting business or to truly connect and communicate with your “friends.”

Success Is Inside!

As all Certified Legal Nurse Consultants know, I’ve written myriad tech tips that will save you valuable time for your legal nurse consulting business. Now I’m letting you in on more timesavers I regularly put to good use. For instance, if you want a little more screen depth when you’re researching medical literature for your legal nurse consulting business, you can get an extra 1/4” or so of visible screen (or just as much screen as you can get) with only a few clicks. Just right click the Windows^® XP Start button, then left click Properties. You’ll see a variety of options for the taskbar. Click in the box beside “Auto-hide the taskbar” to make the taskbar disappear until you mouse over it. Now you have the maximum amount of visible screen.

While you’re there uncheck the “Lock the Taskbar” button and click Apply. Then add a check in the “Show Quick Launch” box. It will give you a place to put shortcuts for the programs you use the most. Using Quick Launch, you don’t have to minimize your desktop or navigate through your Start menu to find a program you use on a regular basis. Instead, you simply right click the shortcut you want to place onto the Quick Launch bar and drag and drop it there (select “Create shortcut here”). This only works if your taskbar is unlocked, so once you load the taskbar with shortcuts, you should then re-lock it.

Once you’ve loaded your taskbar with shortcuts for the programs you use the most in your legal nurse consulting business, all you have to do is mouse over the taskbar and left click on the appropriate shortcut to start a program. This sure beats minimizing all your programs or sorting through your Start menu. Remember, seconds wasted build up into minutes and then into hours lost, so the more time you save, the more billable hours you’ll have as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

I don’t know about your husband (or wife), but mine is a creature of habits. Some good, some bad and some just…

For all his tech-tippyness, he even has a bad tech habit and I have his personal permission to share this one with Certified Legal Nurse Consultants (Tom, I owe you one!). Here goes: any time Tom starts searching, no matter where he is on the information superhighway at the time, he’ll go straight to either Google^® or Yahoo!^® to start his search. To get there he’ll open a new tab on whichever browser he’s got open and click “Home.” On Firefox^® it’s his customized Yahoo! homepage, on Internet Explorer^® 8 it’s his customized Google homepage and I have no idea what’s on his Safari^® page. Once the customized page has loaded, he starts getting ready to search.

Now, I’ve watched him do this. He doesn’t go straight to the search box and start typing, first he’ll scan that customized page of RSS news feeds, etc. for current updates, weather alerts, checks on how the Dow is doing and then when he’s satisfied that all is well with the world, he begins searching. By this time he’s lost at least two minutes and those minutes build up over a day, a week and a year. Every minute he’s assuring all is right with the world is one he could be spending on the ironing (Just kidding – it’s actually washing the dishes!). In all fairness, he does keep me updated on what’s going on in the world – but at a cost to his efficiency.

One of the things working in the ICU as an RN taught me is economy of movement. When you’re coding or resuscitating a patient you don’t want to be taking three steps to do something you can do in one or two. Seconds count when lives are in the balance. I try to apply economy of movement to my workday to keep me focused on the big things. I could end up needing to work all day every day if I’m inefficient, and that would interfere with my vacation plans!

That’s why when I search the Internet, no matter what webpage I’m on, I go straight to the search box built into the top of my web browser. Tom converted me to Firefox and I love to search right from the browser. If I’m ready to leave the page I’m on, I’ll just type my search term in the built-in search box and “Google” away. If I want to stay on the page I’m on and am just doing some fact checking, I’ll simply click open a new blank tab (Ctrl + t) and search away still using that built-in box. Firefox allows me to select the search engine I want to use:

IE8 picks Bing^®/Live search as its default and I’d have to ask Tom how to change that so I’ve left it on Bing:

I do recommend that you customize your iGoogle^® homepage and Yahoo! homepage to add RSS feeds relevant to your legal nurse consulting business. I also recommend that you search from “inside the box” to stay efficient and free of distractions.

