I used to keep as many as many as 50 or so email stacked up in my inbox, but I always felt that I was behind in my work and consequently much of the email went unread and unanswered. A little more than a year ago, it all changed after I read an article that struck a chord with me called Email Zen. I immediately started practicing the techniques and suggestions in the article and found myself with a cleaner inbox and a better overall outlook (no pun intended) about email and my email communication. I continue to strive for the empty inbox and find that if i get more than 10, I start to get a little jumpy.

From reading that article and my own experience over the past eighteen months, here are my suggestions for reaching harmony with email:]]> http://helpmerick.com/clean-your-inbox.htm/feed 3 http://helpmerick.com/my-first-year-with-gmail.htm http://helpmerick.com/my-first-year-with-gmail.htm#comments Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:51:19 +0000 Rick http://helpmerick.com/wordpr/?p=2265 I closed Outlook and started using Gmail exclusively one year ago. At first, I thought it would be a good experiment to see what Gmail was really all about, but I was also fed up with Outlook and its limitations. It took me two or three weeks to wean myself of thinking of my email in the same way that I used to with Outlook. For the experiment to work, Gmail had to satisfactorily accomplish 3 key functions of email that I handled pretty well with Outlook:

1. Spam filtering (I used Cloudmark Desktop with Outlook for years and am convinced that for Outlook/Outlook Express or Thunderbird users there is no equal).
2. Aggregate all of my email addresses (5) in one system.
3. Organize my email with categories (folders) and automated filtering for shifting email to their appropriate category/folder.

If Gmail could equal or exceed what I could do with Outlook, then I would consider it a success. Gmail's spam filtering quickly impressed me. In fact, one year later, I can say confidently that Gmail's spam filtering is superior to that of the Cloudmark system that kept me sane for years with Outlook. Feature #1, check!

I learned to use the Accounts feature in Gmail to successfully and seamlessly pull all my email addresses (and sort them) into my Gmail account. Beautiful; Feature #2, check!

Organizing my email, without the use of folders, proved to be the]]> http://helpmerick.com/my-first-year-with-gmail.htm/feed 0 http://helpmerick.com/create-a-permanent-email-address-for-yourself.htm http://helpmerick.com/create-a-permanent-email-address-for-yourself.htm#comments Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:50:51 +0000 Rick http://helpmerick.com/wordpr/?p=138 Are you tired of having to change your email address when your Internet provider goes out of business or gets gobbled up by another provider, or you move, or you just want to change Internet providers?

Informing everyone in your address book that you have changed email addresses doesn't take a great deal of time, but it is annoying nonetheless. In today's Shotgun article, I explain how you can create an address that is permanently yours regardless of who you use for an Internet provider.

The only problem with Cloudmark Desktop is that it only works in Outlook, Outlook Express or Thunderbird. Until now, Vista users who wanted to benefit from the powerful filtering of Cloudmark had to switch their email application over to Thunderbird or Outlook. It would not work in the free Windows Mail (Vista version of Outlook Express).

Well, those days are gone. Cloudmark has released a beta version of Cloudmark Desktop for Windows Mail.

What is Gmail?

Gmail is the fast, free web based email from search giant Google. Gmail offers free POP3 access (if you want to download your email into Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc), 6.5 GB of storage (and the number continually grows), and the best web based spam filter I've seen so far.

One of the most common complaints we hear is about how new computers don't come with manuals. I am here to explain why this is the case.

The sad answer is that if the computer company came with a manual, it would weigh more than the computer.

"But my old computers used to come with manuals...," Is the next comment.

Back in the old days of computers there weren't many uses. You would use computers for word processing, finances, Internet and email. In each case there were only a handful of options.

You can take steps to avoid this, however, by following a few simple]]> http://helpmerick.com/remember-to-take-out-the-trash.htm/feed 0 http://helpmerick.com/ubuntu-client-update.htm http://helpmerick.com/ubuntu-client-update.htm#comments Fri, 25 Jan 2008 23:37:12 +0000 Rick http://helpmerick.com/wordpr/?p=1971 Today, I helped my customer who I installed Ubuntu for almost four months ago. "It has been working great so far", he informed me. We mainly worked on fine tuning some aspects of the desktop and panels (Ubuntu toolbars). He also wanted to use a calendar, but didn't know how to approach the included Evolution program which is similar to Microsoft Outlook. However, as I pointed out last summer during my "14 days with Ubuntu", I like the direction Evolution is heading, but it is far from polished.

Although Evolution comes with Ubuntu automatically, I still recommend using]]> http://helpmerick.com/ubuntu-client-update.htm/feed 0