Office Efficiency

One thing I know for sure about Certified Legal Nurse Consultants is that they all use different web browsers and different versions of those browsers. I like to keep up to date in my software and have blogged on the importance of updating the software on your legal nurse consulting business and home computers using automatic settings where possible. But once you’re a CLNC^® consultant out on the information superhighway doing research for an attorney-client, how do you know which websites are safe and which are insidious purveyors of malware? You don’t. Not, at least without some outside help.

My customized Firefox^® browser will often warn me of bad or suspect sites while doing a Yahoo!^® search (yes, I’m a Yahooholian versus a Googallion).

For legal nurse consultants who’d like a little more advice on which sites are possibly good or bad, you may wish to consider downloading the WOT – Safe Browsing Tool from WOT Services. Web of Trust (WOT) relies on its member community to rate websites based on the individual user’s experience. You can find the FireFox add-on as a download here and the Internet Explorer^® (version 6.0 and higher) download here. If you’re a Safari or Opera user, there’s no add-on available but there is a cool bookmarklet you can get here. Drag the link to your bookmarks in Opera/Safari (then rename it something like “WOT”) and when you’re visiting a website, you can click the WOT bookmarklet and it will display the site’s rating in a pop-up. Clicking on the bookmarklet again will close the window.

This is a cool add-on. Once you’ve installed it, register for membership in the WOT community and you too can start rating websites and helping keep the web safe for surfing.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

In my 2/17 blog “Ditch Unnecessary Complexities in your CLNC^® Business,” I shared the 2010 theme we adopted here at Vickie Milazzo Institute – “Ditch Unnecessary Complexities.”

One strategy to help you with this goal is to ditch perfectionism. As nurses, perfectionism is not only rewarded, it’s expected. You make a mistake and someone can die. I’m sure those kind of mistakes don’t go over well with your boss either (not to mention the patient). But do your internal documents for your legal nurse consulting business have to be so perfect? Misguided perfectionism can keep you from stepping out and going for the big things for your CLNC^® business or it can rob you of enjoying your business and your life.

I am surrounded by perfectionists (lots of Virgos) at Vickie Milazzo Institute and I often suffer from the perfectionism obsession myself. Ten drafts of a document is not uncommon. Over the years, we’ve had to acknowledge that perfectionism is important for the big things that count (like a report for your attorney-client) but can actually detract us from the big important things when we apply it to the small insignificant tasks that we all have to do. The advent of computers has made this problem worse than ever. In the old days of typewriters, it was difficult to revise and reprint a document and people were very careful about making revisions. Today, we can move a comma or a line of type and reprint it to our heart’s content without even questioning the gain.

Growing up in New Orleans, Louis Armstrong was an icon. I often think if he had been a perfectionist, we would never have heard him sing “What a Wonderful World.” The great Satchmo came close to perfection as a trumpet player, but his voice, his unique, gravelly voice was certainly untraditional – sometimes not hitting any recognizable notes, sometimes incomprehensible, but ALL THE TIME – his own unique expression of his interpretation of the music.  And it wouldn’t BE such a wonderful world without THAT song.

If you think about it, when you’re demanding perfection on the wrong stuff as a legal nurse consultant, you too miss notes, high and low. Then, instead of moving on, you’re sidelined by rejection or imperfection. Now, instead of looking at your attorney-prospect list, you’re looking in the refrigerator. And guess what? Unless you work in the morgue, there are no attorneys in the refrigerator!

Think back to the first attorney who said no to you. Is that so important today? Can you even remember that attorney’s name?

Ditch perfectionism! Lighten up when you pick up the phone for that next attorney call or write that next report. If you don’t get that perfect case, or your perfect attorney-client doesn’t give you those perfect glowing reviews, don’t give up… That’s nothing more than a perfect experience to learn from.

Only you can properly assess where it’s okay to ditch perfectionism in your CLNC^® business, but do make it a goal. When you ditch perfectionism, you free yourself to spend time on the important and BIG things that will propel your legal nurse consulting business to the next level and keep those attorney-clients coming your way.

Success Is Inside!