Keep on searching – efficiently.

Success Is Inside!

One of the first tools any CLNC^® consultant needs is an accurate way to keep track of billable hours and create invoices for attorney-clients.

In the history of billing practices, the paper system was replaced by computers that are supplemented by personal data assistants (PDAs) and PC-based electronic solutions. Most electronic solutions had to be installed directly on the users’ PCs. The different computer-based solutions include Timeslips, Peachtree Complete and QuickBooks Pro, all of which survive today. Timeslips is a proven product and the most expensive of the three. Quickbooks is the least expensive, easiest to use and can handle most of your legal nurse consulting business’s accounting and banking needs as well as your billing and invoicing.

Now, new software is being created that is entirely web-based. For example, MakeSomeTime is totally web-based and allows free access once you register. It gives you the ability to log in, track your time and then create invoices from those logs. Because it’s free, it’s the most economical solution for new Certified Legal Nurse Consultants looking to minimize office start-up expenses. You can pay to upgrade for additional services but I suggest you try it free first.

In short, whatever billing application you choose, whether a free web-based application or a more robust PC-based service, make sure it works for you and your legal nurse consulting business. Also make sure you select one that can grow as your CLNC^® business grows.

Success Is Inside!

The more you use your computer in your legal nurse consulting business, the higher the chance that one of your data types will become associated with a program other than the one you want to use to open it. What I mean by this is that your songs may start opening with Windows^® Media Player instead of your trusty iTunes^®. Your legal nurse consulting reports created in Word^® might start opening in Wordpad or your photos may open with some editor you downloaded from the Web instead of Photoshop^® Elements or Microsoft^® Office Picture Manager.

In other words, you either installed a program that took over the file association for that file type or you may have uninstalled a program that is still associated with that file type. Here’s another example, you choose to use Safari^® as your default web browser but Internet Explorer^® always opens up saved webpages or links within an email. Some programs are overly intrusive and by default may take over file association. This can make a person crazy.

Now, any Certified Legal Nurse Consultant can remedy this like a CLNC^® Pro! This is for Windows XP but can be done with other versions. Simply, minimize all your programs to your Windows Desktop. Next left click on Start then Settings then Control Panel. When the Control Panel opens, look for Folder Options and double-left click it (depending upon your Control Panel view it may be under Appearance and Themes). Select the File Types tab and it will eventually populate a list of File Types in alphabetical order by their file name extension (.wpd, .wpdx, .xls).

Now, scroll down that list to the file type that is opening with the wrong program. Select or highlight the file type and left click the Change button. Select the program you want to use to open that file type. Make sure the box next to Always use the selected program to open this kind of file is selected. Now click OK then Close and you’ve just corrected that annoying issue!

The Control Panel and File Associations can be dangerous places, but any Certified Legal Nurse Consultant with a modicum of confidence (and care) can fix this file issue with alacrity. Go for it – but just be careful in there!

Keep on techin’,

Tom

Every Certified Legal Nurse Consultant running a variation of Windows^® probably has at least one program that, instead of opening up to a full-screen view, pops up in a smaller window, a portion of a window or is just a quarter of its normal size. You then click it to full size, do your work and when you’re done, close the program. Next time you open it that same day, it comes up full size, or not. The next time you open it after a restart of your computer, it opens full-size, or not. Therein lies the rub, it’s not consistent, at least not as consistent as your other Windows programs.

So what’s a savvy CLNC^® consultant to do? If you’re running Windows XP and you use a shortcut to open your program, the solution is easy. First, navigate to the shortcut you use to open the program. This could be in one of three places:

1. Your Windows “Desktop” (that’s those icons on your screen).
2. Your “Quick Launch” toolbar in your Task Bar (that’s in the blue bar at the bottom left of your screen).
3. The “Start Menu” that you use to select your programs (it pops open when you click the Start button).

Mouse over the icon/shortcut for the program that’s giving you size trouble and right click it. When the menu pops up, left click Properties at the bottom and you’ll see the “Properties” box with the “Shortcut” tab open.