I’d like to begin today’s blog by giving a birthday “Shout Out” to Vickie:

Happy Birthday Vick – with what’s in the works, I know 2010 will be your (our) best year ever! Thanx for sharing it with me (I’ve got one of your favorite bottles of wine to go with your favorite dessert tonight! Woo-hoo!).

Now that the important stuff is out of the way, let’s start techin’! Many, if not all of you, are automatically updating the Windows^® operating system using the “Automatic Updates” function (or you’ve bookmarked the Windows Update webpage) for your home and legal nurse consulting business computers. That’s great for Windows but we all have a lot of other programs on our systems – many of which need updating too.

Some of the biggest offenders are those cool programs from Adobe^® that we all love. You know which ones I mean – Flash^®, Shockwave^® and even Acrobat^® – all are security risks from time to time. How do you stay up to date on these? Well, Adobe is finally taking steps to update some of its programs automatically – read this article – but not until April 13! In the meantime, my CLNC^® amigos, you’ll need to visit Adobe’s Security Center to see the list of “buggy” programs and Adobe’s recommended steps for dealing with them. It may involve determining which version of each program you have and uninstalling it or it could be as simple as downloading the newest version. In any event, you should visit this page on a regular basis. You can also sign up for security alerts here so that Adobe can tell you when there’s a new patch, etc. available.

If, like many Certified Legal Nurse Consultants, you’re using the Firefox^® web browser as an alternative to Internet Explorer^® you’ll need to keep on top of updates too. Open up your Firefox browser, left click “Tools,” then left click “Options,” then click “Advanced” and finally click the “Updates” tab. Make sure the boxes next to “Firefox” and “Installed Add-ons” are checked and close those boxes being sure to save your changes. This way you’ll be automatically notified each time Mozilla updates Firefox or one of your add-ons is updated. You should also take a minute to visit Mozilla’s Plugin Check page to be sure all your Firefox plugins are up-to-date.

I know it’s a lot of work, but you need to keep on top of your updates. They’re not going to do it by themselves (yet).

Keep on techin’,

Tom

Every year we adopt a new business theme at Vickie Milazzo Institute. Some previous examples are “Let It Go” and “Move Like a Maverick.” All year long we have a lot of fun with the theme, but more important, we use the theme to challenge how we think and how we do business. The staff especially enjoys reminding me of the theme to persuade me of their position on issues. I think “Let it Go” was my staff’s all-time favorite and quickly became the catch-phrase any time something was a little bit off or I found a mistake or error. I was definitely ready to let that theme go!

This year’s theme is “Ditch Unnecessary Complexities.” Complexity in and of itself is not negative. In fact, because what we do at the Institute is complex, copycats cannot replicate the quality of what we offer to Certified Legal Nurse Consultants and CLNC^® students.

As a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant when you write a report and analysis for a medical-malpractice case, you expect your report to have a level of complexity that cannot be replicated by a nurse who has not been trained as a CLNC^® consultant.

But in both your business and mine, this is a good year to eliminate unnecessary complexities that creep into our CLNC^® businesses and are accepted without question or thought.

At a recent Vickie Milazzo Institute staff brainstorm, I asked the staff to help identify unnecessary complexities with the focus on being more efficient, cutting costs and eliminating a process or procedure that is no longer needed. Together they identified 48 of them for 2010. Of course we triaged the most important ones to tackle first, but many required very little effort.

You can do this for your CLNC^® business by raising your consciousness and asking yourself the following questions:

1. “Am I doing something that I no longer need to be doing?”
2. “Why exactly are we doing it this way? Is it simply because that’s the way we’ve always done it?”
3. “Am I doing something that gives me little or no payoff?”
4. “Can I simplify this process?”
5. “Does technology exist to automate or simplify this process?”
6. “Is there not just an easier way, but a better and faster way to accomplish this goal?”

In 2010, let’s commit to focus on the core purpose of our CLNC^® businesses – i.e. servicing our clients and producing the best quality product by freeing ourselves from unnecessary complexities. The time we save can be used to improve other processes or, just to improve our lives outside of our legal nurse consulting businesses. Once you’ve completed this process for your CLNC^® business, consider trying it in your home – just don’t let your family in on “let it go!”