In the Run category, left click the Normal window selection and select Maximized. Then click Apply and Okay. Next time you run that program from that particular shortcut, it should open in the maximized, full-screen mode you selected and you’re back where you want to be!

Keep on techin’,

Tom

I’ve told you about the bamboo that highlights my morning tea time. Lately there’s been a pair of northern cardinals living in the bougainvillea growing outside my living room windows. They’re a matched set, a male and female, and whenever they appear, they bring a joyful mindfulness to my day, reminding me that life is good. I used to think they mate for life (like me) but found out that it’s more likely just for one season. I also learned that during the wooing process the male will not only sing to the female, but he’ll bring her seeds and feed them to her beak-to-beak. I’m still waiting to see that action (and I don’t mean from Tom).

Blogging about the bamboo and the cardinals reminds me of another practice I’d like to share with my Certified Legal Nurse Consulting colleagues. That’s the practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness, in its simplest form, is simply being fully in the present and taking in things as they are. It is also being fully aware of our body’s sensations, such as our breathing. It can be fully embracing the joy I feel watching the cardinals hop from branch to branch. When you’re walking, it can be feeling the satisfaction of using your muscles, noticing and appreciating the beauty of the budding trees or smelling the hamburgers from the local cafe.

I’ve found that it is easier to be mindful when I’m doing nonwork-related activities such as hiking in the woods. When I’m working, I need to be intentional about mindfulness and not let my mind start flying in a thousand different directions about what has to get done by whom. I need to be mindful about eliminating the clutter that distracts me from my big vision. I have a friend who defines multitasking as worrying about many things at the same time. Worry is a completely useless emotion and that’s why mindfulness is so relevant to everything we do. Mindfulness gives us the focus we need to complete even the most challenging projects.

What about you? When you’re working in your legal nurse consulting business on a report for an attorney-client, are you thinking about the time-crunch, how much you don’t like typing or are you wishing your children would quit interrupting your work? Are you wondering how you can find a CLNC^® subcontractor with a particular specialty or where you’ll locate an expert witness for a case. Is your mind flying everywhere but on your work? Be honest, it happens to all of us.

It’s been said that any activity that is done mindfully is a form of meditation. In other words, if you fully release yourself into the work, feeling the mouse in your hand, listening to the clacking of the keys on your keyboard, marveling at the science that brings the Internet into your home and the computer technology that allows you to share your knowledge with the attorney-client, you turn a chore into a mindful activity. Even pausing to appreciate the interplay of the sun in the branches of the trees outside your window or the sound of your house as it heats in the day can be an exercise in mindfulness.

Apply mindfulness to anything you consider a chore and turn it from a chore into a meditation – dialing the phone and being fully present in the conversation, enjoying the smell and warmth of the clothes as you fold them from the dryer or just feeling the texture of the crisp pages of the research study you’re reading. I’m trying to be mindful as I type this. I’ve closed my email program and am engaging my fingers on the keyboard, listening to my own mind and blocking out the ringing phones in the office.

But, don’t force mindfulness, it needs to become a natural act. Muho Noelke has pointed out “…we have to forget things like I should be mindful of this or that. If you are mindful, you are already creating a separation (I – am – mindful – of – ….). Don’t be mindful, please! When you walk, just walk. Let the walk walk. Let the talk talk. Let the eating eat, the sitting sit, the work work. Let sleep sleep.”

That’s the first step on the path to true mindfulness. Don’t “be” mindful, “become” mindful.

Success Is Inside!