Success Is Inside!

One of the most common questions I get from CLNC^® consultants is not whether you should be running antivirus software, or even which antivirus software you should be running on your legal nurse consulting business’s computer(s). It’s whether or not you should be running just one antivirus software. After all, you’re nurses and you inherently know that if the recommended dosage is X, then certainly, taking 2X or perhaps 3X will work at least 2 or 3X better, right?

NOT WITH ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE! Yes Virginia, I was shouting. But that’s only so you’ll hear me. Antivirus software is one of those software programs in which quality trumps quantity. Antivirus programs don’t play well with others so only run one at a time on your computer. They’ll often identify each other (perhaps out of professional spite) as viruses or malware. If you discontinue one program, remove it (while offline) before installing the new one.

That being said, the next question I get is, “Which antivirus software is the best?” Like computer brands, everybody has a favorite antivirus software vendor. I’m a Symantec fan. I’ve used Symantec’s Norton ever since Norton was in short pants and I’ve had good luck with it. Others are fans of Kaspersky while still more like Panda or BitDefender and there’s a few who swear by McAfee. As far as I’m concerned, as long as you’re running a top-notch antivirus program, or even better, a suite (all-in-one product) from one of the three top-notch vendors (Symantec, Kaspersky or BitDefender) you should be in good shape.

I like antivirus suites that include phish-filters, spyware identification, malware blocking, etc. In this Tech Tip, I’ve linked only to the antivirus software but you can also trust the suites from these vendors if you choose. Some suites even include firewalls (and we all know you shouldn’t depend on your Windows^® firewall alone), if you need one. Whether you’re running Windows^® or a Mac, read carefully before you buy and remember the key, my CLNC^® amigos, is to keep the program’s definitions updated, make sure you scan your computer on a regular basis (at least twice a week – schedule it to run at night so it doesn’t interfere with your productivity) and make sure your antivirus software is simple to use without giving off too many false alarms.

Good antivirus software today can protect you from a variety of online and offline ills. Be sure you practice safe surfing.

Keep on techin’!

Tom

I just stumbled over what I think has to be the handiest, free, desktop shortcut ever. It’s called “Close All Windows” and that’s exactly what it does! If, at the end of a long day of slaving over a hot keyboard, you hear your spouse shout, “Honey, wine’s open!” What do you need to do? That’s right, close every open window on your computer by shutting down every program one at a time. That can be a tedious task if you’re a busy, multitasking, CLNC^® consultant.

To avoid this hassle, simply visit this page, download the CloseAll.zip file to your desktop or downloads folder and then unzip it. Next, locate the CloseAll.exe program (you’ll see a red “X“). Right click on that x and drag it to your Windows^® Quick Launch toolbar or your Desktop, then let go and left click on “Create Shortcut Here.” That’s it!

Now, at the end of your day, if you’ve stored “Close All Windows” on your desktop, simply click on Window’s cool “Show Desktop” icon (located in your Quick Launch toolbar) to clear your screen, then double-click on the red “X” icon (or skip “Show Desktop” and double-click it on your Quick Launch toolbar). Close All Windows will instantly shut down all open programs, and if you have one running with unsaved data, you’ll get the option to save that data.

This is a handy little program and it’s free. I highly recommend it.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

One of you (curse you Red Baron!) called me on the fact that in a past blog, I talked about putting your computer (but not your spouse) to sleep to save money (and boot-up time) and be greener than your neighbor, but just two weeks ago I blogged about memory leaks and the need to turn your computer (but not your spouse) off to speed it up. Well, in the spirit of transparency and compatibility, I’d just like to say “Why can’t we all just get along?”

Saving money and fast computing can be compatible. Yes, I still recommend either the use of software or tweaking of your power settings to put your computer to sleep at night. If you’re compulsive, you can even set it to go to sleep after a couple of hours of non-use. I’ve got Vickie’s computer set to sleep after two hours. It’s a power-saving feature (that’s also a security feature). Every time she comes out of a long meeting, she’s got to push the power button on the front of her computer to bring it out of hibernation and reestablish her network connections. This only takes a couple of seconds (really more than a couple) but for a busy CEO, those seconds add up. Think about it, all that time you spend waiting each day can turn into billable hours by the end of the year but there’s that darn memory leak thing that happens to real computers (but obviously not Macs – just kidding).

So what’s a busy CLNC^® consultant to do – sleep or not? Well, follow my lead and set your computer to save money when not in use by setting it to sleep at night. Keep in mind that you’ll still need to reboot the darn thing every couple of days to wipe out those pesky memory leaks. Reboot it while you’re on a bathroom break (you deserve one).

This is one way we can be green, save time and still keep our computers running fast.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

I’m a guy. Guys are naturally adept at multitasking perhaps even better than women, as long as we only do one task at a time. That being said, I love email as much as any Certified Legal Nurse Consultant out there. I think it’s a great way to communicate everything from the trivial and the routine to the important. I also love being able to sit down and concentrate on the project at hand (guy-multitasking) without interruption. I’ve read varying statistics on how long it takes the average person to refocus on a project after an interruption. These run anywhere from seven minutes (small interruption) to two days (earthshaking event like Oprah going off the air).

I’m sure that those of you running Outlook 2007 as part of your legal nurse consulting business are enjoying all the improvements and benefits over the “old” Outlook. One of the ones I originally liked but now loathe (well, maybe detest), is the “Desktop Notification.” This cute little pop-up, if enabled, shows up in the lower right corner of your main monitor for just a couple of seconds, every time you receive a new email. It’s designed to let you know “you’ve got mail” and to let you decide whether you want to act on it or not.

That decision, my CLNC^® amigos, is the kicker. Say you’re slaving away over a hot keyboard, feverously working on a legal nurse consulting report for that important attorney-client. Suddenly that little email notice pops up and you know you’ve got a new LOLCat or news from a CLNC^® subcontractor about who just won the Biggest Loser. You can either play Whack-a-Mole and quickly hit the [X] to close it or just read it as it fades away. Either way your attention was drawn away as you mentally processed that email and its possible importance. You’ve just been interrupted and now you’ve got to refocus your attention back on the project at hand.

Depending upon your ability to refocus, it’s going to take time to get your full attention and thought process back into analyzing those complicated medical records. You may even lose that case-winning breakthrough that was just about to rise to the top of your cognitive thinking.

So what’s a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant to do? Turn off the Desktop Notifications (and the little chime too). How? Easy, while Outlook 2007 is open, click Tools, then Options, then on the Preferences tab click E-mail Options. Next on the E-mail Options screen, click Advanced E-mail Options. Then on the Advanced E-Mail Options screen, uncheck the boxes next to Play a sound and Display a New Mail Desktop Alert. These simple steps will put an end to those annoying pop-up notifications.

For those of you who like the notifications you can click Desktop Alert Settings to display the Desktop Alert Settings screen. Then adjust how long and how transparent the notifications appear. Take a look at the image above to follow the pathway. When you’re done, just keep clicking OK until you get back to the main Outlook inbox.

Whichever way you choose to run your legal nurse consulting business – notifications or not, I’ve given you the tools you need to control your destiny, or at least your email notifications. Now excuse me, I’ve got to go multitask on something else before I get interrupted (again).

Keep on techin’,

Tom

The other day, an Institute staff member came into my office and complained that her computer was running slowly. I asked her if it was slower than normal and she looked at me sort of funny, then said yes. We went back to her desk to assess things. She had her usual 30 programs running with more open windows than a New Orleans nunnery in the summer.

I then asked when she had last turned off her computer. This was a trick question because policy at the Institute is to let computers run overnight (to download updates, etc. that our techies shove out) and then restart them every Friday at the end of the day. That way when staff members log in on Monday, the installation process is either complete or it goes pretty quickly. She told me it had been two to three weeks since the last shut-down. Hearing that, I immediately told her that both she and her computer had memory leaks and she needed to shut the computer down for at least two minutes, then restart it.

Next, I went back to my office to sit on my laurels and wait for her call. A few minutes later she called to let me know it was running as fast as it used to with no hint of residual slowness. My memory-leak diagnosis was right.