I’ve got a confession to make. I’m not hooked on Lost. I don’t know what “frack” means and I’ve never watched American Idol. I used to keep my television in my closet (it was a 12″ black and white) and it wasn’t out of shame – I just didn’t watch TV. Even though we now have one of those state-of-the-art flat screen, surround-sound systems (ask Tom for details), I still don’t watch TV. I will also confess there are a couple of exceptions. I set aside an evening for each of the Grammys^®, Golden Globes^®, Super Bowl^® (for Tom) and the Academy Awards^® as sacrosanct (don’t call me, I won’t answer). But the other 361 days of the year, my TV is off. My Google^® homepage tells me the news headlines and Tom keeps me in the loop. If the world was going to come to an end, my executive team would notify me and ask me to release the Institute employees early so they can go home and prepare (being on the Gulf Coast, I’ve even gotten tsunami warnings). In other words, TV doesn’t play a role in my life – it’s not an early warning system and it’s not a distraction.

Now, on the other extreme, I know legal nurse consultants who live and die by their TVs. Between reruns of Seinfeld, Friends and shows like The Bachelor and Dancing with the Stars, they eat, sleep, relax and work. That’s okay for them and possibly for you. I understand the need to let your mind coast and let your body relax. One of my best friends gets home from work each day in time to watch Oprah – that’s how he (correct, this is not a typo) relaxes. I relax through books, movies, Jacuzzi^®, meditation and a glass of a great red wine.

Let me ask you a question – if you turned your television off for just one night a week and put that time into your legal nurse consulting business, what dividends would it return?

TV is passive. As Zen master Takuan says, “This day will not come again.” Every hour you sit in front of a television you’re accomplishing nothing. Each of those hours is irretrievably lost to you. Sure, the next morning you and your friends can discuss Glee or which of the fifteen hundred versions of CSI had the most fun autopsy scene, but where will that get your legal nurse consulting career?

I challenge all Certified Legal Nurse Consultants to take one day a week and turn off your TV. Put that evening into your legal nurse consulting business. Concentrate on a different aspect of your business each week, marketing, report writing or a new CLNC^® service. See what you’ll reap from that time. You’ll never be able to say “I’m too busy to…” again because you’ll have recovered 2-3 hours of time lost from Lost. If this whole topic is making you nervous, you can always TiVo^® your shows to watch them at a later date (after you’ve accomplished all you want).

If you dare to fully realize the power of this, try taking a week off from the TV. Put that time into your CLNC^® business and your family. You’ll make exponential leaps in both. I warn you though, this powerful practice is not for everyone – it’s only for those who choose to take back their time and make something powerful from it.

Success Is Inside!

Every CLNC^® consultant using social media to market your Certified Legal Nurse Consulting business, raise your left hand (keeping your right hand on your mouse). That’s terrific! I know a lot of you participate and interact regularly with Vickie on Facebook^® and Twitter^TM. I also know that Facebook and Twitter can be semi-frustrating if you’re using them directly through a web browser instead of an application like TweetDeck or HootSuite^®. Why frustrating? Because you need to refresh the page on a regular basis to see the updates.

Likewise, if you’re a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant who’s bidding on business equipment on eBay^® or another auction site and you want to keep ahead of last minute snipers or just watch bidding trends, you face a similar problem. A problem whose only remedy is sitting, mouse-in-hand, and relentlessly clicking the “refresh” button on your browser.

Well my CLNC^® amigos, I have a solution for you, at least if you’re a Firefox^® user. Simply visit the Add-ons for Firefox page for ReloadEvery and install this nifty little add-on. It allows you, by right-clicking on an open web page, to select an automatic refresh interval for that page. You can even set your own custom refresh timings. This allows you to watch your Facebook wall or profile page and keep up with Vickie and your CLNC^® colleagues without the need to click the refresh button. It does have the innate danger of wiping out that half-written, pithy status update you typed in and hadn’t yet sent so be careful when you use it. Internet Explorer^® and Safari^® users are out of luck but I’ve read that the Opera^® browser has this already built-in.

With ReloadEvery installed, you always have the most current page/news in front of you and you’ll never miss a Farmburg Piglet request again. I think this is just another reason to move to Firefox as your web browser for your legal nurse consulting business.

Keep on techin’,

Tom