One of the issues that legal nurse consultants will run into are memory leaks (both with themselves and their computers). The brief and overly simple explanation is that the longer a computer runs without being restarted and also the more programs you have open at the same time, the better the chance that some program, driver or piece of hardware won’t let go of its allocated memory when you’re done with it. You will not be aware this is happening, but your available memory can be eaten up by programs or devices that technically aren’t in use, causing your computer to run more slowly.

The way that a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant cures this leak is to first, make sure to have the most current versions of all software and second, to restart your computer on a regular basis. Whether you have a desktop or laptop for your legal nurse consulting business, my advice remains the same. Shut it down at least once a week or whenever it starts to run slower than a teenager mowing the lawn. I know a lot of laptop users who simply put their computer into sleep mode or hibernation. That won’t solve the memory leak issue. You need to shut it down and let everything clear out of the system.

If your computer is still slow, follow the steps in my earlier Tech Tip on cleaning up your computer system. In fact, this should be one of the first things you do in this new year (even before you get around to breaking your resolutions).

Keep on techin’,

Tom

I don’t like restraints; I’m a mobile user. I can pick up and go at a moment’s notice and I don’t like to be held down. Vickie snaps her fingers and I say, “How far are we going and how light are we packing?” That means my laptop and wireless card go with me just about everywhere. I use them on planes, trains and even in speeding automobiles (with someone else driving). I use my laptop at home, at work and at the CLNC^® 6-Day Certification Seminars. I also use it at Starbucks^®, preferring the security of my own wireless card’s network to one that might possibly be spoofed by some villain.

At each of these locations, I have a different configuration for the program icons on my desktop. What this means is that I have my mobile (laptop only) configuration. At home I have my w-i-d-e screen monitor (docked) configuration. At the office I have my dual monitor (docked) configuration and at the seminars I use the laptop screen as one monitor and have an extra monitor shipped ahead for me (come on, once you go dual, going single is cruel).

Here’s the issue. Every time I boot the laptop I end up with a different arrangement of my icons. Even if you’re one of those BORING legal nurse consultants who have right-clicked in an open part of your screen, then selected “Arrange Icons By” and then selected “name” and “align to grid,” chances are if you move to a different screen-size or screen resolution those icons will shift around. Maybe there’s a little OCD working here, but gosh darn it, when I line up my icons logically, I want them to be in the same place even if I’m not. You don’t want to end up spending your legal nurse consulting business’s billable hours looking for certain icons. Early this year I downloaded and installed RocketDock to get most of those icons off my desktop. That works pretty well but I’m lazy by habit, if not by nature, and still keep some icons on the desktop representing short-cuts to certain programs that either won’t run on the RocketDock or that I just don’t want to have to fish for.

Having icons go wild can also be caused by Windows^® issues. Sometimes after you’ve installed or uninstalled a program or when you boot Windows, it may completely rearrange your icons for you, no explanation – just sorry dude here’s your new layout. Then you have to spend hours (well, minutes) laboriously rearranging them until they’re “just so” once more.

If you’re like me and don’t like Windows rearranging your icons at will and wish you could find some way to restrain them, now there is! You can follow this link to CNET and download a wonderful FREE product called DesktopOK. It will allow you to set and save different layouts for your desktop icons. You simply arrange them the way you want, fire up the program, hit “save” and it will save the layout for you by screen resolution (I haven’t figured out a way to rename the layouts yet to simple things like home, loose, drudge, seminar, etc.).

This program works on Windows XP and Vista (I don’t know about 7) and is easy to install and download. You can set it to run when Windows starts up (which I like) or whenever you want to trigger it. Then, next time your icons are more scrambled than the eggs you had for breakfast, you simply left click the DesktopOK icon in your Windows tray. When the program pops up on your screen, you then double-click on the screen resolution setting you’re using and it will reset your icons back to that state. Cool!

I will toss out my usual warning that this is pretty much unsupported freeware so you use it at your own risk. I’m taking the risk and I like it!

Keep on techin’ (in good order),

Tom